"My God!" he muttered.

"My God!" "_There is no God!_" The words, each syllable of them clear, though spoken in a voice shrill and cracked and strange, and such as neither of them had ever heard before, were beyond doubt.

Close on them followed a shriek of weird laughter, and then the blasphemy repeated in the same tone of mockery.
The hair crept on Claude's head, the blood withdrew to his heart.

The key which he had drawn out of the lock fell from the hand it seemed to freeze.
With distended eyes he glared down the passage.

The words were still in the air, the laughter echoed in his brain, the shadows cast by the shaking rushlight danced and took weird shapes.