"One last detail, Blake." Signaling to Jack that he is taking over for a few moments, Colonel Orik drags the captain from the center of the room to the window with a view of the cliffs and the sea. The vista is beautiful, perfect for gloating, as this time, after so many years, his moment of triumph has come. Finally!
Olrik follows the captain's gaze as Blake looks down at the coastline seemingly watching for the slightest movement. Was it one of Olrik' henchmen sitting over there on a rock? "If you're counting on your friend Mortimer to come to the rescue," the colonel goes on, his voice unbearably smug, "I have the sad duty to inform you that he fell from a cliff and that his corpse is currently floating towards the Shetlands."
Olrik relish what he sees as Blake's faces freezes. For a moment the captain thinks that Olrik is lying, but then he sees the triumph in his enemy's eyes and realizes the truth. This is a crowning moment for the colonel who exults :
"I'm finally repaid for all the trouble you've caused me all these years."
Dead. Philip, dead. For a moment, Blake refuses to believe it, but the glee in Olrik's eyes, the man at the top of the cliff; Olrik is convinced. He has no doubt and he is not a man to assert without proof. It is plausible, because his friend ran that way... it must be true. Philip. Dead.
"You fiend!" The captain exclaims when Olrik has finished his tirade. It's just a last gasp of resistance and anger. His mind is blank, spinning. He cannot think of an epithet fitting for the man facing him anymore.
Dead. Philip is dead.
Crushed by this last piece of news and oblivious to Olrik's mocking glance, Blake allows himself to be dragged without resistance by Jack. He walks apathetically past the display cabinet and through a heavy oaken door, then down a staircase leading to the castle's dungeons.
The steps are like a descent to hell. If he had not left Virginia's address with Mortimer, if he had not arranged for his friend to join him, if he had not led Philip into such a perilous affair, Mortimer could still be safe in their London flat. What a mistake on his part to try and infiltrate this network only to find Olrik!
With these dark thoughts looping in his mind, he does not react to the sophisticated system of basements they pass before Jack shoves him roughly into a sinister cell.
"Captain? They got you, too?" Honeychurch. His deputy shares the same cell, his hands tied behind his back. That's why Olrik knew his frequency.
"Hello, David! I'm afraid so, my boy." One more death for which he will be responsible.
Philip is dead. All is lost.
The heavy wooden door shuts behind them and, dejected, Blake drops rather than sits down beside the young man.
"I fear all is lost," he explains. He is out of the game, his deputy is prisoner with him, "Mortimer is dead because of me, and I really don't see who could save us now."
Everything is over. Honeychurch may try to escape, but Blake wouldn't even know where to start. Philip is dead, the world around him seems cut off, estranged. The universe is meaningless if the man he loves no longer exists. Philip is dead, Francis does not wish to come through this.
He does not even notice the first keening sound that scarcely escapes his lips. There is nothing left in him but the pain of despair.
Reading the excellent fiction of marysutherland MI Sex, I saw a description that sums up this passage perfectly.
He had the look of a man who would scream if he knew how to.