“Nick—nick—nick—nick!
“And I couldn’t move.
“Nick—nick—nick—nick!
“I tried to get down the hatchway, but hadn’t a muscle that would work.
“Nick—nick—nick—nick!
“There was a stoppage—a faint glow, as of a man blowing the tinder, and I became myself again, and mad with fear, I crawled through the trap.
“Then there was the sputtering and blue burning of a brimstone match; and I saw the faces of the two men quite plain.
“The splint blazed up.
“‘We’ll soon see what it’s like now,’ said Gimlet, thickly. And he lowered the burning match, and in that one moment I saw the barrel at one side of the cabin, and the powder that had run out of the hole they had bored running about over the white floor zig-zag, like a black snake, and making a reg’lar train.
“At that same moment a burnt piece fell from the burning match, the train fired and began to run over the floor, and I threw myself between it and the barrel flat on the planks.