I wanted to speak, but I could not; I wanted to cry to him hoarsely, but no words would come; and if ever poor fellow suffered from nightmare when he was quite awake, it was I in those terrible moments, during which there was a peculiar rustling, then a loud cracking sound, as if something was being wrenched open and broken, and the tarpaulin was agitated and shaken.
My ears were strained to listen to what came next, and that would be, I felt sure, the clicking of a flint and steel; but the sounds did not come, and just as I was at last feeling as if I could bear all this no longer, there was a sound of the tarpaulin falling on the earth, and Morgan came softly round and close by again without seeing us, while I crouched there ready to faint, and fully expecting every moment to be swept away by a terrific explosion.
“What Mass’ Morgan want?” said Pomp at last, as a sudden thought struck me, and mastering the feeling of paralysis which had held me there, I made a dash round to the other side to tear away the slow match which the man must have started, and which would, I supposed, burn for a few moments and then start a train.
To my surprise I could see no sparkling fuse nor smell smoke, but concluding that it must be under the tarpaulin, I raised the edge with trembling hands, when Pomp said quietly—
“Dat powder, Mass’ George; Pomp know. Mass’ Morgan come fess lot more; and oh! What lot tumble all about.”
His quick eyes had made out that which was invisible to mine; and, after stooping, he held a handful before me.
I drew a breath full of relief. I knew now. He had not come to fire the fuse, but to tear open one of the kegs and let a portion of the powder lie loose, so that whoever came to do the terrible deed would only have to discharge his firelock down amongst it, when a spark would explode the whole.
“Only to be quite ready,” I thought, as the desire for life thrilled through my veins.
“Pomp ’crape it up and put in Mass’ George pocket,” said Pomp; and then we both stood away, for there was a flash and the sharp report of a gun.
“Pomp did see Injum, Mass’ George,” said the boy; “and here dey come.”