“Why, Cob,” he whispered, “there’s a dozen pounds of powder here wrapped round with all this fuse. Come with me to put it in a place of safety: why, it would have half-wrecked our works.”
“Would it?” I said.
“Would it, boy! It would have been destruction, perhaps death. Cob,” he whispered huskily, “ought we to go on watching?”
“Oh, Uncle Jack,” I said, “I suppose I am foolish because I am so young!”
“Cob, my boy,” he said softly; “if you had been ten times as old you could not have done better than you have done to-night. Here, let’s place this dreadful canister in the water chamber: it will be safer there.”
“But the men; will they come again?”
“Not to-night, my lad. I think we are safe for a few hours to come. But what of the future, if these blind savages will do such things as this?”