“Oh, I don’t know, sir. What about my back hair, sir?”
“Singed off, what there was of it; and yours too, Lennox. Smart much?”
“Oh yes, horribly,” said the latter.
“Oh, well, that will soon pass off. Threw yourselves down on your faces—eh?”
“No. We were knocked down.”
“Good thing too,” said the doctor. “Saved your eyes, and the hair about them. A wonderful escape, upon my word. Yes: you ought to have been blown to atoms.—Eh? What’s that, sergeant?”
“I say we should have been, sir, if we hadn’t scattered the powder-bags.”
“Scattered the powder-bags?” said a voice from the door, and the colonel stepped into the circle of light spread by the doctor’s lamp. “Tell me what you know about this explosion, Lennox. How came you to be there instead of visiting your posts?”
Lennox briefly explained, and the colonel stood frowning.
“I don’t see all this very clearly,” said the colonel. “Somebody stealing the corn, and you were tracing the thieves and came upon a train laid up to my quarters. There was a sentry there; what was he about?”