"What on earth we're to do with the petrol I don't know," said Mr. Appleton. "We daren't have it within reach of the native workmen. They're as careless as they are inquisitive, and we don't want a flare up."
"Isn't there room for the cans in the dynamite shed?" asked Lawrence.
The explosive was kept in a specially devised cache. The space between the house and the cliff was boarded in. A doorway led from the house into this space, which was divided by a partition, in which another door opened into a kind of strong room excavated in the hill side. There was room for the cans beside the boxes of dynamite.
"I shan't sleep at night now that we've got two explosives at our doors," said Mr. Appleton.
"Why didn't you store the stuff farther from the house?" asked Bob.
"Well, as a matter of fact wherever it was stored in the neighbourhood of the mine the result would be pretty much the same if it exploded. The best chance of safety was to have it under lock and key where nobody could get at it but myself. In for a penny, in for a pound. Trundle your cans through: if I'm not a false prophet they'll stay there until doomsday untouched."
When the boys entered the dark chamber between the house and the cliff, following Mr. Appleton, who carried an electric lamp, Bob uttered a sudden exclamation.
"I say, hanged if there isn't a machine gun!"
He pointed to a corner of the room, where the muzzle of the gun protruded from a nest of boxes.
"A very neat little machine," said Mr. Appleton. "I got it as a precaution against a second raid, and the difficulty of smuggling it through turned my surviving hairs grey. It came in parts among some engine fittings; the invoices are very interesting! A clear case of gun running, of course; but there was no other way; the government would never have allowed it to pass complete. Nobody here knows of it but you; I put it together myself; and if you know anything about such things, Bob, I'll be glad if you'll overhaul it one of these days, and see if my amateurish efforts have been successful. Some of those boxes contain ammunition: smuggled in as dynamite. Now stack your cans, and when you've finished bring me the key. I'll have duplicates cut for you."