But even Dick, for all the wild mood of anger that had held him since he had had Hallo in his power, had to consent to a halt now. If the Servians planned not only to inflict a severe blow on the Austrians by the destruction of war material, but to spread terror as well, they succeeded admirably. For there was not one explosion alone; there was a series of explosions. And fire spread from the arsenal, too.
"The shells are going off, you see," said Dick, a little awed. "They're exploding in all directions. I suppose there will be a good deal of damage. And those cartridges must be sending an awful lot of bullets around promiscuously."
"I don't think many people will be hurt," said Hallo. Like Dick, he was awed by the spectacle, and the terrible magnificence of it for the moment seemed to have driven from his mind all thought of anything but the explosion itself. "There are very few houses about the arsenal; they are mostly public buildings of one sort and another. It's not the sort of neighborhood people choose to live in. Even in time of peace there may be an accident in an arsenal at any moment—and just as bad an explosion as this one."
But then, suddenly, Hallo seemed to remember his position.
"You will pay for this!" he cried. "It is your doing, because if you had let me go I should have stopped that! You are in league with the Servian spies who have been working here for months, who planned the murder of the Archduke in Serajevo—"
"Why don't you say I killed him?" suggested Dick. "Forward march, again! The show is over!"
"Oh, your time will come—and you will cry to me for help then! The police only had suspicions before, but now they will have facts, and all the consuls and ambassadors in the world won't be able to help you! It won't be a matter for the police at all, my lad! It will be a court-martial that will try you."
"Perhaps. We shall see. Hello, what's this?"
Dick had just been thinking to himself that it was highly fortunate that they had passed the settled district to the northeast of Semlin before the explosion, since he could easily imagine the outpouring there must have been into the streets at that terrific sound. But now there was a sound of rushing feet, and around a corner, perhaps a quarter of a mile in front of them, a body of men appeared—troops, coming at the double quick.
"Here, this way!" said Dick, sharply.