“Fiam, you are crazy. You will never succeed, never.”
“Why not? It will take me seven hours to go from here to the mine. A man could go in a few minutes, but my legs are so short. I shall run. I shall run faster than seems possible to you. But I shall be seven hours at least.”
“But the mine is hidden; you can’t find it.”
“I can see what a man can’t. I am a match, but I am also a Haji. I know about the mine; do you know how? Because I saw it when they were making it and we were forty miles off. I shall find it easily. I shall go directly to the dynamite, and light it myself.”
“But you will die,” I said in horror.
“Yes, but what is my life compared to that of so many people and the possibility of victory? Don’t you think I ought to sacrifice myself?”
“I PUT HIM ON THE GROUND”