"You have all behaved with great daring, but it is impossible now to prove what has happened. The proof must be given here, by all of us together, before my eyes, indisputably."
"Well, tell us how," said Lupey impatiently, always fearing that the
Decurio was going to deceive them.
"Look here," said Numa, drawing a small cask from beneath the bed—and in doing so he observed that the young girl half opened her eyes, as she glanced at him, and then closed them. She was awake, and had heard all.
As he stooped down, Numa whispered gently in her ear: "Fear nothing," and then drew the cask into the middle of the room.
The Wallachians stared with impatient curiosity as he knocked out the bottom of the cask with a hatchet.
"This cask contains gunpowder," continued Decurio. "We will light a match and place it in the middle of the cask, and whoever remains longest in the room is undoubtedly the most courageous; for there is enough here to blow up not only this house, but the whole of the neighboring village."
At this proposition several of the men began to murmur.
"If any are afraid they are not obliged to remain," said the Decurio dryly.
"I agree," said Lupey doggedly. "I will remain here; and perhaps, after all, it is poppy-seeds you have got there—it looks very much like them."
The Decurio stooped down, and taking a small quantity between his fingers, threw it into the Wallachian's pipe, which immediately exploded, causing him to stagger backwards, and the next instant he stood with a blackened visage, sans beard and moustache, amidst the jeers and laughter of his comrades.