Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/314

286 furnished a pile of fine charcoal from the burner's, and also a stock of saltpetre, with a little gunpowder—not much, for that would have looked suspicious. With fingers trembling with delight, he mixed the inflammatory materials all together, neglecting no ingredient which would insure the destructive quality he so ardently desired. They placed the dried mixture in one formidable heap upon a table beneath the floor of the upper-room, laying a wide train communicating with the table, and strewing the floor of the small apartment in the same manner. After surveying their work—the father with hideous satisfaction, and the mercer with fear and trembling—they secured the door most carefully, and barred up the window; only waiting for the identical evening which was to reward them for their labours.

And now the time had come. It was quite dark and cloudy withal, and the hour when Captain Barton and the officers of his company were in the habit of assembling for the night. Every preparation had been made, the door behind which was the train of gunpowder, was partially open; the priest and his associate were on the ground opposite, the former having something carefully concealed under his