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Rh Jimmy having taken the candle away with him. Barcus had turned to the bulkhead and was, without the slightest hope, groping about its joints and crevices in search of some way of forcing it. …

"Barcus, old man, did you notice what that blackguard had fixed up?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why—at the bottom of the shaft—I got only a glimpse coming in—the door of the powder-room was open, and I saw a fuse set to the top of a keg of blasting powder. …"

"What's the good of that? We're fast enough as it is!"

"Simply to make assurance doubly sure by causing a cave-in. …"

"Why the deuce doesn't he set off his explosion if he means to?"

"Heaven only knows. Perhaps he's thought of some scheme more devilish. Perhaps he set the stage with an empty powder-keg simply to drive us mad with the strain of waiting. …"

"I wouldn't put that by h»m, either," Barcus commented. "See here, what do you know about mines?"

"Next to nothing."

"Then you've got little on me. But I seem to remember hearing or reading, some place, that tunnels have two ends. If that's true, the far end of this