"I won't find fault with you now, though you had no business to steal
out of the house at night. You have had a narrow escape. Though the
ruffians who carried you off and put you into the vault might not have
intended to leave you to starve, they most probably would have been
unable to return. Several have been captured, and so hot is the hue and
cry after the rest that they would have been afraid to come back to the
spot to bring you food, or to carry you off, as you fancy they intended
to do."
The chief boatman now came out of the mill, and was evidently well
pleased to hand me over to my father, who thanked him for the attention
he had paid me.
Just as we were setting off the carts arrived with a party of
revenue-men, armed to the teeth, to carry off the smugglers' goods, for
it was thought likely that a rescue might be attempted. We had got to
no great distance, when on looking back I saw a cloud of smoke issuing
from the old building. It increased in density, and presently flames
burst out.
"Could they have set the place on fire?"
"Not intentionally," said my father; "but it is very evident that the
mill is burning, and from the nature of the materials of which it is
composed there is not the slightest chance of its escaping destruction."
Tired as I was, I persuaded him to go back to see what had happened. As
we got nearer the building we saw that the whole of it was enveloped in
flame. The revenue-men were busily engaged in loading the carts. They
had soon found that any attempt to save the mill would be useless, and
that they would only run the risk of losing their lives. We were at
some short distance when a tremendous roar was heard, the ground shook
beneath our feet, and the whole building came toppling down, a vast heap
of burning ruins; while planks, and beams, and masses of earth, were
thrown up into the air, showing that an explosion had taken place in the
vault where I had been confined. No one suspected that any casks of
powder had been deposited there, but that such was the case there was no
doubt. I had now reason to be very thankful that I had not found a
tinder-box, for I should certainly have tried to light a fire in the
vault, and probably the sparks would have communicated to the powder.
How the fire originated no one could tell, but I suspected that one of
the men had lit his pipe, and that the ashes had fallen out upon some
loose grains of powder. We, as well as the revenue-men, had a narrow
escape from being crushed by the ruins which fell close to us.
Such was the end of Old Grime's mill.