I did not sleep that morning, but kept watch with Uncle Jack, and as
soon as the men came to work I hurried off to Mrs Stephenson's to tell
the others of the night's adventures.
Half an hour later they were with me at the works, where a quiet
examination was made, everything being done so as not to take the
attention of the work-people, who were now busy.
We had first of all a good look round outside, and found that beneath
the window of the furnace-house there were some half dozen great nails
or spikes carefully driven into the wall, between the stones, so as to
make quite a flight of steps for an active man, and across the window
lay a tangled-together length of thin wire.
We did not stop to draw out the nails for fear of exciting attention,
but strolled back at once into the works.
And now once for all, when I say _we_, please to understand that it is
not out of conceit, for my share in our adventures was always very
small, but to avoid uncling you all too much, and making so many
repetitions of the names of Uncle Dick, Uncle Jack, and Uncle Bob.
I saw several of the men look up from their work as we went through the
grinding-shop, but they went on again with their task, making the blades
they ground shriek as they pressed them against the swiftly revolving
stones.
"They must know all about it, Uncle Bob," I whispered, and he gave me a
meaning look.
"Yes," he said softly; "that's the worst of it, my lad. Master and man
ought to shake hands and determine to fight one for the other; but, as
you see, they take opposite sides, and it is war."
We went next into the wheel-pit and had a look round, after which Uncle
Jack spoke aloud to the man who acted as general engineer, and said he
thought that the great axle wanted seeing to and fresh cleaning.
The man nodded, and said gruffly that he would see to it, and then, as
he turned away, I saw him wink at one of the men grinding at a stone and
thrust his tongue into his cheek.
Just then he caught my eye, his countenance changed, and he looked as
foolish as a boy found out in some peccadillo, but the next instant he
scowled at me, and his fierce dark eyes said as plainly as if they
spoke:
"Say a word about that and I'll half kill you."
I read the threat aright, as will be seen; and, turning to follow my
uncles, I saw that the man was coming on close behind me, with a look in
his countenance wonderfully like that with which he was being followed
by Piter, who, unobserved, was close at his heels, sniffing quietly at
his legs and looking as if he would like to fix his teeth in one or the
other.
Seeing this I stopped back, half expecting that Piter, if left behind,
might be kicked by the man's heavy clogs. The others did not notice my
absence, but went on out of the grinding-shop, and the engineer came
close up to me, stooping down as I waited, and putting his face close to
mine.
"Look here, mester," he began in a low threatening tone, "do you know
what's meant by keeping thy tongue atween thy teeth?"
"Yes," I cried; and in the same breath, "Mind the dog! Down, Piter!
Down!"
The man made a convulsive leap as he caught sight of the dog, and his
intention was to alight upon the frame-work of one of the large
grindstones close by his side--one that had just been set in motion, but
though he jumped high enough he did not allow for the lowness of the
ceiling, against which he struck his head, came down in a sitting
position on the grindstone, and was instantly hurled off to the floor.
This was Piter's opportunity, and with a low growl and a bound he was
upon the man's chest. Another moment and he would have had him by the
throat, but I caught him by the collar and dragged him off, amidst the
murmur of some, and the laughter of others of the men.
I did not want to look as if I was afraid, but this seemed to be a good
excuse for leaving the grinding-shop, and, holding on by Piter's collar,
I led him out.
Just before I reached the door, though, I heard one of the men say to
his neighbour--heard it plainly over the whirr and churring of the
stones:
"I've know'd dawgs poisoned for less than that."
"What shall I do?" I asked myself as soon as I was outside; but the
answer did not come. I could only think that my uncles had trouble
enough on their hands, and that though it was very evident that the men
at work for them were not very well affected, it was not likely that we
had any one who would wilfully do us an injury.
After all, too, nobody had threatened to poison the dog; it was only a
remark about what had been known to happen.
All this had taken but a very short time, and by the time I had joined
my uncles they were just entering the office on the upper floor that
looked over the dam.
There were several men at work here at lathes and benches, and their
tools made so much noise that they did not notice my entrance, closely
followed by the dog; and so it was that I found out that they, too, must
have known all about the cowardly attempt of the night, for one said to
another:
"Didn't expect to be at work here this morning; did you, mate?"
"No," growled the man addressed; "but why can't they leave un aloan.
They pay reg'lar, and they're civil."
"What do you mean?" said the first speaker sharply. "You going to side
wi' un! What do we want wi' a set o' inventing corckneys here!"
Just then he caught sight of me, and swung round and continued his work,
while I walked straight to the office door and went in, where Uncle Jack
was just opening a window that looked out upon the dam.
"Yes," he said, "here we are."
He pointed to a sort of raft formed of a couple of planks placed about
five feet apart and across which a dozen short pieces of wood had been
nailed, forming a buoyant platform, on which no doubt our enemies had
floated themselves down from the head of the dam, where there was a
timber yard.
"All plain enough now," said Uncle Jack, grinding his teeth. "Oh, if I
could have had hold of those two fellows by the collar when they fell
in!"
"Well," said Uncle Bob, "what would you have done--drowned them?"
"Not quite," said Uncle Jack; "but they would have swallowed a great
deal more water than would have been good for them."
"Never mind about impossible threats," said Uncle Dick. "Let's examine
the powder canister now."
This was taken from its resting-place during the time the men were at
breakfast and carried into the office, where the dangerous weapon of our
enemies was laid upon the desk and examined.
It was a strong tin canister about ten inches high and six across, and
bound round and round, first with strong string and afterwards loosely
with some soft black-looking cord, which Uncle Dick said was fuse; and
he pointed out where one end was passed through a little hole punched
through the bottom of the canister, while the loosely-twisted fuse was
held on by thin wire, which allowed the soft connection with the powder
to hang out in loops.
"Yes," said Uncle Dick; "if that is good fuse, the very fact of any part
touching a spark or smouldering patch of ash would be enough to set it
alight, and there is enough, I should say, to burn for a quarter of an
hour before it reaches the powder. Yes, a good ten pounds of it," he
added, balancing the canister in his hands.
"But it may be a scare," said Uncle Bob: "done to frighten us. We don't
know yet that it is powder."
"Oh, we'll soon prove that," cried Uncle Jack, taking out his knife.
"Uncle! Take care!" I cried in agony, for I seemed to see sparks
flying from his knife, and the powder exploding and blowing us to atoms.
"If you are afraid, Cob, you had better go back home," he said rather
gruffly, as he cut the fuse through and tore it off, to lie in a little
heap as soon as he had freed it from the wire.
Then the string followed, and the canister stood upright before us on
the desk.
"Looks as harmless as if it were full of arrow-root or mustard," said
Uncle Bob coolly. "Perhaps, after all, it is a scare."
I stood there with my teeth closed tightly, determined not to show fear,
even if the horrible stuff did blow up. For though there was no light
in the room, and the matches were in a cupboard, I could not get out of
my head the idea that the stuff _might_ explode, and it seemed terrible
to me for such a dangerous machine to be handled in what appeared to be
so reckless a way.
"Lid fits pretty tight," said Uncle Jack, trying to screw it off.
"Don't do that, old fellow," said Uncle Dick. "It would be grinding
some of the dust round, and the friction might fire it."
"Well, yes, it might," replied Uncle Jack. "Not likely though, and I
want to examine the powder."
"That's easily done, my boy. Pull that bit of fuse out of the hole, and
let some of the powder trickle out."
"Bravo! Man of genius," said Uncle Jack; and he drew out the plug of
fuse that went through the bottom of the canister.
As he did this over a sheet of paper a quantity of black grains like
very coarse dry sand began to trickle out and run on to the paper,
forming quite a heap, and as the powder ran Uncle Jack looked round at
his brother and smiled sadly.
"Not done to frighten us, eh, Bob!" he said. "If that stuff had been
fired the furnace-house and chimney would have been levelled."
"Why, Cob," said Uncle Dick, laying his hand affectionately upon my
shoulder. "You must be a brave fellow to have hauled that away from the
furnace."
"I did not feel very brave just now," I said bitterly. "When Uncle Jack
began to handle that tin I felt as if I must run away."
"But you didn't," said Uncle Bob, smiling at me.
"Is that gunpowder?" I said hastily, so as to change the conversation.
"No doubt of it, my lad," said Uncle Jack, scooping it up in his hand,
so that it might trickle through his fingers. "Strong blasting powder.
Shall I fire some and try?"
"If you like," I said sulkily, for it was, I knew, said to tease me.
"Well, what's to be done, boys?" said Uncle Jack. "Are we going to lay
this before the police? It is a desperate business!"
"Desperate enough, but we shall do no good, and only give ourselves a
great deal of trouble if we go to the law. The police might trace out
one of the offenders; but if they did, what then? It would not stop the
attempts to harm us. No: I'm of opinion that our safety lies in our own
watchfulness. A more terrible attempt than this could not be made."
"What shall we do with the powder, then?" asked Uncle Bob; "save it to
hoist some of the scoundrels with their own petard?"
"Oh, of course if you like," said Uncle Jack. "Fancy Bob trying to blow
anybody up with gunpowder!"
"When he can't even do it with his breath made into words."
"Ah! Joke away," said Uncle Bob; "but I want to see you get rid of that
horrible stuff."
"We don't want to save it then?" said Uncle Jack.
"No, no; get rid of it."
"That's soon done then," said Uncle Jack, tying a piece of the cord
round the canister; and, going to the open window, he lowered it down
over the deep water in the dam, where it sank like a stone, and drew the
cord after it out of sight.
"There," he cried, "that will soon be so soaked with water that it will
be spoiled."
"Who's that," I said, "on the other side of the dam? He's watching us."
"Squintum the grinder. What's his name--Griggs. Yes, I shouldn't be a
bit surprised if that scoundrel had a hand--"
"Both hands," put in Uncle Bob.
"Well, both hands in this ugly business."
"But couldn't you prove it against him?" I said.
"No, my lad," said Uncle Jack; "and I don't know that we want to.
Wretched misguided lumps of ignorance. I don't want to help to
transport the villains."
We had drawn back from the window to where there was still a little heap
of powder on the desk as well as the fuse.
"Come, Bob," said Uncle Jack; "you may not be quite convinced yet, so
I'll show you an experiment."
He took about a teaspoonful of the powder, and placed it in a short
piece of iron pipe which he laid on the window-sill, and then taking the
rest of the explosive, he gave it a jerk and scattered it over the
water.
Then taking about a yard of the black soft cord that he said was fuse,
he tucked one end in the pipe so that it should rest upon the powder,
laid the rest along the window-sill, and asked me to get the matches.
"Now," he said, "if that's what I think--cleverly made fuse, and good
strong powder--we shall soon see on a small scale what it would have
done on a large. Strike a match, Cob."
I did as I was told, feeling as if I was going to let off a very
interesting firework, and as soon as the splint was well alight I was
about to hold the little flame to the end of the fuse, but Uncle Jack
stopped me.
"No," he said, "I want to see if a spark would have lit it. I mean I
want to see if just drawing the canister over the remains of the
furnace-fire would have started the fuse. That's it, now just touch the
end quickly with the match."
There was only a little spark on the wood, and no flame, as I touched
the side of the fuse.
The effect was instantaneous. The soft black-looking cord burst into
scintillations, tiny sparks flew off on all sides, and a dull fire began
to burn slowly along the fuse.
"Capitally made," said Uncle Jack. "That would have given the
scoundrels plenty of warning that the work was well done, and they would
have been able to get to a distance before the explosion took place."
"And now we shall see whether the powder is good," said Uncle Dick.
"But how slowly it burns!" said Uncle Bob.
"But how surely," I had it on my lips to say.
I did not speak though, for I was intently watching the progress of the
sparks as they ran along the fuse slowly and steadily; and as I gazed I
seemed to see what would have gone on in the great dark building if I
had not been awakened by the scraping sound of the canister being hauled
over bench and floor.
I shuddered as I watched intently, for the fuse seemed as if it would
never burn through, and even when, after what in my excitement seemed a
long space of time, it did reach the iron pipe, though a few sparks came
from inside, the powder did not explode.
"Uncle Bob's right!" I cried with an intense feeling of relief; "that
was not powder, and they only tried to frighten us."
_Puff_!
There was a sharp flash from each end of the iron tube, and one little
ball of white smoke came into the office, while another darted out into
the sunny morning air.
"Wrong, Cob," said Uncle Jack. "Splendidly-made fuse and
tremendously-strong powder. We have had a very narrow escape. Now,
lads, what's to be done?"
"What do you say, Jack?" said Uncle Dick.
"Do our duty--be always on the watch--fight it out."
"That's settled," said Uncle Dick. "Now let's get to work again. Cob,
you can come and see us cast some steel ingots if you like."
"Cast!" I said.
"Yes, cast. You know what that is?"
"Yes, of course."
"But you never saw it liquid so that it could be poured out like water."
"No," I said, as I followed him, wondering whether I had not better tell
him that I had overheard a strange remark about poisoning a dog, and ask
if he thought there was any risk about Piter, who seemed to grow much
uglier every day, and yet I liked him better.
The end of it was that I saw the steel lifted out of the furnace in
crucibles and poured forth like golden-silver water into charcoal
moulds, but I did not speak about the dog.