in another charge.

"Look here! How much fuse are you proposing to waste? Don't you know
how to time a fuse?"

"No, sir."

"You don't! Well, if you don't beat anything I ever saw!"

He climbed out of the shaft and spoke down:

"Well, idiot, are you going to be all day? Cut the fuse and light it!"

The trembling creature began:

"If you please, sir, I--"

"You talk back to me? Cut it and light it!"

The boy cut and lit.

"Ger-reat Scott! a one-minute fuse! I wish you were in--"

In his rage he snatched the ladder out of the shaft and ran. The boy was
aghast.

"Oh, my God! Help. Help! Oh, save me!" he implored. "Oh, what can I
do! What can I do!"

He backed against the wall as tightly as he could; the sputtering fuse