write situated as I was--left alone with about thirty
workmen in the place, any one of whom might be set to do the biting in
revenge for the trap-setting? For there was no misunderstanding
Pannell's words; they were meant as a sort of warning for me. And now
what was I to do?

I wished my uncles had not gone or that they had taken me, and I nearly
made up my mind to go for a walk or run back home.

But it seemed so cowardly. It was not likely that anyone would touch me
there, though the knowledge the men evidently had of their masters'
movements was rather startling; and I grew minute by minute more
nervous.

"What a coward I am!" I said to myself as I began writing, but stopped
to listen directly, for I heard an unusual humming down in the grinders'
shop; but it ceased directly, and I heard the wheel-pit door close.

"Something loose in the gear of the great wheel, perhaps," I thought;
and I went on writing.

All at once the idea came upon me. Suppose they were to try and blow me
up!

I slipped off my stool and examined all the papers beneath my desk and
in the waste-paper basket, and then I felt so utterly ashamed that I
forced myself back into my seat and tried to go on writing.

But it was impossible. The day was bright and sunny and the water in
the dam was dancing and glittering, for the wind was off the hills and
blew the smoke in the other direction--over the town. There was a great
patch of dancing light on the ceiling reflected from the dam, and some
flowers in the window looked bright and sent out a sweet perfume; but I
could see nothing but men crawling in the dark with powder-cans and
fuses; and to make myself worse, I must go to Uncle Jack's cupboard and
look at the can that we had found by Gentles that night, just as it had
been picked up, with a long fuse hanging out of the neck and twisted
round and round.

I went back after locking it up and taking out the key, and after
opening the window I stood looking out to calm myself, wishing the while
that I was right away among the hills far from the noise of whirring
stones and shrieking metal. I knew the sun was shining there, and the
grass was green, and the view was spread out for miles; while from where
I stood there were the great black buildings, the tall shafts, and close
beneath me the dam which, in spite of the sunshine, suggested nothing
but men coming down from the head on rafts of wood to work some
mischief.

The situation bec