es, not even a solitary barge breaking the
long stretch of grey water. One by one the old landmarks--Mucking
Lighthouse, the Thames Cattle Wharf, and Hole Haven--were left behind,
and at last the entrance to the creek that runs round behind Canvey
Island came into sight.

One would never accuse it of being a cheerful, bustling sort of place
at the best of times, but at five o'clock in the morning it seemed the
very picture of uninhabited desolation. A better locality in which
to enjoy a little quiet practice with new explosives it would be
difficult to imagine.

I navigated the _Betty_ in rather gingerly, for it was over three
years since I had visited the spot. Joyce kept on sounding diligently
with the lead either side of the boat, and at last we brought up in
about one and a half fathom, just comfortably out of sight of the main
stream.

"This will do nicely," I said. "We'll turn her round first, and then
I'll row into the bank and fix things up under that tree over there.
We can be back in the river before anything happens."

"Can't we stop and watch?" asked Joyce. "I should love to see it go
off."

I shook my head. "Unless I've made a mistake," I said, "it will be
much healthier round the corner. We'll come back and see what's
happened afterwards."

By the aid of some delicate manoeuvring I brought the _Betty_ round,
and then getting into the dinghy pulled myself ashore.

It was quite unnecessary for my experiment to make any complicated
preparations. All I had to do was to dig a hole in the bank with a
trowel that I had brought for the purpose, empty my stuff into that,
and tip in the gunpowder on top. When I had finished I covered the
whole thing over with earth, leaving a clear passage for the fuse, and
then lighting the end of the latter, jumped back into the boat and
pulled off rapidly for the _Betty_.

We didn't waste any time dawdling about. Joyce seized the painter as
I climbed on board, and hurrying to the tiller I started off down the
creek as fast as we could go, taking very particular pains not to run
aground.

We had reached the mouth, and I was swinging her round into the main
river, when a sudden rumbling roar disturbed the peacefulness of
the dawn. Joyce, who was staring out over the stern, gave a little
startled cry, and glancing hastily back I was just in time to see a
disintegrated-looking tree soaring gaily up into the air in the midst
of a huge column of dust and smoke. The next mo