ghtfall, he crept to the stack, and, watching his
opportunity, clambered carefully to the top and lit the three fuses.

The smell presently told him that the fires had caught, and he crept
away, satisfied that on the morrow there would be something of a hubbub,
even if no very considerable damage resulted.

It was with the idea of watching developments that Max and Dale applied
for work at the depots next day. They hoped to witness amusing and
exhilarating scenes, and to get as near to the spot as possible they
gladly offered to shovel coal. Their offer was accepted and they were
soon at work transporting coal and shovelling it on to the stacks.

They soon experienced a sense of disappointment. Instead of finding the
stacks enveloped in smoke, and all work suspended for the day, as they
expected, they discovered that work was going on as usual and nothing
seemed amiss.

"Seems to have been a frost, Max," grumbled Dale discontentedly. "All
our trouble and brain-fag gone for nothing."

"I thought so at first, Dale, but I'm not so sure now. See that light
haze yonder? It may be the fires have caught all right but are burning
out for lack of draught. Let's hope they've done a bit of damage
anyhow!"

"H'm!" grunted Dale in a tone of discouragement.

"Besides," Max went on, "this is only a small affair. The next real
attack will come in a day or two, and I hope there will be no failure
there."

"No," replied Dale, brightening up, "if that comes off we shall have
done something worth doing. Schenk will be ready to tear his hair, and
we shall have to look out for ourselves."

"Well, so we will. We shall deserve a rest, and we will retire into
obscurity for a season and recuperate. Another ramble in the Ardennes
would suit us well."

"Especially with a little shooting thrown in--Uhlans, I mean," replied
Dale facetiously.

"There will be plenty of scouting, if not shooting, if all the tales we
hear of those gentlemen be true."

"Aye--but see, Max, how that smoky haze is getting thicker! The pile
must be alight all right after all."

The light fleecy smoke which hovered over the great stack certainly
seemed denser than it was, and a slight smell of burning was in the air.
The other workmen had also noticed it, and hazarded conjectures as to
whence it came, but none of them got very near the mark. All day the
smoke increased, until, by the time the men ceased work, it lay like a
thick fog all about the neighbourhoo