登陆注册
15441100000016

第16章 CHAPTER FIVE(3)

So please don't swallow those wild tales of a stick of dynamite that threw down a mountainside.-I once read a story--it was not so long ago--of a Chinaman who wiped out a mine with a little piece of dynamite which he carried in his pocket.-I laughed.

Casey Ryan, on the first day when he was left alone with his crippled hand and his pots and pans for company, did nothing whatever that he would not have done had one of the three been present.-He was suspicious of their going and thought it was a trap set to catch him in an attempted escape.

On the second day when the three went off together and left him alone, Casey went out gathering wood and discovered just where the "powder," fuse and caps were kept under a huge, black boulder between the tunnel portal and the dugout.-On the third day he also gathered wood and helped himself to two sticks of dynamite, three caps and eighteen inches of fuse.-Not enough to be missed unless they checked their supply more carefully than Casey believed they did; but enough for Casey's purpose nevertheless.

That night, while the moon shone in through the dingy window at the head of his bunk and gave him a little light to work by, Casey sat up in bed and snored softly and with a soothing rhythm while he cut a stick of dynamite in two, capped five inches of fuse for each piece working awkwardly with his one good hand and pinching the caps tight with his teeth, which might have sent him with a bang into Kingdom Come--and very carefully worked the caps into the powder until no more than three inches of fuse protruded from the end of the half stick.-It would have been less dangerous to land with a yell in the middle of the floor and fight the three men with one bare hand, but Casey's courage never turned a hair.

Still snoring mildly, he held up to the moonlight two deadly weapons and surveyed them with much satisfaction.-They would not be so quick, as fiction would have them, but if his aim was accurate in throwing, they would be deadly enough.-Moreover, he could count with a good deal of certainty upon a certain degree of terror which the sight of them in his hand would produce.

When Casey Ryan cooked breakfast next morning, he carried two half-sticks of loaded dynamite under his hand in the sling. Can you wonder that even he shied at standing over the stove cooking hot cakes and complained that his broken hand pained him a lot and that the heat made it worse?-But a shrewd observer would have noticed on his face the expression of a cat that has been shut in the pantry over night.

Joe volunteered to take another look at the hand and see if blood poison was "setting in"; but Casey said it didn't feel like blood poison.-He had knocked it against the bunk edge in his sleep, he declared.-He'd dose 'er with iodine after a while, and she'd be all right.

Joe let it go at that, being preoccupied with other matters at which Casey could only guess.-He conferred with Paw outside the dugout after breakfast, called Hank away from the dish-washing and the three set off toward the tunnel with a brisker air than usually accompanied them to work.-Casey watched them go and felt reasonably sure of at least two hours to himself.

The first thing Casey did after he had made sure that he was actually alone was to remove the deadly stuff from the sling and lay it on a shadowed shelf where it would be safe but convenient to his hand. Then, going to his bunk, he reached under the blankets and found the other stick of dynamite which he had not yet loaded.-This he laid on the kitchen table and cut it in two as he had done last night with the other stick.-With his remaining cap he loaded a half and carried it back to his bunk.

He was debating in his mind whether it was worth while purloining another cap from a box under the boulder when another fancy took him and set him grinning.

Four separate charges of dynamite, he reasoned, would not be necessary. It was an even chance that the sight of a piece with the fuse in his hand would be sufficient to tame Paw or Hank or Joe--or the three together, for that matter--without going further than to give them a sight of it.

With that idea uppermost, Casey split the paper carefully down the side of the remaining half-stick, took out the contents in a tin plate and carried it outside where he buried it in the sand beneath a bush.-Returning to the dugout he made a thick dough of leftover pancake batter and molded it into the dynamite wrapping with a fragment of harmless fuse protruding from the opened end.

When the thing was dry, Casey thought it would look very deadly and might be useful.-After several days of helplessness for want of a weapon, Casey was in a mood to supply himself generously.

He finished the dish-washing, working awkwardly with one hand.

After that he put a kettle of beans on to boil, filled the stove with pinon sticks and closed the drafts.-He armed himself with the two loaded pieces of dynamite from the cupboard, filled his pockets with such other things as he thought he might need, and went prospecting on his own account.

At the portal of the tunnel he stopped and listened for the ping-g, ping-g of a single-jack striking steadily upon steel.

But the tunnel was silent, the ore car uptilted at the end of its track on the dump. Yet the three men were supposedly at work in the mine, had talked at breakfast about wanting to show a certain footage when the boss returned, and of needing to hurry.

Casey went into the tunnel, listening and going silently; sounds travel far in underground workings.-At the mouth of the first right-hand drift he stopped again and listened.-This, if he would believe Joe, was the drift where the bad ground had caused the accident to Joe and his partner whose leg had been broken.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 启示语

    启示语

    一个有着恶魔名字的少年因为错误出生在这个扭曲的世界,他用冷漠的表情去温暖他人,他用单调的话语开解他人,他厌恶战争,却愿意为了一个承诺去掀翻世界,他因为只能存活短暂的岁月,所以用冰冷阻拦别人的关心。他是带来战争的恶魔,又是送走战争的天使,他说:“我有罪,所以我赎罪。”
  • 桃花有妖

    桃花有妖

    夏桃花妖如其名是个桃花树,这辈子最大的心愿便是下山看看人间的好风情。
  • 小兽快跑

    小兽快跑

    宿命,轮回,前世夙愿,简单点,慢慢走,看被迫出山的小兽,怎么在本属于自己的世界挣扎着活下去。
  • 凤栖燕云

    凤栖燕云

    关于北京城中武林门派之间恩怨斗争及儿女感情纠葛之事,人物多是以笔者一班朋友为原型塑造。
  • 韩少宠妻,疯狂爱

    韩少宠妻,疯狂爱

    他,向来对女人不感兴趣,戒欲多年,直到遇见了她,他再也耐不住了,像头饿狼直扑上去,可那只小白兔受宠若惊的败在了他身下,从此之后,他宠她上瘾,欲罢不休,再也控制不好自己的情绪,倒在了夏沫锌的石榴裙下
  • 纨绔毒妃:嚣张六小姐

    纨绔毒妃:嚣张六小姐

    她,现代神医,一朝穿越来到风云大陆,成为西陵将军废柴草包六小姐,甚至因违背父亲被活活打死他,西陵战神,腹背狡诈,阴狠毒辣,凡是进他三尺,均被无情斩杀,一场战争意外落入云潇的手中世人皆知她是草包废柴女,他却如获至宝,誓死宠溺,当王子变成青蛙,将展开强者与强者的碰撞,上演一场追逐与被追逐的好戏
  • 才女陪男神欢喜冤家

    才女陪男神欢喜冤家

    ''你谁你啊你''苏蕾一知名作家。''我是你的相亲对象''''什么不是大哥你吃药了嘛你你认识我嘛就说我相亲对象我相亲对象我怎么就不知道了''周怀瑾淡淡的说道''你怎么那么不要脸啊你我告诉你别以为长得帅就可以随便跟人搭话''''你是叫苏蕾对吧作家今年25岁对吧我28岁记住了我叫周怀瑾我喜欢上你了你就是我的''苏蕾喝的咖啡差点没喷出来什么啊这都哎今天出门没看黄历啊遇上了个神经病算了不跟病人计较了;这时候苏蕾的电话响起''喂,蕾蕾啊我是爸爸哦对了你还在精品咖啡点里吧是这样的你早上走的急我还没说完话你就走了今天你隔壁的尹阿姨给你介绍了现在你们在一起吧。''''不是吧我的爹啊别人坑爹你坑我啊。。。。''
  • 大佛寺诗联选

    大佛寺诗联选

    本书是一本古今诗人吟颂张掖大佛寺的诗联荟萃,作品主题鲜明,咏意厚重,风格迥异;诗集编排得体,融贯尔雅,和谐成篇。这对弘扬佛寺文化,推动社会进步,将会产生一定影响。
  • 九幽神武变

    九幽神武变

    以魔入圣,我道张狂。天有天道天道向上;地有地道地道载物;人有人道人道存识。欲修金刚不灭体,先修识存一念,一念成执,便化入魔道,入魔成圣;不妄我辈张狂。一念曰杀,仇恨而杀;父母之仇,天地之恨;愁苦悲愤之怒而一念杀生。一念曰爱;阴阳相隔之爱;爱而不能厮守之情;因爱恨交织而一念痴狂
  • 那把柳叶刀:剥下医学的外衣

    那把柳叶刀:剥下医学的外衣

    本书为医学科普读物。这是一本可以随时随地拿出来读上一篇的有趣的医学科普书。“每月医事”、“医生博客”、“往事”等,其间,据报社编辑、记者反馈,许多文章很受读者欢迎,专栏文章也一直持续到现在。几年来,专栏文章积累起来已有百余篇。读者需要就是动力,也是原因,本选题内容便是作者从已发表的文章中(也有一部分从未发表过的)精选出来的具有科普意义的作品的集结。该书稿主体内容由50个左右小主题组成。每个小题目都是选取自医学发展历程中代表性的、非医学专业读者也都知道一些的医药科技发明、事件等作为切入点,成为一个选题。根据内容特点,书稿分为史海钩沉(事件)、科技的脚步、工具寻踪、另类医史等几部分。