orgotten most that I knew about lentonite. But it didn't do to begin
thinking about the possibilities. The odds were horrible, but I had to
take them.

I ensconced myself just below the sill of the window, and lit the fuse.
Then I waited for a moment or two. There was dead silence--only a
shuffle of heavy boots in the passage, and the peaceful cluck of hens
from the warm out-of-doors. I commended my soul to my Maker, and
wondered where I would be in five seconds ...

A great wave of heat seemed to surge upwards from the floor, and hang
for a blistering instant in the air. Then the wall opposite me flashed
into a golden yellow and dissolved with a rending thunder that hammered
my brain into a pulp. Something dropped on me, catching the point of
my left shoulder.

And then I think I became unconscious.

My stupor can scarcely have lasted beyond a few seconds. I felt myself
being choked by thick yellow fumes, and struggled out of the debris to
my feet. Somewhere behind me I felt fresh air. The jambs of the
window had fallen, and through the ragged rent the smoke was pouring
out to the summer noon. I stepped over the broken lintel, and found
myself standing in a yard in a dense and acrid fog. I felt very sick
and ill, but I could move my limbs, and I staggered blindly forward
away from the house.

A small mill-lade ran in a wooden aqueduct at the other side of the
yard, and into this I fell. The cool water revived me, and I had just
enough wits left to think of escape. I squirmed up the lade among the
slippery green slime till I reached the mill-wheel. Then I wriggled
through the axle hole into the old mill and tumbled on to a bed of
chaff. A nail caught the seat of my trousers, and I left a wisp of
heather-mixture behind me.

The mill had been long out of use. The ladders were rotten with age,
and in the loft the rats had gnawed great holes in the floor. Nausea
shook me, and a wheel in my head kept turning, while my left shoulder
and arm seemed to be stricken with the palsy. I looked out of the
window and saw a fog still hanging over the house and smoke escaping
from an upper window. Please God I had set the place on fire, for I
could hear confused cries coming from the other side.

But I had no time to linger, since this mill was obviously a bad
hiding-place. Anyone looking for me would naturally follow the lade,
and I made certain the search would begin as soon as they found that my
body was