tirring it to undesired activity--that is, as a
rule--but now and then a chance tap with a pick-handle or a little
jolt suffices to loose its tremendous potentialities. In such cases
the men nearest it are usually not shattered, but dissolved into their
component gases.

Nasmyth was quite aware of this as he sat by the stove kneading the
detonators into the sticks that he held up to warm. His lips were set,
but his scarred hands were steady, for another risk more or less did
not count for very much in the canyon. Once, however, Mattawa ventured
a protest.

"I guess that stick's quite hot enough," he observed.

Nasmyth said nothing, but went on with his work, until at length he
laid the sticks and fuses in the magazine, and signalling to the
others, moved towards the door. The snow beat into their faces when
they went outside, and the glare of the fire above the fall
emphasized the obscurity. Now the flames flung an evanescent flash of
radiance across the whirling pool and the dark rock's side, and then
sank again to a dim smear of yellow brightness while a haze of vapour
whirled amidst the snow, for a high wind swept through the canyon.
Sometimes they could see the boulders among which they stumbled, and
the river frothing at their feet, but for the most part they saw
nothing, and groped onward with dazzled eyes, until at last Nasmyth
swung himself up on the narrow staging that overhung the pool beneath
the fall, and Gordon heard the sticks of giant-powder jolt against the
side of the magazine. That alone would have sufficed to indicate the
state of his comrade's temper, for so far as it is possible, men
handle giant-powder very tenderly.

There was no rail to the narrow staging, which was glazed with frozen
spray, and when Gordon was half-way along it, the fire flung out a
gush of radiance and sank suddenly. Then thick smoke whirled about
him, and for a moment or two he stopped and gasped, feeling for the
rock with a cautious hand. He was aware that the man who slipped from
the staging would be whirled round with the eddy and drawn down
beneath the fall. A harsh voice came out of the darkness.

"Am I to wait here half the night?" it asked.

Gordon went on circumspectly, bruising his numbed fingers now and then
upon the stone, until once more a blaze broke out, and he saw Nasmyth
floundering in haste over a pile of shattered rock. The magazine was
slung over his shoulder, and now and then it struck his back or th