ar sound caught his ears, a noise muffled yet
sharp, like that of the discharge of musketry heard through a thick
wall. The junior officers and the corporal who were with him heard it,
too, but did not understand its meaning. Giovanni, however, instantly
remembered the story told by one of the survivors from a terrible
explosion of ammunition near Naples many years previously. That
muffled sound of quick firing came from metallic cartridges exploding
within the cases that held them; each case would burst and set fire to
others beside it; like the spark that runs along a fuse, the train of
boxes would blow up in quick succession till the large stores of
gunpowder were fired and then a mass of dynamite beyond. There were
divisions in the vaults, there were doors, there were walls, but
Giovanni well knew that no such barriers would avail for more than a
few minutes.

Without raising his voice, he led his companions to the open door,
speaking as he went.

'The magazine will blow up in two or three minutes at the outside,' he
said. 'Send the men running in all directions, and go yourselves, to
warn the people in the cottages near by to get out of doors at once.
It will be like an earthquake; every house within five hundred yards
will be shaken down. Now run! Run for your lives and to save the lives
of others! Call out the men as you pass the gates.'

The three darted away across the open space that lay between the
central building and the guard-house. Giovanni ran, too, but not away
from the danger. There were sentries stationed at intervals all round
the outer wall, as round the walls of a prison, and they would have
little chance of life if they remained at their posts. Giovanni ran
like a deer, but even so he lost many seconds in giving his orders to
each sentinel, to run straight for the open fields to the nearest
cottages and to give warning. The astonished sentinels obeyed
instantly, and Giovanni ran on. He reached the very last just too
late; at that moment the thunder of the explosion rent the air. He
felt the earth rock and was thrown violently to the ground; then
something struck his right arm and shoulder, pinning him down; he
closed his eyes and was beyond hearing or feeling.

Within three-quarters of an hour the road to Monteverde was thronged
with vehicles of all sorts and with crowds of people on foot. The
nature of the disaster had been understood at once by the soldiery,
and the explanation had spread a