lest a spark
falling outward do much harm to those within the room?"

"Nay," replied Wright, "'tis my purpose to watch it closely; the
stuff, being damp, is worthless."

Percy spoke no more, not wishing to be thought unduly nervous, and the
company relapsing into silence watched the flames, each intent upon
his own dark forebodings.

For many minutes they remained thus, but starting at each sound from
without, and hearing in every rustle of the leafless trees and
shrubbery the hoofbeats of horses bearing their pursuing enemies. The
heat of the room, added to sleepless nights which had followed the
arrest of Guido Fawkes and the discovery of the conspiracy, gradually
overcame the majority of the party, and all but Percy and Catesby
nodded in their seats. These two, the first confederates with Winter
and the Superior of the Jesuits to formulate the plan for destroying
the King and the government, sat moodily side by side, their burning
eyeballs glassy in the red reflection of the flames, and their hearts
heavy with thoughts of dismal failure and impending ruin.

"Would that Garnet were with us now," muttered Catesby, thrusting one
foot upon the fender; "perchance his wit might devise some means to
free us from our entanglement and perplexity, and save the cause.
Would that Fawkes had----"

Percy raised his eyes quickly. "Thou art then sorry----" he began.

"Nay," replied Catesby with some haughtiness. "If I had thought there
had been the least sin in it I would not have put my hand to it for
all the world. No other cause led me to hazard my fortune and my life
but zeal for the true faith. We have, in truth, failed, good Percy;
yet was the match burning which, in another moment, would have given
the spark to the powder, and the thunderbolt of which friend Guido
spake to us would----"

Carried away by his earnestness he thrust forth his foot beyond the
fender and struck the faggots which blazed in the fireplace. A shower
of sparks answered the blow. One, falling beyond the hearthstone,
found the platter heaped with the deadly grains. Then, in truth, the
spark was given to the powder, but it was not that which lay beneath
the floor of Parliament; it was the powder in the room wherein nodded
the would-be murderers of the lords and the King of England. Ere
Catesby was aware of the awful danger, before Percy--who had noted the
falling spark--could cry out, there came a blinding flash, a cloud of
sulphurous smoke, the