irably. For there was not one explosion alone; there was a
series of explosions. And fire spread from the arsenal, too.

"The shells are going off, you see," said Dick, a little awed. "They're
exploding in all directions. I suppose there will be a good deal of
damage. And those cartridges must be sending an awful lot of bullets
around promiscuously."

"I don't think many people will be hurt," said Hallo. Like Dick, he was
awed by the spectacle, and the terrible magnificence of it for the
moment seemed to have driven from his mind all thought of anything but
the explosion itself. "There are very few houses about the arsenal; they
are mostly public buildings of one sort and another. It's not the sort
of neighborhood people choose to live in. Even in time of peace there
may be an accident in an arsenal at any moment--and just as bad an
explosion as this one."

But then, suddenly, Hallo seemed to remember his position.

"You will pay for this!" he cried. "It is your doing, because if you had
let me go I should have stopped that! You are in league with the Servian
spies who have been working here for months, who planned the murder of
the Archduke in Serajevo--"

"Why don't you say I killed him?" suggested Dick. "Forward march, again!
The show is over!"

"Oh, your time will come--and you will cry to me for help then! The
police only had suspicions before, but now they will have facts, and all
the consuls and ambassadors in the world won't be able to help you! It
won't be a matter for the police at all, my lad! It will be a
court-martial that will try you."

"Perhaps. We shall see. Hello, what's this?"

Dick had just been thinking to himself that it was highly fortunate that
they had passed the settled district to the northeast of Semlin before
the explosion, since he could easily imagine the outpouring there must
have been into the streets at that terrific sound. But now there was a
sound of rushing feet, and around a corner, perhaps a quarter of a mile
in front of them, a body of men appeared--troops, coming at the double
quick.

"Here, this way!" said Dick, sharply.

He pointed to a clump of trees beside the road, and forced the reluctant
Hallo to go in before him. The pistol was giving him fine support for it
was very evident that Hallo did not mean to take chances. Dick did not
know, as a matter of fact, whether he would be able to fire if the
necessity arose. To shoot even Mike Hallo in cold blood, and when t