, sonny--' The first rifleman blocked his road.
'I don't bear no malice for a word spoken in anger: so stand quiet
and take my advice. That house isn't goin' to take fire. 'Cos why?
'Cos as Bill says, we've _been_ there--there and in the next house,
now burnin'--and we know. 'Cos before leavin'--the night before last
it was--some of our boys set two barrels o' powder somewheres in the
next house, on the ground floor, _with_ a slow match. That's why
_we_ left; though, as it happened, the match missed fire. But the
powder's there, and if you'll wait a few minutes now you'll not be
disapp'inted.'

'You left the child behind!'

'Well, we left in a hurry, as I tell you, and somehow in the hurry
nobody brought him along. I'm sorry for the poor little devil, too.'
The fellow swung about. 'See him there at the window, now! If you
want him put out of his pain--'

He lifted his rifle. Corporal Sam made a clutch at his arm to drag
it down, and in the scuffle both men swayed out upon the roadway.
And with that, or a moment later, he felt the rifleman slip down
between his arms, and saw the blood gush from his mouth as he
collapsed on the cobbles.

Corporal Sam heard the man Bill shout a furious oath, cast one
puzzled look up the roadway towards the convent, saw the flashes
jetting from its high wall, and raced across unscathed. A bullet
sang past his ear as he found the gate and hurled himself into the
garden. It was almost dark here, but dark only for a moment. . . .
For as he caught sight of a flight of steps leading to a narrow
doorway, and ran for them--and even as he set foot on the lowest--of
a sudden the earth heaved under him, seemed to catch him up in a
sheet of flame, and flung him backwards--backwards and flat on his
back, into a clump of laurels.

Slowly he picked himself up. The sky was dark now; but, marvellous
to say, the house stood. The mass of it yet loomed over the laurels.
Yes, and a light showed under the door at the head of the steps.
He groped his way up and pushed the door open.

The light came through a rent in the opposite wall, and on the edge
of this jagged hole some thin laths were just bursting into a blaze.
He rushed across the room to beat out the flame, and this was easily
done; but, as he did it, he caught sight of a woman's body, stretched
along the floor by the fireplace, and of a child cowering in the
corner, watching him.

'Come and help, little one,' said Corporal Sam, s