y was an
old out-house, quite unconnected with the dwelling; but in the
laboratory also lay my torpedo! The worst of it was that I had inserted
a detonator and affixed a fuse, feeling quite secure in doing so,
because I invariably locked the door and carried the key in my pocket.

My face must have turned very pale, for Nicholas, who came up at the
moment, looked at me with anxious surprise, and asked if I were ill.

"No," said I, hurriedly; "no, not ill--but--yes--it is a slow process at
best, and not always certain--sometimes takes a day or two to culminate.
The fusion may not have been quite completed, or it may have failed
altogether. Too late, I fear, too late, but I cannot rest till I know.
Tell my mother I'm off home--only business--don't alarm her."

Regardless of the amazed looks of those who stood near me, I broke from
the grasp of Nicholas, leaped into one of the boats alongside, seized
the oars, and rowed ashore in mad haste.

Fortune favoured me. The train had not left, though it was just in
motion. I had no time to take a ticket, but leaping upon the moving
footboard, I wrenched open a carriage-door and sprang in.

It was an express. We went at full sixty miles an hour, yet I felt as
if we moved like a snail. No words can adequately explain the state of
my mind and body--the almost uncontrollable desire I felt to spring out
of the train and run on ahead. But I was forced to sit still and think.
I thought of the nearness of the laboratory to our kitchen windows, of
the tremendous energy of the explosive with which the model-torpedo was
charged, of the mass of combustibles of all kinds by which it was
surrounded, of the thousand and one possibilities of the case, and of my
own inexcusable madness in not being more careful.

At last the train pulled up at the town from which our residence is
about two miles distant. It was now evening; but it was summer, and the
days were long. Hiring a horse at the nearest hotel, I set off at a
break-neck gallop.

The avenue-gate was open. I dashed in. The laboratory was not visible
from that point, being at the back of the house. At the front door I
pulled up, sprang to the ground, let the horse go, and ran forward.

I was met by Lancey coming round the corner. I saw at once that all was
over! His face and hands had been scorched, and his hair singed! I
gasped for breath.

"No one killed?" I asked.

"No, sir, nobody killed, but most of us 'orribly