anks to my combined
experience of small boats and prison cells, I flatter myself I made
rather a good job of it.

By the time I had finished I was feeling distinctly hungry. I opened
one of the tongues, and with the additional aid of bread and whisky
made a simple but satisfying lunch. Then I sat down on the bed and
treated myself to a pipe before going across to the shed to start
work. Smoking in business hours is one of those agreeable luxuries
which an inventor of high explosives finds it healthier to deny
himself.

I could see no sign of any one about when I went outside. Except for
a few gulls, which were wheeling backwards and forwards over the
sea-wall, I seemed to have the whole stretch of marsh and saltings
entirely to myself. Some people, I suppose, would have found the
prospect a depressing one, but I was very far from sharing any such
opinion. I like marsh scenery, and for the present at all events I
was fully able to appreciate the charms which sages of all times are
reported to have discovered in solitude.

I shall never forget the feeling of satisfaction with which I
closed the door of the shed behind me and looked round its clean,
well-lighted interior. A careful examination soon showed me that
McMurtrie's share in the work had been done as thoroughly and
conscientiously as I had imagined from my brief inspection on the
previous day. Everything I had asked for was lying there in readiness,
and, much as I disliked and mistrusted the doctor, it was not without
a genuine sensation of gratitude that I hung up my coat and proceeded
to set to work.

Briefly speaking, my new discovery was an improvement on the famous C.
powder, invented by Lemartre. It was derived from the aromatic series
of nitrates (which that great scientist always insisted to be the
correct basis for stable and powerful explosives), but it owed its
enormously increased force to a fresh constituent, the introduction
of which was entirely my own idea. I had been working at it for about
nine months before my arrest, and after several disappointing failures
I had just succeeded in achieving what I believed to be my object,
when my experiments had been so unkindly interrupted.

Still, all that remained now was comparatively clear sailing. I had
merely to follow out my former process, and I had taken care to order
the various ingredients in as fully prepared a state as possible for
immediate use. I had also taken care to include one or two