"
He clutched the wall in time to save himself, as the bamboo frame leapt
underfoot. Outside, the crest of the slope ran black against a single
burst of flame. The detonation came like the blow of a mallet on
the ribs.
"Let him look! Let him look!" Heywood jumped to the ground, and in a
pelting shower of clods, exulted:--
"He looked again, and saw it was
The middle of next week!"
"Come on, brother mole. Spread the news!"
He ran off, laughing, in the wide hush of astonishment.
CHAPTER XX
THE HAKKA BOAT
"Pretty fair," Captain Kneebone said. "But that ain't the end."
This grudging praise--in which, moreover, Heywood tamely acquiesced--was
his only comment. On Rudolph it had singular effects: at first filling
him with resentment, and almost making him suspect the little captain of
jealousy; then amusing him, as chance words of no weight; but in the
unreal days that followed, recurring to convince him with all the force
of prompt and subtle fore-knowledge. It helped him to learn the cold,
salutary lesson, that one exploit does not make a victory.
The springing of their countermine, he found, was no deliverance.
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