“It is just the same this side. They have
settled the question for us. Now we will give
our attention to the waggons.”
AN EXPLOSION
Having given up all hopes of blowing up the bridge,
Chris and his comrades turned their whole attention
to the lines of waggons. The train that had come
in on the previous evening had added to the number,
although it had taken some of them away with it up
country. They now made out that there were eight
waggons piled with cases, that almost certainly contained
rifles; six with tarpaulins closely packed over them,
and these they guessed contained ammunition boxes;
four, each with two large cases that might contain
field guns; while the two with what they were sure
were big guns still remained on the siding.
“I should say that about four or five pounds
of dynamite would be an abundance for each of those
ammunition waggons; less than that would do, as we
could, by slitting the tarpaulins, put a pound among
the cases, and if one case were exploded it would
set all the others off. There is no trouble about
them. I will just take a note. They are on
the second siding; there are eight other waggons in
front of them and six behind, so we cannot make any
mistake about that. There must be a good heavy
charge under the rifle trucks, for we shall have to
blow them all well into the air to bend and damage
them enough to be altogether unserviceable. As
for the guns, and especially the heavy ones, it is
a difficult question. Of course, if we could
open the cases and get at the breech-pieces, and put
dynamite among them, we could damage all the mechanism
so much that the guns would be useless until new breech-pieces
were made, which I fancy must be altogether beyond
the Boers; but as there is no possibility of opening
them, we must trust to blowing the guns so high in
the air that they will be too much damaged for use
by the explosion and fall. We have got altogether
two hundredweight; now two pounds to each ammunition
waggon will take twelve pounds. What shall we
say for the rifles?”
“Ten pounds,” Brown suggested.
“That would take eighty more pounds,”
Willesden objected, “which would make a big
hole in our stores.”
“We must have a good charge,” Chris said.
“Suppose we say nine pounds to each, that will
save eight pounds; fifteen pounds apiece ought to give
the eight cases which we suppose hold field-guns a
good hoist; that will leave us with over a hundred
pounds, fifty for each of the big guns. Now that
we have seen all that is necessary, we may as well
be off and begin to get ready.”
The covers were taken off the boxes of dynamite, and
these were unscrewed, and the explosive was with great
care divided into the portions as agreed upon.
Two of the cases furnished just sufficient for the
ammunition waggons and the two big guns, the other
two for the smaller cannon and the trucks with the
rifles. The charges were sewn up in pieces of
the canvas, the smaller charges for the ammunition
boxes being enclosed in thinner stuff that had been
sewn under the canvas used in packing; the fuses and
detonators were then cut and inserted. Chris
was perfectly up in this work, having performed the
operation scores of times in the mines. The length
it should burn was only decided after a discussion.
