A minute later she was back beside him. He had
never seen her smoke, and it struck him as peculiar that she should be
smoking now. Then he guessed the reason. With a quick glance, he noted
the hand at her side, and in it the familiar, paper-wrapped dynamite. He
noted, also, the end of fuse, split properly, into which had been
inserted the head of a wax match.
"Telepasse, you old reprobate, tell 'm boys clear out along beach. My
word, I no gammon along you."
"Me no gammon," said the chief. "Me want 'm pay white Mary bang 'm head
b'long Gogoomy."
"I'll come down there and bang 'm head b'long you," Sheldon replied,
leaning toward the railing as if about to leap over.
An angry murmur arose, and the blacks surged restlessly. The muzzles of
many guns were rising from the hips. Joan was pressing the lighted end
of the cigarette to the fuse. A Snider went off with the roar of a bomb-
gun, and Sheldon heard a pane of window-glass crash behind him. At the
same moment Joan flung the dynamite, the fuse hissing and spluttering,
into the thick of the blacks. They scattered back in too great haste to
do any more shooting. Satan, aroused by the one shot, was snarling and
panting to be let out. Joan heard, and ran to let him out; and thereat
the tragedy was averted, and the comedy began.
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