to smithereens. One engineer and two assistants . . . also in smithereens. Would you believe it? Attempt No. 2 . . . a Trauz block, ninety per cent vaseline, and bang! The roof went up and one workman was killed; nothing of the block remained but a fragment. Then we let the soldiers have a go at it; they laughed at us . . . said we knew as much about it as . . . a village blacksmith. We gave them a little; they rammed it into a gun with a lot of sawdust. Splendid results. Seven gunners blown up including a N.C.O. . . . they found one leg three kilometres away. Twelve dead in two days, there’s figures for you. Aha! magnificent, eh?”
Prokop wanted to say something, but gulped it down. Twelve dead in two days—the devil!
Mr. Carson rubbed his knees and glowed with pleasure. “The third day we gave it a rest. It makes a bad impression, you know, when . . . you have many such incidents. Then we only took a little Krakatit . . . about three decigrams . . . in glycerine and that sort of thing. The idiot of a lab. boy left a pinch lying about in the night when the laboratory was shut a”
“It exploded?” cried Prokop.
“Yes. At ten thirty-five. The laboratory chemist was torn to shreds, not to speak of a couple of blocks of buildings. . . . About three tons of methylnitrate went up with it—in short about sixty killed. Naturally enough a tremendous investigation and all the rest of it. It turned out that nobody had been in the laboratory and that evidently it must have exploded”
