"Here's a place to perform Ally Barber! Here's jars enow for forty hundred thieves!" he cried, as, carefully setting down his lamp, he lifted the lid of one of the jars and found it was empty. Taking up his light he cautiously advanced until he saw before him a large heap of powder, which had evidently been emptied for some special reason, as it was carefully enclosed with boarding so that none of it touched the floor. Having placed his lamp in a safe position, he proceeded to pull down the end board, and to make a train towards the door. This was the work of a few seconds, and when he had run it across the joss stick compartment, he headed it by heaping up a small pile of powder in his cell. The door of his prison proving too strong, he tried the window, through which he found he could, with a little exertion, manage to squeeze himself. Upon this he threw out his bundle, placed two long pieces of well-lighted joss stick with their unburnt ends in the powder piled upon the floor of his cell; then worked himself through the window or air hole, and made the best of his way across the garden: calculating that the joss stick would burn about a quarter of an hour, and by that time he would be out of danger. He walked along for some time until he stumbled over something, which proved to be a man, round whose neck was fastened a cangue, or collar of wood. The poor wretch groaned when he felt the shock; and as the sailor soon found out what was the matter, he proceeded to undo the fastenings. The man at first resisted, fearing he would be punished, but finding the "silent one," as he dubbed Thompson, was really a friend, he let him go on. Having released him, Jerry gave him the other plain suit of clothes; and when he was dressed in it, the pair made their way towards the wall. Suddenly they saw a flash, upon which the sailor threw himself upon the ground. Up shot a light, bang went a report, and the Imperial magazine of Sse-tsein was blown into atoms. So terrific was the shock, that the ya-mun was totally destroyed, the mandarin and a great number of his household killed, and the walls levelled to the ground. Hundreds of prisoners were released, and these ran about crying to their gods to help them. The mandarin's women hobbled about and wrung their hands, and the place looked like an ants' nest when it is disturbed by the kick of a passer by.