"Schneider won five marks of me this afternoon. He said he’d give me my revenge. Well, I’ll beat him to-morrow." He went into the shed: there was a rustling for a few moments: then all was silent, except for the heavy tramp of the sentry as he paced slowly up and down. The two Englishmen went back to the quarry wall, and were replacing the boards. "I say!" whispered Harry. "What is it?" "It’s mad, perhaps; but I wondered if we couldn’t run off with the train." "Absurd!" replied Kenneth. "But----" "Hush! we’ll talk presently." They returned to their former position across the quarry. "I daresay you are right," said Harry, "but I wish we could collar that gun." "It’s impossible," said Kenneth, arguing against his own inclination. "We couldn’t open the door without being seen." "But it’s so ramshackle that it would burst at a touch." "Then we’d make a row starting the engine, and before we had any speed on they’d be at us." "I don’t know. They’ve got to wake up, and dress----" "Why waste time dressing?" "Well, is a German a soldier without his uniform? Anyhow, they would be too sleepy for a few seconds to understand what was going on. It might just give us time to get off." "I don’t mind telling you that the idea occurred to me, but I gave it up." "Oh, do let us try it. It’s a sporting chance. They feel perfectly secure; that’s so much in our favour. They’ll be struck all of a heap, and you know what confusion there is when fellows are taken by surprise." "You’ve the tongue of the old Serpent, Harry. With a little luck--ah! while we’re about it, oughtn’t we to blow up the ammunition?" "That means blowing up the men too." "Well? We can’t take ’em prisoners. And when you remember that every shell in the shed may kill or maim a lot more Englishmen or Frenchmen than there are Germans in the shed, you’ll see that it’s our duty. War’s war, more’s the pity. There are some fuses near the door." "Come on, then." They stole back. Kenneth crept into the ammunition shed, and started a time fuse while Harry removed the boards from the wall of the engine shed. Just as Kenneth, returning, had almost reached the opening, in his haste he displaced a shell that was standing insecurely. It toppled over with a heavy thud. He sprang through the gap. "Touch and go now!" he panted. "We haven’t a second to lose." There was no time to replace the boards. They slipped into the engine shed, hearing the sentry call to his comrades and run towards the ammunition shed. In a few moments he would discover the gap in the wall, and the Germans would be scouring the place. The Englishmen ran to the engine. "Jump in!" gasped Kenneth.