A chance spark might at any time cause a conflagration, which, unchecked, would spread destruction, devastation and death all around.
I felt that beneath the South a mine had been dug and filled with dynamite, and that lighted fuses were lying around in careless profusion, where any irresponsible hand might reach them and ignite the dynamite.

I fancied that I saw a man do this very thing in a sudden fit of uncontrollable rage.

There was a dull roar as of distant rumbling thunder.

Suddenly there was a terrific explosion and houses, fences, trees, pavement stones, and all things on earth were hurled high into the air to come back a mass of ruins such as man never before had seen.

The only sound to be heard was a universal groan; those who had not been killed were too badly wounded to cry out.
Such were the thoughts that passed through my mind.