We stood a little aside in obedience to a wave of the young officer's arm.

Then he crossed the street to pick up a long piece of burning wood, and came back, the moonlight and the firelight playing by turns upon him.
I honestly confess that, fierce as the heat was, I turned cold.

The experiences of the next few minutes were as follows: I saw the young engineer fire the train, and I heard a puff, and then I saw him fall, face downwards, behind the tank.

I gave a cry, and started forward, and was brought up short by a back-hander on my chest from the sergeant.
Then came a scrambling, rushing sound, which widened into a deep roar, shaking the ground beneath our feet, and then the big building at which we were gaping seemed to breathe out a monstrous sigh, and then it fell in, and tumbled to pieces, quietly, swiftly, and utterly, like a house of cards.
And the fantastic-looking young officer got up and shook himself, and worried the bits of charred wood out of his long yellow moustaches..