There was only a thin strip of cotton fabric between the flying sparks and the plastic yellow rolls of powder.

Still, the bag was thrown, and Saunders set off with it, while Weston stood gasping a moment and looked at Devine.
"There's the bag of detonators yet," he said, and, swinging around, disappeared again.
Devine remembered that there was no lid to the iron box in which they kept the detonators, and that they were intended to be ignited by the sparking of a fuse.

He stood some little distance from the shack, and it did not occur to him that, as one person could carry the box readily, he was serving no purpose in waiting.

Indeed, he was only conscious of a suspense that made it impossible for him to go away.

He did not know how long he waited, but in the meanwhile the smoke whirled lower, and he could see nothing for a moment or two.