"But how did the explosive come to be in a building that belongs to the water company, and which is supposed not to have been occupied in some years ?" "What was the man doing in there, for that matter ?" demanded Tom.
"He wasn't very well dressed," observed Harry.
"Yet he didn't look like a tramp," Dave put in.
"But the man himself, and the fact that he's hurt or dead, are our two first points to consider," spoke Dick quickly.

"If he's hurt we are bound to bring him help.

If he's dead, we'll have to notify---some one." "I'd like to go back there and have a look at him," quoth Tom, "but the biggest explosion of all may come out of that cottage at any moment now." "Yet the facts are that another explosion hasn't come, and that the man ought to have help, as a matter of common decency," Dick urged.
"I'll run to the nearest house where people are living," suggested Tom, pulling off his jacket and making ready for a run.
"What are you going to tell the folks ?" Prescott queried.

"That the poor fellow is living or dead?
I'm going back to find out which." "We'll all go," offered Dave.
"But what happened to Rip and his mean crew ?" asked Hazelton.
"We haven't seen any signs that they were in the cottage at all," Dick responded.

"If they were, as none of them came out, they must be badly hurt---perhaps worse." As a matter of fact, Ripley and his party had not gone into the cottage, but had continued directly towards their homes.
That grisly thought gave all the boys a shudder as they plodded up the slope, between the bushes and thence stepped into the clearing.
"Talk about dreaming!" muttered Dick, halting abruptly and staring hard at the ground around the cottage.
In the first place, the cottage door was closed.