Above us, a floorboard creaked. I jumped; Merry glanced over her shoulder; Tomoatooah looked up incuriously. He had dropped to his hands and knees and was inspecting the lower parts of the apparatus. Looking, no doubt, for a place to slide his dynamite. So to speak. Or, well, literally and not so to speak at all. Old habits die hard. I’m … mostly sorry. Yeah, I’m trying to avoid telling you what happened next.
