The Little Square Box

Answer

The narrator is an unnamed nervous man travelling from America to England on the ship Spartan. He watches the two men secretly and misunderstands their plan.

Answer

He hears secretive talk about 'letting off', sees a mysterious box, and notices whitish grains being poured into it. He wrongly believes they are planning an explosion.

Answer

Muller is a short little fellow with a brisk air. Flannigan is tall and very thin with a blue-black beard and a colourless face. They are the two men carrying the box.

Answer

It is actually a specially invented pigeon trap, not a bomb. It holds the carrier pigeons and opens by a spring when the trigger is pulled.

Answer

It is a dark wooden box that looks like a pistol-case but is much higher. It has a trigger-like arrangement on the lid, a coil of string, and a small square opening, so it seems dangerous.

Answer

They are bird feed, not a fuse. Muller pours them through the opening so the pigeons can be fed.

Answer

He believes they are agents of a group planning to destroy the ship and sacrifice the passengers in one great explosion.

Answer

They want to keep the pigeon race hidden because some ship captains have a prejudice against sporting events being organised aboard their ships.