Quick Thinking in Time of Danger

     Picture the scene: South Africa, 1877. The Zulu War is raging. Meanwhile, Britain has officially annexed the Transvaal, and the locals are getting restless. 4,000 armed Boers had camped at Kleinfontein. A detachment of six or eight Britons were sent to keep a watch on the camp, under the command of the young man who had recently raised the Union Flag at Pretoria, H. Rider Haggard, soon to become the leading adventure writer of his time. Haggard and his men were billeted in a nearby inn, under strict orders not to fight unless first attacked, when a commando of fifty or so Boers took positions around the inn, and a number entered.

    I began to wonder [wrote Haggard] whether we had another five minutes to live. It was then that the ready resource of one of my sergeants, a fine young fellow called Glyn, saved the situation. One of the Boers paused in a furious harangue to light his pipe, and having done so threw the lighted match on the floor. Glyn, who was standing amongst them, stepped forward, picked up the match, blew it out, and exclaimed in tones of heartfelt gratitude and relief, 'Dank Gott!' (Thank God).
    The Boers stared at him, then asked, 'For what do you thank God, Englishman?'
    'I thank God,' answered Glyn, who could talk Dutch perfectly, 'Because we are not now all in small pieces. Do you not known, Heeren, that the British Government has stored two tons of dynamite under that floor? Is this a place to smoke pipes and throw down matches? Do you desire that all your wives should become widows, as would have happed if the fire from that match had fallen through the boards on to the dynamite underneath? Oh! thank the Lord God. Thank the Lord God!'
     Now the Boers of that day had a great terror of dynamite, of the properties of which they were quite ignorant.
    'Allemegte!' said one of them. 'Allemagte!' echoed the others.
    Then they rose in a body, fearing lest we had some devilish scheme to blow them up. In a few minutes not one of them was to be seen.

    Another example of quick thinking can be found here.
Reference: cited by Peter Berresford Ellis in H. Rider Haggard. A voice from the infinite (1978)