Part 14 (1/2)
”Now you can go, Rad,” announced To toward a big hill, was the little cannon
”Good, Massa Tom!” cried the colored man, and from the way in which he hurried off no one would ever suspect hi rheumatic joints
”Say, that stuff looks just like Swiss cheese,” remarked Ned, as Tom opened the box of explosive It would be incorrect to call it powder, for it had no unpowder, or any other ”powder,”
than, as Ned said, swiss cheese
And, indeed, the powerful stuff bore a decided resemblance to that peculiar product of the dairy It was in thin sheets, with holes pierced through it here and there, irregularly
”The idea is,” To explosive I want the concussion to be scattered through it all at once It is set off by concussion, you see,” he went on ”A sort of cartridge is buried in the middle of it, after it has been inserted in the cannon breech
The cartridge is exploded by a primer, which responds to an electric current The thin plates, with holes corresponding to the centre hole in a big grain of the hexagonal powder, will, I hope, cause the stuff to burn quickly, and give a tremendous pressure Noe'll put some in the steel tube, and see what happens”
Even Tom was a little nervous as he prepared for this latest test But he was not nervous enough to drop any of those queer, cheese-like slabs For, though he knew that a considerable percussion was needed to set theh explosives do not always act alike, even under the saht with perfect safety be done at one time, could not be repeated at another
Tom knew this, and was very careful
The powder, as I shall occasionally call it for the sake of convenience, though it was not such in the strict sense of the word--the poas put in the sether with the primer
Then the wires were attached to it, and extended off for some distance
”But on't attach the battery until the last moment,” Tom said ”I don't want a premature explosion”
The projectile was also put in, and Tom once more looked to see that the ares to get readings of the power and energy created by his new explosive
”Well, I guess we're all ready,” he announced to his friends ”I'll hook on the battery now, and we'll get off behind that other hill I had Koku make a sort of cave there--a miniature bomb-proof, that will shelter us”
”Do you think the blast will be powerful enough to make it necessary?”
asked Mr Daer quantity of explosive acts anything like the s inventor
The electric wires were carried behind the protecting hill, whither they all retired
”Here she goes!” exclaimed Tom, after a pause
His thuround shook with the tre sound reared about the sheet of fla happened, anyhow!” yelled To echoes
CHAPTER XIII
CASTING THE CANNON
”Come on!” yelled Ned ”We'll see how this experiment came out!” and he started to run from beneath the shelter of the hill