you. You must rest a bit."

They beheld a rock formation almost like a chair, and, Paul sitting down
in it, found it quite comfortable. But they paused only a moment, and
then passed on, devoting their attention now to the cave dust, which was
growing thicker under their feet. The master scooped up handfuls of it
and regarded it attentively by the close light of his torch.

"It's the genuine peter dust!" he exclaimed exultantly. "Why, we can
make powder here as long as we care to do so."

"You are sure of it, master?" asked Ross anxiously.

"Sure of it!" replied Mr. Pennypacker. "Why, I know it. If we stayed
here long enough we could make a thousand barrels of gunpowder, good
enough to kill any elk or buffalo or Indian that ever lived."

Ross breathed a deep sigh of relief. He had had his doubts to the last,
and none knew better than he how much depended on the correctness of the
schoolmaster's assertion.

"There seems to be acres of the dust about here," said Ross, "an' I
guess we'd better begin the makin' of our powder at once."

They went no farther for the present, but carried the dust in, sack
after sack, to the mouth of the cave. Then they leached it, pouring
water on it in improvised tubs, and dissolving the niter. This solution
they boiled down and the residuum was saltpeter or gunpowder, without
which no settlement in Kentucky could exist.

The little valley now became a scene of great activity. The fires were
always burning and sack after sack of gunpowder was laid safely away in
a dry place. Henry and Paul worked hard with the others, but they never
passed the crypt containing the mummies, without a little shudder. In
some of the intervals of rest they explored portions of the cave,
although they were very cautious. It was well that they were so as one
day Henry stopped abruptly with a little gasp of terror. Not five feet
before him appeared the mouth of a great perpendicular well. It was
perfectly round, about ten feet across, and when Henry and Paul held
their torches over the edge, they could see no bottom. Henry shouted,
throwing his voice as far forward as possible, but only a dull, distant
echo came back.

"We'll call that the Bottomless Pit," he said.

"Bottomless or not, it's a good thing to keep out of," said Paul. "It
gives me the shudders, Henry, and I don't think I'll do much more
exploring in this cave."

In fact, the gunpowder-making did not give them much more chance, and
they wer