CHAPTER IX
THE NEW POWDER
"Bless my cartridge belt, Tom, you don't really mean to say that stuff is powder!" exclaimed Mr. Damon.
"That's what I hope it will prove to be—and powerful powder at that."
"Why, it looks more like excelsior than anything else," went on the odd man, gingerly taking up some yellowish shreds in his fingers.
"And it will burn as harmlessly as excelsior in the open air," went on Tom. "But I hope to prove, when it is confined in a chamber, that it will be highly explosive. I'm going to make a test of it soon."
"Give me good notice, so I can get over in the next State!" exclaimed Ned Newton, with a laugh.
This was several days after our friends had returned from the disastrous gun test at Sandy
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