excelsior-like explosive. On the bottom of the box, and with some of it clinging to some of the powder threads, was a sort of white powder. It had a peculiar odor.
"Ha!" cried Tom, as soon as he saw it "I know what that is. It's a new form of gun-cotton, very powerful. Whoever gave it to Koku to put on my powder hoped to blow to atoms any cannon in which it might be used. There's enough here to do a lot of damage."
"How is it that it didn't blow your test cylinder to bits?" asked Ned.
"For the reason that the stuff I use in my powder and this new gun-cotton neutralized one another," the young inventor explained. "One weakened the other, instead of making a stronger combination. A chemical change took place, and lucky for us it did. It was just like a man taking an over-dose of poison—it defeated itself. That's why my experiment was a failure. Now to put this stuff where it can do no harm. Is this what that man gave you, Koku?"
"That's it, Master."
There came a tap on the door of the private room, and instinctively everyone started. Then came the voice of Eradicate, saying:
"Dere's a army gen'men out here to see you,
