of the band, they found nothing worth carrying away.
Only one thing did they discover that was serviceable, namely, a large
cask of gunpowder in the underground magazine formerly mentioned. Bevan
had thought of blowing this up before leaving, for his cart was already
too full to take it in, but the hope that it might not be discovered,
and that he might afterwards return to fetch it away, induced him to
spare it.

Of course all the flasks and horns of the band were replenished from
this store, but there was still left a full third of the cask which they
could not carry away. With this the leader determined to blow up the
hut, for he had given up all idea of pursuing the fugitives, he and his
men being too much exhausted for that.

Accordingly the cask was placed in the middle of the hut and all the
unportable remains of Paul Bevan's furniture were piled above it. Then
a slow match was made by rubbing gunpowder on some long strips of
calico. This was applied and lighted, and the robbers retired to a spot
close to a spring about half a mile distant, where they could watch the
result in safety while they cooked some food.

But these miscreants were bad judges of slow matches! Their match
turned out to be very slow. So slow that they began to fear it had gone
out--so slow that the daylight had time to disappear and the moon to
commence her softly solemn journey across the dark sky--so slow that
Stalker began seriously to think of sending a man to stir up the spark,
though he thought there might be difficulty in finding a volunteer for
the dangerous job--so slow that a certain reckless little boy came
galloping towards the fortress on a tall horse with a led pony plunging
by his side--all before the spark of the match reached its destination
and did its work.

Then, at last, there came a flush that made the soft moon look suddenly
paler, and lighted up the world as if the sun had shot a ray right
through it from the antipodes. This was followed by a crash and a roar
that caused the solid globe itself to vibrate and sent Paul Bevan's
fortress into the sky a mass of blackened ruins. One result was that a
fiendish cheer arose from the robbers' camp, filling the night air with
discord. Another result was that the happy-go-lucky little boy and his
horses came to an almost miraculous halt and remained so for some time,
gazing straight before them in a state of abject amazement!

CHAPTER TEN.

How long Tolly Tr