ying it
was against the will of God to shoot a splendid elk or buffalo and leave
him to rot, merely for the pleasure of the killing.

After a while they forded a large river, passed out of the forests, and
came into a great open region, to which they gave the name of Barrens,
not because it was sterile, but because it was bare of trees. Henry, at
first, thought it was the land of prairies, but Ross, after examining it
minutely, said that if left to nature it would be forested. It was his
theory that the Indians in former years had burned off the young tree
growth repeatedly in order to make great grazing grounds for the big
game. Whether his supposition was true or not, and Henry thought it
likely to be true, the Barrens were covered with buffalo, elk and deer.
In fact they saw buffalo in comparatively large numbers for the first
time, and once they looked upon a herd of more than a hundred, grazing
in the rich and open meadows. Panthers attracted by the quantity of game
upon which they could prey screamed horribly at night, but the flaming
camp fires of the travelers were sufficient to scare them away.

All these things, the former salt-makers, and powder-makers that hoped
to be, saw only in passing. They knew the value of time and they
hastened on to the region of great caves, guided this time by one of
their hunters, Jim Hart, although Ross as usual was in supreme command.
But Hart had spent some months hunting in the great cave region and his
report was full of wonders.

"I think there are caves all over, or rather, under this country that
the Indians call Kaintuckee," he said, "but down in this part of it
they're the biggest."

"You are right about Kentucky being a cave region," said the
schoolmaster, "I think most of it is underlaid with rock, anywhere from
five thousand to ten thousand feet thick, and in the course of ages,
through geological decay or some kindred cause, it has become
crisscrossed with holes like a great honeycomb."

"I'm pretty sure about the caves," said Ross, "but what I want to know
is about this peter dirt."

"We'll find it and plenty of it," replied the master confidently. "That
sample was full of niter, and when we leach it in our tubs we shall have
the genuine saltpeter, explosive dust, if you choose to call it, that is
the solution of gunpowder."

"Which we can't do without," said Henry.

They passed out of the Barrens, and entered a region of high, rough
hills, and narrow litt