t and bore the second keg to
the table. "If this is all right," he went on, "there's some hope for
us, because we may find some more; but if it has gone bad from both
sides it's all over with us: we can only stand well on the towers and
throw stones down at whoever comes."

Ben's fingers were as busy as his tongue, and in a few minutes he had
the head out of the second keg, looked in, and tapped it with his
knuckles.

"Just the same, sir, just the same."

"Look here, Ben! I'll have one of these blocks chopped up, and then
ground up fine, and we'll try it with a musket."

"Good, sir! that's the right thing to do; but after being wet once, I'm
afraid it'll fizz off now like a firework."

"You don't know till you've tried, man. Now, let's see: get an axe,
sergeant."

"If I might ask your pardon, captain, axes aren't the proper thing to
break up a block of gunpowder. I should say a beetle or a mall was the
thing."

"Well, get a mallet, then," said Roy; and the old man went to his tools
used for repairing the armour, carpentering, or any other odd jobs, and
brought out a mallet, with which he was about to strike a tremendous
blow in the middle of the block, when Roy checked him.

"No, no!" he cried; "give it to me. I'll knock a piece off the top
edge."

Ben handed the mallet respectfully enough, but he shook his head as if
he did not consider that handling mallets was correct for the castellan
of the place; while raising the implement not without some shade of
doubt as to whether an explosion might follow the blow, but reassuring
himself as he remembered that the mallet was only wood, Roy brought it
down on the top with a sharp rap, and then started back in dismay, for a
piece like a fragment of black potsherd fell upon the table with a bang,
and a stream of fine grains came flowing out of the great hole he had
made, covering the hardened piece and running on like black sand.

"Hurrah!" shouted Ben, excitedly; "they're all right, sir. Just formed
a cake outside, and the inside's all safe and good. Twelve good brass
guns, and plenty of powder. We're ready for all the enemies the king
has got in this part of the world. Now we'll see for a couple of
cartridges for the guns."

He fetched a couple of small bags, which he filled with the powder, and
then, after putting back the unbroken keg-shaped block, as carefully
cleared all the loose powder from the table, and placed that and the
shape from which it ha