The Young Trailers

w to last them a full year, and a year was a long time to look ahead. Great satisfaction was expressed on that score, but the news that a Shawnee war

fresh supply had been expected with a new band of settlers from Virginia but the band had failed to come, and the faces of the leaders grew yet graver, when they looked at the dwindling supply, and wondered ho

estward and that they have brought back from them wonderful stalactites and stalagmites and also dust from the cave floors. I find that this dust is strongly impregnated w

Mr. Pennypacker?" aske

don't know a little of such things? And even if you have doubts, think how well the experiment is wo

it we shall lie helpless before the Indian attack, should it come. If, a

tpeter and the r

ng party must go with you, because we cannot run t

es farther south than Wareville and the Southern Indians, who are less bold than the Northern tribes, are not li

ight," said Mr. Ware, "

rents, remembering the great danger of the journey to the salt licks,

ith farming, he's got other blood in him, but down there he will be just abo

er settlements the round peg must go in the round hole; the

Mr. Pennypacker, whose favorite he was, seconded his request, on the grou

great picnic. The summer was now at hand, and the forests were an unbroken mass of brilliant green. In the little spaces of earth where the sunlight broke through, wild flowers, red, blue, pink and purple peeped up and nodded gay

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 b

e and they hastened on to the region of great caves, guided this time by one of their hunters, Jim Hart, although Ross as usu

his country that the Indians call Kaintuckee," he sai

aid with rock, anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand feet thick, and in the course of ages, throug

," said Ross, "but what I want t

s full of niter, and when we leach it in our tubs we shall have the genuine saltp

't do without

of high, rough hills, and narrow little valleys. Hill

sides of the hills, always at or near the

ch I got the peter dirt

of the circling hill that inclosed the bowl-like depression. Henry and Paul looked curiously at the black mouth and they felt some tremors at the knowledge that they we

es and a sufficient guard would have to remain outside. The valley itself was an admirable place, since it contained pasturage for the horses, whi

ilt a fire near the cave mouth and

heard tell that sometimes in the ground air will blow all up

nt in," said Hart, "an' if it comes to that it will be bet

he caves discovered so far in Kentucky have fres

by Hart, who was a fearless man with an inquiring mind. Everyone carried a torch, burning with little smoke, and after they had passed the cave mouth

was the same black wall, and they themselves were only a little island of light. But they could see that the cave ran on before them, as if it were a subterranean, vaulted gallery, hewed out of the stone by hands of man

palace!" he exclaimed, "and we ar

enthusiastic wor

he said, "I want to

he light of his torch into a dark

e floor in there, but I can't tell

this plac

e of the recumbent forms. Paul could not repress a little cry as he jumped back. He was

ows how long they've been a-layin' here where their friends brought 'em for burial

e hundred years," said the schoolmaster. "No, their dress and e

em just as they

oss, "it would be b

hes, the ceiling rose higher, and became a great vaulted dome. From the roof hung fantastic stalactites and from the floor stalagmites

eaves some of its substance to form the stalactite, hanging from the roof, goes to form the

y paused only a moment, and then passed on, devoting their attention now to the cave dust, which was growing thicke

aimed exultantly. "Why, we can make po

it, master?" aske

ed here long enough we could make a thousand barrels of gunpowder,

ts to the last, and none knew better than he how much de

here," said Ross, "an' I guess we'd bette

hen they leached it, pouring water on it in improvised tubs, and dissolving the niter. This solution they b

t a little shudder. In some of the intervals of rest they explored portions of the cave, although they were very cautious. It was well that they were so as one day Henry stopped abruptly with a little gasp of terror. Not five feet before him appeared the mouth o

t the Bottomles

" said Paul. "It gives me the shudders, Henry, and I

cave had many wonders, but the sunshine outside was glorious and the vast mass of green forest was very restful to the eye.

an, bringing them any number of splendid large fish, very savory to the taste. Ros

from either north or south have been

r, "I don't want another such retreat

at their arrival. They felt that they could hold their village now against any attack, and Mr. Pennypacker was a great man, justly honored among his people. He had shown the

great thing to have,