CHAPTER XX. MANUFACTURING A CANNON.

Leo Malvern had not been long in the city of the Naztecs ere he began to assist Dick in training the men how to fight.

Like his cousin, he desired to make his way to the Land of Hez and force a way to the outside world.

Neither allowed the Naztecs to become aware of what their intentions were after they had once defeated the Hezzians in battle, but trusted to luck to leave them in possession of Hez and force their way out.

While working about the soil near the city, Dick had discovered the materials for making a first-class blasting powder, and by means of this they hoped to blow open the door in the obelisk and thus find their way to freedom.

The discovery of a combustible substance that could be set off by a spark set Philander Owens to thinking.

He knew full well that the men of Hez outnumbered the party Dick and Leo intended to lead against them, by three or four to one.

Consequently, something more powerful in the line of weapons than spears and axes must be introduced.

Owens was an inventive sort of genius, and it did not take him long to figure out how a destructive weapon could be made.

There was a bed of copper ore in the vicinity of the underground city of the Naztecs, and Owens went to work mining a quantity of this.

He did not inform anyone of his intentions until he was forced to for want of help in his undertaking.

One day he called Dick and Leo aside and said:

“Are you most ready to march upon the Hezzians and fight your way to the outside world?”

“Yes,” replied Dick; “we have got the eighty men pretty well drilled now.”

“If we had a nice, little cannon--say a ten-pounder--we could work our way through them nicely, couldn’t we?”

“I should say we could!” exclaimed Leo. “But why do you speak of such a thing when it is entirely out of the question?”

“I don’t think it is out of the question, my boy.”

“What do you mean?” asked Dick, with wide-open eyes.

“I mean just this--I am going to cast a gun.”

The cousins were too much astonished to speak, but when Owens went on and explained his plans, they fell in with him, heart and soul.

The first thing to do now was to procure something to melt the ore in.

Dick concluded to ask the king for what he wanted, and he accordingly did so, telling him that it would add to their advantage in routing the Hezzians when the attack was made.

“There is naught in the city that would serve for such a purpose, unless it be in the sacred cave.”

“Where is that?” asked Dick.

“On the hillside, at the south of the city.”

“Will you allow me to go there and see if I can find what I want?”

“Wait,” said the king; “let me tell you about the sacred cave. The mouth of it is sealed, and has been for many, many years. It was decreed by a former king that no person of the Naztec nation should ever break the seal and enter it. It contains all the articles required for smelting copper, silver, gold and other metals. At that time working in metals was one of the principal industries of the place, since it was then that the houses in the city were built.

“You will observe that they are all built of stone and metal. The metal, of course, had to be cast to be wrought into its proper shape. And so it went on, till the houses were all done, and the city of the Naztecs completed. Then it was that the king issued the edict that all the smelting appurtenances should be placed in the cave and its entrance sealed.”

“That’s quite an interesting story, I assure you,” remarked Dick. “Then, if what you say is true, the very things we need are in the cave.”

“Yes, but we dare not open it.”

“None of the Naztec nation dare do it, you mean.”

“Exactly.”

“But I am not of the Naztec nation. I may open it, I suppose?”

The king thought a moment, and then said:

“As you please. I will neither tell you to do it nor not to do it. I trust that you will in due time get your weapon of warfare constructed, though.”

That settled it.

Dick at once repaired to Leo and Philander Owens, and told them what he had learned.

Reginald Lacy was sought, and together the four repaired to the sacred cave.

They had no difficulty in finding it, since the king had told Dick exactly where it was.

By dint of using a couple of heavy, metal bars, they managed to pry a stone from the entrance, which was sealed with a substance like cement.

When the stone was rolled sufficiently aside, a cry of joy escaped the lips of the four.

The cave was evidently just as it had been left when the workers in metal had completed their job so many years before.

It contained a pair of huge furnaces, crucibles, ladles for dipping out the molten metal, and everything needful.

But all these things were quaint and very ancient in appearance, reminding our friends of what they had read concerning the building of King Solomon’s Temple, in the Bible days.

Not one of the Naztecs bothered them while they busied themselves about the cave.

There was an abundance of fuel for the furnaces in the place, and before an hour had elapsed Dick and Leo had kindled the fires.

Meanwhile, Owens and Lacy had been busy in conveying the copper ore to the place.

Not until they had deposited all they thought they needed in the cave did they discover an abundant supply already there, of copper, silver and gold.

The silver was more plentiful than any of the rest of the ore and at the suggestion of Lacy, it was decided to cast their cannon of four-fifths of copper and one-fifth silver.

Quite an expensive gun, the reader might say. But of what use was the silver to our friends in that out-of-the-way place? Even if they succeeded in defeating the Hezzians and getting out of the underground place, it would be impossible to carry much away with them.

Anyhow, there was more than enough gold to load each of the four down, and they made up their minds to take all they could of this with them.

Now that they had succeeded in obtaining the metal and the means of melting it, the next thing was to manufacture a mold.

But Philander Owens considered this the easiest part of it, and in less than half a day he had made one sufficient to answer the purpose.

He formed it by digging a hole in a bed of soft sand of the depth required for the proposed cannon, and then by running a round piece of wood of the size of the bore they wanted down into this within a few inches of the bottom, the mold was complete.

Of course the touchhole would have to be drilled, and the wood burned out afterward.

When everything was in readiness, Dick and Leo held the stick firmly in its place, and Lacy and Owens poured in the molten mixture.

There was a furious sizzling for a minute or so, and then, when the steam caused by the intense heat coming in contact with damp sand had cleared away, they saw that, to all appearances, their cast had been successful.

An examination told them that it was a success, and a complete one, at that. They did not even have to burn the stick out, for the wood, though being of the hardest kind, had shrunk a trifle, which allowed them to pull it out easily enough.

“Hurrah!” exclaimed Leo, waving his cap in the air. “Now, to bore out the touchhole and our cannon is completed!”

As soon as it had cooled, they dug it out and rolled it over upon the ground.

While Lacy and Owens were engaged in boring out the touchhole, the cousins melted up a number of bars of gold into a shape convenient to take with them.

It took the two men some time to make the required hole, and, at length, when they had completed it, they had been at least twelve hours in constructing their cannon.

“Now,” observed Dick, “we must try it before we go home.”

The rest promptly agreed with him, and he proceeded to load the huge weapon with a good charge of the powder that had been manufactured by them.

This was plentifully wadded and pounded in thoroughly, and then they prepared to set it off.

To avoid any possible accident, a slow-match was rigged and lighted, and then they repaired to a safe distance to await the result.

There was a fizzing noise, made by the slow-match, and a few seconds later a terrific explosion rang out, which shook the very ground upon which they stood.

At the very instant it died out a rumbling sound was heard, and the unknown light that illumined the strange country went out as if by magic, leaving them in total darkness!