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.