"But there was no explosion, Tom," explained Ned.
"I know it," said Tom quietly. "It wasn't an explosive bomb. Smell that!"
He held the object under Ned's nose so suddenly that the young bank clerk jumped back.
"Oh, don't get nervous," laughed Tom. "It can't hurt you now. But what does that smell like?"
Ned sniffed, sniffed again, thought for a moment, and then sniffed a third time.
"Why," he said slowly, "I don't just know the name of it, but it's that funny stuff you mix up sometimes to put in the oxygen tanks when we go up in the rarefied atmosphere in the balloon or airship."
"Manganese and potash," spoke Tom. "That and two or three other things that form a chemical combination which goes off by itself of spontaneous combustion after a certain time. Only the person who put this bomb together didn't get the chemical mixture just right, and it went off ahead of time; for which we have to be duly thankful."
"Do you really think that, Tom?" cried Ned.
"I'm positive of it," was the quiet answer.
"Why—why—that would mean some one tried to set fire to the red shed, Tom!"