"Well, I guess we're all ready," he announced to his friends. "I'll hook on the battery now, and we'll get off behind that other hill. I had Koku make a sort of cave there—a miniature bomb-proof, that will shelter us."
"Do you think the blast will be powerful enough to make it necessary?" asked Mr. Damon.
"It will, if this larger quantity of explosive acts anything like the small samples I set off," replied the young inventor.
The electric wires were carried behind the protecting hill, whither they all retired.
"Here she goes!" exclaimed Tom, after a pause.
His thumb pressed the electric button, and instantly the ground shook with the tremor of a mighty blast, while a deafening sound reared about them. The earth trembled, and there was a big sheet of flame, seen even in the powerful sunlight.
"Something happened, anyhow!" yelled Tom above the reverberating echoes.