Doc Make Bombs

The charcoal-manufacturing process was well under way when his friends appeared. They had about a hundred of the most manly Mayan men. And from the way they were laden with golden jars, they might have thought they would not have another chance at the fabulous wealth.

The making of the charcoal was tedious. Work on the saltpeter and sulphur called for a great deal of Doc's vast ingenuity and knowledge.

All that afternoon and through the night, they prepared and mixed.

"We won't rush it," Doc explained. "This time we want to settle this red-fingered warrior menace for once and all."

He was ominously silent a bit, then added. "And one in special--the man in the snake suit."

From time to time, runners dispatched back through the long reaches of the cavern of treasure to its termination beneath the Mayan pyramid reported the defenders holding out successfully.

"They have repulsed several attacks," one messenger brought notice. "One of the fire-spitting snakes the red-fingered men are using brought hurt to our ruler, King Chaac, though."

"Is he hurt bad?" Doc demanded.

"In the leg only. He cannot walk about. But otherwise, he is not in bad shape."

"Who has charge of the defense?" Doc wanted to know.

"Princess Monja."

Monk, who had overheard, grinned from ear to ear. "Now there is a girl!"

The bombs were rapidly pushed to completion. Obsidian, glasslike rock flakes were placed in the gold jars. A quantity of the powder was poured in to from a core. The gold, being pure and soft, permitted the jars to be pounded together at the top. The pounding was done carefully.

Fuses offered a problem. Doc solved that by selecting lengths of a tough tropical vine which had a soft core. Using long, hardwood twigs, he poked out the core, leaving a hollow tube. One of these he left extending down into the powder of each bomb.

Making use of his vast fund of knowledge, Doc concocted a slow-burning variety of the gunpowder. He filled the improvised fuses with this, after experiments to see what lengths were proper.

With the first silvery glow of dawn, Doc led the attacking party on the march.

- The Man of Bronze (1933) Chapter 20