"I can show you, at my store, about ten pounds of the powdered chlorate." "Then how do they get it into a powder, sir ?" pressed Tom.

"Do the manufacturers grind it between big millstones ?" "If any ever did," laughed the druggist, "they never remained on earth long enough to tell about it.

A few pounds of the chlorate, crushed between millstones, would blow the roof off of the largest mill you ever saw!" "But what makes the stuff so explosive ?" queried Prescott.
"I don't know whether I can make you understand it," the druggist replied.

"Potassium chlorate is extremely 'rich' in oxygen, and it is held very loosely in combination.

When a piece of the chlorate is struck a hard blow it sets the oxygen free, and the gas expands so rapidly that the explosion follows." On the outskirts of the little crowd stood a new-comer, Ted Teall, who was drinking in every word that the druggist uttered.