From its appearance it might have been a powder keg, but the merry twinkle in the Colonel's eyes showed that the cask contained something as precious, perhaps, as powder, but not quite so dangerous.

It was a cask of wine over thirty years old.

With Col.

Zane's other effects it had stood the test of the long wagon-train journey over the Virginia mountains, and of the raft-ride down the Ohio.Col.Zane thought the feast he had arranged for Isaac would be a fitting occasion for the breaking of the cask.
Major McCullough, Capt.

Boggs and Hugh Bennet had been invited.
Wetzel had been persuaded to come.