of Coldspring should engage to transport to Tampa Town,
in southern Florida, the necessary materials for casting
the Columbiad. The work was bound to be completed at latest
by the 15th of October following, and the cannon delivered
in good condition under penalty of a forfeit of one hundred
dollars a day to the moment when the moon should again present
herself under the same conditions-- that is to say, in eighteen
years and eleven days.

The engagement of the workmen, their pay, and all the necessary
details of the work, devolved upon the Coldspring Company.

This contract, executed in duplicate, was signed by Barbicane,
president of the Gun Club, of the one part, and T. Murchison
director of the Coldspring manufactory, of the other, who thus
executed the deed on behalf of their respective principals.





CHAPTER XIII


STONES HILL


When the decision was arrived at by the Gun Club, to the
disparagement of Texas, every one in America, where reading is
a universal acquirement, set to work to study the geography