"The outside part may be," said Jack, "but if we can crack off the outside layer of stone we may find some good meat inside. I'm going to look, anyhow." "That's not a bad idea!" cried Andy with enthusiasm. "Think of having a loaf of bread and some beefsteak thousands of years old. I suppose they had beefsteak here," he added cautiously. "Some kind of meat, anyhow," agreed Jack. "Well, let's look for a place that was once a restaurant or hotel, and we'll see what luck we have. Come on." They walked along the silent streets, with their silent occupants, and finally Jack found what he was seeking. It was an eating place, to judge by the appearance, and at tables inside were seated stone men and women. "Back to the kitchen!" cried Jack with enthusiasm. "There's where we'll find food, if there is any!" "It'll be all stone," declared Mark, but he and Andy followed Jack. They came to the place where was what appeared to be a stove. It was more like a brick oven, however, than a modern range, though in dishes that were now stone something was being cooked when the catastrophe occurred. "There's meat, I'll wager!" cried Jack, pointing to several objects on a table. They looked like chunks of beef, but when Mark struck them with the end of his life-torch they gave forth a sound as if a rock had been tapped. "What did I tell you?" Mark asked, "Nothing but rocks. And the bread is also a stone," he added bitterly. "You're right," admitted Jack, with a sigh. "And I'm getting hungrier than ever." They all were. For days they had been without sufficient food, and now, when it was almost within their reach, they were denied it by this curious trick of nature. With pale and wan faces they gazed at each other, wetting their parched lips, for they had some time since taken the last of their scant supply of water, and they were very thirsty. "I guess it's all up with us," murmured Mark. "We'll soon be like these poor people here--blocks of stone." "If we only could change this meat back into it's original shape," spoke Jack musingly, smiting his fist against a block of beef. Suddenly Andy uttered a cry. "I have it!" he fairly shouted. "What?" asked Jack. "I have a plan to get meat out of this hunk of stone!" The two boys gazed at the old hunter as though they thought he had lost his reason, but, chuckling gleefully, Andy took from his pouch several cartridges, and proceeded to remove the wads, and pour the powder from the paper shells out on the stone table. "I'll have some meat for us," he muttered. "We shan't starve now!" CHAPTER XXVII THE BLACK POOL "What are you going to do, Andy?" asked Jack, as he watched the old hunter.