The newspaper., 1909-07-30
SURVIVAL of the Eittes,.
CHAPTER XII.

x by almost unheeded. Blake
saw to it that not
only himself but his companions
had work to occupy every hour of day
light. When not engaged in cooking
learning by painful experience the ru-
diments of dressmaking.
At the start she had all but ruined
the beautiful skin of the mother
leopard before Blake chanced to see
her and took over the task of cutting
1t into shape for skirt. But when
1t came to making a waist Of the cub
fur. he said that she would have to
puzzle out the pattern from her other
one. Between cooking three meals a
day over an open fire, gathering sew
eral armfuls of wood, and making a
dress with penknife. thorn. and cat
gut. the girl had little time TO think
OF other matters than her work.
Winthrope had been gazetted as
hunter in ordinary. His task was to
keep Miss Leslie supplied with fresh
eggs and each day TO kill as many OF
the boobies and cormorants as he
could skin and split for drying. Blake
had changed his mind about taking
him when he went for cocoanuts. In
stead. he had gone alone on several
trips. bringing three or four loads of
nuts. then a little salt from the sea
shore. dirty but very welcome, and
last OF all a great lump of clay.
wrapped in palm fronds.
With this clay he at once began ex-
periments in the art of pottery. Hav-
ing mixed and beaten a small guam
tity. he nodded it into little cups and
bowls. and tried burning them over
night in the watch-fire. A few came
out without crack or flaw Vastly
eiated by this success. he fashioned
larger vessels from his clay. and with
in the week could brag of two pots
suitable for cooking stews, and four
large nondescript pieces which he
called plates. What was more. all
had a fairly good sand glaze. for he
had been quick TO observe a glaze on
the bottoms of the first pots. and had
reasoned out that II was due 10 the
sand which had adhered while they
stoo: drying in the sun.
He next turned his attention TO met
allurgy The first move was TO search
the river bank for the brown bog
iron ore which he believed he had
seen from the farther side. After a
dangerous and exhausting days work
in the mire and jungle. he came back
with nothing more to show for his
pains than an armful of creepers Late
in the afternoOn. se had located the
haematite. only to find it lying in a
streak so thin that he could not hope
to collect enough for practical pur-
poses.
Lucky we've got something to fall
back on" he added. after telling OF
his failure. Pass over those keys OF
yours. Win. Good, Now untangle
those creepers. Tonight Wen take
turns knotting them up into some
sort of a rope-ladder. I'm getting
mighty weary of hoofing it all around
the point every time l trot to the riv.
er. After this I'll go down the clii
at that end OF the gully"
Winthrope. who had become very
irritable and depressed during the last
! two days. turned on his heel. with the
look of a fretful child.
To cover this undfplomatic rude
ness. Miss Leslie spoke somewhat hur
| riedly. But why should you return
again to the river. Mr.. Blake7 I'm sure
you are risking the fever: and there
must be savage beasts in the Jungle
That's my business" growled Blake
He paused a moment. and added. rath
er less ungraciously: Well. il you
care. it's this way-Tm going to keer
ON looking for ore. Give me little
iron ore. and We'll mighty soon have
lot of steel knives and arrow heads
that'll amount to something. How're
we going to bag anything worth while
| with bamboo tips on our arrows
Those boar tusks are fi1zle.'