, 1909-02-04
D. E. wiNsoR. suPT'

What is it," she asked, troubled h,
his furtive glance back at Blake.
Merely precaution. you Know he
whispered. The ground in there I,
quite soft. It will be no trouble. n
fancy. to put up the stakes. with then
points ire med towa.d the entrance |
"Iu' why"
MT SO uud, Miss G~snevieve, Il,
stru ne that if any N should seek
to { ter in the night, he would find
th,s stakes deucedly unpleasant. be
careful how you handle them. AS You
see. the sharper points, which are 10
be set uppermost, IL off into a razor
edge. Pat them up now, before it
grows too dark. You know how nine.
pins are set-that shape. Goodnight!
You see, with these to guard the en-.
trance, you need not be afraid to go 10
sleep at once"
Thank you" she whispered, and
began to thrust the stakes into the
ground as he had directed.
He had not been mistaken. The
vague doubts and fears which she al
ready entertained would have kept her
awake throughout the night. but
thanks to the sense of security az
forded by the sword bayonets Of her
silent little sentries, the girl was
DOR able to calm herself, and was
fast asleep long before Blake Weakened
Winthrope.
Immediately after breakfast, Blake
who had spent his watch in grind
ing the edges from a stone and er
perimenting with split and bent
twigs-put Winthrope's keys in the
fire, and began an attempt to shape
them into a Knife blade. To heat the
steel to the required temperature, he
used a bamboo blowpipe, with his
lungs for bellows.
Winthrope turned away with ar In
different bearing; but Miss Leslie
found herself compelled to stop and
admire his dexterous use of his rude
tools.
One after another, the keys wers
welded together, end to end, in a mar
row ribbon of steel. The thinnest
one. however, was not fastened to the
tip until it had been used to burn al
groove in the edge of a rib, selected
from among the bones which Miss
Leslie had thrown out of the baobab
The last key was then fastened to the
others; the blade ground sharp, TEN
pered, and inserted in the groove
Finally, pieces of the keyring were fit
ted in bands around the bone, through
notches cut in the ends of the steel
blade. The result was a bone-handled,
b~one-backed knife, with a narrow cut
ting edge of fine steel.
Long before it was finished Miss
Leslie had been forced away by the
requirements of her own work. Ia
fact, Blake did not complete his task
until late in the afternoon. At the
end, he spent more than an hour
grinding the handle into shape. When
he came to show the completed knife
to Miss Leslie, he was fairly aglow with
justifiable pride.
"How's that for an Eskimo job" be
demanded. Bunch of keys and 81
bone, eh?"
You are certainly very ingenious
Mr.. Blake!"
Milky! There's little of the inventor
In my top piece-only some hustle
and a good memory. l was up 10
Alaska, o know. Saw a sight oil
Eskimo work"
Sill, 1t is very skilfully done"
Ihat may be Look out for the
edge! It'd do to shave. No more
bamboo splinters for me-dull when
o hit a piece of bone. I'm ready
now TO skin a rhinoceros."
IF you can catch one!"
Guess we could find enough oil
them around here, all right. But
veil start in on some of Wins sheep
and cattle"
oh, dol One grows tired OF eggs
II all these sea-birds are so tough
II fishy, no matter how / cook them
Wen sneak down to the pool, and
make a try with the bows this eve
ming. I'll give odds, though, hat we
draw a blank. Wins got the aim, but
no drive; I've got the drive, but no
aim, Even If hit an antelope, | don't
mink a bamboo-pointed arrow would
bother him much"
Don't the savages kill game Win
out iron weapons?"
sure; but a lot have flint points
ahd a lot of others use poison.
know that the Apaches and some Oh
other southern Indians used /"
INK their arrows with rattlesnaAs
poison"
How horrible!"
"Wetl, that depends on how you looA
At II. ! Euess they thought guns mos