"But he might get fire after all?" protested Allan.
"Between you and me, my boy, I don't think he will this time. Evidently he's never tried that game before; and no fellow ever succeeds at it the first time. It's harder than it seems. Let Giraffe work away; he'll have his fingers sore with the business before he gives up."
"But what do you think makes him experiment that way right now, when he knows you're trying to put a curb on his weakness for building fires?" the other demanded.
"Well, in the first place, I suppose he feels like starting something; and then again, Allan, it's a part of a boy's nature, you know, to always want to do that very thing he's been told he musn't do. Now, Giraffe wants to show me that even keeping matches away from him won't prevent a really smart scout from making a fire, in case he feels like it. My praise of this morning must have spurred him on to let us see just what he can do."
"But if the bow and spindle way turns out bad, there's an easier chance for him, if he only thinks of it," said the Maine boy.
"What's that?" asked Thad, smiling calmly.
"Why, all he's got to do is to take one of the lens out of the field glasses we have along with us; and as the sun is hot enough, he could set fire to some tinder in three shakes of a lamb's tail. Why, I've started fires that way dozens of times myself, when matches were scare with us in the pine woods."
Thereupon Thad quietly drew something, from each pocket in his khaki trousers.
"Well, I declare, you thought of that same thing, didn't you?" exclaimed the astonished Allan; "and took the trouble to remove both lens, so as to upset his calculations if he started to try the dodge. Giraffe has to be pretty cunning to get ahead of you, all right, Thad."
"But I never imagined he'd be trying that saw method," admitted the scout-master. "There, he's given it up and thrown his bow away. Next time he'll like as not make some improvement on that outfit. It must have been faulty, so he just couldn't get enough speed out of it. For the thing can be done; and I've seen it more than once, though I never could make fire that way myself."