“You forget, my friend, that there are no matches. We have nothing, absolutely nothing.”
“That is true. What shall we do, then? If I remember right, Robinson Crusoe too had no end of [[161]]trouble in making a fire. He finally found a tree that had been set on fire by lightning.”
“Would you wait for a thunderstorm to come and set fire to a corner of the forest? Long before that we should have time to starve, for it is very seldom that lightning starts a fire.”
“Must we, then, give up the roast that I was proposing?” Jules asked.
“Before giving it up we might try the means employed by certain savage tribes for obtaining fire. The operator takes his seat on the ground and holds between his feet a piece of soft and very dry wood in which a small cavity has been hollowed; then he twirls rapidly between his hands a stick of hard wood with its point in the cavity. As a result of this energetic friction the soft wood becomes heated at the bottom of the hollow, and ends by catching fire. Success necessitates, it is true, a rapidity of friction and a skill that certainly we should not be able to acquire without a long apprenticeship; but I pass over that difficulty and assume that we have a fire.
“Now for the game. A hare will be a great plenty for us. This animal abounds, and we should be very unskilful if we did not soon find one curling its mustaches with its velvety paw under a tuft of broom. But the hare has quick ears and sharp eyes. Long before we can get within striking distance it hears and sees us, and decamps. Run after it now if you think you can catch it.”
“For my part,” said Jules, “I won’t undertake it.” [[162]]
“With the weapons we possess,” Louis admitted, “with only our sticks and stones, the chase seems to me out of the question: all game of whatever sort would foil our attempts by its vigilance and rapid flight.”
“Are you all thoroughly convinced of it?” asked Uncle Paul.
“I certainly am,” replied Jules. “Not being able to match the game in fleetness of foot, we shall always come back from the hunt empty-handed.”