When Burr came back to the cave, she, too, found the fire out. There
was a deer on the floor, so she knew that Strongarm had come from the
hunt.

"The man has gone to old Hickory's for fire," she told her father.

"Um," said Flint, "he might have rested his legs. I can get fire from
stones."

"From stones!" cried Burr, her face white.

The old man quietly pulled two stones from his bag. One was flint, the
other was quartz. He took dry leaves from his bag and rubbed them very
fine between his hands and laid them on a rock. Over the leaves he
held the two stones and began to strike one with the other.

Burr and the boys watched with scared faces.

"The fire man--will he not be angry?" she asked.

Flint said nothing. He was striking the stones together. A spark
came! then another and another! He kept on striking very fast until
the sparks came like a flame and caught the dry leaves. He put on more
leaves and little sticks, and soon there was a good fire blazing on the
floor.

[Illustration: The sparks came like a flame and caught the dry leaves]

"From stones!" Burr kept thinking, as she shook her head and watched it
out of the corner of her eye.