One day, when kindling a fire on the platform, the woman was too indolent to remove some small boulders from the spot where she desired to make the fire, so she piled the fuel over them and was surprised to find that the fire kindled more readily and burned better on account of the fuel being raised from the ground, and thereafter, three or four stones were used to support the sticks. One morning, after the fire had burned for some time and the stones were red hot, a smart shower came up. The fire was too far under the slope of the shelving rock to be directly affected, but as it continued to rain for some time, a small pool accumulated on top of the rock, which finally worked its way through the bed of leaves that had dammed its progress and, all at once, it poured over the face of the rock in a small column and fell directly upon one of the red-hot stones in the fire-place. The stone was a large nodule of flint; there was an immediate explosion, a dense cloud of steam and ashes arose, and the alarmed owners of the cave rushed for safety to its depths. When all was quiet they emerged to find that one of the stones which supported the sticks had disappeared. Instead of the stone, however, there were numerous sharp flakes of flint scattered about, which Longhead first discovered when he cut his foot by stepping on one. With much curiosity, the man examined the flake which had injured him, then picking up the carcass of a small animal lying near, he found that he could cut it with the flake. He now carefully gathered up all the flakes he could find and carried them into the cave. When he returned from his day's hunt in the evening, he brought with him a long, slender, dry stick which he rubbed and polished with a flake until perfectly smooth; then, with some fibrous roots, he bound the longest and sharpest of his flakes at the end of the pole, and the next day carried this with him to the forest instead of the fire-hardened wooden spear. Later, he discovered that narrow strips of rawhide were better than roots for tying on a flake, and, after many years of progress, the long tendons of large animals were substituted as still better for the purpose. Longhead and his new deadly weapon had numerous encounters with small animals, in each of which he found his new spear superior to anything he had yet tried, and this gave him still greater confidence in himself. He no longer sneaked through the forest half bent to the ground and fearing nearly every animal he might meet, but went with head erect and a more fearless step.