It was slow work picking over the heaps and separating the iron nodules, but I employed boys to do it, and so greatly were they impressed with everything I had done, that they looked upon the tedious work as the greatest privilege and vied with one another to secure the greatest quantities of the desired metal. Once I had obtained a fairly adequate supply, the rest was simple. The iron was easily refined, welded and forged, and to my surprise and delight I discovered that, due to the presence of some other metal, no doubt--the resultant was an excellent steel capable of taking a good temper and edge. But I was bitterly disappointed at the reception the new metal received. Gold, silver and copper had answered every need of the people for countless generations. They had not lived long enough in a mechanical age to appreciate the value of a harder metal. They had long ago given up sculpturing rocks and had substituted painted decorations, and though the new iron tools were immeasurably superior to anything they had known for cutting wood, yet they did not impress the people as either remarkable or wonderful. To be sure they took to them readily enough, but they looked upon them as a matter of course. No doubt this was largely because they realized that the iron, like the other metals, was a natural product of the earth, whereas the mills and wheels were the product of man. But at any rate I felt I had done the people a good turn, and moreover, I made good use of the iron myself. I had, of course, been planning and preparing for my escape. I had accumulated torches and a store of parched corn to serve Itza and myself on our journey, and now, with iron at my disposal, I could provide myself with efficient weapons. My pistol must be reserved for emergencies--I had only a dozen extra cartridges left--and I busied myself making iron arrow-heads, spear-heads, a couple of light axes or hatchets and a machete or sword. Bows and arrows were in universal use and I had learned to use them as well as the Indians, so I felt that I was well equipped. But my hardest job was to fashion fish-hooks. I had always looked upon fish-hooks as simple things and had never given a thought as to how they were made. But when I came to try my hand at it, I realized that a fish-hook is, in its way, a masterpiece. Of course, if I had possessed wire, my task would have been much simpler, but with bar steel I had my work cut out for me. However, in the end, I managed to make some barbed objects that might have passed for fish-hooks, and having tested them out in the stream and found them efficient, I felt perfectly satisfied. * * * * *