urn to what was
termed the stone period of history, and make their axes of flint.

Otto shook his head, and thought Pina's idea of searching the wreck till
they found a piece of flat metal was a more hopeful scheme.

"What do you say to trying both plans?" cried Pauline, with sudden
animation. "Come, as you have voluntarily elected me queen of this
realm, I command you, Sir Dominick, to make a flint axe without delay,
and you, Sir Otto, to make an iron one without loss of time."

"Your majesty shall be obeyed," replied her obedient subjects, and to
work they went accordingly, the very next morning.

Dominick searched far and near for a flint large enough for his purpose.
He found several, and tried to split them by laying them on a flat
stone, upheaving another stone as large as he could lift, and hurling it
down on them with all his might. Sometimes the flint would fly from
under the stone without being broken, sometimes it would be crushed to
fragments, and at other times would split in a manner that rendered it
quite unsuitable. At last, however, by patient perseverance, he
succeeded in splitting one so that an edge of it was thin and sharp,
while the other end was thick and blunt.

Delighted with this success, he immediately cut with his knife, a branch
of one of the hardest trees he could find, and formed it into an
axe-handle. Some of Pauline's cord he tied round the middle of this,
and then split it at one end, using his flint for the purpose, and a
stone for a hammer. The split extended only as far as the cord, and he
forced it open by means of little stones as wedges until it was wide
enough to admit the thick end of his flint axe-head. Using a piece of
soft stone as a pencil, he now marked the form of the flint, where it
touched the wood, exactly, and worked at this with his knife, as
patiently as a Chinaman, for several hours, until the wood fitted the
irregularities and indentations of the flint to a nicety. This of
itself caused the wood to hold the flint-head very firmly. Then the
wedges were removed, and when the handle was bound all round the split
part with cord, and the flint-head enveloped in the same, the whole
thing became like a solid mass.

Gingerly and anxiously did Dominick apply it to a tree. To his joy his
axe caused the chips to fly in all directions. He soon stopped,
however, for fear of breaking it, and set off in triumph to the golden
cave.

Meanwhile Otto, launching the