Chapter 24

I carefully used a sharp edge of the broken bottle to gut the snake and remove the head. I peeled the bark off the sticks. It was very dry. Good! I shredded the bark up, and put it in a small pile, with the smallest sticks nearby.

I used a piece of the broken bottle as a lens, and tried to get the bark hot, like a kid cooking bugs with a magnifying glass.

I held the glass a long time, until my hand started to cramp up. I felt the bark. A small piece was hot, but nowhere close to igniting. There were no signs of smoke. I held the glass for at least an hour, but it just didn't work.

I didn't have any string to make a bow drill fire. I had heard there were ways to just rub sticks together to make fire, but didn't know the details. I hadn't seen any flint around, and I had no metal to use it with anyway.

I guess it was a raw snake, or nothing. But wait! Maybe I could slice it thin and dry it in the sun? It was worth a try! By the time I had it sliced in long, thin strip