The doctor had impressed Rolla with the fact that she would find the desired stone in a mountainous country.  Cunora, however, was for examining every rock she came to; Rolla was continually passing judgment upon some specimen.

“Nay,” said she, for the hundredth time. “’Tis a very bright stone we seek, very small and very shiny, like sunlight on the water.  I shall know it when I see it, and I shall see it not until we reach the mountains.”

Soon Cunora’s impatience wore off, and the two concentrated upon making time.  By midday they were well into the hills, following the course of a very dry creek; and now they kept a sharp lookout at every step.

Van Emmon and Smith had similarly impressed Corrus and Dulnop with the result that there was no loss of time in the beginning.  The two men reached the hills on their side of the valley an hour before the women reached theirs.

And thus the search began, the strangest search, beyond a doubt, within the history of the universe.  It was not like the work of some of earth’s prehistoric men, who already knew fire and were merely looking up fresh materials; it was a quest in which an idea, an idea given in a vision, was the sole driving force.  The most curious part of the matter was that these people were mentally incapable of conceiving that there was intelligence at work upon them from another world, or even that there was another world.

“Ye saw the stars last night?” Corrus spoke to Dulnop.  “Well, ’tis just such stars as shall awaken the seed of the flower.  Ye shall see!”

Both knew exactly what to look for:  the brassy, regularly cut crystals with the black stripings, such as has led countless men to go through untold hardships in the belief that they had found gold.  In fact, iron pyrites is often called “fool gold,” so deceptive is its glitter.

Yet, it was just the thing for the purpose.  Flint they already had, large quantities of it; practically all their tools, such as axes and knives, were made of it.  Struck against iron pyrites, a larger, fatter, hotter spark could be obtained than with any other natural combination.

It was Dulnop’s luck to see the outcropping.  He found the mineral exposed to plain view, a few feet above the bottom of the ravine the two were ascending.  With a shout of triumph he leaped upon the rock.

“Here, Corrus!” he yelled, dancing like mad.  “Here is the gift of the gods!”

The older man didn’t attempt to hide his delight.  He grabbed his companion and hugged him until his ribs began to crack.  Then, with a single blow from his huge club, the herdsman knocked the specimen clear of the slate in which it was set.  Such was their excitement, neither dreamed of marking the place in any way.

First satisfying themselves that the pyrites really could produce “stars” from the flint, the two hurried down-stream, in search of the right kind of wood.  In half an hour Corrus came across a dead, worm-eaten tree, from which he nonchalantly broke off a limb as big as his leg.  The interior was filled with a dry, stringy rot, just the right thing for making a spark “live.”