Each cane is a long, straight rod, tapering very gently, with "joints," as they are called, about eight or ten inches apart.

These joints are simply places where the cane, outside, is a little larger than it is between joints, while inside each joint consists of a hard woody partition, across the hollow tube, which is otherwise continuous.

Sam's plan was simply to burn these partitions away with a hot iron, which would convert the cane into a long, slender, wooden tube, very hard, very light, and straight as an arrow.
Tom went to work at once to burn out the joints, a work which occupied a good deal of time, as the iron had to be re-heated a great many times.

He worked very steadily, however with the assistance of two or three of the boys, and managed during that first evening to get two of the blow guns burned out.
Meantime Sam made an arrow, very small and only about ten inches long, out of some dry cedar.
"Now," he said, "I want those of you who are not busy burning out the canes, to go to work making arrows just like that, while I do something else." The boys went to work with a will, while Sam, going into the nearest thicket, cut a green stick about three quarters of an inch in diameter.

Returning to the fire, he split one end of this stick for a little way, converting it into a sort of rude pincer.