Such was his solicitude, however, that before I had raised my small hand a fraction, he clutched it with his own. ‘Now let this serve as a lesson to you. Watch …’ He brought a piece of wood from the work-bench to the motionless drill-bit. A harsh rasping came as the one contacted the other, a flashlit spray of sawdust plumed out in a staggered curve, and in a trice the innocent piece of metal had bitten clean through the inch-thick piece of wood.