ags and soft cotton waste they were using
could catch in the moving parts and draw a hand or an arm into the
flying wheels.

"I noticed in the accident reports of one single state," Uncle Jack told
Betty, "that more than five hundred people were hurt in that very way,
by cleaning machines that were moving. Half of them lost fingers and
many lost their hands or arms. No sensible workman, these days, treats
his machine as anything but downright dangerous as long as it's
running."

The buzz saws fascinated the twins. They felt as if they could stand all
day long and listen to the drone of the saw as it ate its way into the
clean white boards, snarling like an angry dog when its teeth struck a
knot in the wood. There were a good many of these saws in the big, long
room; now and then they would get to singing together like a music class
at school and then they would drop out of tune again.

"Not a saw guard in the place," shouted Bob in Uncle Jack's ear, for the
saws drowned out his ordinary tone.

But Uncle Jack's keen eyes had already caught sight of some metal guards
hung up on the wall here and there. "They've got them," he corrected,
"but they are not making any use of them." He stepped up to one of the
saws and spoke to the man who was running it. "Why don't you keep the
guard on your saw?"

"Aw, those things are a nuisance," said the man. "Yes, we're supposed to
keep 'em on, but they'd be in the way--we couldn't get the work out so
fast with them."

"That's queer," said Uncle Jack. "In a good many mills like this they've
found that a man using a good saw guard turns out more work than
ever--because he's so much more free in using his hands, I suppose."

The man grunted, but did not answer. On their way to the door, the
Safety Scouts spied, clear back in one corner, a man who really did have
his saw guard in use. "And a rattling lot of work he's turning out,
too," said Bob, after the three had watched him a while from a distance.
The neat metal guard came clear down over the murderous saw teeth, so
that no matter how much his fingers happened to be in the way, they were
safe.

"Let's ask him why he uses his saw guard when the others won't," said
Uncle Jack. He stepped nearer the silent workman and then--he saw the
reason. Turning to Bob and Betty, he tapped his left hand with his right
and jerked his head toward the man beside the saw. The twins walked
around to where they could get a look at the workman's le