1.   The wall was covered with scrawls done with a bit of pencil lead.

2.   Dorcas fumbled in his pockets until he found a stub of pencil lead.

3.   And why the low modernist sofa combines linen upholstery with button-bedecked cashmere cushions the color of a pencil lead.

4.   But there is a whole generation growing up missing the delight of actually creating a gadget from pieces of bell wire, pencil leads and razor blades.

5.   For gangsters living the incognito life, the witness protection program can be as dull as old pencil lead.

6.   Graphite is a slippery, black substance used as a lubricant and for making pencil lead, among other things.

7.   We are told that diamonds are made of carbon, the same lowly element found in soot and the graphite of pencil lead.

8.   The recipient rubs pencil lead lightly over the markings to read the message.