Chapter 21

Three days later, perhaps a mile from the mine, I cleared a shallow pit near the top of a bald hill.

I soon had a fire going, then added a couple of branches with green leaves. Smoke began rising as soon as the flames reached the leaves, and Lilia and I moved back into the trees to wait.

Robert showed up two hours later. “I was down in the mine, but one of the men waiting to start his shift spotted the smoke. I came as soon as he told me. How’s your injured friend?”

“He’s much improved,” I said. “The arm will be usable within another six weeks, maybe less. Anyway, I talked to the rest of my group. We can do your hunting if you provide people to transport the meat. We would prefer to keep the hides, if that’s acceptable.”

“We could use them, but I agree you get first call, and I’ll send you two people I trust as soon as you’re ready to hunt.”

“Send your people as soon as you can. I’ll be cutting wood in the meantime, so if they can help...”

“They will, Matt, I’ll see to it. I need to head back now. I just came off shift and I’m tired. Ten hours on, fourteen hours off, and do it again tomorrow ... it’s a good thing I’ll only be working here another two months!”

“What happens to our arrangement when you leave?” I asked.

“I’ll find someone to replace me before I go, and he’ll know to watch for your signal.”

“That should work, Robert,” I said. “Don’t expect the first shipment right away. I’ll need to hunt out in the grasslands if I’m to keep you in meat, but before I do that I’ll explore around the edges. I want trees close at hand! Later, after I know more about what to expect, I’ll head deeper into the grass. You mentioned spears, and I got to wondering. Do your people use bows?”

“We haven’t figured out how to make strings that are thin enough but also strong enough for the kind of bows we need here. I wouldn’t want to take on a saber-tooth or a bear with anything short of a sixty-pound draw weight! We’ve tried plant fibers and grass stems, but by the time they’re strong enough they’re too thick. We’ve also tried rawhide, but it stretches, and sooner or later they break too. Our spears aren’t as good as yours either. That point ... is it one of ours?”

I nodded. “The man who had it didn’t need it anymore, so I salvaged it. What about more blades, or maybe even forged spear points or arrowheads? I’ll trade finished spears for metal. I can chip pretty good obsidian or flint spear points if necessary, but steel is a lot better, and if you’ve got extra manpower, I can use all the help I can get. I’ve still got to cut and haul wood, or we won’t last through the winter. I only have an axe and a saw, so if they can bring their own tools it would help.”

“I can get you a few swords—every new recruit is issued one—but probably not spear points, and definitely not arrow points!” Robert said. “I’m sure the owners never expected anyone to salvage a blade for a spear point, and as for projectile weapons, we got shot down anytime we mentioned them!

“Anyway, I’ll get you whatever I can, maybe some of the broken tools I mentioned. They don’t check those as often as they do other things, so I’m thinking I might follow your example and raid their stash. I’ll also send you some people, two men to haul stuff and maybe a kitchen helper for skinning and butchering. I’ll take them from my crew and talk to the other foremen about replacements.

“As for manpower later, the miners are generally OK but the guards are useless. We would already have done something about them if we thought we could get away with it. The sooner you can start sending us meat, the better. Our meals are ... well, we’ll welcome the meat!

With that, and a final handshake, he headed back to the mine and Lilia and I started for the cabin.

Robert had promised people to help, but until they showed up I figured we should do as much as we could. He seemed trustworthy, but ... the old rule held. Trust in one hand, spit in the other, and see which one gets wet first!

Next morning, we headed out to cut wood. I carried the axe and saw, Lilia and Millie came along to help. Millie gave me a wistful look when I decided to take Lilia, but I needed a guard to watch over us while we were working. Millie carried the new bow I’d made her, along with arrows she’d made herself, but she wasn’t as skilled as Lilia; I rated her second only to Lee in weapons skill. As for courage in a fight, she’d shown plenty of that when she attacked the bear!

Sandra remained behind to work in the cabin and take care of Lee. He was more independent every day, but it might take another month for the arm to finish healing enough for him to risk going outside by himself, even to take care of necessities. Even after the arm healed, he would need to regain his strength. For now, he did as much as he could and chafed at the restrictions.

I selected two trees suitable for spear blanks, a hickory and an ash, and cut them as close to the ground as possible. Both had straight trunks about eight inches in diameter and were knot-free as far as I could tell. The ash would need to be cut six inches shorter than the hickory; there was a knot at that point, but the rest looked good.

I made short work of chopping the trunks to length, then laid them aside to dry. I had cut the bottoms of the trunks at an angle, which extended down into the dirt. What was left of the stumps came out easily after that. Brush was removed in similar fashion.

By the end of the day, my sled road was essentially finished so far as vegetation removal was concerned. I still had a couple of rocks to move, but I would change the road if necessary to avoid anything I couldn’t move.

I rarely saw Lilia as I worked, but I knew she was there. I trusted her in a way that I trusted no one except Lee. With Millie’s help, I cut two larger trees and sawed them to length. These would be the runners for the stone boat, and I would build it here on-site. I would chop away as much excess wood as possible before putting the pieces together, then let the wood season while it was being used.

We picked up the trunks I’d cut for spear blanks late that afternoon and carried them back with us. We washed the sweat off when we got to the stream, which made for an interesting experience. Lilia and Millie gave each other a looking-over, and both then watched for danger while I washed off. If they also watched me in the water, well, that was only fair!

We quickly bedded down after supper, and once again Sandra and Lee separated themselves from the rest of us.

Next morning, I sawed pairs of shallow crosscuts about two inches apart in the underside of the runner-logs. Chipping away the wood between the cuts left gaps wide enough for the ropes I would use to tie the crosspieces to the runners. It soon took on the appearance of a sled, and I laid a platform of branches across the crosspieces and squared them by eye. As a final step, I tied them in place too, and the simple sled was finished except for a means to pull it.

I attached a towrope to the front of each runner and Millie and I tried dragging the stone boat. It was fairly heavy, but it would become lighter as the wood seasoned and the bottoms of the runners wore away. Good enough, I thought. and we headed back to where we’d left off the day before.

Late that afternoon, we piled a light load of firewood on the stone boat and dragged it back to the cabin. There was still a lot of work to do, but the time used in making the stone boat was well spent. We could spend most our time cutting wood now, without needing to carry small loads back in our arms every day! After stacking the wood, we placed the stone boat on end and leaned it against the cabin wall for the night. This practice became habit over the next few days.

The women, working in the evening, had made several clay pots and bowls. They had since dried in the warm cabin, so Sandra had fired them in the outdoor oven. She showed us the pots when we came in, and some of the larger ones were already filled with drying grain. A smaller one was half-full of coarse meal. The storage pots would be covered with rawhide to keep insects out, and air holes in the rawhide would prevent buildup of moisture.

The grain would a welcome addition to what we could kill. But the women would have to collect as much grain and root vegetables as they could while I was off hunting, and as soon as Lee was ready he would join me.

For the first time, I thought we might actually survive the coming winter.

A week later, I noticed that food supplies were low again. We still had a little dried meat and some of the fresh-ground meal, but the more preserved foods we could save the better. I pointed out to the others that we needed to eat only fresh meat and vegetables as long as they were available, and that any extras had to be preserved and stored. For now, wood-cutting would have to be postponed while we restocked our food supplies