Chapter 3

The place that John was given was huge. It had been a warehouse, housing the overflow from the farmers. Now that the farmers had better locations that were more centrally located, this one had become an out of the way nuisance.

The first thing that John was going to need was a furnace, a very large one. It would need to be bigger then any that had been built, to date. Also needed, were containers large enough to hold the molten steel when it was made. The forms were to be made out of reinforced clay.

For the first two months John had the furnace built, and ore moved into position. The blacksmiths were all excited by the prospect of the big furnace. While it was smaller than John had originally thought, it was by far the biggest furnace in the duchy.

John was lucky in the fact that this land knew of steel, and could make it. With the ore that the Baron provided, John was well on his way. He drew up plans for a small steam engine. Small it was, yet it would be large enough to pull a heavy load. While the engine was being built, they surveyed a route, and started laying track.

This meant that a lot of furnace time was spent making rails instead of the engine. They basically had it down to one mile a month of track, at the end of month three.

John experimented with the mixture of ores to be sure he got everything right before he made the frame of the engine. At the end of six months, he had a working steam engine. He had tested it to the extent that he knew it ran at about ten miles an hour. It had two gears, forward and reverse.

To start making money on the train and recoup the Baron's investment, they made a loop at the five mile mark. They built a huge warehouse there for trans-loading cargo and people, to wagons and coaches. It worked out fine. It also introduced the locals to the switch for the track.

Of course, people still had the right to hire horse drawn wagons for the entire trip. However, the ten mile run to the Duke's town took a heavily laden wagon hours longer to make, than the trip by the train. The track would be done in another four months or less, as the laying teams were getting faster. It was the supply of track and ties that was holding them up, sometimes.

John was not working just on the train problem. He also introduced soap, and was currently working on gun powder. He wanted to make fuses and luckily, he had his laptop computer to work with. It had an encyclopedia installed, and the information it contained was priceless for John. Sometimes, all he had to do was print out a diagram, and the smiths and artisans got to work immediately.

Finally, the big day arrived. The tracks had arrived at the station set up outside of the town of Candon. The Duke had forbidden it to run inside the town itself, or to breech his walls. John understood, but was disappointed.

For the first official run to the Candon station, he sat behind the engineer and thrilled to the beat of the wheels on the track. He immediately saw he was going to have to have the stack raised quite a bit. Smoke and steam were frequently being blown back at the engineer, at its current height.

When they arrived at Candon station, located one hundred yards from the outer wall of Candon, a huge crowd was cheering their arrival. John had to admit to himself he was pleased with the feeling it produced. The accomplishment of getting an engine and cars and ten miles of track laid, built from scratch all within a year, was fantastic!

The reward that John and the Baron had gotten, while seemingly commensurate to the accomplishment, did nothing to provide back pay for the monies expended in the building of the train, and laying the tracks.

Oh, the Baron, now Count was happy enough, as he got a promotion in the ranks of the nobility to Count, and John was now a Baron with estates and income that said estates produced. Still, it was not what he had expected.

Furthermore, all income derived from the train, went directly into the Duke's coffers. To John, it smacked of stealing. Yet, there absolutely nothing they could do about it, short of taking their complaint to the King. John did not think that the Baron, errr Count, would be happy with that option.

John and the Count were still at the Duke's palace, a week later, when he arrived as growly as a bear.

"What seems to be the problem, your grace?" Count Breverton asked the Duke.

"I ate something, and now I have a toothache. All my healers who can deal with this are out of the palace and in the field. It will be a week before the first one is back to take care of this, and it hurts like all the hells of the lower world," the Duke responded with a growl.

John perked up.

"Perhaps I can help you? I have a small dental kit called Dentek. It has a couple items that might be able help you out. I think I can do a temporary filling for you, and relieve your pain," John commented.

So it was that John had to make a trip back to Breverton, retrieve his first-aid kit with the Dentek items. Later that day the Duke was seated at his desk, while John was looking at the offending tooth.

"You have what is referred to, as a cavity. Most strange. People of this period don't seem to have teeth problems," John commented.

"What do you mean?" the Duke asked, puzzled.

"Cavities are caused by poor diet, usually by eating foods loaded with processed and refined chemicals. Sweets, in my world, were the primary culprit," John stated.

"Ah, that would explain it. I have been eating a new food with a new sweetener. It is a white grainy substance, and is most sweet," the Duke responded.

John nodded. "That would do it. Ok, here is what I am going to do. I am going to treat the cavity first with medication, and a pain killer. Then I'll give you a temporary filling. That should hold you until your healers come back," John stated briskly.

He opened the small bottle, and then opened the small box of cotton balls. He took the tweezers that came with the kit and dunked a cotton ball in the medication. He squeezed the excess out of the cotton ball, and placed it in the cavity.