Chapter 40

For supper Rose, Catla, and the girls were serving more Bear-B-Q and this time it was sort of like chopped beef. Rose had no doubt run some of the lesser cuts through one of the sausage mills and then concentrated on a good sauce while she cooked pinto beans along with the meat to make a sort of combination dish.

It was delicious and Rose knew it. After the first bite I knew it too and I also figured Routata had never tasted anything so good. Since Catla served piping hot cathead biscuits to go with it we were having a real live feast. I was feeling a little guilty about the way we were eating until I noticed everyone else in the cave seemed to be having the same thing.

The blueberry pies Rose served for desert were just overkill. Routata actually looked like he was shocked to put something so good in his mouth. Of course Rose was cheating by using sugar on the poor unsuspecting caveman, but I'll be damned if I was going to complain. After they'd done the dishes Rose and the girls put down some bear furs with lion furs on top for Routata to bed down in and after checking things outside I turned down the lights and slipped in among my women.

Breakfast was heavy on the bacon, eggs, and toast the next morning. Among her supplies Rose had brought eight bread machines. I'd asked why she brought so many when she told me and she'd merely waved her hand out over our expanding crowd.

By now the fix was in with Kita. Rose had her in a chair and Chiqa was near her in the baby holder thing. Kita was trying to feed Chiqa tiny spoons full of scrambled eggs in between times when she was giving Chiqa the bottle and gobbling down bacon and eggs herself. They were both getting messy, but they damned sure looked happy about it.

After we'd eaten I gave Routata a tour of the garage. When he found out what the hay bales were he was stupefied and after I told him what was in the tow sacks he was even more so.

"Jack, would it be possible for my camp to join yours?" he asked, no longer able to keep from it.

"Of course you can as long as you agree I am the leader over all and if you will still be leader of and responsible for your people. I will expect them to obey me also and respect Juko and Goondoe's authority too.

"It won't take long for them to understand things will go much better if we join together. We will also have no trouble feeding and keeping the horses. We have several large blind canyons up on our shelf. We can even move your things easily with this big truck," I said, and pointed it out to him.

He didn't understand what it was at all, but I opened the door to the reefer trailer and showed him how much space was in it and then explained how the tractor could move it. Routata was sold and before long he was saddled up, mounted, and gone to spread the happy news.

Back in our cave it was obvious Rose had figured out what was going on and Routata's hurried exit had only confirmed it for her. She and Catla were looking at me as if I was the cat who ate the canary.

"You don't even have to say it. We've already made plans for clearing off a space for them to move into. You are going to have to fire up your sawmill soon though because we need at least a few partitions for privacy," Rose said, as she walked over to the main circuit breaker panel and flicked on another string of lights. It lit up even more space I hadn't realized we had.

I was thinking about getting the truck over to Routata's camp by now though and I decided I should do a little more exploring up the river between us to see if there was a place I thought we could cross. Keeta, Layta, and Leita were happy to come along and so we saddled up and headed down the path to the river level.

The river was as low as I'd ever seen it and it made sense. I was sure it's water came mostly from a glacier upstream somewhere. No doubt it increased a lot during spring and with any rains, but we hadn't had much rain lately and the weather was probably much colder up north where the river must begin.

Still, we had a ride in front of us and we stayed near the river's bank as we headed upstream. About five miles past where the other downward path came out we came to a much wider stretch of river and it was a good deal shallower. It even had a nice rocky bottom and I was sure he truck could make it across, with the help of the skidder if necessary.

We crossed the low spot and there was plenty of room to make it from the northern path's exit, up to the shallow ford, and across to head to Routata's camp. We took the path back along our shelf and I decided we could make a try getting to the other camp tomorrow.

After breakfast Keeta gave Chalta some skidder driving lessons, and when Chalta thought she had it down we unloaded the box van with the skidder and its attachment again and then took off. The widened path was even roomier than I'd first though and we had no trouble getting down to the river, up to the ford and across. We didn't even need the skidder's help.

Traveling overland I did run into one soft spot and get stuck, but the skidder pulled us out easily and I would try not to hit the spot again.

Everyone except Routata was afraid when we pulled into camp the next day, and even he seemed surprised about how big the truck and trailer looked outside in the daylight. They settled down quickly after we piled out, but it seemed most of them could take the truck even while still considering the skidder some kind of monster.

Once the excitement wore off the packing started. Routata had plenty of help so they even took the hide coverings off their huts. Most of the men were surprised because no travois would be needed, and in fact we ended up loading them into the trailer too. When everything was loaded and the doors were shut we headed back to the ford while the camp members mounted up and rode down to the closer crossing.

We made it back without needing to be pulled out this time, but our route was farther and the people and horses beat us home by two hours. Since all their things were in the trailer I backed it toward the cave's entrance and we started a bundle brigade and carried their things directly inside.

It was an hour past sunset before they'd finished and I pulled the truck into the garage and closed the door. Their horses had already been moved to the first canyon/pasture where most of the horses hung out. It suited me fine since I was mostly interested in supper by now. When I made it to our table Rose dried my tears and filled a big plate while Kita came by to hold my lap down and let me feed her enough to fill up the corners since she'd already fed Chiqa and eaten her own supper.

As I snuggled in among my mates I realized things tomorrow would be a madhouse and I wanted to avoid it. Before we drifted off I broached the subject of looking for more abandoned supplies with Rose.

"Why you work dodging jackass. I know what you're up to, and I guess it's ok. You just make sure you remind Routata I'm the one with the fuzzy balls while you're gone. If he doesn't get it right his people will be electing a new leader before nightfall."

I knew what she meant, but I doubted she'd have any trouble out of Routata. I'd make sure he understood the details before I left though. I knew Juko and Goondoe already understood and I was even surer they liked our pecking order just the way it was.

I had a talk with Routata after breakfast and he told me he'd felt it was proper even before I told him how I felt about it. We shook on it and went about our business. Keeta, Talila, Layta, Leita, and Shayta went with me with Leita driving the skidder this time. Rose had made me another map showing the other seven dead men's goods.

The farthest was a little over sixty miles south so we headed for it first. Four hours later we found the place and it was a cave again. This guy had at least taken a rifle with him when he went walkabout shortly after arriving. Unfortunately for him an M-16 wasn't a reliable killer on cave bear. We found the bear dead all right, but its body was lying on his. More specifically the bear's stripped bones were piled mostly on top of the man's.

We did salvage the M-16, an empty thirty round magazine which looked as if it had been dropped after it was empty while he was trying to replace it with one of the two full magazines we found nearby.

He had also been carrying an M1911A1 45 and six extra magazines. I chalked it up to him not understanding the difference between expanding bullets and armed services ball ammunition. Hell, a quarter inch bullet doesn't have much of a chance stopping a cave bear, especially when it isn't going to expand once it enters.