Chapter 14

Bill had been able to put together a serviceable chemistry lab from the salvaged cooking utensils and such from the various boats. He had hoped to get glycerol (another name for glycerin) from the cooking oils and fats, but he didn't know enough about the characteristics of dinosaur tissue to be certain that he could. It turned out that he got about 15% by weight of glycerol from the fats and oils, a higher level than he would have gotten from mammal fat.

The next step was to make nitric and sulfuric acids. That was not difficult, but he needed the right raw materials. The one thing that he did not have available was a ready supply of sulfur. He got a little sulfuric acid from reworking the electrolyte in the lead-acid storage batteries taken from the boats, but it was nowhere near enough. We had to mount an expedition to find sulfur!

There was a chance that we could find sulfur if they could find a active volcanic region. Even better, maybe we could find a place that had once been volcanically active, but was now settled down. The only way to find out was to search.

A team was organized with Bill leading it to look for sulfur and other minerals we would want or need. They decided to take one more man and four women. Ezra and the women would serve as hunters, defenders, and draft animals while Bill concentrated on his mineral search. They took two carts, one empty and one loaded with supplies and weapons. Actually, both carts were loaded with half the cargo, it just would have worked out with one empty and one full if they had needed that arrangement.

They left one morning to head toward the mountains, figuring that was the most likely place to find what they needed. Also, they assumed that they would miss any large carnivores in the rugged country, only the smaller ones that they could handle with their crossbows were likely to be there. Jean was in the crew as the most experienced hunter, and Martha was along as the EMT. They figured to be back at the cave before Martha began to bulge so much that she had a problem. This first trip was a quick survey which was to last only about three weeks.

They got lucky and found a hot spring area on their sixth day. The place reeked of foul smells, so it had to be what they were looking for. They found an outcropping of semi-molten sulfur and were able to load a cart with a number of bricks of sulfur they were able to cast on the spot. Bill thought that this was enough sulfur to last him several months, he could even get into pilot production of nitroglycerin if everything went well.

It was time to start home, so they left with their sulfur and some samples of other things that Bill thought looked promising. By making a direct journey home and not diverting to look for other things, they were able to get home in only four days, which spoke well for being able to take full advantage of whatever was available at the hot springs. By the way, in a fit of originality, they named the place "Hot Springs."

John was interested in what we might salvage from the revenue cutter that had brought Ezra and Amos to us. They mounted an expedition to see what they could salvage from the cutter. John and Amos led the party. They took a ballista crew with them because of the potential of attack by large carnivores. They took two carts to use for hauling the salvaged items and another cart as a supply wagon. This made a large party of 11 people and practically stripped the cave of residents. This was feasible because they expected to be gone for only five days.

The spot of the cutter landing was closer than they realized. Amos and Ezra had run in something of an arc in trying to escape the T. Rex chasing them. It only took one full day of travel to reach the cutter, and it was a bonanza of useful items. For one thing, almost the entire underside of the hull was covered with copper sheet. This, alone, was worth the trip, and they spent most of their time salvaging it. Once that was loaded on the carts, there was little room for anything else, so they stripped the cutter's galley and armory and hurried home. They did take time to bury the few human bones that they could find before they left, but it was impossible to identify any individual people.

When they got home, John immediately started planning for another trip. There were just too many goodies on the cutter to stop before it was stripped completely. A week after Bill's return, John set off with another salvage gang, and, this time, he took an additional cart. Among other things, he wanted to see how difficult it would be to salvage the six bronze cannon. That much bronze was too valuable to go to waste.

When they got to the site of the cutter, they found another ship was there. This one appeared to be a pirate ship, from the great number of guns she carried. The ship was a little bit larger than the revenue cutter and carried 14 cannon, a fantastic number of cannon for a ship her size. John and Amos went on board to see if they could come up with a positive identification. They were struggling to get to the captain's cabin on the steeply sloping deck when they heard shouting and screaming coming from the people they had left with the carts.

They rushed as fast as they could back to the open deck and found that their people were under attack by several men swinging clubs. A few cutlasses were in evidence, but they were not being used in the fight. It was as if the attackers were trying not to do permanent damage to the women.

This was no time for negotiation, John and Amos had to do something soon, or the women would likely be hurt. The women were not giving in to the men and were fighting as best they could, but they were physically not in the same league with the men. Sue was down and about to be raped, and most of the other women were close to that.

John and Amos didn't bother with their crossbows, but opened up with their autoloading pistols. The attackers apparently did not know that there were defenders on board their ship, because they appeared to be caught completely by surprise when the shooting started. Two of the attackers were killed in the first few moments of the shooting, and the rest were seriously wounded. A couple of the women were able to get their pistols into action at that point, and four 21^st century pistols quickly knocked all of the fight out of the attackers.

Three men tried to run away, but John was having none of that. He shot two of the men and Amos shot the other one. Once the fighting was over, all of the women, none of whom had ever before been in a fight where humans were killed, broke down into hysterical crying. John and Amos were both experienced warriors, so their reaction was excitement from the increased adrenalin, but that wore off quickly, once the shooting stopped.

The two men went to the women and tried to comfort them. This took some time, but eventually the women calmed down and were simply grateful that they were still living with no serious injuries.

Suddenly, another threat, possibly greater than that posed by the pirates, showed up in the form of 12 velociraptors. Apparently, they were attracted by the noise and the smell of blood. The humans grabbed their weapons and scrambled aboard the pirate ship to escape from the dinosaurs. Too much food was lying around in the form of dead pirates for the velociraptors to go after the live humans at this moment, but nobody was foolish enough to hang around to see what the raptors would ultimately do.

The humans went inside the sterncastle and looked out the windows at the raptors. John gave the go ahead, and the women started shooting at the raptors with their crossbows. The raptors were not interested in the fate of another raptor, so they paid little attention to the fate of the beasts around them. Of course, once a raptor felt the sting of a crossbow bolt, he got very interested in things besides dinner. Most of the raptors never did see where their attackers were hiding, but two did figure it out and tried to attack the humans in the ship. However, they were killed before they could do any damage, and all 12 of the velociraptors were finally eliminated.

Amos located the captain's cabin, and they found what served as a log. It was written in Elizabethan English, so they had a very difficult time reading it. However, they did find the captain's Letter of Marque authorizing him to attack Spanish and French ships. Further detective work produced a date of June 17^th, 1691. This was the most recent date they could find, so they assumed that it was very close to the date that they were swept up by a storm in the Bermuda Triangle.