Chapter 12

I left the house then and went looking for Amos. I thought maybe he could come up with something I could use for a pencil. He was out near the barn in the leather working part, talking to three young men. He stopped when I came up.

"Amos, I need a pencil. All I can find to write with is a damned old quill pen and an inkwell."

"Well I just happen to be able to dry your eyes," he said, reaching to his shirt pocket and handing me a carpenter's pencil.

"I always have one in my pocket since I started working leather - it's a habit by now. The thick lead doesn't break so easy when I'm trying to mark leather, especially if I'm using it on the rough side," he said.

"Great. I was trying to lay out the new smithy and couldn't write a damned thing without spilling ink everywhere. I'll make sure I don't lose it," I said, and headed right back to my room.

As soon as I started drawing I realized if I'd been forced to use this pencil without trying the ink first I'd have been bitching about it. It was funny to hold since it was wider than it was thick and the lead was too. After trying with the quill and ink though it was like a dream come true. I'd have to try and remember to bring a handful of pencils next time.

Now I had something to write with I realized I needed to do a lot of thinking about what I was writing. I decided to just rough out a building this time and worry about the details next trip.

I was done in an hour or so and I put the pencil in my pocket, grabbed up the drawing, and headed for Bill's office. He was working on his books when I got inside and I noticed he was doing a nice neat job with a quill pen and ink.

He stopped what he was doing and when he saw me holding the paper he gave me a curious look.

"Go ahead and finish what you're doing, Bill. I'll be waiting in the kitchen for when you come to a stopping place," I said.

"Stopping place?"

"Yeh, you know, when you come to the end of one thing and you can have time to talk to me about something else. I don't want to cause you to have to stop what you're doing right now," I said.

He looked at me funny again and then said ok and that he'd come to get me. I headed back into the kitchen and Kala looked busy too, but Wanda was there and I talked her into getting me a cup of tea and I stole another pat on her ass while I was at it.

Bill came in to get me shortly after I'd finished my tea and I went back to his office with him. I showed him the rough sketch and after I made him understand the approximate size he questioned why it needed to be so large and why we couldn't just keep the other forges where they were and put extra ones in another place.

"We're not going to keep doing the smithy work like we have been, Bill. I want this new place exactly because it will be different. I need this extra room around it for something I'll be doing next time.

"In fact I don't even want you to use this building until I come back. We'll go outside, pick out a place for it, and then I want you to get the building built and put nothing in it or around it until I get back."

Surprisingly he could understand it more easily without even thinking about the forges and such. When we went outside he understood perfectly he was supposed to build a big building here and leave all the space around it vacant.

In fact he took it better than I'd thought he would. There was no power struggle like I'd expected, what with him being in charge on his own here for so long. He didn't even question me much about what we were going to be doing in the building, he just found out where I wanted it, how large I wanted it, and he was set on go. He was even intending to get some men started on it tomorrow until I told him we wouldn't need it for a year or so.

He went back into the house then and I went to talk to Ben. He was busy with someone too, so I saddled the big horse, strapped my bow carrier onto his saddle again and mounted up.

I figured I might as well take a ride around the place. I started out on the other side of the gate from the one where we expected the next raid to come from and made my way around the fence.

I was surprised when I came to the first section of woods. The fence went into them for a little way and I noticed all the brush had been cleared from the fenced off part, but I also noticed some posts going through the other section. Sort of like markers or property lines, but they weren't a fence.

As I moved on I came to another part that looked similar. A portion of the woods had been cleared of brush and undergrowth for about an acre or so. It looked like the fence had just turned into the woods for a little bit, the brush had been cleared off, and the fence had come back out.

By the third such section I came to I figured out what they were for. We had way too many cows to build barns enough to put them in. The cleared out sections of woods were lounging areas for the cows. I figured they were for bad weather or to let them get out of the sun if the weather got too hot.

The cows could migrate into the cleared out sections during bad weather without the bother of having to gather them up. Basically the cows took care of themselves with just a few provisions to help them out.

We had a hell of a lot of cows too. They weren't covering the area like a bunch of bison or anything, but there were several large groups of them. I rode all morning and doubted I'd made it halfway to the back of our property.

I came up on three different houses too. It was odd there was just a house out in the middle of nowhere so I stopped at the third one. A man was working in a fenced off garden, but he stopped what he was doing and came up to talk as soon as he saw me.

"Greetings, Hero Jack. Can I do something for you?" he asked.

I stopped to talk for a while and learned the house was actually mine. He and his family lived here and he took care of the fence in this part. Apparently there were six of these line camp sort of houses - each with a family living in them and specifically there to take care of the fence and watch for predators and such. I didn't say as much, but I was amazed by the scope of our holdings.

One thing I didn't want to be was late for lunch. I turned back and put the big horse into a trot. I cursed the saddle most of the way back to the main house, but Kala made me glad I'd remembered to come eat when I got there.

Four days later, late in the afternoon the watchman we had near the road crossing came running up to say he'd just seen them cross the road and shot the one who was their lookout. Ben gathered the ones going with us and we took off, walking. There wasn't any hurry since the thieves would have to gather some cows and make their way back to cross the road, and they'd have to do it in the dark.

Our biggest bother was the waiting. We got in place and had time to fell a few small trees and block off a catch pen sort of thing to catch our cattle and the men stealing them. Ralph and Carl were with us and I intended to let them try to talk the others into surrendering.