by Jack L Knapp
Robert showed up two hours later.
“I was down in the mine, but one of the men spotted the smoke. I came as soon as he told me. How’s your injured friend?”
“He’s much improved. 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.”
“I can send you two people. I trust them; they won’t cause you problems.”
“Excellent, Robert. I need to gather wood first, but I should be ready to hunt in a week.”
“Sounds good, Matt. I just came off shift and I’m tired, so I’ll head back now. Ten hours on, fourteen hours off, do it again tomorrow. It’s a good thing I’ll only be working here another two months.”
“You’re going back to your group? What happens to our arrangement after you leave?”
“There will someone here to replace me. I’ll talk to him before I leave so he’ll know to expect your signal.”
“That should work, Robert. I'll need to hunt the grasslands, but I'll explore around the edges first. Later, after I know more about what to expect, I may hunt farther into the grass, away from the tree-line, but until I know what I'm facing I want trees close at hand. Do your people use bows?”
“We use spears but not bows. We haven’t figured out how to make strings that are strong enough for the kind of bows needed here. I wouldn't want to try to kill a saber-tooth or a bear with a lightweight bow. For that matter, our spears aren’t as good as what you’re carrying.”
“Can you get more swords, or maybe even forged spear points? I can trade finished spears for labor. I can chip obsidian or flint points but steel is better. I could also use men to cut and haul wood. I have an axe and a saw, but more tools would also be helpful.”
“I can get swords, probably not spear points. The only weapons the mine operators will give us are the short swords. They probably wouldn’t expect us to salvage the blades for spears, so I'll keep that a secret. I’ll get whatever I can, maybe some broken tools; you might be able to use the metal. Whatever I can get, I’ll send it with some people to help you, at least two men to haul stuff and maybe a kitchen helper to assist with skinning and butchering.
“I’ll relieve you of as much work as I can if it will allow you to hunt earlier. I’ll ask the mine supervisor to transfer replacements to my crew. I’ll send you people I trust, but I can't say that about some of the others. Most of the miners are okay, but the others are guards because they’re useless for anything else.”
With that, and a final handshake, he headed back to the mine and Lilia and I started for home.
#
Until Robert's people showed up, I would do as much cutting as possible. 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 while I was working and Lilia was second only to Lee for that. Millie was learning, but I wasn’t yet ready to trust in her ability.
She wasn't up to Lilia's standards, but she had made great strides. I’d made her bow and she carried it now; the arrows she’d made herself.
Sandra remained behind. Lee was more independent every day, but it might take another month for the arm to finish healing. Until it had, I didn’t want to risk him outside without someone to keep watch. The bear had caught us by surprise; even though we hadn’t seen other predators, it could happen again. For now, he did as much as he could and chafed at the restrictions.
I selected two trees suitable for blanks, a hickory and an ash. 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 because of a knot, but the rest looked good. I made short work of chopping the trunks to length, then laid them aside to dry.
There were other young trees along the path I intended to use. I cut them at an angle, extending down into the dirt. The stumps came out easily after that. Brush was removed in similar fashion.
By the end of the day, my road was finished so far as vegetation removal was concerned. I still had a couple of rocks to move, but I didn’t anticipate a problem; I would change the road to detour around anything I couldn’t move.
I rarely saw Lilia, but I knew she was there; I trusted her as I trusted no one else except Lee.
With Millie’s help, I cut two larger trees and sawed them to length. These would be runners for the stone boat; I would build it here, chopping away as much excess wood as possible before putting the pieces together. The wood would season during use.
We picked up the trunks for the spear blanks and carried them back, washing the sweat off when we crossed the stream. It was an interesting experience; Lilia and Millie gave each other a serious looking-over. Both then watched for danger while I washed off.
If they also watched me in the water, well, that was only fair.
#
Next morning, I sawed pairs of shallow crosscuts two inches apart in the underside of the runners. Chipping away the wood between left gaps for ropes to tie crosspieces to the runners. I squared everything by eye, then tied the crosspieces in place. Added branches stiffened the structure and the simple sled was finished, except for a means to pull it.
The front of each runner got a towrope and Millie and I tried dragging the stone boat. It was fairly heavy but would become lighter as the wood seasoned and the bottoms of the runners wore away.
Placing a light load of firewood on the stone boat, we dragged it back to the cabin. The time used in making the stone boat was well spent; we could now spend our time cutting wood without needing to carry it back in our arms.
We turned the stone boat on end and leaned it against the cabin wall overnight. This became habit over the next few days.
Sandra fired pots and bowls that had dried in the cabin, converting them to pottery. She’d done this in the oven while we worked in the woods. She showed us the results when we came in, the larger pots already filled with drying grain. A smaller one was half-full of coarse meal she’d ground earlier. As soon as the grain was dry enough to stop it from developing mold, the pot would be covered with rawhide. Tiny air holes, punched in by an awl, kept insects out while preventing buildup of moisture.
#
Food supplies were low. We still had dried meat and the fresh-ground meal, but the more preserved foods we could save, the better. We would eat fresh foods as long as they were available; extras would be preserved and stored.
I found a different clearing for us to watch this time, one with more tracks and droppings than where we’d killed the stag-moose.
Lilia left to check the roost tree, hoping to bag a turkey. Millie and I took up positions in trees near the clearing’s edge. We killed a camel an hour later, this one a virtual twin of the one I’d snared. We were skinning the carcass, preparing to quarter it for transport, when Lilia came up.
She had a brace of turkey hens; the feathers would be as useful as the meat. Lilia explained that she’d killed one, recovered it, then heard a second chirp. She shot that one too and cleaned both body cavities, saving the livers and gizzards. She had tied the necks together to make them easy to carry.
We finished quartering the camel, tied everything on a travois, and set off for the cabin.
The women worked at preparing the meat when we got back, while I split the tree boles into quarters for spear blanks. The splits went into the corner to season as I finished.
My next task was building a support behind the cabin for cutting firewood. I used an untrimmed green tree, cutting the legs to length, then lifting the trunk into position on four of the limbs, legs for the cutting ‘table’. Shorter stubs stuck out above to hold a log in place during sawing. I would need help lifting the larger logs but I could then crosscut the log without further help.
If threatened I could duck into the cabin, but the noise and activity would probably keep animals away. In any case, my weapons were close
at hand if needed. I never went outside the cabin without them; I knew just how dangerous the predators on Darwin's World were.
I started in the morning and cut firewood all day, taking short breaks from sawing to split the lengths. There was soon a stack of firewood which would help insulate the cabin during the coming winter.
I expected it to be long and cold. This was the late Pleistocene, after all, the time when much of the land was covered by glaciers.
Three people showed up the following morning, two men and a young woman. All wore leather packs, the men carried short swords and one had a spear. The woman had no sword; instead, she had a knife that resembled mine.
“Robert has sent us to find you. We are to work until you release us. Robert says that you can make us spears and bows. Is this true?”
“Yes. I’ve got blanks seasoning that I’ll use to make them, but I’d like to wait a few days before I start chipping the blanks to shape. Did Robert send metal for spear points?”
“He sent enough to make spears for us and arrow points after we have bows. Cindy is to get the first bow, please; she will go with us on the hunt and help with skinning and butchering. She is also good at preparing food.”
They introduced themselves as René and Laszlo “Call me Laz...everyone does.” They appeared to be my age or a bit younger. Cindy went in to meet the other women, René and Laz joined me cutting wood.
It went much faster with three of us. They took over the sawing while I made a wedge for splitting the sections.
I stood the sections on end first. A swing of the axe left a gap if it didn’t split the trunk outright. Placing the wedge in the gap, I used the reverse face of the axe to drive in the wedge.
Split the section into halves, split the halves into quarters, and stack the wood for drying. By noon, we had processed all the wood I’d brought in.
We ate a hasty meal, then started the next project.
#
The cabin wasn’t large enough for eight people; we also needed space for storage. Building a second cabin was beyond my skills. For that matter, hauling the logs was likely impossible, given our time constraints. I had made lean-tos before, this one would just be larger. I hoped to finish within two days.
We cut a dozen trees twenty feet long, then leaned them against the cabin. The three best ones would be the main beams for the shelter, the others would fill in between.
René and I cut the poles while Laz dug a trench paralleling the back wall. We set the main beams in place, the first centered over the cabin’s back door, the other two at what would become the left and right ends of the lean-to. The rest of the poles we leaned rafter-like between the mains, butt ends in the trench, tips resting against the cabin’s wall. The poles rested against the wall about a foot below the cabin’s roof. We sawed the smaller ends off to keep the poles level with each other. The space above would give us room to put branches and leaves under the cabin's eaves; the material would compact over time so that water draining off the roof would run down the lean-to until it reached the ground. Snow would hopefully not build up either, but if it did we’d have to rake it off. The structure was strong, the smaller ends of the poles at least four inches thick.
We laid thinner poles across the slanting ones, squaring them by eye, then tying them into position. We alternated so that a heavier butt end lay between two tips. Branches with the leaves still attached were then tied on in courses, beginning close to the ground, the second course tied paralleling the first and overlapping it. This layer extended until the final course lay just beneath the cabin’s eave. The lean-to's roof extended from the ground to the cabin wall, each course designed to shed rain or snow onto the one beneath.
The ends got frameworks of interlaced branches, then a thick covering of young trees tied in place, butt ends up, branches pointing down. We wove them together to create an interlaced wall of vegetation.
Bundles of long-stemmed grass filled in the gaps; people in the future would use reeds in similar fashion and call it thatch. It was livable by the end of the day and we would improve it the day after. Our beds were skin pads; they would serve until we could build something better.
We left an opening in one end for a doorway. In time we would close it with laced skins, but that would have to wait until after the hunt.
I would also need to pack the end walls with mud and let it dry; it would resist washing away unless we got a heavy rain. Wattle-and-daub was still in common use downtime. I might also add more bundles of grass as my roof compacted.
I would have used all grass thatch, but cutting the grasses with knives and short swords was an exhausting, time-consuming chore.
The improvements were not solely for comfort; we also needed to protect our supplies. After the visitors left, the lean-to would become our storeroom and pantry, freeing up living space inside the cabin.
#
The woodcutting was put on hold after we finished the lean-to; it was time to go hunting. Six of us went out, Lilia and I with bows. We killed a turkey and two of the big palmate-antlered stag-moose, good practice for later hunts. There was enough meat for our immediate use and we sent the excess to the mine. Lilia took Millie and Cindy back t with our share of the meat, I went with Laz and René to the mine. The two dragged the travois while I served as route guard.
Robert thanked us, the mine guards glowered, and we headed out. We got home just after dark.
Chapter 22
Fitting a handle to the end of the saw converted it for two-man use, much more efficient than the one-man version. I recycled a pair of the copper rivets I’d kept from the short swords. Tapping the rivet ends straight, fitting them into place, then peening them over with my axe took most of the time, but finally it was done. The saw was ready for use in the morning.
“Laz, you and René use the small axe and the saw tomorrow. I’ll cut trees using the felling axe, you trim off the tops and branches. After that, saw the trunks to a size that we can haul on the stone boat.
“We’ll cut timber until after noon, then load the stone boat and haul what we’ve cut back to the cabin. We’ll do the same the day after, get the logs back, buck them to length, and split the sections.
“We don’t want to overload the stone boat. I’ll help when I’m available, but when it’s just the two of you it’s easier and faster to drag smaller loads.
“I’ll work on spears as soon as I can take the time away from woodcutting. Lilia’s keeping watch, but you’ll still need better weapons. After I finish your spears, I’ll make Cindy’s bow. As soon as I'm finished, I’ll help with the woodcutting.
“We’re going on a long hunt, as soon as the weapons are ready and the firewood’s split.”
#
We started early. Sandra and Millie brought our lunch at midday and looked willing to hang around, but they had jobs back at the cabin. I put Laz and René back to work as soon as we’d finished eating. The women got the hint and left.
Lilia ate lunch with us, then went back to providing security around the work site.
The wood piled up. Late afternoon found the three of us hauling the heavily-loaded sled to the cabin.
We offloaded the stone boat, stood it on end, and went in for supper. Lilia had bagged a couple of rabbits, prowling around our work site, and they got added to the pot.
Sandra, Millie, and Cindy had managed to fill a pair of the fired clay containers with more coarse-ground meal. Some of it would be added to our reserve. Drying preserved the grains the same way that smoking preserved meat.
We rested for half an hour after eating; cutting wood is hard work! But we had more work than we had time, so we were soon busy again.
The saw needed a touch-up with the file so I took care of that, then ran a stone along the axe’s edge. As the final step, I used a leather scrap to rub beeswax on everything. When you have a limited supply of irreplaceable tools, you take good care of them.
We began working on weapons after the tools were put away. Lilia worke
d on making bowstrings and sinew backing, the others knocked chips from flint cores. I would flake the chips into arrow points later, which saved me a lot of time. I could concentrate on pressure-flaking the rough pieces into points. It’s slow work, making arrowheads, but once you achieve a certain level of skill it’s not difficult. The more you practice, the better you get. I already had a buckskin bag of arrowheads I’d made while learning, useable if not aesthetic.
Two spear blanks were finished and stacked near the fireplace, along with the blanks for making bows. Darkness and exhaustion put an end to our labors. We three would sleep in the lean-to, Lee stayed inside with the women.
All of us needed sleep, but one man still had to keep watch; we didn’t yet have a door for the lean-to. Still, we each got almost eight hours of rest that night.
I was tired next morning but I could function. Even though we worked constantly, we still needed to get accustomed to the increased labor.
The spears were almost finished by mid-afternoon, blades lashed into place, needing only final sanding and waxing. But they were usable, so I handed them to Laz and René when they came in and went back to work on the bow I’d started.
They leaned their new spears against the cabin wall next morning while they cut and stacked wood. Lilia went along as guard when they took the stone boat out to bring in another load.
Drag a load back, offload, do it again. They weren’t able to haul as much as the three of us had, but a respectable stack of wood was growing, ready for use during the winter.
Cindy had learned arrow making from Lee and Lilia. She proved to be more meticulous than either. We developed a division of labor, a kind of assembly line; I was the master knapper, she was becoming the master arrow-smith. After attaching points that I’d made, she glued and wrapped turkey-feather flights to the shafts.
Rough-shaping chips from the stone cores continued after our evening meal. I finished the two spears by sanding the shafts with river sand on damp rawhide, then waxed everything to make the spears resistant to rain.
