The Trek: Darwin's World, Book II (The Darwin's World Series 2) (12 page)

“Maybe, maybe not. Take a look at this.”

Marc led Lee to a hut due east of the firepit. He pointed silently to a bit of shiny stone embedded in the wood framing.

“Busted spearhead or arrowhead, you think?”

“Might be a spearhead, Lee. I can’t tell. But it’s the right width. If it
was
a spear, it broke before the point had penetrated very far.”

Lee nodded. “Any idea which way they went?”

“There are a couple of trails, they could have gone north or southwest. Any tracks they left have been washed away. Either there were animals or a lot of plants they could forage in those directions, or they had some other reason to be traveling the trails. Maybe there’s another village where those trails lead?”

“Maybe. If there were raiders, they took the people captive; there are no bones, and if they killed them, bones or graves would be left. So they took the people, maybe took whatever this village had in the way of wealth. That stool and table, tools the flint-worker used, farming tools.

“I think we should follow the southwest trail for a day. If there’s a raiders’ camp near where we plan to go, we want to know about it. But we’ll stay off the trail, maybe a hundred yards farther west. If that broken spear-point or arrow-point means a raid took place, the raiders aren’t anyone we want to be friendly with, especially if there are more of them than us. So we stay off the trail, go slow and be careful.”

Lee hesitated for a moment. “I don’t want to shoot first and ask questions afterwards. But if they’re raiders, we can’t chance leading them back to the tribe. It’s better to avoid them than start a fight we can’t win, so I won’t shoot if I can avoid it. Could you find your way back to camp from here?”

“Sure, no problem. Head east from here until I reach that stream…it’s bigger than those two little creeks we crossed…and follow it north to camp. Are you thinking of sending me back?”

“Not yet. But I want you to stay at least a hundred yards behind me. If I run into something, I’ll try to get away first, shoot my way out of trouble second. But either way, if there are people up there and they’re a danger, Robert and Matt have to know. You run for it and warn them.”

“What about you?”

“You won’t be able to help me, so don’t even try. I’m pretty careful anyway. I doubt anyone is setting an ambush, they’ve no way of knowing we’re here, and I won’t be on the trail. No, I don’t expect to run into anything I can’t handle, but just in case I’m wrong, you hang back and watch what happens to me. Okay?”

Marc nodded.

The two moved west together, then Lee headed southwest along a route roughly paralleling the trail from the deserted village. After he was a hundred yards ahead, Marc followed.

#

Robert made the rounds of Riverbend Camp after waking.

He looked with disapproval at a number of sites where the tribespeople had decided the dug latrines were too far away and had simply picked a convenient spot to go. Something would have to be done, although he wasn’t sure what. Perhaps some sort of guide rope so people could find the latrines in the dark? Maybe a fallen tree for a seat, something more comfortable than simply squatting? He would talk to Colin and Sal, see if they had suggestions.

Neither was in camp at the moment, so he stopped at the kitchen fire and accepted a slab of meat served on a layer of dandelion leaves. There would be no more bread until the grasses and trees began producing seeds. Stoically he ate his breakfast and drank the gourd of hot tea.

At least they now had honey and wax again. One of the workers had followed flying bees back to the tree where the hive was located. Pots that had once held grain, used up along the trek, now held honey.

The honey had been squeezed from the comb and the wax combs melted down. After cooling, the wax had been broken apart into manageable sections and wrapped in deerskin.

After eating, Robert returning the gourd that had held his tea. He walked away, down to the primitive manufactory that produced axles and wheels. A hundred yards past that point was the glue works, where unused skin and hair from the bison they’d killed had been boiled down to make hide glue. Robert decided he didn’t need to go that far; even from here, the smell was rank.

The wheelwrights were surrounded by slabs of wood. A firepit was in the center of their work space and a small fire burned there. Coals had been raked aside and a glue pot warmed in the edge of the fire, wooden paddle sticking up from the liquid ready for use.

The slabs were glued together first, then the laminated wheel was carefully shaped using hatchets and knives. The wheelwrights pierced the laminated slabs through with a chisel made from a piece of scrap steel. As a final step, a tire made of rawhide would be stretched around the outer circumference, overlapping where the wet hide began. It would be laced into place while wet. The rawhide shrank as it dried and, with the glue, held the wheels together.

A stack of finished wheels, carefully sorted by size, waited to be fitted to axles.

“Anyone seen Sal?”

“I think he’s down by the stream. The fish weir broke, either the stream flooded a little or something went after the fish during the night. He’s working on repairs. I think Colin’s with him.”

“Okay, thank you. You guys are doing good work. Those wheels are going to make a big difference when we start moving again.”

“Thanks. We’ll have enough to convert every travois to a cart and have a few spares after that. It depends on how much trouble we have finding good, dry wood for the axles.”

Robert nodded his understanding and went on his way.

Sal was knee-deep in the shallow stream.

“What happened?”

Colin answered, “Something busted into the fish trap; some kind of cat, based on the tracks. Guess he couldn’t resist an easy meal. We had several catfish in there, big ones, some other kinds too. At least one was a buffalo-fish. We found bones and the two mineral deposits that form above a buffalo’s eyes.”

“Any idea of what to do, other than empty the trap every night? And make sure that people who come down for the fish are armed and bring a torch along, something big enough to scare off a cat?”

“I don’t want to post another guard. We’re stretched thin as it is. I’ll abandon the fish trap after this afternoon. We’ll take whatever we’ve caught and then break it apart. I don’t like the idea of attracting a cat this close to the camp anyway.”

“Good thinking, Colin. Well, you’re busy, but I need to talk to you later. When you’re finished, find me. I’ll probably be near the kitchen fire someplace. How’s your wife doing?”

“Margrette’s a lot better. The rest is just what she needed. She’s been eating well since we got here, put on some of the weight she’d lost, and she’s supervising most of the food preparation now. We’ve been here a week and you’re not ready to leave yet, right?”

Robert nodded. “I figure another week at least. By then, Lee and Matt will be back. Actually, I expected Matt yesterday. He’s been gone for four days now.”

“He’ll get back when he’s done what needed doing. Anyway, Margrette taking over the kitchen has been a big help. It frees me up for working with other people, the ones gathering plants and a couple I’ve trained to recognize edible mushrooms. Do you like the taste?”

“I do. Mushrooms cooked over the fire add to the flavor of the meat. Still, I’ll be glad when we can start grinding grains and seeds. Nuts too; animals got what was produced last fall. We’ll probably be somewhere by late summer that we can begin gathering nuts again. They add to the flavor of the bread.”

The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Laz.

“Matt and Piotr are back, Robert. They’re at the kitchen. They brought three people with them, and Matt asks if you can come over there.”

Robert nodded a farewell to Colin and followed Laz back to the kitchen.

Matt and Piotr were drinking gourds of the tea and three other men were eating slabs of the fresh-roasted meat. They appeared hungry; they were devouring the meat and looked skinny to Robert’s experienced eyes. Each of the three strangers wore two of the short-swords that the mine operators had given to their guard force.

“What’s this, Matt? You bring home some strays?”

“They want to join us, Robert. I figured you should talk to them first, so I brought them in. They were with the mine guards before, but they left as soon as possible. Brought us news, too. Pavel showed up there and he’s settled in as one of their leaders.

“One of their people didn’t like the idea and Pavel killed him. Maybe there was more to him than I thought. Anyway, they’ve had a fight with some new people at the mine, some kind of security force of down-timers. The mine operators brought in their own labor and security force, and the new security people have rifles.

“These three picked up spare swords from some of the dead guards before they took off. Bad news…Pavel got a rifle during the fight. They killed at least one of the new down-timer security people and took his rifle, but it appears they only got one magazine of ammo. It probably isn’t full, since the downtime guy was killed toward the end of the fight.

“Even so, a rifle puts Pavel in charge whether the others like it or not. And he’s been trying to get the ones left from the mine’s original guard force to follow us. He’s planning a raid.”

“You think these three are telling the truth, Matt?”

“I do. Doesn’t mean I’m going to trust them, at least for a while. We can put them to work around camp doing something, see how they fit in. They didn’t have to tell us about Pavel or that he had a rifle, so that’s a mark in their favor.”

Robert nodded. “We can feed them. Looks like they’ve not been eating well.”

“Next thing to starving, Robert. All of the former guards are hungry. They don’t have bush skills or hunting weapons. A few have begun making spears, but according to what these three said the spears are crude. Pavel and his two people, Gregor and Vlad, have the best spears. The rest are still trying to learn how to fashion stone points, so they’re using fire-hardened sharpened wood tips. They work, though. That’s what killed that down-timer, a spear.”

“I guess Pavel remembered what you taught him, Matt.”

The two shared a grim smile. Their conversation was interrupted as Marc trotted into camp.

“Marc, where’s Lee?”

“He’s behind me, Matt. He ran into two men and I left. That’s what he told me to do, leave and tell you. If they killed Lee, they’ll be following my trail. We should put people out for security so they’ll be waiting if anyone followed me.”

Matt nodded. “Take time to catch your breath. You look pretty winded. Laz, you and Philippe follow me. Piotr, you able to go a little longer?”

Piotr nodded. “What about these three, Matt?”

“Bring them along. If they’re going to be part of us, they’ll have to fight. How about it, you three; are you up for a fight?”

The spokesman for the trio, nodded. “We’ll fight. Can we have more of that meat to take with us? We’ve been short on food for a couple of weeks now. We ate cattail roots, and leaves from a couple of other plants, but if there’s enough of that meat…?”

Margrette nodded. She’d coated a roast with clay, then left it to cook in a pile of coals. The broken clay shards lay near the firepit where she’d broken them, after deciding the roast was done. Now she sliced thick slabs from the meat and passed them out.

Moments later, Matt led his small group southwest, following Marc’s trail.

#

An hour later found them hidden in a hasty ambush. Carlo, largest of the three new recruits and their spokesman, now held Matt’s spear.

Matt kept Carlo and Piotr with him. The other new men were split up, one with Laz and the other with Philippe. Both held borrowed spears, better weapons in a fight than the short swords they carried. Laz and Philippe would watch to see how they reacted if a fight broke out, just as Matt would watch his two.

Unknown quantities, they would not be trusted members of the tribe until they showed what they were made of. And demonstrated beyond question where their loyalties lay.

Matt, Marc, Piotr, and Laz retained their bows. All wore knives as well. The bows would do most of the killing if someone followed Marc’s trail.

Matt spared a thought for Lee…the fact that he hadn’t appeared yet was not a good sign. Wounded, perhaps dead? How would he explain it to Lilia?

Matt worried as the ambushers settled in to wait and watch Marc’s back trail.

Chapter 11

Matt felt a touch on his arm and looked at Carlo. The man nodded to the side; Laz was trying to tell him something.

Matt slowly held both hands out, palms up, to indicate lack of understanding. In response, Laz held up both hands, each with the forefinger extended. Matt nodded and repeated the gesture.

Piotr and Carlo were watching Matt when he glanced at them. Matt signaled with his fingers, two, then pointed to himself as a signal that he expected to act first. The others would remain ready in case they were needed. Piotr and Carlo both nodded understanding.

Matt resumed watching and finally saw what Laz had spotted, two young girls. Barely more than children, Matt guessed their ages between twelve and fourteen years. Best of all, Lee was behind them. He turned as Matt watched, scanning the trail behind him.

Matt stood so that Lee would see him when he turned around.

The two girls stopped, confused. Matt signaled the rest of his ambush party to remain in place while he walked forward.

“I know. You found them and they followed you home.”

“Not exactly, Matt. Anyway, I’m glad to see you. Are you alone?”

“No, I’ve got seven others. Marc warned us and we’ve been watching his trail. The rest are hidden, in case you picked up a tail.”

“I may have, Matt. I hadn’t planned on it, but there were two men chasing the girls. They’re raiders, Matt. They capture people, keep a few as slaves and sell the others. I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

“Why don’t you take the girls to Riverbend Camp and let Robert decide what to do with them? If he has no objection, turn them over to your mother. Lilia will know what they need and they can camp with us.