The Trek: Darwin's World, Book II (The Darwin's World Series 2) (26 page)

Nothing happened at first. Then the small strip of water behind the raft widened slowly as Sal continued to push. The raft's progress was slow but it was definitely moving. Matt planted his pole against the bottom and locked his hands tight, gripping the pole as Sal was doing. Leaning into the pole, Matt brought his weight to bear, pushing slightly upstream as the raft slipped away from the bank.

There was a technique used by canoe paddlers, a kind of leverage stroke in which the paddler used the side of the canoe as a fulcrum, pushing the paddle deep into the water before pulling back on the grip. Would something similar work for poling the raft? Matt decided to give it a try.

Pushing the pole into the bottom, close to the edge of the raft, he pulled back and felt the raft move in response. Grinning, Matt looked back at Sal. Taking his hand off the pole, he flashed a 'thumbs up' to Sal where he continued pushing.

Matt shortly found this wasn't a good idea. The current caught the raft, causing a slow drift downstream. The raft's edge caught the pole and Matt tried to pull against the portion sticking up. His moccasin-clad feet began to slip and the pole dragged him toward the edge of the raft.

Matt released the pole and the end whipped toward the water. The raft majestically drifted over the pole, leaving it to bob up behind them.

Sal was laughing, but Matt was too worried to find humor in the situation. Behind him, Sal pushed, driving the raft ahead toward the center of the river.

The men on the bank saw the problem and quickly took an additional wrap around the tree. The tree shivered, but held.

The rope had sagged and was now in the water as the raft drifted downstream. The sag slowly lifted behind them and the rope creaked as it took up the strain.

Water dripped onto the river’s surface, squeezed out from the rope as several tons of raft stretched the cable. The tension increased, squeezing more water out. The heavy rope popped, groaned, and stretched even more, becoming thinner in the process.

The rope had been almost as thick as his wrist when Sal tied it to the raft; now it was half that diameter. The raft jerked as the rope finally reached full extension. The rope thrummed, a bass sound, and emitted another slight popping noise.

"SAL! Over here by me, and get down low!"

"Matt, what are you talking about?"

"If that rope snaps, it can take your head off. Get down and stay out from in front. If it snaps...well, we can always jump and swim to shore, but not if it injures one of us."

Sal's face grew suddenly white. He dropped his pole and scurried over by Matt.

The raft slowly changed direction, now drifting toward the bank.

Matt anxiously watched the straining rope. Would it hold?

Chapter 23

The rope twanged every time a small surge in the current lapped against the ferry, but it slowly drifted toward shore. Matt and Sal remained flat on the deck and warily watched the tight rope. Ages later, the rope sagged as the craft drifted into the slack water near the bank.

"I'll get the pole, Sal. Would you help your crew pull the raft back to where we launched it? I'll use the pole to keep the raft out of the current."

"Sure, Matt. I hope you do a better job of poling than you did before!"

Matt chuckled ruefully. "I learned my lesson, Sal. That mistake won't happen again. I'll figure out a new way to mess things up!"

Sal laughed and jumped for the bank, scrambling to get out of the muddy edge. The raft now floated parallel to the current and Matt positioned himself against in the center, pole in hand. He would have to move back and forth along the ferry’s railing and even across the raft, keeping it out of the current but also preventing it from hanging up on brush at the river's edge.

The drift downstream had lasted less than ten minutes from launch to end. Pulling the heavy raft back, even with Sal and himself helping, took a solid hour of work. Matt was exhausted, as were the four men hauling on the tether rope.

"Lesson learned, Sal. We'll need four polemen to work the raft near the banks, even with the current pushing us across after we get the long ferry rope attached. That raft is heavy!"

"I knew it was heavy, Matt. We dragged every one of those logs down to the water, but once they were floating we could move them without much trouble. I didn't realize that putting them all together and then having the current push the whole structure would be so hard to control."

"It should be easier after we get the long rope on. Reaction ferries, which is what this is going to be, are easier to work than the kind where the ferry requires muscle power for every foot it moves across the river."

"Sure hope so, Matt. But the first time we use it, I'll ride the ferry. I'll pick people who are good swimmers, in case the rope breaks, to do the poling."

"Take your weapons, too. If the raft drifts it might take you a while to work your way back after you finally get ashore. You could end up miles down the river."

"Will do, Matt. Lilia's crew should have the long rope ready by tomorrow. This rope worked, although I was concerned when I saw how much it stretched. We'll lay it out in the sun to dry. We'll need it again as a safety rope and to pull the ferry the rest of the way to the bank after it's out of the current. I'll let you know when we're ready to make the first ferry trip."

"Something else to watch out for, rising water. If there's a heavy rain upstream, the water will rise and the current will get stronger. If that happens, we'll have to drag the raft on shore until the water goes down."

"Could be a problem if we strand people on the side away from camp."

"That's why we don't go anywhere without weapons. All of us have been here more than a year now, we know the dangers, and if we're careful and always have at least a spear handy we can survive until the ferry starts operating again."

Sal nodded and Matt headed back to camp.

#

Margrette and her daughter Callie were humming quietly as they knelt on a shaggy skin. Curious, Matt walked over and watched. The two were deftly slicing steaks from a large hindquarter, and another lay waiting to get the same treatment.

"Is that a bison?"

"Tex called it a buffalo, but it's the same animal. We've got fresh meat for tonight!"

"Tex brought it in?" At Margrette's nod, Matt continued, "Did you see which way he went?"

"Over toward the river, Matt. He left about an hour ago, maybe a little longer."

"Good to have fresh meat for supper. I'll go see if I can find him."

Monika was also camped in that direction and Matt stopped for a moment. Her son, Bear, was playing with a bow suited to his five-year-old hands.

"Did Tex pass this way?"

"Sure did, Matt. He brought Bear that nice bow. It's a toy, but the sooner they begin learning, the better."

"Indeed. I hope he doesn't shoot any of us!"

"It's more toy than anything else, but I'll keep an eye on him. Tex went on toward the river, I think."

"OK, thanks. See you later, Bear." But the child had attention only for his new treasure and didn’t respond.

Matt looked along the river but found no sign of Tex. Curious, Matt continued on until he found the group with Lilia. The long, heavy ferry cable appeared to be almost finished. The remaining few inches of cord were being wrapped around the end of the cable, preparing to secure the cable end from unraveling.

"Looks good, Lilia. Did Tex come this way?"

"I didn't see him, Matt. But now that you're here, we need more men and a couple of the carts, I think. We can coil as much cable on the first cart as it will hold, then coil the rest on the other one. We'll have to take it slow and keep the second cart right behind the first one, but with help we can have the cable delivered to Sal in an hour."

"Good job, Lilia. I'll find three men and we can move the cable for you. Your crew has done a fine job."

"It was hard work, Matt. The longer the cable got, the heavier it was. We only had the men in the edge of the forest to pull it away as we plaited, and they're exhausted."

"I'll find others. Piotr can help and Colin will know who can be spared. We'll tie the cable to the biggest tree we can find up there and use a kind of bridle system to change the ferry's direction."

"Well, you know more about it than I do. We'll be waiting."

Matt gave up his search for Tex...he would turn up in his own good time...and went to find Colin. Collecting Piotr from his flint-shaping, Matt, Colin, Piotr, and Carlo picked the two sturdiest carts and pulled them to where Lilia waited.

The four began coiling the cable onto the first cart, struggling to pull the heavy length toward the carts. Eventually almost half of the cable was arranged in coiled layers on the first cart. Matt estimated that the weight of the cable was all the cart could carry without risking a breakdown. Propping the shafts of the second cart on the bed of the first, the men continued coiling the remaining cable. Finally, it was done.

"Piotr, bring some of the rope from my camp, please. We'll arrange this while you're gone."

Piotr nodded and left. "Colin, I'm going to tie the shafts of the second cart to the cargo bed of the first one. Normally two people would pull a cart, but we'll have the weight of two so we'll use two men on each shaft. If that's still too heavy to pull, we can use long ropes like we did coming down the ridge. Tie them to the axle of the first cart, put a couple of men on each rope, and then all of us pull. We'll get it there in an hour or so."

"Matt, should we leave our weapons here? It would be easier if they weren't banging on our legs as we pull."

"We take the weapons. If they're too much trouble, lay them on the coils. The weapons will stay in place. Basic rule, never be more than a few feet from your weapons."

"Understood, Matt."

Piotr came back with the ropes and Matt supervised the task of lashing the two carts together. This balanced the carts so that the front shafts of both stood well clear of the ground.

"Matt, why don't we try pushing on the rear cart while two people pull the shafts of the first one? If that doesn't work, we can try your rope idea."

"Sure, Colin. Pushing might work. Just don't push faster than the front cart can go. It's the steering engine for this train."

Colin grinned and nodded. Obviously, he knew what a train was.

The lashed carts creaked and groaned, but with Colin and three others pushing, Matt and Piotr managed to guide the front cart up the trail. An hour later found them at the ferry site.

Sal and his crew had been resting and were now ready to tie the long cable to the raft; by doing so, they converted the raft to a ferry.

Matt called the men over to where he'd scraped a bare place on the ground.

"Here's what I have in mind. This is a reaction ferry, it works because the current tries to push it downstream and the cable keeps that from happening. We use shorter ropes to adjust the ferry’s angle. When the current hits the raft, it's deflected. That's why I had Sal build a shallow keel on the bottom. Whichever end is pointing upstream, that's the way the ferry will go. When we're ready to come back, we lengthen the bow rope and shorten the stern rope, changing from bow-upstream to stern-upstream. We'll need four men on the raft to push, at least the first time. I think we can toss a rope to the shore and people already across can pull us in. We won't need the poles after the first crossing."

Matt was sketching lines in the dirt to illustrate his points.

"But I think it's too late to cross today. It's going to take a couple of hours to get all the ropes arranged, and by then it will be late afternoon. We'll tie everything on today and tomorrow morning we can try crossing. I want good swimmers only on the first trip, understood? If something goes wrong, jump in upstream from the ferry and swim. Don't get downstream and don't fight the current, even though it's not all that fast. Swim with it, but also pull toward the side until you’re close, then swim for the bank after you're out of the current. Any questions?"

The men nodded soberly and Sal took charge, sending men to do the different tasks. Matt watched for a moment, then went back to camp.

#

Lee was watching Callie and her mom prepare the steaks. Matt watched as Callie handed Lee a steak, already skewered on a green stick. Lee used one of the forked sticks around the fire to prop his steak over the coals. Matt decided to see if they'd give him a steak too, and his was soon broiling next to Lee's.

"Tex is a good hunter as well as a good fighter."

"That he is, Matt. I spoke to him for a few minutes. He said there's a herd of buffalo about two miles northwest of here. He said there was also a herd of mammoths past the buffalo, at least a dozen he said. He left after that."

"He's gone again?"

Lee nodded. "I think he wants to try for another buffalo."

"What did he do with the rest of the buffalo? I only saw two hindquarters."

"He said he couldn't drag more than that, so he ate some of the backstrap and left the rest. Coyotes and foxes gotta eat too, that's what he said."

"I suppose. Nothing's wasted here. What we don't eat, some other animal will. I wonder why he didn't stay in camp tonight?

"Matt, I don't think he's adjusted to living with people yet. He spent ten years alone and I suspect he's more comfortable out in the bush. He'll come back when it suits him."

"I guess you're right. Maybe I'll get a chance to talk to him next time he's back. Time to turn the steaks, wouldn't you say?”

#

Tex crawled from the river, picking up his bow, quiver, and spear from the lashed-together limbs he'd used as a float. He untied the two thin ropes from the bundle, coiling them and slinging them over his shoulder; after they dried, he would replace them in his small pack. Finished, he pushed the limbs away from the bank and watched the slow current take them.

He soon crested a small rise and spotted the buffalo grazing, still only a few miles away. There was no sign of the mammoths, but they'd be around. For such huge animals, they possessed an uncanny ability to disappear into the brush. Probably it was the gray skin covered by thin brown wool that made it possible.