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

by Jack L Knapp

  “Maybe. Or maybe we’ll make new mistakes. For that matter, maybe we can find out things the downtime people never discovered. I probably won’t do it, but my grandchildren might. And this time, the sloths and mammoths will still be around. Dire wolves too, even the giant bears. There’s a place for all of them in an ecosystem. The futurist talked about humans losing their will to live. Maybe having a little danger around, enough but not too much, is the key to keeping a civilization alive.

  “We need to pass as much of our knowledge along to the next generation as we can, Colin. That’s why I intend to push papermaking, once we have homes and food enough for winter. Winter is a good time to teach the young ones.”

  “Keeps ‘em out of mischief too, Matt. That kid Bear is already a handful!”

  #

  Dreaded jobs don’t get easier for waiting. Tex made the rounds, apologizing to people and working to fit back into the tribe. But he tired of this after tendering his apologies and went back to his corral. The horses seemed glad to see him, or perhaps it was the hay he fed them.

  The hay had been collected and stacked by his two assistants. Cutting the dried grasses was time-consuming, but it was necessary for horses kept in corrals.

  One benefit to hand-cutting hay as they’d done was that the grasses retained their seeds, making a richer mixture than downtime grass hay would have provided. The horses looked forward now to their twice-daily feedings.

  Tex spotted hoof tracks around the outside of the corral.

  “Have you been riding outside the corral?” Both men assured him they’d done no more than move the corral in the same fashion Tex had done.

  “That stallion’s back, then. Let’s leave the old corral in place after I move the horses to the new graze. We’ll open one side so he can get in and catch him up. We can use one of my reatas, tie it to the side of the corral and when he’s in, pull the reata tight to close off the opening.”

  The two men, José and Ernesto, nodded understanding. They rarely spoke other than between themselves or with some of the others who’d been rescued from the slave raiders. Perhaps they were uncomfortable speaking English, or it might be that they simply preferred Spanish. Tex, rarely talkative himself, was satisfied with the arrangement.

  The three worked on through the day, catching and leading the mares. The mare they were training to be a draft animal, using the collar and harness Tex devised, had progressed well; Tex left her alone except when he needed to drag the timbers into place for a new corral.

  The three caught the stallion late that afternoon when he came sniffing after his mares. Tex repaired the hackamore and swung aboard for the first ride since he’d been captured. The two quivers Matt had used were still there, but the arrows had been lost somewhere. Tex removed the quivers and stacked them with the other equipment and spent a few minutes getting the stallion settled.

  “José, time to take that mare out of the corral. Ernesto, help him get comfortable and when he’s ready, open the side of the corral so he can join me outside. We’ll ride around for an hour or so, then he can turn his horse in with the others and you can ride a different one outside for a while. The two of you should be ready for a longer ride in a day or two; I’ll decide after I see how the afternoon goes.”

  The two nodded, and soon Tex and José trotted their horses up the long ridge west of the river. Tex had his quiver of arrows and cased bow tied to the strap around the stallion’s barrel, one on each side. He carried his spear slung across his back. José carried his spear in the same fashion as Tex, but had not taken the time to attach the bow and quiver.

  Tex was in no hurry. Every hour on horseback was an hour of training for horse and rider. He kept the pace to a walk, returning an hour later. The stallion seemed anxious, so Tex squeezed with his knees and the horse stretched into an extended canter. A glance over his shoulder showed José hanging on as his mare kept pace, even if he wasn’t riding with Tex’s easy grace. Where Tex sat upright and moved loosely with the stallion, José gripped the handful of mane just forward of the mare’s withers. His left hand held the rein, but at least he wasn’t trying to hold the horse back.

  He would soon learn. Practice for a day or two, get used to riding several different horses to pick up the individual mannerisms they displayed, both would soon be riders. If they were more passengers than riders at the moment, they needed only experience.

  With luck, the tribe’s youngsters would grow up riding. The increased mobility would change the tribe’s lifestyle significantly, as would animal power hitched to a variety of implements.

  #

  Lee and Marc watched Piotr and his helpers work.

  “Got a minute, Piotr?”

  “Sure, Lee.” Piotr laid aside the obsidian core he was breaking into long blanks and walked to where the two were standing.

  “Thanks for taking over security while we were trailing those raiders.”

  “No problem. I was glad to do something besides make arrow and spear points. I’m spending too much time in camp. If you’ve got a place for me, I’d like to go on the next hunt.”

  “We can use you. You know Matt wants to get moving, so I thought we could go on a scout west of here, maybe stay out a couple of days. Matt wants to start working more to the south. He says there are mountains ahead. How would you feel about taking someone with you and scouting south for a day?”

  “I’d like that. How many parties are you sending out?”

  “I’m going, and Marc will go with me. I think Matt’s going too, although he didn’t say so. He’s not doing much in camp, just waiting for Sal’s crew to finish making new carts. He wants every adult to have a cart to pull, although I’m wondering how the carts will do when we get moving. The wheels will take a beating as soon as we reach the mountains. There will be rocks, and there’s no way we can avoid all of them. I guess if the carts start breaking we’ll be back pulling travois. That worked, but it was hard work and it will slow us down. Laz will probably go too, maybe with Matt unless I leave him here to guard the camp.”

  “I could take one of the people who’s working with me, Lee.”

  “Better not. We need the weapons. All those new people need bows and we’ll need extra arrows for everyone. Matt will want the weapon-building to keep going.”

  “I’ll be ready tomorrow. Take a day to hunt, then go exploring?”

  Lee nodded, then walked away to find Matt.

  Piotr resumed work on the obsidian core. He glanced in satisfaction at the items he’d already flaked this morning, an axe head that needed only a haft, half a dozen scrapers to replace broken or lost tools, two spearheads, and a dozen arrowheads.

  The spearheads would be given to some of the new people. They would find shafts and make new spears for themselves, replacing the ones taken from dead raiders. Piotr’s spear-points were of much higher quality than what they’d taken from fallen raiders, and in any case people needed the ability to make weapons for themselves.

  Piotr would use his new arrowheads himself. A second quiver of arrows could be hauled on the cart when he joined tomorrow’s hunt.

  #

  Matt leaned against one of the downed trees that formed the makeshift fence, watching Tex use a handful of grass to rub down the sweaty stallion. José and Ernesto had completed currying their own mounts and now were cutting more of the dried grass hay.

  “We’ve been lucky, Matt.”

  “How so, Tex?”

  “None of the people we’ve fought so far had bows. But you can bet they’ll have them by next year. You’re using sinew for strings and reinforcements, but there’s wild flax around, some other long-fiber plants too. Somebody will figure how to make strings from flax or something else. It’s the same thing with horses.

  “I ain’t the only one that can ride. Somebody will see us. Soon as they do, they’ll start looking for horses themselves. Either that, or give up raidin’ north of the seaway. They won’t have a chance, afoot and armed with spears. Soon as people kno
w they’re around, just send a few patrols south and start lookin’ for the boats. Time the raiders get back, the boats’ll be burned and there’ll be people waitin’ in the weeds to plink ‘em full of arrows.

  “You watch, by next year people will be huntin’ buffalo from horseback. Raidin’ too. You’re going to have to get your tribe mounted and they’re gonna need to shoot arrows from horseback.”

  Matt nodded gloomily. “I guess you’re right. How long before the horses you’ve got are ready to be swapped?”

  “If you can loan a few people to cut hay and learn about horses, Ernie and Joe can spend more time ridin’ and breakin’ horses. I’m already doin’ that.”

  “Ernie and Joe, hmmm?”

  “Don’t take as long to say. They’ll get used to it. Soon as I get ‘em used to callin’ me Tex instead of Señor Tex.”

  The two shared a grin. “Well, don’t make ‘em mad. If they want Ernesto and José, we can call ‘em that.”

  “You’re startin’ to talk right, Matt. You can almost speak Texan.”

  Matt shook his head. “It’s catchin’, but maybe we can teach you to talk English instead. Anyway, we don’t have a lot of manpower to spare. I’ll see what I can do to get you some help. You’re going to teach, right?”

  “Shore. Can’t have people around that can’t handle the hosses. You send ‘em, I’ll school ‘em.”

  “Just don’t do it with your fists, Tex. If you insist on fighting, look me up first.”

  “I can do that. You plannin’ on ridin’ too?”

  “I hadn’t intended to, but I guess I don’t have a choice, do I?”

  “Nope. Soon as you’re ridin’, Laz and Lee too, I’ll take Ernie and Joe west of here and we’ll catch more horses. I figure to start a stud farm or maybe a horse ranch, whichever. We can use wild stuff for ridin’, but we’re gonna need better stock. I figure to use this stallion for breeding, but I’ll upgrade as soon as I can catch better stuff. Start the first crop of foals off right, and you’ll have better mounts within five years or so. Give me ten years and I’ll have horses for huntin’, horses for pullin’ wagons, Hell, even plowin’ if that’s what you want. You’ll need good wagons, big ones, if you plan to bring stuff back to this town you’re gonna build. You’ll need timber, buildin’ stone, maybe ore if you’re gonna be making your own steel. Coal too, if there’s any around. You plannin’ on using coal, or charcoal?”

  “I’ll use coal if we can find it. We might be able to develop better electrical generating without depending on coal as long as people did downtime, but we need the concentrated fuel just to get started. First we have to make the tools to make the tools.”

  “Yeah. I expect there’ll be people that know how to do things. Be nice to have a real doctor and maybe somebody that knows more about medicine.”

  “You’re right. Elizabeth does a lot, but she could do with more and better bandages, medicine, everything. The good part is that she’s well matched to what we’ve got. Her medical supplies are what she’s made and she knows how they can be used. Most of us are generalists, we can do a lot of different things. We haven’t had the luxury of developing specialists yet. I guess that will happen in a few generations.”

  “Likely, Matt. Too much to learn about some things. If you don’t spend all your time workin’ on what you do, you’ll never be as good as the feller that does. Just like rodeoin’, the one that does nothin’ but rope steers is bound to be better at it than the one that ropes and rides rough stock too. Gonna mean changes, though. Right now, everybody can turn to and do whatever needs doin’. I reckon we’ll lose something when people start doin’ only one kind of work.”

  “You mentioned starting a horse ranch, Tex. You have a place in mind?”

  “I’m gonna look around, but that seaway is plumb interestin’. There was a feller that claimed some land in downtime Texas near the Gulf, and he built a ranch that was probably still goin’ a long time after I got picked up by that futurist. Me callin’ him Saint Peter worked just as well, far as I’m concerned. But anyway, there was plenty of grass along the Gulf downtime. Good water too. The country just north of the seaway has better grass than what’s around here. More rain down there, I expect.

  “I saw tracks while we were lookin’ for those boats. I’m thinkin’ the buffalo and them mammoths and such from up north are gonna overwinter down here. There are already some big critters, down in the low places between the ridges. Some might go north in the spring but I’ll bet a lot of ‘em just live down there all the time, back in the canyons and the brush.”

  “You’re going to have to fight, Tex. You’ll be close to where the raiders have been crossing. Lots of them, not many of you. They’ll be coming.”

  “I reckon. But the feller that started that ranch, he had to fight. Comanches, Kiowas, local Injuns too. Soon as I get a few people that can ride and shoot, I’ll put them raiders out of business. Hosses can do more work than people for some things.”

  “You’re smarter’n you look, Tex.”

  “You too, Matt. Well, I need to get back to work.”

  “See you later, Tex.”

  “Later, Matt.”

  Chapter 35

  The tribe left the riverside camp a week later. Everyone except the people on security patrol pulled a cart. The scouts explored ahead and to the flanks of the march for a day, then swapped places with another scout, taking over the task of pulling a cart. All of the men now took a turn on security duty, even the new men adopted into the tribe after the fight near the seaway. If they weren’t yet the archers that others were, they continued to improve. The new people were motivated and practiced whenever time could be found; nothing like a spell of captivity to inspire enthusiasm for learning defense!

  Tex had come through, horses and tack; Matt, Lee, and Laz were mounted now, riding in the morning but tethering their horses behind a cart in the afternoon. The system was working well. The animals rested and grazed as they followed the slow-moving carts.

  José and Ernesto had gone with Tex, as had Callie; she’d made a last-minute decision to accompany him. Colin and Margrette were unhappy, but it hadn’t been their choice to make. In any case, she’d be close enough to visit the tribe from time to time. The horse Tex had been breaking to use as a draft animal, using the collar he’d made, pulled a cart loaded with supplies. Tex led this horse, Callie riding at his side, while Ernesto and José rode ahead of the small group, herding the remaining horses.

  #

  The tribe settled into traveling. A week passed, then another. Scouts had little difficulty killing a buffalo most afternoons and the tribe stopped for the day as soon as they came up to where the carcass lay. Occasionally they bagged a camel or llama, and twice they’d killed wild sheep.

  The sheep were not like the domesticated animals of downtime; instead, they resembled Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. This variety might be ancestral to the downtime desert bighorns.

  Matt wondered if the animals could be domesticated, but investigating the possibility would have to wait. First they needed a place to live, winter quarters if necessary but a permanent home if possible. A permanent settlement would include pasturage, fenced corrals and barns, all the things necessary to keep livestock. Possibly young animals could be captured? Matt schemed as he walked.

  #

  The rolling hills and ridges west of the river had given way to flat plains covered with short grasses and brush. Trees were smaller and farther apart, indicating less annual rainfall here than behind them to the east. Occasional knolls popped up, for no reason Matt could see. They were just there, most of them with a cap of limestone. Perhaps the knolls were the remains of what had once been level surface and the area between the limestone-capped knolls had eroded away.

  Lee talked with Matt as they dismounted and tied their horses behind a cart.

  “Mornings are getting cool, Matt. People are wearing their deerskins closed now instead of leaving them open.”

  “I noticed. We�
��ve got a month at most before weather becomes a problem. I’d rather not push that long. Just as soon as I find a place where we can build, that’s where we stop.”

  “People are looking forward to this promised land of yours, Matt.”

  “Is that what they’re calling it?”

  “Some are. Most everyone is tired of traveling. People spent last winter in houses. They weren’t great, but they were warm and they were ours. They want to spend winter in houses, not temporary shelters.”

  “Lee, building more-permanent shelters will be the first thing we do. We’ll need to cut firewood after that, but we’ve got more help now than we had last time. If we can build shelters so that they share a wall or a pass-through fireplace that heats both rooms, we won’t need to burn as much wood to stay warm.

  “The bison, what Tex called buffalo, are common around here. We should be able to kill as much meat as we can cure into jerky. As soon as it freezes, we can start hanging quarters of meat like we did last winter. They’ll stay frozen until we’re ready to cut them into steaks and roasts. For that matter, there are giant sloths and mammoths around too. I killed that mammoth as much by luck as skill, but with several of us working together, we can probably kill one or two of the bigger animals. It will give us a change of diet from eating buffalo all the time. Bears too; those thick bearskins make good sleeping pads, and they’ll make good rugs.

  “The carts are already loaded with dried berries, nuts, vegetables and pots of honey. If we’re short of anything, it’s sleeping robes and hides we can make into leather for boots and heavy clothing. We’re also going to need more horse tack and reatas like the ones Tex uses.

  “We should be able to get all the hides we need, as soon as we have time to make them into leather, but I don’t expect winter here to be nearly as bad as last winter was. We’re quite a bit farther south, away from any glaciers up north of here. Too, the seaway isn’t far away and that might help keep the worst of the cold away.