We didn't have saws, yet, so planks were made by carefully splitting the wood with wedges. We could make a plane fairly easily, so the planks could be smoothed. I had wanted a spoked wheel to reduce the dead weight the horse had to pull, but that proved too much to try for on our first effort, so we went with the solid wheel. However, bronze bearings and animal fat lubricant made the wheels turn much more easily than I had expected. We would have our first cart by spring!
Speaking of "spring," that was something I insisted on. It was a sure thing that our cart was going to bounce around a lot without springs, since we did not have any established roads. Therefore, both for the comfort of the driver and the safety of the cargo, I wanted some sort of spring. Hannah came up with a design combining leather straps and bronze leaf springs that turned out very well. No, it wasn't as smooth a ride as a 20th century car, but it sure as hell beat no springs at all!
In any case, once we had the bugs out of our 2-wheeler, I was going for a 4-wheel wagon with all the trimmings. A 2-wheeler was inherently limited in weight capacity, but a 4-wheeler could hold all that multiple horses could pull. One of these days, I was going to have a steam tractor, but I had to take one step at a time. Some people were frightened by the thought of a 2-wheel cart, so there was a limit on how fast I could progress, even if had all of the raw materials.
We desperately needed more people in our community. Counting the children, we had 67 people, more women than men. As soon as the cold weather broke, I wanted to start scouring the neighborhood for more people willing to join us. I had no intention of forcing people to join our community, but I was sure that the advantages we had to offer, more food, better shelter, safety from attack, would be all we needed to grow. I was banking on it.
Our cave was just about at capacity. Either we needed a larger cave or we had to start using wooden houses. I was torn with indecision on this one, and Hannah couldn't help much. We could enlarge our existing cave by carving away with blasting powder, but ventilation would then become a problem. I decided to try sticking with cave living, but blasting out a new cave, rather than trying to enlarge our current cave. This way, an accident would not deprive the people of living space. Once we had a new cave, we could join them with a short tunnel (I hoped).
There was a small cave on the opposite side of the main cave from the small cave holding the foundry and forge where Ox and Stork lived with their child. Hannah and I thought that we could start out by enlarging that cave. We lucked out! Hannah tapped on the wall with a bronze chisel and heard a hollow sound. She guessed that this meant that there was an enclosed area behind a relatively thin wall that we could pierce and save ourselves a lot of work. We blasted out about 7 feet of wall and found a monster cavern inside our mountain. What's more, the air seemed to be reasonably fresh, and a steady breeze blew in from the outside opening of the small cave. This indicated plenty of ventilation, so we were in good shape there.
Hannah had a built-in navigation system which meant that she could always retrace her steps, so we were not worried about getting lost as we explored the new cave. We gathered up several torches and started to explore. I lit a torch with my cigarette lighter and we were astounded at the expanse of this cavern. There was even a stream of running water passing through. We decided to follow the stream to see where it exited the cave. We walked nearly a mile before we came to a place where the stream disappeared through a small hole in the wall of the cavern.
The hole was large enough to pass Hannah's body, but her head would be under water. Obviously, there was no way I could follow the stream any farther, but this was no barrier to Hannah. She stepped into the water and ducked her head; she had no breath to hold. Hannah disappeared for about 15 minutes before she reappeared and climbed from the stream. "The stream ends in a waterfall on the outside of the mountain. The waterfall is about 18 feet high, so there is no worry about someone gaining entrance that way. Furthermore, there is no way to breathe once you are in the tunnel. I doubt that there is anything that could attack us from that direction."
We walked around the periphery of the main cavern and found a multitude of small "rooms," all of them nearly ideal in size for a single-family dwelling. At the far end of the cavern, we found a "chimney" leading outside. We knew this because of the strong breeze we could feel and the way our torch was nearly blown out. I could find only two things which kept this cavern from being the perfect home, it was dark and there was no convenient waste disposal system. I was afraid that people would dump shit and piss into the stream, which should be used for drinking water. Hannah told me not to worry, she could fix both problems. I had complete confidence in Hannah, so I did stop worrying and left everything in her capable hands.
That night, while everybody else was sleeping, Hannah scaled the wall of the cavern and used her bronze chisel to cut several holes through the wall to the outside. This let in a lot of light; a few more holes and we could get by without artificial light in the main chamber. She had also found a place she could dig a channel for a wardrobe (the toilet facilities for a castle) with the capacity for 300 people. Hannah thought that the cavern was large enough to handle that many people.
Hannah also announced that her echo ranging suggested that there were more caverns in this mountain. She likened it to a monster Swiss cheese. Hannah suggested that we limit ourselves to this cavern right now and wait until later to open up any more chambers. That sounded reasonable to me, particularly after she said that she had found a good place to connect this chamber with our current home. I admit it—I had visions of converting this mountain into a vast apartment complex.
That night, after supper, I called everybody together and lit a cigarette. After generating quite a few puffs of smoke, I told them about the new cavern. I told them that the gods would cut a new passage through the wall to give us easy access to the new living quarters. I told them that the gods had prepared a convenient water supply for us, and I explained about the wardrobe and how to use it. I warned them that the gods would take it as a personal insult if anybody dumped piss or shit or any other waste into the water supply. I hated invoking the gods that way, but it was the only sure way of getting them to listen and obey the sanitation rules.
I told them that the gods didn't want the humans to see them at work, so they should spend the entire night in their beds if they didn't want to offend the gods. The people were told that the good ones would get a tour of the new place tomorrow; until then, they should stay out! The bad ones would shrivel up and die and never get to visit the promised land. Shit! I hated to talk like that!
Shortly thereafter, everybody went to bed, and Hannah started her mining work. She cut a few more light ports and then cut the connecting tunnel which terminated in the stable. I knew that the horses wouldn't snitch on Hannah. By morning, the job was finished and the loose rock had been cleared.
After breakfast (you will note that we always did these things after I had a good meal), we walked through the tunnel to reach the new cavern. Everybody was absolutely astounded at the new place, and all wanted to move, immediately. I told them that they could pick out their new apartment at any time. But I did tell them that I had already staked my claim and, the gods had put a mark over the door. Hannah had chiseled my mark over the door of the best apartment; after all, it was equivalent to a "finder's fee," and rank had its privileges! They were dismissed, and everybody rushed to select an apartment.
I asked my wives to start moving our stuff to our new apartment. Each of the women had her own room, and there was a room we could use for a nursery. Cooking and eating were still a communal activity, so we would do that in the main chamber. I'd had Ox make up several bronze hammers and chisels, so the children could be put to work smoothing the lumps from the floor. Of course, the kids thought it was great fun to pound at the floor, and there was a steady stream of complaints about some child being selfish and not sharing the tools. Ox looked at me and nodded; he could see the need for each child to have his own set of to
ols.
Everybody moved into the new cavern, so we converted the old cave into a series of workshops, sort of a factory. There was enough room for all the work to be done, but everybody was close enough together for conversations while they worked. However, not even Ox and Stork wanted to move the foundry and forge, so they stayed in their separate little cave.
We now had the best protection we could possibly have if we were attacked. We had an impregnable castle which had only two entrances, both too narrow for many people to attack us at once. Our walls simply could not be breached with the current technology, so we were perfectly safe as long as we had food, and I planned to cover that detail as soon as the weather warmed up and the hunting improved.
We had built some doors so that we could close off the entrances. This was necessary to keep animals from sneaking in on us. I knew that we couldn't keep out rats and mice, so I wanted us to get some small dogs as soon as possible. There was no chance of getting cats from Africa, so we would need to depend on dogs to keep the vermin under control. Dogs were domesticated by this time in some places, though not in this particular locale—another reason for travel and trade.
Spring had finally come. A couple of days after it finally quit raining, we were able to try out our cart in the real world. As usual, when it came to something highly technical, Hannah had designed the items used to hitch the horse to the cart. All of the horses were used to pulling the travois, so it was not difficult to accustom them to being hitched to the cart. We had practiced a little in the confines of the stable, but we were anxious to get outside and see what the cart could really do.
This was a special occasion, so I made a big production out of it. We moved the cart in front of the cave and hitched up the horse. Hannah and I climbed into the driver's seat and urged the horse to move. There was some indecision on the horse's part, but she finally got the idea that she could was no longer hindered in her movements by the confines of the stable. Man, talk about dumb horses! We drove around for a minute or two to get ourselves and the horse used to the novel situation, then, we loaded as many children as we could into the cart and rode around for about 5 minutes. We returned to the cave entrance and swapped loads for the rest of the children and a couple of the elderly women. This ride also lasted for 5 minutes, before we returned to let the rest of the adults have their turn.
I got out and let Hannah drive. One of the regular drivers we had trained for the job rode with her, and Hannah checked him out. Once she was sure that he knew what he was doing, she got down and let another prospective driver take her place. By the time we finished driving that day, we had gone through 4 horses and every one of the men and most of the women. The eldest and youngest women were afraid to try, but all of the others welcomed the chance to drive. The children simply couldn't get enough of riding the cart; they wore out all of the adults and the 4 horses.
Hannah had acquired enough data to know what she wanted for the next cart, and construction started the next day. By now, everybody was used to taking instruction and orders from Hannah, so she had no problems getting what she wanted built. Construction only took a week this time. We had a slightly larger cart; other than that, all of the changes were details which made the cart easier to build and maintain, but were not visible to the casual observer. This was the cart we wanted for now, so Hannah had 4 more constructed.
The last was ready in only two weeks, which shows what people can do when they are truly interested in their jobs. Hannah gathered up a crew and headed for the copper and tin "mines" with 4 carts. Everybody rode horses, except for the cart drivers, so they were expected to be back in 3 weeks.
Meanwhile, Hannah had recommended some hunting areas, so men went out with crossbows and one cart. They were back before mid-afternoon with a fully loaded cart. They reported that the elk were out in droves, and they simply had stopped shooting when they had the cart loaded. In fact, they had given some of their kills to another group of hunters who were using stabbing spears. I congratulated the hunters for doing this. This was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to do to show the advantages of joining our community.
Hannah had left me a map of occupied caves, so Sharp Eye and I took the original cart out to make a short swing around the neighborhood. I wanted to meet the people and try to entice them to join us. For self defense, we had atlatls, crossbows, hand grenades, and swords. I wasn't expecting trouble, but I wanted to be prepared for any eventuality. We shot the first elk we saw to have a friendship gift. I had packed some bronze axes and swords for trade, in case something interesting showed up, but I wanted to save those items for something important.
We munched on jerky as we went, and I let Sharp Eye drive as much as he wanted to. He was thrilled to be given the responsibility, and I was thrilled at the opportunity to goof off. We reached the first cave before noon and were disappointed to find it empty. The place was in a mess, as if the occupants had left in a hurry without the opportunity to pack their belongings. I assumed that they had been attacked, but I didn't know whether it was by animals or humans. We both kept a sharper look out after that.
We reached the next cave about an hour later, and were met with some hostility. I quickly became apparent that they were afraid of the cart. They didn't know what it was and had trouble wrapping their minds around the idea of riding behind a horse. I gave them the elk and explained about the cart. Once I had talked one of the braver men into riding with us, the ice was broken, and everybody wanted a ride. There were about 20 people in this group, more men than women, and they were receptive to paying us a visit. The unmarried men were especially interested in visiting to look over the available women.
The 5 unmarried men wanted to visit our cave right away, so I agreed to take them back in the cart. We started back that afternoon, and I had a brainstorm. Two of the men had some very good friends at the abandoned cave we had passed before. I wondered if the people at that cave had run away because they were frightened at the sight of the cart, so I asked those two men to dismount and run ahead of us to see if the people had returned to their cave. They were to tell them about the cart and to ask them to wait while we drove up.
While we were waiting, Sharp Eye caught sight of an elk, so we hurried with the cart to get within range. I shot the elk with the crossbow, and the three hunters were very impressed at how easy the whole operation was. We loaded the elk into the cart and were back at the rendezvous before the other hunters returned. When they came back, they said that the cave occupants had, indeed, run away from the cart, but were eager to meet us, now.
There was much discussion of the fresh elk among the hunters in the back of the cart on the way to the cave. When we arrived and presented the elk to the cave dwellers, we were received as friends, and everybody wanted to ride in the cart. By the time the rides were finished, the day was shot, so we were invited to spend the night with our new friends.
That night, I gave a hard-sell on the advantages of joining our group. These people were receptive, especially when the other hunters told of how easily we had found our supper. I invited them for a visit, and they were so impressed that they said that they would be by to visit as soon as they could get there, tomorrow. I apologized for not having enough room in the cart for them to ride, but one grandmother was not able to walk, so we would make room for her in the cart.
We left the next morning and reached our cave in less than 2 hours. The visitors were made welcome and I introduced the unmarried men to the surplus women. Both sides were anxious for a mate, so there was no coyness on either side. Each man told what he had to offer and the women did the same. The only requirement, from the women's side was that the women refused to leave our community. The men had no problem with that, so we gained 5 new citizens on the spot. I agreed that, as shaman, I would perform the wedding ceremonies that night, and the men would move in immediately.
The people from the far cave showed up in mid-afternoon and were duly impressed. I gave them the grand tour and showed them wh
at their living conditions would be. Everybody they talked to was very enthusiastic about having them join us, and they appreciated that attitude. A big selling point was a repeat of the story about our elk "hunt" while we were waiting for the two men to return from the cave. All of them were impressed by that escapade.
Later in the day, the people from the nearer cave showed up, and grandmother babbled almost non-stop about the wonders she had seen. I escorted another grand tour, and we went to supper. After supper I sanctified the weddings by smoking two cigarettes; the smoke was very impressive!
Chapter Ten
All the new people wanted to move in right away. The problem was that they had not brought all of their things with them. We decided that the easiest way around the problem was to haul the stuff back by cart. We had two carts available, and that would be sufficient for the belongings from the nearer cave, so I planned to send both carts the next morning to pick up everything from the first cave. We could start working on the second cave after the first one was emptied.
It took two trips to empty the second cave, but it went off without difficulty. We had added over 30 people to our community, counting children and the elderly. I insisted that the elderly be treated with respect—we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. Things definitely were looking up, and I was in a hurry for Hannah to return. Meanwhile, I kept busy training our new people in the proper way to use the crossbows and hand grenades; by now, the atlatl had pretty well fallen by the wayside.
We made up some wooden swords and started to practice with them, too. I figured that we would never by great sword fighters, but I didn't think that we needed to be. No matter how awkwardly we hacked with our swords, we were bound to better fighters than those who attacked us with knives and clubs. I never wanted the swords to be anything but last-ditch weapons, I much preferred to fight at a distance where I thought we had a major advantage.
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