Sorry for such a long delay. I just didn’t feel like writing. Do you like the new image? It seems more appropriate for the last half of the story: Dawn.

Stone

Chapter 27 – Home again

“Are we there …” Emily started to say, but her brother elbowed her before she said the last word. The last time one of the children said, ‘Are we there yet?” Stone had them do more lessons with Rayla. Jason didn’t want to have to do more lessons and had stopped his sister from instigating any. Stone smiled.

“See that ridge we are coming up to,” he told the children. “And the one just past it? Well, after that there are only three more ridges until we reach Greenstone. You can count the ridges yourself now, and have no need to ask me when we will be home.

Of course the ridges were nearly a half-mile apart, on average, so it took nearly an hour until the last one was summited, and the kids screamed with glee at seeing the town again, nearly three months after they left it. It was much changed, with a longer row of stores on the main street, and new houses built all over the place. Main Street was paved in brick, and all the storefronts had wooden sidewalks in front. The family drove their little caravan up the side street to their house, and were surprised to see smoke coming out the chimney.

Stone dismounted and pulled Pate out, rapping at the door with the tip. The door was answered by a tiny woman, less than five feet tall. She looked at Stone towering over her, and immediately screamed and slammed the door.

A shocked Stone tapped again, and after a few minutes a big man answered the taps. He was over six feet tall, and probably would have never met a man taller than him, but Stone was over seven feet. “What you want,” the big man said, his lips barely visible through the bushy beard he wore.

“My house,” Stone said.

“’tis mine now,” the man replied. “It were sitting empty for months, and a couple weeks ago someun found that men was stealing logs from the woodlot in the back. The mayor said me and the Missus could have it, on account of the original owner was dead. Look’s like you aint. ‘re we goin’ have trouble?”

“I dunno.” Stone said. “I’d hate to kick a man out of his house. Although that seems to be what has been done to me. I’ll head into town and find out what comes next. Meanwhile I will park my caravan here, and my wife and kids will stay in it.”

“No need,” a small voice from behind said. “They are welcome to come in and visit with me. I don’t get many visitors up here.” It was the tiny woman.

Rayla and the kids got out, and she was surprised to see that the woman was smaller than she was. The new residents had three children, with the younger two close in age to Rayla’s pair. They immediately ran to the back to play in the wood, which was somewhat smaller now.

“What’s your business? I’m a woodcarver. Makes the best chairs in town,” the bushy man said.

“Hmm,” Stone thought for a bit. He was no longer the mayor, and certainly no longer a football lineman. “I guess you could say I’m a trader. Name is Stone. That’s Rayla, Emily and Jason.”

“M’Guff,” the man grunted. “Susan and Bart, Bret and Tina,” he pointed at the children as he named them, oldest to youngest before they were out of sight.

“Gimme an hour in town,” Stone said, turning and grabbing a sack of coins from the caravan. The other wagons had already headed towards town and were setting up in the trading place. A steady stream of people were coming towards the eight wagons to see what wares were coming in. Stone walked to the town offices: his wagoneers had been empowered to sell the goods for a fair price, taking a quarter as a commission. That would more than double the salary Stone would pay them on the morrow for their long trip.

As he walked into town, Stone noticed people he knew reacting strangely, as though surprised to see him. At the town office he entered, and found Euler at his desk, staring at him with an open mouth.

“Captain, we thought you were dead,” the clerk gasped. “What happened?”

“Here.” Stone tossed the bag of coin on the desk. “We managed to find a place that could make small coins for the town. It took some time for the coin to be made, and we did some mining at the same time. When you get a chance, please send four soldiers down to the trading place. My men will send back some gold. Quite a bit of gold actually. It will take them several trips to get it all.”

Euler opened the bag, which was full of copper and silver coin. “Thank heavens for this. The town really needs more small coin. I will total this all up, and put it on your account. Plus the gold when it comes in. When the merchants hear we had small coin, they will be down on us like locusts. Probably will need to ration it out.”

“There is another matter. My house,” Stone said.

Euler turned pale, and started to stammer when Stone heard the door open behind him. It was Carlson, now the mayor.

“Stone. You are back,” he said.

“He wants to know about the house,” Euler finally said. Now it was the mayor’s turn to go pale.

“Oh. Uh, I guess that is my doing,” Carlson stammered. “We found that someone was trespassing on your land, taking wood from the woodlot. Whole trees, not just windfall. Tree rustlers, I guess. We didn’t know you were coming back. Other trips were two weeks, this was over two months. I told M’Guff he could move in. He’s big enough to deter the rustlers. I said that he would have to move out when you returned. But everyone was saying that you would have been back before then if you were able. I’ll send word to M’Guff to have him move. You can stay in the hotel for a couple days while he packs up.”

“Not so fast,” Stone said. “We have the caravan, and can stay in it. And I don’t want to kick a family out of the house they just moved into. We can stay in the caravan. It is quite comfortable for the four of us. We will have to make another trip in a couple of weeks anyway. It takes longer to make the full circuit, and I have some mining interests down in Golden to check up on. And when we get back in late summer it will be over two years since the town was founded. Rayla and I have a mission to go on. This will take longer, since we plan to sail over Great Wolf Lake to the other side.”

Carter and Euler were both showing signs of relief. They had both seen Stone fight, and it would be questionable if the full barracks could stop him. Dozens would die, had he not taken the sale of his house so well.

Stone left, and walked along to the bakery. He ordered buns and pastries for the family, and their hosts, and had a lad deliver them. He had other tasks to do. But before he left the bakery he paid for his purchases with coppers, to the delight of the clerk, who had no change left for the silvers that she had taken in that day.

Stone walked down to the lumber mill, where his old friend, Ranston was in a small office while the mill hummed with activity. “You seem busy, my friend,” Stone said as he closed the door behind him to the office.

“Stone. You are back! They said you were dead,” Ranston said, standing to give his much taller friend a hug.

“No, not yet,” Stone said. “Although it is a bit disheartening that so many people were so quick to write me off. This is a busy place.”

“It has been booming since you sent those men north. They know their business and completely reorganized the place. Production is way up. I’m able to pay my men well, and I’m still making a handsome profit.”

“Do you track the source of your raw materials?” Stone asked. “I understand that some men were cutting trees from my land. My former land.”

“Aye, I know who did it,” Ranston said. “When that M’Guff fellow moved in their racket collapsed, and one of their gang actually joined in here as a laborer.” He went to the door and shouted out: “Send Stumpy up here.”

While they waited for the man, the two made casual talk. The twins were now toddlers, and Stone made an invitation for Ranston to have his wife Nessa make a visit to the caravan to reunite with Rayla. Rayla had been midwife for the birth of the twins, and their older sister Lillabet was a friend of Emily’s and adored Stone.

When the man Stumpy finally arrived at the office, Stone immediately knew the source of his name. Three fingers on his left hand were missing, leaving only the thumb and index finger. No doubt a logging accident.

“Stump, this man would have a word with you,” Ranston said.

“I understand you were involved with a group of men who managed to take some trees from my property up on the hill,” Stone said gravely. The man turned pale, and looked like he wanted to run, but Stone was between him and the door.

Finally, after a long gulp, he spoke: “I have to admit I was. There were five of us, and we took two trees a night for nearly two weeks, 12 in all. I didn’t do any cutting. I can’t, anymore.” He held up the mangled hand. “I just selected the trees for them to cut. I tried to pick mature trees that were due for cutting. I tried to scatter them through the lot, but that was partially so people wouldn’t notice the stumps.”

“How much did they get for the trees?” Stone asked Ranston.

“Two gold per tree,” the miller said.

“Two gold?” Stumpy said. “They told us it was only 1 gold, four silver. They cheated us.”

“If you hang with thieves, expect to be cheated,” Stone said. “Two gold for each of 12 trees is 24 gold, and I hold you responsible for 1/5 of that, or nearly five gold. Can you pay?”

“No. I have nearly a gold saved up. I could pay one gold after my next pay, if I still have my job. But no more.”

“Is he a good worker?” Stone asked Ranston.

“Excellent. He knows wood and when a log comes in he can evaluate it in half the time of the others. How to cut and how much wood will come out. I would miss him if he was to serve time.”

“I don’t know if that will be necessary,” Stone said. “He must pay back what he owes, of course. But if he will testify against the others, then I think he can serve a probation here at the mill.”

Stumpy identified the other four, and Stone left the mill, back to the town offices to get another four soldiers to arrest the men. On the way, Stone detoured to the trading place, where he found his wagons nearly empty. He delegated two of the men, who had completely sold out to take his share of the take to Rayla at the caravan. The others watched the wagons, which still had gold bars from the mine in the bottoms.

Stone followed the four soldiers who were carrying a gold bar each on their third trip to the town office. Stone carried four bars himself. In the office Euler was weighing and calculating the value of the bars that had already come in, and Carlson was together with a group of eight more soldiers, guarding the wealth that people had seen coming into the hall.

Carlson issued papers for the arrest of the four tree rustlers, and Sgt. Pothman was detailed to get four more soldiers to head out and arrest the men. Stone wanted to go with them, so he went to the town stable where he picked up Doug, who had spent the past few hours getting reacquainted with the mares within.

Soon the six men went to a small woodcutter’s yard where they found all four men. They denied being involved, and Stone had to use Pate’s special talents to prove them guilty. One man, who Pate had declared the ringleader, tried to run, but Pate was quicker, and flicked out and separated the man’s arm from his body. A lumber mill worker with a half a hand could still be useful, as Stump had shown, but without a right arm, the man would never work the trade again.

This caused the others to confess, and admit what gold they had. In total 14 gold was recovered of the 24. The man with no arm claimed that it was unfair and that he was crippled, and would need his gold to live, as the healer called bandaged his stump. Stone suggested that if he didn’t turn in all of his takings, Pate would be happy to take off another arm, and perhaps a leg or two. This resulted in the other four gold the man had cheated out of his friends also being reclaimed.

Three men were tried the following day, with Stump testifying against them. All were ordered to spend a month working for the town, and restitution. Stump was relieved that his restitution was now less than a gold due to the gold that had been recovered. He was also sentenced to two months parole at the mill, with half his pay coming to the town.

The armless ringleader didn’t recover until a week later. After his trial he was ordered to pay restitution, and ordered to work for the women doing the charity meals for the entire year.

Stone ordered a second caravan, in hopes it would be ready for the next trip south. He also told Euler that 20% of the gold he had brought back should be considered taxes, and moved from his burgeoning account to the town’s, further extending the time before taxes would be necessary for the other people in the town.

The following day was Sunday, and Ranston brought his family to visit. Rayla and Susan M’Guff had bonded, and Tessa came bearing babies, or toddlers at least, and this led her to be welcomed to join in with the other women.

Stone had paid three gold to M’Guff for the loss of the trees, more money than the man would earn this year. And he and Ranston went back to explore the wood and look at the stumps. Ranston pointed out trees that needed to be harvested, and M’Guff was amazed to learn that he would get all of the proceeds from these. Just harvesting two or three trees a year would make a major supplement to the family fortunes. The eldest boy of each family accompanied the men, and Ranston was happy to explain some forest lore to them.

The other item of interest in their return was the visit by the young printer, who spent several hours with Rayla, then Stone, getting a story about their trip. When the next paper came out, it was full of their activities with a story about each of the other villages, and another about the trip in general.