Well, technically this chapter is only two days after the last one, but barely. It may be three or four days to the next chapter: Dawn.

Stone

14. Return

The train spent the night in the west, and several of the soldiers went to explore other burnt out farms in the area, thinking to take Stone up on his offer to have soldiers take other positions in the community. The family at the local farm was elated to think that they might get close neighbors with military experience. The former slaves and the wagon drivers got two good meals that day, eating their fill at lunch and again at supper. The prisoners were sent on their way after the lunch, and Rayla pronounced the injured people ready to go, if they could ride the wagons. There were no pregnant women this time around. And with 100 wagons there was lots of space with three people to a wagon. The other 700 or so could walk or ride on the 120 horses captured.

The next morning a breakfast was served, and then the sergeant formed the wagons up, and the former slaves along the way who had farming experience scouted out the burned out farms, with about two dozen opting to move into one of the farms. Stone allowed them to take start-up supplies and tools from the slaver’s wagons, and gave them two silvers to buy supplies that were in the traders’ wagons.

As the wagon proceeded towards Greenstone, Stone noticed a former slave moving from wagon to wagon in the slaver’s part of the train, taking notes. He rode Doug up to the wagon he was in.

“You are a scribe then,” Stone said as the man jotted on his paper.

“No Captain,” the man said. “I am Euler and my profession was as a tax expert in Trawnawa, the capital city. I worked for a half dozen wealthy clients, and was well known for finding old laws and edicts that allowed my clients to significantly reduce their taxes. I can’t be sure, but I think that rather than amend the tax laws, the palace tax collectors decided to have me kidnapped as a slave.”

“What are you writing in your pad?” Stone asked.

“Well, I suspect at some point someone is going to want an inventory of what is in these wagons. I am doing this. It makes the trip less boring and perhaps it will be useful.”

“It certainly will,” Stone said. “Please continue, and if you need help, let me know. It will be an asset that we can use. Tomorrow we will send scouts to the town, and if you can have your list done by then, the people will know what is coming, and make their claims with Carlson. And consider yourself an employee of the town: I need someone as a paymaster, and to help in the administrative duties. Your pay will be five silvers a week, a bit more than average in the town.”

The man smiled. He had been a free man for less than a day, and now he had employment that he felt he would enjoy.

As the company headed back east, Euler managed to find the slaver’s coin stash. There was enough gold in the satchel to keep the town going without taxation for nearly a year.

Carter, spokesman for the traders, waved Stone over as he was riding with Rayla though the wagons. “The others decided last night that we would prefer not to go into your town,” he said. We would like to trade with your people, but fording the river there, and then having to ford back at Greenford is pointless, when there is a perfectly good road going down the west bank.”

“We can work that out,” Stone said. “If you set up camp on the west side of the river, near the ford, I’m sure most of the town will come to you and see if you have any goods that they need. Few of them have any cash, but if their needs are important to the town, I will fund them. We will even set up the slaver’s wagons there to keep everything in one place.”

“Good, although I don’t see why you can’t move those wagons across the river. That is where the goods will wind up,” Carter said. “But a few of these wagons have heavy loads, and I would rather not risk getting stuck in a ford.”

(Said the Chevy owner, Stone laughed to himself.) “But why do you have these odd wagons,” he asked the man. The wagon Carter was driving, and the one immediately behind were odd, with six horses pulling instead of the normal two, or occasionally four. The wheels were odd as well, with treads six inches wide instead of the normal two.

“These wagons were built specifically for this load, which is very heavy. The wider wheels keep the wagon from sinking into ruts as easily, and six horses are needed to pull the load, which is heavy stone.”

“I see,” Stone said. “If either wagon gets stuck, then let me or the sergeant know, and we will have the men dismount and help push you out.”

With that the pair rode away for the wagon to work their way through the rest of the train. Rayla was especially interested in checking up on the injured people who were riding on wagons to let their bandaged ankles heal.

“Why would he be carting stone across this world,” Rayla said. “Isn’t there stone enough around here?”

“Special stone, maybe,” Stone said. “Perhaps it is gold? That is very heavy. I should have asked. Oh well, we will see when we get to the ford, if he opens his wagons up for inspection.”

As they approached the ford it looked like the whole town was there to greet the group. It wasn’t, but more people were still crossing the ford, so soon it might be. Sgt. Pothman detached a group of soldiers to go and keep guard over the near empty town.

The wagons formed into two circles, and Stone explained that one circle was from the slaver, and goods from it could be claimed for free. The other circle was the traders, and goods there would have to be purchased. Stone noted that the slave train had some gold, and if goods were really necessary to the town, he would chip in to buy them.

“It looks like Black Friday back home,” he told Rayla as he watched people swarming the wagons.

“Black what?”

Stone then remembered that Rayla had come from the 1950s, before the consumer madness manifested. “I’ll explain later,” he said.

Soon Stone was approached by the man building the town grist mill. “He has stones, and he won’t sell them,” the man claimed. He was pointing at Carter’s big wagons.

Stone and Rayla rode over. “I can’t sell them,” Carter apologized. “They are a special commission for the grist mill in Sarn, and they are already paid for. The man even paid my fee ahead, and to have these wagons built. He paid 70 gold in total.”

“70 gold?” the miller said in shock. “I never dreamed mill stones would cost so much. Can the town afford it, Captain?”

“We could, but we cannot just take these,” Stone said. “They belong to another. Perhaps we can arrange to have some more made, perhaps smaller in size, and brought here in another trip.”

The miller turned to the man. “You were attacked along the way, and you lost the wheels,” he said with a wink. “You will get all 70 gold, and I will get the wheels.”

“No,” Stone said sharply. “We will not do business in that way.”

“Thank you Captain,” Carter said. “I will ask the miller in Sarn what he will do with his old wheels. I suspect the base wheel split, and has been patched together. He might want to sell them. You won’t be able to grind as quickly with a split wheel, but it might get you started.”

The miller looked positive. “Can we do that Captain? I’d like to have a wheel before harvest time.”

“Could you get the used wheel for 25 gold?” he asked Carter.

“I suspect he would sell for 20 gold,” the man said. “Less than that and he would keep the old wheel for backup. “But it will cost you 5 gold to get it carted up here. I would have to buy these wagons … he owns them, of course. Plus my fee to get them here. I would own the wagons and the teams at the end though.”

“That sounds fair,” Stone said. “Do what you can, and report back to us on the return trip. Now excuse me, but I think I am needed yonder.”

There was shrill shrieking coming from a wagon in the slaver’s train. Eight women were circling a wagon, yelling and screaming, with a single soldier trying to keep fights from breaking out.

“I saw it first, it’s mine,” one larger woman said.

“It was on the manifest that came to town last night,” another yelled back. “One wooden spinning wheel, it said.”

“But I saw it first.”

“Calm down ladies, let me see what the commotion is all about. This wheel is what you all seek?”

“Yes,” the soldier said, relieved to have backup. “Apparently all of these women have been working weeks combing and carding wool sheared from the sheep in the town. Now they need a wheel to make yarn. A local craftsman has been trying to build a wheel, but without a pattern, his results are less than satisfactory. His latest model will spin, but at a much slower rate than a real wheel.”

“I see,” Stone said. “So whoever gets the wheel will have an advantage in spinning. I think the solution is clear. We will divide the day into six four-hour sections. That means 42 over a week. There are eight of you … you will each get a four-hour turn five times a week. It might be night, so you will have to arrange your work around that time.”

“So who will own the wheel?”

“I think I will award it to the craftsman. He will keep it, and provide you with a room that is well lit to spin in. You will have to bring your wool and cart your thread home. There happens to be two four-hour slots left over, and the craftsman can use that to study the wheel with the idea of making a copy. When he has a working copy, then you will be able to move to eight-hour shifts, if there is still the need. And eventually you will be able to have him make you all personal wheels.”

The women quieted down and worked this plan through their heads. It was not ideal for any of them, but it was fair. No one woman would control the wheel and be able to use it against others. Eventually they agreed.

There were other disputes to be settled, but none as loud and raucous as the spinners. More than half the goods on the slaver’s train were dispersed that day, and there was good business for the traders as well. Many people still had coin left from the allocation Stone had made from the original slave train, and all the new adult people from this train were awarded two silvers, many of which soon came to the traders for various goods.

As well, Stone paid for all the tools on the traders’ wagons: saws, hoes, scythes, and even ploughs. The three ploughs were to be town property, with farmers booking time to borrow them. In the spring they would be hard to get, so some farmers started booking fall ploughing sessions. The other tools would be given to people trying to re-establish farms in the area.

As he was dealing with Carter, the man noted the soldiers carrying the purchased items across the ford. “You know, Captain,” he said. “You should consider building a bridge along here. It will make it easier for traders to visit the town from this side, and you might get the odd trader from the east, who would visit your town and then cross over to the road on the west side of the river, direct to Sarn. It would really make your town grow.

Stone looked over the site, and realized the trader was right. It shouldn’t be too hard to build a bridge. Four upright pillars in the river, at the edges, and then two more long pine beams across them. Then it would just be a matter of planking between the pine beams, and some access road work. Of course, moving the pine beams would again require Stone’s strength, as it had with the dam. This would delay his trip to the south.

“That is a good idea,” Stone said. “But it means I will not be able to travel south with you this week. I will be needed here. But don’t worry. I will send 24 soldiers with you, at least as far as Greenford. The road from there to Sarn should be safe enough unescorted.”

“Good. We welcome the protection,” Carter said. “And we will be taking goods from your town. I am carrying several bags of coke, and more of coal. Another is carrying slate shingles, and some rock samples to be assayed for gold content. We’ll leave tomorrow, if your men can be ready.”

“They will be,” Stone said. “I’ll get the sergeant on it.”

“What types of goods are needed in the town?” Carter asked. “We will have empty wagons coming back.”

“Food: flour, potatoes, other stew vegetables. And wood. We always need wood: cut lumber for planking. Our woodsmen can split timbers, but the planks are always thick, at least an inch and a half. Boards of a half-inch thickness would be a boon until we get our mill running.”

“We will try to meet your needs,” Carter said.

That evening, Rayla and Stone went through the supper line together. The people were still a little awed that their leaders waiting in line like everyone else. Stone did note that he got bigger portions than everyone else, but rationalized that he was a bigger person.

They took their meal, a beef stew for a change, to the tables. Apparently the hunters had found some cattle that had gone feral when their owners were enslaved, and shot two. The change of diet from venison and small game was welcomed by all.

Rayla pointed out Miss Relants, the scribe/teacher, and her boyfriend, apparently trying to occupy the same physical space as they fed each other. The loveblindness abated after a few moments, and they noticed that the Captain was sitting near them. Carlson had sat near them so he could make a report on the day’s activities to Stone.

“Captain,” the girl said. “Hamm and I would like to get married. Has someone been appointed to that task?”

Stone looked at Carlson who spoke. “Any one who is literate and has some degree of importance in the community can do it. The ceremony is fairly short: a declaration of class, then vows between the parties.”

“What is the declaration of class?”

“You know, slave or free. Marriage between the classes is prohibited, although of course there are many cases where a slave and master might have children. They just cannot marry,” Carlson explained.

“That clause is no longer required,” Stone decreed. “All are free here. So who here could perform the ceremony?”

“The schoolmaster is one,” the chief guard said. “If I was a little more advanced in my lessons in the evenings, I suppose I could. The healer is literate, I understand. And there is you and your lady.”

Miss Relants got wide eyed. “Oh Captain, could you do it? It would mean so much to Hamm and I to be married by the man who set us free.”

“When would you like to do it?” Stone said. “I have other duties to look after, and want to head south in a few weeks.”

“Sunday is the traditional day,” Carlson said.

“Noon on Sunday, then?” Stone asked, and the girl nodded. “I will make a space in my schedule. What do I need, an hour?”

“Only 15 minutes, really,” Carlson. “As I said, it is a short ceremony.”

But in the end it was not a short ceremony. Word of the wedding flew through the town, and during story time other couples came up to Stone asking to be married that day. Eventually Euler had to be drafted to make a schedule. Soon there were 50 couples, which would make it over 12 hours of ceremonies at quarter hour intervals.

Eventually Euler suggested that Rayla might perform some ceremonies, and when word of that went through the town, there was another rush of women wanting to be married by the lady, who was greatly admired in the town. The final tally was 46 couples to be married by Stone, and another 18 by Rayla.

Stone announced that he would not leave for the south until after the following Sunday, even if the bridge was completed before then. This allowed other couples to plan weddings that following weekend.