“That’s very nice, but about my pump–”
“I know everything there is to know about mining. I don’t need to know about your foolish ideas.”
“But it’s not just some pipe dream! I have one running at Three Walls!”
“Three Walls? I never heard of a mine at any ‘Three Walls.”‘ And he turned and walked away. Arrogant bastard.
The price of salt was about equal to the cost of chopping it out and hauling it to the surface, pretty cheap. By loading down the mules, slinging sacks across the backs of all four horses, and letting Tadaos walk, we were able to take a ton and a half back with us-about two kilos Per capita, probably enough to last us until spring. These people ate a lot of salt, maybe because of all the beer they drank.
We had been gone from Cracow for less than a week, but there was a major change in the Vistula waterfront. The ferrymaster had taken my suggestion about using river power to move his ferryboat. A long sturdy rope ran from his boat to the tree I’d suggested, and he’d come up with an efficient block-and-tackle system that let him effectively move the rope from one side of the boat to the other with only the power of his own arms.
He let us ride it free, in thanks for my suggestion, but he was still getting full fare from everyone else. Business had been better than ever, with many people riding it just for the novelty of moving in a boat without oarsmen.
He no longer had to pay a dozen men, and eventually someone would see his vast profits, go into competition with him and drive his fares down. But just then he. was in heaven.
1, too, was very pleased. Think of it. Because of an idea of mine and the few minutes it had taken to explain it, twelve men were released from the drudgery of paddling that boat back and forth across the river. Twelve men had been given their whole lives to do more productive, more enjoyable work.
Actually, it was far more than twelve, for there must be many ferryboats operating on the Vistula. Word of the improvement would get around quickly. And there were many other rivers. And it wasn’t just those men, but their children and grandchildren had also been set free.
As we rode toward the city gates, I was patting myself on the back for a job well done. Then a rock the size of my fist slammed into the side Of my helmet. I was stunned, tried briefly to stay in the saddle, then fell to the ground.
I wasn’t quite unconscious, and could hear the shouting around me. Krystyana and Annastashia were holding my head up, and vision was starting to return. Tadaos had strung his bow and had shot two men through the arm, pinning them to a tree. Sir Vladimir and Anna were out rounding up the rest of our assailants. It was all over by the time I had regained my feet.
“Sir Vladimir, what was that all about?”
“Those are the men who once worked the ferryboat. They say that they did you no harm, but that you have deprived them of their livelihoods, and now they will starve, along with their families. I think they might have justice on their side, though perhaps their anger might better have been directed at the boatmaster, for you only talked about harming them, but the boatmaster actually carried the deed out.”
“I didn’t hurt anybody. I just-oh hell, Bring them here.”
Sir Vladimir herded over a very bashed group of men. Most were bleeding from wounds or contusions.
“You were sort of rough on them ” I said.
“I killed none and thought myself lenient,” Sir Vladimir said .
“I suppose you did. You men! Why did you attack us?”
One of them was nudged forward by the others. “You was the one what told the boatmaster to build that thing! Now no one will ever hire a ferryboat man. Not ever again!”
“That’s only to be expected,” I said. “Technology often causes slight social and economic readjustments. But the net results will be very beneficial for this city and for our country.”
“Whatever you said, I still don’t have no food in the house! Before you opened your mouth, things were going good for me, and for these men here!” There were nods and gestures of agreement from the other men
“Then find some other line of work. There must be hundreds of things that need doing in Cracow.”
“There is if you have an uncle who’s a master in a guild! But there ain’t no guilds on the river, and there’s no way they’ll let us work in Cracow.”
“Are you telling me that you have all tried to get honest work in the city and you’ve all been rejected?”
“Not all of us. Some of us are smart enough to know what’d happen. But a lot of us have tried, for all the good it’s done us.”
“All right, then. There’s plenty of work to be done at Three Walls. It’s about two days walk west of here. Take Count Lambert’s trail to Sir Miesko’s manor. He’ll give you directions from there. Tell Yashoo that I said that ferryboat men are to be hired at the usual rate.”
They still looked disgruntled, but the crowd broke up. Before the end of the year, I ended up hiring twenty-six ferryboat men. Or men who said that they were ferryboat men. It wasn’t as though there were any records that I could check. More mouths to feed.
Sir Vladimir wanted to proceed directly to Wawel Castle and I told him to take the girls there. I’d be along later. I had to go see Father Ignacy at the Franciscan monastery. There was a little matter of my confession concerning the man I had murdered in the cave in the Beskids.
Four days went by before I could get our party back on the road. At that, it took a direct summons from Count Lambert to get them moving. I suppose that I could have been more assertive, but I wasn’t looking forward to facing my liege lord.
Sir Vladimir insisted on taking an alternate trail back, one that was slightly longer, but had the advantage that the Crossmen rarely used it. Until the judicial combat was agreed upon, there was no telling just what they might do. It was best to avoid them.
This route took us by one of the strangest terrain features in Poland. In the midst of the wet, north European Plain, there is a desert.
The Bledowska Desert is about twenty square miles of shifting, windblown sand, and blistering hot in the summer. Fortunately, our route only skirted one corner of it, but even so it was a trial.
“What makes it like this?” Annastashia said.
“Some trick of the winds I suppose, my love. Sir Conrad, do you know anything of it?” Sir Vladimir said.
“Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe something about the way the hills around here are shaped. This area gets very little rainfall.”
“They say it never rains here at all!”
“I can believe it.”
“Why would God make such a horrid place?” Krystyana asked.
“How should I know why God does anything? Even so, this area could be useful. It would make a good place to store grain,” I said.
“I think it’s a waste of space,” Krystyana answered.
That evening, we stayed at the manor of Sir Vladimir’s cousin Sir Augustyn, and his wife. They were a quiet, phlegmatic couple who talked little and went to bed early. A relief after Cracow.
The next day we were in Okoitz.
Count Lambert wasn’t as angry as I had expected him to be. His reaction was more of the “my child, how could you have gone so wrong” sort of thing, which was even harder to take.
“You know that by your actions, you have killed yourself. All the things we’d planned together will come to nothing. All these mills and factories will halt without your guiding hand. And the mission that brought you to Poland at the bequest of Prester John, that too must end in failure.”
Count Lambert had become convinced that I was an emissary from the mythical king Prester John. My oath to Father Ignacy was such that I couldn’t talk about my origins, so I couldn’t set him straight.
“It’s not as bad as all that, my lord. Even if I do get killed, what we’ve started here will continue to grow. Vitold understands the mill as well as I do, and the Florentine knows more about cloth than me.”
“Perhaps, Sir Conrad, but you are the fire behind all of them. Even if we do prosper without you, it won’t last. If you’re right about the Mongols’ coming, and you’ve been right about everything else, this town and the rest of Poland will be burned to the ground in eight years. With all the people dead, what use are factories and mills?”