”Very good. And here is a beautiful Kentucky rifle to practice with.”
”Ooh! Daniel Boone and settlers on the Cumberland Gap trail and…”
Kit grinned. His granddaughter’s romantic notions had finally landed her with a gun she loved. She even did well with it. Malcolm just might win that bet, after all. After the flintlock, Ann took her on to more esoteric types like wheel-locks and even matchlocks.
”How in the world did people keep these things burning?” Margo demanded with a half-hearted laugh the second time her slow-smoldering match went out. “Am I doing something wrong? Or is it really that hard?”
Ann chuckled. “During battles, they’d keep the matches swinging in circles between shots just to be sure. Looked weird as hell during night fighting.”
Margo grinned. “I’ll bet. Rain must’ve been a bummer.”
”Yes, it did wreak a bit of havoc on a few plans. But then, rain wasn’t kind to bow strings, either, or to paper cartridges. Modern guns are nicely weatherproof compared to most projectile weapons. And speaking of other projectile weapons, we need to train you in crossbows and stickbows, recurves …”
Margo’s eyes widened. Then she grinned wickedly. “What, no blowguns? Or atl-atls?”
”Oh, goodie! One of my students finally wants to learn flint-knapping and spear throwing!” ‘
Kit couldn’t help it. He started to chuckle.
Margo turned on him with a hot glare. “ “What’s so funny?”
”I’m sorry, Margo,” he said, still laughing. -But you’re so transparent. Learning flint-knapping wouldn’t exactly be a waste of time. You literally could end up someplace where stone weapons are the only ones available. Remember that scout who just came back from the Wurm glaciation, did the work on CroMagnon lifestyles?”