Caves That Time Forgot (6 page)

6

Bakery

C
lag summoned all the boys to go on a hunting trip. The girls, of course, stayed behind, and the first thing Abbie demanded was a bath. She sought out Eena.

“Eena, I need to take a bath.”

“A bath? What a bath?”

Abbie tried to explain, but the concept was too difficult for Eena.

Sarah, who had been listening, smiled and said, “I guess one picture is worth a thousand words, Abbie. Come along—let's go down to the river.”

They put a change of clothes and some soap into Abbie's backpack, then made their way with Eena down the cliff, through the field, and to the stream. After Abbie and Sarah had bathed and washed their hair, they dressed and spread their hair out to the sun, which was beginning to grow warm.

Abbie had brought along her new cosmetic case and now began to apply makeup.

Eena's eyes grew wide as she watched the process.

Abbie turned and said, “You are a very pretty girl, Eena. Would you like to try some of this?” She extended the lipstick and the small mirror.

Eena took the lipstick in one hand and the mirror in the other, obviously not knowing what to do next. Then she turned the mirror toward her face. When she saw her image, she gave a little scream, dropped both objects, and jumped to her feet.

Sarah scrambled up and put her arms around her. “It's all right, Eena. It's not magic. Look!” She held the mirror, put the girl's hand on the surface, and said, “You've looked in the river or in a pond and seen yourself, haven't you? Well, this is almost the same.”

After some time she got the girl quieted.

Then Eena became very interested. She touched the lipstick with a finger and smeared color on her mouth. Then she looked in the mirror and nodded. “Good!” she said.

Abbie was amused. “Let me help you with that.” She began putting a little makeup on Eena's face. As she worked, she said, “I think Lom likes you a lot.”

“Yes. Want me for mate.”

Sarah, who had been watching the young man Beno, said, “Beno is very nice.”

“Yes, Beno good,” Eena answered, “but he no bring home food.”

“But he makes the clubs that they kill the game with,” Sarah said.

But this concept seemed far beyond Eena.

Then a thought came to Sarah. “Eena, if the men don't bring back something to eat, you go hungry, don't you—the whole tribe?”

“Yes, men must bring food.”

Sarah's face grew thoughtful. She tapped her lower lip, then said, “I want to show you something, Eena. A way you can have something to eat even if the men don't kill any animals.”

Eena stared at her unbelievingly.

“Dave told me about the field where you grow grain. Would you show it to me?”

“Yes, I show.”

Sarah and Abbie gathered their things and followed her to the small grainfield. “It was very wise of you to
grow this,” Sarah said. “Would you let me show you how to cook it?”

Eena looked bewildered.

“I'll show you. You and Abbie gather some of this grain. Abbie, why don't you put it in the backpack, and I'll go back and start preparations. We're going to start a bakery school today.”

As Abbie and Eena began to gather the ripe grain into the bag, Sarah went back toward the cave. She knew that the grain would have to be ground into flour, so on the way she searched for just the right rocks to perform that operation. She finally found a large concave stone with a natural hole worn in it, perhaps by water, and then looked for a rounded one that would fit inside.

Having found that, Sarah began hunting for flat rocks. Fortunately there were many of those around, and she built what amounted to a small oven. She could think of no way to build a door, but she was confident that her stone oven would bake bread.

Eena and Abbie soon returned with a bagful of grain.

“That's fine,” Sarah said. “Now, let me show you how to do this.” She put a handful into the concave rock. Then, taking the rounded stone, she began to pound the grain. When she finished she had crushed it into a kind of rough flour. It was more like commeal, but she knew it would do.

Scooping some up, she put it into one of the pans they had carried for cooking stew.

“Now, you try it, Eena.”

As Eena began to pound the grain, Sarah noticed that the women and children had gathered around them. “This is what we call making bread,” she said. She tried to explain the process, but it seemed beyond their ability to understand. “I wish we had some milk,” she said, “but water will have to do.”

A small boy—Tor, his name was—asked her what milk was. When she explained awkwardly, his face lit up. “Come, you see.”

Mystified, Sarah followed him, and not far from the cave she found a goat and a small kid. They bleated, and the boy said, “Milk!”

“That's wonderful!” She went back for a stone container and soon had milked the goat. “I learned how to do this on my grandfather's farm,” she told Tor as she finished. “Now, we'll make something good to eat.”

By the time she got back, she found that Abbie and Eena had ground enough meal to make a small supply of bread.

Sarah began to mix the milk and the flour, adding some salt from their own supplies. She showed the women how to make small round cakes. “You do it like this,” she said.

Soon the women were all eager to try their hand at it.

When the little cakes were made, Sarah put them on the flat rock inside the oven. “Now we build a fire and let them cook. Tor, will you make a fire in front of this little house?”

She motioned to the stone structure, and Tor at once began to gather sticks. Then he brought a glowing branch from the fire in the big cave and soon had a brisk blaze going in front of Sarah's oven.

As the cakes cooked, Sarah and Abbie talked with the women. They had become very friendly and seemed interested in everything about the two strange girls. From time to time they would reach out and touch their long, silky hair, seemingly mystified by it. Their clothes fascinated them too, especially their shoes.

Finally the cakes were done. Sarah reached in with a stick and awkwardly pulled one out. “I wish we had some yeast,” she said to Abbie. “This is what they called ‘unleavened
bread,' I guess. Somehow we'll find some kind of yeast, and then we can have real biscuits.”

She took the first cake, broke it in two, and handed half to Eena and the other half to Tor. “Taste it and see if it's good.”

Both the boy and the girl looked at the bread doubtfully. Then each took a bite.

“Oh, hot!” Tor touched his tongue. But soon he bit off a chunk and began to chew. An odd expression crossed both his face and Eena's.

“Good!” she said and chewed eagerly “Bread—good!”

The rest of the women crowded around. There was not enough for all to sample, but they made bread three times that day.

As they sat in front of the oven, waiting for the last batch to bake, Eena said, “Now, we have food even when men no get game.”

When the hunters came back, they brought only one small creature that looked like an undersized antelope, not nearly enough to feed the whole tribe.

Eena ran to her father, holding up a cake and saying, “Eat.”

Clag stared at her, took the morsel of rounded bread, and took a bite out of it. He was obviously hungry after his long hunt, and as he ate she explained to him how it had been made from the grass that grew in her field.

“See, we plant big field. Put grain in cave. When we hungry, we cook.”

An odd look crossed Clag's face. Clearly he had never had such a concept before this. As far back as any man of The People could remember, if they did not find meat they starved. He stared at Eena, then at the two girls. “Good. What you call this?” When they told him, he repeated the word. “Bread, good. We have bread.”

Dave came over to the girls and smiled. “It looks like you had a better day than we did. I'm glad you thought of this.” Then he said, “Eena, it looks like you're going to be the farmer in this tribe.” He had to explain again what a fanner was, and she seemed pleased with the idea.

But one was not pleased. Lom had a scowl on his face. When he was offered a bit of the bread, he tasted it and spit it out and said, “No good. Need meat.”

Dave tried to make peace with the young man. “It doesn't mean you won't have meat,” he said, “but when you have a bad hunting day—like we did today—it's nice to have something to eat, isn't it?”

Lom was insulted. “Me hunter—best hunter in tribe. I bring home meat.” He saw that the others were watching, and he said defiantly, “Greska angry. When Greska no angry, we kill meat again.”

A thought suddenly seemed to come to Lom. “We
have
meat.” He looked to his right, and a smile touched his lips. “We kill goat.”

The little boy Tor cried, “Don't kill the little one, Lom.”

But Lom was angry and said, “We have meat. Kill both.”

He stomped off, and the boy's face screwed up as if he would cry. “He kill goat, Eena?”

Eena said, “Lom catch goat. It his. He do what he want.”

But Dave had heard the conversation. He ran after Lom. “Lom, let me talk to the chief, please.”

Clag was not far away and, overhearing, turned toward them.

“Chief,” Dave said, “I know you're hungry and the goat would be good eating. But think about this—there may be a time when you're even hungrier. Wouldn't it be good to have meat
then?”

“Hungry now.” Clag shook his head. “Lom catch goat. It his.”

Dave turned back to Lom. “Then think about this—if we could capture a male goat and keep the male and female together, they'd have little goats like this one. Soon you might have many little goats. Then, every time you get hungry, you could kill a goat and have food. Besides—” he looked at Sarah “—it takes milk to make good bread, doesn't it, Sarah?”

When she nodded, he went on. “So if you keep a flock of goats you'd have milk and meat when you wanted it. You wouldn't have to depend on luck in hunting.”

But Dave saw that he was wasting his breath.

Lom's face was set in an angry expression. He glared at Dave and said, “We eat
now!”

Dave came back and put his hand on Tor's shoulder. “Sorry 'bout that, Tor—I did the best I could.”

“Yes, you did, Dave,” Jake said. “Like a fellow once said, if somebody don't want to do something, you can't make him.”

Lom butchered both the goat and the kid, and the tribe ate.

Later on, after the meal, Eena came over and sat down close to Dave. “I wish Lom no kill goat.” She sighed. “Now we no have milk for bread.”

“Don't worry.” Without thinking, he reached over and patted her hand. “We'll go catch another goat. I don't think it'll be too hard. Then I'll give it to you. It'll be yours to do with what you want.”

Eena looked up at him, and a smile came over her face. Then she looked down at his hand on hers and slowly lay her other hand over his, capturing it. “I like you much,” she said. “You good.”

Dave felt his face flush. And then he glanced up to see that Lom was watching. He pulled his hand back
quickly and tried to laugh. “Where I come from, guys don't give girls goats as presents—but I guess this is a special kind of place.”

7

A Case of Hero Worship

Y
ou know, Wash, it don't seem like we've been here as long as we have,” Reb said. “How long has it been now? Three weeks?”

Wash looked up from the mass of small vines that he was weaving together. “It seems like longer than that to me. I'm tired of nothing but meat all the time. What I wouldn't give for a good mess of turnip greens and some corn on the cob!”

“Yeah, the grub's not much,” Reb agreed, “but it's been fun.” He picked up the long vine rope that Wash had woven for him. It was thicker than he liked, but it was good and strong. “Where'd you learn to weave stuff like this?”

“I don't know.” Wash shrugged. “We always made stuff like this where I come from—baskets and things like that.”

Jake looked at what Wash was doing. “Do you think that thing will work?”

Wash looked up at him with indignation. “When I make a thing,” he said firmly, “it works.”

“Well, I don't see how you could ever catch a fish in that, but I sure could use a good plateful of nice, fresh fish.”

Wash stood and picked up one end of the affair he had been working on. “It's real easy,” he said. He held it up and demonstrated as he talked. “You see, this is the big part of the net—the main part of the trap. Up here—” he pointed “—you got a little opening with a kind of a tunnel,
getting smaller as it goes in. What happens is, you put some bait in there. The fish go in this little tunnel and get the bait, but they ain't got sense enough to get out such a small opening. So they just swim around. You pull up the trap, and that's it!” He looked at Jake and Reb scornfully. “I thought everybody knew how to make a fish trap.”

“Well, not everybody can do that, and not everybody can lasso like I can.” Reb grinned. “Let's go try the thing.”

The three boys passed Chief Clag, sitting with his back against a tree. “Chief,” Wash said, “I'm going to show you how to catch a fish.”

Clag looked up and smiled. “You always show something.”

But he looked at the mass of vines curiously. He had shown interest in the projects of the young people. Most of them he approved of since they made life easier. Now he looked at the object that the small black boy held and shook his head. “Fish good. Hard to catch.”

As a matter of fact, the tribe had almost no method for catching fish although the river was full of them. The Sleepers had no more wire for hooks, and Wash had come up with the idea of a fish trap.

Clag got to his feet and wandered down to the stream with the boys. As they walked, he examined the braided vine rope in Reb's hands. “What that?”

“I'll show you.” He made a loop with the vine rope and said, “Jake, make a run for it.”

Jake grinned and took off running. When he was ten feet away, Reb expertly tossed the loop. It sailed through the air and fell over Jake. He pulled it tight, bringing up the boy to a dead halt. “That's what it's for,” he said.

Clag looked amused but said, “Why you want catch boy?”

“I don't know.” Reb shrugged. “We used to catch cows.” Then a thought came to him, and he said, “I bet I
could catch one of those wild deer—or maybe even a goat.”

The idea interested Clag, and Reb talked about the possibilities until they got to the river. There Reb and the chief sat down to watch as Wash put a bit of meat inside the trap. He tied a long, strong vine rope to the end of the trap and said, “I've found us a good deep spot. There's bound to be fish down there.”

He put a rock in the bottom of the trap and tossed it into the water, where it sank at once. Then he tied the free end of the vine rope to a branch. “Pretty soon we'll catch us a fish, I bet.”

While they waited, Reb was interested in Clag's weapon—the stone ax. It was the only kind of weapon The People had. “You know, Chief. I've been thinking about a better kind of weapon for you.”

“Better than ax?”

“Well, in some ways. I'm surprised nobody's thought of it. It's called a spear.” He explained how a spear works, and Clag at once saw the advantage of it.

“We get Beno make stone for end.” He nodded, and a light of unexpected humor gleamed in his face. He was a very intelligent man, Reb had found, although tremendously superstitious. “Better stand off far and kill tiger than get close with ax. Get hurt that way.”

“You mean to tell me you've killed a tiger with that ax of yours!” Jake exclaimed.

Clag pulled aside his fur garment, and they saw a wicked, ragged scar down his side. “Big tiger. Almost kill me, but I get him.”

“Wow,” said Wash almost reverently. “Think of that—a tiger with a stone ax.”

They sat beside the stream talking until, about an hour later, Wash said, “I think I'll see if we've got anything.” He untied the vine and started pulling in the fish
trap. “It's heavy!” he yelled. “And I feel it move. Come and give me a hand.”

Clag leaped to help and began to pull on the vine. His powerful muscles rolled, and soon the trap was up. Inside were the silver bodies of fish thrashing wildly, and Clag let out a yell. “Fish!” he screamed. He pulled the basket to shore and stood staring at it. He looked at Wash as if the boy were a magician. “How you know this?”

“Oh, it's something we did in our country, Chief. I bet they're good to eat.”

“I see.” Clag reached into the trap and pulled out a long fish. To Reb's horror he opened his mouth and tore off a section of the fish's body with his teeth. He chomped hard, bones and all, then looked at the boys. “Good!”

Reb said hastily, “Hey, Chief! I bet I can show you a better way to eat fish.”

“How?”

That led to their making their way back up to the cave where Jake managed to teach The People how to cook the fish—in a way. They tried to fry some, but there was no grease, so it was easy to burn them.

“I guess they'd call these ‘blackened fish,'” Josh said. “They used to eat 'em a lot like that in Louisiana.”

Dave was picking at his fish carefully. “I wish we had some hushpuppies to go with them.”

“What hushpuppy?” Eena asked curiously.

“Oh, just another kind of bread. I'll show you sometime,” Dave answered quickly.

After the meal, the Sleepers sat around the fire, and Clag asked questions about where they lived.

When he finally grew quiet, Dave said, “Chief, tell us something about Greska, the god you serve.”

But Clag glanced over at Grak, the medicine man, seated against the cave wall, staring, scowling. “
You
tell,” he said.

Grak grunted. “Greska strong!” He went ahead to tell how the god Greska could do almost anything.

When he finished, Dave said, “We serve Goél. He is strong, but he is merciful.” He tried to explain something about mercy and truth and gentleness.

Grak snorted. “Bah! Your god weak! Our god strong!”

“I guess I'm not very good at explaining things,” Dave said afterward. “I wish Goél were here.”

“I do too,” said Abbie. “I don't see how we're ever going to do these people any good. They don't have any idea at all about treating other people right.”

“Well, they've come up a rough way. It's kill or be killed around here. We'll just do the best we can.”

The next day Josh and the other Sleepers got a surprise. They were down at the river fishing with the fish trap when Jake said, “I wonder where Reb is? He went off a couple of hours ago.”

“I hope he's careful. He might run into a T-rex or something else out there,” Sarah muttered. “Those animals give me the willies.”

“Reb can take care of himself,” Josh said. “He proved that back at Camelot, didn't he?” He grinned. “I'll never forget him jousting, knocking those knights off into the dirt. He's some guy.”

Sarah was sitting on the grass beside him. She leaned over until her shoulder touched his. “Yes, he is. But he's not Josh Adams,” she whispered.

Josh blushed. “Aw, Sarah—!” And then he lifted his head. “What's that?”

“Sounds like Reb,” Wash answered. “He's yelling. Maybe something's wrong!”

Josh and the other Sleepers jumped up and ran toward the woods.

Just then, out from the trees came a sight Josh would never forget. There was Bob Lee Jackson, his light blue eyes fairly blazing, his cowboy hat pulled firmly over his head—riding a dinosaur!

“Reb!” Dave shouted. “What in the world—”

But Reb was yelling at the top of his lungs. It was, Josh knew, the old Rebel yell, keen and piercing. And suddenly Reb jerked off his hat and began beating the creature he was riding with it as if he were riding a bucking bronco!

Jake stared at the beast and said, “That's a Stegosaurus. At least it's a lot like one.”

The dinosaur was not full-grown. When it was, it would be twenty feet high at the shoulder. Now it ambled along on four legs, its long head moving from side to side. Reb had fashioned a bridle of braided vines and put it in its mouth so that he could turn the creature's head one direction or another. The animal had a long tail with some wicked looking spikes on the end of it.

“Watch out for the tail,” Reb yelled. “That ain't no fun to fool with.” He was straddling the upright plates that seemed to protect the creature and was obviously having the time of his life. He yanked back on the harness then, and the creature stopped.

Reb slipped off, moved quickly to the dinosaur's head, and put his arm around the long neck. The reptile seemed docile enough, and Reb grinned at his friends, his face alive with excitement. “Ain't he a caution now?”

“How'd you get him, Reb?” Dave demanded.

“Well, there was a whole herd of these things down the way. This little fellow wandered off. I had my rope with me, so I just dropped the noose over him. He didn't fight at all. Matter of fact, I think he likes me.” He pulled down a tree branch and held out the tender leaves to the
animal. “I call him ‘Pretty Boy' He's not a bronco, but he's the closest thing to it.”

“When he grows up, you won't be able to handle him,” Josh said.

“I know, but maybe we can have some fun till then.”

“Hey! You know what?” Wash said. “I bet we could rig up a plow.” He looked at the dinosaur's huge legs. “And I bet he could pull one.”

“Pull a plow? This ain't no mule. Are you, Pretty Boy?” Reb stroked the smooth nose, and the animal turned his head toward him, seeming to recognize his voice.

And then the Sleepers were suddenly surrounded. When they heard Reb's scream, The People must have hidden in the recesses of the big cave. Now they came down, and the men gathered around the dinosaur.

It was Lom who said, “Good, we eat tonight.”

But Reb turned and planted his feet. “Not on your life, Lom. I caught Pretty Boy. He's mine.”

Lom glared. “We eat!”

An argument took place, and it looked as though the two would fight until Clag said, “No, he catch. It his.”

Lom glared again at Reb and stalked off angrily.

“Looks like Lom's gonna be hard to get along with,” Reb said with regret. “And that's too bad. He's a nice fellow. He's just one of those that has to prove how tough they are every morning.”

At mid-morning, after the hunters had gone out to hunt game, Dave decided to try to catch more fish. The other boys had gone with the hunters, so he was alone. As he picked up the trap and started for the river, Eena said, “I go with you.”

“Sure, come along.”

But Sarah drew Dave off to one side. “Dave, don't you think you're spending too much time with that girl? In
the first place, you're going to make Lom more angry. In the second place … well … it's just not smart for you to be seeing so much of her.”

“What's wrong with that?”

Sarah's face grew thoughtful. “These people are simple, Dave. You know that. Eena's almost old enough to take a mate. That's what she's thinking of, and you know that can't be you. It may be Lom. But what if she falls in love with you?”

Dave shook his head. “Oh, that's crazy, Sarah. You're just too romantic! I'm just going fishing, and she's going with me. That's all there is to it.”

“Dave, you're the leader,” Sarah said evenly, her face very serious. “It's up to you to show wisdom and be careful about how things
look.
Do you think it's wise to give that girl encouragement?”

But Dave was angered by her words. “You take care of your business, Sarah. I'll take care of mine.” He turned and said, “Come on, Eena.”

As the two of them walked off toward the river, Eena asked, “Why you yell at Sarah?”

“Oh, she just has funny ideas.” Dave grinned. “Women are like that.”

“Like what?”

“Why, they're—they're just funny, that's all. With a guy I always know where I am. But girls, they've got romantic ideas.”

“What ‘romantic'?”

Dave set out on a long-winded explanation.

When he had finally finished explaining romance and courtship, Eena seemed intrigued. “Where you come from, males bring presents to females?”

“Sure. Flowers and candy and stuff.”

“What ‘candy' and what ‘stuff'?”

Dave laughed. “Well, that'll take some explaining. Let's get to fishing.”

When they got to the river they found that the heavy rains of the night before had turned the placid stream into a swift-flowing torrent. White water was everywhere.

“I doubt if we'll catch anything,” Dave said. “The river's too high. But we'll try.”

He baited the net, threw it into the water, and then sat back to wait. The sun was warm, and he dozed off.

He woke up hearing screams. He sprang to his feet and saw that Eena—had she gone to look at the fish trap?—had fallen into the river.