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left my sword with one of the workers, climbed up to the turret of the mill and went to a small turbine in
the back.
Well, it was small only by comparison with the thirty yard diameter of the main wheel. In fact, it was
four yards across and was set at right angles to the big one. It was connected with reduction gearing to
the turret such that if the big wheel wasn't facing directly into the wind, the small wheel started spinning
and turned the turret to face the wind's new direction. It seemed to be working perfectly.
I went into the turret and found that all the pumps were in operation. There were two sets of pumps. One
pumped fresh water from a well to a tank at the top of the tower. This was used only for emergencies at
present, with a fire hose at the base of the mill. Eventually, I hoped to install pipes for running water
throughout the whole complex.
The second set of pumps took water from a tank below ground level up to a tank halfway up the tower.
Water running down from this middle tank was working the sawmill down below. This arrangement let
work go on even if the wind stopped.
There was only a gentle breeze blowing, but all of the pumps were going full blast. I had seriously
underestimated the amount of torque a windmill of this size could generate. Well, better that than having
overestimated it. The next model, if there was one, would have bigger pumps.
As I left the turret, I heard a delighted shriek from above. I looked up and saw Sir Wiktor, hanging
upside down from the top of the highest turning blade. It seems that he had heard of Sir Vladimir's
adventures on the windmill and had to try it out himself.
In time, this became the standard thing to do for every young buck who visited Okoitz, a regular rite of
passage. I had invented the ferris wheel.
Vitold was at work constructing the cloth factory, which surprised me. I'd expected him to be working at
the second windmill, the one for threshing and grinding grain.
"It was Count Lambert who told me to build this factory first," Vitold said. "You'll have to talk to him if
you want it done different."
I found Lambert out in the fields.
"Sir Conrad, you really must learn to report to a castle's lord as soon as you arrive. Courtesy requires it,
and I saw you come in hours ago."
"Yes, my lord." Lambert had his moods and in this one it was best to speak when spoken to.
"Those are some strange plants you gave me. What are these things here?"
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"Maize, my lord. Sometimes just called corn. I gave you several varieties and I'm not sure which this is."
"It's growing as high as my chest! What do you do with it?"
"It'll grow taller, my lord. It grows an ear, there's one there, that contains a sort of grain. Some kinds
make good animal feed, some are good for human consumption. One kind pops and makes a good
snack. It goes well with beer."
"Pops? What do you mean?"
"That's a bit hard to explain, my lord. I'll have to wait and show you in the fall."
"And what's this thing here?"
So I spent the whole afternoon lecturing from my meager knowledge of agriculture.
Before supper, Lambert led our party, his knights, and his current twelve "ladies-in-waiting" for a dip in
his new swimming pool, the bottom tank of the new mill.
The bathing suit was thought up by the sick minds of the late Victorian era and of course hadn't been
invented yet. It wasn't missed since the nudity taboo hadn't been invented yet, either.
Some of Lambert's ladies were remarkably attractive and skilled at frolicking. Indeed, I frolicked with
two of them that night, Krystyana being indisposed.
Yet I was angry at this use of the tank. It was adjacent to the new well and seepage from the tank would
get into the well water. We weren't using that well for drinking yet, but I'd planned to.
But all I could get out of Lambert was, "Sir Conrad, You take things too seriously."
Count Lambert never mentioned paying me for having won our wager over the mill, and his mood was
such that I thought it best not to bring the subject up.
It was a relief to return to Cieszyn.
Chapter Five
"Krystyana, go back to the inn and tell Tadeusz to send out a breakfast for six hundred people. Tell him I
know it's impossible, but I want him to do his best. This mess will take hours to sort out."
It was dawn and I almost despaired as I looked over the mob scene outside of Cieszyn's north gate. The
three dozen pack mules I had bought were there and the Krakowskis had them loaded with tons of tools
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fresh from heat-treating, along with all the other supplies I had bought. Sir Vladimir was in full armor
and the girls were ready.
And the hundred and forty-odd men I had hired were there, dirty, ragged, and skinny. But they had their
wives and children with them, who were equally dirty and ragged, and even skinnier. I hadn't counted on
being responsible for so many people.
"Darn it, Yashoo," I said to the carpentry foreman, "I never said that you could bring your families!"
"But what else can we do with them?"
"How should I know? But don't you realize that we are going out into the middle of the woods, where
there isn't a single building for miles?"
"It's early summer, Sir Conrad, and these people are tougher than they look. We have the protection of
you two good knights. It will work out."
"It will work out, will it? Just what do you plan to feed them? Pine needles? Because that's all you'll find
in that valley!"
"Merchants will come. They always do."
"And I suppose you expect that I will pay them."
"Well, my lord, you did agree to feed us while we worked for you."
"You, yes. But not four-hundred-and-fifty extra people. No, the whole thing's impossible. They'll just
have to stay here with relatives or something."
"My lord, look at us. Do we look like the kind of men who would have relatives rich enough to feed our
loved ones? If we leave them behind, they will die."
It went on for hours, with the other foremen and Vladimir getting words in. I was being conned and I
knew I was being conned. In the end, I gave in, knowing full well that I would end up footing the bill for
all the food that six hundred people ate all summer long.
I mean, otherwise I would be sitting there trying to eat my breakfast with starving children staring at me.
But I didn't like it.
By then, Tadeusz's food started arriving and we ate. It looked as if he had scraped the cellar of every inn
and bakery in the city, but what the food lacked in quality was compensated for in quantity. There was
actually some left over, even after the poor wretches had come back for second and third helpings. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]