And, regardless, Bocler’s general point remained valid. Rita had no business getting down on the ground where she could be captured.
From the fact that she was now just silently glaring at the secretary, Tom knew that Rita understood it herself. She could be stubborn beyond belief, but she also had a very strong sense of duty.
Still, he hesitated to say anything. In the foul mood she was in, she’d lash out at him if he did.
Thankfully, Bocler stepped into the breach again. “Of course, we do need to lighten up the airship. But I can take care of that problem. I don’t weigh as much as Herr Siers, but I certainly weigh more than you do.”
At a guess, the secretary probably weighed at least one hundred and eighty pounds. He might even be pushing two hundred. He was on the short side, but thickly-proportioned.
“One-or all of us-could get off also,” said Maydene Utt. “There’s no use for auditors on board the Pelican. ”
She sounded a bit uncertain. Tom was more than a bit alarmed. He had no use for three auditors either, down here on the ground. He and his troops would be undertaking a forced march over the next two days. Granted that middle-aged Appalachian women were almost invariably tougher than they looked, they still weren’t accustomed to that sort of exertion.
Bonnie Weaver stepped into the breach, this time. “That’s silly, Maydene. You and Willa and Estelle are almost fifty years old.” Fodor started to protest something but Bonnie drove right over her. “And the three of you have been on horseback for the last two years-no, it must be three, now. When was the last time you walked as much as half a mile?”
She made a wry face. “Me, on the other hand, I’m scared of horses. So I walk everywhere. And I weigh more than any of you except Maydene. So we can lighten the airship further by putting me on the ground too. Between me and Heinrich, that more than makes up for adding the corporal and his radio equipment.”
Tom was a bit dubious at the prospect of having Bonnie along on the march, but only a bit. Like every military force of the day that had been in one place for a while, the Danube Regiment had collected camp followers. Women, mostly, who were either married to one of the soldiers or pretended to be. They doubled as cooks and laundresses for the unit; and, in some cases, prostitutes. There were at least two hundred of them along on this march, including several dozen children. If they could keep up-which they surely could, with the incentive of staying out of Duke Maximilian’s clutches-then Bonnie should be able to as well. She was on the plump side, true. But that was due to genetics, not sedentary habits. She was a vigorous sort of person, as you’d expect from someone who’d chosen to become a surveyor.
“What time do you think it is?” asked Willa Fodor. She was squinting to the east, trying to see if she could spot any signs of the dawn arriving. “My watch doesn’t work any more.”
Neither did Tom’s. He hadn’t worn a watch in more than a year, since the battery finally died. By then, four years after the Ring of Fire, silver oxide batteries-the very few that were left-cost a small fortune. It hadn’t seemed worth the expense, especially since the new battery would eventually die also. With a handful of exceptions, the only up-time watches that were still functional were old-fashioned wind-up watches. And there weren’t all that many of those.
Happily, there had already been a primitive watchmaking industry in Europe when the Americans arrived, which quickly began adapting the designs in up-time encyclopedias. The balance spring and balance wheel designed by Huygens in the late seventeenth century in the up-timers’ universe were well within their capabilities. Within two or three years, a fairly large number of pocket watches were available in much of Europe.
They were expensive, of course, and up-timers tended to scorn them. The watches weren’t nearly as accurate as the timepieces Americans were used to.
Bocler dug into his coat pocket and came out with one. He flipped open the lid and tilted the watch so he could see the face by the light of the moon. “It’s almost five o’clock in the morning,” he said.
Seeing everyone staring at him, he smiled slightly. “No, of course I can’t afford such a device on my salary. Duke Ernst gave it to me as a gift, when he left for Saxony.”
He put it back in its pocket. “I have tested it against American electronic timers. It is accurate within ten minutes every day. I have to keep adjusting it, naturally.”
The sun would be rising in a couple of hours, then. They still weren’t more than four miles from Ingolstadt. Tom wanted to get five or six miles away before making camp, if at all possible. But he’d stop sooner if they found a good place to set up defensive fieldworks. It wouldn’t be long before the Bavarian cavalry found them and they had to start fighting.
The men needed some sleep, too, even if only for two or three hours. And something to eat.
Von Eichelberg had been reading his mind, apparently. He’d make a superb staff officer. “There is a very good place to set up camp about a mile farther down the river, Major,” he said. “Thick forest comes almost to the river, creating a bottleneck. With your guns, we could hold off five or six times our number.”
Tom nodded. “Let’s be about it, then.” He turned to Rita. “You’re in charge up there, hon. If it looks like you’re in any danger of running out of fuel, head for Regensburg immediately. I’m hoping you’ll be able to scout for us all the way, but it’s not worth the risk. If you lose power, the winds will probably blow you into Bavaria or Austria.”
It was tempting to send the Pelican to Regensburg right now. They could refuel and, thereafter, could provide the regiment with reconnaissance without having to worry about losing power.
But that presupposed that “refueling” was a simple, cut-and-dried matter, which it certainly wouldn’t be. By the time the relevant authorities could consult with each other, wrangle over everything relevant authorities could invariably find to wrangle about-you could get a headache just thinking about it-the regiment would probably have arrived in Regensburg and made it all a moot point.
Rita gave him a quick hug. A moment later, she was headed back toward the Pelican. The three female auditors and Corporal Baier followed her.
Tom looked at Bonnie and Johann Heinrich. “Do you two have anything you need to get off the airship? If you do, you’d better move quickly.”
The two of them looked at each other, then simultaneously shook their heads.
“No,” said Bonnie. “We were in such an all-fired hurry to get out of the inn when the fighting started that we didn’t take anything with us.” She nodded toward the secretary. “He’s been staying in the same inn and came with us.”
Bocler shrugged. “I regret not taking some additional clothing, but other than that, there really wasn’t anything in my room worth bringing. Administrator Christian sent me here to compile records on a number of routine matters. The Bavarians are welcome to plunder the lot-the very great lot-and take it back to Munich. Perhaps they’ll die of boredom as they study the files. I came very close to doing so myself.”
So Bocler had a sense of humor, too. Who knew?
Certainly not Bonnie Weaver. The expression on her face, looking at him, was positively startled.
Chapter 10
The next morning, Captain Johann Heinrich von Haslang wasn’t any happier than he’d been the night before. If anything, his misgivings about the campaign were growing.
There were a number of things troubling him. To begin with, as he’d foreseen, there would be no serious effort made to track down the culprits who had caused the failure of the expedition to capture the airship. When he’d reported his findings to von Lintelo, the general had shrugged irritably and said, “These things happen when a city is taken. Assign a reliable sergeant to see what he can find out. I have more important work for you.”