"Committee be hanged!" Rod scratched his scars and thought about shapes in the dark. "Do you want me to run this the way I think it has to be run? Or shall I just go through the motions?"
"Well . .
"One man alone either gets jittery and starts seeing shadows- or he dopes off and is useless. I had to wake one last night- I won't tell you who; I scared him out of his pants; he won't do it again. I say we need a real guard, strong enough in case of trouble to handle things while the camp has time to wake up. But if you want it your way, why not relieve me and put somebody else in?"
"No, no, you keep it. Do what you think necessary."
"Okay, I'm putting the girls on. Bob and Carmen, too, And you."
"Huh?"
"And me. And Roy Kilroy. Everybody. That's the only way you will get people to serve without griping; that way you will convince them that it is serious, a first obligation, even ahead of hunting."
Cowper picked at a hangnail, "Do you honestly think I should stand watch? And you?"
"I do. It would boost morale seven hundred percent. Besides that, it would be a good thing, uh, politically."
Cowper glanced up, did not smile. "You've convinced me. Let me know when it's my turn."
"Another thing. Last night there was barely wood to keep two fires going."
"Your problem. Use anybody not on the day's hunting or cooking details."
"I will. You'll hear some beefs. Boss, those were minor items; now I come to the major one. Last night I took a fresh look at this spot. I don't like it, not as a permanent camp. We've been lucky."
"Eh? Why?"
"This place is almost undefendable. We've got a stretch over fifty meters long between shale and water on the upstream side. Downstream isn't bad, because we build a fire in the bottleneck. But upstream we have walled off less than half and we need a lot more stakes behind the wall. Look," Rod added, pointing, "you could drive an army through there- and last night I had only two little bitty fires. We ought to finish that wall."
"We will."
"But we ought to make a real drive to find a better place. This is makeshift at best. Before you took over I as trying to find more caves- but I didn't have time to explore very far. Ever been to Mesa Verde?"
"In Colorado? No."
"Cliff dwellings, you've seen pictures. Maybe somewhere up or down stream-more likely down- we will find pockets like those at Mesa Verde where we can build homes for the whole colony. You ought to send a team out for two weeks or more, searching. I volunteer for it."
"Maybe. But you can't go; I need you."
"In a week I'll have this guard duty lined up so that it will run itself. Bob Baxter can relieve me; they respect him... .. ." He thought for a moment. Jackie? Jimmy? "I'll team with Carol."
"Rod, I told you I want you here. But are you and Caroline planning to marry?"
"Huh? What gave you that notion?"
"Then you can't team with her in any case. We are trying to re-introduce amenities around here."
"Now see here, Cowper!"
"Forget it."
"Unh... all right. But the first thing- the very first- is to finish that wall. I want to put everybody to work nght away."
"Mmm..." Cowper said. "I'm sorry. You can't."
"Why not?"
"Because we are going to build a house today. Bill Kennedy and Sue Briggs are getting married tonight."
"Huh? I hadn't heard."
"I guess you are the first to hear. They told me about it privately, at breakfast."
Rod was not surprised, as Bill and Sue preferred each other's company. "Look, do they have to get married to-night? That wall is urgent, Grant; I'm telling you."
"Don't be so intense, Rod. You can get along a night or two with bigger fires. Remember, there are human values more important than material values."
11. The Beach of Bones
"July 29- Bill and Sue got married tonight. Hizzoner never looked lovelier. He made a mighty pretty service out of it- I cried and so did the other girls. If that boy could do the way he can talk! I played Mendelssohn's Wedding March on my harmonica with tears running down my nose and gumming up the reeds- that's a touch I wanted to put into darling Carmen's wedding but I couldn't resist being bridesmaid. The groom got stuck carrying his lady fair over the threshold of their 'house'- if I may call it that- and had to put her down and shove her in ahead of him. The ceiling is lower than it ought to be which is why he got stuck, because we ran out of rock and Roddie raised Cain when we started to use part of the wall. Hizzoner was leading the assault on the wall and both of them got red in the face and shouted at each other. But Hizzoner backed down after Roddie got him aside and said something- Bill was pretty sore at Roddie but Bob sweet-talked him and offered to swap houses and Roddie promised Bill that we would take the roof off and bring the walls up higher as soon as the wall is finished. That might not be as soon as he thinks, though- usable rock is getting hard to find. I've broken all my nails trying to pry out pieces we could use. But I agree with Roddie that we ought to finish that wall and I sleep a lot sounder now that he is running the watch and I'll sleep sounder yet when that wall is tight and the pincushion back of it finished. Of course we girls sleep down at the safe end but who wants to wake up and find a couple of our boys missing? It is not as if we had them to spare, bless their silly little hearts. Nothing like a man around the house, Mother always said, to give a home that lived-in look.
"July 30- I'm not going to write in this unless something happens. Hizzoner talks about making papyrus like the Egyptians but I'll believe it when I see it.
"Aug 5- I was sergeant of the guard last night and Roddie was awake practically all night. I turned in after breakfast and slept until late afternoon- when I woke up there was Roddie, red-eyed and cross, yelling for more rocks and more firewood. Sometimes Roddie is a little hard to take.
"Aug 9- the salt lick Alice found is closer than the one Shorty found last week, but not as good.
"Aug 14- Jackie finally made up her mind to marry Jim and I think Roddie is flabbergasted- but I could have told him a month ago. Roddie is stupid about such things. I see another house & wall crisis coming and Roddie will get a split personality because he will want Jimmy and Jacqueline to have a house right away and the only decent stone within reach is built into the wall.
"Aug 15- Jimmy and Jackie, Agnes and Curt, were married today in a beautiful double ceremony. The Throxtons have the Baxter house temporarily and the Pulvermachers have the Kennedy's doll house while we partition the cave into two sets of married quarters and a storeroom.
"Sep 1- the roots I dug up didn't poison me, so I served a mess of them tonight. The shield from power pack of that Thunderbolt gun we salvaged- Johann's, it must have been- made a big enough boiler to cook a little helping for everybody. The taste was odd, maybe because Agnes had been making soap in it- it wasn't very good soap, either. I'm going to call these things yams because they look like yams although they taste more like parsnips. There are a lot of them around. Tomorrow I m going to try boiling them with greens, a strip of side ineat, and plenty of salt. Yum, yum! I'm going to bake them in ashes, too.
"Sep 16- Chad Ames and Dick Burke showed up with their tails tucked in; Hizzoner got soft-hearted and let em stay. They say Jock McGowan is crazy. I can believe it.
"Sep 28- Philip Schneider died today, hunting. Roy carried him in, but he was badly clawed and lost a lot of blood and was D.O.A. Roy resigned as boss hunter and Hizzoner appointed Cliff. Roy is broken up about it but nobody blames him. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.