Frankowski, Leo Stargard 6 Conrad's Quest for Rubber

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their bedding was gone. I, of course, declined his offer.
Later that night we took advantage of Father David's presence to go to confession.
In the morning, after we recited our Army Oath, we sang a proper mass, with Communion, for the
first time in entirely too long. Then we left, heading east.
Chapter Thirty-One
From the Journal of Josip Sobieski
WRITTEN MARCH 12, 1251, CONCERNING FEBRUARY 10, 1251
As we came in sight of the island, I could barely believe my eyes! The entire island had been logged
over, and a dozen new buildings, all made of concrete army fashion were either completed or
under construction! At least a full company of men were busily working. Above it all was a huge,
multi-element yagi radio antenna.
As we tied our canoe up to one of the docks, a sentry looked at us with his mouth open, then ran to
get his superior. He was wearing a clean, summer-weight class B uniform, and for the first time in
half a year I was seriously conscious of my own nakedness.
I suddenly realized I was coming back a dismal failure. I had been sent out with a steam-powered
riverboat, tons of supplies, and a platoon of forty-two healthy, well-educated young men. Now the
boat was a rotten mound in the jungle, the supplies were gone, with almost nothing to show for
them, and all the men were dead except for the two naked survivors next to me, plus three more, left
behind at a trading post out in the bush with nothing to trade.
I had lost an incredible thirty-seven out of forty-two of the army's finest young men. If ever a platoon
leader deserved to be shot, it was me.
I wasn't sure what their feelings would be about the four women with me. Jane, at least, had
certainly earned the right to be one of us, and the others were our wives. I didn't know what army
policy was toward non-Christian, native wives. But there was nothing to do but to brazen it out.
As we were unloading the canoe onto the dock, a group of clean, groomed, and uniformed men
came out to us, and I was suddenly glad we had left the whiskey barrel back at the trading post. With
it, I could see them adding drunkenness to the list of charges against me. Leading the group was
Baron Siemomysl himself, the commander of the entire Explorer's C o r p s .
He was smiling!
He completely ignored military formality and said, "Sir Josip! My God, but it's good to see you
alive! We were all worried about you! Welcome to Brazylport! Come, introduce me to your party."
I introduced the men and women of my group to my baron, and told him a bit about each of them.
He seemed delighted with them, but he winced when he noticed the hand-carved stock on my rifle.
"Excellent! I see that you have brought back samples of rubber, besides. But for now, unless you
have something urgent to tell me, rooms are being made ready for you, and I'm sure you would like a
chance to freshen up."
Which was as polite a way as he could manage of saying that I probably didn't want to report in
officially while I was buck naked.
The baron personally led us back to the married housing area, and gestured to the tree stumps and
the soil denuded of vegetation.
"We had to clear the entire area in order to clean out all of the nastier plants and animals. We'll be
replanting it soon,with safe, useful local plants. Perhaps some of your ladies can advise us on
that."
When we got to the married housing area, some troops were just carrying a new set of
furniture into a new building. Four women in Explorer uniforms greeted our ladies and whisked
them away. I was glad to see that someone had talked Lord Conrad out of his silly "men only"
policy for the corps.
The baron left, saying, "Come and see me as soon as you are ready."
We men were shown the way to the showers. An hour later, scrubbed, shaved, and with my hair
properly cut, I walked to the commander's office in a new class A uniform, with my tattered
logbooks and journals under my arm.
The baron returned my salute and politely asked me to sit down.
"Well, now. The short of it is that as soon as we realized the mistake we'd made, we got another
expedition together as quickly as possible. Launching the first expedition without any
experienced men was an unavoidable necessity, but sending your company out with riverboats
that rotted apart in a few months, with radios that ceased to function in weeks, and with food
supplies that went bad even quicker, was downright criminal. The army owes you and your men
a serious apology, son.
"We've been here for four months now, and with the buildings mostly up, we've started doing
what we came here to do. Namely, to get your people the kind of equipment you need, and to test
it on-site. Our first ferrocrete riverboat will be coming down the ways in a few weeks, and then
we can start exploring properly! We started testing special paints and preservatives the day we
got here, and work is already being done on a radio that works in this humidity. But enough of
that. Pour yourself a drink and tell me what has happened to you this past year."
I told him the whole story, and filled my glass several times in the telling. The short twilight of the
tropics had started before I was through.
"That was quite a story, Captain Sobieski. Yes, you've been promoted, and your men have just
been promoted along with you. We'll come up with something for your native warrior woman, as
well. You all deserve it, and there is a lot of work around here that needs doing. We'll be working
together for a long time to come. The rubber you brought in wasn't the first, but a third source of
supply will be very valuable, and your discovery will certainly be exploited. Those Yaminana
people of yours sound fascinating, and I look forward to talking to your pretty little Booboo as soon
as possible."
I thanked the baron, but said that I was looking forward to a trip home to Poland before long. I had
a young lady there who was waiting to be my bride.
"That brings me to a very painful topic, Captain. I got a message from Lord Conrad three days
ago, and, well, you can't go home. None of us can. It was only a few weeks ago that enough men
like you made it back to impress on us the magnitude of the disease problem. It now appears that at
least half, and possibly as many as three-quarters, of your old company have died of disease.
Furthermore, they died of diseases unknown in Europe. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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