Part 19 (2/2)

There was plenty of coal tar stockpiled at Coaltown, so we scheduled an asphalt runway on the plain below the hill In time, other runere added so that they could land no , and eventually an entire half squarein any wind, but on sunny days it caused a lovely up-draft that went up forstruts proved to be a proble and thin, and we had to support them without the benefit of aircraft aluminum What we cae lathe built that could turn an eight-yard-long spruce log We bored a conical hole down theiron cone in the hole and turned the outside of the log so that the thickness of the as half that of your little finger Then the iron cone was relued inside every half yard This asseht ratio Two of thee ran down the center of the wings It held

Count Lale Nest when I was there He coress with the aircraft theine that could power an aircraft, and I was doing nothing about developing one

The probleher on ine There was the tooling tocannon to develop, and we needed to be able to unpowder, sword blades, boots, and all sorts of things I didn't even have a dependable source of lead and zinc yet, let alone sulfur!

But Count Lambert and the boys tea on an engine once they could build a two- the problems involved, I didn't think that my promise would seriously upset my schedules

There were two major sour points in early 1236, and they both hitsued, twice One lawsuit was by Count Laer pleased with the brass works that I'd sold hi hiement He felt that it was all ht, which proved it to his satisfaction - He wanted his money back

The other one was from Baron Stefan He had decided that I was still on the land that Laiven me, land which had been in his family for more than three hundred years, he said He wanted the land back and for es for the trees I'd cut down and the fences I'd put up

They gavethrough one snowy day and threw both cases out of court Or rather, he dismissed both suits because he was the court

Count Herman's suit was disreed upon and had never proave the count a fatherly lecture about trusting to the workingman rather than to the man's tools and nobody mentioned the fact that the duke himself owned the factory that had run the count's factory out of business

The duke becary when he found that Baron Stefan had failed to come at Count Lambert's summons to beat the bounds between our properties He said that if the baron lost land because of that, he deserved it, and a horse whipping besides for disobeying his liege lord

It helps to have friends in high places

Also that winter, Anna and I scouted out the Malapolska Hills, north of Cracohere I knew there were deposits of zinc, lead, iron, and coal She said that winter was the best ti, since there were fewer other smells around '

We found deposits of zinc and lead fairly close together, or at least there were two different ores and Anna said that they both stank like sulfur and I knew that both ores here were sulfides Lead and iron had been sists believe that it was here that iron was first made

But zinc was unknown as a separateelement with copper toto make brass directly, or zinc ore wasand copper was actually used to reduce the zinc!

Late that suotten zinc at all if I hadn't added some pollution-control equipment to the blast furnace there There wasn't even a real need to control pollution, since our facilities were tiny by modem standards and didn't seriously effect the environ things right, so I was adding dust collectors where possible

When we tried to s it to convert the sulfide to the oxide, all we got was slag

No metal at all came out It was only e cleaned out the dust collector that we found drops of zinc there

The zinc had left the furnace as a gas! Small wonder the ancients never found it They weren't worried about pollution at all!

By the next winter, ere producing zinc in quantity, but I get ahead ofbase as soon as the ground thawed I'd chosen the land because of the varied terrain, with both mountains and plains on it, and because it was the least populated area of my lands I only had to pay seven yeomen to move their families off it

Eventually, the main barracks would be a square castle a h to start out It had bunk-bed space for sixteen dozenhall that doubled as a church, bothconcrete parade around and a twelve that I'd ever heard of

On schedule, over a gross of peasants arrived frohts I had specifically asked for rough, disobedient characters Peasants ere ”too sood”

They certainly looked the part If ever there were a bunch of eneral principles, this was the gang With one exception

Piotr Kulczynski ith them

Chapter Nineteen

FROM THE DIARY OF PIOTR KULCZYNSKI

I had spent much of the winter in preparation to attend Sir Conrad's warrior school I had trained one of my subordinates, Jozef Kulisiewicz, to take overhim twice on my rounds of Sir Conrad's factories and inns, and saw to it that his replacement ell trained

I had artfully observed all the exercises that Sir Conrad and his knights were doing, and diligently practiced them myself And I had worked on Count Laot him to appoint me to the school This was not easy, for whilesworn to Sir Conrad But I persisted with the count, and cao At last, I irritated hi's blood! If you were sworn to me, I'd have you whipped! Piotr, you are too daood!”

”Yes, my lord But isn't that precisely what Sir Conrad asked for? Men ere too s to send you there just to get you out of my mustache! I knohat Sir Conrad has planned at that school, and I think you'll be dead in three days if you go!”

”Thank you, et out of here and get out of town, too!”

My plan accoht it was absolutely necessary that I attend the warrior school My position as chief accountant gaveconditions, and considerable prestige, but it did not give ivea true belted knight, or nothad been said of it, I was sure that those who survived the warrior school would soon be knighted What other purpose could the school have?

So thus it was that I was standing in line with a gross of the grossest peasants I'd ever seen It seeliness rather than for any other reason They were all huge and hairy and s mistake, a serious error in my career develop here?” Sir Conrad shouted

”Count Lambert sent me here, my lord He said that I was rude and insubordinate and that if I were sworn to him, he'd have , sworn to hi over your job?”

”Jozef Kulisiewicz, my lord He's quite coht keep your job! You conniving little runt! You planned this, didn't you? Well, you planned wrong! You wanted to come here? Okay! You'll stay here! You're not runt in this line!”

I was so shocked that I barely heard the things that he said to the others in the line, though he was loud enough to er a squire? What had I done to ht this bunch of ruffians! I was ruined!

They gave me little time to bemoan my fate We were marched off to the showers, for Sir Conrad said that we stank too badly for him to stand before us

They had us strip naked and throw our clothes into a pile, to be burned, they said Burning was probably the right thing to do with the rags that the others earing, but I had been spending ! My red hose and purple tunic were thrown into the pile of rags, along with reen cloak, and est pointed toes in Silesia! I could only thank God that I hadn't wornthat none of the others would have such finery

We were each given a s with our name on it for our valuables We were told that these would be returned to us if we survived the year out, or sent to our families in the more likely event that we did not

Four old wo for us with sheep clippers, another of Sir Conrad's inventions

We were each clipped of all hair, fro at the s to be astounded at the size of others