I realized I didn't know enough about the conditions north of the Pyrenees Mountains, which were the border between what would become France and Spain. Known as the Spanish Marches, this had never been heavily populated because of poor growing conditions.
I sent for the caravan master who had brought us the crude oil. He appeared two days later from Saltash and mostly sober by then. He had been celebrating a successful venture.
I told him, "Congratulations on your successful trip. I trust we paid you well for the crude oil you brought back."
"You did, but as you know, we could always use more coins. The ladies in Saltash appreciate them."
"I see," I replied dryly.
"May I ask a few questions about your trip?"
"Certainly, Count Owen-nap."
Using my title instead of saying, "My Lord," reminded me he wasn't one of my citizens.
"From Vellooasses to Arette, it is a long journey. Did you have any problems?"
"All of the area has been unpopulated since the plague."
"You must have seen someone."
"Absolutely no one the entire trip. We were able to go to Arette, where a large oil seep occurs, and fill the barrels. We didn't encounter one person going there or back."
There had to be people there, isolated groups that were afraid to get near a large caravan.
"I see. That changes some things. We could build a refinery at Arette and caravan the lubricating oil to Vellooasses."
He replied, "It is over five hundred miles. That would be a long trip to make on a regular schedule."
"You are right. What else could we do?"
He thought for a minute, rubbing his chin the while.
"There is a small harbor at Anglet. It is only seventy miles from Arette. If you could dock a ship there, it would be easy to get this lubricating oil to Saltash."
"Do you know if anyone is alive at Anglet?"
"I have no idea."
"Our first schooner is ready for its trial run. I will have it sail to Anglet and see if the harbor is useable and if people are present."
"I would be interested if you could set up a route; it would work well for my caravans. It would save us hundreds of miles if we didn't have to go to Vellooasses."
"I will arrange for our ship to check out the possibilities and let you know."
"Thank you. My group and I will be here for another month trading and resting up for the long trip back to Constantinople."
The next week, Ibn reported they had a small setup that would fractionate the crude oil into bitumen and lubricating oil. There were other by-products, but those were the ones that interested us.
I had already arranged for the schooner's maiden voyage to be a round trip to the Spanish Marches. The caravan master had spoken of Anglet, but we didn’t have any maps showing the small port.
It didn’t matter. The schooner Captain was charged with finding a workable port in the area.
The schooner made the round trip in three weeks. One week there, and two back fighting the wind all the way. The trip was a double success. The Captain declared the schooner a seaworthy ship and handy to sail. They also found a small port by the name of Anglet.
Anglet turned out to have a small population. Sixteen people, to be exact. The rest had died during the plague. The village lived off the sea and they lost most of the fishermen to the plague. The remaining people were either old men and women or widows with small children. The plague had shown no discrimination in its victims.
The remaining population was slowly starving to death, so our schooner coming into their port was a blessing.
My Captain was smart enough to feed the people and leave them with enough food to last until our next trip.
I ordered the schooner loaded with supplies and several nurses to return immediately. We needed the port, and we wanted those people on our side. It was also a good thing to do.
A meeting with my core advisors, came up with the following plan.
We would establish a Keep at Anglet and have cannon to defend the harbor. A trail would be made to Arette, where another Keep would be established to defend the refinery would be built there. Depending on the amount of crude coming from the seep, we could harvest it or drill for oil.
The oil wouldn't be that deep, so I hoped a pile-driving drill would reach the oil layer. If not, we would have to use a steam engine to turn a rotary drill. Since we didn’t have a portable steam engine built, it would delay us.
We tracked the project on one of our Gantt Charts. I longed for the days of Symphony software on an IBM AT with a ten-meg hard drive.
Another schooner and a carvel slid off the drydock. This gave us the cargo room to transport the building and surveying crews to Anglet. Their first orders of business were to lay out a road to Arette and to set up a concrete plant.
The crews were self-contained, so they wouldn't have to take anything from the villagers. They would hire as many villagers as they could to support people. This helped the people survive and brought them into our fold.
I was worried about the language barrier, but since it was a seafaring village, there were several people who we could speak with us. The few people left in Anglet welcomed us with open arms.
We were their saviors. They told my men they would have welcomed us even if they hadn't lost their men to the plague. The village was barely surviving before the plague hit. Our new foothold in Anglet had my plans for a spark gap radio station changing. I had approved building a smaller generator and shorter antenna tower, which would reach about two hundred miles. But now, I needed a full-blown device to reach more than three thousand miles.
When I reviewed the project, I found there were basic costs that didn't change, no matter the range wanted. I should have gone with the longer-reaching device in the first place. That is what happens when you try to do too much at once.
There was a pleasant occurrence in Anglet after we had been there a while, and people began to trust us. Whole families started trickling in from the countryside, looking for work.
I had a standing order that anyone who showed up looking for work would be added to our census rolls, and we would find a paid spot for them.
The new arrivals had to go through the nursing station upon acceptance. The station had grown from a MASH tent to a solid structure. Cast concrete can make walls go up fast.
Within three months, Anglet went from a population of sixteen to over five hundred, of which only one hundred came from Cornwall. It seems the isolated farms weren't self-sustaining and needed many items shipped in to survive. They were all on the edge of failing when we showed up.
We sent teams of young people of both sexes out to spread the word that Anglet needed people. People were joining us as far away as two hundred miles. We also were spreading the word that we would need people in Arette.
Ibn had moved from Cornwall to Arette to supervise the building of the refinery. The refinery had been built by Tom Smith's people in Cornwall and disassembled for shipping. His people did the actual work of setting up the refinery. Ibn was our final quality check.
We had semaphore towers put up every twenty miles as there were plenty of hills higher than the surrounding land.
We had scouts out looking for any population concentrations. There were only a few small villages between Arette, Anglet, and Villooasses.
There was never an arrival from the south of us, and I found that strange. There should have been isolated survivors there. The Basque had been in this area forever, and some of them should have survived.
After my scouts checked out the land to the north of us out to five hundred miles and established there wasn't a large enough concentration of people to create an army to give us problems, I ordered them to check out the south.
The Arette Keep was completed about the same time as the refinery was ready to go into operation. Eleanor and I journeyed there for the grand opening.
The sea trip went well, and the road from Anglet, while not paved, was cleared and a gravel base laid down. There was a way station on the sixty-eight-mile stretch of road that we overnighted at. All in all, the trip wasn't that bad.
The weather was fine when we arrived at Arette. Rooms in the Keep had been arranged for us and our party of twenty. Of the twenty, fifteen were guards. We had left the kids at home, or there would have been fifty of us. Kids take a lot of support!
Everyone at Arette turned out for the start-up of the refinery. I gave a short speech about how a new age was upon us and that all would prosper. I sounded like any hack politician in Ohio. Though I was pleased, they had turned out to hear me until I realized there was little to no entertainment in this remote settlement.
So, with my swollen head pricked like a balloon, I kept my remarks short and to the point. The highlight of the grand opening was when Ibn lit off the unwanted gases coming from the fractionating unit. The chimney was fifty feet tall, and the flames went up another twenty feet. It would be seen for miles around.
The Keep courtyard was opened for the feast I had paid for. These people had done wonders in six months and deserved a party.
Eleanor and I stayed for a week. We spent our time getting to know the area's original inhabitants who had migrated to Arette. Like Anglet, they were happy to be in Arette once they learned how they would be received and saw the improved living conditions. A small health center was being built, and the first school was being set up.
The people couldn't believe they and their children would be given an education. It was unheard of even before the plague.
One good thing, at least as far as I was concerned was that very few Priests made it through the plague. I didn’t want any repeats of Father Timothy. A small Church would be built, but it was made very clear to the two Priests who survived they wouldn't be preaching against our progress.
One of the Priests was elderly and seemed to have good common sense. The other was young and appeared to be scatterbrained. I had a soldier at every mass to listen and report on what they were preaching. The young Priest complimented our soldiers on their piety, and the elder said nothing. From the reports I received, he understood what was going on.
The first one thousand gallons of lubricating oil was ready at the end of our week's stay, so we accompanied it to Anglet, where a schooner was waiting for us.
The trip home took longer as the winds were against us and required a lot of tacking. Once, a Viking ship came rowing straight at us. Until a ranging shot was fired from one of the cannons. The Vikings must have heard about our weapons because they quickly turned and rowed away.
I had ordered there were to be no warning shots. Anyone coming at us like that wasn't our friend.
A pleasant surprise was waiting for us when we returned to Saltash. Our first railroad tracks had been installed running from Owen-nap to Saltash. The train would take us home in less than two hours instead of a day on horseback.
A turntable hadn't been installed yet, so the train had to back up to Owen-nap. The rail cars left a lot to be desired. They were open benches made from a wooden plank! If it rained, you got wet. Worse than that, smoke and cinders settled on you during the trip. We were a mess before we got home.
We weren't the only ones. People were sitting cheek to cheek on the bench seats. That was another problem.
I asked my jammed-in closest neighbor next to me why everyone was on the train. He told me the rides were free while they tested the system. So many people wanted to ride they were holding a lottery in Owen-nap for it.
There were people riding horseback from Saltash to get in the lottery. The horses were one-way rentals. Ha, Hertz must have got the idea from them. Who knew?
I wanted to get mad about the situation but realized I was the only one who could have foreseen the smoke and cinder problem. Getting wet from the rain was on the car builders. I didn't even know who handled that part of the project. I would find out.
Tom Smith's people were building the engine and cars, so I started with him.
"Tom, who designed the passenger cars on the train?"
"Before I answer that, I would like to show you something."
I grumped but went along with it. He took me to a new large building. It was set up to build railroad cars. The ones under construction were true enclosed cars.
"These are more like it. What are the ones that are in use for? They are disgraceful."
"They were thrown together so we would have a load to haul. Everyone wanting a ride was a surprise."
"They were a surprise, that is for certain."
"Come with me. There is one more car I would like to show you."
He took me to the back of the shop. There was a magnificent coach under construction. Inside were cushioned seats. There was a small kitchen, a bedroom, a toilet, and a conference room. They were all small as it is a narrow gauge track.
"This is your car for when you travel."
"This is more like it. Eleanor and I aren’t into lavish displays, but this is nice."
"There is another car being started. It will have an electric generator, radio, and a folding antenna. The setup will reach two hundred miles, like the first ones built. We couldn't figure out how to make an antenna fit that would transmit three thousand miles."
I started to say, "All I need is someone to carry the football and Looking Glass."
I bit my tongue in time. That would have been too complicated to explain on so many levels.
Before I could say anything else, he added, "There will also be two troop cars for your escorts. Plus a supply wagon for the troops, another supply wagon with track repair sections. A kitchen car for the troops, two bunk cars for them, add a general dining car, though you can also eat in your car if you prefer."
"Wow, this is some train you are setting up. In my time, they used to have armored trains like this."
"All our cars are armored. They have a quarter-inch metal plate inside of the outer shell."
"That is ten cars in total. Will the engine handle that load?"
"It should, but we are attaching two engines to your train. One is facing the front, and one the back. That way, direction can be changed with little effort. Each engine should be able to pull the train. With two, there will be plenty of spare power."
"Who is paying for all this?"
Tom smirked. "Why you are, of course."
"My personal funds or my business account?"
"I tried for your funds, but your account insisted it is a Cornwall expense. You don't own the train. Cornwall does. It goes with the office, not you."
"Fair enough. Eleanor will probably want some changes."
"Those would have to come from your account."
"With friends like you, I don’t need any enemies."
"That's what friends are for!"
"For that, you are buying the beer."
"Vindictive sort, aren't you."
"Yep. Tom, since we are on the subject of railroads, there is something I want your opinion on. Let’s head to the tavern."
We walked past the well that had become a meeting spot. It served little use since we piped water everywhere now. But I still wanted it maintained for emergencies.
The open-air tavern was our favorite drinking spot. The booth in the back corner was always available when we showed up. Today, I noticed we had been spotted coming in, and two guys were being evicted from our booth.
I stopped at their new table and let them know their tab was on me. How did I know they were two of the most notorious drunks in town? They had been put in the back booth to keep them out of sight.
I was told later they closed the place up at three a.m. All on my dime. Oh well.
When Tom and I settled in with a drink in hand, I brought up my subject.
"Tom, we have talked about corporations and shares. So far, we have done little other than private ownership. I would like to make the railroad a public corporation with anyone allowed to purchase shares."
"Why?"
"The rail system will cost a lot more than you think. I would like to spread the risk around. Also, it will be a money sink. Our people are so well paid they are just sticking it in the bank. An economy works better when the money is moving."
"You've explained that before. I'm not sure I get it. But if you say it is, it is so."
"The moon is made out of green cheese."
"So that is true?"
"No, you doofus, I just made that up. What I say isn't always so."
"See, what you said is so."
"I think we have had enough to drink."
"Probably, but tell me more about shares in the railroad."
I thought momentarily, then replied, "Right now, my County is paying for the railroad, excluding my railcars."
"Correct."
"We will set up a company, and the County will sell the shares to this company. Let's name the company Cornwall Rail. We won't demand cash from Cornwall Rail but allow them to repay it as a loan over time."
"I'm with you so far."
"Cornwall Rail will divide the ownership into parts, say one hundred thousand parts. They will sell those parts to anyone who wants to invest in Cornwall Rail. In turn, the company will use that money to build the trackage and new equipment."
"Why would anyone want to buy these shares?"
"Because the company becomes profitable by charging whoever uses a train, whether my Barony, Districts or a Passenger. The money made will be shared out amongst the shareholders."
"I get it. Just like that dating service the women are running. I own shares in that."
That was when I realized I had been had by Tom. I thought Tom had too much beer. Maybe it was me. His laughter was a giveaway.
Eleanor confirmed I had too much to drink when I got back home.
The next day, I contritely took Eleanor and the kids to see our new train car. They loved it, though Cathy said it would look better in pink.
Doug wanted to go for a ride. When I told him it wasn't ready, he threw a tantrum. A swat on the butt took care of that.
Eleanor and I talked seriously about forming a company for the railroad. We agreed to be a major investor, buying twenty-five percent of the initial offering. We knew it would make money, so we wanted part of it. At the same time, we wanted a middle-class to develop. This was one way to start it.
The next day was a momentous one. I sent and received the first message by radio. I sent, "Can you hear me?" They couldn’t, the spark gap radio signal was in Morse Code, but the spirit was there.
There were to be radio setups at every Keep. And each Keep would have a three-letter code assigned. This was so people would know who the message was for. We couldn't target a specific radio station yet. Our signal went out to everyone.
We still had the semaphore stations for more complex messages and as a backup for the radio system, even though the only thing that could damage our radios was a direct hit from a mass coronal ejection from the sun. But you just never know.
Until we had true over-the-air voice radio, the wiggle-waggle stations, as they were commonly called, would be left up.
While oil was being developed in the Spanish Marches, the expansion into Wessex, Sussex, and Kent was underway.
The road system was now within ten miles of London. The semaphore stations and Keeps were under construction. Dereham was completely controlled by Baron Edmund. His son Elford was now in charge of the next Keep down the line at Ethandune. My maps of modern England had Ethandune in a different location, but that was par for the course.
London was almost a ghost town. The keyword there was 'almost.' There were enough people left that there might be resistance to our taking over the city.
There was only one way to find out, go talk to them. This time, Eleanor stayed home with the kids as I made the journey.
The railroad system had reached Tintagel. So, that part was a relatively quick ride. It seemed silly to go to Tintagel to reach London, but our rail system was very linear, going from major town to major town. We would put in tracks later going across the country to shorten the trip. It was no worse than the time I flew from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh to catch a flight back to Columbus. It was what we had.
Along the way I stayed at Dereham and got updates from Baron Edmund. He was a different person than the one I first met. This Edmund was upbeat and optimistic.
Food, better health care, education, and improved living conditions would do that. Not having to worry about an enemy knocking on your door because you were the biggest and baddest in the neighborhood helped.
His scouts, carrying our message to the remaining villages north of us, reported King Ine was not happy with what we were doing. He assumed there would be war eventually.
I shrugged it off. We would have to fight them sooner or later. It would be best to break his army against our Keep's walls. Even better, take his army without major fighting. We still needed people.
I arrived at the edge of London three days later with a force of one hundred armed soldiers. They could defeat anything the Londoners could field. What I needed to avoid at all costs was house-to-house fighting. Their sheer numbers could overwhelm us.
Advancing with a white flag flying, we were ignored! Some people saw us and ran away. I thought a representative would be approaching us at any time. But four hours later, we were still waiting.
I decided to get their attention in a more forceful manner. I had told my Senior Sergeant to have the men fire a volley into the air. That should wake them up.
One hundred rifles firing at once makes a very loud noise. While waiting, I wished we had a battery of field artillery. That would get their attention in Dover. They were under development but not ready to deploy.
It didn't take long for a ragged group of three men to come out waving a dirty yellowish flag. It seemed the flag had hastily been made from some sailcloth. Not white, but close enough.