5
A Safe Shelter?
The man lying on his stomach at the top of the ridge was named Tyl. In his village he had been known as Tyl the Miller, but his mill was gone now. So was his entire village. The Burgundians had burned it weeks before, just as they had razed every other village in their path as they marched through Flanders to the sea.
Tyl raised himself just enough to get a better look at the ruined building in the distance. He’d been watching it for hours, and his muscles protested the move. The Burgundians had been through here, too, he could see. What had once been a mill just like his was now part of a long, charred slash on the landscape. The mill was not completely destroyed, however, and that’s what made it worth the long watch. It just might provide shelter for a while. Provided there were no Burgundians there – or worse, one of the roving gangs of bandits that followed in their wake. Even another wanderer like Tyl could be dangerous if he were bigger and stronger.
Tyl moved to his left, keeping behind the sparse brush that grew along the ridge. The new angle gave him a better view of the flock of pigeons that had made their home in the mill, and allowed him to look inside through a missing wall. The other walls still stood strongly enough to hold up the damaged roof, where the pigeons strutted so importantly. It was a wind-powered mill like most in Flanders and, while the vanes had been torn down, the tower was intact. There was enough of the building left, Tyl could see, to keep out wind and rain. The only problem: was anybody else there?
He sighed deeply and lowered his body to the ground again. He was weak, desperately weak, but his wife and their one surviving child hidden behind him in the trunk of a hollow tree were even worse off. Tyl was in his prime, if it could be called that, and had withstood the effects of starvation better than they.
The year was 1384, but Tyl didn’t know that. It wouldn’t have mattered to him if he had. For generations that year would be known throughout Flanders simply as “the time the Burgundians came.” The previous year had been an even scarier marker. It was known as “the time with no summer” for, following a beautiful, promising spring, the rains had come and never left. The whole of Flanders, low-lying and flat to begin with, had turned into a sea of soggy mud. Creeks and canals had overflowed, crops had rotted in the fields, and people soon knew that famine was inevitable. By late fall they had begun to cast a reluctant, hungry eye at their animals. By mid-winter all the animals were gone. There was no hay or grain to feed them.
Tyl’s village starved, but had done a bit better than most at first because one of the old women had convinced everyone early on to capture and breed the rats that seemed to multiply in times like these.
But when spring came, so did the Burgundians, determined to wreak bloody vengeance for having been kicked out of Flanders some decades before. The only good part was that they, too, and even the bandits, were having trouble finding food. Only yesterday, just in time to hide, Tyl’s keen-eyed wife had spotted a troop on its way back to Burgundy, tired and bedraggled, the horses’ ribs showing clearly through their skin.
A low roll of thunder brought Tyl back to the present, reminding him that even a ruined shelter would be better than a hollow tree for what was soon to come. He raised himself once more to look at the mill. Nothing had changed. On his hands and knees he backed away from the brush to collect his family. He looked at the sky. Although they needed to move carefully and keep to the trees alongside the stream, he calculated they would still have time to get to the mill before the storm hit.
?
Tyl has decided there is no one in the mill. What has led him to this conclusion?
6
Mule Train
REPORT OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION
Against: Trooper Zebulon Pike Hampton, 3rd Platoon, A Company, B Troop, 5th Cavalry
By: Major Elliott Morton, OC, B Troop
Charge: Neglect of duty
Date(s) of Offense: July 9, 1911
Date of Action: July 12, 1911
Action Taken: Thirty (30) days stockade, immediate
Description of Offense:
From July 2–10, 1911, A Company of B Troop was assigned to make extended patrols west of Flagstaff, Arizona Territory, in the area of three known smuggling routes (see Objective(s) of Unit). 3rd Platoon was given picket duty for the night of July 8/9, with Tpr. Hampton assigned to the most distant post from midnight to first light. Tpr. Hampton failed to report a train of 20 to 25 mules that passed his post during this time.
Objective(s) of Unit When Offense Occurred:
Effective February 28, 1911, and continuing as of this date, B Troop is posted to northern Arizona Territory, Sedona/Flagstaff/Kingman area, to interdict smuggling of gold, copper, etc.
Facts Supporting Charge:
(by Maj. Morton)
Tpr. Hampton was posted at the edge of a narrow ravine c. 0.5 mi. in length, and c. 100 ft. across at the widest point and c. 40 ft. at the narrowest. At no point is the ravine more than 20 ft. deep. The floor of the ravine is a mix of rock and sand, with a streambed that on July 8/9 was dry. The area above is thickly forested on both sides, so that to travel south with pack animals it is necessary to go through the ravine or detour some 30 mi. west.
The floor of the ravine was patrolled on July 8, and no evidence of recent activity was found. At first light on July 9, company scouts found clear evidence that a train of pack animals (mules) – approximately 20 to 25 animals, with at least four (possibly five) drivers – had passed through the ravine with hooves wrapped (likely in burlap) during the night while Tpr. Hampton was on picket duty. This evidence is verified and attested to by Capt. McNair of Company A (and Lts. Pocock and Nepp).
According to procedure, Company A was given a list of pack trains scheduled by the mines for passage through the area during the time of the extended patrol. None were scheduled for July 8/9, and none of the mines subsequently dispatched an unscheduled train on this date. These, in any case, would travel in daylight. The unreported pack train indicated in this charge, therefore, was illicit.
Mitigating Circumstances:
(from oral deposition of Tpr. Hampton, as recorded by Maj. Morton. Tpr. Hampton is non-literate.)
Brisbois (Tpr. Brisbois, 3rd Platoon) was supposed to be on picket with me. There’s always supposed to be two. But after about half an hour or so, he got sick and went to the cook tent and never come back. Nobody else come, neither, so I was alone.
It was pitch black that night and muggy. No moon, no stars. Couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Only a bit of wind, but it don’t
