Time Scout

Margo's whole face went scarlet. "You heard about that."

Kit laughed. "Margo, everyone in La-La Land heard about it."

"That'll teach me to make bets," she said ruefully.

"All right," A

Margo gave A

"We start with a little demonstration."

A

She lit a long match and touched it to the end of the line of powders. The modern rifle powder flared and burned slowly, the pistol powder burned a good bit faster-then the black powder flashed wildly, gone in a split second.

"Good God!"

"Yes. That's to teach you to respect black powder. Be careful when handling it, especially when you're reloading black-powder weapons. A mistake can injure, potentially even kill you."

"Great."

A

Margo said, "Okay, ball and powder and patch. Show me."

A

"Okay. But why's that important?"

"Remember what I said about thousands of pounds per square inch of pressure inside the cartridge cases of modern guns when smokeless powder begins to burn? Well, black powder doesn't burn, it explodes. If you leave a gap here," she pointed to the bottom end of the barrel, "what you've done, essentially, is build a miniature bomb."

Margo's eyes widened. "Oh."

"Yes. The gun barrel can blow up in your face. The other thing to remember is that sparks can still be smoldering inside the barrel. There isn't any way to get into this end of it. It's all closed up and solid, no breech to open, so you can't just check it. If you try to dump more powder into a hot barrel without swabbing it out first with a wet swab, you could ignite the powder you're pouring in-which could, in turn, set off the powder from the container you're pouring from. That's why you should always load from a measurer that holds just enough powder for one shot. Of course, under battle conditions, you may not have time to swab out the barrel," A

Margo had looked massively uncertain.

A

Margo glanced back toward Kit, chewed her lower lip, then shook her head. "No. Just show me what I'm supposed to do."

A

"Very good. And here is a beautiful Kentucky rifle to practice with."

"Ooh! Daniel Boone and settlers on the Cumberland Gap trail and..."

Kit gri

"How in the world did people keep these things burning?" Margo demanded with a half-hearted laugh the second time her slow-smoldering match went out. "Am I doing something wrong? Or is it really that hard?"

A

Margo gri

"Yes, it did wreak a bit of havoc on a few plans. But then, rain wasn't kind to bow strings, either, or to paper cartridges. Modern guns are nicely weatherproof compared to most projectile weapons. And speaking of other projectile weapons, we need to train you in crossbows and stickbows, recurves ..."

Margo's eyes widened. Then she gri

"Oh, goodie! One of my students finally wants to learn flint-knapping and spear throwing!" '

Kit couldn't help it. He started to chuckle.

Margo turned on him with a hot glare. " "What's so fu

"I'm sorry, Margo," he said, still laughing. -But you're so transparent. Learning flint-knapping wouldn't exactly be a waste of time. You literally could end up someplace where stone weapons are the only ones available. Remember that scout who just came back from the Wurm glaciation, did the work on CroMagnon lifestyles?"

"Yeah, I remember reading that. In the Shangri-la Gazette."

"Right And you did see what fell through the ceiling the other day, didn't you?"

Margo rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, well, I was thinking about that. What do you do if you come face to face with a wooly rhinoceros or something?"

"Look for the nearest tree," Kit advised. "They're mean-tempered brutes. It took a cooperative effort from multiple hunters to bring them down. As for the `or something,' it depends on what it is. I have a feeling we should add biology and big-game hunting to your curriculum."

She went a little green around the edges.

"Well, there's nothing intrinsically horrible about it," Kit pointed out. "It's useful to know how to kill various species if you're either starving to death or in danger of immediate dismemberment. And I've seen you eat meat, so I know you're not a vegetarian. What do they teach in high school these days?"

"Uh, respect for other living creatures?"

A

"Well," Margo thrust her hands into her pockets, "I'm not a vegan or anything, and I like steaks and chicken and stuff and a neighbor gave us some venison once. I've just never had to hunt anything to get a meal. I know I grew up in Mi