"I didn't do it all. Barbara did the carpentry. You should hear her swear when she hits her thumb."
"You hurt your thumb, Barbara?"
"It'll get well. Come try the ladder."
"Sure thing." He started inside; Joe stopped him. "Hugh, while we've still got light, how about seeing something?"
"All right. What?"
"The shelter. You've been talking about building a cabin. Suppose we do: what do we have? A mud floor and a roof that leaks, no glass for windows and no doors. Seems to me the shelter is better."
"Well, perhaps," agreed Hugh. "I had thought we could use it while pioneering, if we had to."
"I don't think it's too radioactive, Hugh. That dosimeter should have gone sky-high if the roof is really 'hot.' It hasn't."
"That's good news. But, Joe, look at it. A slant of thirty degrees is uncomfortable. We need a house with a level floor."
"That's what I mean. Hugh, that hydraulic jack-it's rated at thirty tons. How much does the shelter weigh?"
"Oh. Let me think how many yards of mix we used and how much steel." Hugh pondered it, got out his notebook. "Call it two hundred fifty tons."
"Well, it was an idea."
"Maybe it's a good idea." Hugh prowled around the shelter, a block twenty feet square and twelve high, sizing up angles, estimating yardages.
"It can be done," Hugh decided. "We dig under on the uphill side, to the center line, cutting out enough to let that side settle down level. Damn, I wish we had power tools."
"How long will it take?"
"Two men could do it in a week if they didn't run into boulders. With no dynamite a boulder can be a problem."
"Too much of a problem?"
"Always some way to cope. Let's pray we don't run into solid rock. As we get it dug out, we brace it with logs. At the end we snag the logs out with block and tackle. Then we put the jack under the downhill side and tilt it into place, shore it up and fill with what we've removed. Lots of sweat."
"I'll start bright and early tomorrow."
"You will like hell. Not until your ribs have healed. I will start tomorrow, with two husky girls. Plus Duke, if his shoulder isn't sore, after he shoots us a deer; we've got to conserve canned goods. Reminds me-what was done with the dirty cans?"
"Buried 'em."
"Dig them up and wash them. A tin can is more valuable than gold; we'll use them for all sorts of things. Let's go in. I've still to admire the ladder."
The ladder was two trimmed saplings, with treads cut from boards and notched and nailed. Hugh reflected again that lumber had been used too lavishly; treads should have been fashioned from limbs. Damn it, there were so many things that could no longer be ordered by picking up a telephone. Those rolls of Scottissue, one at each privy- They shouldn't be left outdoors; what if it rained? All too soon it would be either a handful of leaves, or do without.
So many, many things they had always taken for granted! Kotex- How long would their supply last? And what did primitive women use? Something, no doubt, but what?
He must warn them that anything manufactured, a scrap of paper, a dirty rag, a pin, all must be hoarded. Caution them, hound them, nag them endlessly.
"That's a beautiful ladder, Barbara!"
She looked very pleased. "Joe did the hard parts."
"I did not," Joe denied. "I just gave advice and touched up the chisel."
"Well, whoever did it, it's lovely. Now we'll see if it will take my weight."
"Oh, it will!" Barbara said proudly.
The shelter had all lights burning. Have to caution them about batteries, too. Must tell the girls to look up how to make candles. "Where's Grace, Karen?"
"Mother isn't well. She's lying down."
"So? You had better start dinner." Hugh went into the women's bay, saw what sort of not-well his wife suffered. She was sleeping heavily, mouth open, snoring, and was fully dressed. He reached down, peeled back an eyelid; she did not stir. "Duke."
"Yes?"
"Come here. Everybody else outside."
Duke joined him. Hugh said, "After lunch, did you give Grace a drink?"
"Huh? You didn't say not to."
"I wasn't criticizing. How much?"
"Just a highball. An ounce and a half of Scotch, with water."
"Does that look like one highball? Try to rouse her."
Duke tried, then straightened up. "Dad, I know you think I'm a fool. But I gave her just one drink. Damn it, I'm more opposed to her drinking than you are!"
"Take it easy, Duke. I assume that she got at the bottle after you left."
"Well, maybe." Duke frowned. "As soon as I found an unbroken bottle I gave Mother that drink. Then I took inventory. I think I found it all, unless you have some hidden away-"
"No, the cases were together. Six cases."
"Right. I found thirteen unbroken bottles, twelve fifths and a quart of bourbon. I remember thinking that was two fifths each and the quart I would keep in reserve. I had opened one bottle of King's Ransom. I made a pencil mark on it. We'll know if she found it."
"You hid the liquor?"
"I stashed it in the upper bunk on the other side; I figured it would be hard for her to climb up there- I'm not a complete fool, Dad. She couldn't see me, she was in her bunk. But maybe she guessed."
"Let's check."
Thirteen bottles were between springs and mattress; twelve were unopened, the thirteenth was nearly full. Duke held it up. "See? Right to the line. But there was another bottle we had a snort from, after that second bombing. What happened to it?"
"Barbara and I had some after you went to sleep, Duke. There was some left. I never saw it again. It was in the tank room."
"Oh! I did, while we were bailing. Busted. I give up-where did she get it?"
"She didn't, Duke."
"What do you mean?"
"It wasn't liquor." Hugh went to the medicines drawer, got a bottle with a broken seal. "Count these Seconal capsules. You had two last night."
"Yeah."
"Karen had one at bedtime, one later; Joe had one. Neither Barbara nor I had any, nor Grace. Five."
"Hold it, I'm counting."
His father began to count as Duke pushed them aside.
"Ninety-one," Duke announced.
"Check." Hugh put the capsules back. "So she took four."
"What do we do, Dad? Stomach pump? Emetic?"
"Nothing."
"Why, you heartless- She tried to kill herself!"
"Slow down, Duke. She did nothing of the sort. Four capsules, six grains, simply produces stupor in a healthy person- and she's healthy as a horse; she had a physical a month ago. No, she snitched those pills to get drunk on." Hugh scowled. "An alcohol drunk is bad enough. But people kill themselves without meaning to with sleeping pills."
"Dad, what do you mean, 'she took them to get drunk on'?"
"You don't use them?"
"I never had one in my life until those two last night."
"Do you remember how you felt just before you went to sleep? Warm and happy and woozy?"
"No. I just lay down and konked out. Next thing I knew I was against the wall on my shoulders."
"You haven't developed tolerance for them. Grace knows what they can do. Drunk, a very happy drunk. I've never known her to take more than one but she's never been chopped off from liquor before. When a person eats sleeping pills because he can't get liquor, he's in a bad way."
"Dad, you should have kept liquor away from her long ago!"
"How, Duke? Tell her she couldn't have a drink? Take them away from her at parties? Quarrel with her in public? Fight with her in front of Joe? Not let her have cash, close out her bank account, see that she had no credit? Would that have stopped her from pawning furs?"