The Mystery of the Blazing Cliffs - M. V. Carey [6]
“The reservoir beyond that dam is fed by the stream you see falling down the face of that cliff. We haven’t had to use that water yet, but it’s there if we need it. Right now we use artesian wells. In an emergency we can generate our own power for the pumps, and for all our other electrical needs. Aleman built the generators and they use diesel fuel. If that runs out, we can convert and burn coal or wood.”
Detweiler turned the car around and started back towards the cluster of buildings under the eucalyptus trees.
“We keep bees here so we have a source of sugar,” he said. “We also have a smokehouse for curing hams and bacon. We have underground storage tanks for our reserve gasoline supply and root cellars for keeping potatoes and turnips. We have miles of shelves to hold the canned things that Elsie and the other woman put up when the crops are ripe.”
“Elsie?” said Jupiter.
Detweiler grinned. “Elsie is not the least of our specialists,” he said. “She cooks for John and Rafael and Mary and me, and for the Barrons, too. If you’ve got time to stop at the ranch house before you leave, she’s sure to spring for some soda pop all around.”
Detweiler parked the car near the storage sheds and led Konrad and the boys down the lane towards the ranch house.
Elsie Spratt turned out to be a hearty woman somewhere in her thirties. She had short blonde hair and a broad, easy smile, and she presided over a kitchen that was bright with sunlight and warm with the smell of cooking food. When Hank Detweiler introduced the visitors, she hurried to pour cups of coffee for the men, and she took bottles of soda pop from the refrigerator for the boys.
“Enjoy it while you may,” she said cheerily. “Comes the revolution, there won’t be any soda pop.”
Konrad sat down at the long table beside Detweiler. “Revolution?” he said. “We do not have revolutions in America. If we do not like the President, soon we elect a new one.”
“Aha!” said Elsie. “But suppose the system breaks down. What do we do then?”
Konrad looked puzzled, and Jupe glanced around the kitchen. His eyes rested on the wood-burning stove that stood beside the big gas range.
“The system breaks down?” said Jupe. “That’s what you’re getting ready for here, isn’t it? This place is like a fortress — stocked with supplies so that it can go through a siege. It’s like one of the castles in the Middle Ages.”
“Exactly right,” said Detweiler. “What we’re doing here is getting ready for the end of the world — or at least for the end of our way of life.”
Elsie poured a cup of coffee for herself. As she sat down and took a spoonful of sugar, Jupe noticed that there was a slight deformity on her right hand — a jutting bit of bone and flesh on her smallest finger.
“I don’t think we’re getting ready for the kind of revolution where we drag the President out and shoot him,” she said. “I think what Mr. Barron has in mind is a time when everything sort of falls apart and we have famine and looting and confusion and bloodshed.
You know. He thinks the world is really going to the dogs, and we have to be prepared if we’re going to survive.”
“Mr. Barron believes that gold and land are the only safe investments, doesn’t he?” said Jupiter. “Obviously he expects a collapse of the prevailing monetary system.”
Elsie Spratt stared at him. “Do you always talk that way?” she asked.
Pete chuckled. “Jupe doesn’t believe in using short words if long ones will do as well.”
Jupe ignored this jibe. “Do you think our world is coming to an end?” he asked Elsie and Detweiler.
Elsie shrugged. “No, I suppose not.”
“I think Mr. Barron’s the only one who really believes it,” said Detweiler. “He claims the government is poking its nose into places where it doesn’t belong, and people nowadays don’t have to work if they don’t want to, and so most people don’t. He says that sooner or later our money won’t be worth anything—”
“Shhh!” said Elsie.
She put a hand on Detweiler’s arm and looked past him to the door. Mrs. Barron stood there on the other side of the screen. “May I come