Seth made it home late mid afternoon. He spent almost an hour just unloading his purchases. He figured he had purchased enough canned and dry food to last at least three weeks. His intention was to go into town no more often than once a month but he knew that would not be possible until he was done repairing things around the place. He wanted to only repair a minimum amount of equipment but he did have to do some repairs.
By the time everything was unloaded and put away Seth was exhausted. He was as tired as if he had worked the full day on his place. Seth made another trip to the stream for a cold bath and turned in at full dusk that evening. Seth had purchased some meat in town so he put off hunting or fishing for a day or two. The next two days he spent working on the dozer. Finally just after noon on the second day he got it started. As far as he knew he had lubricated everything that needed it. He had changed all the fluids and filters. He was ready to go if it would move. During his work on the machine he found the undercarriage was maybe only 25% worn. Even though the machine was an early 1950’s manufacture it was in almost new condition.
Seth was grinning like a Cheshire cat when he moved his machine slowly out of the building into the late afternoon sunlight. Seth moved as quickly as the machine would go toward the road and began working on it, smoothing out the holes and ditches. He worked for almost two hours and had almost half the road in good shape before he decided he needed to quit for the day. The light was becoming poor and he was hungry. When Seth returned to the garage and stopped the dozer he looked it over carefully.
Upon his after operation checks Seth found two hydraulic hoses that were leaking. He had been afraid they were too old and rotten to take the pressure of the work. He decided to keep using the dozer the next day and hope they didn’t rupture. He didn’t want to lose his hydraulic fluid but he also didn’t want to make another trip to town this soon.
Seth was within sight of the main road before he decided he needed to stop using the dozer. He didn’t want to rupture the hoses and he wanted to leave the first part of the road in poor shape to discourage people from driving down to his place. He walked to the road and looked back toward his place. He couldn’t see the road improvements. He would just leave the first quarter mile rough and nearly impassable. He would drive slowly when he first turned off the state road into his property.
When Seth got back to his home he stopped the dozer inside the garage once more. He was closing the door when he thought he saw movement inside one of the fallen buildings farthest from the mine. He always carried a pistol for protection from snakes and in the hopes of killing some game for a meal. He moved slowly and carefully out the walk door and toward the building keeping out of sight as much as he could.
When Seth got within sight of the building he stopped and hid while he looked it over carefully. He thought he heard a slight sound, almost a moan coming from within it. Seth moved slowly and carefully toward the building. Finally he came to the side of it and believed he was still unseen. He moved to a window opening and carefully looked inside. There lying on a dirty blanket was an old man. His leg was swollen and bloody. Tending him was an older woman and a younger one. There were three small dirty packs on the floor.
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