Abruptly, he changed the subject. “Remember me telling you about agriculture, and what a bad idea it was?”
I nodded, wandering what came next.
“Well, a good idea that gets no praise at all is the one-eyed needle.” His eyes were twinkling again. “To me, it changed the course of human history every bit as much as the discovery of agriculture, only in a good way.”
Nestor relaxed and grinned. We were tired of blood and gore and willing to listen to a good story. Especially if the story had a point.
“A person that knows how to use one of those needles,” he said, “can make clothes that are more waterproof than any modern fancy-pants alpine gear can ever be. If you use beaver pelts, for example, they are not only waterproof, but light, and warm. If the jackets are made so it can be reversed, wearing one with the fur to the inside can cook a person, unless it’s twenty below. When it gets that cold, there’s nothing better.
“Then there’s the footwear. With a good pair of knee high moccasins a knowing person can walk around in any weather and no problem with getting the feet wet. They won’t, not if the seams are made a certain way. If the soles have fur, they become non-skid and leave no footprints, at least not any that can be seen, unless you know what to look for and are a very good tracker.
“If you wrap your horse’s hooves with some of that fur, then there’s no hoof prints either. An army can gallop through this estancia and leave no more indication that a snake going upriver in muddy water. On the other hand, I’ve seen the footprints of those that carry drugs across here. They use army boots and make such a deep waffle imprint, one doesn’t have to look for them, one can feel them as you step on them, they are so well defined. A blind man can follow them using his toes, not even looking at the ground.”
I didn’t ask any questions. I figured Antonio was trying to tell us he had things well under control and for us not to worry.
From the sequel to In the Land of Fire (not yet published).