As Bob sat next to his son, Kathy couldn't help but notice he was in fairly good shape for someone who hadn't had any food or water for three days. She had heard that a human couldn't last much over three days without water. Alex should be all but unconscious from dehydration.

"Alex. Don't get me wrong, but if you haven't had any food or water for three days, how can you be on your feet?"

"I know I said that, but it's not quite true, thanks to Dad. Years ago he taught me how to make different types of snares. By the way Dad, the rabbit snare was the only one that worked. Nothing tripped the others."

"What's a rabbit snare, and how do you make it?" Sam wanted to know.

"You first tie your shoelaces kind of like a lasso. Then, when you find a rabbit trail you push a stick into the ground on each side of it. Then hang the lasso between them, after you anchor it to one of the sticks or a big rock or something. When the rabbit comes along he gets his head caught in the lasso and the anchor makes sure he is still there when you come back."

"What about water?" Kathy asked.

"Oh, that was easy. I made an air well."

"Air well? I never heard of it."

"Come on, I'll show you."

Alex led Kathy, Tim and their children to a nearby clearing. There they found a sheet of plastic. It was held down by both dirt and rocks. On one side was a tube sticking out, and there was a rock in the center of it. The rock depressed the sheet so that it looked like a crater.

"This is my air well." Alex began. "Everyone knows there is moisture in the ground. Everyone also knows that the sun heats the ground and makes the moisture evaporate. So, what you do is dig a hole about a foot to a foot and a half deep and put a cup or some kind of container in the middle of the hole, with a tube leading from the container to the edge of the hole. Then cover the hole with a sheet of plastic. Seal the edges with dirt and rocks so that no moisture escapes and it will collect on the plastic. Now what you do is put a rock on the plastic right over the container. As the moisture condenses on the plastic the drops slide down the plastic and drop into the container. Then you just sip through the tube."

"O.K. I understand how you might have plastic sheeting around, but where did you get you get the tube?" Kathy asked.

"Lets' just say I hope I don't have to use my windshield washers any time soon. Hey Dad, that guy in that movie was right about rabbits as well as dolphins."

"What?" Tim asked.

Bob answered. There was an old movie called 'The Old Man and the Sea'. It is the story about an old man in a small boat who hooks a huge fish that drags him out to sea. The rest of the film is how he managed to stay alive until he made it back to shore. At one point he caught a dolphin. However in a small boat he had no way to cook it, so he ate it raw. His comment was something like 'Dolphin cooked is a very good fish. Dolphin raw is a bad fish.'." Bob looked at Alex. "Couldn't you get the flint and steel to work?"

"I was afraid to start a fire. I thought the smoke might give me away in the day time, and the light at night."

"That was probably wise."


BW, Vietnam Vet