Grantville Gazette, Volume 66 Read online

  "Gotcha," Mikayla whispered back then turned to pass the word over her shoulder.

  They descended, still single file, into the damp tunnel, Johanna and Lies opening the shutters of their lanterns all the way so they could at least see where they were putting their feet. The tunnel was short and they soon emerged from the foundations of the garden terrace. Johanna and Lies promptly closed their lanterns all the way plunging the girls into pitch-blackness.

  The shadow of the castle cut off what moonlight there was and the girls had to feel their way along the rough stone of the castle's base to their goal, a clump of trees growing up against an angle of the wall. Once there Johanna and Lies opened their lanterns just a crack, enough to make out the tree trunks and the statue of some old Roman goddess. Seven pale faces blinked at each other.

  "See," Johanna whispered to her cousin. "We're under cover, nobody will even know we're here."

  Lies said nothing but looked unconvinced.

  Johanna rolled her eyes impatiently. "Everybody find a hiding place."

  The girls arranged themselves as comfortably as possible under the trees overlooking the open slope running to the edge of the wooded park. As soon as everybody was settled Lies and Johanna closed the shutters of their lanterns.

  Then nothing happened for what seemed like a very long time.

  Mikayla shifted her weight off a particularly knobby root and wondered if this had been such a good idea after all.

  Apparently she wasn't the only one. "Maybe Berners isn't going to come at all," somebody whined off to her right.

  "Be quiet, Anna Sophia," Julia hissed.

  "Look, do you see that?" Anna Sophia said, ignoring her.

  "I said be quiet—"

  A white light flickered among the trees and was gone. "I see it!" Mikayla burst out, then bit her tongue.

  "Shhhhh!"

  "You shhhh!"

  "Mikayla!"

  "Julie!"

  "Everybody be quiet!" Johanna snapped, and just in time, too.

  Dark shapes detached themselves from the mass of blackness brooding under the park's trees and moved at a brisk pace up the only slightly lighter slope towards the castle, the unbarred door, and the waiting Scooby trap.

  Holding her breath in excitement, Mikayla watched with eye-tearing intensity as the dim figures passed the girls' hiding place and entered the castle. The last disappeared and she let out her breath in a long sigh. She heard the other girls shifting position around her.

  "I guess that's that—" Jessie began uncertainly when she was interrupted by the sound of gunfire, muffled by the castle's heavy stone walls. "Oh God." It wasn't taking the Lord's Name in vain but a genuine prayer.

  The door burst wide open sending a fan of light over the lawn. Three or four men tumbled out followed by further bullets and hoarse shouting. Clearly something had gone wrong. Come to think of it, Scooby traps almost always did go wrong.

  Naturally the fleeing men turned towards the nearest cover which—of course—was the girls' grove. Mikayla watched them coming, mouth hanging slightly open, unable to think of a thing to do about it.

  Fortunately Lies has more presence of mind. She sprang to her feet opening the shutter of her lantern wide. Johanna instantly followed suit. The gun runners shied away from the lights, heading down the slope to lose themselves in the woods.

  Burgmann Schenk showed no signs of pursuing them. Instead he stared at the girls, mercilessly revealed by the light, his face slowly purpling. "Your Grace!"

  "Not now, Schenk, they're getting way!" Johanna cried.

  "No, they are not," he answered grimly. "What is Your Grace doing out here? And you other ladies?"

  Before anybody could come up with an answer to that entirely reasonable question, the woods erupted in screams. Horrible, hoarse, grown-men screams. The girls clumped closer together as Schenk and the guards turned their guns towards the sound.

  The screams came nearer. Bodies crashed through the brush and into the open. The light from the castle and assorted lanterns was bright enough to show more men emerging than had gone in. They were also empty-handed so the guards held their fire. The men scrambled up the slope to throw themselves on the guards' mercy. A few surrendered themselves to the stunned girls, groveling and sobbing in complete hysteria.

  Mikayla looked blankly at the man at her feet then past him down the hill. A light flickered white deep inside the trees and disappeared.

  ****

  "We're grounded?" Mikayla said in disbelief.

  "Can Schenk do that?" Sherri wanted to know.

  "Oh yes," Lies answered grimly.

  "Believe me, we're lucky he hasn't decided to report us to Papa," Johanna added.

  "What happened out there, anyway?" Julia wondered.

  Johanna had to admit that was a very good question. Pity she didn't have an answer. "I have no idea."

  They were back in the state bedroom and in deep disgrace. Schenk hadn't had much to say to them but his look had said volumes. The girls sprawled on the mattresses covering the floor and for a little while nobody said anything—but a great deal was thought by all.

  "Typical Scooby trap," Mikayla commented at last.

  Sherri nodded agreement. "Everything goes totally wrong but somehow it works out in the end."

  "If you call this working out," Mikayla said dubiously.

  "We caught them, didn't we?" Sherri said.

  "If you call them throwing themselves at our feet wailing and crying ‘catching,' " Lies said dryly.

  "What the heck was all that about?" Mikayla wondered.

  "You know," Anna Sophia said. "You saw her, too."

  "I saw a light," Mikayla said a little nervously.

  "A bright white light like one of your electric bulbs in the middle of the haunted wood," Anna Sophia shot right back. "Why don't you just admit it? It was the ghost."

  "That's jumping to conclusions," Jessie said.

  "I thought you believed in ghosts," Anna Sophia snapped.

  "I believe in evidence," she replied. "That light could have been anything."

  "Sure it could," Anna Sophia snorted.

  There was a knock at the door. "You may enter," Johanna called, sitting up and trying to look dignified.

  The man who came in was dressed in an up-time-like camouflage uniform with a pistol strapped to one hip and a helmet with a light like a miner's under his arm. "Your Grace," he said with a slight bow to Johanna, "I'm Agent Bauer, ABI, at your service."

  "Yes, Agent Bauer, what can we do for you?" Johanna said politely.

  "You were in the forest weren't you?" Jessie asked not at all politely before he could answer, her eyes on the helmet.

  "That's right, Miss," Bauer answered. He turned back to Johanna. ‘My team had located the gun runners' barge downriver and backtracked them into your park."

  "So you're what scared those men so badly," Johanna said with some relief. Jessie sighed, and Mikayla shot a triumphant look at Anna Sophia,

  But Agent Bauer said, "Not exactly, Your Grace. Which of you young ladies were playing ghost there in the woods?" he shook his head. "That was very dangerous. You shouldn't have taken the risk."

  "Playing ghost?" Johanna echoed weakly.

  Agent Bauer looked from one wide-eyed girl to the other, puzzled. "That's right. All I saw was a flicker of white light but you certainly convinced the gun runners. They're still terrified."

  Johanna swallowed. So did Mikayla. Anna Sophia looked scared rather than triumphant.

  "None of us were playing ghost in the park, Agent Bauer," Johanna said as steadily as possible. "Whatever those men saw, it wasn't one of us."

  ****

  Schenk came to their workroom the next morning, and the girls could see immediately that he was much calmer than he had been the night before. He even wished them a good morning before getting down to business. "I am told that none of you young ladies were playing ghost last night?" he said inflecting it like a question.

  "Absolute
ly not!" Johanna answered emphatically, and the others nodded like bobbleheaded dolls. "We were irresponsible—we realize that now. But not to that extent!"

  "It was a real ghost," said Anna Sophia.

  Schenk cleared his throat. "Most unlikely, Your Grace. It seems our park was full of people last night: the gun runners, the ABI team, and Union Master Weintraub's friends. We're still not quite clear whether they were there to help Berners or to avenge their leader, but I am quite sure they were responsible for those mysterious lights."

  Anna Sophia looked dubious. So did Jessie but neither girl seemed inclined to argue.

  "You were right, Herr Schenk," Johanna admitted, "and we were wrong. It wasn't safe, and we shouldn't have been out of our rooms."

  The much-tried Burgmann actually cracked a smile. "I will remember to be more thorough in my precautions another time."

  He withdrew, and the girls slumped back into various boneless postures, draped over the armchairs and sofas of their writing room, every one of them feeling let down, discouraged, and thoroughly disinclined to work.

  Mikayla finally broke the silence, putting the thought all of them were nursing into words: "Well one thing's for sure. Our book is no good at all." Groans of agreement showed her friends agreed entirely.

  Then she sat bolt upright and shouted one word: "REWRITE!"

  The other girls also jerked up, staring at her in shock. Mikayla grinned manically and one by one the rest of the writing circle grinned back. Energy cracked through the room.

  "Rewrite!" Johanna shouted like a battle cry and led a charge on the pens and paper.

  ****

  Engines of Change: A Few Kroner More by Karen C. Evans and Kevin H. Evans

  Copenhagen, September 1636

  The shop was humming. All around the room, large twelve-cylinder engines sat in various levels of completion. Lars Holgersen, shop supervisor, walked from position to position, inspecting the engines in process. The men knew exactly what they were doing; after all, they had already completed six engines for the Royal Anne. Several replacement engines were being made, plus the engines for another standard size airship, and engines for a larger airship, specifically designed for travel to the Far East.

  Outside the hangar, in the foundry, preparations were being made for casting more cylinders. Everything was in place. Engines could be made on demand. Lars was gazing through the foundry when his foreman, Jens Dalgaard, found him. "Any orders before we call it a day, sir?"

  Lars said, "It's kind of sad, really. All this organization, standardized production, and soon we will have to close the factory because there will be no more need for big engines."

  Jens shook his head. "It's worse than sad. Building engines is good money. If we have to stop, we will all need new jobs. Lars, you have created the finest group of steam aircraft engine-makers in the world."

  Lars just laughed. "I think we have the only group of steam aircraft engine-makers in the world, Jens. I haven't heard of anybody else making them from scratch like this. Although I could be wrong—the world is big, and we've been busy."

  They stood reflecting for a moment. Then Lars blinked and looked excited. "Jens, what do you think the future will bring? I don’t think that steam engines are going to disappear any time soon. I'm sure we will need engines sometime, and then we should be ready."

  Jens was rubbing his chin. "I will have to think about that, Lars. As it is, we are on schedule and ahead of the order. What you think about calling a break and giving everybody the rest of the day off?"

  Lars sighed. "Why not? It will lift the spirits of the workers. Make sure everything is shut down safely. Have they started the pours on the castings yet?"

  Jens shook his head. "No, they haven’t even started the furnace. We were going to wait till late this evening when it was not so hot. The molten metal by itself is enough travail for most of us."

  Lars turned around and headed for his office, and Jens followed by his side. "Jens, have you heard about that new place down on the docks? I was talking to someone yesterday, and they said it was opened by Herr Pridmore’s wife. She is serving something called chocolate. Have you heard anything about it?"

  Jens shrugged. "Not that I remember. Oh, wait, I heard our American machinist, Matt Lawler, mention it. He said he liked it. It’s called the Mermaid and Tiger. Why do you ask?"

  Lars smiled. "We’re letting the men go home. How about we all go round to this place first. It sounds interesting, and I’m feeling generous. I’ll buy the first round for everyone."

  ****

  When preparations were completed, the working men fell in together. Singing, they all made their way down to the harbor and into the Mermaid and Tiger. As Lars stepped through the door he could see that they were not the first ones to arrive. In the back sat Magnus and his partner Niels. These two, friends of Lars, had a machine shop up and running. The Danish Airship company had even contracted some tools from them.

  Lars waved, and said to Jens and Matt, "Go grab the table next to Magnus and Niels. That will put us next to the window, and maybe we will get a little bit of a breeze. It has been hot today."

  So the workmen from the engine factory sat, and Lars ordered all his men one cup of chocolate. They started to relax and sip chocolate. Lars noticed that Matt Lawler was carrying a very large wooden box. But he didn’t want to question him now. It was nice to relax.

  Magnus came to Lars, and they sat and visited for a moment. Magnus said, "Did you hear of our trouble? Yesterday, while we were working, the power shaft that runs our lathe and mill ripped right off the ceiling. We are lucky that nobody was hurt, but all that damage. We lost the rest of the day, and today have been unable to do anything."

  Lars frowned. "Nobody was killed? I am shocked. What do you think accounts for that?"

  Magnus laughed and put his hand on Matt’s shoulder. "I thought sure somebody would be severely maimed. I guess the safety training that our American machinist friend here insisted on paid off."

  As more and more people arrived to the Mermaid and Tiger, it grew warmer than was comfortable, even with the open window. Finally the Matt Lawler wiped his forehead. "Bonecrusher! Bring that chest over here."

  Lars always liked Bonecrusher. The nickname had been given to the youngest member of the crew because when he first arrived in the shop, he spent a lot of time shaking hands. This was not unusual, but this young man had a strong grip.

  Lars asked Matt, "I saw you come in with that box. What's in it?"

  Lawler grinned. "Just you watch, Lars. I brought it along because it’s been so hot." Then he stood up and called across the room, "Reva! I need a bucket of water."

  The lady behind the counter frowned. "Matt, can’t you see I’m busy? You know I’m short-handed tonight, don’t you? Now what it is you wanted?"

  Matt took off his cap and sort of rolled it up in his hand, then put a woeful look on his face. "Please, Miz Reva, can I have a bucket of water? Pretty please? I even have a bucket with me. I just need it full of water."

  Frau Pridmore laughed. "All right, you scalawag. Hand me your bucket. I can never resist your sad puppy eyes." Matt handed her the bucket, grinning like an imp. Then Matt turned and started digging in his wooden chest.

  Matt talked as he pulled pieces out of the chest. "This one is important. It needs to go on the sill. Point the door of the firebox in here, and put the smokestack out the window."

  Bonecrusher nodded and picked up a strange piece of equipment. Apparently, he was part of the conspiracy.

  Matt pulled the largest piece out of the box. "Now this is the fun part. It goes right here on the edge of the table. Hand me those C-clamps."

  Now Lars was curious. Some of the things pulled out looked familiar. The one he was clamping to the table was about two spans tall and a little longer than that. There was a shaft coming out the front and flanges to hold it to the table.

  Matt stood up and admired his handiwork for a second, then turned to Bonecrusher. "Okay, it
's clamped down. Now hand me the impeller. While I hook this up, Bonecrusher, make sure that all the connections are tight. Not so tight that someone else can’t move them, though. We don't want to frighten the public."

  That was when Lars recognized Matt’s work. He leaned back and grinned. This was going to be fun.

  The last piece of the apparatus was pulled from the chest. It looked like an oar or paddle, but with a hole in the middle. That was what Matt attached so that it stood out from the shaft at ninety degrees. Bonecrusher attached copper pipes between the machinery on the table and the device in the window. Frau Pridmore returned with the bucket of water, and Matt took it and poured water in the small tank in the window. Then he reached into his pocket and came out with a little silvery squarish object. He opened the top, flicked the wheel, and produced a flame. Lars and the crew from the engine factory didn't even flinch. This was not new to them. But the rest of the people in the tavern blinked at that small wonder.

  Matt walked his little flame over to the device in the window. He opened the small door and thrust the fire within. Everyone heard a whooshing sound, and Lars could see heat waves from the chimney outside the window shimmering in the summer heat.

  Now, Matt Lawler stood back and shouted, "Hey Reva! Hold my chocolate and watch this!"

  Lars turned when he heard a woman laughing. It was Frau Pridmore. Apparently the phrase meant something to her. Now Matt pulled the lever on a valve, and gave the wooden paddle a spin. With a low clatter and a putt, putt, putt noise the paddle, or what Lars could see now was a propeller, began to spin. Matt made a small adjustment and the propeller picked up speed. Lars noticed that the propeller was pulling air from the room, and felt a cool breeze from the open door on the other side of the tavern. It was all being blown out the window with the chimney.

  Lars stepped over to Matt and whispered like a conspirator. "Does Marlon know you have his engine model?"

  Matt grinned. "Of course not. I'll just tell Reva that I brought it to cool off her tavern. So then, even if Marlon has a tantrum, he won't stand a chance."

  The engine settled down to solid smooth operation. The propeller made a good solid buzz, but it was not so loud as to disturb conversation.