Ben Dover's Arc

Chapter 126 of 150

Al opened the door and waved Ben inside without a word. Lolly, Joe, and Millie slipped in behind him with the coin. Al latched the door and set a wedge under it. The shed smelled of oil and old wood. On the bench sat a broken axle piece, wrapped in sacking. Al pointed at it. "That's what you came for. Broken. Carter died with it under him. I kept it because nobody else would." Ben set the chest on the floor. The fox climbed out and stood on the lid, ears up. The fox began to hum. Not loud yet, but rising. It had been quiet on the road. Here, in the still shed, the sound built. The fox turned its head toward the west wall and pressed both ears flat. "That's new," Joe said. "It's the axle piece," Ben said. He watched the fox lean toward the bench. "It knows what that is." Lolly cracked the door and listened. "Hooves on the road. Two carts. Slow." Al said, "Payne's road crew. They pass at dusk and again at dark. They stop if they hear anything they don't already own." Millie climbed the bench and put her palm on the fox's back. The hum did not stop. It climbed. Ben felt it in his teeth. He had two choices. Muffle the fox, or move it. Muffling meant the chest, the straw, the brine cloth from the cabin. All of it was two villages behind him. He looked at Al. "You have a root pit under this shed?" "Under the back stall. Stone all four sides." "Open it." Al pulled a floorboard up. Cold air came out. Ben lifted the fox off the lid. It fought him, twisting toward the axle piece. He tucked it under his coat and held it hard. "Wrap the axle piece in the sacking," he told Joe. "Take it down first." Joe went down the ladder with the bundle. The fox went still against Ben's chest the moment the axle piece dropped out of sight. The hum cut off like a plucked string. Ben climbed down after Joe. The pit was smaller than the shed and colder. He set the fox on the axle piece. It curled up on the sacking and closed its eyes. Upstairs, the carts passed. Wheels on gravel, a voice calling something, and then nothing. Al waited a long minute before he pulled the board back. "They didn't stop," he said. Ben climbed up alone. "The fox stays down there with the piece. So does the chest. I'm not carrying either back out through Payne's people." Al nodded. "Then you need a buyer who comes to me." Ben counted the coin onto the bench and pushed Al's share across. "Send word to Anita. Tell her the eleventh piece is found. Tell her I'll be here when she brings someone worth selling it to."