Ben Dover's Arc

Chapter 129 of 150

Ben and Lolly cut the ridge at dawn and reached the cottage by mid-morning. It sat on the dead end of the plague road, roof half open to the sky, front room whole. He set the sack with the fox and the axle piece under a loose flagstone by the hearth. The fox curled against the wrapped wood. The hum stayed low. Two days until Eileen came. He started work on the door. Joe arrived at noon with news that turned the day. Payne's road crew had left the west end at first light. They were sweeping the plague road for the missing piece. Two carts, six men, iron rods for testing brush and pits. They would reach the cottage before dusk on the third day. Ben counted the hours. Anita's runner would bring Eileen at that same dusk. If the crew arrived first, they would find the fox, the axle piece, and a stone room with one door. Ben could not move the cottage. He could not turn Eileen back in time. He had to stop the sweep before it reached him. He walked west along the road with Joe until the ruin came into view. A shattered hall stood a mile short of the cottage, roof beams down, arches broken open, stone piled to the waist. The road narrowed and passed through it. Any cart had to slow. Any cart could be stopped. "We collapse the near arch," Ben said. "Block the road. They turn back or dig for a day." Joe measured the beams with his eyes. "One beam holds three. Pull it and the wall drops." They worked through the afternoon. Lolly hauled water from a seep and softened the mortar around the base stones. Millie sent her winged creature up to watch the west road. Ben cut the rope from his sack and rigged a pull line to the low beam. Joe wedged the far end with a broken lintel to guide the fall. The scout landed on Millie's wrist at four. Two carts on the road, less than a mile out. Ben and Joe hauled the line together. The beam slid, caught, then dropped. The near wall folded into the road in a slow grinding fall. Dust climbed. When it cleared, stone sat waist-high across the track, and the far arch leaned but held. No cart would pass tonight. They ran the ridge back to the cottage and reached the door as the horns started west of the ruin. The crew had found the block. They would send a rider to Payne and camp until morning. Ben sat against the stone wall with the fox in his lap. He had bought one night. Eileen would walk in at dusk tomorrow, a day ahead of the crew's next push. The sweep had not reached him. It would.