Mark Dunn - Under the Harrow

Rose Fagin considered for a moment everything that Harry had said as she and her daughter approached the house.

“As I live and breathe!” ejaculated Rose, seeing now the condition of the parlour. “Are you responsible for this whirlwind’s visit to my house?”

“Most assuredly not, madam. This is how I found it only a moment ago myself.”

“It is not necessary for you to call me madam. ‘Mrs. Fagin’ is my name, and this is my daughter Susan.”

With a bow: “Nice to make your acquaintance.”

“He has good manners, daughter. For an apricot-eater. Young man, have you any thought as to what has been sought here?”

“The medical bag, no doubt,” said Harry.

“What is so valuable about this medical bag, that one should look for it in such a frantic manner?” asked Rose.

“I believe that I know,” said Susan softly. “If it is the same bag that was used by Nurse Wolf in her rounds, there are special drugs in there — the most efficacious drugs from the Outland.”

“Aye,” said Harry, nodding eagerly to Susan to continue.

“I have accompanied the late Miss Wolf upon her rounds and have seen her apply the drugs surreptitiously — for I believe that she was never permitted to use them. And I have marveled at their efficiency. There is great value to the medical bag, for it contains largely those medicines that cannot otherwise be found here in the Dell.”

“And is that all, my child?” asked Susan’s mother. “Could this be the only reason that such a great worth has been placed upon the bag?”

“No. There is something else therein. I saw her use it once. It was at Bedlam and I was assisting her in sedating a crowded ward of patients there. The inmates had grown querulous and wild and there were no orderlies available to assist us in subduing them. It is an Outlander device. She took it from the bag and used it upon one of the riotous men and brought him quickly to the point of docility. It so frightened the other men that they became quite yielding.”

“And is there a name for this device?” asked Harry.

Susan nodded. “It is called a Taser. She asked me never to speak of what I saw or ever to tell that she had the device, for no one knew that such a weapon had been brought into the Dell. Of course, now someone must know, or they would not desire so much to have the bag.”

“How does it work?”

“It delivers an electrical charge to the subject, thus interrupting temporarily all voluntary controul of his muscles. It bears similarity to a handgun but doesn’t fire bullets or shot. It fires, instead, a wire resembling a stinging sea creature’s tentacle. Please don’t tell anyone what I’m telling you.”

“Or what, my dear?” asked Susan’s mother Rose in a sarcastic tone. “It should place the late Miss Wolf into jeopardy?”

Susan coloured. Then Susan said in a sad and regretful voice, “Perhaps if she had had it with her, she would not be dead. It is a most effective weapon.”

“Mayhap she thought it better that Timberry should have it. And now, alas, it is in the hands of the sheriff, no doubt,” said Harry, scouring the ruined room for any place that the ransackers had not delved.

Rose considered this statement with a light drumming of her fingers upon her temples. “Not necessarily. For I know of a place that perhaps wasn’t searched by those who came hither to destroy my house — and mark me, they will pay for this damage, after they have made restitution to my poor husband for arresting him under a spurious charge.”

“Where is the hiding place?” asked Harry with great interest.

“Pull back that chair there,” replied Rose, pointing. “Remove the four floor boards beneath it. You may have to tug a bit, for they are wedged tightly amongst the others to produce the illusion of close adherence to the other boards. Timberry knew of this hiding place, for I shewed it to him myself.”

Harry did as he was instructed and quickly discerned which of the boards could be removed with a bit of applied prying.

Having removed all four, he reached down into the dark space below the floor and drew up the medical bag with a smile.

“Take the bag, Mr. Scadger,” said Rose. “It is no longer safe to leave it here. Perhaps you should give me the Taser gun so that I can go to the Inn-of-Justice and electrify all of those constabulary miscreants who are holding my husband without due process of law. That should do the trick to win his release!”

“You will do nothing of the kind, Mama!” proclaimed Susan. To Harry: “Let us keep the bag between us, since there are other patients of whom I am aware who could benefit from the medicine within. Mama, Mr. Scadger and I are going to tend to his sick daughter. You should stay behind and put this cyclone house to rights, and think no more of storming the Bastille with an electric gun.”

“It was said in dark jest, my daughter. But now is not the time for levity, is it? Your father mouldering away in gaol. Half this valley under commensurate lock and key or chained to beds at Bedlam. It depresses me to no end.”

But by now Rose Fagin was addressing only herself, for her daughter and Harry Scadger had fled.

Susan Fagin and Harry Scadger could smell the smoke, but could not glean its source. As they continued on their way to Milltown, they began to notice a growing darkness in the eastern sky — a darkness that quickly materialised into thick rising puffs of black cloud coming from the direction of the Scadger apricot grove.

“My brothers and their families are in peril,” said Harry. “I must help them.”

Yet there was nothing that could be done. When Susan and Harry reached the orchard, it was fully aflame, and Harry’s half-brothers and their wives and children were huddled together and watching with moist and horrified eyes as their arbour hamlet turned itself into charcoal and ash. Harry pinched at his nose; the smell of baking and burning fruit assaulted it with sweet acridity, as would a fruit pie left too long in the oven.

“Who did it?” asked Harry of his oldest half-brother Sol.

“Uniformed men what came from the wood. Zeph was sentry for the day and saw them first. We had expected an evening assault but nothin’ in the broad daylight, brother. The men, they gathered us together in a group and we were afeared that we should be executed upon that spot. Mel had hardly time to draw his bow and arrow to give fight when it was shot from his hand. We were defeated before the battle could even begin, brother— outnumbered and outweaponed.”

“And left with no more home,” said Harry in sad commiseration with his brothers’ plight.“And where are the men now — the Beyonders who did this?”

“Scuttled back into the wood like the Outland rats they are. Ephraim, now, he wants to go after them.”

“A fool’s mission,” said Harry, shaking his head vigorously. “We cannot fight the Outlanders. Not this way. Come with me to Milltown.”

“We’ll not live beneath a bridge!” proclaimed Sol on behalf of his clan. “Nor will we go to the workhouse. Mel wants to leave the valley altogether — to try to make a home for ourselves in the Terra Incotta.”

“And that should be the deadliest course of all, brother. Are not the woods and ridges growing thick with Outlander agents — the same who came to burn down this orchard? Perhaps you have not heard it, but Sir Dabber and his son and a nurse were slashed and stabbed to death only two nights ago to prevent their own passage. You need not go to the bridge or the workhouse. My other two half-brothers now sit in the Dingley Gaol along with Mrs. Lumbey and her apprentice. Their lodgings are presently empty. I will take all of you there and I will take full responsibility should anyone return with objections. But I think that they should not, given present circumstances. Come. Gather your things together and let us vacate this place, lest the Outlanders return to finish the task for which this fire was only prologue. Miss Fagin, please assist the women in gathering up their things, and I will assist the men. Look sharp, my brothers. We should tarry no longer in this dangerous cinder-grove.”