Roger Boden left Mill City two weeks later, and it was hard not to heave a sigh of relief to see him go. Winter was usually the slow season at the menagerie, what with so many of the animals hibernating, but that year I was busier than a hen with a double set of chicks. Most of the extra business was coming from Professor Torgeson. I’d been helping her out, off and on, ever since we’d gotten back from the settlements. One of the first things she’d done after we’d unpacked all our specimens was to send off a letter to a friend of hers back East, a Mr. Collingsworth, who worked in historical excavation for the Philadelphia Institute of Magic. She’d told him about the stone animals we’d found, and how we’d found them, and she’d even enclosed one as a sample.
In early fall, she’d started getting letters back. First it was a note from Mr. Collingsworth, mentioning that he’d talked her news over with some of his colleagues. Then it was a couple of letters from other folks, asking for further details about the fragment or reporting on their initial study of the sample. They were all hugely excited by the find, and even though none of them was ready to say exactly what they thought it meant, they all agreed that people should know about it right away, so as to get as many more scholars and magicians and scientists in on helping them figure it all out.
In December, Mr. Collingsworth had an announcement published, telling about the stone fragments and how they’d been found. By February, when Mr. Boden left for Albion, Professor Torgeson was getting baskets full of letters every day, mostly from scientists and magicians who had questions or theories, or who wanted one of the stone animals so they could do some investigating of their own. That was when I started spending more time at her office, helping answer the letters. We didn’t have enough stones to give one to everyone who wanted one, but the professor sent a few out to particularly well-known scientists and magicians.
The more pieces the professor sent out, the more letters she got back. Most of the scientists were just as excited as Mr. Collingsworth and his friends, but there were also quite a few who said it was all some kind of hoax. Some of them got downright nasty about it.
I was more than a little surprised by all the fuss. It wasn’t as if the stones were any kind of threat to the settlers; they’d been lying there under the hill since long before the settlements went out that far. I was plenty curious about how they’d gotten there and what they meant, but I couldn’t see any reason for people to be mean.
The letters kept coming. It got so I was having to spend all afternoon at Professor Torgeson’s office answering letters, or she wouldn’t have had time to teach. I received one of my own, from Lan, wanting to know all the details of how we’d found the stone animals and why the professor thought they were real animals that had been turned to stone and not fossils or duplications or some other fancy magical thing that I don’t recall the name of. Then, early in March, Mr. Parsons from the Settlement Office showed up in person.
Mr. Parsons had replaced Mr. Harrison as the head of the North Plains Territory Homestead Claims and Settlement Office about three months before we’d left on our survey trip. Since the Settlement Office had pushed for the college to start the wildlife survey right away, Professor Torgeson had sent him copies of her official report as soon as she’d finished it, even before classes started in September. She had a few choice things to say about how long it had taken Mr. Parsons to get around to reading it.
Somewhat to my surprise, Mr. Parsons didn’t only keep his temper; he actually apologized and said he’d been wrong to take so long to go over the professor’s report. Then he asked to examine some of the stone specimens for himself. He and the professor ended up having a long conversation about the stones, and she even let him look at one through a microscope. After he left, she said he seemed fairly sensible, even if all he was interested in was the stone animals we’d brought back.
A few days later, Mr. Parsons came back. He had a map with him, with all the settlements marked. The ones that had failed were in red, and there was a big crosshatched area showing where the mirror bugs had eaten everything away. He and the professor spent most of the afternoon talking about the plants and wildlife we’d found and where we’d found them, and arguing over what it all meant.
I thought Professor Torgeson would be furious by the time he left, but she was actually rather pleased with herself. I figured that meant she’d won the argument, but she said that Mr. Parsons had suggested sending a group back out to Daybat Creek, where we’d found all the stone animals, to collect some more specimens for study. It wouldn’t be a proper historical excavation, just collecting pieces that were easy to pick off the ground already, so that we’d have samples to send to all the people who were asking for them. The professor sounded half disapproving and half glad when she said that.
Then she asked whether I’d come along. “I’d be greatly pleased,” I said after I got over being stunned at being asked. Then I paused. “Mama will fuss about me going out West again, especially so soon. It may take me a couple of days to talk her around.”
Professor Torgeson smiled. “It will be good to have you along.”
When I got home after work, I found Mama in the attic with Mrs. Callahan, pulling out bags and trunks. Neither one took any notice of me, so I went looking for Allie.
“Eff!” Allie said when she saw me. “Thank goodness. You’d better start packing; we don’t know yet when the train will be leaving.”
“Train?” I asked as Mrs. Callahan banged down the attic stairs with a carpet bag on each arm. “Leaving? Allie, what on earth —”
Allie muttered something under her breath. “That dratted boy didn’t find you, did he? I knew I should have come to tell you myself. There’s been a huge accident out at Lan’s college. Lan and a bunch of other students were badly injured and one of them was killed.”
“Lan’s — what happened? How bad is he hurt?”
“Bad enough for them to send for Papa and Mama straight off,” Allie said grimly. “They’re taking you, too, because you’re twins. Papa’s down at the train station now, making arrangements.”
Right then Nan came flying in the door. “Allie! Eff! What’s happened? Are Mama and Papa all right?”
“It’s not Mama or Papa,” Allie said. “It’s Lan.” She went over the whole thing once more, which gave it a little time to sink in. Nan and I both had a lot of questions, but Allie didn’t really know much more than she’d already said. Finally, she went and got the telegraph message, so we could see for ourselves what it said. She was right; there weren’t many particulars. All it said was Accident at Simon Magus. Lan Rothmer hurt bad with seven others, one dead so far. Advise come East now. Ziegler.
Allie told us that Mama and Papa had talked about waiting a day or two for the mail train to bring a letter with more details, but they’d decided that it would be better to head East right away. Papa said that Mr. Ziegler, the dean at Simon Magus College who’d sent the telegram, was a reliable person and wouldn’t have told them to come all that way if he hadn’t thought there was reason.
Finally, Nan and Allie went to the parlor to figure out who they’d need to tell and when to write them. Robbie would find out when he got home; there was no sense in sending someone out to look for him, because his classes were done for the day and he was probably somewhere with his friends. They’d wait a day or two before they wrote Rennie and Jack; since both of them were out in the settlements and mail would be slow getting to them, it’d be best to have as many details as possible before writing them. I thought about writing William, but the letter would go East on the same train as we did, so it made more sense to wait in case there was more news. When Allie started in on who they’d need to tell at the college and at church and how soon, I told them to make sure Professor Jeffries and Professor Torgeson got told right off, and to leave Professor Torgeson’s note for me to add a line to, because I wanted to say I was sorry I wouldn’t be able to go on her specimen-collecting trip after all. Then I went up to pack.