“Did Pike order any other work?” Daniel asked.

“He had me plane a plank thin enough to bend under a wagon wheel. Said it was for a gate.”

“Where is it?”

“In the carriage shed.”

Daniel thought of the wagon seen before dawn. “What gate?”

Silas wiped his forehead. “I do not know.”

The first test came late that afternoon. Alden watched from the yard; Pike stood with a hand on the lever; Daniel was ordered to check the bearing. The gallery remained empty, but laborers had been told to line up along the drying-house wall to provide a suitable background for visitors. Daniel insisted they be moved farther away. Pike mocked him but eventually complied because Alden was watching.

On the first pull, the louvers opened with a long wooden sigh. The counterweight dropped cleanly and stopped. On the second, the frame shuddered but returned. Silas stared at the upper bracket as if his fear alone might hold it together.

“Again,” Pike said.

Daniel moved between him and the lever. “No.”

Alden stepped forward. “You will not contradict my overseer.”

“The pin was designed to fail on the third pull,” Daniel said aloud.

For a breath the yard went silent. Pike’s hand slid toward his belt. Silas looked away.

“That is an accusation,” Alden said.

“It is a measurement. Remove the pin and look at its notch.”

Pike laughed too loudly. “He wants to delay you because he knows tomorrow is the last day he will spend here.”

“Then replace the pin,” Daniel said. “If I am lying, you lose ten minutes. If I am right, you save lives.”

Alden’s eyes moved from Pike to the gallery. He was not certain which man he believed. He was certain that a public disaster would ruin him. That, at least, made him hesitate.

“Stop the test,” he said. “Inspect it in the morning.”

Pike removed his hand from the lever. His face remained placid, but Daniel saw the decision forming behind his eyes. The overseer would not wait for the morning. He would find another way to make the mechanism fail, and he would make sure Daniel was in its path.

At sunset, Catherine came to the drying house. She had been told of the accusation about the pin. She looked from the heavy frame to the gallery, then to Daniel’s chained ankle.

“Pike says you are trying to sabotage the machine,” she said.

“Pike built a way to kill someone.”

“Your word against his.”

“His hired man can tell you what he installed.”

Catherine looked toward Silas, who stood beside a wagon. “Then why has he not spoken?”

“Because fear does not make people honest, ma’am. It makes them careful.”