Darwinia

A husky man in dungarees and a sailor’s jersey — the crew boss, Guilford supposed — waved him over impatiently. “Burn’s just on, I’m afraid. Best stay behind the beaters or turn back. One or two might get past us.”

Guilford said, “One or two what?”

This drew a chorus of laughter from the men, some half-dozen of whom carried thick wooden posts blunted at one end.

The Crew boss said, “You’re an American?”

Guilford acknowledged it.

“New here?”

“Fairly new. What is it I’m supposed to watch out for?”

“Stump ru

Guilford stood where the crew boss directed him, with the workmen forming a skirmish line between the road and the cleared lot. The sun was warm, the smoke chokingly thick whenever the wind reversed. Guilford had started to wonder whether the waiting would go on all afternoon when one of the laborers shouted “ ’Ware!” and faced the clearing, knees braced, his frayed wooden post at quarter-arms.

“Buggers live in the earth,” the crew boss said. “Fire boils ’em out. You don’t want to get in the way.”

Beyond the workers he saw motion in the charred soil of the clearing. Stump ru

There must have been a dozen flourishing nests in the clearance.

The insects came from the earth in mounds and filled the smoldering spaces between the fires like shimmering black oil. The clearing yielded several distinct swarms, which turned, collided, and wheeled in every direction.

The beaters began pounding the dirt with their posts. They pounded in unison, raising clouds of dust and ash and shouting like madmen. The crew boss took a firm grip on Guilford’s arm. “Don’t move!” he roared. “You’re safe here. They’d attack us if they could, but their first concern is moving their egg sacks away from the flames.”

The beaters in their high boots continued punishing the earth until the stump-ru

“A loose hive won’t last long. They’re prey for snakes, scuttlemice, billy hawks, anything that can tolerate their poison. We’ll rake the fires for a day or two. Come back in a week, you won’t recognize the place.”

The work continued until the last of the creatures had disappeared. The beaters leaned panting against their posts, exhausted but relieved. The insects had left their own smell in the smoky air, a tang of mildew, Guilford thought, or ammonia. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand, realized his face was covered with soot.

“Next time you come away from town, outfit yourself for it. This isn’t New York City.”

Guilford smiled weakly. “I’m begi

“Here for long?”

“A few months. Here and on the Continent.”

“The Continent! There’s nothing on the Continent but wilderness and crazy Americans, excuse me for saying so.”

“I’m with a scientific survey.”

“Well, I hope you don’t plan on doing much walking with ankleboots like those on your feet. The livestock will kill you and whittle your pins.”

“Maybe a little walking,” Guilford said.

He was glad enough to find his way back to the Pierce home, to wash himself and spend an evening in the buttery light of the oil lamps. After a generous supper Caroline and Alice disappeared into the kitchen, Lily was sent to bed, and Jered took down from his shelf a leather-bound 1910 atlas of Europe, the old Europe of sovereigns and nation. How meaningless it had come to be, Guilford thought, and in just eight years, these diagrams of sovereignty imposed on the land like the whim of a mad god. Wars had been fought for these lines. Now they were so much geometry, a tile of dreams.

“It hasn’t changed as much as you might think,” Jered said. “Old loyalties don’t die easily. You know about the Partisans.”

The Partisans were bands of nationalists — rough men who had come from the colonies to reclaim territory they still thought of as German or Spanish or French. Most disappeared into the Darwinian bush, reduced to subsistence or devoured by the wildlife. Others practiced a form of banditry, preying on settlers they regarded as invaders. The Partisans were certainly a potential threat — coastal piracy, abetted by various European nations in exile, made resupply problematic. But the Partisans, like other settlers, had yet to penetrate into the roadless interior of the continent.

“That may not be true,” Jered said. “They’re well armed, some of them, and I’ve heard rumors of Partisan attacks on wildcat miners in the Saar. They’re not kindly disposed toward Americans.”

Guilford wasn’t intimidated. The Do

“Ambitious,” Jered said evenly.

“We’re equipped for it.”

“Surely you can’t anticipate every danger…”

“That’s the point. People have been crossing the Alps for centuries. It’s not such a hard journey in summer. But never these Alps. Who knows what might have changed? That’s what we mean to find out.”

“Just fifteen men,” Jered said.

“We’ll steam as far as we can up the Rhine. Then it’s flat-bottom boats and portage.”

“You’ll need someone who knows the Continent. What little of it anyone does know.”

“There are trappers and bush ru

“You’re the photographer, Caroline tells me.”

“Yessir.”

“First time out?”

“First time on the Continent, but I was with Walcott at the Gallatin River last year. I’m not inexperienced.”

“Liam helped you secure this position?”

“Yes.”

“No doubt he thought he was doing the right thing. But Liam is insulated by the Atlantic Ocean. And by his money. He may not understand the position he’s put you in. Passions run high on the continent. Oh, I know all about the Wilson Doctrine, Europe a wilderness open for resettlement by all, and so on, and it’s a noble idea in its way — though I’m glad England was able to enforce an exception. But you had to sink a few French and German gunboats before their rump governments would yield. And even so…” He tamped his pipe. “You’re going in harm’s way. I’m not sure Liam knows that.”

“I’m not afraid of the continent.”

“Caroline needs you. Lily needs you. There’s nothing cowardly about protecting yourself and your family.” He leaned closer. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as necessary. I can write to Liam and explain. Think about it, Guilford.” He lowered his voice. “I don’t want my niece to be a widow.”

Caroline came through the door from the kitchen. She looked at Guilford solemnly, her lovely hair awry, then turned up the gaslights one by one until the room was ablaze with light.