“Noah! Noah! Come out here, quick,” Ken shouted as he gal-
loped up to Noah’s door.
“I’m coming, Ken. What’s up?” Noah’s voice came from inside
his house.
Ken dismounted. “Oh, there you are. Good. I was hoping to
catch you before you left your house. Noah, we have a . . . what do
you call it . . . problem.”
“What is it, Ken?” Noah finished buttoning his jacket. “What’s
so important that I cannot even begin my rounds?”
“It’s these animals.” Ken pointed through the mist toward the
direction he came. “Someone . . . what do you call it . . . snuck in
last night and left a bunch of wild animals, and now they’re un-
derfoot everywhere. We was going to get the horses and elephants
ready for today’s work. Not only was their feed gone, but they was
gone too! The monkeys and baboons let everything out. All sorts of
animals are everywhere. The men are tripping over small creatures,
large cats are glaring at them, and wild dogs are barking. There are
animals everywhere! They’re infesting the grounds and in the trees.
It’s impossible to do any work!”
“Monkeys?”
“Look at the lumberyard.” Ken started walking toward the
road. “You can hardly walk in there. The beavers and mice are
chewing everything!”
Noah followed. “All right, all right. Stay calm. Let’s think about
this.” Noah hurried over to the fence to look.
“Watch where you step.” Ken pointed at something on the
ground. “The men were really upset when they woke up with
snakes in their . . . what do you call it . . . bedrolls too.”
“Snakes? Infestations? How long has this been going on?” Noah
shielded his eyes with his hand, trying to see.
“What do you call it? It happened overnight! Some of my men
thought they saw someone bring in a bunch of animals when they
came home last night, but when they looked again, all they saw was
animals. No one herding them.”
“Well, this is ridiculous. We need to keep them out of the lum-
beryard and drying fields. We need to keep them out of the mess
hall. We need to keep them out of the forest so you all can get back
to work. Get the men together and build fences over in the south
field. We’ll keep the animals there for now.”
“It might not be easy. It looks like they’re making themselves to
home everywhere.”
“Well, let’s try driving them there for now. See if they stay. Get
some feed over there. That might help. Build some fences to keep
Next page: From Chapter Sixteen