"I need you to pick up one end of this generator while I put a block of wood under it. Then the other end, and I'll prop that side up as well. After that you can take off these nuts and we'll pull it apart."

Papa picked up his grease pot again and went back to the mill machinery.

She knelt down and took a grip. It looked like a lot of iron, but

… "Oh. This isn't as heavy as it looks. If you're quick with the sticks, I can pick it up all at once."

"All right." He put the blocks in place against the side. "Ready."

A second later it was propped up with its ends clear of the floor. He handed her a wrench and gestured with his hand. "You turn the nuts this way to take them off. I'll hold this down. Once that's done, you can slide off the end bells and we'll pull the rotor out."

She looked at the wrench in her hand. It shone like a mirror, and there wasn't a hammer mark on it anywhere-except… "Herr Bosboom, what's this here?"

"That? That's a kudzu leaf. It's the maker's hallmark."

"They must be great craftsmen. This is a beautiful piece of work."

He glanced up at her. "You appreciate fine tools?"

"Naturally. I grew up in this mill."

She turned to the generator, and set the wrench in place on the first nut. She gave it an experimental tug to get the feel, then braced her knee against the side and gave a solid pull. Two minutes later the insides were exposed to view, and she was lifting the pieces one at a time to a cloth spread out on a bench.

Ilsabe watched curiously while Herr Bosboom blew the dust away and started playing his lamp over the parts. She pointed to the wires wound around a stack of thin iron plates. "This looks very carefully made. What do all these pieces do?"

"Well…"

Winkler and Dranitz came back to the mill with a handful of thick pamphlets. Gerd came over to the bench to see, with Ilsabe beside him. Bosboom spread out the papers for the generator and the switchboard, and looked up in surprise. "Herr Winkler, these are in Italian! Do you read Italian? Do you, Herr Dranitz?"