UniLibraryVictorAndGiulianAgainVictor rose early the next morning and returned to the city. Once there, he washed the dirt of the road off and headed to the university library. He had two subjects to look into... he had brought the notes he had taken down before his great uncle had discovered him researching in the basement. If the house records had been changed, there would be discrepancies between the financial notes he had and that found in some of the university records... he hoped that would shed some light on whatever was nagging at the edge of his brain, and it wasn't just a 25-year-old typo he was chasing... After that, there would be classwork to put time in on... including the books he had brought from home. He would write that boring report, for credit, and submit it to his great uncle as well... he didn't have to like it though. As he entered the main floor he could see Giulian Anderon standing at one of the librarians' desks, his crutches propped next to him as he filled out a request slip for the stacks. Victor glanced around casually to see if anyone else was around. He was concerned that if he involved Giulian, he might bring an ill fate on him as well... but it seemed he could get nothing from the information he had. Still, there was the nagging sense that he was almost onto something. Seeing Giulian there helped make up his mind. Victor walked over and said, "I'm working on that history report we discussed... do you have a couple of minutes?" "Hullo, Hoberty. Yes, just let me get this request in." Giulian finished filling out the slip and handed it to the librarian. "Volumes 325 through 330. Could you have them brought to Carrel Sixteen? Thank you very much." Victor nodded, not intending to interrupt Giulian's own request. Giulian retrieved his crutches and headed toward the study carrels, inviting Victor to follow with a tilt of his head. "Still in the land of the living, I see," he said in the light tone he might have used to refer to a fellow student's all-nighter, or grueling essay or exam, but his dark eyes were alert. "So it would seem," Victor said with a similar tone, and cast to his features. Once they had reached their private room, he continued, "A most unfortunate set of circumstances confounded my inquiry... it seems that when a relative learned I was doing a research project on some of our records, he noticed that many of the books were in need of re-binding. He of course sent them away directly, but thoughtfully provided certain tomes that he and I discussed. Writing a report on the impact of certain agricultural matters from several decades back will be... time consuming, but if I should need to consult a related text, I might not have what I am looking for," Victor explained carefully as he withdrew his own notes from a portfolio and set them out before Giulian. "I did, however, make a few notes before my selection was thoughtfully pruned. Something like what we discussed... I think it is, or was, there... but I can't find the correlation," Victor explained. "I see," Giulian said thoughtfully, and turned to study the notes Victor had made. He had carefully noted from which volume each note had come, as well as the date of the entry and some number of sums. These were apparently transcriptions from house accounting notes. Some entries were annotated with things like "payment for house staff" or "repairs to western barn," others were just shorthands for particular accounts. Tax transactions also were included. The whole affair was set out in chronological order, and in addition to these ink notes there were lead '?' marks and arrows near what Victor saw as somehow suspicious. From the erasures near the margins and the notes he had placed to one side with a single line drawn through most of what he had written... he had already tried to draw connections from these facts. "These entries here were in the Doctor's hand... asterisk marks indicate a correction had been made. I don't recognise this hand, but it was probably the clerk of the time, old James Burrough. These are my late great grandfather's marks, I think," Victor said as he explained some of his own shorthand. "Hm," said Giulian. "If Burroughs was 'old' even at the time, he's probably no longer alive now." Victor nodded. Old James had passed away before Victor had even learned to walk, but he had heard him spoken of by the new clerk and his father, from time to time. "It might be worth talking to people who knew him, though," suggested Giulian. There was also a partial list of volumes which had been removed for 'repairs,' although he had apparently not completed the list. At the bottom of that note was 'whatever was important... and a lot to distract me... was removed' "So what are you tracking, exactly?" Giulian asked him. "What did you think made these," he indicated the question marks, "anomalous in some way?" "It's hard to explain... there is just something wrong about them. I'm not even sure that it is with the entries I starred... but I know down to the tips of my muddy boots that there is a pattern here," Victor said as if he were swearing by something curse-worthy. "Or a break in a normal pattern?" Giulian suggested. "Perhaps more than one." He looked at the notes again, and tapped one particular entry with his forefinger. "A trip to the local land office might be worthwhile," he told Victor. "There will be copies there, or should be, of any documents pertaining to the ownership and use of the land in question. All such documents are created in triplicate, as I have good reason to know," he added dryly. Victor raised an eyebrow, not understanding Giulian's ironic reference to his time spent as a clerk in a land office. "I may well do that... although, now that you've pointed it out, I may have other inquiries to make as well... I didn't want to inquire at home, for fear notions would flow in two directions, but do you have any idea where the books might have been sent for care?" Victor said as he rubbed his chin with one hand and touched the pommel of his rapier with the other. Victor was clearly more worried now than he had been a few moments before. "I don't, offhand, but I'm sure the librarians here are quite familiar with the places one sends damaged books for restoration," Giulian pointed out. "A good suggestion, and one which should have occurred to me earlier. Have your own researches... along that related line... met with any success?" Victor asked. "Limited, so far," Giulian said cagily. "I think, like you, I may soon have to branch out a bit in my researches." "I'm glad you have avenues to follow. As I have my own, I think I should bid you good day and allow you to get back to them... if there is some way I can assist you, however, please feel free to ask... I might as well get something done before I wake up one morning with my head in a noose," Victor said with a grin towards the end. "I'll let you know -- and I'll be on the watch," promised Giulian, as a library clerk came toward them with the stack of large folio volumes he had asked for. "But at the moment..." He sighed. "Back to the search." Victor nodded, and collected his notes. He still had a good deal to do today, and not all of it weighty matters of intrigue. He did find time, however, to ask a reference desk librarian where books might be sent to be rebound or otherwise restored if they had suffered some damage. |
