Mark was holding a length of barbed wire for his father when he saw the strange wagon. "Pa, have you ever seen anything like that?"
Luke turned his head and studied the vehicle crossing their field. It was more like a house on wheels than anything else, with a tiny chimney and windows with curtains. An old man in a black and yellow checked coat was driving. Next to him sat a woman dressed in voluminous skirts and a number of gold chains. "They're gypsies, son." He turned back to hammer the wire to the fence post.
"Gypsies!" The boy dropped the wire. "I ain't never seen gypsies before!"
"They're people just like any other people." Luke tapped Mark's hat. "Hold the wire."
"Sorry, Pa." The boy picked up the wire and held it steady, then he dropped it again.
"Mark!"
"Pa, look!"
Luke spun around and saw the wagon tumbling to one side. A wheel had come off and the old man and woman spilled off the seat, the man screaming as the edge of the wagon came down on his leg. The boy and his father raced over, Mark helping the woman up as Luke knelt beside the man. The strangers were using a language Mark had never heard before and he was startled when his father spoke.
"Didikai?" The old man repeated the word.
Luke nodded. "Didikai."
The stranger touched his chest. "Yule." He pointed to the woman. "Anyata."
The woman shook Mark off, fell to her knees next to the old man, and tried pulling him out from under the wagon. He cried out in pain and Luke put his hand on her arm. "Wait!" He studied the wagon, then got to his feet and went over to his buckboard, returning with a spool of barbed wire. He set it next to the wagon and thought for a moment, then returned to the post he had been working on. He tugged the post back and forth until it came loose, then pulled it up and brought it back.
"What're you going to do, Pa?"
"Ever hear of Archimedes?" Luke smiled at the puzzled look on his son's face. "I guess you haven't got that far in school. He lived a long time ago, thousands of years ago in Greece." The big man wedged the fence post underneath the wagon next to the stranger's leg. "Archimedes said 'Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.'"
"What does that mean?"
"I'll show you. Hold this post." Luke moved the spool of wire under the post. "This is a fulcrum and the post is the lever. I'm going to push down on the other end and that should lift the wagon enough to free this man. You be ready to pull him out."
Mark knelt next to the man. "All set."
Luke pushed down on the lever, grunting with the strain, and the wagon lifted slightly. He eased up and took a breather, leaning on the post, and Anyata came over to put her hands next to his. Their eyes met and she nodded, then they threw their weight on the lever. The wagon lifted and Mark pulled frantically on the man. "Got him, Pa!"
Anyata pushed up Yule's pants leg. Mark sucked in his breath. The old man's leg was bent at an impossible angle below the knee. "Pa, he needs a doctor."
"We'll take him home, then you go fetch Doc Burrage." Luke lifted Yule and carried him over to the buckboard, settling him in the back while Mark got in the front. Anyata climbed in and took his head on her lap, singing to him softly as Luke snapped the reins and set off for home as fast as he dared.