Elias Johnson liked the feeling of family all around the big kitchen table. It wasn’t only the common danger drawing them all together. Dr. Peter Hubbard fit right in. The Yarkie men liked the fact that he had no airs as might be expected of a Harvard professor in the midst of simple fishermen. On his part, Hubbard felt the offer of friendship from all of them, along with their confidence that his specialized knowledge would aid them. He could only hope they were right.

After supper, they moved from the kitchen into the large room taking shape as a laboratory. Craig had already set up several counterlike tables borrowed from the summer-­closed school cafeteria.

Amos Tarbell brought out a small envelope. “We did spot some track,” he told Hubbard, starting the session off. “There may have been a lot of it, but the leaves were so messed up that we couldn’t tell.” He tapped a small pellet onto the table. “Doesn’t look like any rat dropping to me, though.”

Hubbard said at once, firmly, “That’s cockroach!”

“Cockroach?” The word went around the table with inflections of surprise.

Elias Johnson asked, “Isn’t that pretty darn big for a roach?”

Hubbard replied, “Yes, if you’re thinking of the usual house variety. These droppings are from what you call water bugs. And unusually large ones at that, I’d say.”

Russell Homer contributed, “Lots of them crawl around the dump all the time!”

Hubbard asked, “How big, Mr. Homer?”

The man answered as if he were a Harvard student in class. The professor had called him Mr. Homer! “Some are about an inch and a half, but they run to two inches . . .”

“Normal,” the scientist nodded. He nudged the dropping aside. “That’s not your problem, gentlemen. Roaches can be a nuisance, but they don’t fit what we’ve been hearing today.”

Elias Johnson thought of his dog’s ear, which Craig had given to the scientist earlier that afternoon. No roach could be big enough or strong enough to chew off Sharky’s ear.

As if reading the man’s mind, Hubbard reported, “I’ve been studying the dog’s ear. I have to wait for the equipment Dr. Lindstrom will bring tomorrow morning, but I can tell you right off—rats do not bite the way the ear seems to have been torn off.”

Bonnie felt the nausea again, though with less sense of personal guilt.

Hubbard was going on, “At least not any rats I’ve ever seen or heard of before.”

Craig Soaras asked with surprise, “You mean our rats might be different?”

Hubbard replied, “It’s possible. There may be some kind of mutation out there. I seriously doubt it, but it’s one of the things we need to consider.” The scientist turned to Russell Homer. “You said before that there were dead rats all over the dump. Did you get any specimens?”