“Hmmm…What else can I tell you, Doctor? Two pedals—a sustaining pedal and an una corda. The dampers will run to the second B key above the middle octave—that is pretty typical. Erard dampers are located below the strings and held there by a spring, which is unusual, most piano dampers rest on the strings from above. I’ll know when I look inside, but it should have cast-iron tension bars between the wrest-plank and the rim, this was pretty standard by 1840; it served to support the tension of stronger steel wires, which were used because of their louder sound.” He touched the design that stretched above the keyboard. “Look at the nameboard, it is mother-of-pearl.” He looked up to see a bemused look on Carroll’s face, and laughed. “Forgive me, I am getting carried away…”

“I am glad to see you are so pleased. I must confess, I was actually concerned that you might be angry.”

“Angry? Good Lord, what would I be angry about?”

“I don’t know, part of me has felt that the piano’s condition is my fault, that I put it at risk by bringing it here, and that would anger a lover of musical instruments. I don’t know if you remember, but I asked the War Office to give you an envelope, with instructions not to open it.” He paused. “You may open it now. It is nothing, just a description of how I transported the piano to Mae Lwin, but I did not want you to read it until you saw that it was safe.”

“Is that what the letter was about? I have been quite curious. I thought perhaps it was something about the dangers here, that you might not want my wife to read…but the Erard’s journey? Perhaps you are right, perhaps I should be angry. But I am a tuner. The only thing I care for more than pianos is repairing them. And regardless: it is here, and now that I am here as well…“ He stopped and looked out of the window. ”Well, I can’t think of any place more exciting and worthier of its music. Besides, the strings can stand up to incredible abuse, although perhaps not what this instrument has been through, and I certainly can’t say the same about mother-of-pearl decoration. What I would be worried about is the sun and humidity, which can cause it to go out of tune in days.“ He paused. ”Actually, Doctor, I do have one question. I have never spoken to you about this, and I couldn’t find any mention of it in your letters, but I don’t even know if you have played the piano yet, or what it has…accomplished.“

The Doctor put his hand on the Erard. “Ah, Mr. Drake. We haven’t spoken about this because I don’t have much to tell you. There was a celebration soon after I brought it here. An occasion notable for both sadness and rejoicing—you will read about it in my letter—the village insisted, and I obliged. They made me play for hours. Of course, only then did I realize how out of tune the piano already was. If any of the Shan felt so too, they were polite, although I think that the instrument is strange enough for them; tuning was the least of their concerns. But I have great aspirations for it. You should have seen the faces of the children who came to watch.”

“You didn’t play again.”

“Once or twice, but the piano was so flat—”

“Sharp probably if it was its first time in a humid country. It’s flat now, because of the dry season.”

“Terribly sharp then. And so I stopped playing. It was almost impossible for me to bear.”

“And yet, you thought you could tune it…” Edgar said, half to himself.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Drake?”

“Well, someone who knows enough about pianos to select an 1840 Erard would know that it would go out of tune, especially in the jungle, that it would need a professional tuner. Yet, still, you thought you could do this yourself.“

The Doctor was quiet. “That is what I told the army, but there are other reasons. I was overjoyed that they had granted my request, and I was afraid to ask for more. At times my enthusiasm outruns my abilities. I have seen a piano tuned before and I thought I would try alone first. I thought that, after surgery, it would be easy.”

“I will forgive you for saying that,” said Edgar, lightly. “But I can teach you something about tuning if you like.”

Carroll nodded. “Of course, but only for a little while. I should leave you alone. I have work to do. Besides, it has taken me a long time to become comfortable with observers in the surgery. I imagine it is even more difficult when it comes to treating sound.”

“These, Doctor, are my instruments.” Edgar opened his bag and spread them across the bench. “I brought a basic set. This is a tuning hammer, these narrow-blade screwdrivers are for general use, this special thin screwdriver and a drop-screw regulator are for the action. Let’s see…What else? Key-easing pliers and a key spacer, bending pliers, two damper-bending irons, a spring-adjusting hook, parallel pliers, a special thin capstan-screw regulator used for Erards, for adjusting the hammer height. Also: leather-covered wedges for tuning, and coils of replacement piano wire of different gauges. There are other tools as well, these over here are specifically for voicing: a hammer iron, glue, and multiple extra voicing needles, as they frequently become bent.”

“Voicing? You keep using that word.”

“Sorry, voicing means treating a piano’s hammers so they produce a nice tone when they strike the strings. I am probably getting ahead of myself. You said you have seen a piano tuned?”

“Seen? Once or twice, briefly. But I have never had it explained to me.”

“Well, I’ll wager that you will learn quickly. There are three basic components to tuning. Typically, tuners begin with regulating, which means aligning the action so that the hammers are at even heights and strike the strings briskly and fall back smoothly so that a note can be played again. Usually that is the first step. I like to begin with a rough tuning, however. A piano usually must be tuned several times, as the act of tuning one string changes the dimensions of the soundboard so as to affect all other strings. There are ways to avoid this, tuning strings sharp, for example, but in my opinion, it is still impossible to predict the changes. Furthermore, the strings tend to settle, so it is better to leave the piano overnight before a second attempt. So I tune roughly, regulate, and then tune again—that is my technique, others do do it differently. After this comes voicing, the repair of the hammer felt itself. Erard experts are usually good voicers, if I might be so immodest; the combination of the leather and felt makes the hammers more difficult to work with. There are other smaller jobs as well. For example, I need to think about whether there is a way to waterproof the soundboard. Of course, all of this depends on what is wrong.”

“And do you have any notion what will need to be repaired? Or will you not know until you play?”

“Actually, I can probably guess now. I suppose it is not unlike thinking about a patient’s history before the examination. I can tell you, and then I can let you go.” He turned to the piano and looked at it closely.

“To begin with, there will be a problem with the soundboard, the belly. This is certain. Whether it has cracked yet I don’t know. It is very lucky it has been in Burma for only a year and thus has suffered only one year’s cycle of humidity. Fortunately, as long as the cracks are minor, they can easily be repaired, or ignored even—often it is only a cosmetic concern. Bigger cracks will be more of a problem.”

He tapped his fingers on the case. “The piano will be out of tune, of course. That goes without saying. The dry season will have resulted in the soundboard shrinking, loosening the strings and dropping the pitch. If substantial enough, I may have to raise the pitch as much as a full semitone and leave the piano for at least another twenty-four hours before fine-tuning further. Of course, the problem with doing this is that when the rain comes again, the board will expand, and the increased tension could cause terrible damage. This should have been expected, but the military didn’t seem to consider it. I will have to think about this problem; perhaps I will need to teach someone here to tune.” Suddenly he stopped. “My God, I forgot. In the note you sent me in Mandalay, you wrote the piano was shot. I can’t believe I didn’t think about this until now. It changes everything. Please, may I see the damage?”