Chapter 20
I’d started for Devil’s End at daybreak.
More than four hours had passed. I figured it would be another half day at the earliest before Stephen and Daniel and Mal and the boys reached an area where they might have cell phone service.
If they contacted the sheriff’s department right away, organizing a search from the air would take another hour or two, and Paternoster was a big lake.
It would be early evening before anyone might spot us. I had a lot of stalling to do.
“They call this Devil’s End,” I said, after we’d seated ourselves on the logs by the fire pit.
“We know that,” Ollie said. “The Indian over there told us.”
“Did he tell you why?”
“He didn’t,” Stan said.
Ollie reached for the Canadian Club. He looked around for the metal cup, which I’d set beside me on the log I occupied alone. “Gimme,” he said.
I handed it over. He unscrewed the cap on the whiskey and filled his cup.
“Go easy on that stuff,” Stan said.
“Fuck you, Mom,” Ollie said and took a drink.
Stan gave him a sour look, then turned to me. “You were saying.”
“This better have something to do with the devil’s asshole,” Ollie said.
“Just let him talk,” Stan said. “Why’s it called Devil’s End?”
“Because there are majimanidoog everywhere here,” I told them.
“What’s that?” Ollie said.
“Evil spirits. Devils, if you will. The Anishinaabe have known this since they first arrived. The voyageurs who came later discovered the truth the hard way.”
“The hard way?” Stan said.
“Do you know what Paternoster means?”
“Our Father,” Stan said.
“Good Catholic boy,” Ollie said and raised his cup to his brother in a mock toast.
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd that on a lake named Our Father there would be an arm called Devil’s End?”
“Not particularly,” Stan said. “The world exists in oppositions.”
Which made me realize there was more to this guy than just being a goon like his brother.
“To get to Paternoster, you have to pass through Devil’s End, then negotiate Devil’s Door,” I explained.
“The narrows down there,” Stan said with a wave of his arm.
“The currents in Devil’s End are tricky to begin with.
You’ve seen that for yourselves. When there’s been a lot of rain, they can be downright treacherous, particularly as you try to pass through the narrows.
In the old days, voyageurs claimed to see majimanidoog along the rim of the cliffs that line the bay.
Immediately after, those long canoes they traveled in would flip without warning and men would be swept into Devil’s Door and drown.
It was said that only the pure of heart could reach Paternoster unscathed.
And if you know anything about the voyageurs, you know there weren’t many who could be said to be pure of heart. ”
“Bullshit,” Ollie said. “That’s all a bunch of bullshit. You’re stalling.”
Which was absolutely true.
“What about the devil’s asshole?” he demanded.
That was a question I’d been working on. I thought I had a reasonable idea about it.
“I need to go out on the bay in a canoe,” I said.
“See!” Ollie stood up and looked at Stan. “I told you. He’s just trying to figure a way to keep me from beating him to a pulp.” Then he took a menacing step toward me.
“That’s true,” I said quickly. “I don’t want to get beat up. But it’s also true that to be sure of what I’m telling you there’s something I need to see.”
“What’s that?” Stan asked.
“I won’t know until I see it.”
“I’m gonna hit him,” Ollie said.
Stan made no move to stop him.
From where he was bound to the tree, Cordell called out weakly, “Can’t see the asshole from here.”
Ollie held up laying into me. To Stan, he said, “I told you the Indian knew.”
Stan looked at me. “Okay, we’ll go out in the canoe, you and me. Ollie will stay here. If you try anything funny, he’ll kill your friend.”
“I think he’s going to kill him anyway. I want some assurance that’s not how things will play out.”
“This is the deal I’ll make with you,” Stan said. “Help us get the pack and then guide us out of here, we’ll leave your friend behind. It should take him quite a while to get back to civilization. By then, we’ll be long gone.”
“The hell—” Ollie began.
“Shut up!” Stan snapped.
“I need something more substantial,” I said. “A down payment, if you will.”
“Like what?”
“Let Cordell go first. I’ve got a canoe halfway up the portage. Let him take that. In his condition, it’ll be days before he can make his way out of the Boundary Waters. By then, I’ll have you and your brother wherever it is you want to be.”
Stan was quiet for a while, obviously thinking through the possibilities. Finally he said, “We let the Indian go, but no canoe. He walks out.”
“He’s not in any shape to walk,” I said.
“We let the Indian go, he’s still out there. Maybe he slits our throats in the night,” Ollie said. He eyed me like a badger I’d poked with a stick. “Let me see what I can get out of this guy.”
Stan gave his brother a hard look. “You beat Crispin nearly to death and it got us nowhere. You beat the Indian, too, and that got us nowhere. I think if you laid into this man, the result would be pretty much the same, especially if he thinks you’re going to kill him anyway. Do you want that pack or not?”
Ollie’s face showed that it was a torture for him to let go of the idea of beating me to death, but greed finally won out. “All right,” he said. “I’ll untie the Indian.”
“Cordell,” I said. “His name is Cordell.”