“I blush to think upon this ignomy,” Shakespeare muttered.
“Don’t start.”
“Since most of us speak English, I will use that tongue,” Winona announced. Turning to her Nansusequa guests, she addressed Wakumassee and Degamawaku. “You two speak it the best in your family, but you are still learning. I will talk slowly and use small words so you can translate for the others.”
“I am speaking the white tongue good,” Dega declared, proud of his accomplishment. That he had extra incentive in the form of Evelyn King was not a fact he mentioned.
“You have improved a lot since we met,” Winona agreed. “But I will still speak slowly so it is easy for you to translate.” She raised her arms to get everyone’s attention. “The first ever meeting of the King Valley Water Devil Society is now in session.”
Shakespeare sat up. “The what?”
“The King Valley Water Devil Society. Do you like the name? Blue Water Woman came up with it.”
“I should have known.”
“What be society?” Wakumassee asked. “That one I not know.”
“It was a little jest on my part,” Winona explained.
“A tiny jest is more like it,” Shakespeare said under his breath, but loud enough for everyone to hear. “Why beat around the bush? You called this meeting because you and my wife are worried.”
“We have reason to be,” Winona said. “We were in the steeple today. We saw what happened.”
Nate put his cup down. “You never mentioned anything to me.”
Shakespeare frowned at his wife. “All your squawking about the steeple being a waste of wood and you go up there to spy on us?”
“If caring for someone and wanting to be sure they are not harmed is spying, then yes, we were spying.”
“I was right about you being up to something,” Shakespeare said.
“Yes, you were right. We talked it over in the steeple and decided to call this meeting.”
“Say that again.”
“Excuse me?”
“That part about me being right. In front of witnesses, no less.” Shakespeare made a show of looking at the ceiling and then out the window. “I expect the world to end any moment.”
“Who say world end?” Waku asked in some alarm. “Nansusequa believe world stay as is until moon fall down.”
Louisa piped up with, “How is that again?”
“You might as well say the world will end when there are no more buffalo,” Zach threw in.
Nate came over and put one of his big hands on Winona’s slender shoulder. “It is not like you to keep secrets. Why didn’t you say something?”
“I am now.”
“Fine,” Shakespeare said in disgust. “Horatio can stay home from now on. But I am not giving up. I will go out on the lake by myself if I have to. That thing must be dealt with.”
“I agree,” Winona said.
“So what if I am the only one who—” Shakespeare stopped abruptly. “What did you just say?”
“I agree with you. It could have been anyone out there today. Waku and Dega, fishing. Or my cousin when he pays a visit. Or one of us ladies out for a swim.” Winona shook her head. “Until today the water devil has been no more than a nuisance. Now I fear it could well kill one of us.”
“I think the same,” Blue Water Woman said.
Shakespeare sat back, unable to hide his astonishment. “Let me get this straight. When I was going on about how we had to do something and built the steeple, you flayed me hour by hour. But as soon as Winona says we need to act, you are all for it.”
“I did not change my mind because of Winona,” Blue Water Woman said. “I changed it because I saw the water devil try to kill you.”
Deeply touched but refusing to show it, Shakespeare coughed and asked, “Aren’t you forgetting the bad medicine?”
“If there is no creature, there is no bad medicine.”
Nate studied his wife, “I am happy you have come over to our way of thinking. But why did you invite everyone here?”
“I have been wondering the same thing,” Zach said. “You could have told us all this tomorrow.”
“True,” Winona acknowledged. “If that was all there is to it. But when I called this the King Valley Water Devil Society, I was not joking. This valley is our home. We have chosen to spend our lives here. We must make it as safe as we can.”
“My exact sentiments,” Shakespeare said.
“After what we saw,” Winona said, “it is clear the two of you can use help.”
Shakespeare took immediate exception. “I wouldn’t say that. We need to plan better, is all.”
“Again, I agree.”
“Keep this up and I will think I am drunk. Which is some feat, given that I have not tasted liquor in a month.”
“I was not finished,” Winona said. “This should not be on your shoulders alone.”
“Hostiles, bears, and monsters are man’s work.”
Blue Water Woman snorted.
“All of us have a stake,” Winona went on. “We must plan together and work together to rid the lake of the water beast.”
“I suppose you have worked out exactly how we should go about it?” Shakespeare said, with a trace of mockery.
“Blue Water Woman and I have come up with an idea that should work, yes.”
“I am all ears.”
“The easiest way to catch an animal is to set a trap for it. All you need is the right bait.”
“And what sort of bait do you reckon will bring that thing up out of the depths?” Shakespeare asked.
Both Winona and Blue Water Woman looked at him and grinned.
The Armada
There were as many ways to make canoes as there were tribes to make them. Some did as the Nansusequa liked to do and hollowed out logs. Some built frames and covered them with hide. Others preferred bark. Nate King had even heard of a tribe that used planks and sealed the gaps between the planks with pitch.
Some tribes were partial to large canoes, other tribes only used small ones, and then there were those that relied on both. Some liked the sides of their canoes to be high to ward off enemy arrows and lances. Others constructed canoes that sat low in the water so it was easier to fish.
Even the shapes of the canoes varied. Certain tribes liked the ends to come to points. Others preferred rounded ends. Still others chose square ends.
All this came up in the days that followed the meeting. Winona and Blue Water Woman insisted more canoes be made. As Winona summed up their sentiments, “If the water devil had capsized your dugout, we would have had no way of reaching you in time to help.”
It was decided they needed at least four craft besides the one they had. Nate was put in charge of building what Shakespeare took to calling their armada. The Nansusequa offered to hollow out more logs, but Nate and Shakespeare tactfully suggested that smaller, lighter craft might be better. After their experience with the dugout, they would be damned, as Shakespeare put it, if they “ever used one of those floating death traps again. The only thing it has to commend it is that it can be chopped up and used for firewood.”
That left them the choice of hide canoes or bark canoes. Birch bark was highly touted, but the valley did not have many birch trees. Ash was a good substitute, but it would take hours to reach the nearest stand.
“Hide canoes will be easier to make than bark and less likely to sink,” suggested Nate.
“I am all for staying dry,” Shakespeare said.
The valley teemed with game, and they were experts at skinning and tanning. Shakespeare wanted to use deer hides since “there are so many damn deer, we trip over them every time we step out the door.” Initially, Nate disagreed. He thought elk hides would be better. But the elk were high up at that time of year, and when he factored in the time it would take to ride up into the high country after them and come back again, he went along with McNair.