Page 30 of God’s Country

“Then you’ll never find the devil’s asshole,” I said.

That got them. They both approached me. Although they were sopping wet, they’d somehow managed not to lose their headgear. Stan in his ball cap stopped a few feet from me.

“What do you know about it?”

“I know I sent you on a wild goose chase.”

From behind me, I heard Cordell call out weakly, “Don’t tell them anything, Cork!”

“Cork?” Ollie said. He glanced at his brother. “Maybe we should shoot him, throw him in the lake, see if he floats.” He laughed himself silly over that one.

“You killed Crispin and where did that get us?” Stan said. “We kill this guy, maybe we lose any chance of finding the pack.”

“I’m telling you, I should just shoot him now,” Ollie said.

“Tell us about the devil’s asshole,” Stan said.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” I said.

“You’re in no position to bargain,” Ollie said.

“I think I am,” I said. “I know what you’re looking for. It’s a good place to hide a pack. I’ll get that pack for you, but I want to know what’s in it first.”

“Won’t do you any good.”

“Why? Because you’ll kill me after you get it? That would be a really stupid idea.”

Stan said, “And why’s that?”

“Because I know how to get you back to civilization. Without me, you could wander out here till you starve to death. Or get set on by a pack of wolves. Or attacked by a bear.”

They eyed each other, silently mulling over my proposition, then Stan turned to me and said, “All right. But we tie the Indian up first, then talk.”

CHAPTER 19

If you ask people what to them is the most precious of commodities, my guess is that for the majority it wouldn’t be money or fame or anything tangible. It would be time. Precious enough even when you figure you’ve got a whole lifetime ahead of you. But absolutely priceless when you’ve got a gun at your back.

Sure, I was stalling for time. But what I told them was true. Without me, they could get themselves hopelessly lost in the million acres of that vast wilderness. It happens more often than you might think. It was also true what I’d said about the devil’s asshole, which was something that my brain had been working on since I first heard it mentioned. I thought I had a pretty good idea of where it might be.

I helped Cordell stand, and he leaned heavily on my shoulder. I walked him back to the tree where he’d been bound. I eased him down with his back to the trunk of the fir, and as I did, he looked up at me with a thousand questions in his battered and bruised face.

“Step away from him,” Stan ordered. When I did, he said, “Now give me the knife you used to cut him loose.”

I handed him my Gerber multitool, which he looked at with great interest. “And I thought a Swiss Army knife was something.”

He put the multitool in his pocket, then bound Cordell once again to the tree.

All this time, Ollie stood there in his wet clothes and wet Tilley hat, eyeing me as if he’d like to bite my face. I figured that what he’d really like was to beat me to death, and after I did their bidding, this was probably exactly what he intended to do, regardless of whether it left them stranded in the Boundary Waters without a guide.

“All right,” Stan said. “Let’s talk.”

“Maybe you want to get into dry clothes first?” I suggested.

Stan considered this, then said to his brother, “Keep an eye on him. I’ll get changed, then you can.”

Which left me and Ollie alone. I sat on one of the logs that had been placed near the fire pit. Most campsites in the Boundary Waters are set up this way. There was ash in the pit from a recent fire. I was pretty sure that neither Stan nor Ollie had built that fire. In all likelihood, Cordell had built it before they’d beaten him bloody.

“It’ll get cold tonight,” I said. “Want me to build a fire?”