In Darkest Depths Read Online Free PDF Page A

said. “But you can turn around and go right back to your cabin. I want to do it and I will do it, and I don’t care who thinks I shouldn’t.”

    Nate grinned. “Stamp your foot a few times and you will remind me of Zach when he was five years old.”
    â€œFah!” Shakespeare rejoined.
    â€œSimmer down.”
    â€œI will not. At my age a little simmering is good for the blood.”
    â€œIt is true what they say, then. The older we get, the younger we act.”
    â€œWhat sock did you pull that one out of? It is mine to do, do you hear me? I will pit brain and sinew against the water devil, and may the real devil take the hindmost.”
    â€œBe sure you are right, and then go ahead,” Nate said. “That motto worked for Davy Crockett, and it will work for us.”
    â€œUs, Horatio?”
    â€œThat is why I came over,” Nate said. “Remember the grizzly that lived in the valley when we first came here? We tried to live in peace with it, but it chased my son over a cliff and tried to make a meal of my family and me. I had no choice but to kill it.” Nate turned toward the lake. “We need to know what is out there and whether it is a danger to our families.”
    â€œThen you are not here to talk me out of going after it?”
    â€œOn the contrary. I am here to tell you I am with you. We will see this through together.”
    Shakespeare McNair chortled. “This is the reason you are the manly apple of my eye. To battle, then, Horatio! Unleash the dogs of war!”

Bats in The Belfry
    It was not quite ten o’clock the next morning when loud banging and scraping noises drew Blue Water Woman out of her cabin to stare in bewilderment at the roof. Planks left over from the chicken coop were unevenly stacked at one end. In the center, hammering away, was her husband. Their ladder was propped against the side of the cabin, and Nate King was just coming down it.
    â€œGood morning,” he greeted her.
    â€œGood morning to you,” Blue Water Woman responded, and then focused on the man she had married. “Carcajou?”
    Shakespeare went on hammering.
    â€œDo not pretend you cannot hear me,” Blue Water Woman said.
    With an exaggerated sigh, Shakespeare lowered his hammer and shifted on his knees. “What is it, woman? Can’t you see we men are busy at important work?”
    â€œYou did not tell me Nate was here.”
    â€œDo you expect me to mention every trifle? Should I tell you when I heed Nature’s call? Or pick my teeth?”
    â€œSomeone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, and it was not me.”
    â€œMe either,” Shakespeare said, selecting a nail. “If my disposition were any sunnier, you could not stand to look at me except on cloudy days.”
    â€œWhat are you doing to my roof?”
    Shakespeare reacted as if she had slapped him. “ Your roof? We both live under it. Which makes it mine as much as yours and entitles me to make improvements if I so desire.”
    Blue Water Woman put her hands on her hips. “How do you improve a roof that has nothing wrong with it?”
    Nate was filling his arms with planks. He looked up at McNair. “You didn’t tell her what we are going to do?”
    â€œStay out of this, Horatio.”
    â€œI took it for granted you would,” Nate said. To Blue Water Woman he said, “It was his idea. A darned good one, too.”
    â€œPerhaps you will share his brilliance with me since he saw fit not to,” Blue Water Woman prompted.
    â€œWe figure that we need to get a good look at the thing in the lake so we will have a better idea of how to deal with it,” Nate explained. “And the higher we are, the more of the lake we can see.”
    â€œWhat does that have to do with my roof?”
    Shakespeare slid to the edge and balanced on his hands and knees. “We are building a steeple.”
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