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Coalblack eyes stared at him curiously. "Why, yes, I am."
"Boy," said Pitt as he sagged bone weary to the soft ground, "am I ever glad to see you."
The nervous giggle of a little girl roused Pitt from a light sleep. Tired as he was, he'd only slept four hours. He opened his eyes, stared at her a moment, gave her a bright smile and crossed his eyes. She ran out of the room, yelling for her mother.
He was in a cozy room with a small stove radiating wondrous heat, lying in a bed made up of bear and wolf hides. He smiled to himself at the recollection of Broadmoor standing in the middle of an isolated Indian village with few modern conveniences, calling over his satellite phone for an air ambulance to transport Stokes to a hospital on the mainland.
Pitt had borrowed the phone to contact the Mountie office at Shearwater. At the mention of Stokes'
name, he was immediately put through to an Inspector Pendleton, who questioned Pitt in detail about the events commencing the previous morning. Pitt ended the briefing by giving Pendleton directions to the crash site so the Mounties could send in a team to retrieve the cameras inside the pontoons if they had survived the impact.
A seaplane arrived before Pitt had finished a bowl of fish soup that was thrust on him by Broadmoor's wife. Two paramedics and a doctor examined Stokes and assured Pitt the Mountie had every chance of pulling through. Only after the seaplane had lifted off the water on its flight back to the mainland and the nearest hospital had Pitt gratefully accepted the loan of the Broadmoor family bed and fallen dead asleep.
Broadmoor's wife entered from the main living room and kitchen. A woman of grace and poise, stout yet supple, Irma Broadmoor had haunting coffee eyes and a laughing mouth. "How are you feeling, Mr.
Pitt? I didn't expect you to wake up for another three hours at least."
Pitt checked and made sure he still wore his pants and shirt before he threw back the covers and dropped his bare feet to the floor. "I'm sorry to have put you and your husband out of your bed."
She laughed, a light musical laugh. "The time is a little past noon. You've only been asleep since eight o'clock."
"I'm most grateful for your hospitality."
"You must be hungry. That bowl of fish soup wasn't enough for a big man like you. What would you like to eat?"
"A can of beans will be fine."
"People sitting around a campfire eating canned beans in the north woods is a myth. I'll grill some salmon steaks. I hope you like salmon"
"I do indeed."
"While you're waiting, you can talk to Mason. He's working outside."
Pitt pulled on his socks and hiking boots, ran his hands through his hair and faced the world. He found Broadmoor in the open shed, chiseling away on a five-meter-long red cedar log that lay horizontal on four heavy-duty sawhorse
s. Broadmoor was attacking it with a round wooden mallet shaped like a bell and a concave chisel called a fantail gouge. The carving was not far enough along for Pitt to visualize the finished product. The faces of animals were still in the rough stage.
Broadmoor looked up as Pitt approached. "Have a good rest?"
"I didn't know bearskins were so soft."
Broadmoor smiled. "Don't let the word out or they'll be extinct within a year."
"Ed Posey told me you carved totem poles. I've never seen one in the works before."
"My family have been carvers for generations. Totems evolved because the early Indians of the Northwest had no written language. Family histories and legends were preserved by carving symbols, usually animals, on red cedar trees."
"Do they have religious significance?" asked Pitt.
Broadmoor shook his head. "They were never worshiped as icons of gods, but respected more as guardian spirits."
"What are the symbols on this pole?"
"This is a mortuary pole, or what you might call a commemorative column. The pole is in honor of my uncle, who passed away last week. When I finish the carvings, they will illustrate his personal crest, which was an eagle and a bear, along with a traditional Haida figure of the deceased. After completion it will be erected, during a feast, at the corner of his widow's house."
"As a respected master carver, you must be booked up for many months in advance."
Broadmoor shrugged modestly. "Almost two years."
