's just say it's my business. My uncle supplies you with business
during the summer months. He has a boat in tow here now. I'm
responsible. It's still normal weather for this time of year. Now step
aside and stop your glib patronizing and palming yourself off as an
expert on the sea."

"I can't stop you, son. I can only suggest, well that you await next
morning and only take two across at one time. Many a person has
received a cruel surprise out there. Why this area's full of tales
dating back to the earliest times concerning drownings. Why from the
time of the Loyalists up through my earliest childhood--all the time in
between that--my family has run the marina and it seems someone is
claimed yearly by this lake. The French didn't call it an inland ocean
for nothing. Some even claim there's tides--real swells that will take
a boat and . . . ."

"The French, the Loyalists. I'm not here to listen to a travelog. What
do I care if a long list of idiots blundered to their doom. I'm now and
intend to keep on living. What should I care about the past!"

"That may very well be, son, but nobody sets out to drown. Even on the
calmest days a sudden storm whips up and . . . I remember my daddy
telling of a group of early settlers up from the Bay of Quinte area
crossing to attend a church service--full seven of them drowned after a
heavy wind whipped . . . ."

"Church," snorted the other. "Well, I'm not going to any church that's
for sure." He broke into a snicker, his dark eyes flashing above a set
of stained teeth.

"Yes, I guess you're not. Your type will . . . ."

"My type, is it? My type is not so gutless as you, that's a fact. A
little natural obstacle doesn't send me shivering to the nearest root
cellar. This is near winter. You have to bloody well expect a little
discomfort at this time."

He had unnotched the first of several ropes securing the craft. The
boat, a little three seater, sturdy, but otherwise quite frail was
bobbing up then down as each successive dark wave hobnolled it against
the current. It looked for all the world like a large, red currant
fleshy against the wind. The young man checked the fuel, began to rev
the motor before glancing toward the distant shore. A package of
cigarettes emerged from his coat pocket. Blue gray puffs, sentinel
like, climbed the air about his person. He spat into the water and
proceeded to throw the match after it. Both whirled in the spray, then
disappeared from sight.