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Chapter Twenty-One
Errol
I stay a discreet distance away while Ashley pores over the Ellsworth map. This is her moment, and I won't interfere unless she wants my help. The lass knows what she thinks she saw, and it might take time for her to figure out how it relates to the map. I am not good at waiting, though.
Munro took off a few minutes after we landed on the shore, but he didn't explain where he was going or why. He just leaped into the river and disappeared around an outcropping. If the bampot drowns, I will need to explain to Ashley why I let him go off on his own. So I give up watching her from a distance and climb up the steep slope on the downriver side of the wee valley to do a visual search of the water below.
Ah, there he is. Munro is sitting on a small boulder, drenched from head to toe, apparently doing nothing more important than sunning himself. I doubt I will ever understand Munro. But then, most of the family says that about me.
I return to Ashley and can't hold back my curiosity any longer. I kneel beside her. "How is it going? Any breakthroughs?"
"Well, I've decided that overhang up there probably isn't the right place." She cranes her neck to see past my head. "Nope. It doesn't match the symbols on the map legend."
"You'll figure it out, eventually. You are the cleverest person I've ever met."
"I'm not the one who deciphered the map."
"We're a good team."
She smiles. "Yes, we are."
"May I see the map?"
Ashley nods and hands it to me.
I flip it over to the legend side and study the notations there. "Maybe I was wrong about what these symbols represent. Squiggles might not indicate rivers or streams."
She wriggles closer and stares down at the drawing. "What do you think it does mean?"
"Ah, well… Ahmno sure. Maybe a different kind of water." I exhale a sharp sigh. "But that's a bloody useless thing to say, isn't it? Another kind of water."
The lass bites her lip, which I realized a while ago means she's ruminating on the matter. Then her mouth curls into a sly smile, and she rolls her gaze up to mine.
"I can tell you've got something," I say. "Tell me."
"Might be wrong again, but…" She runs her finger along the squiggly line. "Doesn't this remind you of rapids?"
Now my lips form a sly smile. "Oh, you are dead clever, Ashley. I think you're right. Those lines represent rapids." I flip the map over to the cartographic side. "Look at the lines. They start with one squiggle, then it becomes two, and finally three. Those notations appear in the same order every time. Let's see if we can connect the lines to specific rapids."
She glances around as if she's looking for something.
"What is it?" I ask.
Ashley cranes her neck again. "Where's Munro?"
"He went down the river, remember? I saw him sitting on a boulder a few yards from the shore."
She stands up. "Let's go get him."
I chuckle, rising too. "We don't need to go anywhere."
"But how—"
"Munro!" I shout so loudly that it echoes off the canyon walls and Ashley winces. "Get your erse back here now! Munro!"
She claps her hands over her ears.
I peel them away. "I'm done, lass. You don't need earplugs."
