Murder in the Devil's Cauldron (10 page)

"I know all kinds of things," Charlie hinted.
"When I get back, I'll show you around."

"Where are you going?" Starr was crushed. She
had finally met someone interesting who looked like she was the
same age and she was already leaving.

"To the rez to visit family," Charlie said.
"There's a big pow-wow and everyone's coming. It's a lot of
fun."

"When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow. So I'm glad we had a chance to
meet first."

That sounded like fun, but Starr was still
sorry Charlie was leaving so soon. There were so many questions she
wanted to ask. "So while you're gone, where should I explore
first?" Starr asked. Might as well get some good pointers while she
had the chance.

"Well, the closest is the Enchantment River
State Park," Charlie said slowly. "That's just two miles up the
road, but you can get there if you follow the walkway along the
lake. That's pretty cool. Check out Ruby Cove, too. There's a great
bookstore there and a bunch of other stuff."

"How far is Ruby Cove?"

"From here?" Charlie scrunched up her face as
she thought about it. "Four, five miles? The cool thing, though, is
that you can get there on the Superior Hiking Trail, so it's
easy."

Starr was beginning to realize how much she
didn't know. It was a good thing she had run into Charlie tonight.
She seemed to know everything. "What's the Superior Hiking
Trail?"

"It's a hiking trail that goes along the
North Shore of Lake Superior all the way from Duluth to the
Canadian border," Charlie said. "You can pick it up just across the
highway. It goes right into town, so it's real easy. You can get a
map at the desk in the Lodge or just ask. I'd go with you if we
weren't leaving really really early."

"I'll find it," Starr reassured her. "Now
that I know about it."

"There's a lot more, too," Charlie added.
"Smugglers caves, shipwrecks and all kinds of cool things. I'll
tell you all about that when we get back."

Starr grinned. Charlie was the most
interesting person she had ever met. It was going to be fun living
here. "When will you be back?" she asked, already counting the
days.

"A couple of weeks," she said breezily. "I'll
swing by when we get back."

"I'll bet you already know where we live,
too."

"The cabin with the blue dreamcatcher,"
Charlie said matter-of-factly.

Starr laughed with delight.

It took Starr three days to discover the
Devil's Cauldron.

For the first two days, still on her best
behavior and keeping her mother's admonition to be on time for
dinner in mind, Starr stayed close to the Lodge, exploring the
grounds and cliffs. She was anxious to check out all the places
Charlie had told her about, especially the Enchantment River State
Park. But she also didn't want to take any chances, even though her
mother seemed to be relaxing a little now that she had a good job.
Starr knew she was still on probation and didn't want to do
anything to make her mother send her away again.

On the third day, though, she couldn't stand
it any longer and decided to make the hike to the state park. It
was only two miles away and she knew that if she left right after
breakfast, she'd have plenty of time. She also knew that when
Charlie got back, her new friend would have all kinds of questions
about what Starr had done while she was gone. Starr had a feeling
Charlie would be disappointed if Starr hadn't at least gone to
look
at some of the places Charlie had told her about. To be
safe, though, she left her camera in its hiding place. She didn't
want to get sidetracked with taking pictures and be late getting
back.

Following Charlie's advice, Starr went to the
front desk at the Lodge and picked up a map of the area that showed
all kinds of detail, including the walkway that ran along the edge
of the lake. So she knew exactly where to go and how to get there.
The adventure was discovering what was on the other end.

She left right after breakfast. Even though
it was early, she could tell it was going to be a gorgeous day. The
sky was clear, it wasn't humid and, because she was near the lake,
it wasn’t too hot or buggy. Since she wasn't bringing her camera
this time, she had stuffed a notebook in her jacket pocket so she
could make notes on the things she wanted to go back and shoot
later. Most of it she'd probably remember, but there were times
when it was handy or when she was trying to remember some place
that was good, but not in her top ten. Of course, the way things
were up here, she'd probably find so many things to shoot that her
notebook would be filled by the end of the day.

Starr followed the walkway through a small
grove of trees, down along a tiny rock-strewn bay and then back up
to the cliffs. The rest of the way was clear. While there were pine
trees and birch along the way, the land curved out into the lake
and Starr could see a huge angular building off in the distance. It
was on the edge of the cliff and looked as if it was about to sail
off into the lake. It sparkled in the sun and Starr wondered if it
was a lighthouse of some sort.

She checked the map, but saw that the Split
Rock Lighthouse was at the southern end of the walkway, which was
the other way. There was no lighthouse at Storm Point and there was
nothing on the map to indicate what it was. Of course, she'd be
there in a little while. Her sense of adventure rising, Starr
stuffed the map into in her backpack and continued.

Although she kept the building at the far end
in sight, she was really looking at the lake, the cliffs, the rocks
and all the other sights and sounds on the way. She saw several
stands of birch trees and the way they were lit. It wouldn't be any
good shooting them this time of day, but she'd be willing to bet
they'd be great early in the morning. She'd have to bring her
tripod and get set up before the sun came up, but it would be worth
it. She made a note and then continued on.

By the time she reached the end of the
walkway, she had several pages of notes, but was glad she hadn't
brought her camera this time. The light was no good for shooting
and the weight would've gotten to her by now, especially if she
wasn't getting any images.

She turned and looked back to see what Storm
Point looked like from here. The coastline curved, so it looked as
if the cliffs were shrinking into a long drawn-out crescent. If she
hadn't stood on the edge of those cliffs and known how big they
really were, she would have thought they were only as tall as she
was.

She turned back and gazed at the sparkly
building that had acted as a beacon most of the way, only then
seeing the sign that said it was the Enchantment River State Park
Visitor Center. Now that she was there, she realized it wasn't as
big as she originally thought, but because it was on the edge of a
rocky cliff with nothing else around, it dominated the landscape.
Especially because of the roof, which started fairly low, but then
angled up to a sharp point several stories up. The walls looked
like mirrors and merged with the lake and sky. Because the day was
so clear and the lake so calm, the reflection shone so brightly it
hurt to look directly at it. Seagulls screeched and swooped on the
edge of the cliff and she could see their reflections at the same
time, making it look as if the building wasn't really there.

Starr crossed the parking area, opened the
door to the Visitor Center, took two steps inside and stopped dead
in her tracks.

Inside, the center was shaped like a triangle
and while the back near the parking area was solid, the other two
sides were made entirely of glass that met in a sharp edge pointed
right at the lake. The ceiling soared above her and, because
everything she could see from there was made of glass, it looked as
if she was sailing right out onto the lake.

Starr had never seen anything so fantastic
and she stared, entranced, until several people coming in behind
her banged right into her, knocking her out of her trance. She
looked around to get her bearings, then made her way over to the
rack of brochures and maps.

Some of the fliers on the rack were for
things in Duluth or other distance places. But some had information
about Ruby Cove and Grand Marais. While Grand Marais was a ways up,
it wasn't nearly as far as Duluth. Maybe if she could get a bike,
she could go that far, so she picked up everything she saw that
looked remotely interesting. The Lodge probably had some of the
same stuff, but her mother might get upset if she took any of it
from there since it was for the guests. But Starr figured she
couldn't get mad if she got the brochures from the Visitors'
Center. Besides, a little voice piped up from somewhere at the back
of her mind,
she doesn't have to know about this stuff. You
don't have to show her everything
.

Starr thought about that for a long moment.
Her mother was likely to assume the worst if she saw the fliers, so
it might be smart to keep them out of sight and avoid even the
possibility of an upset.

At the far end of the rack, Starr found a map
of the Enchantment River State Park. It folded out large, so it was
easy to see where all the trails were. The Enchantment River ran
right through the center and now Starr could see how big the park
was. She could hike all the way from Lake Superior over the top of
the Sawtooth Mountains and still be in the park. All kinds of dots
and triangles showed points of interest and she carried the map
over to a bench near the windows to get a better idea of where she
wanted to start.

Starr could tell immediately that it would
take a long time to explore the entire park, so she decided to just
check out one or two interesting places this time. From the look of
the map, there were plenty of things to explore near the Visitor
Center. The hard part would be settling on which one.

As she looked at the map, the words "Devil's
Cauldron" jumped out at her. Now that sounded interesting. And it
didn't look that far away. Starr thought it sounded like the
perfect place to start. She folded the map carefully and put it in
her backpack.

While the Visitor Center was right on the
lake, the bulk of the park was inland. A narrow shelf of land ran
along the lake, allowing Highway 61 to run all the way from Duluth
to the Canadian border. But the land rose immediately and
precipitously on the inland side of the road. While not mountains
in the sense of the Sierras, they went pretty high up as far as
Minnesota was concerned. As a result, after the rivers cleared the
crest of the hill, coming down they were more like long waterfalls
or chutes than actual rivers.

Starr came out of the Visitor Center and
followed the signs that took her under the highway to the man part
of the park. It was kind of creepy walking under the highway and
hearing all the cars and trucks driving right over her head and
Starr found herself walking faster and faster until she came out on
the other side. There was a small parking area there and a sign
pointing to the main trail just off to the right.

Starr followed the trail around a couple of
boulders that were so big they were like small mountains and then
the trail widened as it headed up the hill. It was a lot steeper
than she had expected and she realized that growing up in
Minneapolis hadn't even remotely prepared her for this kind of
terrain. It didn't even feel like the same state. Best of all, she
saw something interesting or different everywhere she looked.

On one side of the trail, the mountain was
covered with all kinds of trees. She saw pine and birch and she was
pretty sure some of them were aspen. But others were completely
unfamiliar, along with all kinds of plants and bushes she had never
seen before.

On the left side of the trail, the
Enchantment River plunged down through the rocks, sending up bursts
of spray every time it twisted so that the rocks on that side were
wet. Over the eons it had cut a deep gash in the earth and a rocky
cliff rose straight up to loom over the river. Right now the river
was staying in the chute, but Starr could tell that it ran over the
sides sometimes because there was a wide treeless expanse between
the river and the trail.

To the right of the trail, Starr saw flat
areas with benches so people could stop and look or just take a
breather. Narrow paths branched off into the woods where intrepid
explorers had left the main trail.

After about twenty minutes of climbing, the
land leveled out into a short plateau and there Starr saw the sign
for the Devil's Cauldron.

What she liked about the signs in the park
(at least the ones she'd seen so far), was that they not only told
you where things were, they had pictures and explained what she was
looking at. The sign for the Devil's Cauldron explained how the
river branched into two separate streams. One branch continued down
the mountain and into the lake. The other vanished into a deep
round caldera. What was really cool, Starr read next, was that no
one knew where it went or where it came out. Which was why it was
called the Devil's Cauldron.

Now
that
was definitely worth seeing,
she thought as she left the trail and walked out onto the rocks
towards the river. As she got closer, the sound of the river grew
louder and she could see bursts of spray as the water hit the
twisty sides of the chute as it plummeted down the mountain. Starr
got as close as she dared. The rocks this close to the river were
damp from the spray and she didn't want to fall in. At least not on
her first visit.

As she peered over the side, she saw that the
Devil's cauldron was big and round and the inside had been scoured
smooth. There was a big pool of water at the bottom and a place
where the water rushed into a small crevice and vanished.