Ghost Canoe by Will Hobbs Page A

paddler, raced to Waadah Island and back. Dolla Bill had tried to enlist for each of the four Makah canoes, including Lighthouse George’s, and had been turned down by every one. “Don’t feel bad,” Nathan told him as the race began.
    â€œPoor Dolla Bill,” he said. “Poor Dolla Bill. Georgefeed me, but George don’t love me. Captain Bim, same, same.”
    Nathan knew that what Dolla Bill had said was true. But he wanted to console the outcast, even if he might be a thief. “I didn’t even try to join George’s canoe,” Nathan said. “We’re not as strong as those men—look at the size of their backs. George wants to win.”
    Dolla Bill’s face contorted with anger. “Strong as two men!” he declared.
    It occurred to Nathan that Dolla Bill should be acting differently in some way if he actually was in possession of a boxful of gold coins. If he really had all that money, wouldn’t it show?
    The outcast watched the entire race with keen attentiveness. Competition was fierce as the canoes neared the beach, and Dolla Bill took to jumping up and down like a frenzied dog on a short leash. It was a Makah canoe, though not George’s, that won by a mere prow’s length at the very last.
    An announcement was made by one of the Makah chiefs, and everyone went streaming toward the carved doorposts of the Potlatch House, the largest of the longhouses. Nathan’s mother, who was tired and heading home, suggested he go see what happened next, so he would be able to tell her all about it.
    More people crammed inside the Potlatch House than Nathan would have thought humanly possible. Inside, a feast was laid out, with Makah delicacies including kelp leaves upon which herring had laid their eggs, octopus stew, and fermented salmon eggs that had the consistency of cheese. People washed down their meat and fish—dried, smoked, roasted, andboiled—with quantities of eulachon oil. For himself, Nathan gorged on pilot bread, which he lathered with blackstrap molasses.
    When the people were done eating, everyone turned toward one end of the hall, where all manner of goods were arrayed beside Jefferson, who began to give them away to his guests: blankets, clothes, bentwood cedar boxes filled with eulachon oil and seal oil, baskets, cedar household implements, bows and arrows, harpoons, lengths of fishing and sealing line, halibut hooks, sealskins, bearskins, woven mats, carved totems, a barrel of raw sugar and one of molasses, plug tobacco…anything and everything.
    Nathan stayed awake through the first dances of the mythical figures in carved and painted masks, but he didn’t understand the stories the dances were telling, and he was no longer able to keep his eyelids apart. He was awakened much later by the excitement of the crowd. A man on the platform where the dancers had performed was twirling a musket around his body faster than the eye could see. Limber as a snake and all muscle, the man had shaved his head and painted his body a reddish yellow from the waist up. In the light of the longhouse torches, his body glowed as if on fire.
    To the amazement of the crowd, the performer began to juggle three long-bladed knives. The juggler’s eyes never followed the knives; they stared straight ahead all the while. Nathan recognized those eyes, and then the pockmarks showing from under the paint. It was Dolla Bill.
    Setting two of the knives aside, Dolla Bill appeared to swallow the third, then drew it back out of histhroat. His entire audience gasped in appreciation.
    The outcast had become the center of attention, glorying in it, and he was only getting started. Dolla Bill shattered a piece of glass, then ate it, after which he drew an endless stream of paper out of his mouth. He rolled a cannonball around his shoulders and along his arms, as if it weighed nothing. Returning to the stage, he ended the night by eating fire from one of the