"What do you suppose those guys were looking for?"

Louis asked when they were alone in their room.

Robert shook his head. "And why would they break in without taking anything? That doesn't make sense."

It was hard for the boys to get to sleep that night. Every time they closed their eyes they could see their bedroom with the dresser drawers emptied on the floor.

Louis was the last to get to sleep. He got up several times and went to the window to see if someone might be sneaking through the trees to raid the trailer again. On one occasion he heard footsteps so plainly he was sure they were out there.

He was about to call out to his dad when a bear came into the clearing and stopped. A few moments later a pair of cubs appeared, running first to one side and then the other.

At last he drifted off to sleep, but at the first sound of footsteps the next morning he realized it was just his dad getting up to go to work.

Robert also heard him and got up and dressed.

"Do we dare leave the trailer today after what happened yesterday?" Robert asked as they sat at the breakfast table.

"You promised the McDonalds that you'd take them out on the lake today, didn't you?"

"Sure," Louis said. "But that was before the trailer was broken into."

"Then I think you'd better go.  They'll be counting on you."

"But, what if those guys come back while we're gone?"

..We'll lock the place and I'll call Starr and tell him we won't be here today. He'll probably check on the trailer a time or two."

Frank and the boys left the house at the usual time. He went to the mine office to work and they headed for the lodge.

"I'd feel a lot better if we hadn't been broken into yesterday," Louis said, glancing over his shoulder uneasily.

"Me, too. I thought Dad would have wanted us to stay home."

"Maybe he's afraid something might happen to us if we were there and those thieves came back."

"They just broke into the place," Robert retorted scornfully. "They weren't out to do anything to us. If they had, they'd have waited until we got home."

Louis glanced over his shoulder. "Maybe they thought we were home. Did you ever think of that?"

Robert and Louis hurried to the lodge, but there was no need for them to rush.  The McDonalds were still having breakfast when they arrived. They went down to the dock, filled their gas tanks, and waited for their passengers.

"I'm so glad you're on time, Louis," Verda McDonald gushed. "I told Angus that we had to get around early today. I have such a responsibility to my flower club. There are times when I think I should resign. And I would, but the girls would be devastated."

She lowered her voice as though she was afraid she would be overheard. "They count on me for coming up with unusual programs. When it's my turn to entertain, the ladies all ask each other what I'll think of next."

Verda paused and glanced at the line that still tied them to the dock. "Shouldn't we be going?" she asked. "I have so many flowers to photograph-"

Louis untied the bow rope, started the motor and edged the boat out into the bay.

"I've been checking my flower book," she said. "I'm trying to get pictures of every flower that grows here in the North."

He groaned inwardly. That meant he would be trying to get the boat ashore wherever she thought she had a chance to find a certain kind of flower. He would be wading in cold water while he pushed and pulled the heavy boat over sand and rocks in an effort to get her ashore so she could roam around looking for flowers she had never seen before.

The first two places she asked him to put her ashore were spots they had stopped at before. There were some buds with fancy names that weren't in bloom when they stopped earlier. Now she was certain she would be more fortunate.

"And I'm so excited!" she exclaimed as the sweat beaded his forehead and rolled down his nose and over his eyebrows into his eyes. "I like to think that I may be one of the first ever to see that tiny flower in the wild. If they are in bloom and my pictures turn out I may send them to one of the societies of flower lovers.

"If it's something that isn't registered, they just might name it after me. Imagine that!  I'd call it the Verda McDonald Muskeg Rose.  Or perhaps I might call it the Verda McDonald Rose. That wouldn't be calling too much attention to myself, would it?"

He didn't answer her. They had gone ashore several times to look for flowers without finding any when Louis saw a boat that appeared to be following them. It was a heavy fiberglass craft pushed by a powerful outboard. There were two guys in it.

"Have you noticed that boat that's following us, Mrs. McDonald?' he asked with growing uneasiness.

"Where?" She looked quickly about. "Oh, you mean that boat with the two gentlemen quite a ways back?"

He felt like asking her if there was any other boat in sight, and how she knew the guys in it were gentlemen, but he didn't.

'No," she continued, tension mounting in her voice. "I hadn't noticed them. What makes you think they're following us?"

They were the only boat in sight, for one thing, and they kept going the same direction they were going, for another.

"Do you think they are following us?" she asked.

"It seems strange that everywhere we go, they go, only they stay about the same distance behind us."

She sat down and leaned back to whisper to him. "There's another flower club back where we live and, if I do say so myself, they are very jealous of me. If we weren't so far from where Angus and I live, I would think they were spying on me. It would be just like them. You may not believe this, Louis, but I have been followed by them before. They will do anything to find out what I have planned for my next program." She took a deep breath. "Those two gentlemen don't appear to be the kind the First Flower Club of Forest Grove - that's the suburb we live in.  Forest Grove. They have done some strange things in the past, but I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt this time.  Only, keep an eye on them for me, Louis. You'll do that, won't you?"

He assured her that he would.

Another half mile down the lake she had him stop again. It was when she started to get out of the boat that he noticed her ring was gone.

"I see you've taken off your ring," he said. "Did you find someone to take it to the jeweler to get it fixed?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No, I didn't get a chance to. Mr. Holmes was going to Prince Albert this morning to get supplies and I was going to send it with him, but he left before we got up. So, I just keep it in this coin purse." She took a small brown leather purse from her jeans pocket and held it up. "I'm not taking a chance of losing the stone by wearing it."

Although Mrs. McDonald did not appear to be bothered by the presence of another boat in the area, Louis still found it disturbing, especially when he realized the other boat had passed them and disappeared into a small inlet a couple of hundred yards beyond them. It was a big lake and seeing other boats was not uncommon, yet he didn't like stopping in a place where they couldn't see all the shoreline for half a mile or so.

"Shouldn't we find some other place?" he asked her.

"I'm surprised at you, Louis? Are you upset because of that other fishing boat?"

"Our place was broken into, yesterday," he said.

"What could that possibly have to do with those fishermen?" she asked. "This is a free country. They have as much right to be here as we do. Besides, why should we let them chase us away? We stopped here first."

As they got out of the boat she was thrilled by the chattering of birds.

"What kind of birds are those?" she asked.

"They're just magpies. They're a nuisance, if you ask me."

She listened momentarily. "I'd like to get some pictures of them. I find them interesting and I'm sure the ladies in my flower club would find them interesting, too.  After all, flowers and birds sort of go together."

He shrugged as he tied the boat to the nearest tree.

"Can you find me a magpie nest?" she asked. "It would be wonderful if you could find one with a mama bird sitting on her eggs."

That sounded like a stupid idea. Finding a magpie nest wouldn't be too hard, but the eggs would have been hatched and the young would be feathered out and about ready to fly. Still, he guessed if she wanted pictures of a magpie nest, it was all right with him. It wasn't a whole lot different than taking all those flower pictures.

While Mrs. McDonald was taking pictures of some of the flowers she found, Louis went into the bush to see if he could find a magpie nest. A short distance away two guys in dark denim jeans and heavy cotton shirts crept back to where Louis and Verda McDonald had stopped. They hid in the bush watching them.

"Think we can get over there and cut the gas line?" the leader whispered to his companion. He was speaking softly, and the wind kept Louis and Verda McDonald from hearing them.

The other guy shook his head. "That kid's going to be back any time."

The leader nodded. "You know who he is, don't you?"

"I ought to. He lives on the same reserve."

"You're smaller than me. It'd be easier for you to get over there and back without being seen."

"Who wants to waste time cutting a gas line?"

"Why've we been following them if we don't cut it? Answer me that."

"Didn't you hear what that Yazzie kid asked her about having the ring fixed?"

"Yeah, I heard him. What about it?"

"She's got the ring in that coin purse in her pocket."

"A lot of good that's going to do us. Yazzie knows us both from the reserve. If he gets a look at us, we'd be in trouble.  He'd have the RCMP on us before we could spell CAT.  I was locked up in that "school" in Prince Albert for a spell. Remember?  Stealing that ring'd get us five to ten - if we're lucky. And if that McDonald has the clout I think he has, we might get ten to twenty." There was a brief silence.

"That ring'd solve all our problems."

While they were whispering to each other, Louis called to his companion. "Mrs.  McDonald!  I've found a magpie's nest."

"Louis, you're a jewel! I could kiss you!" With that she started toward him. He winced and drew away, putting as much distance between them as possible.

One of the men in the bush watching Verda McDonald and Louis go into a little clearing that had once held a trapper's cabin, grasped his companion by the arm. "Do you see what I see?"

"I see a lot of bush and a boat that we could cripple before they come back."55

"Don't be foolish!" He stood and started forward, stealthily.

"Now, what're you doing?"

For answer he crept forward to where Verda McDonald had been standing. A few moments later, he was back. "That was a stupid thing to do," his companion exclaimed.

"You'll change your mind when you know why! Come on! Let's get out of here!"

"I still think you're out of your mind."

"Shut up and get moving!"

*    *    *