Before they could move, they heard Louis and Mrs. McDonald walking noisily through the bush toward their boat.  "We spend half a day following Yazzie and that dumb woman around the lake waiting for a chance to strand them out here so we can break into the McDonald suite at the lodge.  Now we fool around so long they're coming back and you ruin it!  I don't know why I ever teamed up with you!"

"Just what is that stupid plan of yours?"

"Old man McDonald is a fishing nut.  According to my sister who works at the lodge, he told his wife not to expect him until late tonight.  He's going to try some night fishing."

"So? ..

"You've messed it up now, but if you hadn't fooled

around so long, we'd have cut the gas line or done something else to knock out the motor, so we'd have had time to break into their suite.  That McDonald guy is rich!  We could've made a big haul!  Now you've ruined it."

"I've got a better idea!"

"I'll believe that when I hear it!  You'll mess around and get us caught."

"You can bail out any time you want to.  But I can tell you now.  If you do, you'll be sorry."

Louis and Mrs. McDonald left the place where he found the magpie nest and headed straight for the shore.  On the way back to their boat Verda McDonald looked at her watch.  "I don't know about you, Louis," she said, "but I've had enough for today.  All I want now is to get back to our suite, take a long shower and have a nap before dinner this evening."

The idea of a shower would be all right, Louis told himself, but he wasn't too interested in taking a nap.  Still, that would be better than having to spend the rest of the day with Verda McDonald.

They came out to the lake in the little inlet where the guys who were following them had beached their boat.  He saw that it was still pulled up on shore.  That didn't look good to him.  They would be lucky to get out of there without trouble.

"Are you ready, Mrs. McDonald?" he called uneasily.

"Just one more picture."

"We'd better hurry," he called to her.  "There's a big cloud in the West and the wind's coming up."

"I'll hurry as fast as I can," she exclaimed.  "But I'm not going to miss a picture like this because of a cloud and a little wind."

While he waited he took off his shoes and socks and rolled up his jeans.  As soon as she came and got into the boat, he pulled it out to deeper water.  Then he got in, poled it another fifty feet and started the engine, swinging the bow toward the lodge.

"This is the best day we've had, Louis," Verda exclaimed.  "I can hardly wait to get back to the lodge so I can show Angus the pictures of that magpie nest."

From behind a large clump of brush on shore the two older boys watched as Louis started the engine, and roared toward the lodge.

"Now," the larger one exclaimed.  "What's all this talk about?"

His companion grinned broadly as he pulled a small brown coin purse from his pocket and held it up.

"This is what all the talk is about!" He opened it and let

a couple of twonies and a looney, drop into his friend's hand.

"Five bucks!  What's so exciting about that?"

"Five bucks isn't so much, but how about this?" He dropped a beautifully carved diamond and its platinum ring into his outstretched hand.

"Wow!  Where'd you get that?"

"This is what that Yazzie kid was asking about.  It's the diamond that was so loose in the ring she was afraid she'd lose it, so she took the ring off."

His friend laughed.  "And now she has."

"Has what?"

"Lost it."

There was a brief silence.  "She's going to miss that stone when she gets back to the lodge.  What're we going to do if she or the kid recognized our boat and sends Starr around to talk to us."

"We're not giving it back, that's for sure."

"I don't dare have it at my house.  I'm a two time loser.  They'll be on my tail like ugly on a pig."

His companion stood and stared across the lake.  "Everyone knows you and I are pals.  I don't dare have it at my house, either.  If they get a search warrant, It'll be for both places."

"We've got to stash it somewhere, but how do we find a safe place?"

There was another brief silence.  "This is the safest place to leave it, but it's got to be hidden well."

His companion pulled a cigarette box from his pocket, dumped the contents in his hand and transferred them to his pocket.

"Now, what are you going to do?"

For answer he put the coin purse with its valuable contents into the cigarette box and went over to the lake shore.  "Help me lift this rock."

He pointed to a large stone in the sand near the grass line.  Together they lifted it high enough to put the cigarette box under it and carefully lowered the stone into exactly the same place.

Louis saw the clouds in the west and felt the cold kiss of the wind on his cheeks as he opened the throttle and the boat lifted, fighting the waves.  They gathered speed as the prop lifted the stern and the bow fell into the trough behind the wave.  It burrowed deep into the icy water as the next breaker surged toward the craft.

Verda McDonald gripped the seat with both hands.  The color faded from her cheeks and her eyes were wide and staring.

"Do you have to go so fast, Louis?" she demanded.

"I thought you were anxious to get home."

"Not that anxious."

He cut the throttle and allowed the boat to ride each successive breaker.  For several minutes she remained silent, staring out over the deep-throated breakers.  Her lips, that had been white a moment before, turned blue and she tightened her grip on the seat.

"Do you have to go so slow?" she asked.

He tried to keep from smiling, but she caught him.

"This is no laughing matter!" his companion retorted.

He managed to control the look on his face.  She was about to say something when she stopped, straightened suddenly and started feeling in her pockets.

"It's gone!" she gasped.

"What's gone?"

"The coin purse!"

At first he didn't catch the full meaning of her words.

"What's gone?"

"My coin purse, of course!" She felt in all of her pockets.  "I don't know what happened.  I must have lost it back there where we stopped.' She paused.  "Angus will kill me!  When he finds out that diamond is gone, he'll kill me!"

He glanced at the clouds and the towering waves that were increasing steadily as the wind came up.

"Do you want to go back and look for it?"

"Go back?" she echoed.  "In this?  I'd rather die!"

"The worst that could happen is that we'd have to stay there over night.  But we've got the radio along and a big tarp.  Staying all night wouldn't be so bad, if it came to that."

"There's hardly anyone on the lake," she said after a moment or two.  "Nobody else will be stopping where I lost it. We can come back the first thing in the morning.  Nobody else is going to be over there in a few hours."

"What about that other boat?"

"They were fishing.  They wouldn't even be on shore."

"It'll only take us an hour or so to go back and look for it."

She shook her head.  "That would mean going through all those waves again!  I'd rather lose the ring than die out here!"

He kept going, angling into the waves.

"What are we going to do with that diamond?" the younger one asked.  "Keep it until they offer a reward?"

"I've got a better idea than that."

"I've been thinking we could keep it, but how could we get rid of it, if we do that?"

"There are ways."

"Like what?"

"I know of a couple of places in Saskatoon and Regina that buy stuff.  We could take it to one of them."

"I don't like that.  What if they ask where we got it?  They'd likely call the police and we'd be in big trouble."

"I've sold things to them before.  They don't ask anything about where you got what you're selling."

"That diamond must be worth a lot of money.  That McDonald guy will have the cops checking everywhere."

"We could take it to Calgary or Edmonton, or even Vancouver."

"That suits me better.  I don't like taking it so close.  There's too much chance of trouble."

They thought for a time.

"The first thing we've got to do is to lay low until McDonald and his wife go back to wherever it is they came from.  Then we can get the coin purse and head out."

"Sounds good."

"If only there wasn't that other trouble on the reserve.  I told you we shouldn't have tried that."

"It's over and done with and nobody knows we had anything to do with it.  Sterling isn't going to catch us and, so far the RCMP aren't looking into it."

"I still lie awake nights thinking about what could happen to us if they find out.  We should've hi-tailed it out of here when we had the chance."

"If we'd done that, they'd really be on our tail.  We did the smart thing.  Just keep your mouth shut and quit worrying.  Nobody's looked at either of us twice.  They haven't a clue!  "

"I hope you're right!"