Robert drove home on their four-wheeler while their mother was still in the trailer with their dad and Louis was sitting in her half-ton.

"People on the reserve are saying that the RCMP have proof you stole Mrs. McDonald's ring.  Was Starr here talking to you?"

Louis nodded.  "They'd had a phone call telling them her coin purse was hidden behind a dresser drawer in our room."

"Of course it wasn't."

"That's the trouble, Robert.  It was there, just like the guy on the phone said it was."

"Then he put it there!"

"That's what Dad told him, but I don't think Starr believed him.  Before he left, he made me promise that I wouldn't run away before they got to the bottom of things."

"What did Dad say?"

"He believed me."

Robert glanced at their mother's truck and then at the trailer.  "What's going on?" he asked.  "Is she in there?"

Louis nodded.  "Mom came home and when Dad showed up, she chased me out.  She said she had to talk to him alone."

"Do you think she's going to stay this time?"

Louis shrugged.  "She talked sort of funny.  She said she quit her job at the bar.  She kept telling me what a bad mother she was and how she didn't deserve any of us.  She was acting so strange, I wondered if she was drunk."

Robert turned and looked toward the house.  "She was when I was at the reserve," he said.  "I went over to talk to Jim Broucher.  He wasn't home but his wife, Evelyn, said they had a call from Tawana's aunt.  She's been so homesick, they are sending her back to Saskatoon by plane.  She'll be there next Wednesday.  The Brouchers have to go in to the city, so they'll pick her up."

"But they haven't found the guys who attacked her.  What're  we going to do?" Louis asked.

"I was thinking about that ski mask you tore during the fight, Louis.  Where did they say it came from?"

"Someone said that one of the big stores had a whole stack of them on sale, but the store at the reserve had some, too.  And so did that service station out on the main road.  They had them on a back counter near the cash register."

"Do you suppose anyone remembers who bought them."

"Maybe," Louis replied, but his voice revealed his own doubts about that.  "How come you started thinking about that ski mask all of a sudden?"

Robert shrugged.  "I don't know.  I just happened to remember something else and it made me think about the ski mask."

"That sounds strange to me."

"I just happened to remember that some of the guys had a sweater and ski mask made of the same color yarn last winter."

"What does that have to do with the guy who tried to attack Tawana?"

"I don't know  why I didn't think of it before, but I remember that they were made of the same yarn, that's all."

"It was dark that night.  Remember?"

"It wasn't so dark that I didn't get a close look at the arm of his sweater."

"You're sure of that?"

Louis was silent momentarily.  "Just forget it.  OK?"

"You're always dreaming about something," Robert told him.

The younger Yazzie boy said no more about it, but it still troubled him.  He didn't know what made him think of that sweater, but he did.  He picked up a stick and reached for his pocket knife.  His knife wasn't in his right hand pocket where he usually kept it, so he thrust a hand into his other pocket, but it wasn't there, either.

"What's the matter?" Robert asked.  "Did you lose something?"

"I thought I had my jackknife, but I don't."

"It's probably in our bedroom."

Louis nodded as he turned and started for the trailer, but his dad stopped him at the door.  "Your mother and I are talking, Louis," he said.  "Why don't you guys go down to the store and get some ice cream?" Frank handed his youngest son a five dollar bill.  "And don't forget to bring back the change."

He turned to his older brother.  "What do you suppose that's all about?" he asked.

Robert shrugged.  "I wish it meant something.  We've prayed often enough that Mom would come back home and stay home, but I wouldn't count on it."

They left the trailer and headed for the lodge.

"I don't know whether I want to go there or not," Louis said.  "By this time everyone around there will know that I'm the one who's supposed to have stolen Mrs. McDonald's diamond ring."

While they were talking, two boys passed them on their four-wheeler to a stretch of muskeg along the lake.  Once there, they got off and pushed it into the bush far enough so it couldn't be seen.

"You really think we ought to go back up there?"

His friend nodded.  "You see how the wind's come up.  It could wash that cigarette box out from under the rock.  And, if that happens, we're out of luck."

"What can we do about it?"

His companion shrugged.  "We've got to be careful.  You know Corporal Starr has been around asking a lot of questions ... Do you suppose he's onto us?"

"That doesn't mean a thing.  He doesn't know we even know anything about the ring."

"You hope."

"Quit worrying about it.  In a few days we'll get out of here and have more money than we've ever had in our lives!"

"I hope you're right!"

"Trust me!  I know what I'm doing!"

"I hope we don't do something that'll get us in the slammer!"

"I should've found another guy to pal around with.  You don't have the backbone for anything." He glanced up at the tree tops that were swaying violently.  "The wind's coming up. We've got something else to worry about."

"Like what?"

"What if the waves wash under that rock and carry the ring away?"

"Do you think it'll blow that hard?" he asked, skeptically.

"Who knows?  We'd better get that diamond ring to a safe place."

"Got any ideas?"

He frowned thoughtfully as a magpie scolded them noisily.  "You know the magpie that was nesting across the lake?"

"You mean the one that made all the noise when we first got there?"

"She had a nest nearby."

"What's that got to do with the ring?"

"I was just thinking about it.  Magpies pick up bright things, sometimes, and put them in their nests."

.,so?"

"Why don't we go back there and put that diamond ring in the nest.  The chances are that nobody's going to think about looking there for it.  But, if they should look in the nest and find it, we  won't be blamed.  They'll think the bird did it."

His friend grinned broadly.  "Know something?" he said.  "You're smart!  You're real smart!  I never would have thought of that."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you.  I know how to work things out."

There was a brief silence.

"So, what do we do now?"

"Go out and move that diamond."

They went over to where the dad of the oldest kept his boat, but it was gone.  He swore angrily.

"I forgot!  Dad's using the boat.  He's moving his nets today."

"How longs that going to take?"

He shrugged.  "Sometimes he's gone a few hours.  Other times he's gone all day."

"We'd better get out there soon.  That's all I can say."

"Maybe we can borrow a boat."

"No way.  That's just the sort of trail we don't want to leave."

His friend grinned crookedly.  "We could borrow a boat without anyone knowing about it."

"And if the guy misses it and calls the RCMP?  What then?"

"I know what we can do.  Remember old Oscar Duvall?  He's got a couple of boats."

"And he's as likely to start shooting at us as he is to talk."

"He's a friend of my dad's.  They drink together."

His companion thought about that.  "You mean he'd let us use his boat?"

"We'd have to pay him for it, but I can talk him down."

"How much will he charge?"

"How much money have you got?"

"A five, two twonies and a couple of loonies.  How about you?"

"I've got enough to make up the rest."

"Think you can get the boat today?"

His pal glanced up at the sun and scowled.  "It's late and the wind's still up.  Duvall's mighty particular about his boats.  They're old wrecks, but he acts as though they're the best in Saskatchewan.  We'd better wait."

"Fine.  Tomorrow morning if the wind's down, we go out.  OK?"

Frank Yazzie turned to his wife, Rita.  "How many times have you come back home, expecting the kids and I to take up with you as though you hadn't been gone?"

She stared at him, surprised by the tone of his voice.  "You always have."

"That's right.  I always have.  I've felt so guilty for the way I treated you and the kids when I was drinking that I figured I owed it to you, and that you really meant it when you said things were going to be different."

"But they are.  I'm going to stay home and take care of my family." She laid a hand on his arm.  "I mean it, Frank."

His voice was cold and expressionless.  "How many times have you told me that?  How many times have you told the kids that you weren't going to drink and chase around any more?  A week or two later, you've forgotten everything you promised and are chasing around again."

She dabbed at the tears in her eyes.  "This mess Louis is in has made me see that here is where I belong.  I'll stay home and take care of the house, or if you want me to work, I'll get a job somewhere to help pay the bills.  I just want to be with my family."

He was a long while answering her.  "Do you realize what sort of an example you have been to the kids?  It's hard enough for them to live Christian lives whether they're on the reserve or in Prince Albert or Saskatoon.  They don't need their mother being a bad example for them."

She started to cry again, harder than before.  "Give me another chance, Frank!  I'll be different!  Believe me!"

He turned away from her and was silent for a moment or two.

"You won't be sorry.  I promise!"

At last he turned back.  "Rita," he said.  "Do you really mean that?"

"Of course I do!  How many times are you going to ask me if I'm serious.  I've never wanted anything in my life more than I want to be back with you and the kids!  I'll become a Christian.  I'll do anything you ask."

"I sure don't know if you mean business when you say you want to be a Christian, and I don't think you know, either."

She remained silent.

"Will you go over and talk to Evelyn Broucher?"

Rita stared at him.  "Her?" she echoed.  "I just talked to her a little while ago!"

"I'd like to have you go back and talk to her again."

"I'm not going to do that.  She doesn't like me.  She never has."

"There's where you're wrong.  She just doesn't like the things you're doing, that's all."

She got to her feet.  "And what if I don't?" she demanded.

"Then we'll wait until you are ready.  OK?"

She pulled in a deep breath and expelled the air slowly.  "I guess it wouldn't hurt to go and talk to her."

"When you come back, we'll both go over and talk to her."

"You don't trust me at all, do you?"

"It isn't that I don't trust you.  I'm just tired of having you make promises to the kids and me that things are going to be different, only to have you run off with the next guy who comes along.  This time, we're going to be sure you mean what you're saying.  It's too hard on the kids.  It's too hard on me. And it doesn't help you to go through this time after time."

She was crying as she went out to her vehicle and drove away.