A few moments later Robert and Louis heard the roar of an outboard motor.

"There they go!" Louis said.  "I was hoping we could stop them, but at least we're home free.  They aren't going to do anything to us unless they come back."

Robert grinned.  "We don't have to worry about them coming back," he said.

"You can talk that way if you want to, but I won't relax until the RCMP have those guys in jail."

"Just hang in there, Louis."

"Don't tell me you're not scared of them!  They're big guys and as mean as they are big."

"Wait a minute before you get so upset," Robert continued.

They listened to the roar of the outboard pushing the get-away boat across the lake.

"Why doesn't the RCMP hurry?" Louis demanded, uneasily.

Robert did not answer him.  Three or four minutes later, they heard the boat's motor sputter and die.

"Now what?"

"They're out of gas."

Louis eyed his older brother skeptically.  "How do you know so much about it?  Answer me that?"

"I sort of made sure they wouldn't have fuel enough to get away.  Their gas tank is in the bush and ours is in their boat."

A few minutes later they heard another motor approaching.  It stopped momentarily, then continued to come toward the boys.

"That has to be Dad and Corporal Starr," Robert said, starting toward the lake.

Louis swallowed hard.  "I don't know whether I want to see Corporal Starr or not.  He thinks I stole that diamond ring.  Will I be put in jail?"

"They'll be here in a minute."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

Nevertheless, both boys went down to the lake to wait for their dad and the RCMP officer.  They were towing the other boat with two older boys in it.

"Now," the Corporal said.  "We're going to get to the bottom of this."

"We don't know a thing about what's been going on over here," the guy in the sweater lied.  "We were fishing and started home when we ran out of gas." He pointed to Robert and Louis.  "They must have stolen our gas tank.  We had plenty when we left our friend's."

"Your tank's there in the bush," Robert told him.  "We traded tanks with you so you wouldn't manage to get away before Dad and the Corporal got here."

"We didn't have anything to do with taking that diamond ring!" one of them exclaimed.  "Louis stole it!"

"Nobody said anything about a diamond ring," the officer told him.  "How did you happen to hear about it?"

"It's all over the village," he muttered.

"As long as we're here," Corporal Starr said, "we'll have a look." He turned to Louis.  "Have you got any idea where to start?'

Young Yazzie nodded.  "It's in that birch tree." He pointed to the large, distinctive tree some distance away.

"See!  He knew exactly where the diamond ring is.  I told you he stole it."

Louis glanced quickly at the officer, trying to see if he believed that story.

"It's up in a magpie's nest," the one wearing the sweater continued.  "He hid it there."

"And how did you know that?"

"I-I-they were talking about it and we heard Louis tell his brother where he'd put it.  He hid it there because he wanted it to look like the magpie took it.  They like shiny things, you know."

"Let's go up and look at the tree," the officer said.

Robert pointed the tree and the nest out to the corporal and his dad.

"Robert," Frank said.  "Would you climb up and see if it's there?"

It only took a moment or two for him to climb the tree to the nest.  The magpie set off a continuous cry of rage, swooping close to Robert's head.  The attacks were even more furious when he got high enough to reach into the nest.  It took him a few moments to find the ring with the diamond.  He dropped it and the cigarette box down to the officer.

"Is there anything else in the nest that shouldn't be there?" he asked.

Robert felt around the nest again.  "That's it."

"Very interesting," Starr said.  "Very interesting, indeed." He placed the ring in a plastic bag and placed it in the fanny pack he wore around his middle.  A moment later he turned to the boys who had run out of gas.  "You two have some tall explaining to do.  And while you're thinking about what you're going to tell me you'd better think seriously about telling the truth.  The diamond ring isn't large enough for fingerprints, but the cigarette box should produce some very good prints.

"And, as far as I'm concerned, I'm convinced that we've got the right guys.  This cigarette box should prove that."

"It was our cigarette box," one of them said.  "But we did not put it in the nest.  Louis must have done that when he stashed the diamond ring there."

Corporal Starr read them their rights, arrested them, and took them back to the lodge where his patrol car was parked.  They put the tank from the bush on the motor and Louis drove it across the lake.

Tawana and her mother saw the boats coming back across the lake and drove to the lodge, arriving a few moments before they docked.

"They're both safe!" Rita exclaimed, tears filling her eyes.

Tawana was staring at the prisoners.  "Say something!" she said softly to the thieves.

"I don't have to talk to you if I don't want to!"

The color faded from her cheeks.  "That's him!" she whispered.  "He was the one who grabbed me first!"

"You can't prove that!" he snarled.

"I'll never forget that voice!"

"I tell you I didn't have anything to do with trying to attack her!"

"We can see about that," Starr said.  "I have your voice recorded on the answering machine.  You said you almost got her once, and the next time you would.  We can analyze your voice and see whether you made the call."

"And there's that sweater!" she continued.  "And the ski mask that matches it."

"You don't have any ski mask!" he blurted.

"We've got the piece Louis tore off of it," Frank broke in, ..and I'm sure we'll find enough other evidence to prove that you're guilty."

"I'm sorry for you," Tawana said.  "I just want you to know that I'll be praying for you."

He glared at her and spit at her feet.  "You can prove it by letting me go."

"You need to be punished," she said, "so you won't try that again, and so what you did won't make other guys get the same idea, but I want you to know that I don't hate you."

The hate fled from his eyes and his manner softened.  "You won't have to worry about me any more," he said.

"I hope that applies to all the girls on the reserve."

"I don't see how you could keep from hating me," he continued.

"I couldn't," she replied honestly, "without God's help."

Back in the trailer late that afternoon, Rita sat down with Frank and the kids.

"I know you're wondering what I decided," she began.  "About being a Christian, I mean."

They waited for her to continue.

Evelyn and her husband made it plain to me that it was not something I should rush into." She paused, breathing heavily.  "When I first went over there I wanted to pray to become a Christian, but she talked me into waiting.  She told me it wouldn't do me any good, and it would only hurt you by making you believe I'd really made a decision for Christ, when I wasn't sure I wanted to. . . ."

"That's right.  If a person is in a tough spot it's easy to think, 'I'll become a Christian, when he hasn't counted the cost," Frank said.  "Don't let anybody tell you that it's easy to walk with Christ.  If you've been drinking, using drugs or having sex, becoming a Christian won't remove the temptation.  He will help you, but you must mean business with Him. . . ."

"I've been doing all those things," Rita confessed.  "Not only that, I've stolen and lied and done almost everything I shouldn't have done.

"I didn't want to take a stand for Christ and find out in a few days that I really wasn't ready."

Frank's gaze met hers.  "Well?" he asked.

"I came to tell you that I've made my decision to become a Christian.  I know it's going to be hard to kick some of my habits.  I know it's going to be terribly hard, but I don't want to live the way I have been.  I want what you've got, Frank.  What you and the kids have."

He put his arms around her, tenderly.