“Come on out. I want to talk to you.”

Bob felt reluctant about it. Getting into the lake had been a lot of work, and it had been painful. But he stood, tried tiptoeing over the stones, and was aware that he looked silly and weak trying not to show the pain and chill. When he got to the shore, he stepped into his boots.

“Let’s walk,” said Wolf.

Carpenter went with him, clomping along the downward trail with his boots untied.

“You’re one of the stalwarts,” Wolf said. “One of the elders of the church. You and Charlotte have always been people the rest of us count on. The penalty for that is that when we’re in need, you get called on more often than most people.”

Bob Carpenter was dreading the next thing. Was Lee Wolf about to berate him for sleeping all day? “Is there a problem?”

“Right now we’re developing one. I hope it’s temporary. Not enough money has been coming in this summer. We have been doing some heavy building to improve things, and in the long run something like a new field of crops will help us be self-sufficient. But it costs money to buy tools, seed, fertilizer, water pipes, pumps, and so on.”

“Well, if it’s the money from the little work trip Dave Sherman and I just took, that money belongs to the community. I’ll bring it to you as soon as I get dressed.”

“Keep it for now, Bob. I think we may need to spend some on the plan we’re working on. You and I and two others—probably Dave Sherman and possibly Lonny Mann—will be going out to raise some real money.”

“How?”

“I haven’t wanted to do this, and I’ve resisted it for years, and I’ve been praying on it. But I think that, for once, we have to do it the direct way, just once, to get us through the next year. We’ve got to rob a bank.”

“When?”

Wolf threw his arms around Bob and patted his back, hard, then released him. “That’s what I mean about you. Some people might hem and haw or argue about it. You just say, ‘When?’” He paused. “I think the time to begin is right away—maybe a couple of days.”

“Where is there a bank we can rob?”

“I’m guessing Louisiana. We can make it look like we came and went from Texas, and come back here to Arkansas and lay low. But we’ll have to do some shopping to pick the right bank. We need to get started on it.”