“You might say they are Indian beads,” the girl said. “I made them.”

“During your experience?”

Dr. Favor said, “Audra,” very low, meaning for her to keep quiet.

“I hope I didn’t remind you of something unpleasant,” Mrs. Favor said.

Braden, I noticed, was looking at the McLaren girl too. “What happened?” he said.

The McLaren girl did not answer right away, and Mrs. Favor leaned toward the girl. “If you don’t want to talk about it, I can understand.”

“I don’t mind,” the McLaren girl said.

Braden was still looking at her. He said again, “What happened?”

“I thought everybody knew,” the McLaren girl said.

“Well,” Braden said. “I guess I’ve been away.”

“She was taken by Apaches,” Mrs. Favor said. “With them, how long, a month?”

The McLaren girl nodded. “It seemed longer.”

“I can imagine,” Mrs. Favor said. “Did they treat you all right?”

“As well as you could expect, I guess.”

“I suppose they kept you with the women.”

“Well, we were on the move most of the time.”

“I mean when you camped.”

“No, not all the time.”

“Did they-bother you?”

“Well,” the McLaren girl said, “I guess the whole thing was kind of a bother, but I hadn’t thought of it that way. One of the women cut my hair off. I don’t know why. It’s just now starting to grow back.”

“I meant did they bother you?” Mrs. Favor said.

Braden was looking right at her. “You can talk plainer than that,” he said.

Mrs. Favor pretended she didn’t hear him. She kept her eyes on the McLaren girl and you could see what she was trying to get at. Finally she said, “You hear so many stories about what Indians do to white women.”

“They do the same thing to them they do to Indian women,” Braden said, and after that no one spoke for a minute. All the sounds, the rattling and the wind hissing by, were outside. Inside it was quiet.