reasonable. Oh my, it was sailor's mischief to be living on that
ledge, and dropping nothing but notes from his greasy flute. These are
sweet but they are hard to be turning into language.

Now one morning, when I saw him coming from the ledge with his bag of
specimens over his shoulder, I saw without speaking to him that he was
parching with his thirst for gold. He was going away into the bush,
thinking no more of his new wife. Oh, he was a casual man.

"How is this?" I said. "Can she be left alone on the ledge?"

"Can she not?" said Rainbow Pete. "Old fellow, this is a substantial
woman. She was alone before I came."

"This is not the same thing," I said.

"It is the same woman," said Rainbow Pete, "she will be missing nothing
but the flute."

Oh my, wasn't the flute a little thing to reckon with. He went North,
dreaming of gold, and here the matter they were thinking about was
locked in his heart. They were angry with the man on Mushrat. This was
not what they were looking for between friends. They were hoping to
learn the result of the experiment; but this was vain.

When he was gone, I saw her looking down into the valley, where the
first shots were being fired in the rock. Ay, the sun was dazzling her
eyes, but she dis not move, sitting as if her arms have been chopped
from the shoulders.

Now it was not many days after this that the blasting was begun on
Mushrat. Men came with instruments stamped by the government; these they
pointed down the trail and drove stakes into the ground. These were
great days on Mushrat. Oh yes, numbers of Swedes and Italians were in a
desperate way monkeying with powder. It's a fetching business. In a
week, look here, Scarecrow Charlie left his eating-place to go monkeying
with powder like the others, and disn't he get a bolt of iron through
his brain one morning? Oh, it's very much as if some one had pushed a
broom-handle through his skull.

That dark woman from Regina was not dismayed. She ran the eating-place
herself. This was a famous place: they heard of this as far West as
Regina and they came here to work and eat, attracted by her. She was
valuable to the contractors, bringing labor here. Disn't it seem an
achievement for a married woman? Still, Rainbow Pete was not remembered
after a time; and she was a dark beauty, with a reputation for not
saying much.

My, my, these were golden days for Smash McGregor. I ponder over them,
thinking what a business he had. He was