paid by the contractors to be
sorting out arms and legs, putting the short ones together in one box,
and the long ones in another, marked with charcoal to be shipped. Oh,
they were just gathering up parts of mortals in packing cases,
dispatching them to Throat River Landing; and blood was leaking on the
decks every way in little lines. They were unlikely consignments.

Then, my friend, there came one night a dark man wearing a red cap and
here under his arm he had the instrument with strings. This was the
Chief Contractor under the Government in this region. He was rich; at
Winnipeg he had stabled many blood horses. Then they were clustering
about him at Scarecrow Charlie's, asking him his name. This, he said,
was Pal Yachy.

Oh my, now we knew him. This was the man who had given Pete his shape
of a rainbow. Disn't it seem an unfortunate thing for him to be coming
here? Still he did not know at first that this dark woman standing there
was the wife of Rainbow Pete.

He went flashing at her with his teeth, the dark musician. Ay, he was
better with the music than Rainbow Pete's old flute. He sang, plucking
this instrument, with a jolly face. Heh! Heh! She leaned over the bar,
looking at him, and dreaming of the prairies.

Then they told him that this woman was the wife of Rainbow Pete.

"Aha," he said, "but, my friends, a rainbow is not for very long. It is
beautiful, but look, it vanishes in air."

Was he afraid, without saying so? That I can not tell you. Still he
stayed on Mushrat. He was the destroyer of his countrymen. They blew
themselves to pieces in his service, coming in great numbers when he
crooked his finger.

Then my friend, he made himself noticeable to that dark woman. He took
his instrument to the ledge and sang to her.

This I know from Willis Countryman who lived near that place. He told me
that the man sang in the night a soft song and that the woman listened.
Ay, she listened in the window, looking down into the valley where
Throat River went roaring and the great Falls were like rags waving in
the dark. Ay, she sat watching the River come out of the North, where
Rainbow Pete was cruising after gold.

This Willis Countryman I'm telling you about was a fine man in his old
age for reading. Oh, it was not easy talking to the man, with his
muttering and muttering and his chin down firm intil the book. When he
had his shack on Mouse Island the fire jumped over from the wind-rows
they were burning