sailorman than gunpowder in the valley.

"Look you here," said Rainbow Pete. "I am starving. I have not eaten in
two days. This is the curse falling on me for hunting gold."

Then they laughed, these mad rockmen, mocking him with their eyes. Their
eyes were twitching; there was powder in the corners of them.

"Are you not master of the eating-place?" they howled at him. "Look,
there it stands; is not your wife alone in it?"

"Oh my, oh my, he stood looking at them with a ghastly face. Disn't he
seem the casual man? It's as if he had forgotten that woman. He had no
memories at all.

"My wife," said the rainbow-man.

"Look," said Shoepack Sam--oh, he remembered treason well--"he is
forgetful that he has a wife on Mushrat."

This was so appearedly. There he stood in the blue star-shine, fingering
his flute to bring her back to mind. Now, I thought, he will be asking
what description of wife is this answering to my name on Mushrat? Oh,
man is careless in appointing himself among various women.

Now, my friend, Rainbow Pete, blew a note on his flute to settle the
thing clear in his mind. Oh, he was not too brisk in looking up at the
black ledge, with the candle in the window. Now he was taken by the
knees. This is not the convenient part of a marriage of convenience. No.
But Shoepack Sam was waving a hand to us to be telling the man nothing
of destiny at that moment.

"Come," he said, "the flute is nothing now. There must be more song than
this, by what is going on."

Here he took Rainbow by the elbow, telling him to come and eat at
Scarecrow Charlie's, for he will need his strength.

"I am in charge here for the day," said Shoepack.

"How is this?" said Rainbow, whispering.

They went laughing on all sides of him. Oh the demons, they were
cackling while he sat devouring a great moose joint, until he was close
to braining them with the yellow ball of the joint. He went eating like
a timber-wolf from Great Bear.

"This is the palm-tree man," they sang in his ear. "Oh, why is it he
grew no cocoanuts stumbling on that lost trail? Isn't it convenient for
the man he is married this night?"

Oh, they were full of mischief with him, remembering the secret face he
had for them in the days of his experiment.

"Drink this," said Shoepack Sam. There he put champagne in a glass
before him. Oh, they were careful of the man.

"Here, take my hand, and let me see if strength is coming back," said
Shoepack. "What is a r