a
single runner, then shot Harrington into the snow. Savoy was by like a
flash. Harrington pulled to his feet and watched him skimming across the
river to the Gold Recorder's. He could not help hearing what was said.

"Ah, him do vaire well," Joy Molineau was explaining to the lieutenant.
"Him--what you call--set the pace. Yes, him set the pace vaire well."

AT THE RAINBOW'S END

I

It was for two reasons that Montana Kid discarded his "chaps" and Mexican
spurs, and shook the dust of the Idaho ranges from his feet. In the
first place, the encroachments of a steady, sober, and sternly moral
civilization had destroyed the primeval status of the western cattle
ranges, and refined society turned the cold eye of disfavor upon him and
his ilk. In the second place, in one of its cyclopean moments the race
had arisen and shoved back its frontier several thousand miles. Thus,
with unconscious foresight, did mature society make room for its
adolescent members. True, the new territory was mostly barren; but its
several hundred thousand square miles of frigidity at least gave
breathing space to those who else would have suffocated at home.

Montana Kid was such a one. Heading for the sea-coast, with a haste
several sheriff's posses might possibly have explained, and with more
nerve than coin of the realm, he succeeded in shipping from a Puget Sound
port, and managed to survive the contingent miseries of steerage
sea-sickness and steerage grub. He was rather sallow and drawn, but
still his own indomitable self, when he landed on the Dyea beach one day
in the spring of the year. Between the cost of dogs, grub, and outfits,
and the customs exactions of the two clashing governments, it speedily
penetrated to his understanding that the Northland was anything save a
poor man's Mecca. So he cast about him in search of quick harvests.
Between the beach and the passes were scattered many thousands of
passionate pilgrims. These pilgrims Montana Kid proceeded to farm. At
first he dealt faro in a pine-board gambling shack; but disagreeable
necessity forced him to drop a sudden period into a man's life, and to
move on up trail. Then he effected a corner in horseshoe nails, and they
circulated at par with legal tender, four to the dollar, till an
unexpected consignment of a hundred barrels or so broke the market and
forced him to disgorge his stock at a loss. After that he located at
Sheep Camp, organized the profe