's loyalty had been wavering, passive, and impersonal. Now his
personal sympathies were enlisted, for the path of self-vindication lay
through the triumph of the Rainbow.

Before the special had come to a standstill its animated cargo began to
disembark. Coatless men with woollen shirts belted to trousers, the
belts sagging with their heavy loads of guns and cartridges, every man
with a roll of blankets and many with carbines as well, testified to the
recognition of the fact that the path of the miner's pick must be
cleared by burning powder.

Jakey, thrusting his way through the boisterous crowd, forced upon the
resentful conductor his surrendered insignia of office, then mingled
with his future associates. He met a hilarious welcome, as the knowledge
spread from man to man that he was with them. Its practical expression
was accompanied by the thrusting of uncorked bottles at his face and
demands that he should "drink hearty" as a pledge of fellowship. Jakey
waved them aside.

"Put them up, boys, put them up. Them weapons ain't no use, not here.
They're too short range, and they shoot the wrong way."

The leader pushed his way through the crowd around Jakey.

"That's right, boys. It's close to tally now. Where's the Rainbow
trail?"

With elaborate figures, punctuated by irreverent adjectives, Jakey
pointed out the trail and his reasons against taking it.

"It's good medicine to fight a skunk head on," he concluded; "but when
you go up against a skunk, a coyote, and a grizzly wrapped up in one
skin, you want to be circumspect. Morrison's a skunk, Pierre's a coyote,
and the rest are grizzlies, and you don't want to fool yourselves just
because the skin of the beast grows feathers instead of fur."

The leader listened attentively and, from the thick husk of Jakey's
figures, he stripped the hard grains of well-ripened truth. Jakey laid
small emphasis on the manner in which the envoy of the Blue Goose had
gained his information. He had personal reasons for that, but the fact
that the information was gained sufficed.

The men grew silent as they realised that the battle was on and that
they were in the enemy's country. Under the guidance of Jakey they
tramped up the track, turned toward what appeared as a vertical cliff,
and clambered slowly and painfully over loose rocks, through stunted
evergreens, and at last stood upon the rolling surface of the mesa
above. From here on, the path was less obstructed. It was nea