ame a curtain of rainbow colouring,
edged with royal purple and faint red, and lined, here with orange,
there with green, again with delicate pink.

Changes followed. Green, gold, and blue lightning darted from plain to
sky, trailing fainter colours that danced elfishly; and the sheet of
living flame took form. It became a huge clenched fist, resting upright
upon the lighted prairie. About it, in a sky made darker by contrast,
gleamed the scattered stars. Then, one by one, quivering fingers of
light shot forth from the fist. Until, at length, over the little shack
was outspread, palm downward, a shimmering giant hand.

To the evangelist, watching the aurora with upturned face, the hand was
deified. "It is a divine manifestation!" he whispered reverently. "It
brings a message: '_Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night;
nor for the arrow that flieth by day._'"

CHAPTER XV

NECESSITY

While David Bond and Dallas were taking Shadrach from the pung, a boot
crunched the snow behind them. They turned. And there was Lounsbury,
fairly bursting to tell his good news.

When he had told it, he was anxious to get away again, for by a quick
retreat the two girls might be saved the knowledge of the Clark episode,
and he, a very probable second insult. But the evangelist, having no
wish to tattle about Lancaster, yet hoping that the elder girl would
learn what her father had done and administer a deserved rebuke, urged
him in.

The storekeeper did not consent to enter the shack, however, until
Dallas added her invitation; and then he went reluctantly. He was
accustomed to courtesy there on the frontier. The plains-bred men that
he knew instinctively took him at his real valuation, and treated him
accordingly; the men of a more conventional strata (the professional men
of Bismarck, and those who officered at the posts up and down the river)
freely bestowed their friendship upon him; the lawless element respected
him, too, and showed that respect by letting him severely alone. He
shrank from placing himself where a man like Lancaster--crippled, old,
and therefore beyond disciplining--could have the chance to repeat an
affront. And he shrank at the thought of a clash--it meant pain for two
helpless women. Nevertheless, he yielded.

The streamers were gone from the sky by then. They had faded as quickly
as they had come. Once more, under a dome of cobalt, the river flowed
black between its fringe of trees, and th