The Rainbow Trail

This article is about the novel. For the films, see The Rainbow Trail (1918 film), The Rainbow Trail (1925 film), and The Rainbow Trail (1932 film).

The Desert Crucible appeared in The Argosy in 1915.

The Rainbow Trail, also known as The Desert Crucible, is Western author Zane Grey's sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage. Originally published under the title The Rainbow Trail in 1915, it was re-edited and re-released in recent years as The Desert Crucible with the original manuscript that Grey submitted to publishers.

The novel takes place ten years after events of Riders of the Purple Sage. The wall to Surprise Valley has broken, and Jane Withersteen is forced to choose between Lassiter's life and Fay Larkin's marriage to a Mormon.

Both novels are notable for their protagonists' mild opposition to Mormon polygamy, but in The Rainbow Trail this theme is treated more explicitly. The plots of both books revolve around the victimization of women in the Mormon culture: events in Riders of the Purple Sage are centered on the struggle of a Mormon woman who sacrifices her wealth and social status to avoid becoming a junior wife of the head of a local church, while The Rainbow Trail contrasts the older Mormons with the rising generation of Mormon women who will not tolerate polygamy and Mormon men who do not seek it.

The novel is the basis of a 1931 film of the same name. Frank McGrath, later of Wagon Train, made his acting debut in this film though his role is uncredited.

Plot

John Shefford arrives in Red Lake, Arizona Territory, in April, having come from the East by way of Flagstaff and Tuba City. In the post of the trader Presbrey, he finds a missionary (Willetts) struggling with a Navajo girl. He strikes the man, who flees, before finding Presbrey outside. Presbrey welcomes him and outfits him with gear and advice, and offers him a job, but he declines, preferring to travel to Kayenta, a trading post farther north. On his way to Kayenta, Shefford meets a man (Shadd) who intends to rob and kill him, but flees at the approach of another, who proves to be a Navajo, Nas Ta Bega, accompanied by the girl from Red Lake, who he describes as his sister, Glen Naspa. The two take Shefford to Kayenta, where he meets the trader Withers. That night, he tells Withers that he was a clergyman in Illinois, and had become good friends with a man named Venters, who had been a cowboy for a wealthy Utah Mormon woman, Jane Withersteen, who adopted a child, Fay Larkin, but fled the Mormon establishment with another cowboy, Lassiter. The three had entered a hidden canyon and sealed the entrance with a landslide; Shefford is searching for the girl, Fay. Withers tells Shefford of a secret Mormon village, of "sealed wives"—the additional wives of Mormon polygamists—in a valley near the Utah border to which he takes periodic pack trains of supplies. He notes he once heard the name Fay Larkin in the nearby village of Stonebridge, and gives Shefford the job of taking his pack train.

When Withers' employee, a young Mormon named Joe Lake, arrives, Withers, Nas Ta Bega, Lake, and Shefford take a pack train to the hidden village, which proves to have three men and many women and children; the other husbands only visit occasionally, in secret. Shefford remains in the village for some days and is well-received, getting to know the inhabitants. One woman keeps to herself, and most of the others have little to do with her, calling her the Sago Lily. Shefford is intrigued, but does not get to see her face. She calls herself only Mary, and Lake is taken with her. When Withers and Lake press on to Stonebridge, Shefford remains, and seeks out Mary in the evenings, speaking with her on her porch. He tells her he was ejected from his church for dogmatic reasons and tells her of his quest to find Fay Larkin. She tells him Fay Larkin is dead. When Withers and Lake return, they have heard that Shadd may be lurking outside the valley, so Withers leaves the others and returns to Kayenta alone by another route. In a few days, Nas Ta Bega takes Shefford to his own home to collect skins and wool for export. Glen Naspa is there, and when Nas Ta Bega is out, Willetts arrives to take her away, but Shefford prevents it and drives Willetts off a second time.

Shefford rides with many pack trains and has numerous adventures over the course of the summer. In October, word comes to Kayenta that federal prosecutors and a judge have come to Stonebridge to prosecute polygamists. They have arrested the women of the hidden valley. Withers, Lake, and Shefford travel to Stonebridge to attend the trial, as do many others, including Shadd, the Mormon Bishop Kane, and one Waggoner, whom Withers describes as the most prosperous Mormon in southern Utah, said to have five wives and 55 children. The judge questions a number of the arrested women, including Mary, but learns little. Outside, Shefford sees Nas Ta Bega, who tells him that Glen Naspa has run off with Willetts, and that Mary is Fay Larkin. Shefford also learns that Willetts has been maligning him; when he finds Willetts, he beats him. That night, Shefford joins Lake and others in escorting the women back to the hidden valley. After they arrive, Mary tells Shefford her story: she was indeed Fay Larkin, and lived in the secret valley until Mormon avengers scaled the walls and threatened to kill Lassiter unless Fay became a Mormon, married a Mormon, and raised her children as Mormons. She assented, and was carried away to the hidden village, where she is visited some nights by her would-be husband, whose face she has not seen.

External links

• The Rainbow Trail public domain audiobook at LibriVox