The Rainbow Trail

The Rainbow Trail, also known as The Desert Crucible, is Western author Zane Grey's sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage.

The wall to Surprise Valley has been breached, and Jane Withersteen is forced to choose between Lassiter's life and Fay Larkin's marriage to a Mormon.

[1] Both novels are notable for their protagonists' mild opposition to Mormon polygamy, but in The Rainbow Trail this theme is treated more explicitly.

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.

He notes he once heard the name Fay Larkin in the nearby village of Stonebridge, Utah, 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.

When Withers and Lake press on to Stonebridge, Shefford remains, and seeks out Mary in the evenings, speaking with her on her porch.

Outside, Shefford sees Nas Ta Bega, who tells him that Glen Naspa has run off with Willetts, and that Mary is Fay Larkin.

Shefford and Fay devise a plan to escape the hidden village, rescue her foster parents, and leave the region.

Nas Ta Bega and Shefford hurry to the site and find that Glen Naspa is dead, having died in childbirth.

Back in the hidden village, Shefford seeks out Fay, but flees when they hear horse hooves approaching.

Joined by Nas Ta Bega, Shefford and Fay travel to Surprise Valley and rescue Lassiter and Jane Withersteen while Lake heads for a ferry to procure a boat.

They prepare for a journey to Flagstaff; Nas Ta Bega and Lake bid Shefford quiet farewells.