The side opposite the Colville Reservation belongs to the Spokanes. In the old days, a blonde-haired Indian named Barney Whitehead ran a honky-tonk with a dirt floor and a canvas roof just past the ferry site. The place sold bathtub gin for a nickel a throw and beer three times what it cost at the market. Once, when Strawl happened to travel by, the regulars had carted chairs into the parking lot where they sat, beer bottles between their knees and shotguns set to fire at any goose unlucky enough to pass. Strawl did not expect to find Jacob Chin in Inchelium any more than anyplace else on this side of the state, but for reasons as varied as their fortunes, many of his ex-wives, concubines, and conspirators resided in the town along with a sister, who most agreed was the most beautiful woman they had ever encountered. She never ventured from Inchelium, where it was rumored she rode horses through the forested trails in the nude. It appeared to Strawl as good a beginning point as any on the man.
