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+****The Project Gutenberg Etext of Desert Gold, by Zane Grey****
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+Desert Gold
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+by Zane Grey
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+April, 1996  [Etext #502]
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+
+
+
+
+
+DESERT GOLD
+
+A ROMANCE OF THE BORDER BY ZANE GREY
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ Prologue
+
+ I.       Old Friends
+ II.      Mercedes Castaneda
+ III.     A Flight Into The Desert
+ IV.      Forlorn River
+ V.       A Desert Rose
+ VI.      The Yaqui
+ VII.     White Horses
+ VIII.    The Running of Blanco Sol
+ IX.      An Interrupted Siesta
+ X.       Rojas
+ XI.      Across Cactus and Lava
+ XII.     The Crater of Hell
+ XIII.    Changes at Forlorn River
+ XIV.     A Lost Son
+ XV.      Bound In The Desert
+ XVI.     Mountain Sheep
+ XVII.    The Whistle of a Horse
+ XVIII.   Reality Against Dreams
+ XIX.     The Secret of Forlorn River
+ XX.      Desert Gold
+
+
+
+
+D E S E R T  G O L D
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE
+
+
+I
+
+
+A FACE haunted Cameron--a woman's face.  It was there in the white
+heart of the dying campfire; it hung in the shadows that hovered
+over the flickering light; it drifted in the darkness beyond.
+
+This hour, when the day had closed and the lonely desert night set
+in with its dead silence, was one in which Cameron's mind was thronged
+with memories of a time long past--of a home back in Peoria, of a
+woman he had wronged and lost, and loved too late.  He was a prospector
+for gold, a hunter of solitude, a lover of the drear, rock-ribbed
+infinitude, because he wanted to be alone to remember.
+
+A sound disturbed Cameron's reflections.  He bent his head listening.
+A soft wind fanned the paling embers, blew sparks and white ashes
+and thin smoke away into the enshrouding circle of blackness.  His
+burro did not appear to be moving about.  The quiet split to the
+cry of a coyote.  It rose strange, wild, mournful--not the howl
+of a prowling upland beast baying the campfire or barking at a
+lonely prospector, but the wail of a wolf, full-voiced, crying out
+the meaning of the desert and the night.  Hunger throbbed in
+it--hunger for a mate, for offspring, for life.  When it ceased,
+the terrible desert silence smote Cameron, and the cry echoed in his soul.
+He and that wandering wolf were brothers.
+
+Then a sharp clink of metal on stone and soft pads of hoofs in sand
+prompted Cameron to reach for his gun, and to move out of the light
+of the waning campfire.  He was somewhere along the wild border line
+between Sonora and Arizona; and the prospector who dared the heat and
+barrenness of that region risked other dangers sometimes as menacing.
+
+Figures darker than the gloom approached and took shape, and in
+the light turned out to be those of a white man and a heavily
+packed burro.
+
+"Hello there," the man called, as he came to a halt and gazed
+about him.  "I saw your fire.  May I make camp here?"
+
+Cameron came forth out of the shadow and greeted his visitor, whom
+he took for a prospector like himself.  Cameron resented the breaking
+of his lonely campfire vigil, but he respected the law of the desert.
+
+The stranger thanked him, and then slipped the pack from his burro.
+Then he rolled out his pack and began preparations for a meal. His
+movements were slow and methodical.
+
+Cameron watched him, still with resentment, yet with a curious and
+growing interest.  The campfire burst into a bright blaze, and by
+its light Cameron saw a man whose gray hair somehow did not seem to
+make him old, and whose stooped shoulders did not detract from an
+impression of rugged strength.
+
+"Find any mineral?" asked Cameron, presently.
+
+His visitor looked up quickly, as if startled by the sound of a
+human voice.  He replied, and then the two men talked a little.
+But the stranger evidently preferred silence.  Cameron understood
+that.  He laughed grimly and bent a keener gaze upon the furrowed,
+shadowy face.  Another of those strange desert prospectors in whom
+there was some relentless driving power besides the lust for gold!
+Cameron felt that between this man and himself there was a subtle
+affinity, vague and undefined, perhaps born of the divination that
+here was a desert wanderer like himself, perhaps born of a deeper,
+an unintelligible relation having its roots back in the past.  A
+long-forgotten sensation stirred in Cameron's breast, one so long
+forgotten that he could not recognize it.  But it was akin to pain.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+When he awakened he found, to his surprise, that his companion had
+departed.  A trail in the sand led off to the north.  There was no
+water in that direction.  Cameron shrugged his shoulders; it was
+not his affair; he had his own problems.  And straightway he forgot
+his strange visitor.
+
+Cameron began his day, grateful for the solitude that was now unbroken,
+for the canyon-furrowed and cactus-spired scene that now showed no
+sign of life.  He traveled southwest, never straying far from the
+dry stream bed; and in a desultory way, without eagerness, he hunted
+for signs of gold.
+
+The work was toilsome, yet the periods of rest in which he indulged
+were not taken because of fatigue.  He rested to look, to listen,
+to feel.  What the vast silent world meant to him had always been
+a mystical thing, which he felt in all its incalculable power, but
+never understood.
+
+That day, while it was yet light, and he was digging in a moist
+white-bordered wash for water, he was brought sharply up by hearing
+the crack of hard hoofs on stone.  There down the canyon came a man
+and a burro.  Cameron recognized them.
+
+"Hello, friend," called the man, halting.  "Our trails crossed again.
+That's good."
+
+"Hello," replied Cameron, slowly.  "Any mineral sign to-day?"
+
+"No."
+
+They made camp together, ate their frugal meal, smoked a pipe, and
+rolled in their blankets without exchanging many words.  In the
+morning the same reticence, the same aloofness characterized the
+manner of both.  But Cameron's companion, when he had packed his
+burro and was ready to start, faced about and said:  "We might
+stay together, if it's all right with you."
+
+"I never take a partner," replied Cameron.
+
+"You're alone; I'm alone," said the other, mildly.  "It's a big
+place.  If we find gold there'll be enough for two."
+
+"I don't go down into the desert for gold alone," rejoined Cameron,
+with a chill note in his swift reply.
+
+His companion's deep-set, luminous eyes emitted a singular flash.
+It moved Cameron to say that in the years of his wandering he had
+met no man who could endure equally with him the blasting heat,
+the blinding dust storms, the wilderness of sand and rock and lava
+and cactus, the terrible silence and desolation of the desert.
+Cameron waved a hand toward the wide, shimmering, shadowy descent
+of plain and range.  "I may strike through the Sonora Desert.  I
+may head for Pinacate or north for the Colorado Basin.  You are
+an old man."
+
+"I don't know the country, but to me one place is the same as
+another," replied his companion.  For moments he seemed to forget
+himself, and swept his far-reaching gaze out over the colored gulf
+of stone and sand.  Then with gentle slaps he drove his burro in
+behind Cameron.  "Yes, I'm old.  I'm lonely, too.  It's come to me
+just lately.  But, friend, I can still travel, and for a few days
+my company won't hurt you."
+
+"Have it your way," said Cameron.
+
+They began a slow march down into the desert.  At sunset
+they camped under the lee of a low mesa.  Cameron was glad his
+comrade had the Indian habit of silence.  Another day's travel found
+the prospectors deep in the wilderness.  Then there came a breaking
+of reserve, noticeable in the elder man, almost imperceptibly
+gradual in Cameron.  Beside the meager mesquite campfire this
+gray-faced, thoughtful old prospector would remove his black pipe
+from his mouth to talk a little; and Cameron would listen, and
+sometimes unlock his lips to speak a word.  And so, as Cameron
+began to respond to the influence of a desert less lonely than
+habitual, he began to take keener note of his comrade, and found
+him different from any other he had ever encountered in the wilderness.
+This man never grumbled at the heat, the glare, the driving sand,
+the sour water, the scant fare.  During the daylight hours he was
+seldom idle.  At night he sat dreaming before the fire or paced to
+and fro in the gloom.  He slept but little, and that long after
+Cameron had had his own rest.  He was tireless, patient, brooding.
+
+Cameron's awakened interest brought home to him the realization
+that for years he had shunned companionship.  In those years only
+three men had wandered into the desert with him, and these had
+left their bones to bleach in the shifting sands.  Cameron had
+not cared to know their secrets.  But the more he studied this
+latest comrade the more he began to suspect that he might have
+missed something in the others.  In his own driving passion to
+take his secret into the limitless abode of silence and desolation,
+where he could be alone with it, he had forgotten that life dealt
+shocks to other men.  Somehow this silent comrade reminded him.
+
+One afternoon late, after they had toiled up a white, winding wash
+of sand and gravel, they came upon a dry waterhole.  Cameron dug
+deep into the sand, but without avail.  He was turning to retrace
+weary steps back to the last water when his comrade asked him to
+wait.  Cameron watched him search in his pack and bring forth
+what appeared to be a small, forked branch of a peach tree.  He
+grasped the prongs of the fork and held them before him with the
+end standing straight out, and then he began to walk along the
+stream bed.  Cameron, at first amused, then amazed, then pitying,
+and at last curious, kept pace with the prospector.  He saw a
+strong tension of his comrade's wrists, as if he was holding hard
+against a considerable force.  The end of the peach branch began to
+quiver and turn.  Cameron reached out a hand to touch it, and was
+astounded at feeling a powerful vibrant force pulling the branch
+downward.  He felt it as a magnetic shock.  The branch kept turning,
+and at length pointed to the ground.
+
+"Dig here," said the prospector.
+
+"What!" ejaculated Cameron.  Had the man lost his mind?
+
+Then Cameron stood by while his comrade dug in the sand.  Three feet
+he dug--four--five, and the sand grew dark, then moist.  At six
+feet water began to seep through.
+
+"Get the little basket in my pack," he said.
+
+Cameron complied, and saw his comrade drop the basket into the deep
+hole, where it kept the sides from caving in and allowed the water
+to seep through.  While Cameron watched, the basket filled.  Of all
+the strange incidents of his desert career this was the strangest.
+Curiously he picked up the peach branch and held it as he had seen
+it held.  The thing, however, was dead in his hands.
+
+"I see you haven't got it," remarked his comrade.  "Few men have."
+
+"Got what?" demanded Cameron.
+
+"A power to find water that way.  Back in Illinois an old German used
+to do that to locate wells.  He showed me I had the same power.
+I can't explain.  But you needn't look so dumfounded.  There's
+nothing supernatural about it."
+
+"You mean it's a simple fact--that some men have a
+magnetism, a force or power to find water as you did?"
+
+"Yes.  It's not unusual on the farms back in Illinois, Ohio,
+Pennsylvania.  The old German I spoke of made money traveling round
+with his peach fork."
+
+"What a gift for a man in the desert!"
+
+Cameron's comrade smiled--the second time in all those days.
+
+They entered a region where mineral abounded, and their march became
+slower.  Generally they took the course of a wash, one on each side,
+and let the burros travel leisurely along nipping at the bleached
+blades of scant grass, or at sage or cactus, while they searched
+in the canyons and under the ledges for signs of gold.  When they
+found any rock that hinted of gold they picked off a piece and gave
+it a chemical test.  The search was fascinating.  They interspersed
+the work with long, restful moments when they looked afar down the
+vast reaches and smoky shingles to the line of dim mountains.
+Some impelling desire, not all the lure of gold, took them to the
+top of mesas and escarpments; and here, when they had dug and picked,
+they rested and gazed out at the wide prospect.  Then, as the sun
+lost its heat and sank lowering to dent its red disk behind far-distant
+spurs, they halted in a shady canyon or likely spot in a dry wash and
+tried for water.  When they found it they unpacked, gave drink to the
+tired burros, and turned them loose.  Dead mesquite served for the
+campfire.  While the strange twilight deepened into weird night they
+sat propped against stones, with eyes on the dying embers of the
+fire, and soon they lay on the sand with the light of white stars
+on their dark faces.
+
+Each succeeding day and night Cameron felt himself more and more
+drawn to this strange man.  He found that after hours of burning
+toil he had insensibly grown nearer to his comrade.  He reflected
+that after a few weeks in the desert he had always become a different man.
+In civilization, in the rough mining camps, he had been a prey to unrest
+and gloom.  But once down on the great billowing sweep of this lonely
+world, he could look into his unquiet soul without bitterness.
+Did not the desert magnify men?  Cameron believed that wild men
+in wild places, fighting cold, heat, starvation, thirst, barrenness,
+facing the elements in all their ferocity, usually retrograded,
+descended to the savage, lost all heart and soul and became mere
+brutes.  Likewise he believed that men wandering or lost in the
+wilderness often reversed that brutal order of life and became
+noble, wonderful, super-human.  So now he did not marvel at a slow
+stir stealing warmer along his veins, and at the premonition that
+perhaps he and this man, alone on the desert, driven there by life's
+mysterious and remorseless motive, were to see each other through
+God's eyes.
+
+His companion was one who thought of himself last.  It humiliated
+Cameron that in spite of growing keenness he could not hinder him
+from doing more than an equal share of the day's work.  The man
+was mild, gentle, quiet, mostly silent, yet under all his softness
+he seemed to be made of the fiber of steel.  Cameron could not
+thwart him.  Moreover, he appeared to want to find gold for Cameron,
+not for himself.  Cameron's hands always trembled at the turning
+of rock that promised gold; he had enough of the prospector's
+passion for fortune to thrill at the chance of a strike.  But the
+other never showed the least trace of excitement.
+
+One night they were encamped at the head of a canyon.  The day had
+been exceedingly hot, and long after sundown the radiation of heat
+from the rocks persisted.  A desert bird whistled a wild, melancholy
+note from a dark cliff, and a distant coyote wailed mournfully.
+The stars shone white until the huge moon rose to burn out all their
+whiteness.  And on this night Cameron watched his comrade, and
+yielded to interest he had not heretofore voiced.
+
+"Pardner, what drives you into the desert?"
+
+"Do I seem to be a driven man?"
+
+"No. But I feel it.  Do you come to forget?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Ah!" softly exclaimed Cameron.  Always he seemed to have known
+that.  He said no more.  He watched the old man rise and begin
+his nightly pace to and fro, up and down.  With slow, soft tread,
+forward and back, tirelessly and ceaselessly, he paced that beat.
+He did not look up at the stars or follow the radiant track of the
+moon along the canyon ramparts.  He hung his head.  He was lost in
+another world.  It was a world which the lonely desert made real.
+He looked a dark, sad, plodding figure, and somehow impressed
+Cameron with the helplessness of men.
+
+Cameron grew acutely conscious of the pang in his own breast, of
+the fire in his heart, the strife and torment of his passion-driven
+soul.  He had come into the desert to remember a woman.  She
+appeared to him then as she had looked when first she entered his
+life--a golden-haired girl, blue-eyed, white-skinned, red-lipped,
+tall and slender and beautiful. He had never forgotten, and an old,
+sickening remorse knocked at his heart.  He rose and climbed out
+of the canyon and to the top of a mesa, where he paced to and fro
+and looked down into the weird and mystic shadows, like the darkness
+of his passion, and farther on down the moon track and the glittering
+stretches that vanished in the cold, blue horizon.  The moon soared
+radiant and calm, the white stars shone serene.  The vault of heaven
+seemed illimitable and divine.  The desert surrounded him, silver-streaked
+and black-mantled, a chaos of rock and sand, silent, austere,
+ancient, always waiting.  It spoke to Cameron.  It was a naked
+corpse, but it had a soul.  In that wild solitude the white stars
+looked down upon him pitilessly and pityingly.  They had shone
+upon a desert that might once have been alive and was now dead,
+and might again throb with life, only to die.  It was a terrible
+ordeal for him to stand along and realize that he was only a man
+facing eternity.  But that was what gave him strength to endure.
+Somehow he was a part of it all, some atom in that vastness,
+somehow necessary to an inscrutable purpose, something
+indestructible in that desolate world of ruin and death and decay,
+something perishable and changeable and growing under all the
+fixity of heaven.  In that endless, silent hall of desert there
+was a spirit; and Cameron felt hovering near him what he imagined
+to be phantoms of peace.
+
+He returned to camp and sought his comrade.
+
+"I reckon we're two of a kind," he said.  "It was a woman who drove
+me into the desert.  But I come to remember.  The desert's the only
+place I can do that."
+
+"Was she your wife?" asked the elder man.
+
+"No."
+
+A long silence ensued.  A cool wind blew up the canyon, sifting the
+sand through the dry sage, driving away the last of the lingering
+heat.  The campfire wore down to a ruddy ashen heap.
+
+"I had a daughter," said Cameron's comrade.  "She lost her mother
+at birth.  And I--I didn't know how to bring up a girl.  She was
+pretty and gay.  It was the--the old story."
+
+His words were peculiarly significant to Cameron.  They distressed
+him.  He had been wrapped up in his remorse.  If ever in the past
+he had thought of any one connected with the girl he had wronged
+he had long forgotten.  But the consequences of such wrong were
+far-reaching.  They struck at the roots of a home.  Here in the
+desert he was confronted by the spectacle of a splendid man, a
+father, wasting his life because he could not forget--because
+there was nothing left to live for.  Cameron understood better now
+why his comrade was drawn by the desert.
+
+"Well, tell me more?" asked Cameron, earnestly.
+
+"It was the old, old story.  My girl was pretty and free.  The
+young bucks ran after her.  I guess she did not run away from them.
+And I was away a good deal--working in another town.  She was in love
+with a wild fellow.  I knew nothing of it till too late.  He was engaged
+to marry her. But he didn't come back.  And when the disgrace became
+plain to all, my girl left home.  She went West.  After a while I heard
+from her.  She was well--working--living for her baby.  A long
+time passed.  I had no ties.  I drifted West.  Her lover had also
+gone West.  In those days everybody went West.  I trailed him,
+intending to kill him.  But I lost his trail.  Neither could I find
+any trace of her.  She had moved on, driven, no doubt, by the hound
+of her past.  Since then I have taken to the wilds, hunting gold
+on the desert."
+
+"Yes, it's the old, old story, only sadder, I think," said Cameron;
+and his voice was strained and unnatural.  "Pardner, what Illinois town
+was it you hailed from?"
+
+"Peoria."
+
+"And your--your name?" went on Cameron huskily.
+
+"Warren--Jonas Warren."
+
+That name might as well have been a bullet.  Cameron stood erect,
+motionless, as men sometimes stand momentarily when shot straight
+through the heart.  In an instant, when thoughts resurged like
+blinding flashes of lightning through his mind, he was a swaying,
+quivering, terror-stricken man.  He mumbled something hoarsely and
+backed into the shadow.  But he need not have feared discovery,
+however surely his agitation might have betrayed him.  Warren sat
+brooding over the campfire, oblivious of his comrade, absorbed in
+the past.
+
+Cameron swiftly walked away in the gloom, with the blood thrumming
+thick in his ears, whispering over and over:
+
+"Merciful God!  Nell was his daughter!"
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+As thought and feeling multiplied, Cameron was overwhelmed.  Beyond
+belief, indeed, was it that out of the millions of men in the world
+two who had never seen each other could have been driven into the desert
+by memory of the same woman.  It brought the past so close.  It showed
+Cameron how inevitably all his spiritual life was governed by what had
+happened long ago.  That which made life significant to him was a wandering
+in silent places where no eye could see him with his secret.  Some fateful
+chance had thrown him with the father of the girl he had wrecked.
+It was incomprehensible; it was terrible.  It was the one thing
+of all possible happenings in the world of chance that both father
+and lover would have found unendurable.
+
+Cameron's pain reached to despair when he felt this relation between
+Warren and himself.  Something within him cried out to him to reveal
+his identity.  Warren would kill him; but it was not fear of death
+that put Cameron on the rack.  He had faced death too often to be
+afraid.  It was the thought of adding torture to this long-suffering
+man.  All at once Cameron swore that he would not augment Warren's
+trouble, or let him stain his hands with blood.  He would tell the
+truth of Nell's sad story and his own, and make what amends he could.
+
+Then Cameron's thought shifted from father to daughter.  She was
+somewhere beyond the dim horizon line.  In those past lonely hours
+by the campfire his fancy had tortured him with pictures of Nell.
+But his remorseful and cruel fancy had lied to him.  Nell had
+struggled upward out of menacing depths.  She had reconstructed a
+broken life.  And now she was fighting for the name and happiness
+of her child.  Little Nell!  Cameron experienced a shuddering ripple
+in all his being--the physical rack of an emotion born of a new and
+strange consciousness.
+
+As Cameron gazed out over the blood-red, darkening desert suddenly
+the strife in his soul ceased.  The moment was one of incalculable
+change, in which his eyes seemed to pierce the vastness of cloud
+and range, and mystery of gloom and shadow--to see with strong vision
+the illimitable space before him.  He felt the grandeur of the desert,
+its simplicity, its truth.  He had learned at last the lesson it
+taught.  No longer strange was his meeting and wandering with Warren.
+Each had marched in the steps of destiny; and as the lines of their
+fates had been inextricably tangled in the years that were gone,
+so now their steps had crossed and turned them toward one common
+goal.  For years they had been two men marching alone, answering
+to an inward driving search, and the desert had brought them together.
+For years they had wandered alone in silence and solitude, where
+the sun burned white all day and the stars burned white all night,
+blindly following the whisper of a spirit.  But now Cameron knew
+that he was no longer blind, and in this flash of revelation he
+felt that it had been given him to help Warren with his burden.
+
+He returned to camp trying to evolve a plan.  As always at that
+long hour when the afterglow of sunset lingered in the west,
+Warren plodded to and fro in the gloom.  All night Cameron lay
+awake thinking.
+
+In the morning, when Warren brought the burros to camp and began
+preparations for the usual packing, Cameron broke silence.
+
+"Pardner, your story last night made me think.  I want to tell you
+something about myself.  It's hard enough to be driven by sorrow
+for one you've loved, as you've been driven; but to suffer sleepless
+and eternal remorse for the ruin of one you've loved as I have
+suffered--that is hell. . . . Listen.  In my younger days--it seems
+long now, yet it's not so many years--I was wild.  I wronged the
+sweetest and loveliest girl I ever knew.  I went away not dreaming
+that any disgrace might come to her.  Along about that time I fell
+into terrible moods--I changed--I learned I really loved her.  Then
+came a letter I should have gotten months before.  It told of her
+trouble--importuned me to hurry to save her.  Half frantic with
+shame and fear, I got a marriage certificate and rushed back to her town.
+She was gone--had been gone for weeks, and her disgrace was known.
+Friends warned me to keep out of reach of her father.  I trailed her--
+found her.  I married her.  But too late!...She would not live with me.
+She left me--I followed her west, but never found her."
+
+Warren leaned forward a little and looked into Cameron's eyes, as
+if searching there for the repentance that might make him less
+deserving of a man's scorn.
+
+Cameron met the gaze unflinchingly, and again began to speak:
+
+"You know, of course, how men out here somehow lose old names, old
+identities.  It won't surprise you much to learn my name really isn't
+Cameron, as I once told you."
+
+Warren stiffened upright.  It seemed that there might have been a
+blank, a suspension, between his grave interest and some strange
+mood to come.
+
+Cameron felt his heart bulge and contract in his breast; all his
+body grew cold; and it took tremendous effort for him to make his
+lips form words.
+
+"Warren, I'm the man you're hunting.  I'm Burton.  I was Nell's
+lover!"
+
+The old man rose and towered over Cameron, and then plunged down
+upon him, and clutched at his throat with terrible stifling hands.
+The harsh contact, the pain awakened Cameron to his peril before
+it was too late.  Desperate fighting saved him from being hurled
+to the ground and stamped and crushed.  Warren seemed a maddened
+giant.  There was a reeling, swaying, wrestling struggle before
+the elder man began to weaken.  The Cameron, buffeted, bloody,
+half-stunned, panted for speech.
+
+"Warren--hold on!  Give me--a minute.  I married Nell.  Didn't you
+know that?...I saved the child!"
+
+Cameron felt the shock that vibrated through Warren.  He repeated
+the words again and again.  As if compelled by some resistless
+power, Warren released Cameron, and, staggering back, stood with uplifted,
+shaking hands.  In his face was a horrible darkness.
+
+"Warren!  Wait--listen!" panted Cameron.  "I've got that marriage
+certificate--I've had it by me all these years.  I kept it--to
+prove to myself I did right."
+
+The old man uttered a broken cry.
+
+Cameron stole off among the rocks.  How long he absented himself
+or what he did he had no idea.  When he returned Warren was sitting
+before the campfire, and once more he appeared composed.  He spoke,
+and his voice had a deeper note; but otherwise he seemed as usual.
+
+They packed the burros and faced the north together.
+
+Cameron experienced a singular exaltation.  He had lightened his
+comrade's burden.  Wonderfully it came to him that he had also
+lightened his own.  From that hour it was not torment to think
+of Nell.  Walking with his comrade through the silent places, lying
+beside him under the serene luminous light of the stars, Cameron
+began to feel the haunting presence of invisible things that were
+real to him--phantoms whispering peace.  In the moan of the cool
+wind, in the silken seep of sifting sand, in the distant rumble
+of a slipping ledge, in the faint rush of a shooting star he
+heard these phantoms of peace coming with whispers of the long
+pain of men at the last made endurable.  Even in the white noonday,
+under the burning sun, these phantoms came to be real to him.
+In the dead silence of the midnight hours he heard them breathing
+nearer on the desert wind--nature's voices of motherhood, whispers
+of God, peace in the solitude.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+There came a morning when the sun shone angry and red through a
+dull, smoky haze.
+
+"We're in for sandstorms," said Cameron.
+
+They had scarcely covered a mile when a desert-wide, moaning, yellow
+wall of flying sand swooped down upon them.  Seeking shelter in
+the lee of a rock, they waited, hoping the storm was only a squall,
+such as frequently whipped across the open places.  The moan
+increased to a roar, and the dull red slowly dimmed, to disappear
+in the yellow pall, and the air grew thick and dark.  Warren slipped
+the packs from the burros.  Cameron feared the sandstorms had
+arrived some weeks ahead of their usual season.
+
+The men covered their heads and patiently waited.  The long hours
+dragged, and the storm increased in fury.  Cameron and Warren wet
+scarfs with water from their canteens, and bound them round their
+faces, and then covered their heads.  The steady, hollow bellow of
+flying sand went on.  It flew so thickly that enough sifted down
+under the shelving rock to weight the blankets and almost bury
+the men.  They were frequently compelled to shake off the sand
+to keep from being borne to the ground.  And it was necessary
+to keep digging out the packs.  The floor of their shelter gradually
+rose higher and higher.  They tried to eat, and seemed to be grinding
+only sand between their teeth.  They lost the count of time. They
+dared not sleep, for that would have meant being buried alive.
+The could only crouch close to the leaning rock, shake off the sand,
+blindly dig out their packs, and every moment gasp and cough and
+choke to fight suffocation.
+
+The storm finally blew itself out.  It left the prospectors heavy
+and stupid for want of sleep.  Their burros had wandered away, or
+had been buried in the sand.  Far as eye could reach the desert
+had marvelously changed; it was now a rippling sea of sand dunes.
+Away to the north rose the peak that was their only guiding mark.
+They headed toward it, carrying a shovel and part of their packs.
+
+At noon the peak vanished in the shimmering glare of the desert.
+The prospectors pushed on, guided by the sun.  In every wash
+they tried for water.  With the forked peach branch in his
+hands Warren always succeeded in locating water.  They dug,
+but it lay too deep.  At length, spent and sore, they fell and
+slept through that night and part of the next day.  Then they
+succeeded in getting water, and quenched their thirst, and filled
+the canteens, and cooked a meal.
+
+The burning day found them in an interminably wide plain, where
+there was no shelter from the fierce sun. The men were exceedingly
+careful with their water, though there was absolute necessity of
+drinking a little every hour.  Late in the afternoon they came
+to a canyon that they believed was the lower end of the one in
+which they had last found water.  For hours they traveled toward
+its head, and, long after night had set, found what they sought.
+Yielding to exhaustion, they slept, and next day were loath to
+leave the waterhole.  Cool night spurred them on with canteens
+full and renewed strength.
+
+Morning told Cameron that they had turned back miles into the
+desert, and it was desert new to him.  The red sun, the increasing
+heat, and especially the variety and large size of the cactus plants
+warned Cameron that he had descended to a lower level.  Mountain
+peaks loomed on all sides, some near, others distant; and one, a
+blue spur, splitting the glaring sky far to the north, Cameron
+thought he recognized as a landmark.  The ascent toward it was
+heartbreaking, not in steepness, but in its league-and-league-long
+monotonous rise.  Cameron knew there was only one hope--to make
+the water hold out and never stop to rest.  Warren began to weaken.
+Often he had to halt.  The burning white day passed, and likewise
+the night, with its white stars shining so pitilessly cold and bright.
+
+Cameron measured the water in his canteen by its weight.  Evaporation
+by heat consumed as much as he drank.  During one of the rests, when
+he had wetted his parched mouth and throat, he found opportunity to pour
+a little water from his canteen into Warren's.
+
+At first Cameron had curbed his restless activity to accommodate
+the pace of his elder comrade.  But now he felt that he was losing
+something of his instinctive and passionate zeal to get out of
+the desert.  The thought of water came to occupy his mind.  He
+began to imagine that his last little store of water did not
+appreciably diminish.  He knew he was not quite right in his mind
+regarding water; nevertheless, he felt this to be more of fact
+than fancy, and he began to ponder.
+
+When next they rested he pretended to be in a kind of stupor; but
+he covertly watched Warren.  The man appeared far gone, yet he had
+cunning.  He cautiously took up Cameron's canteen and poured water
+into it from his own.
+
+This troubled Cameron.  The old irritation at not being able to
+thwart Warren returned to him.  Cameron reflected, and concluded
+that he had been unwise not to expect this very thing.  Then, as
+his comrade dropped into weary rest, he lifted both canteens.  If
+there were any water in Warren's, it was only very little.  Both
+men had been enduring the terrible desert thirst, concealing it,
+each giving his water to the other, and the sacrifice had been useless.
+
+Instead of ministering to the parched throats of one or both, the
+water had evaporated.  When Cameron made sure of this, he took one
+more drink, the last, and poured the little water left into Warren's
+canteen.  He threw his own away.
+
+Soon afterward Warren discovered the loss.
+
+"Where's your canteen?" he asked.
+
+"The heat was getting my water, so I drank what was left."
+
+"My son!" said Warren.
+
+The day opened for them in a red and green hell of rock and cactus.
+Like a flame the sun scorched and peeled their faces.  Warren went
+blind from the glare, and Cameron had to lead him.  At last Warren
+plunged down, exhausted, in the shade of a ledge.
+
+Cameron rested and waited, hopeless, with hot, weary eyes gazing
+down from the height where he sat.  The ledge was the top step
+of a ragged gigantic stairway.  Below stretched a sad, austere,
+and lonely valley.  A dim, wide streak, lighter than the bordering
+gray, wound down the valley floor.  Once a river had flowed there,
+leaving only a forlorn trace down the winding floor of this forlorn valley.
+
+Movement on the part of Warren attracted Cameron's attention.
+Evidently the old prospector had recovered his sight and some of
+his strength, for he had arisen, and now began to walk along the
+arroyo bed with his forked peach branch held before him.  He had
+clung to the precious bit of wood.  Cameron considered the prospect
+for water hopeless, because he saw that the arroyo had once been
+a canyon, and had been filled with sands by desert winds.  Warren,
+however, stopped in a deep pit, and, cutting his canteen in half,
+began to use one side of it as a scoop.  He scooped out a wide
+hollow, so wide that Cameron was certain he had gone crazy.  Cameron
+gently urged him to stop, and then forcibly tried to make him.
+But these efforts were futile.  Warren worked with slow, ceaseless,
+methodical movement.  He toiled for what seemed hours.  Cameron,
+seeing the darkening, dampening sand, realized a wonderful possibility
+of water, and he plunged into the pit with the other half of the
+canteen.  Then both men toiled, round and round the wide hole,
+down deeper and deeper.  The sand grew moist, then wet.  At the
+bottom of the deep pit the sand coarsened, gave place to gravel.
+Finally water welled in, a stronger volume than Cameron ever
+remembered finding on the desert.  It would soon fill the hole and
+run over.  He marveled at the circumstance.  The time was near
+the end of the dry season.  Perhaps an underground stream
+flowed from the range behind down to the valley floor, and at
+this point came near to the surface.  Cameron had heard of such
+desert miracles.
+
+The finding of water revived Cameron's flagging hopes.  But they
+were short-lived.  Warren had spend himself utterly.
+
+"I'm done.  Don't linger," he whispered.  "My son, go--go!"
+
+Then he fell.  Cameron dragged him out of the sand pit to a
+sheltered place under the ledge.  While sitting beside the failing
+man Cameron discovered painted images on the wall.  Often in the
+desert he had found these evidences of a prehistoric people.  Then,
+from long habit, he picked up a piece of rock and examined it.
+Its weight made him closely scrutinize it.  The color was a
+peculiar black.  He scraped through the black rust to find a
+piece of gold.  Around him lay scattered heaps of black pebbles
+and bits of black, weathered rock and pieces of broken ledge, and
+they showed gold.
+
+"Warren!  Look!  See it!  Feel it!  Gold!"
+
+But Warren had never cared, and now he was too blind to see.
+
+"Go--go!" he whispered.
+
+Cameron gazed down the gray reaches of the forlorn valley, and
+something within him that was neither intelligence nor emotion--something
+inscrutably strange--impelled him to promise.
+
+Then Cameron built up stone monuments to mark his gold strike.  That
+done, he tarried beside the unconscious Warren.  Moments passed--grew
+into hours.  Cameron still had strength left to make an effort to
+get out of the desert.  But that same inscrutable something which
+had ordered his strange involuntary promise to Warren held him
+beside his fallen comrade.  He watched the white sun turn to gold,
+and then to red and sink behind mountains in the west.  Twilight
+stole into the arroyo.  It lingered, slowly turning to gloom.
+The vault of blue black lightened to the blinking of stars.
+Then fell the serene, silent, luminous desert night.
+
+Cameron kept his vigil.  As the long hours wore on he felt creep
+over him the comforting sense that he need not forever fight sleep.
+A wan glow flared behind the dark, uneven horizon, and a melancholy
+misshapen moon rose to make the white night one of shadows.  Absolute
+silence claimed the desert.  It was mute.  Then that inscrutable
+something breathed to him, telling him when he was alone.  He need
+not have looked at the dark, still face beside him.
+
+Another face haunted Cameron's--a woman's face.  It was there in
+the white moonlit shadows; it drifted in the darkness beyond; it
+softened, changed to that of a young girl, sweet, with the same
+dark, haunting eyes of her mother.  Cameron prayed to that nameless
+thing within him, the spirit of something deep and mystical as
+life.  He prayed to that nameless thing outside, of which the rocks
+and the sand, the spiked cactus and the ragged lava, the endless
+waste, with its vast star-fired mantle, were but atoms.  He prayed
+for mercy to a woman--for happiness to her child.  Both mother and
+daughter were close to him then.  Time and distance were annihilated.
+He had faith--he saw into the future.  The fateful threads of the
+past, so inextricably woven with his error, wound out their tragic
+length here in this forlorn desert.
+
+Cameron then took a little tin box from his pocket, and, opening
+it, removed a folded certificate.  He had kept a pen, and now he
+wrote something upon the paper, and in lieu of ink he wrote with
+blood.  The moon afforded him enough light to see; and, having
+replaced the paper, he laid the little box upon a shelf of rock.
+It would remain there unaffected by dust, moisture, heat, time.
+How long had those painted images been there clear and sharp on
+the dry stone walls?  There were no trails in that desert, and
+always there were incalculable changes.  Cameron saw this mutable
+mood of nature--the sands would fly and seep and carve and bury;
+the floods would dig and cut; the ledges would weather in the heat
+and rain; the avalanches would slide; the cactus seeds would roll
+in the wind to catch in a niche and split the soil with thirsty
+roots.  Years would pass.  Cameron seemed to see them, too; and
+likewise destiny leading a child down into this forlorn waste,
+where she would find love and fortune, and the grave of her father.
+
+Cameron covered the dark, still face of his comrade from the light
+of the waning moon.
+
+That action was the severing of his hold on realities.  They fell
+away from him in final separation.  Vaguely, dreamily he seemed to
+behold his soul.  Night merged into gray day; and night came again,
+weird and dark.  Then up out of the vast void of the desert, from
+the silence and illimitableness, trooped his phantoms of peace.
+Majestically they formed around him, marshalling and mustering in
+ceremonious state, and moved to lay upon him their passionless serenity.
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+OLD FRIENDS
+
+RICHARD GALE reflected that his sojourn in the West had been
+what his disgusted father had predicted--idling here and there,
+with no objective point or purpose.
+
+It was reflection such as this, only more serious and perhaps
+somewhat desperate, that had brought Gale down to the border.
+For some time the newspapers had been printing news of Mexican
+revolution, guerrilla warfare, United States cavalry patrolling
+the international line, American cowboys fighting with the rebels,
+and wild stories of bold raiders and bandits.  But as opportunity,
+and adventure, too, had apparently given him a wide berth in
+Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, he had struck southwest for the Arizona
+border, where he hoped to see some stirring life.  He did not
+care very much what happened.  Months of futile wandering in the
+hope of finding a place where he fitted had inclined Richard to
+his father's opinion.
+
+It was after dark one evening in early October when Richard arrived
+in Casita.  He was surprised to find that it was evidently a town
+of importance.  There was a jostling, jabbering, sombreroed crowd
+of Mexicans around the railroad station.  He felt as if he were
+in a foreign country.  After a while he saw several men of his
+nationality, one of whom he engaged to carry his luggage to a
+hotel.  They walked up a wide, well-lighted street lined with
+buildings in which were bright windows.  Of the many people
+encountered by Gale most were Mexicans.  His guide explained that
+the smaller half of Casita lay in Arizona, the other half in Mexico,
+and of several thousand inhabitants the majority belonged on the
+southern side of the street, which was the boundary line.  He also
+said that rebels had entered the town that day, causing a good
+deal of excitement.
+
+Gale was almost at the end of his financial resources, which fact
+occasioned him to turn away from a pretentious hotel and to ask
+his guide for a cheaper lodging-house.  When this was found, a
+sight of the loungers in the office, and also a desire for comfort,
+persuaded Gale to change his traveling-clothes for rough outing
+garb and boots.
+
+"Well, I'm almost broke," he soliloquized, thoughtfully.  "The
+governor said I wouldn't make any money.  He's right--so far.
+And he said I'd be coming home beaten.  There he's wrong.  I've
+got a hunch that something 'll happen to me in this Greaser town."
+
+He went out into a wide, whitewashed, high-ceiled corridor, and
+from that into an immense room which, but for pool tables, bar,
+benches, would have been like a courtyard.  The floor was
+cobblestoned, the walls were of adobe, and the large windows
+opened like doors.  A blue cloud of smoke filled the place.  Gale
+heard the click of pool balls and the clink of glasses along the
+crowded bar.  Bare-legged, sandal-footed Mexicans in white rubbed
+shoulders with Mexicans mantled in black and red.  There were
+others in tight-fitting blue uniforms with gold fringe or tassels
+at the shoulders.  These men wore belts with heavy, bone-handled
+guns, and evidently were the rurales, or native policemen.  There
+were black-bearded, coarse-visaged Americans, some gambling round
+the little tables, others drinking.  The pool tables were the center
+of a noisy crowd of younger men, several of whom were unsteady on
+their feet.  There were khaki-clad cavalrymen strutting in and out.
+
+At one end of the room, somewhat apart from the general meelee,
+was a group of six men round a little table, four of whom were
+seated, the other two standing.  These last two drew a second
+glance from Gale.  The sharp-featured, bronzed faces and piercing
+eyes, the tall, slender, loosely jointed bodies, the quiet, easy,
+reckless air that seemed to be a part of the men--these things
+would plainly have stamped them as cowboys without the buckled
+sombreros, the colored scarfs, the high-topped, high-heeled boots
+with great silver-roweled spurs.  Gale did not fail to note, also,
+that these cowboys wore guns, and this fact was rather a shock to
+his idea of the modern West.  It caused him to give some credence
+to the rumors of fighting along the border, and he felt a thrill.
+
+He satisfied his hunger in a restaurant adjoining, and as he
+stepped back into the saloon a man wearing a military cape jostled
+him.  Apologies from both were instant.  Gale was moving on when
+the other stopped short as if startled, and, leaning forward,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Dick Gale?"
+
+"You've got me," replied Gale, in surprise.  "But I don't know you."
+
+He could not see the stranger's face, because it was wholly shaded
+by a wide-brimmed hat pulled well down.
+
+"By Jove!  It's Dick!  If this isn't great!  Don't you know me?"
+
+"I've heard your voice somewhere," replied Gale.  "Maybe I'll
+recognize you if you come out from under that bonnet."
+
+For answer the man, suddenly manifesting thought of himself,
+hurriedly drew Gale into the restaurant, where he thrust back his
+hat to disclose a handsome, sunburned face.
+
+"George Thorne!  So help me--"
+
+"'S-s-ssh.  You needn't yell," interrupted the other, as he met
+Gale's outstretched hand.  There was a close, hard, straining grip.
+"I must not be recognized here.  There are reasons.  I'll explain in
+a minute.  Say, but it's fine to see you!  Five years, Dick, five
+years since I saw you run down University Field and spread-eagle the
+whole Wisconsin football team."
+
+"Don't recollect that," replied Dick, laughing.  "George, I'll bet
+you I'm gladder to see you than you are to see me.  It seems so
+long.  You went into the army, didn't you?"
+
+"I did.  I'm here now with the Ninth Cavalry.  But--never mind me.
+What're you doing way down here?  Say, I just noticed your togs.
+Dick, you can't be going in for mining or ranching, not in this
+God-forsaken desert?"
+
+"On the square, George, I don't know any more why I'm here than--than
+you know."
+
+"Well, that beats me!" ejaculated Thorne, sitting back in his chair,
+amaze and concern in his expression.  "What the devil's wrong?
+Your old man's got too much money for you ever to be up against it.
+Dick, you couldn't have gone to the bad?"
+
+A tide of emotion surged over Gale.  How good it was to meet a
+friend--some one to whom to talk!  He had never appreciated his
+loneliness until that moment.
+
+"George, how I ever drifted down here I don't know.  I didn't
+exactly quarrel with the governor.  But--damn it, Dad hurt
+me--shamed me, and I dug out for the West.  It was this way.
+After leaving college I tried to please him by tackling one thing
+after another that he set me to do.  On the square, I had no head
+for business.  I made a mess of everything.  The governor got sore.
+He kept ramming the harpoon into me till I just couldn't stand it.
+What little ability I possessed deserted me when I got my back up,
+and there you are.  Dad and I had a rather uncomfortable half hour.
+When I quit--when I told him straight out that I was going West to
+fare for myself, why, it wouldn't have been so tough if he hadn't
+laughed at me.  He called me a rich man's son--an idle, easy-going
+spineless swell.  He said I didn't even have character enough to be out
+and out bad.  He said I didn't have sense enough to marry one of the nice
+girls in my sister's crowd.  He said I couldn't get back home unless I
+sent to him for money.  He said he didn't believe I could fight--could
+really make a fight for anything under the sun.  Oh--he--he shot
+it into me, all right."
+
+Dick dropped his head upon his hands, somewhat ashamed of the
+smarting dimness in his eyes.  He had not meant to say so much.
+Yet what a relief to let out that long-congested burden!
+
+"Fight!" cried Thorne, hotly.  "What's ailing him?  Didn't they
+call you Biff Gale in college?  Dick, you were one of the best
+men Stagg ever developed.  I heard him say so--that you were the
+fastest, one-hundred-and-seventy-five-pound man he'd ever trained,
+the hardest to stop."
+
+"The governor didn't count football," said Dick.  "He didn't mean
+that kind of fight.  When I left home I don't think I had an idea
+what was wrong with me.  But, George, I think I know now.  I was
+a rich man's son--spoiled, dependent, absolutely ignorant of the
+value of money.  I haven't yet discovered any earning capacity in
+me.  I seem to be unable to do anything with my hands.  That's the
+trouble.  But I'm at the end of my tether now.  And I'm going to
+punch cattle or be a miner, or do some real stunt--like joining
+the rebels."
+
+"Aha!  I thought you'd spring that last one on me," declared Thorne,
+wagging his head.  "Well, you just forget it.  Say, old boy, there's
+something doing in Mexico.  The United States in general doesn't
+realize it.  But across that line there are crazy revolutionists,
+ill-paid soldiers, guerrilla leaders, raiders, robbers, outlaws,
+bandits galore, starving peons by the thousand, girls and women
+in terror.  Mexico is like some of her volcanoes--ready to erupt
+fire and hell!  Don't make the awful mistake of joining rebel
+forces.  Americans are hated by Mexicans of the lower class--
+the fighting class, both rebel and federal.  Half the time
+these crazy Greasers are on one side, then on the other.
+If you didn't starve or get shot in ambush, or die of thirst,
+some Greaser would knife you in the back for you belt buckle
+or boots.  There are a good many Americans with the rebels
+eastward toward Agua, Prieta and Juarez.  Orozco is operating in
+Chihuahua, and I guess he has some idea of warfare.  But this is Sonora,
+a mountainous desert, the home of the slave and the Yaqui.  There's
+unorganized revolt everywhere.  The American miners and ranchers,
+those who could get away, have fled across into the States, leaving
+property.  Those who couldn't or wouldn't come must fight for their
+lives, are fighting now."
+
+"That's bad," said Gale.  "It's news to me.  Why doesn't the government
+take action, do something?"
+
+"Afraid of international complications.  Don't want to offend the
+Maderists, or be criticized by jealous foreign nations.  It's a
+delicate situation, Dick.  The Washington officials know the gravity
+of it, you can bet.  But the United States in general is in the dark,
+and the army--well, you ought to hear the inside talk back at San
+Antonio.  We're patrolling the boundary line.  We're making a grand
+bluff.  I could tell you of a dozen instances where cavalry should
+have pursued raiders on the other side of the line.  But we won't
+do it.  The officers are a grouchy lot these days.  You see, of
+course, what significance would attach to United States cavalry
+going into Mexican territory.  There would simply be hell.  My
+own colonel is the sorest man on the job.  We're all sore.  It's
+like sitting on a powder magazine.  We can't keep the rebels and
+raiders from crossing the line.  Yet we don't fight.  My commission
+expires soon.  I'll be discharged in three months.  You can bet
+I'm glad for more reasons than I've mentioned."
+
+Thorne was evidently laboring under strong, suppressed excitement.
+His face showed pale under the tan, and his eyes gleamed with a dark fire.
+Occasionally his delight at meeting, talking with Gale, dominated the other
+emotions, but not for long.  He had seated himself at a table near one of
+the doorlike windows leading into the street, and every little while
+he would glance sharply out.  Also he kept consulting his watch.
+
+These details gradually grew upon Gale as Thorne talked.
+
+"George, it strikes me that you're upset," said Dick, presently.  "I seem to
+remember you as a cool-headed fellow whom nothing could disturb.
+Has the army changed you?"
+
+Thorne laughed.  It was a laugh with a strange, high note.  It was
+reckless--it hinted of exaltation.  He rose abruptly; he gave the
+waiter money to go for drinks; he looked into the saloon, and then
+into the street.  On this side of the house there was a porch opening
+on a plaza with trees and shrubbery and branches.  Thorne peered
+out one window, then another.  His actions were rapid.  Returning
+to the table, he put his hands upon it and leaned over to look
+closely into Gale's face.
+
+"I'm away from camp without leave," he said.
+
+"Isn't that a serious offense?" asked Dick.
+
+"Serious?  For me, if I'm discovered, it means ruin.  There are
+rebels in town.  Any moment we might have trouble.  I ought to
+be ready for duty--within call.  If I'm discovered it means arrest.
+That means delay--the failure of my plans--ruin."
+
+Gale was silenced by his friend's intensity.  Thorne bent over
+closer with his dark eyes searching bright.
+
+"We were old pals--once?"
+
+"Surely," replied Dick.
+
+"What would you say, Dick Gale, if I told you that you're the one
+man I'd rather have had come along than any other at this crisis
+of my life?"
+
+The earnest gaze, the passionate voice with its deep tremor drew
+Dick upright, thrilling and eager, conscious of strange, unfamiliar
+impetuosity.
+
+"Thorne, I should say I was glad to be the fellow," replied Dick.
+
+Their hands locked for a moment, and they sat down again with heads
+close over the table.
+
+"Listen," began Thorne, in low, swift whisper, "a few days, a week
+ago--it seems like a year!--I was of some assistance to refugees
+fleeing from Mexico into the States.  They were all women, and one
+of them was dressed as a nun.  Quite by accident I saw her face.
+It was that of a beautiful girl.  I observed she kept aloof from
+the others.  I suspected a disguise, and, when opportunity afforded,
+spoke to her, offered my services.  She replied to my poor efforts at
+Spanish in fluent English.  She had fled in terror from her home,
+some place down in Sinaloa.  Rebels are active there.  Her father
+was captured and held for ransom.  When the ransom was paid the
+rebels killed him. The leader of these rebels was a bandit named
+Rojas.  Long before the revolution began he had been feared by people
+of class--loved by the peons.  Bandits are worshiped by the peons.
+All of the famous bandits have robbed the rich and given to the poor.
+Rojas saw the daughter, made off with her.  But she contrived to
+bribe her guards, and escaped almost immediately before any harm
+befell her.  She hid among friends.  Rojas nearly tore down the
+town in his efforts to find her.  Then she disguised herself, and
+traveled by horseback, stage, and train to Casita.
+
+"Her story fascinated me, and that one fleeting glimpse I had of
+her face I couldn't forget.  She had no friends here, no money.
+She knew Rojas was trailing her.  This talk I had with her was
+at the railroad station, where all was bustle and confusion.  No
+one noticed us, so I thought.  I advised her to remove the disguise
+of a nun before she left the waiting-room.  And I got a boy to
+guide her.  But he fetched her to his house.  I had promised to come
+in the evening to talk over the situation with her.
+
+"I found her, Dick, and when I saw her--I went stark, staring, raving
+mad over her.  She is the most beautiful, wonderful girl I ever saw.
+Her name is Mercedes Castaneda, and she belongs to one of the old
+wealthy Spanish families.  She has lived abroad and in Havana.  She
+speaks French as well as English.  She is--but I must be brief.
+
+"Dick, think, think!  With Mercedes also it was love at first sight.
+My plan is to marry her and get her farther to the interior, away
+from the border.  It may not be easy.  She's watched.  So am I.
+It was impossible to see her without the women of this house knowing.
+At first, perhaps, they had only curiosity--an itch to gossip.  But
+the last two days there has been a change.  Since last night there's
+some powerful influence at work.  Oh, these Mexicans are subtle,
+mysterious!  After all, they are Spaniards.  They work in secret,
+in the dark.  They are dominated first by religion, then by gold,
+then by passion for a woman.  Rojas must have got word to his
+friends here; yesterday his gang of cutthroat rebels arrived, and
+to-day he came.  When I learned that, I took my chance and left
+camp.  I hunted up a priest.  He promised to come here.  It's time
+he's due.  But I'm afraid he'll be stopped."
+
+"Thorne, why don't you take the girl and get married without waiting,
+without running these risks?" said Dick.
+
+"I fear it's too late now.  I should have done that last night.
+You see, we're over the line--"
+
+"Are we in Mexican territory now?" queried Gale, sharply.
+
+"I guess yes, old boy.  That's what complicates it.  Rojas and his
+rebels have Casita in their hands.  But Rojas without his rebels
+would be able to stop me, get the girl, and make for his mountain
+haunts.  If Mercedes is really watched--if her identity is known,
+which I am sure is the case--we couldn't get far from this house
+before I'd be knifed and she seized."
+
+"Good Heavens!  Thorne, can that sort of thing happen less than a
+stone's throw from the United States line?" asked Gale, incredulously.
+
+"It can happen, and don't you forget it.  You don't seem to realize
+the power these guerrilla leaders, these rebel captains, and
+particularly these bandits, exercise over the mass of Mexicans.
+A bandit is a man of honor in Mexico.  He is feared, envied, loved.
+In the hearts of the people he stands next to the national idol--the
+bull-fighter, the matador.  The race has a wild, barbarian, bloody
+strain.  Take Quinteros, for instance.  He was a peon, a slave.
+He became a famous bandit.  At the outbreak of the revolution he
+proclaimed himself a leader, and with a band of followers he
+devastated whole counties.  The opposition to federal forces was only
+a blind to rob and riot and carry off women.  The motto of this man
+and his followers was:  'Let us enjoy ourselves while we may!'
+
+"There are other bandits besides Quinteros, not so famous or such
+great leaders, but just as bloodthirsty.  I've seen Rojas.  He's
+a handsome, bold sneering devil, vainer than any peacock.  He decks
+himself in gold lace and sliver trappings, in all the finery he can
+steal.  He was one of the rebels who helped sack Sinaloa and carry
+off half a million in money and valuables.  Rojas spends gold like
+he spills blood.  But he is chiefly famous for abducting women.
+The peon girls consider it an honor to be ridden off with.  Rojas
+has shown a penchant for girls of the better class."
+
+Thorne wiped the perspiration from his pale face and bent a dark
+gaze out of the window before he resumed his talk.
+
+"Consider what the position of Mercedes really is.  I can't get
+any help from our side of the line.  If so, I don't know where.
+The population on that side is mostly Mexican, absolutely in
+sympathy with whatever actuates those on this side.  The whole
+caboodle of Greasers on both sides belong to the class in sympathy
+with the rebels, the class that secretly respects men like Rojas,
+and hates an aristocrat like Mercedes.  They would conspire to throw
+her into his power.  Rojas can turn all the hidden underground
+influences to his ends.  Unless I thwart him he'll get Mercedes as easily
+as he can light a cigarette.  But I'll kill him or some of his gang or her
+before I let him get her. . . . This is the situation, old friend.  I've
+little time to spare.  I face arrest for desertion.  Rojas is in town.
+I think I was followed to this hotel.  The priest has betrayed me
+or has been stopped.  Mercedes is here alone, waiting, absolutely
+dependent upon me to save her from--from....She's the sweetest,
+loveliest girl!...In a few moments--sooner or later there'll be hell
+here!  Dick, are you with me?"
+
+Dick Gale drew a long, deep breath.  A coldness, a lethargy, an
+indifference that had weighed upon him for months had passed out
+of his being.  On the instant he could not speak, but his hand
+closed powerfully upon his friend's.  Thorne's face changed wonderfully,
+the distress, the fear, the appeal all vanishing in a smile of
+passionate gratefulness.
+
+Then Dick's gaze, attracted by some slight sound, shot over his
+friend's shoulder to see a face at the window--a handsome, bold,
+sneering face, with glittering dark eyes that flashed in sinister
+intentness.
+
+Dick stiffened in his seat.  Thorne, with sudden clenching of hands,
+wheeled toward the window.
+
+"Rojas!" he whispered.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+MERCEDES CASTANEDA
+
+THE dark face vanished.  Dick Gale heard footsteps and the tinkle
+of spurs.  He strode to the window, and was in time to see a Mexican
+swagger into the front door of the saloon.  Dick had only a glimpse;
+but in that he saw a huge black sombrero with a gaudy band, the back
+of a short, tight-fitting jacket, a heavy pearl-handled gun swinging
+with a fringe of sash, and close-fitting trousers spreading wide
+at the bottom.  There were men passing in the street, also several
+Mexicans lounging against the hitching-rail at the curb.
+
+"Did you see him?  Where did he go?" whispered Thorne, as he joined
+Gale.  "Those Greasers out there with the cartridge belts crossed
+over their breasts--they are rebels."
+
+"I think he went into the saloon," replied Dick.  "He had a gun,
+but for all I can see the Greasers out there are unarmed."
+
+"Never believe it!  There!  Look, Dick!  That fellow's a guard,
+though he seems so unconcerned.  See, he has a short carbine, almost
+concealed....There's another Greaser farther down the path.  I'm
+afraid Rojas has the house spotted."
+
+"If we could only be sure."
+
+"I'm sure, Dick.  Let's cross the hall; I want to see how it looks
+from the other side of the house."
+
+Gale followed Thorne out of the restaurant into the high-ceiled
+corridor which evidently divided the hotel, opening into the street
+and running back to a patio.  A few dim, yellow lamps flickered.
+A Mexican with a blanket round his shoulders stood in the front entrance.
+Back toward the patio there were sounds of boots on the stone floor.
+Shadows flitted across that end of the corridor.  Thorne entered a huge
+chamber which was even more poorly lighted than the hall.  It contained
+a table littered with papers, a few high-backed chairs, a couple of
+couches, and was evidently a parlor.
+
+"Mercedes has been meeting me here," said Thorne.  "At this hour
+she comes every moment or so to the head of the stairs there, and
+if I am here she comes down.  Mostly there are people in this room
+a little later.  We go out into the plaza.  It faces the dark side
+of the house, and that's the place I must slip out with her if
+there's any chance at all to get away."
+
+They peered out of the open window.  The plaza was gloomy, and at
+first glance apparently deserted.  In a moment, however, Gale made
+out a slow-pacing dark form on the path.  Farther down there was
+another.  No particular keenness was required to see in these forms
+a sentinel-like stealthiness.
+
+Gripping Gale's arm, Thorne pulled back from the window.
+
+"You saw them," he whispered.  "It's just as I feared.  Rojas has
+the place surrounded.  I should have taken Mercedes away.  But I had
+no time--no chance!  I'm bound!...There's Mercedes now!  My God!...Dick,
+think--think if there's a way to get her out of this trap!"
+
+Gale turned as his friend went down the room.  In the dim light at
+the head of the stairs stood the slim, muffled figure of a woman.
+When she saw Thorne she flew noiselessly down the stairway to him.
+He caught her in his arms.  Then she spoke softly, brokenly, in a
+low, swift voice.  It was a mingling of incoherent Spanish and
+English; but to Gale it was mellow, deep, unutterably tender, a voice
+full of joy, fear, passion, hope, and love.  Upon Gale it had an
+unaccountable effect.  He found himself thrilling, wondering.
+
+Thorne led the girl to the center of the room, under the light where
+Gale stood.  She had raised a white hand, holding a black-laced
+mantilla half aside.  Dick saw a small, dark head, proudly held,
+an oval face half hidden, white as a flower, and magnificent
+black eyes.
+
+Then Thorne spoke.
+
+"Mercedes--Dick Gale, an old friend--the best friend I ever had."
+
+She swept the mantilla back over her head, disclosing a lovely face,
+strange and striking to Gale in its pride and fire, its intensity.
+
+"Senor Gale--ah!  I cannot speak my happiness.  His friend!"
+
+"Yes, Mercedes; my friend and yours," said Thorne, speaking rapidly.
+"We'll have need of him.  Dear, there's bad news and no time to
+break it gently.  The priest did not come.  He must have been
+detained.  And listen--be brave, dear Mercedes--Rojas is here!"
+
+She uttered an inarticulate cry, the poignant terror of which
+shook Gale's nerve, and swayed as if she would faint.  Thorne
+caught her, and in husky voice importuned her to bear up.
+
+"My darling!  For God's sake don't faint--don't go to pieces!
+We'd be lost!  We've got a chance.  We'll think of something.  Be
+strong!  Fight!"
+
+It was plain to Gale that Thorne was distracted.  He scarcely knew
+what he was saying.  Pale and shaking, he clasped Mercedes to him.
+Her terror had struck him helpless.  It was so intense--it was so
+full of horrible certainty of what fate awaited her.
+
+She cried out in Spanish, beseeching him; and as he shook his head,
+she changed to English:
+
+"Senor, my lover, I will be strong--I will fight--I will obey.
+But swear by my Virgin, if need be to save me from Rojas--you will
+kill me!"
+
+"Mercedes!  Yes, I'll swear," he replied hoarsely.  "I know--I'd
+rather have you dead than-- But don't give up.  Rojas can't be
+sure of you, or he wouldn't wait.  He's in there.  He's got his
+men there--all around us.  But he hesitates.  A beast like Rojas
+doesn't stand idle for nothing.  I tell you we've a chance.  Dick,
+here, will think of something.  We'll slip away.  Then he'll take
+you somewhere.  Only--speak to him--show him you won't weaken.
+Mercedes, this is more than love and happiness for us.  It's life
+or death."
+
+She became quiet, and slowly recovered control of herself.
+
+Suddenly she wheeled to face Gale with proud dark eyes, tragic
+sweetness of appeal, and exquisite grace.
+
+"Senor, you are an American.  You cannot know the Spanish blood--the
+peon bandit's hate and cruelty.  I wish to die before Rojas's hand
+touches me.  If he takes me alive, then the hour, the little day
+that my life lasts afterward will be tortured--torture of hell.
+If I live two days his brutal men will have me.  If I live three,
+the dogs of his camp...Senor, have you a sister whom you love?
+Help Senor Thorne to save me.  He is a soldier.  He is bound.
+He must not betray his honor, his duty, for me....Ah, you two
+splendid Americans--so big, so strong, so fierce!  What is that
+little black half-breed slave Rojas to such men?  Rojas is a coward.
+Now, let me waste no more precious time.  I am ready.  I will be
+brave."
+
+She came close to Gale, holding out her white hands, a woman all
+fire and soul and passion.  To Gale she was wonderful.  His heart
+leaped.  As he bent over her hands and kissed them he seemed to
+feel himself renewed, remade.
+
+"Senorita," he said, "I am happy to be your servant.  I can conceive
+of no greater pleasure than giving the service you require."
+
+"And what is that?" inquired Thorne, hurriedly.
+
+"That of incapacitating Senor Rojas for to-night, and perhaps
+several nights to come," replied Gale.
+
+"Dick, what will you do?" asked Thorne, now in alarm.
+
+"I'll make a row in that saloon," returned Dick, bluntly.  "I'll
+start something.  I'll rush Rojas and his crowd.  I'll--"
+
+"Lord, no; you mustn't, Dick--you'll be knifed!" cried Thorne.
+He was in distress, yet his eyes were shining.
+
+"I'll take a chance.  Maybe I can surprise that slow Greaser bunch
+and get away before they know what's happened....You be ready
+watching at the window.  When the row starts those fellows out
+there in the plaza will run into the saloon.  Then you slip out,
+go straight through the plaza down the street.  It's a dark street,
+I remember.  I'll catch up with you before you get far."
+
+Thorne gasped, but did not say a word.  Mercedes leaned against
+him, her white hands now at her breast, her great eyes watching
+Gale as he went out.
+
+In the corridor Gale stopped long enough to pull on a pair of heavy
+gloves, to muss his hair, and disarrange his collar.  Then he stepped
+into the restaurant, went through, and halted in the door leading
+into the saloon.  His five feet eleven inches and one hundred and
+eighty pounds were more noticeable there, and it was part of his
+plan to attract attention to himself.  No one, however, appeared
+to notice him.  The pool-players were noisily intent on their game,
+the same crowd of motley-robed Mexicans hung over the reeking bar.
+Gale's roving glance soon fixed upon the man he took to be Rojas.
+He recognized the huge, high-peaked, black sombrero with its
+ornamented band.  The Mexican's face was turned aside.  He was in
+earnest, excited colloquy with a dozen or more comrades, most of
+whom were sitting round a table.  They were listening, talking,
+drinking.  The fact that they wore cartridge belts crossed over
+their breasts satisfied that these were the rebels.  He had noted
+the belts of the Mexicans outside, who were apparently guards.  A waiter
+brought more drinks to this group at the table, and this caused
+the leader to turn so Gale could see his face.  It was indeed
+the sinister, sneering face of the bandit Rojas.  Gale gazed at
+the man with curiosity.  He was under medium height, and striking
+in appearance only because of his dandified dress and evil visage.
+He wore a lace scarf, a tight, bright-buttoned jacket, a buckskin
+vest embroidered in red, a sash and belt joined by an enormous
+silver clasp.  Gale saw again the pearl-handled gun swinging at
+the bandit's hip.  Jewels flashed in his scarf.  There were gold
+rings in his ears and diamonds on his fingers.
+
+Gale became conscious of an inward fire that threatened to overrun
+his coolness.  Other emotions harried his self-control.  It seemed
+as if sight of the man liberated or created a devil in Gale.  And
+at the bottom of his feelings there seemed to be a wonder at himself,
+a strange satisfaction for the something that had come to him.
+
+He stepped out of the doorway, down the couple of steps to the floor
+of the saloon, and he staggered a little, simulating drunkenness.
+He fell over the pool tables, jostled Mexicans at the bar, laughed
+like a maudlin fool, and, with his hat slouched down, crowded here
+and there.  Presently his eye caught sight of the group of cowboys
+whom he had before noticed with such interest.
+
+They were still in a corner somewhat isolated.  With fertile mind
+working, Gale lurched over to them.  He remembered his many
+unsuccessful attempts to get acquainted with cowboys.  If he were
+to get any help from these silent aloof rangers it must be by
+striking fire from them in one swift stroke.  Planting himself
+squarely before the two tall cowboys who were standing, he looked
+straight into their lean, bronzed faces.  He spared a full moment
+for that keen cool gaze before he spoke.
+
+"I'm not drunk.  I'm throwing a bluff, and I mean to start a rough
+house.  I'm going to rush that damned bandit Rojas.  It's to save
+a girl--to give her lover, who is my friend, a chance to escape with her.
+When I start a row my friend will try to slip out with her.  Every door
+and window is watched.  I've got to raise hell to draw the guards in....
+Well, you're my countrymen.  We're in Mexico.  A beautiful girl's honor
+and life are at stake.  Now, gentlemen, watch me!"
+
+One cowboy's eyes narrowed, blinking a little, and his lean jaw
+dropped; the other's hard face rippled with a fleeting smile.
+
+Gale backed away, and his pulse leaped when he saw the two cowboys,
+as if with one purpose, slowly stride after him.  Then Gale swerved,
+staggering along, brushed against the tables, kicked over the empty
+chairs.  He passed Rojas and his gang, and out of the tail of his
+eye saw that the bandit was watching him, waving his hands and
+talking fiercely.  The hum of the many voices grew louder, and
+when Dick lurched against a table, overturning it and spilling
+glasses into the laps of several Mexicans, there arose a shrill cry.
+He had succeeded in attracting attention; almost every face turned
+his way.  One of the insulted men, a little tawny fellow, leaped
+up to confront Gale, and in a frenzy screamed a volley of Spanish,
+of which Gale distinguished "Gringo!"  The Mexican stamped and
+made a threatening move with his right hand.  Dick swung his leg
+and with a swift side kick knocked the fellows feet from under
+him, whirling him down with a thud.
+
+The action was performed so suddenly, so adroitly, it made the
+Mexican such a weakling, so like a tumbled tenpin, that the shrill
+jabbering hushed.  Gale knew this to be the significant moment.
+
+Wheeling, he rushed at Rojas.  It was his old line-breaking plunge.
+Neither Rojas nor his men had time to move.  The black-skinned
+bandit's face turned a dirty white; his jaw dropped; he would have
+shrieked if Gale had not hit him.  The blow swept him backward against
+his men.  Then Gale's heavy body, swiftly following with the momentum
+of that rush, struck the little group of rebels.  They went down
+with table and chairs in a sliding crash.
+
+Gale carried by his plunge, went with them.  Like a cat he landed
+on top.  As he rose his powerful hands fastened on Rojas.  He
+jerked the little bandit off the tangled pile of struggling,
+yelling men, and, swinging him with terrific force, let go his
+hold.  Rojas slid along the floor, knocking over tables and chairs.
+Gale bounded back, dragged Rojas up, handling him as if he were a
+limp sack.
+
+A shot rang out above the yells.  Gale heard the jingle of breaking
+glass.  The room darkened perceptibly.  He flashed a glance backward.
+The two cowboys were between him and the crowd of frantic rebels.
+One cowboy held two guns low down, level in front of him.  The other
+had his gun raised and aimed.  On the instant it spouted red and
+white.  With the crack came the crashing of glass, another darkening
+shade over the room.  With a cry Gale slung the bleeding Rojas from
+him.  The bandit struck a table, toppled over it, fell, and lay prone.
+
+Another shot made the room full of moving shadows, with light only
+back of the bar.  A white-clad figure rushed at Gale.  He tripped
+the man, but had to kick hard to disengage himself from grasping
+hands.  Another figure closed in on Gale.  This one was dark, swift.
+A blade glinted--described a circle aloft.  Simultaneously with a
+close, red flash the knife wavered; the man wielding it stumbled
+backward.  In the din Gale did not hear a report, but the Mexican's
+fall was significant.  Then pandemonium broke loose.  The din
+became a roar.  Gale heard shots that sounded like dull spats in
+the distance.  The big lamp behind the bar seemingly split, then
+sputtered and went out, leaving the room in darkness.
+
+Gale leaped toward the restaurant door, which was outlined faintly
+by the yellow light within.  Right and left he pushed the groping
+men who jostled with him.  He vaulted a pool table, sent tables
+and chairs flying, and gained the door, to be the first of a wedging
+mob to squeeze through.  One sweep of his arm knocked the restaurant
+lamp from its stand; and he ran out, leaving darkness behind him.
+A few bounds took him into the parlor.  It was deserted.  Thorne
+had gotten away with Mercedes.
+
+It was then Gale slowed up.  For the space of perhaps sixty seconds
+he had been moving with startling velocity.  He peered cautiously
+out into the plaza.  The paths, the benches, the shady places under
+the trees contained no skulking men.  He ran out, keeping to the
+shade, and did not go into the path till he was halfway through
+the plaza.  Under a street lamp at the far end of the path he thought
+he saw two dark figures.  He ran faster, and soon reached the street.
+The uproar back in the hotel began to diminish, or else he was
+getting out of hearing.  The few people he saw close at hand were
+all coming his way, and only the foremost showed any excitement.
+Gale walked swiftly, peering ahead for two figures.  Presently he
+saw them--one tall, wearing a cape; the other slight, mantled.  Gale
+drew a sharp breath of relief.  Throne and Mercedes were not far ahead.
+
+From time to time Thorne looked back.  He strode swiftly, almost
+carrying Mercedes, who clung closely to him.  She, too, looked back.
+Once Gale saw her white face flash in the light of a street lamp.
+He began to overhaul them; and soon, when the last lamp had been
+passed and the street was dark, he ventured a whistle.  Thorne
+heard it, for he turned, whistled a low reply, and went on.  Not
+for some distance beyond, where the street ended in open country,
+did they halt to wait.  The desert began here.  Gale felt the soft
+sand under his feet and saw the grotesque forms of cactus.  Then
+he came up with the fugitives.
+
+"Dick!  Are you--all right?" panted Thorne, grasping Gale.
+
+"I'm--out of breath--but--O.K.," replied Gale.
+
+"Good! Good!" choked Thorne.  "I was scared--helpless....Dick, it
+worked splendidly.  We had no trouble.  What on earth did you do?"
+
+"I made the row, all right," said Dick.
+
+"Good Heavens!  It was like a row I once heard made by a mob.  But
+the shots, Dick--were they at you?  They paralyzed me.  Then the
+yells.  What happened?  Those guards of Rojas ran round in front
+at the first shot.  Tell me what happened."
+
+"While I was rushing Rojas a couple of cowboys shot out the lamplights.
+A Mexican who pulled a knife on me got hurt, I guess.  Then I think
+there was some shooting from the rebels after the room was dark."
+
+"Rushing Rojas?" queried Thorne, leaning close to Dick.  His voice
+was thrilling, exultant, deep with a joy that yet needed confirmation.
+"What did you do to him?"
+
+"I handed him one off side, tackled, then tried a forward pass,"
+replied Dick, lightly speaking the football vernacular so familiar
+to Thorne.
+
+Thorne leaned closer, his fine face showing fierce and corded in
+the starlight.  "Tell me straight," he demanded, in thick voice.
+
+Gale then divined something of the suffering Thorne had undergone
+--something of the hot, wild, vengeful passion of a lover who must
+have brutal truth.
+
+It stilled Dick's lighter mood, and he was about to reply when
+Mercedes pressed close to him, touched his hands, looked up into
+his face with wonderful eyes.  He thought he would not soon forget
+their beauty--the shadow of pain that had been, the hope dawning
+so fugitively.
+
+"Dear lady," said Gale, with voice not wholly steady, "Rojas himself
+will hound you no more to-night, nor for many nights."
+
+She seemed to shake, to thrill, to rise with the intelligence.
+She pressed his hand close over her heaving breast.  Gale felt
+the quick throb of her heart.
+
+"Senor!  Senor Dick!" she cried.  Then her voice failed.  But
+her hands flew up; quick as a flash she raised her face--kissed
+him.  Then she turned and with a sob fell into Thorne's arms.
+
+There ensued a silence broken only by Mercedes' sobbing.  Gale
+walked some paces away.  If he were not stunned, he certainly was
+agitated.  The strange, sweet fire of that girl's lips remained
+with him.  On the spur of the moment he imagined he had a jealousy
+of Thorne.  But presently this passed.  It was only that he had
+been deeply moved--stirred to the depths during the last hour--had
+become conscious of the awakening of a spirit.  What remained with
+him now was the splendid glow of gladness that he had been of service
+to Thorne.  And by the intensity of Mercedes' abandon of relief and
+gratitude he measured her agony of terror and the fate he had spared her.
+
+"Dick, Dick, come here!" called Thorne softly.  "Let's pull ourselves
+together now.  We've got a problem yet.  What to do?  Where to go?
+How to get any place?  We don't dare risk the station--the corrals
+where Mexicans hire out horses.  We're on good old U.S. ground this
+minute, but we're not out of danger."
+
+As he paused, evidently hoping for a suggestion from Gale, the silence
+was broken by the clear, ringing peal of a bugle.  Thorne gave a
+violent start.  Then he bent over, listening.  The beautiful notes
+of the bugle floated out of the darkness, clearer, sharper, faster.
+
+"It's a call, Dick!  It's a call!" he cried.
+
+Gale had no answer to make.  Mercedes stood as if stricken.  The
+bugle call ended.  From a distance another faintly pealed.  There
+were other sounds too remote to recognize.  Then scattering shots
+rattled out.
+
+"Dick, the rebels are fighting somebody," burst out Thorne,
+excitedly.  "The little federal garrison still holds its stand.
+Perhaps it is attacked again.  Anyway, there's something doing over
+the line.  Maybe the crazy Greasers are firing on our camp.  We've
+feared it--in the dark....And here I am, away without
+leave--practically a deserter!"
+
+"Go back!  Go back, before you're too late!" cried Mercedes.
+
+"Better make tracks, Thorne," added Gale.  "It can't help our
+predicament for you to be arrested.  I'll take care of Mercedes."
+
+"No, no, no," replied Thorne.  "I can get away--avoid arrest."
+
+"That'd be all right for the immediate present.  But it's not best
+for the future.  George, a deserter is a deserter!...Better hurry.
+Leave the girl to me till tomorrow."
+
+Mercedes embraced her lover, begged him to go.  Thorne wavered.
+
+"Dick, I'm up against it," he said.  "You're right.  If only I can
+get back in time.  But, oh, I hate to leave her!  Old fellow, you've
+saved her!  I already owe you everlasting gratitude.  Keep out of
+Casita, Dick.  The U.S. side might be safe, but I'm afraid to trust
+it at night.  Go out in the desert, up in the mountains, in some
+safe place.  Then come to me in camp.  We'll plan.  I'll have to
+confide in Colonel Weede.  Maybe he'll help us.  Hide her from the
+rebels--that's all."
+
+He wrung Dick's hand, clasped Mercedes tightly in his arms, kissed
+her, and murmured low over her, then released her to rush off into
+the darkness.  He disappeared in the gloom.  The sound of his dull
+footfalls gradually died away.
+
+For a moment the desert silence oppressed Gale.  He was unaccustomed
+to such strange stillness.  There was a low stir of sand, a rustle
+of stiff leaves in the wind.  How white the stars burned!  Then a
+coyote barked, to be bayed by a dog.  Gale realized that he was
+between the edge of an unknown desert and the edge of a hostile town.
+He had to choose the desert, because, though he had no doubt that in Casita
+there were many Americans who might befriend him, he could not chance
+the risks of seeking them at night.
+
+He felt a slight touch on his arm, felt it move down, felt Mercedes
+slip a trembling cold little hand into his.  Dick looked at her.
+She seemed a white-faced girl now, with staring, frightened black
+eyes that flashed up at him.  If the loneliness, the silence, the
+desert, the unknown dangers of the night affected him, what must
+they be to this hunted, driven girl?  Gale's heart swelled.  He
+was alone with her.  He had no weapon, no money, no food, no drink,
+no covering, nothing except his two hands.  He had absolutely no
+knowledge of the desert, of the direction or whereabouts of the
+boundary line between the republics; he did not know where to find
+the railroad, or any road or trail, or whether or not there were
+towns near or far.  It was a critical, desperate situation.  He
+thought first of the girl, and groaned in spirit, prayed that it
+would be given him to save her.  When he remembered himself it was
+with the stunning consciousness that he could conceive of no
+situation which he would have exchanged for this one--where fortune
+had set him a perilous task of loyalty to a friend, to a helpless
+girl.
+
+"Senor, senor!" suddenly whispered Mercedes, clinging to him.
+"Listen!  I hear horses coming!"
+
+
+
+III
+
+A FLIGHT INTO THE DESERT
+
+UNEASY and startled, Gale listened and, hearing nothing, wondered
+if Mercedes's fears had not worked upon her imagination.  He felt
+a trembling seize her, and he held her hands tightly.
+
+"You were mistaken, I guess," he whispered.
+
+"No, no, senor."
+
+Dick turned his ear to the soft wind.  Presently he heard, or
+imagined he heard, low beats.  Like the first faint, far-off beats
+of a drumming grouse, they recalled to him the Illinois forests of
+his boyhood.  In a moment he was certain the sounds were the padlike
+steps of hoofs in yielding sand.  The regular tramp was not that of
+grazing horses.
+
+On the instant, made cautious and stealthy by alarm, Gale drew
+Mercedes deeper into the gloom of the shrubbery.  Sharp pricks from
+thorns warned him that he was pressing into a cactus growth, and
+he protected Mercedes as best he could.  She was shaking as one with
+a sever chill.  She breathed with little hurried pants and leaned
+upon him almost in collapse.  Gale ground his teeth in helpless
+rage at the girl's fate.  If she had not been beautiful she might
+still have been free and happy in her home.  What a strange world
+to live in--how unfair was fate!
+
+The sounds of hoofbeats grew louder.  Gale made out a dark moving
+mass against a background of dull gray.  There was a line of horses.
+He could not discern whether or not all the horses carried riders.
+The murmur of a voice struck his ear--then a low laugh.  It made him
+tingle, for it sounded American.  Eagerly he listened.  There
+was an interval when only the hoofbeats could be heard.
+
+"It shore was, Laddy, it shore was," came a voice out of the darkness.
+"Rough house!  Laddy, since wire fences drove us out of Texas we ain't
+seen the like of that.  An' we never had such a call."
+
+"Call?  It was a burnin' roast," replied another voice.  "I felt
+low down.  He vamoosed some sudden, an' I hope he an' his friends
+shook the dust of Casita.  That's a rotten town Jim."
+
+Gale jumped up in joy.  What luck!  The speakers were none other
+than the two cowboys whom he had accosted in the Mexican hotel.
+
+"Hold on, fellows," he called out, and strode into the road.
+
+The horses snorted and stamped.  Then followed swift rustling
+sounds--a clinking of spurs, then silence.  The figures loomed
+clearer in the gloom.. Gale saw five or six horses, two with
+riders, and one other, at least, carrying a pack.  When Gale got
+within fifteen feet of the group the foremost horseman said:
+
+"I reckon that's close enough, stranger."
+
+Something in the cowboy's hand glinted darkly bright in the starlight.
+
+"You'd recognize me, if it wasn't so dark," replied Gale, halting.
+"I spoke to you a little while ago--in the saloon back there."
+
+"Come over an' let's see you," said the cowboy curtly.
+
+Gale advanced till he was close to the horse.  The cowboy leaned
+over the saddle and peered into Gale's face.  Then, without a word,
+he sheathed the gun and held out his hand.  Gale met a grip of
+steel that warmed his blood.  The other cowboy got off his nervous,
+spirited horse and threw the bridle.  He, too, peered closely into
+Gale's face.
+
+"My name's Ladd," he said.  "Reckon I'm some glad to meet you again."
+
+Gale felt another grip as hard and strong as the other had been.  He
+realized he had found friends who belonged to a class of men whom he
+had despaired of ever knowing.
+
+"Gale--Dick Gale is my name," he began, swiftly.  "I dropped into
+Casita to-night hardly knowing where I was.  A boy took me to that
+hotel.  There I met an old friend whom I had not seen for years.
+He belongs to the cavalry stationed here.  He had befriended a
+Spanish girl--fallen in love with her.  Rojas had killed this girl's
+father--tried to abduct her....You know what took place at the hotel.
+Gentlemen, if it's ever possible, I'll show you how I appreciate
+what you did for me there.  I got away, found my friend with the
+girl.  We hurried out here beyond the edge of town.  Then Thorne
+had to make a break for camp.  We heard bugle calls, shots, and he
+was away without leave.  That left the girl with me.  I don't know
+what to do.  Thorne swears Casita is no place for Mercedes at night."
+
+"The girl ain't no peon, no common Greaser?" interrupted Ladd.
+
+"No.  Her name is Castaneda.  She belongs to an old Spanish family,
+once rich and influential."
+
+"Reckoned as much," replied the cowboy.  "There's more than Rojas's
+wantin' to kidnap a pretty girl.  Shore he does that every day or so.
+Must be somethin' political or feelin' against class.  Well, Casita
+ain't no place for your friend's girl at night or day, or any time.
+Shore, there's Americans who'd take her in an' fight for her, if
+necessary.  But it ain't wise to risk that.  Lash, what do you say?"
+
+"It's been gettin' hotter round this Greaser corral for some weeks,"
+replied the other cowboy.  "If that two-bit of a garrison surrenders,
+there's no tellin' what'll happen.  Orozco is headin' west from Agua Prieta
+with his guerrillas.  Campo is burnin' bridges an' tearin' up the railroad
+south of Nogales.  Then there's all these bandits callin' themselves
+revolutionists just for an excuse to steal, burn, kill, an' ride
+off with women.  It's plain facts, Laddy, an' bein' across the U.S.
+line a few inches or so don't make no hell of a difference.  My advice
+is, don't let Miss Castaneda ever set foot in Casita again."
+
+"Looks like you've shore spoke sense," said Ladd.  "I reckon, Gale,
+you an' the girl ought to come with us.  Casita shore would be a
+little warm for us to-morrow.  We didn't kill anybody, but I shot
+a Greaser's arm off, an' Lash strained friendly relations by destroyin'
+property.  We know people who'll take care of the senorita till
+your friend can come for her."
+
+Dick warmly spoke his gratefulness, and, inexpressibly relieved and
+happy for Mercedes, he went toward the clump of cactus where he had
+left her.  She stood erect, waiting, and, dark as it was, he could
+tell she had lost the terror that had so shaken her.
+
+"Senor Gale, you are my good angel," she said, tremulously.
+
+"I've been lucky to fall in with these men, and I'm glad with all
+my heart," he replied.  "Come."
+
+He led her into the road up to the cowboys, who now stood bareheaded
+in the starlight.  They seemed shy, and Lash was silent while Ladd
+made embarrassed, unintelligible reply to Mercedes's's thanks.
+
+There were five horses--two saddled, two packed, and the remaining
+one carried only a blanket.  Ladd shortened the stirrups on his
+mount, and helped Mercedes up into the saddle.  From the way she
+settled herself and took the few restive prances of the mettlesome
+horse Gale judged that she could ride.  Lash urged Gale to take his
+horse.  But this Gale refused to do.
+
+"I'll walk," he said.  "I'm used to walking.  I know cowboys are not."
+
+They tried again to persuade him, without avail.  Then Ladd started off,
+riding bareback.  Mercedes fell in behind, with Gale walking beside her.
+The two pack animals came next, and Lash brought up the rear.
+
+Once started with protection assured for the girl and a real objective
+point in view, Gale relaxed from the tense strain he had been laboring
+under.  How glad he would have been to acquaint Thorne with their
+good fortune!  Later, of course, there would be some way to get word
+to the cavalryman.  But till then what torments his friend would suffer!
+
+It seemed to Dick that a very long time had elapsed since he stepped
+off the train; and one by one he went over every detail of incident
+which had occurred between that arrival and the present moment.  Strange
+as the facts were, he had no doubts.  He realized that before that
+night he had never known the deeps of wrath undisturbed in him; he
+had never conceived even a passing idea that it was possible for him
+to try to kill a man.  His right hand was swollen stiff, so sore
+that he could scarcely close it.  His knuckles were bruised and
+bleeding, and ached with a sharp pain.  Considering the thickness of
+his heavy glove, Gale was of the opinion that so to bruise his hand
+he must have struck Rojas a powerful blow.  He remembered that for
+him to give or take a blow had been nothing.  This blow to Rojas,
+however, had been a different matter.  The hot wrath which had been
+his motive was not puzzling; but the effect on him after he had
+cooled off, a subtle difference, something puzzled and eluded him.
+The more it baffled him the more he pondered.  All those wandering
+months of his had been filled with dissatisfaction, yet he had been
+too apathetic to understand himself.  So he had not been much of
+a person to try.  Perhaps it had not been the blow to Rojas any
+more than other things that had wrought some change in him.
+
+His meeting with Thorne; the wonderful black eyes of a Spanish
+girl; her appeal to him; the hate inspired by Rojas, and the rush,
+the blow, the action; sight of Thorne and  Mercedes hurrying safely away;
+the girl's hand pressing his to her heaving breast; the sweet fire
+of her kiss; the fact of her being alone with him, dependent upon him--
+all these things Gale turned over and over in his mind, only to fail
+of any definite conclusion as to which had affected him so remarkably,
+or to tell what had really happened to him.
+
+Had he fallen in love with Thorne's sweetheart?  The idea came in
+a flash.  Was he, all in an instant, and by one of those incomprehensible
+reversals of  character, jealous of his friend?  Dick was almost afraid
+to look up at Mercedes.  Still he forced himself to do so, and as it
+chanced Mercedes was looking down at him.  Somehow the light was
+better, and he clearly saw her white face, her black and starry eyes,
+her perfect mouth.  With a quick, graceful impulsiveness she put
+her hand upon his shoulder.  Like her appearance, the action was
+new, strange, striking to Gale; but it brought home suddenly to him
+the nature of gratitude and affection in a girl of her blood.  It was
+sweet and sisterly.  He knew then that he had not fallen in love
+with her.  The feeling that was akin to jealousy seemed to be of
+the beautiful something for which Mercedes stood in Thorne's life.
+Gale then grasped the bewildering possibilities, the infinite wonder
+of what a girl could mean to a man.
+
+The other haunting intimations of change seemed to be elusively
+blended with sensations--the heat and thrill of action, the sense
+of something done and more to do, the utter vanishing of an old
+weary hunt for he knew not what.  Maybe it had been a hunt
+for work, for energy, for spirit, for love, for his real self.
+Whatever it might be, there appeared to be now some hope of
+finding it.
+
+The desert began to lighten.  Gray openings in the border of shrubby
+growths changed to paler hue.  The road could be seen some rods
+ahead, and it had become a stony descent down, steadily down.
+Dark, ridged backs of mountains bounded the horizon, and all seemed
+near at hand, hemming in the plain.  In the east a white glow grew brighter
+and brighter, reaching up to a line of cloud, defined sharply below by
+a rugged notched range.  Presently a silver circle rose behind the
+black mountain, and the gloom of the desert underwent a transformation.
+From a gray mantle it changed to a transparent haze.  The moon
+was rising.
+
+"Senor I am cold," said Mercedes.
+
+Dick had been carrying his coat upon his arm.  He had felt warm,
+even hot, and had imagined that the steady walk had occasioned
+it.  But his skin was cool.  The heat came from an inward burning.
+He stopped the horse and raised the coat up, and helped Mercedes
+put it on.
+
+"I should have thought of you," he said.  "But I seemed to feel
+warm . . . The coat's a little large; we might wrap it round you
+twice."
+
+Mercedes smiled and lightly thanked him in Spanish.  The flash
+of mood was in direct contrast to the appealing, passionate,
+and tragic states in which he had successively viewed her; and
+it gave him a vivid impression of what vivacity and charm she might
+possess under happy conditions.  He was about to start when he
+observed that Ladd had halted and was peering ahead in evident
+caution.  Mercedes' horse began to stamp impatiently, raised his
+ears and head, and acted as if he was about to neigh.
+
+A warning "hist!" from Ladd bade Dick to put a quieting hand on
+the horse.  Lash came noiselessly forward to join his companion.
+The two then listened and watched.
+
+An uneasy yet thrilling stir ran through Gale's veins.  This scene
+was not fancy.  These men of the ranges had heard or seen or
+scented danger.  It was all real, as tangible and sure as the
+touch of Mercedes's hand upon his arm.  Probably for her the
+night had terrors beyond Gale's power to comprehend.  He looked
+down into the desert, and would have felt no surprise at anything hidden
+away among the bristling cactus, the dark, winding arroyos, the shadowed
+rocks with their moonlit tips, the ragged plain leading to the black
+bold mountains.  The wind appeared to blow softly, with an almost
+imperceptible moan, over the desert.  That was a new sound to Gale.
+But he heard nothing more.
+
+Presently Lash went to the rear and Ladd started ahead.  The progress
+now, however, was considerably slower, not owing to a road--for that
+became better--but probably owing to caution exercised by the
+cowboy guide.  At the end of a half hour this marked deliberation
+changed, and the horses followed Ladd's at a gait that put Gale to
+his best walking-paces.
+
+Meanwhile the moon soared high above the black corrugated peaks.
+The gray, the gloom, the shadow whitened.  The clearing of the dark
+foreground appeared to lift a distant veil and show endless aisles of
+desert reaching down between dim horizon-bounding ranges.
+
+Gale gazed abroad, knowing that as this night was the first time
+for him to awake to consciousness of a vague, wonderful other
+self, so it was one wherein he began to be aware of an encroaching
+presence of physical things--the immensity of the star-studded sky,
+the soaring moon, the bleak, mysterious mountains, and limitless
+slope, and plain, and ridge, and valley.  These things in all their
+magnificence had not been unnoticed by him before; only now they
+spoke a different meaning.  A voice that he had never heard called
+him to see, to feel the vast hard externals of heaven and earth, all
+that represented the open, the free, silence and solitude and space.
+
+Once more his thoughts, like his steps, were halted by Ladd's actions.
+The cowboy reined in his horse, listened a moment, then swung down
+out of the saddle.  He raised a cautioning hand to the others, then
+slipped into the gloom and disappeared.  Gale marked that the halt
+had been made in a ridged and cut-up pass between low mesas.
+He could see the columns of cactus standing out black against
+the moon-white sky.  The horses were evidently tiring, for they showed
+no impatience.  Gale heard their panting breaths, and also the bark
+of some animal--a dog or a coyote.  It sounded like a dog, and this
+led Gale to wonder if there was any house near at hand.  To the
+right, up under the ledges some distance away, stood two square
+black objects, too uniform, he thought, to be rocks.  While he was
+peering at them, uncertain what to think, the shrill whistle of a
+horse pealed out, to be followed by the rattling of hoofs on hard
+stone.  Then a dog barked.  At the same moment that Ladd hurriedly
+appeared in the road a light shone out and danced before one of
+the square black objects.
+
+"Keep close an' don't make no noise," he whispered, and led his
+horse at right angles off the road.
+
+Gale followed, leading Mercedes's horse.  As he turned he observed
+that Lash also had dismounted.
+
+To keep closely at Ladd's heels without brushing the cactus or
+stumbling over rocks and depressions was a task Gale found impossible.
+After he had been stabbed several times by the bayonetlike spikes,
+which seemed invisible, the matter of caution became equally one
+of self-preservation.  Both the cowboys, Dick had observed, wore
+leather chaps.  It was no easy matter to lead a spirited horse
+through the dark, winding lanes walled by thorns.  Mercedes horse
+often balked and had to be coaxed and carefully guided.  Dick
+concluded that Ladd was making a wide detour.  The position of
+certain stars grown familiar during the march veered round from
+one side to another.  Dick saw that the travel was fast, but by
+no means noiseless.  The pack animals at times crashed and ripped
+through the narrow places.  It seemed to Gale that any one within
+a mile could have heard these sounds.  From the tops of knolls or
+ridges he looked back, trying to locate the mesas where the light
+had danced and the dog had barked alarm.  He could not distinguish
+these two rocky eminences from among many rising in the background.
+
+Presently Ladd let out into a wider lane that appeared to run
+straight.  The cowboy mounted his horse, and this fact convinced
+Gale that they had circled back to the road.  The march proceeded
+then once more at a good, steady, silent walk.  When Dick consulted
+his watch he was amazed to see that the hour was till early.  How
+much had happened in little time!  He now began to be aware that
+the night was growing colder; and, strange to him, he felt something
+damp that in a country he knew he would have recognized as dew.
+He had not been aware there was dew on the desert.  The wind blew
+stronger, the stars shone whiter, the sky grew darker, and the moon
+climbed toward the zenith.  The road stretched level for miles, then
+crossed arroyos and ridges, wound between mounds of broken
+ruined rock, found a level again, and then began a long ascent.
+Dick asked Mercedes if she was cold, and she answered that she
+was, speaking especially of her feet, which were growing numb.
+Then she asked to be helped down to walk awhile.  At first she was
+cold and lame, and accepted the helping hand Dick proffered.  After
+a little, however, she recovered and went on without assistance.
+Dick could scarcely believe his eyes, as from time to time he stole
+a sidelong glance at this silent girl, who walked with lithe and
+rapid stride.  She was wrapped in his long coat, yet it did not hide
+her slender grace.  He could not see her face, which was concealed
+by the black mantle.
+
+A low-spoken word from Ladd recalled Gale to the question of
+surroundings and of possible dangers.  Ladd had halted a few yards
+ahead.  They had reached the summit of what was evidently a high
+ridge which sloped with much greater steepness on the far side.
+It was only after a few more forward steps, however, that Dick
+could see down the slope.  Then full in view flashed a bright
+campfire around which clustered a group of dark figures.  They
+were encamped in a wide arroyo, where horses could be seen grazing
+in black patches of grass between clusters of trees.  A second look
+at the campers told Gale they were Mexicans.  At this moment Lash
+came forward to join Ladd, and the two spent a long, uninterrupted
+moment studying the arroyo.  A hoarse laugh, faint yet distinct,
+floated up on the cool wind.
+
+"Well, Laddy, what're you makin' of that outfit?" inquired Lash,
+speaking softly.
+
+"Same as any of them raider outfits," replied Ladd.  "They're
+across the line for beef.  But they'll run off any good stock.  As
+hoss thieves these rebels have got 'em all beat.  That outfit is
+waitin' till it's late.  There's a ranch up the arroyo."
+
+Gale heard the first speaker curse under his breath.
+
+"Sure, I feel the same," said Ladd.  "But we've got a girl an'
+the young man to look after, not to mention our pack outfit.
+An' we're huntin' for a job, not a fight, old hoss.  Keep on your chaps!"
+
+"Nothin' to it but head south for the Rio Forlorn."
+
+"You're talkin' sense now, Jim.  I wish we'd headed that way long
+ago.  But it ain't strange I'd want to travel away from the border,
+thinkin' of the girl.  Jim, we can't go round this Greaser outfit
+an' strike the road again.  Too rough.  So we'll have to give up
+gettin' to San Felipe."
+
+"Perhaps it's just as well, Laddy.  Rio Forlorn is on the border
+line, but it's country where these rebels ain't been yet."
+
+"Wait till they learn of the oasis an' Beldin's hosses!" exclaimed
+Laddy.  "I'm not anticipatin' peace anywhere along the border,
+Jim.  But we can't go ahead; we can't go back."
+
+"What'll we do, Laddy?  It's a hike to Beldin's ranch.  An' if we
+get there in daylight some Greaser will see the girl before Beldin'
+can hide her.  It'll get talked about.  The news'll travel to Casita
+like sage balls before the wind."
+
+"Shore we won't ride into Rio Forlorn in the daytime.  Let's slip
+the packs, Jim.  We can hid them off in the cactus an' come back
+after them.  With the young man ridin' we--"
+
+The whispering was interrupted by a loud ringing neigh that whistled
+up from the arroyo.  One of the horses had scented the travelers
+on the ridge top.  The indifference of the Mexicans changed to
+attention.
+
+Ladd and Lash turned back and led the horses into the first opening
+on the south side of the road.  There was nothing more said at the
+moment, and manifestly the cowboys were in a hurry.  Gale had to
+run in the open places to keep up.  When they did stop it was
+welcome to Gale, for he had begun to fall behind.
+
+The packs were slipped, securely tied and hidden in a mesquite
+clump.  Ladd strapped a blanket around one of the horses.  His
+next move was to take off his chaps.
+
+"Gale, you're wearin' boots, an' by liftin' your feet you can beat
+the cactus," he whispered.  "But the--the--Miss Castaneda,
+she'll be torn all to pieces unless she puts these on.  Please
+tell her--an' hurry."
+
+Dick took the caps, and, going up to Mercedes, he explained the
+situation.  She laughed, evidently at his embarrassed earnestness,
+and slipped out of the saddle.
+
+"Senor, chapparejos and I are not strangers," she said.
+
+Deftly and promptly she equipped herself, and then Gale helped
+her into the saddle, called to her horse, and started off.  Lash
+directed Gale to mount the other saddled horse and go next.
+
+Dick had not ridden a hundred yards behind the trotting leaders
+before he had sundry painful encounters with reaching cactus arms.
+The horse missed these by a narrow margin.  Dick's knees appeared
+to be in line, and it became necessary for him to lift them high and
+let his boots take the onslaught of the spikes.  He was at home
+in the saddle, and the accomplishment was about the only one he
+possessed that had been of any advantage during his sojourn in the West.
+
+Ladd pursued a zigzag course southward across the desert, trotting
+down the aisles, cantering in wide, bare patches, walking through
+the clumps of cacti.  The desert seemed all of a sameness to
+Dick--a wilderness of rocks and jagged growths hemmed in by
+lowering ranges, always looking close, yet never growing any nearer.
+The moon slanted back toward the west, losing its white radiance,
+and the gloom of the earlier evening began to creep into the washes
+and to darken under the mesas.  By and by Ladd entered an arroyo,
+and here the travelers turned and twisted with the meanderings
+of a dry stream bed.  At the head of a canyon they had to take
+once more to the rougher ground.  Always it led down, always it
+grew rougher, more rolling, with wider bare spaces, always the
+black ranges loomed close.
+
+Gale became chilled to the bone, and his clothes were damp and cold.
+His knees smarted from the wounds of the poisoned thorns, and his
+right hand was either swollen stiff or too numb to move.  Moreover,
+he was tiring.  The excitement, the long walk, the miles on miles
+of jolting trot--these had wearied him.  Mercedes must be made of
+steel, he thought, to stand all that she had been subjected to and
+yet, when the stars were paling and dawn perhaps not far away,
+stay in the saddle.
+
+So Dick Gale rode on, drowsier for each mile, and more and more
+giving the horse a choice of ground.  Sometimes a prod from a
+murderous spine roused Dick.  A grayness had blotted out the waning
+moon in the west and the clear, dark, starry sky overhead.  Once
+when Gale, thinking to fight his weariness, raised his head, he saw
+that one of the horses in the lead was riderless.  Ladd was carrying
+Mercedes.  Dick marveled that her collapse had not come sooner.
+Another time, rousing himself again, he imagined they were now
+on a good hard road.
+
+It seemed that hours passed, though he knew only little time had
+elapsed, when once more he threw off the spell of weariness.  He
+heard a dog bark.  Tall trees lined the open lane down which he
+was riding.  Presently in the gray gloom he saw low, square houses
+with flat roofs.  Ladd turned off to the left down another lane,
+gloomy between trees.  Every few rods there was one of the squat
+houses.  This lane opened into wider, lighter space.  The cold air
+bore a sweet perfume--whether of flowers or fruit Dick could not
+tell.  Ladd rode on for perhaps a quarter of a mile, though it seemed
+interminably long to Dick.  A grove of trees loomed dark in the
+gray morning.  Ladd entered it and was lost in the shade.  Dick
+rode on among trees.  Presently he heard voices, and soon another
+house, low and flat like the others, but so long he could not see
+the farther end, stood up blacker than the trees.  As he dismounted,
+cramped and sore, he could scarcely stand.  Lash came alongside.
+He spoke, and some one with a big, hearty voice replied to him.
+Then it seemed to Dick that he was led into blackness like pitch,
+where, presently, he felt blankets thrown on him and then his
+drowsy faculties faded.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+FORLORN RIVER
+
+WHEN Dick opened his eyes a flood of golden sunshine streamed in
+at the open window under which he lay.  His first thought was one
+of blank wonder as to where in the world he happened to be.  The
+room was large, square, adobe-walled.  It was littered with saddles,
+harness, blankets.  Upon the floor was a bed spread out upon a
+tarpaulin.  Probably this was where some one had slept.  The sight
+of huge dusty spurs, a gun belt with sheath and gun, and a pair
+of leather chaps bristling with broken cactus thorns recalled to
+Dick the cowboys, the ride, Mercedes, and the whole strange adventure
+that had brought him there.
+
+He did not recollect having removed his boots; indeed, upon second
+thought, he knew he had not done so.  But there they stood upon
+the floor.  Ladd and Lash must have taken them off when he was so
+exhausted and sleepy that he could not tell what was happening.
+He felt a dead weight of complete lassitude, and he did not want to
+move.  A sudden pain in his hand caused him to hold it up.  It was
+black and blue, swollen to almost twice its normal size, and stiff
+as a board.  The knuckles were skinned and crusted with dry blood.
+Dick soliloquized that it was the worst-looking hand he had seen
+since football days, and that it would inconvenience him for some
+time.
+
+A warm, dry, fragrant breeze came through the window.  Dick caught
+again the sweet smell of flowers or fruit.  He heard the fluttering
+of leaves, the murmur of running water, the twittering of birds,
+then the sound of approaching footsteps and voices.  The door at
+the far end of the room was open.  Through it he saw poles of peeled
+wood upholding a porch roof, a bench, rose bushes in bloom, grass,
+and beyond these bright-green foliage of trees.
+
+"He shore was sleepin' when I looked in an hour ago," said a voice
+that Dick recognized as Ladd's.
+
+"Let him sleep," came the reply in deep, good-natured tones.  "Mrs.
+B. says the girl's never moved.  Must have been a tough ride for
+them both.  Forty miles through cactus!"
+
+"Young Gale hoofed darn near half the way," replied Ladd.  "We
+tried to make him ride one of our hosses.  If we had, we'd never
+got here.  A walk like that'd killed me an' Jim."
+
+"Well, Laddy, I'm right down glad to see you boys, and I'll do all
+I can for the young couple," said the other.  "But I'm doing some
+worry here; don't mistake me."
+
+"About your stock?"
+
+"I've got only a few head of cattle at the oasis now, I'm worrying
+some, mostly about my horses.  The U. S. is doing some worrying,
+too, don't mistake me.  The rebels have worked west and north as
+far as Casita.  There are no cavalrymen along the line beyond
+Casita, and there can't be.  It's practically waterless desert.  But
+these rebels are desert men.  They could cross the line beyond the
+Rio Forlorn and smuggle arms into Mexico.  Of course, my job is to
+keep tab on Chinese and Japs trying to get into the U.S. from
+Magdalena Bay.  But I'm supposed to patrol the border line.  I'm
+going to hire some rangers.  Now, I'm not so afraid of being shot
+up, though out in this lonely place there's danger of it; what I'm
+afraid of most is losing that bunch of horses.  If any rebels come
+this far, or if they ever hear of my horses, they're going to raid
+me.  You know what those guerrilla Mexicans will do for horses.
+They're crazy on horse flesh.  They know fine horses.  They breed
+the finest in the world.  So I don't sleep nights any more."
+
+"Reckon me an' Jim might as well tie up with your for a spell,
+Beldin'.  We've been ridin' up an' down Arizona tryin' to keep out
+of sight of wire fences."
+
+"Laddy, it's open enough around Forlorn River to satisfy even an
+old-time cowpuncher like you," laughed Belding.  "I'd take your
+staying on as some favor, don't mistake me.  Perhaps I can persuade
+the young man Gale to take a job with me."
+
+"That's shore likely.  He said he had no money, no friends.  An'
+if a scrapper's all you're lookin' for he'll do," replied Ladd, with
+a dry chuckle.
+
+"Mrs. B. will throw some broncho capers round this ranch when
+she hears I'm going to hire a stranger."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Well, there's Nell-- And you said this Gale was a young American.
+My wife will be scared to death for fear Nell will fall in love
+with him."
+
+Laddy choked off a laugh, then evidently slapped his knee or
+Belding's, for there was a resounding smack.
+
+"He's a fine-spoken, good-looking chap, you said?" went on Belding.
+
+"Shore he is," said Laddy, warmly.  "What do you say, Jim?"
+
+By this time Dick Gale's ears began to burn and he was trying to
+make himself deaf when he wanted to hear every little word.
+
+"Husky young fellow, nice voice, steady, clear eyes, kinda proud,
+I thought, an' some handsome, he was," replied Jim Lash.
+
+"Maybe I ought to think twice before taking a stranger into my
+family," said Belding, seriously.  "Well, I guess he's all right,
+Laddy, being the cavalryman's friend.  No bum or lunger?  He must
+be all right?"
+
+"Bum?  Lunger?  Say, didn't I tell you I shook hands
+with this boy an' was plumb glad to meet him?" demanded Laddy,
+with considerable heat.  Manifestly he had been affronted.
+"Tom Beldin', he's a gentleman, an' he could lick you in--
+in half a second.  How about that, Jim?"
+
+"Less time," replied Lash.  "Tom, here's my stand.  Young Gale can
+have my hoss, my gun, anythin' of mine."
+
+"Aw, I didn't mean to insult you, boys, don't mistake me," said Belding.
+"Course he's all right."
+
+The object of this conversation lay quiet upon his bed, thrilling and
+amazed at being so championed by the cowboys, delighted with
+Belding's idea of employing him, and much amused with the quaint
+seriousness of the three.
+
+"How's the young man?" called a woman's voice.  It was kind and
+mellow and earnest.
+
+Gale heard footsteps on flagstones.
+
+"He's asleep yet, wife," replied Belding.  "Guess he was pretty
+much knocked out....I'll close the door there so we won't wake him."
+
+There were slow, soft steps, then the door softly closed.  But the
+fact scarcely made a perceptible difference in the sound of the
+voices outside.
+
+"Laddy and Jim are going to stay," went on Belding.  "It'll be like
+the old Panhandle days a little.  I'm powerful glad to have the
+boys, Nellie.  You know I meant to sent to Casita to ask them.
+We'll see some trouble before the revolution is ended.  I think
+I'll make this young man Gale an offer."
+
+"He isn't a cowboy?" asked Mrs. Belding, quickly.
+
+"No."
+
+"Shore he'd make a darn good one," put in Laddy.
+
+"What is he?  Who is he?  Where did he come from?  Surely you must
+be--"
+
+"Laddy swears he's all right," interrupted the husband.  "That's
+enough reference for me.  Isn't it enough for you?"
+
+"Humph!  Laddy knows a lot about young men, now doesn't he,
+especially strangers from the East?...Tom, you must be careful!"
+
+"Wife, I'm only too glad to have a nervy young chap come along.
+What sense is there in your objection, if Jim and Laddy stick up
+for him?"
+
+"But, Tom--he'll fall in love with Nell!" protested Mrs. Belding.
+
+"Well, wouldn't that be regular?  Doesn't every man who comes
+along fall in love with Nell?  Hasn't it always happened?  When
+she was a schoolgirl in Kansas didn't it happen?  Didn't she have
+a hundred moon-eyed ninnies after her in Texas?  I've had some
+peace out here in the desert, except when a Greaser or a prospector
+or a Yaqui would come along.  Then same old story--in love with Nell!"
+
+"But, Tom, Nell might fall in love with this young man!" exclaimed
+the wife, in distress.
+
+"Laddy, Jim, didn't I tell you?" cried Belding.  "I knew she'd say
+that....My dear wife, I would be simply overcome with joy if Nell
+did fall in love once.  Real good and hard!  She's wilder than any
+antelope out there on the desert.  Nell's nearly twenty now, and
+so far as we know she's never cared a rap for any fellow.  And
+she's just as gay and full of the devil as she was at fourteen.
+Nell's as good and lovable as she is pretty, but I'm afraid she'll
+never grow into a woman while we live out in this lonely land.
+And you've always hated towns where there was a chance for
+the girl--just because you were afraid she'd fall in love.  You've
+always been strange, even silly, about that.  I've done my best
+for Nell--loved her as if she were my own daughter.  I've changed
+many business plans to suit your whims.  There are rough times
+ahead, maybe.  I need men.  I'll hire this chap Gale if he'll stay.
+Let Nell take her chance with him, just as she'll have to take
+chances with men when we get out of the desert.  She'll be all
+the better for it."
+
+"I hope Laddy's not mistaken in his opinion of this newcomer,"
+replied Mrs. Belding, with a sigh of resignation.
+
+"Shore I never made a mistake in my life figger'n' people," said
+Laddy, stoutly.
+
+"Yes, you have, Laddy," replied Mrs. Belding.  "You're wrong about
+Tom....Well, supper is to be got.  That young man and the girl will
+be starved.  I'll go in now.  If Nell happens around don't--don't
+flatter her, Laddy, like you did at dinner.  Don't make her think
+of her looks."
+
+Dick heard Mrs. Belding walk away.
+
+"Shore she's powerful particular about that girl," observed Laddy.
+"Say, Tom, Nell knows she's pretty, doesn't she?"
+
+"She's liable to find it out unless you shut up, Laddy.  When you
+visited us out here some weeks ago, you kept paying cowboy
+compliments to her."
+
+"An' it's your idea that cowboy compliments are plumb bad for
+girls?"
+
+"Downright bad, Laddy, so my wife says."
+
+"I'll be darned if I believe any girl can be hurt by a little sweet
+talk.  It pleases 'em....But say, Beldin', speaking of looks, have you
+got a peek yet at the Spanish girl?"
+
+"Not in the light."
+
+"Well, neither have I in daytime.  I had enough by moonlight.
+Nell is some on looks, but I'm regretful passin' the ribbon to the
+lady from Mex.  Jim, where are you?"
+
+"My money's on Nell," replied Lash.  "Gimme a girl with flesh an'
+color, an' blue eyes a-laughin'.  Miss Castaneda is some peach,
+I'll not gainsay.  But her face seemed too white.  An' when she
+flashed those eyes on me, I thought I was shot!  When she stood
+up there at first, thankin' us, I felt as if a--a princess was round
+somewhere.  Now, Nell is kiddish an' sweet an'--"
+
+"Chop it," interrupted Belding.  "Here comes Nell now."
+
+Dick's tingling ears took in the pattering of light footsteps,
+the rush of some one running.
+
+"Here you are," cried a sweet, happy voice.  "Dad, the Senorita
+is perfectly lovely.  I've been peeping at her.  She sleeps like--like
+death.  She's so white.  Oh, I hope she won't be ill."
+
+"Shore she's only played out," said Laddy.  "But she had spunk
+while it lasted....I was just arguin' with Jim an' Tom about Miss
+Castaneda."
+
+"Gracious!  Why, she's beautiful.  I never saw any one so
+beautiful....How strange and sad, that about her!  Tell me more,
+Laddy.  You promised.  I'm dying to know.  I never hear anything
+in this awful place.  Didn't you say the Senorita had a sweetheart?"
+
+"Shore I did."
+
+"And he's a cavalryman?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is he the young man who came with you?"
+
+"Nope.  That fellow's the one who saved the girl from Rojas."
+
+"Ah!  Where is he, Laddy?"
+
+"He's in there asleep."
+
+"Is he hurt?"
+
+"I reckon not.  He walked about fifteen miles."
+
+"Is he--nice, Laddy?"
+
+"Shore."
+
+"What is he like?"
+
+"Well, I'm not long acquainted, never saw him by day, but I was
+some tolerable took with him.  An' Jim here, Jim says the young
+man can have his gun an' his hoss."
+
+"Wonderful!  Laddy, what on earth did this stranger do to win you
+cowboys in just one night?"
+
+"I'll shore have to tell you.  Me an' Jim were watchin' a game of
+cards in the Del Sol saloon in Casita.  That's across the line.
+We had acquaintances--four fellows from the Cross Bar outfit,
+where we worked a while back.  This Del Sol is a billiard hall,
+saloon, restaurant, an' the like.  An' it was full of Greasers.
+Some of Camp's rebels were there drinkin' an' playin' games.
+Then pretty soon in come Rojas with some of his outfit.
+They were packin' guns an' kept to themselves off to one side.
+I didn't give them a second look till Jim said he reckoned
+there was somethin' in the wind.  Then, careless-like,
+I began to peek at Rojas.  They call Rojas the 'dandy rebel,' an'
+he shore looked the part.  It made me sick to see him in all that
+lace an' glitter, knowin' him to be the cutthroat robber he is.
+It's no oncommon sight to see excited Greasers.  They're all crazy.
+But this bandit was shore some agitated.  He kept his men in a
+tight bunch round a table.  He talked an' waved his hands.  He was
+actually shakin'.  His eyes had a wild glare.  Now I figgered that
+trouble was brewin', most likely for the little Casita garrison.
+People seemed to think Campo an' Rojas would join forces to oust
+the federals.  Jim thought Rojas's excitement was at the hatchin'
+of some plot.  Anyway, we didn't join no card games, an' without
+pretendin' to, we was some watchful.
+
+"A little while afterward I seen a fellow standin' in the restaurant
+door.  He was a young American dressed in corduroys and boots,
+like a prospector.  You know it's no onusual fact to see prospectors
+in these parts.  What made me think twice about this one was how
+big he seemed, how he filled up that door.  He looked round the
+saloon, an' when he spotted Rojas he sorta jerked up.  Then he
+pulled his slouch hat lopsided an' began to stagger down, down the
+steps.  First off I made shore he was drunk.  But I remembered he
+didn't seem drunk before.  It was some queer.  So I watched that
+young man.
+
+"He reeled around the room like a fellow who was drunker'n a lord.
+Nobody but me seemed to notice him.  Then he began to stumble over
+pool-players an' get his feet tangled up in chairs an' bump against tables.
+He got some pretty hard looks.  He came round our way, an' all of a sudden
+he seen us cowboys.  He gave another start, like the one when
+he first seen Rojas, then he made for us.  I tipped Jim off that
+somethin' was doin'.
+
+"When he got close he straightened up, put back his slouch hat,
+an' looked at us.  Then I saw his face.  It sorta electrified yours
+truly.  It was white, with veins standin' out an' eyes flamin'--a
+face of fury.  I was plumb amazed, didn't know what to think.
+Then this queer young man shot some cool, polite words at me an' Jim.
+
+"He was only bluffin' at bein' drunk--he meant to rush Rojas, to
+start a rough house.  The bandit was after a girl.  This girl was
+in the hotel, an' she was the sweetheart of a soldier, the young
+fellow's friend.  The hotel was watched by Rojas's guards, an'
+the plan was to make a fuss an' get the girl away in the excitement.
+Well, Jim an' me got a hint of our bein' Americans--that cowboys
+generally had a name for loyalty to women.  Then this amazin'
+chap--you can't imagine how scornful--said for me an' Jim to watch him.
+
+"Before I could catch my breath an' figger out what he meant by
+'rush' an' 'rough house' he had knocked over a table an' crowded
+some Greaser half off the map.  One little funny man leaped up like
+a wild monkey an' began to screech.  An' in another second he was
+in the air upside down.  When he lit, he laid there.  Then, quicker'n
+I can tell you, the young man dove at Rojas.  Like a mad steer on the
+rampage he charged Rojas an' his men.  The whole outfit went
+down--smash!  I figgered then what 'rush' meant.  The young fellow
+came up out of the pile with Rojas, an' just like I'd sling an empty
+sack along the floor he sent the bandit.  But swift as that went
+he was on top of Rojas before the chairs an' tables had stopped
+rollin'.
+
+"I woke up then, an' made for the center of the room. Jim with me.
+I began to shoot out the lamps.  Jim throwed his guns on the crazy
+rebels, an' I was afraid there'd be blood spilled before I could get
+the room dark.  Bein's shore busy, I lost sight of the young fellow
+for a second or so, an' when I got an eye free for him I seen a
+Greaser about to knife him.  Think I was some considerate of the
+Greaser by only shootin' his arm off.  Then I cracked the last lamp,
+an' in the hullabaloo me an' Jim vamoosed.
+
+"We made tracks for our hosses an' packs, an' was hittin' the San
+Felipe road when we run right plumb into the young man.  Well, he
+said his name was Gale--Dick Gale.  The girl was with him safe an'
+well; but her sweetheart, the soldier, bein' away without leave, had
+to go back sudden.  There shore was some trouble, for Jim an' me
+heard shootin'.  Gale said he had no money, no friends, was a
+stranger in a desert country; an' he was distracted to know how
+to help the girl.  So me an' Jim started off with them for San
+Felipe, got switched, and' then we headed for the Rio Forlorn."
+
+"Oh, I think he was perfectly splendid!" exclaimed the girl.
+
+"Shore he was.  Only, Nell, you can't lay no claim to bein' the
+original discoverer of that fact."
+
+"But, Laddy, you haven't told me what he looks like."
+
+At this juncture Dick Gale felt it absolutely impossible for him
+to play the eavesdropper any longer.  Quietly he rolled out of bed.
+The voices still sounded close outside, and it was only by effort
+that he kept from further listening.  Belding's kindly interest,
+Laddy's blunt and sincere cowboy eulogy, the girl's sweet eagerness
+and praise--these warmed Gale's heart.  He had fallen among simple
+people, into whose lives the advent of an unknown man was welcome.
+He found himself in a singularly agitated mood.  The excitement,
+the thrill, the difference felt in himself, experienced the preceding
+night, had extended on into his present.  And the possibilities
+suggested by the conversation he had unwittingly overheard added
+sufficiently to the other feelings to put him into a peculiarly receptive
+state of mind.  He was wild to be one of the Belding rangers.  The idea
+of riding a horse in the open desert, with a dangerous duty to
+perform, seemed to strike him with an appealing force.  Something
+within him went out to the cowboys, to this blunt and kind Belding.
+He was afraid to meet the girl.  If every man who came along fell
+in love with this sweet-voiced Nell, then what hope had he to
+escape--now, when his whole inner awakening betokened a change of
+spirit, hope, a finding of real worth, real good, real power in
+himself?  He did not understand wholly, yet he felt ready to ride,
+to fight, to love the desert, to love these outdoor men, to love
+a woman.  That beautiful Spanish girl had spoken to something
+dead in him and it had quickened to life.  The sweet voice of an
+audacious, unseen girl warned him that presently a still more
+wonderful thing would happen to him.
+
+Gale imagined he made noise enough as he clumsily pulled on his
+boots, yet the voices, split by a merry laugh, kept on murmuring
+outside the door.  It was awkward for him, having only one hand
+available to lace up his boots.  He looked out of the window.
+Evidently this was at the end of the house.  There was a flagstone
+walk, beside which ran a ditch full of swift, muddy water.  It made
+a pleasant sound.  There were trees strange of form and color to
+to him.  He heard bees, birds, chickens, saw the red of roses and
+green of grass.  Then he saw, close to the wall, a tub full of
+water, and a bench upon which lay basin, soap, towel, comb, and
+brush.  The window was also a door, for under it there was a step.
+
+Gale hesitated a moment, then went out.  He stepped naturally,
+hoping and expecting that the cowboys would hear him.  But nobody
+came.  Awkwardly, with left hand, he washed his face.  Upon a nail
+in the wall hung a little mirror, by the aid of which Dick combed
+and brushed his hair.  He imagined he looked a most haggard
+wretch.  With that he faced forward, meaning to go round the corner
+of the house to greet the cowboys and these new-found friends.
+
+Dick had taken but one step when he was halted by laugher and the
+patter of light feet.
+
+From close around the corner pealed out that sweet voice.  "Dad,
+you'll have your wish, and mama will be wild!"
+
+Dick saw a little foot sweep into view, a white dress, then the
+swiftly moving form of a girl.  She was looking backward.
+
+"Dad, I shall fall in love with your new ranger.  I will--I have--"
+
+Then she plumped squarely into Dick's arms.
+
+She started back violently.
+
+Dick saw a fair face and dark-blue, audaciously flashing eyes.
+Swift as lightning their expression changed to surprise, fear,
+wonder.  For an instant they were level with Dick's grave questioning.
+Suddenly, sweetly, she blushed.
+
+"Oh-h!" she faltered.
+
+Then the blush turned to a scarlet fire.  She whirled past him,
+and like a white gleam was gone.
+
+Dick became conscious of the quickened beating of his heart.  He
+experienced a singular exhilaration.  That moment had been the
+one for which he had been ripe, the event upon which strange
+circumstances had been rushing him.
+
+With a couple of strides he turned the corner.  Laddy and Lash
+were there talking to a man of burly form.  Seen by day, both
+cowboys were gray-haired, red-skinned, and weather-beaten, with
+lean, sharp features, and gray eyes so much alike that they might
+have been brothers.
+
+"Hello, there's the young fellow," spoke up the burly man.  "Mr.
+Gale, I'm glad to meet you.  My name's Belding."
+
+His greeting was as warm as his handclasp was long and hard.
+Gale saw a heavy man of medium height.  His head was large
+and covered with grizzled locks.  He wore a short-cropped mustache
+and chin beard.  His skin was brown, and his dark eyes beamed with
+a genial light.
+
+The cowboys were as cordial as if Dick had been their friend for years.
+
+"Young man, did you run into anything as you came out?" asked Belding,
+with twinkling eyes.
+
+"Why, yes, I met something white and swift flying by," replied Dick.
+
+"Did she see you?" asked Laddy.
+
+"I think so; but she didn't wait for me to introduce myself."
+
+"That was Nell Burton, my girl--step-daughter, I should say," said
+Belding.  "She's sure some whirlwind, as Laddy calls her.  Come,
+let's go in and meet the wife."
+
+The house was long, like a barracks, with porch extending all the
+way, and doors every dozen paces.  When Dick was ushered into a
+sitting-room, he was amazed at the light and comfort.  This room
+had two big windows and a door opening into a patio, where there
+were luxuriant grass, roses in bloom, and flowering trees.  He heard
+a slow splashing of water.
+
+In Mrs. Belding, Gale found a woman of noble proportions and
+striking appearance.  Her hair was white.  She had a strong,
+serious, well-lined face that bore haunting evidences of past
+beauty.  The gaze she bent upon him was almost piercing in its
+intensity.  Her greeting, which seemed to Dick rather slow in
+coming, was kind though not cordial.  Gale's first thought, after
+he had thanked these good people for their hospitality, was to
+inquire about Mercedes.  He was informed that the Spanish girl
+had awakened with a considerable fever and nervousness.  When,
+however, her anxiety had been allayed and her thirst relieved, she
+had fallen asleep again.  Mrs. Belding said the girl had suffered
+no great hardship, other than mental, and would very soon be
+rested and well.
+
+"Now, Gale," said Belding, when his wife had excused herself to
+get supper, "the boys, Jim and Laddy, told me about you and the
+mix-up at Casita.  I'll be glad to take care of the girl till it's
+safe for your soldier friend to get her out of the country.  That
+won't be very soon, don't mistake me....I don't want to seem
+over-curious about you--Laddy has interested me in you--and
+straight out I'd like to know what you propose to do now."
+
+"I haven't any plans," replied Dick; and, taking the moment as
+propitious, he decided to speak frankly concerning himself.  "I
+just drifted down here.  My home is in Chicago.  When I left school
+some years ago--I'm twenty-five now--I went to work for my father.
+He's--he has business interests there.  I tried all kinds of inside
+jobs.  I couldn't please my father.  I guess I put no real heart in
+my work.  The fact was I didn't know how to work.  The governor
+and I didn't exactly quarrel; but he hurt my feelings, and I quit.
+Six months or more ago I came West, and have knocked about from
+Wyoming southwest to the border.  I tried to find congenial work,
+but nothing came my way.  To tell you frankly, Mr. Belding, I
+suppose I didn't much care.  I believe, though, that all the time I
+didn't know what I wanted.  I've learned--well, just lately--"
+
+"What do you want to do?" interposed Belding.
+
+"I want a man's job.  I want to do things with my hands.  I want
+action.  I want to be outdoors."
+
+Belding nodded his head as if he understood that, and he began
+to speak again, cut something short, then went on, hesitatingly:
+
+"Gale--you could go home again--to the old man--it'd be all right?"
+
+"Mr. Belding, there's nothing shady in my past.  The governor would
+be glad to have me home.  That's the only consolation I've got.
+But I'm not going.  I'm broke.  I won't be a tramp.  And it's up
+to me to do something."
+
+"How'd you like to be a border ranger?" asked Belding, laying a
+hand on Dick's knee.  "Part of my job here is United States Inspector
+of Immigration.  I've got that boundary line to patrol--to keep out
+Chinks and Japs.  This revolution has added complications, and
+I'm looking for smugglers and raiders here any day.  You'll not
+be hired by the U. S.  You'll simply be my ranger, same as Laddy
+and Jim, who have promised to work for me.  I'll pay you well,
+give you a room here, furnish everything down to guns, and the
+finest horse you ever saw in your life.  Your job won't be safe
+and healthy, sometimes, but it'll be a man's job--don't mistake me!
+You can gamble on having things to do outdoors.  Now, what do
+you say?"
+
+"I accept, and I thank you--I can't say how much," replied Gale,
+earnestly.
+
+"Good!  That's settled.  Let's go out and tell Laddy and Jim."
+
+Both boys expressed satisfaction at the turn of affairs, and then
+with Belding they set out to take Gale around the ranch.  The
+house and several outbuildings were constructed of adobe, which,
+according to Belding, retained the summer heat on into winter,
+and the winter cold on into summer.  These gray-red mud habitations
+were hideous to look at, and this fact, perhaps, made their really
+comfortable interiors more vividly a contrast.  The wide grounds
+were covered with luxuriant grass and flowers and different kinds
+of trees.  Gale's interest led him to ask about fig trees and
+pomegranates, and especially about a beautiful specimen that
+Belding called palo verde.
+
+Belding explained that the luxuriance of this desert place was
+owing to a few springs and the dammed-up waters of the Rio Forlorn.
+Before he had come to the oasis it had been inhabited by a Papago
+Indian tribe and a few peon families.  The oasis lay in an arroyo
+a mile wide, and sloped southwest for some ten miles or more.
+The river went dry most of the year; but enough water was stored
+in flood season to irrigate the gardens and alfalfa fields.
+
+"I've got one never-failing spring on my place," said Belding.  "Fine,
+sweet water!  You know what that means in the desert.  I like this
+oasis.  The longer I live here the better I like it.  There's not a spot
+in southern Arizona that'll compare with this valley for water or
+grass or wood.  It's beautiful and healthy.  Forlorn and lonely,
+yes, especially for women like my wife and Nell; but I like it....And
+between you and me, boys, I've got something up my sleeve.  There's
+gold dust in the arroyos, and there's mineral up in the mountains.
+If we only had water!  This hamlet has steadily grown since I took
+up a station here.  Why, Casita is no place beside Forlorn River.
+Pretty soon the Southern Pacific will shoot a railroad branch out
+here.  There are possibilities, and I want you boys to stay with
+me and get in on the ground floor.  I wish this rebel war was
+over....Well, here are the corrals and the fields.  Gale, take a
+look at that bunch of horses!"
+
+Belding's last remark was made as he led his companions out of
+shady gardens into the open.  Gale saw an adobe shed and a huge
+pen fenced by strangely twisted and contorted branches or trunks
+of mesquite, and, beyond these, wide, flat fields, green--a dark,
+rich green--and dotted with beautiful horses.  There were whites
+and blacks, and bays and grays.  In his admiration Gale searched
+his memory to see if he could remember the like of these magnificent
+animals, and had to admit that the only ones he could compare with
+them were the Arabian steeds.
+
+"Every ranch loves his horses," said Belding.  "When I was in the
+Panhandle I had some fine stock.  But these are Mexican.  They
+came from Durango, where they were bred.  Mexican horses are
+the finest in the world, bar none."
+
+"Shore I reckon I savvy why you don't sleep nights," drawled Laddy.
+"I see a Greaser out there--no, it's an Indian."
+
+"That's my Papago herdsman.  I keep watch over the horses now
+day and night.  Lord, how I'd hate to have Rojas or Salazar--any
+of those bandit rebels--find my horses!...Gale, can you ride?"
+
+Dick modestly replied that he could, according to the Eastern
+idea of horsemanship.
+
+"You don't need to be half horse to ride one of that bunch.  But
+over there in the other field I've iron-jawed broncos I wouldn't
+want you to tackle--except to see the fun.  I've an outlaw I'll
+gamble even Laddy can't ride."
+
+"So.  How much'll you gamble?" asked Laddy, instantly.
+
+The ringing of a bell, which Belding said was a call to supper,
+turned the men back toward the house.  Facing that way, Gale
+saw dark, beetling ridges rising from the oasis and leading up to
+bare, black mountains.  He had heard Belding call them No Name
+Mountains, and somehow the appellation suited those lofty,
+mysterious, frowning peaks.
+
+It was not until they reached the house and were about to go in
+that Belding chanced to discover Gale's crippled hand.
+
+"What an awful hand!" he exclaimed.  "Where the devil did you
+get that?"
+
+"I stove in my knuckles on Rojas," replied Dick.
+
+"You did that in one punch?  Say, I'm glad it wasn't me you hit!
+Why didn't you tell me?  That's a bad hand.  Those cuts are full
+of dirt and sand.  Inflammation's setting in.  It's got to be
+dressed.  Nell!" he called.
+
+There was no answer.  He called again, louder.
+
+"Mother, where's the girl?"
+
+"She's there in the dining-room," replied Mrs. Belding.
+
+"Did she hear me?" he inquired, impatiently.
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Nell!" roared Belding.
+
+This brought results.  Dick saw a glimpse of golden hair and a
+white dress in the door.  But they were not visible longer than
+a second.
+
+"Dad, what's the matter?" asked a voice that was still as sweet
+as formerly, but now rather small and constrained.
+
+"Bring the antiseptics, cotton, bandages--and things out here.
+Hurry now."
+
+Belding fetched a pail of water and a basin from the kitchen.  His
+wife followed him out, and, upon seeing Dick's hand, was all
+solicitude.  Then Dick heard light, quick footsteps, but he did
+not look up.
+
+"Nell, this is Mr. Gale--Dick Gale, who came with the boys last
+last night," said Belding.  "He's got an awful hand.  Got it punching
+that greaser Rojas.  I want you to dress it....Gale, this is my
+step-daughter, Nell Burton, of whom I spoke.  She's some good
+when there's somebody sick or hurt.  Shove out your fist, my boy,
+and let her get at it.  Supper's nearly ready."
+
+Dick felt that same strange, quickening heart throb, yet he had
+never been cooler in his life.  More than anything else in the
+world he wanted to look at Nell Burton; however, divining that
+the situation might be embarrassing to her, he refrained from
+looking up.  She began to bathe his injured knuckles.  He noted
+the softness, the deftness of her touch, and then it seemed her
+fingers were not quite as steady as they might have been.  Still,
+in a moment they appeared to become surer in their work.  She
+had beautiful hands, not too large, though certainly not small,
+and they were strong, brown, supple.  He observed next, with
+stealthy, upward-stealing glance, that she had rolled up her sleeves,
+exposing fine, round arms graceful in line.  Her skin was brown--no,
+it was more gold than brown.  It had a wonderful clear tint.  Dick
+stoically lowered his eyes then, putting off as long as possible
+the alluring moment when he was to look into her face.  That would
+be a fateful moment.  He played with a certain strange joy
+of anticipation.  When, however, she sat down beside him
+and rested his injured hand in her lap as she cut bandages,
+she was so thrillingly near that he yielded to an irrepressible
+desire to look up.  She had a sweet, fair face warmly tinted with
+that same healthy golden-brown sunburn.  Her hair was light gold
+and abundant, a waving mass.  Her eyes were shaded by long,
+downcast lashes, yet through them he caught a gleam of blue.
+
+Despite the stir within him, Gale, seeing she was now absorbed
+in her task, critically studied her with a second closer gaze.
+She was a sweet, wholesome, joyous, pretty girl.
+
+"Shore it musta hurt?" replied Laddy, who sat an interested spectator.
+
+"Yes, I confess it did," replied Dick, slowly, with his eyes on
+Nell's face.  "But I didn't mind."
+
+The girl's lashes swept up swiftly in surprise.  She had taken his
+words literally.  But the dark-blue eyes met his for only a fleeting
+second.  Then the warm tint in her cheeks turned as red as her
+lips.  Hurriedly she finished tying the bandage and rose to her
+feet.
+
+"I thank you," said Gale, also rising.
+
+With that Belding appeared in the doorway, and finding the
+operation concluded, called them in to supper.  Dick had the use
+of only one arm, and he certainly was keenly aware of the shy,
+silent girl across the table; but in spite of these considerable
+handicaps he eclipsed both hungry cowboys in the assault upon
+Mrs. Belding's bounteous supper.  Belding talked, the cowboys
+talked more or less.  Mrs. Belding put in a word now and then,
+and Dick managed to find brief intervals when it was possible
+for him to say yes or no.  He observed gratefully that no one
+round the table seemed to be aware of his enormous appetite.
+
+After supper, having a favorable opportunity when for a
+moment no one was at hand, Dick went out through the yard,
+past the gardens and fields, and climbed the first knoll.  From that
+vantage point he looked out over the little hamlet, somewhat to
+his right, and was surprised at its extent, its considerable number
+of adobe houses.  The overhanging mountains, ragged and darkening,
+a great heave of splintered rock, rather chilled and affronted him.
+
+Westward the setting sun gilded a spiked, frost-colored, limitless
+expanse of desert.  It awed Gale.  Everywhere rose blunt, broken
+ranges or isolated groups of mountains.  Yet the desert stretched
+away down between and beyond them.  When the sun set and Gale
+could not see so far, he felt a relief.
+
+That grand and austere attraction of distance gone, he saw the
+desert nearer at hand--the valley at his feet.  What a strange gray,
+somber place!  There was a lighter strip of gray winding down
+between darker hues.  This he realized presently was the river
+bed, and he saw how the pools of water narrowed and diminished
+in size till they lost themselves in gray sand.  This was the rainy
+season, near its end, and here a little river struggled hopelessly,
+forlornly to live in the desert.  He received a potent impression
+of the nature of that blasted age-worn waste which he had divined
+was to give him strength and work and love.
+
+
+
+V
+
+A DESERT ROSE
+
+BELDING assigned Dick to a little room which had no windows but
+two doors, one opening into the patio, the other into the yard on
+the west side of the house.  It contained only the barest necessities
+for comfort.  Dick mentioned the baggage he had left in the hotel
+at Casita, and it was Belding's opinion that to try to recover his
+property would be rather risky; on the moment Richard Gale was
+probably not popular with the Mexicans at Casita.  So Dick bade
+good-by to fine suits of clothes and linen with a feeling that,
+as he had said farewell to an idle and useless past, it was just
+as well not to have any old luxuries as reminders.  As he possessed,
+however, not a thing save the clothes on his back, and not even
+a handkerchief, he expressed regret that he had come to Forlorn
+River a beggar.
+
+"Beggar hell!" exploded Belding, with his eyes snapping in the
+lamplight.  "Money's the last thing we think of out here.  All
+the same, Gale, if you stick you'll be rich."
+
+"It wouldn't surprise me," replied Dick, thoughtfully.  But he was
+not thinking of material wealth.  Then, as he viewed his stained
+and torn shirt, he laughed and said "Belding, while I'm getting
+rich I'd like to have some respectable clothes."
+
+"We've a little Mex store in town, and what you can't get there
+the women folks will make for you."
+
+When Dick lay down he was dully conscious of pain and headache,
+that he did not feel well.  Despite this, and a mind thronging
+with memories and anticipations, he succumbed to weariness
+and soon fell asleep.
+
+It was light when he awoke, but a strange brightness seen through
+what seemed blurred eyes.  A moment passed before his mind worked
+clearly, and then he had to make an effort to think.  He was dizzy.
+When he essayed to lift his right arm, an excruciating pain made
+him desist.  Then he discovered that his arm was badly swollen,
+and the hand had burst its bandages.  The injured member was red,
+angry, inflamed, and twice its normal size.  He felt hot all over,
+and a raging headache consumed him.
+
+Belding came stamping into the room.
+
+"Hello, Dick.  Do you know it's late?  How's the busted fist
+this morning?"
+
+Dick tried to sit up, but his effort was a failure.  He got about
+half up, then felt himself weakly sliding back.
+
+"I guess--I'm pretty sick," he said.
+
+He saw Belding lean over him, feel his face, and speak, and then
+everything seemed to drift, not into darkness, but into some region
+where he had dim perceptions of gray moving things, and of voices
+that were remote.  Then there came an interval when all was blank.
+He knew not whether it was one of minutes or hours, but after it
+he had a clearer mind.  He slept, awakened during night-time, and
+slept again.  When he again unclosed his eyes the room was sunny,
+and cool with a fragrant breeze that blew through the open door.
+Dick felt better; but he had no particular desire to move or talk
+or eat.  He had, however, a burning thirst.  Mrs. Belding visited
+him often; her husband came in several times, and once Nell slipped
+in noiselessly.  Even this last event aroused no interest in Dick.
+
+On the next day he was very much improved.
+
+"We've been afraid of blood poisoning," said Belding.  "But my
+wife thinks the danger's past.  You'll have to rest that arm for
+a while."
+
+Ladd and Jim came peeping in at the door.
+
+"Come in, boys.  He can have company--the more the better--if it'll
+keep him content.  He mustn't move, that's all."
+
+The cowboys entered, slow, easy, cool, kind-voiced.
+
+"Shore it's tough," said Ladd, after he had greeted Dick.  "You
+look used up."
+
+Jim Lash wagged his half-bald, sunburned head, "Musta been more'n
+tough for Rojas."
+
+"Gale, Laddy tells me one of our neighbors, fellow named Carter, is
+going to Casita," put in Belding.  "Here's a chance to get word to
+your friend the soldier."
+
+"Oh, that will be fine!" exclaimed Dick.  "I declare I'd forgotten
+Thorne....How is Miss Castaneda?  I hope--"
+
+"She's all right, Gale.  Been up and around the patio for two days.
+Like all the Spanish--the real thing--she's made of Damascus
+steel.  We've been getting acquainted.  She and Nell made friends
+at once. I'll call them in."
+
+He closed the door leading out into the yard, explaining that he
+did not want to take chances of Mercedes's presence becoming
+known to neighbors.  Then he went to the patio and called.
+
+Both girls came in, Mercedes leading.  Like Nell, she wore white,
+and she had a red rose in her hand.  Dick would scarcely have
+recognized anything about her except her eyes and the way she
+carried her little head, and her beauty burst upon him strange and
+anew.  She was swift, impulsive in her movements to reach his
+side.
+
+"Senor, I am so sorry you were ill--so happy you are better."
+
+Dick greeted her, offering his left hand, gravely apologizing for
+the fact that, owing to a late infirmity, he could not offer the
+right.  Her smile exquisitely combined sympathy, gratitude,
+admiration.  Then Dick spoke to Nell, likewise offering his hand,
+which she took shyly.  Her reply was a murmured, unintelligible
+one; but her eyes were glad, and the tint in her cheeks threatened
+to rival the hue of the rose she carried.
+
+Everybody chatted then, except Nell, who had apparently lost her
+voice.  Presently Dick remembered to speak of the matter of getting
+news to Thorne.
+
+"Senor, may I write to him?  Will some one take a letter?...I
+shall hear from him!" she said; and her white hands emphasized
+her words.
+
+"Assuredly.  I guess poor Thorne is almost crazy.  I'll write to
+him....No, I can't with this crippled hand."
+
+"That'll be all right, Gale," said Belding.  "Nell will write for
+you.  She writes all my letters."
+
+So Belding arranged it; and Mercedes flew away to her room to
+write, while Nell fetched pen and paper and seated herself beside
+Gale's bed to take his dictation.
+
+What with watching Nell and trying to catch her glance, and
+listening to Belding's talk with the cowboys, Dick was hard put
+to it to dictate any kind of a creditable letter.  Nell met his
+gaze once, then no more.  The color came and went in her cheeks,
+and sometimes, when he told her to write so and so, there was a
+demure smile on her lips.  She was laughing at him.  And Belding was
+talking over the risks involved in a trip to Casita.
+
+"Shore I'll ride in with the letters," Ladd said.
+
+"No you won't," replied Belding.  "That bandit outfit will be
+laying for you."
+
+"Well, I reckon if they was I wouldn't be oncommon grieved."
+
+"I'll tell you, boys, I'll ride in myself with Carter.  There's
+business I can see to, and I'm curious to know what the rebels
+are doing.  Laddy, keep one eye open while I'm gone.  See the
+horses are locked up....Gale, I'm going to Casita myself.  Ought
+to get back tomorrow some time.  I'll be ready to start in an
+hour.  Have your letter ready.  And say--if you want to write
+home it's a chance.  Sometimes we don't go to the P. O. in a month."
+
+He tramped out, followed by the tall cowboys, and then Dick was
+enabled to bring his letter to a close.  Mercedes came back, and
+her eyes were shining.  Dick imagined a letter received from her
+would be something of an event for a fellow.  Then, remembering
+Belding's suggestion, he decided to profit by it.
+
+"May I trouble you to write another for me?" asked Dick, as he
+received the letter from Nell.
+
+"It's no trouble, I'm sure--I'd be pleased," she replied.
+
+That was altogether a wonderful speech of hers, Dick thought,
+because the words were the first coherent ones she had spoken
+to him.
+
+"May I stay?" asked Mercedes, smiling.
+
+"By all means," he answered, and then he settled back and began.
+
+Presently Gale paused, partly because of genuine emotion, and
+stole a look from under his hand at Nell.  She wrote swiftly, and
+her downcast face seemed to be softer in its expression of
+sweetness.  If she had in the very least been drawn to him--  But
+that was absurd--impossible!
+
+When Dick finished dictating, his eyes were upon Mercedes, who
+sat smiling curious and sympathetic.  How responsive she was!
+He heard the hasty scratch of Nell's pen.  He looked at Nell.
+Presently she rose, holding out his letter.  He was just in time
+to see a wave of red recede from her face.  She gave him one
+swift gaze, unconscious, searching, then averted it and turned
+away.  She left the room with Mercedes before he could express
+his thanks.
+
+But that strange, speaking flash of eyes remained to haunt and
+torment Gale.  It was indescribably sweet, and provocative of
+thoughts that he believed were wild without warrant.  Something
+within him danced for very joy, and the next instant he was
+conscious of wistful doubt, a gravity that he could not understand.
+It dawned upon him that for the brief instant when Nell had met
+his gaze she had lost her shyness.  It was a woman's questioning eyes
+that had pierced through him.
+
+During the rest of the day Gale was content to lie still on his bed
+thinking and dreaming, dozing at intervals, and watching the
+lights change upon the mountain peaks, feeling the warm, fragrant
+desert wind that blew in upon him.  He seemed to have lost the
+faculty of estimating time.  A long while, strong in its effect
+upon him, appeared to have passed since he had met Thorne.  He
+accepted things as he felt them, and repudiated his intelligence.
+His old inquisitive habit of mind returned.  Did he love Nell?
+Was he only attracted for the moment?  What was the use of worrying
+about her or himself?  He refused to answer, and deliberately gave
+himself up to dreams of her sweet face and of that last dark-blue glance.
+
+Next day he believed he was well enough to leave his room; but Mrs.
+Belding would not permit him to do so.  She was kind, soft-handed,
+motherly, and she was always coming in to minister to his comfort.
+This attention was sincere, not in the least forced; yet Gale felt
+that the friendliness so manifest in the others of the household
+did not extend to her.  He was conscious of something that a
+little thought persuaded him was antagonism.  It surprised and
+hurt him.  He had never been much of a success with girls and
+young married women, but their mothers and old people had generally
+been fond of him.  Still, though Mrs. Belding's hair was snow-white,
+she did not impress him as being old.  He reflected that there
+might come a time when it would be desirable, far beyond any
+ground of every-day friendly kindliness, to have Mrs. Belding be
+well disposed toward him.  So he thought about her, and pondered
+how to make her like him.  It did not take very long for Dick to
+discover that he liked her.  Her face, except when she smiled,
+was thoughtful and sad.  It was a face to make one serious.  Like
+a haunting shadow, like a phantom of happier years, the
+sweetness of Nell's face was there, and infinitely more of beauty
+than had been transmitted to the daughter.  Dick believed Mrs.
+Belding's friendship and motherly love were worth striving to win,
+entirely aside from any more selfish motive.  He decided both would
+be hard to get.  Often he felt her deep, penetrating gaze upon
+him; and, though this in no wise embarrassed him--for he had no
+shameful secrets of past or present--it showed him how useless it
+would be to try to conceal anything from her.  Naturally, on first
+impulse, he wanted to hide his interest in the daughter; but he
+resolved to be absolutely frank and true, and through that win or
+lose.  Moreover, if Mrs. Belding asked him any questions about his
+home, his family, his connections, he would not avoid direct and
+truthful answers.
+
+Toward evening Gale heard the tramp of horses and Belding's hearty
+voice.  Presently the rancher strode in upon Gale, shaking the
+gray dust from his broad shoulders and waving a letter.
+
+"Hello, Dick!  Good news and bad!" he said, putting the letter in
+Dick's hand.  "Had no trouble finding your friend Thorne.  Looked
+like he'd been drunk for a week!  Say, he nearly threw a fit.  I
+never saw a fellow so wild with joy.  He made sure you and Mercedes
+were lost in the desert.  He wrote two letters which I brought.
+Don't mistake me, boy, it was some fun with Mercedes just now.
+I teased her, wouldn't give her the letter.  You ought to have seen
+her eyes.  If ever you see a black-and-white desert hawk swoop
+down upon a quail, then you'll know how Mercedes pounced upon
+her letter...Well, Casita is one hell of a place these days.  I
+tried to get your baggage, and I think I made a mistake.  We're
+going to see travel toward Forlorn River.  The federal garrison
+got reinforcements from somewhere, and is holding out.  There's
+been fighting for three days.  The rebels have a string of flat
+railroad cars, all iron, and they ran this up within range of the
+barricades.  They've got some machine guns, and they're going to lick
+the federals sure.  There are dead soldiers in the ditches, Mexican
+non-combatants lying dead in the streets--and buzzards everywhere!
+It's reported that Campo, the rebel leader, is on the way up from Sinaloa,
+and Huerta, a federal general, is coming to relieve the garrison.
+I don't take much stock in reports.  But there's hell in Casita, all right."
+
+"Do you think we'll have trouble out here?" asked Dick, excitedly.
+
+"Sure.  Some kind of trouble sooner or later," replied Belding,
+gloomily.  "Why, you can stand on my ranch and step over into
+Mexico.  Laddy says we'll lose horses and other stock in night raids.
+Jim Lash doesn't look for any worse.  But Jim isn't as well
+acquainted with Greasers as I am.  Anyway, my boy, as soon as you
+can hold a bridle and a gun you'll be on the job, don't mistake me."
+
+"With Laddy and Jim?" asked Dick, trying to be cool.
+
+"Sure.  With them and me, and by yourself."
+
+Dick drew a deep breath, and even after Belding had departed he
+forgot for a moment about the letter in his hand.  Then he unfolded
+the paper and read:
+
+
+Dear Dick,--You've more than saved my life.  To the end of my
+days you'll be the one man to whom I owe everything.  Words fail
+to express my feelings.
+
+This must be a brief note.  Belding is waiting, and I used up most
+of the time writing to Mercedes.  I like Belding.  He was not
+unknown to me, though I never met or saw him before.  You'll be
+interested to learn that he's the unadulterated article, the real
+Western goods.  I've heard of some of his stunts, and they made
+my hair curl.  Dick, your luck is staggering.  The way Belding spoke
+of you was great.  But you deserve it, old man.
+
+I'm leaving Mercedes in your charge, subject, of course, to advice
+from Belding.  Take care of her, Dick, for my life is wrapped up
+in her.  By all means keep her from being seen by Mexicans.  We
+are sitting tight here--nothing doing.  If some action doesn't come
+soon, it'll be darned strange.  Things are centering this way.
+There's scrapping right along, and people have begun to move.
+We're still patrolling the line eastward of Casita.  It'll be
+impossible to keep any tab on the line west of Casita, for it's
+too rough.  That cactus desert is awful. Cowboys or rangers
+with desert-bred horses might keep raiders and smugglers from crossing.
+But if cavalrymen could stand that waterless wilderness, which I doubt much,
+their horses would drop under them.
+
+If things do quiet down before my commission expires, I'll get
+leave of absence, run out to Forlorn River, marry my beautiful
+Spanish princess, and take her to a civilized country, where, I
+opine, every son of a gun who sees her will lose his head, and
+drive me mad.  It's my great luck, old pal, that you are a fellow
+who never seemed to care about pretty girls.  So you won't give
+me the double cross and run off with Mercedes--carry her off,
+like the villain in the play, I mean.
+
+That reminds me of Rojas.  Oh, Dick, it was glorious!  You didn't
+do anything to the Dandy Rebel!  Not at all!  You merely caressed
+him--gently moved him to one side.  Dick, harken to these glad
+words:  Rojas is in the hospital.  I was interested to inquire.
+He had a smashed finger, a dislocated collar bone, three broken
+ribs, and a fearful gash on his face.  He'll be in the hospital for
+a month.  Dick, when I meet that pig-headed dad of yours I'm
+going to give him the surprise of his life.
+
+Send me a line whenever any one comes in from F. R., and inclose
+Mercedes's letter in yours.  Take care of her, Dick, and may the
+future hold in store for you some of the sweetness I know now!
+
+Faithfully yours,
+Thorne.
+
+
+Dick reread the letter, then folded it and placed it under his pillow.
+
+"Never cared for pretty girls, huh?" he soliloquized.  "George, I
+never saw any till I struck Southern Arizona! Guess I'd better make
+up for lost time."
+
+While he was eating his supper, with appetite rapidly returning
+to normal, Ladd and Jim came in, bowing their tall heads to enter
+the door.  Their friendly advances were singularly welcome to
+Gale, but he was still backward.  He allowed himself to show that
+he was glad to see them, and he listened.  Jim Lash had heard from
+Belding the result of the mauling given to Rojas by Dick.  And Jim
+talked about what a grand thing that was.  Ladd had a good deal
+to say about Belding's horses.  It took no keen judge of human
+nature to see that horses constituted Ladd's ruling passion.
+
+"I've had wimmen go back on me, but never no hoss!" declared
+Ladd, and manifestly that was a controlling truth with him.
+
+"Shore it's a cinch Beldin' is agoin' to lose some of them hosses,"
+he said.  "You can search me if I don't think there'll be more
+doin' on the border here than along the Rio Grande.  We're just
+the same as on Greaser soil.  Mebbe we don't stand no such chance
+of bein' shot up as we would across the line.  But who's goin' to
+give up his hosses without a fight?  Half the time when Beldin's
+stock is out of the alfalfa it's grazin' over the line.  He thinks
+he's careful about them hosses, but he ain't."
+
+"Look a-here, Laddy; you cain't believe all you hear," replied
+Jim, seriously.  "I reckon we mightn't have any trouble."
+
+"Back up, Jim.  Shore you're standin' on your bridle.  I ain't goin'
+much on reports.  Remember that American we met in Casita,
+the prospector who'd just gotten out of Sonora?  He had some
+story, he had.  Swore he'd killed seventeen Greasers breakin'
+through the rebel line round the mine where he an' other Americans
+were corralled.  The next day when I met him again, he was drunk,
+an' then he told me he'd shot thirty Greasers.  The chances are
+he did kill some.  But reports are exaggerated.  There are miners
+fightin' for life down in Sonora, you can gamble on that.  An' the
+truth is bad enough.  Take Rojas's harryin' of the Senorita, for
+instance.  Can you beat that?  Shore, Jim, there's more doin' than
+the raidin' of a few hosses.  An' Forlorn River is goin' to get hers!"
+
+Another dawn found Gale so much recovered that he arose and looked
+after himself, not, however, without considerable difficulty and
+rather disheartening twinges of pain.
+
+Some time during the morning he heard the girls in the patio and
+called to ask if he might join them.  He received one response,
+a mellow, "Si, Senor."  It was not as much as he wanted,
+but considering that it was enough, he went out.  He had not
+as yet visited the patio, and surprise and delight were in store
+for him.  He found himself lost in a labyrinth of green and
+rose-bordered walks.  He strolled around, discovering that the
+patio was a courtyard, open at an end; but he failed to discover
+the young ladies.  So he called again.  The answer came from the
+center of the square.  After stooping to get under shrubs and
+wading through bushes he entered an open sandy circle, full of
+magnificent and murderous cactus plants, strange to him.  On the
+other side, in the shade of a beautiful tree, he found the girls.
+Mercedes sitting in a hammock, Nell upon a blanket.
+
+"What a beautiful tree!" he exclaimed.  "I never saw one like
+that.  What is it?"
+
+"Palo verde," replied Nell.
+
+"Senor, palo verde means 'green tree,'" added Mercedes.
+
+This desert tree, which had struck Dick as so new and strange
+and beautiful, was not striking on account of size, for it was
+small, scarcely reaching higher than the roof; but rather because
+of its exquisite color of green, trunk and branch alike, and owing
+to the odd fact that it seemed not to possess leaves.  All the tree
+from ground to tiny flat twigs was a soft polished green.  It bore
+no thorns.
+
+Right then and there began Dick's education in desert growths;
+and he felt that even if he had not had such charming teachers
+he would still have been absorbed.  For the patio was full of
+desert wonders.  A twisting-trunked tree with full foliage of
+small gray leaves Nell called a mesquite.  Then Dick remembered
+the name, and now he saw where the desert got its pale-gray color.
+A huge, lofty, fluted column of green was a saguaro, or giant
+cactus.  Another oddshaped cactus, resembling the legs of an
+inverted devil-fish, bore the name ocatillo.  Each branch
+rose high and symmetrical, furnished with sharp blades
+that seemed to be at once leaves and thorns.  Yet another
+cactus interested Gale, and it looked like a huge, low
+barrel covered with green-ribbed cloth and long thorns.  This was
+the bisnaga, or barrel cactus.  According to Nell and Mercedes,
+this plant was a happy exception to its desert neighbors, for it
+secreted water which had many times saved the lives of men.  Last
+of the cacti to attract Gale, and the one to make him shiver, was
+a low plant, consisting of stem and many rounded protuberances of
+a frosty, steely white, and covered with long murderous spikes.
+From this plant the desert got its frosty glitter.  It was as
+stiff, as unyielding as steel, and bore the name choya.
+
+Dick's enthusiasm was contagious, and his earnest desire to learn
+was flattering to his teachers.  When it came to assimilating
+Spanish, however, he did not appear to be so apt a pupil.  He
+managed, after many trials, to acquire "buenos dias" and "buenos
+tardes," and "senorita" and "gracias," and a few other short terms.
+Dick was indeed eager to get a little smattering of Spanish, and
+perhaps he was not really quite so stupid as he pretended to be.
+It was delightful to be taught by a beautiful Spaniard who was so
+gracious and intense and magnetic of personality, and by a sweet
+American girl who moment by moment forgot her shyness.  Gale
+wished to prolong the lessons.
+
+So that was the beginning of many afternoons in which he learned
+desert lore and Spanish verbs, and something else that he dared
+not name.
+
+Nell Burton had never shown to Gale that daring side of her
+character which had been so suggestively defined in Belding's
+terse description and Ladd's encomiums, and in her own audacious
+speech and merry laugh and flashing eye of that never-to-be-forgotten
+first meeting.  She might have been an entirely different girl.
+But Gale remembered; and when the ice had been somewhat broken
+between them, he was always trying to surprise her into her real self.
+There were moments that fairly made him tingle with expectation.
+Yet he saw little more than a ghost of her vivacity, and never
+a gleam of that individuality which Belding had called a devil.
+On the few occasions that Dick had been left alone with her
+in the patio Nell had grown suddenly unresponsive and
+restrained, or she had left him on some transparent pretext.
+On the last occasion Mercedes returned to find Dick staring
+disconsolately at the rose-bordered path, where Nell had evidently
+vanished.  The Spanish girl was wonderful in her divination.
+
+"Senor Dick!" she cried.
+
+Dick looked at her, soberly nodded his head, and then he laughed.
+Mercedes had seen through him in one swift glance.  Her white hand
+touched his in wordless sympathy and thrilled him.  This Spanish
+girl was all fire and passion and love.  She understood him, she
+was his friend, she pledged him what he felt would be the most
+subtle and powerful influence.
+
+Little by little he learned details of Nell's varied life.  She had
+lived in many places.  As a child she remembered moving from
+town to town, of going to school among schoolmates whom she
+never had time to know.  Lawrence, Kansas, where she studied for
+several years, was the later exception to this changeful nature
+of her schooling.  Then she moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma, from
+there to Austin, Texas, and on to Waco, where her mother met and
+married Belding.  They lived in New Mexico awhile, in Tucson,
+Arizona, in Douglas, and finally had come to lonely Forlorn River.
+
+"Mother could never live in one place any length of time,"
+said Nell.  "And since we've been in the Southwest she has never
+ceased trying to find some trace of her father.  He was last heard
+of in Nogales fourteen years ago.  She thinks grandfather was lost
+in the Sonora Desert....And every place we go is worse.  Oh, I love
+the desert.  But I'd like to go back to Lawrence--or to see
+Chicago or New York--some of the places Mr. Gale speaks of....
+I remember the college at Lawrence, though I was only twelve.
+I saw races--and once real football.  Since then I've read magazines
+and papers about big football games, and I was always fascinated
+....Mr. Gale, of course, you've seen games?
+
+"Yes, a few," replied Dick; and he laughed a little.  It was on
+his lips then to tell her about some of the famous games in which
+he had participated.  But he refrained from exploiting himself.
+There was little, however, of the color and sound and cheer, of
+the violent action and rush and battle incidental to a big college
+football game that he did not succeed in making Mercedes and Nell
+feel just as if they had been there.  They hung breathless and
+wide-eyed upon his words.
+
+Some one else was present at the latter part of Dick's narrative.
+The moment he became aware of Mrs. Belding's presence he remembered
+fancying he had heard her call, and now he was certain she had
+done so.  Mercedes and Nell, however, had been and still were
+oblivious to everything except Dick's recital.  He saw Mrs. Belding
+cast a strange, intent glance upon Nell, then turn and go silently
+through the patio.  Dick concluded his talk, but the brilliant
+beginning was not sustained.
+
+Dick was haunted by the strange expression he had caught on Mrs.
+Belding's face, especially the look in her eyes.  It had been one
+of repressed pain liberated in a flash of certainty.  The mother
+had seen just as quickly as Mercedes how far he had gone on the
+road of love.  Perhaps she had seen more--even more than he dared
+hope.  The incident roused Gale.  He could not understand Mrs.
+Belding, nor why that look of hers, that seeming baffled, hopeless
+look of a woman who saw the inevitable forces of life and could
+not thwart them, should cause him perplexity and distress.  He
+wanted to go to her and tell her how he felt about Nell, but fear
+of absolute destruction of his hopes held him back.  He would wait.
+Nevertheless, an instinct that was perhaps akin to self-preservation
+prompted him to want to let Nell know the state of his mind.
+Words crowded his brain seeking utterance.  Who and what he was,
+how he loved her, the work he expected to take up soon, his longings,
+hopes, and plans--there was all this and more.  But something checked
+him.  And the repression made him so thoughtful and quiet, even
+melancholy, that he went outdoors to try to throw off the mood.
+The sun was yet high, and a dazzling white light enveloped valleys
+and peaks.  He felt that the wonderful sunshine was the dominant
+feature of that arid region.  It was like white gold.  It had
+burned its color in a face he knew.  It was going to warm his blood
+and brown his skin.  A hot, languid breeze, so dry that he felt his
+lips shrink with its contact, came from the desert; and it seemed
+to smell of wide-open, untainted places where sand blew and strange,
+pungent plants gave a bitter-sweet tang to the air.
+
+When he returned to the house, some hours later, his room had been
+put in order.  In the middle of the white coverlet on his table
+lay a fresh red rose.  Nell had dropped it there.  Dick picked it
+up, feeling a throb in his breast.  It was a bud just beginning
+to open, to show between its petals a dark-red, unfolding heart.
+How fragrant it was, how exquisitely delicate, how beautiful
+its inner hue of red, deep and dark, the crimson of life blood!
+
+Had Nell left it there by accident or by intent?  Was it merely
+kindness or a girl's subtlety?  Was it a message couched elusively,
+a symbol, a hope in a half-blown desert rose?
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE YAQUI
+
+TOWARD evening of a lowering December day, some fifty miles west
+of Forlorn River, a horseman rode along an old, dimly defined trail.
+From time to time he halted to study the lay of the land ahead.
+It was bare, somber, ridgy desert, covered with dun-colored
+greasewood and stunted prickly pear.  Distant mountains hemmed
+in the valley, raising black spurs above the round lomas and the
+square-walled mesas.
+
+This lonely horseman bestrode a steed of magnificent build,
+perfectly white except for a dark bar of color running down the
+noble head from ears to nose.  Sweatcaked dust stained the long
+flanks.  The horse had been running.  His mane and tail were laced
+and knotted to keep their length out of reach of grasping cactus
+and brush.  Clumsy home-made leather shields covered the front
+of his forelegs and ran up well to his wide breast.  What otherwise
+would have been muscular symmetry of limb was marred by many a
+scar and many a lump.  He was lean, gaunt, worn, a huge machine
+of muscle and bone, beautiful only in head and mane, a weight-carrier,
+a horse strong and fierce like the desert that had bred him.
+
+The rider fitted the horse as he fitted the saddle.  He was a young
+man of exceedingly powerful physique, wide-shouldered, long-armed,
+big-legged.  His lean face, where it was not red, blistered and peeling,
+was the hue of bronze.  He had a dark eye, a falcon gaze, roving
+and keen.  His jaw was prominent and set, mastiff-like; his lips
+were stern.  It was youth with its softness not yet quite burned
+and hardened away that kept the whole cast of his face from being
+ruthless.
+
+This young man was Dick Gale, but not the listless traveler, nor the
+lounging wanderer who, two months before, had by chance dropped
+into Casita.  Friendship, chivalry, love--the deep-seated, unplumbed
+emotions that had been stirred into being with all their incalculable
+power for spiritual change, had rendered different the meaning of
+life.  In the moment almost of their realization the desert had
+claimed Gale, and had drawn him into its crucible.  The desert
+had multiplied weeks into years.  Heat, thirst, hunger, loneliness,
+toil, fear, ferocity, pain--he knew them all.  He had felt them
+all--the white sun, with its glazed, coalescing, lurid fire; the
+caked split lips and rasping, dry-puffed tongue; the sickening
+ache in the pit of his stomach; the insupportable silence, the
+empty space, the utter desolation, the contempt of life; the weary
+ride, the long climb, the plod in sand, the search, search, search
+for water; the sleepless night alone, the watch and wait, the
+dread of ambush, the swift flight; the fierce pursuit of men wild
+as Bedouins and as fleet, the willingness to deal sudden death,
+the pain of poison thorn, the stinging tear of lead through flesh;
+and that strange paradox of the burning desert, the cold at night,
+the piercing icy wind, the dew that penetrated to the marrow, the
+numbing desert cold of the dawn.
+
+Beyond any dream of adventure he had ever had, beyond any wild
+story he had ever read, had been his experience with those
+hard-riding rangers, Ladd and Lash.  Then he had traveled alone
+the hundred miles of desert between Forlorn River and the Sonoyta
+Oasis.  Ladd's prophecy of trouble on the border had been mild
+compared to what had become the actuality.  With rebel occupancy
+of the garrison at Casita, outlaws, bandits, raiders in rioting
+bands had spread westward.  Like troops of Arabs, magnificently
+mounted, they were here, there, everywhere along the line; and if
+murder and worse were confined to the Mexican side, pillage and raiding
+were perpetrated across the border.  Many a dark-skinned raider bestrode
+one of Belding's fast horses, and indeed all except his selected white
+thoroughbreds had been stolen.  So the job of the rangers had
+become more than a patrolling of the boundary line to keep Japanese
+and Chinese from being smuggled into the United States.  Belding
+kept close at home to protect his family and to hold his property.
+But the three rangers, in fulfilling their duty had incurred risks
+on their own side of the line, had been outraged, robbed, pursued,
+and injured on the other.  Some of the few waterholes that had
+to be reached lay far across the border in Mexican territory.
+Horses had to drink, men had to drink; and Ladd and Lash were not
+of the stripe that forsook a task because of danger.  Slow to
+wrath at first, as became men who had long lived peaceful lives,
+they had at length revolted; and desert vultures could have told
+a gruesome story.  Made a comrade and ally of these bordermen,
+Dick Gale had leaped at the desert action and strife with an
+intensity of heart and a rare physical ability which accounted for
+the remarkable fact that he had not yet fallen by the way.
+
+On this December afternoon the three rangers, as often, were
+separated.  Lash was far to the westward of Sonoyta, somewhere
+along Camino del Diablo, that terrible Devil's Road, where many
+desert wayfarers had perished.  Ladd had long been overdue in a
+prearranged meeting with Gale.  The fact that Ladd had not shown
+up miles west of the Papago Well was significant.
+
+The sun had hidden behind clouds all the latter part of that day,
+an unusual occurrence for that region even in winter.  And now,
+as the light waned suddenly, telling of the hidden sunset, a cold
+dry, penetrating wind sprang up and blew in Gale's face.  Not at
+first, but by imperceptible degrees it chilled him.  He untied his
+coat from the back of the saddle and put it on.  A few cold drops
+of rain touched his cheek.
+
+He halted upon the edge of a low escarpment.  Below him the
+narrowing valley showed bare, black ribs of rock, long, winding
+gray lines leading down to a central floor where mesquite and
+cactus dotted the barren landscape.  Moving objects, diminutive
+in size, gray and white in color, arrested Gale's roving sight.
+They bobbed away for a while, then stopped.  They were antelope,
+and they had seen his horse.  When he rode on they started once
+more, keeping to the lowest level.  These wary animals were often
+desert watchdogs for the ranger, they would betray the proximity
+of horse or man.  With them trotting forward, he made better time
+for some miles across the valley.  When he lost them, caution once
+more slowed his advance.
+
+The valley sloped up and narrowed, to head into an arroyo where
+grass began to show gray between the clumps of mesquite.  Shadows
+formed ahead in the hollows, along the walls of the arroyo, under
+the trees, and they seemed to creep, to rise, to float into a veil
+cast by the background of bold mountains, at last to claim the
+skyline.  Night was not close at hand, but it was there in the east,
+lifting upward, drooping downward, encroaching upon the west.
+
+Gale dismounted to lead his horse, to go forward more slowly.  He
+had ridden sixty miles since morning, and he was tired, and a not
+entirely healed wound in his hip made one leg drag a little.  A
+mile up the arroyo, near its head, lay the Papago Well.  The need
+of water for his horse entailed a risk that otherwise he could
+have avoided.  The well was on Mexican soil.  Gale distinguished
+a faint light flickering through the thin, sharp foliage.  Campers
+were at the well, and, whoever they were, no doubt they had
+prevented Ladd from meeting Gale.  Ladd had gone back to the
+next waterhole, or maybe he was hiding in an arroyo to the eastward,
+awaiting developments.
+
+Gale turned his horse, not without urge of iron arm and persuasive
+speech, for the desert steed scented water, and plodded back to the
+edge of the arroyo, where in a secluded circle of mesquite he halted.
+The horse snorted his relief at the removal of the heavy, burdened
+saddle and accoutrements, and sagging, bent his knees, lowered himself
+with slow heave, and plunged down to roll in the sand.  Gale poured the
+contents of his larger canteen into his hat and held it to the horse's nose.
+
+"Drink, Sol," he said.
+
+It was but a drop for a thirsty horse.  However, Blanco Sol rubbed
+a wet muzzle against Gale's hand in appreciation.  Gale loved the
+horse, and was loved in return.  They had saved each other's lives,
+and had spent long days and nights of desert solitude together.
+Sol had known other masters, though none so kind as this new one;
+but it was certain that Gale had never before known a horse.
+
+The spot of secluded ground was covered with bunches of galleta
+grass upon which Sol began to graze.  Gale made a long halter of
+his lariat to keep the horse from wandering in search of water.
+Next Gale kicked off the cumbersome chapparejos, with their flapping,
+tripping folds of leather over his feet, and drawing a long rifle
+from its leather sheath, he slipped away into the shadows.
+
+The coyotes were howling, not here and there, but in concerted
+volume at the head of the arroyo.  To Dick this was no more reassuring
+than had been the flickering light of the campfire.  The wild desert
+dogs, with their characteristic insolent curiosity, were baying men
+round a campfire.  Gale proceeded slowly, halting every few steps,
+careful not to brush against the stiff greasewood.  In the soft
+sand his steps made no sound.  The twinkling light vanished
+occasionally, like a Jack-o'lantern, and when it did show it seemed
+still a long way off.  Gale was not seeking trouble or inviting
+danger.  Water was the thing that drove him.  He must see who
+these campers were, and then decide how to give Blanco Sol a drink.
+
+A rabbit rustled out of brush at Gale's feet and thumped
+away over the sand.  The wind pattered among dry, broken stalks
+of dead ocatilla.  Every little sound brought Gale to a listening
+pause.  The gloom was thickening fast into darkness.  It would be
+a night without starlight.  He moved forward up the pale, zigzag
+aisles between the mesquite.  He lost the light for a while, but the
+coyotes' chorus told him he was approaching the campfire.  Presently
+the light danced through the black branches, and soon grew into
+a flame.  Stooping low, with bushy mesquites between him and the
+fire, Gale advanced.  The coyotes were in full cry.  Gale heard
+the tramping, stamping thumps of many hoofs.  The sound worried
+him.  Foot by foot he advanced, and finally began to crawl.  The
+wind favored his position, so that neither coyotes nor horses could
+scent him.  The nearer he approached the head of the arroyo, where
+the well was located, the thicker grew the desert vegetation.  At
+length a dead palo verde, with huge black clumps of its parasite
+mistletoe thick in the branches, marked a distance from the well
+that Gale considered close enough.  Noiselessly he crawled here and
+there until he secured a favorable position, and then rose to peep
+from behind his covert.
+
+He saw a bright fire, not a cooking-fire, for that would have been
+low and red, but a crackling blaze of mesquite.  Three men were
+in sight, all close to the burning sticks.  They were Mexicans
+and of the coarse type of raiders, rebels, bandits that Gale
+expected to see.  One stood up, his back to the fire; another sat
+with shoulders enveloped in a blanket, and the third lounged in
+the sand, his feet almost in the blaze.  They had cast off belts
+and weapons.  A glint of steel caught Gale's eye.  Three short,
+shiny carbines leaned against a rock.  A little to the left, within
+the circle of light, stood a square house made of adobe bricks.
+Several untrimmed poles upheld a roof of brush, which was partly
+fallen in.  This house was a Papago Indian habitation, and a month
+before had been occupied by a family that had been murdered or
+driven off by a roving band of outlaws.  A rude corral showed
+dimly in the edge of firelight, and from a black mass within came
+the snort and stamp and whinney of horses.
+
+Gale took in the scene in one quick glance, then sank down at the
+foot of the mesquite.  He had naturally expected to see more men.
+But the situation was by no means new.  This was one, or part of
+one, of the raider bands harrying the border.  They were stealing
+horses, or driving a herd already stolen.  These bands were more
+numerous than the waterholes of northern Sonora; they never camped
+long at one place; like Arabs, they roamed over the desert all the
+way from Nogales to Casita.  If Gale had gone peaceably up to this
+campfire there were a hundred chances that the raiders would kill
+and rob him to one chance that they might not.  If they recognized
+him as a ranger comrade of Ladd and Lash, if they got a glimpse
+of Blanco Sol, then Gale would have no chance.
+
+These Mexicans had evidently been at the well some time.  Their
+horses being in the corral meant that grazing had been done by
+day.  Gale revolved questions in mind.  Had this trio of outlaws
+run across Ladd?  It was not likely, for in that event they might
+not have been so comfortable and care-free in camp.  Were they
+waiting for more members of their gang?  That was very probable.
+With Gale, however, the most important consideration was how
+to get his horse to water.  Sol must have a drink if it cost a fight.
+There was stern reason for Gale to hurry eastward along the trail.
+He thought it best to go back to where he had left his horse and
+not make any decisive move until daylight.
+
+With the same noiseless care he had exercised in the advance, Gale
+retreated until it was safe for him to rise and walk on down the
+arroyo.  He found Blanco Sol contentedly grazing.  A heavy dew
+was falling, and, as the grass was abundant, the horse did not
+show the usual restlessness and distress after a dry and exhausting day.
+Gale carried his saddle blankets and bags into the lee of a little
+greasewood-covered mound, from around which the wind had
+cut the soil, and here, in a wash, he risked building a small fire.
+By this time the wind was piercingly cold.  Gale's hands were numb
+and he moved them to and fro in the little blaze.  Then he made
+coffee in a cup, cooked some slices of bacon on the end of a stick,
+and took a couple of hard biscuits from a saddlebag.  Of these
+his meal consisted.  After that he removed the halter from Blanco
+Sol, intending to leave him free to graze for a while.
+
+Then Gale returned to his little fire, replenished it with short
+sticks of dead greasewood and mesquite, and, wrapping his
+blanket round his shoulders he sat down to warm himself and to
+wait till it was time to bring in the horse and tie him up.
+
+The fire was inadequate and Gale was cold and wet with dew.
+Hunger and thirst were with him.  His bones ached, and there was
+a dull, deep-seated pain throbbing in his unhealed wound.  For days
+unshaven, his beard seemed like a million pricking needles in his
+blistered skin.  He was so tired that once having settled himself,
+he did not move hand or foot.  The night was dark, dismal, cloudy,
+windy, growing colder.  A moan of wind in the mesquite was
+occasionally pierced by the high-keyed yelp of a coyote.  There
+were lulls in which the silence seemed to be a thing of stifling,
+encroaching substance--a thing that enveloped, buried the desert.
+
+Judged by the great average of ideals and conventional standards
+of life, Dick Gale was a starved, lonely, suffering, miserable
+wretch.  But in his case the judgment would have hit only externals,
+would have missed the vital inner truth.  For Gale was happy with
+a kind of strange, wild glory in the privations, the pains, the perils,
+and the silence and solitude to be endured on this desert land.
+In the past he had not been of any use to himself or others;
+and he had never know what it meant to be hungry, cold, tired,
+lonely.  He had never worked for anything.  The needs of the day
+had been provided, and to-morrow and the future looked the same.
+Danger, peril, toil--these had been words read in books and papers.
+
+In the present he used his hands, his senses, and his wits.  He
+had a duty to a man who relied on his services.  He was a comrade,
+a friend, a valuable ally to riding, fighting rangers.  He had spent
+endless days, weeks that seemed years, alone with a horse, trailing
+over, climbing over, hunting over a desert that was harsh and hostile
+by nature, and perilous by the invasion of savage men.  That horse
+had become human to Gale.  And with him Gale had learned to know
+the simple needs of existence.  Like dead scales the superficialities,
+the falsities, the habits that had once meant all of life dropped
+off, useless things in this stern waste of rock and sand.
+
+Gale's happiness, as far as it concerned the toil and strife, was
+perhaps a grim and stoical one.  But love abided with him, and it
+had engendered and fostered other undeveloped traits--romance
+and a feeling for beauty, and a keen observation of nature.  He
+felt pain, but he was never miserable.  He felt the solitude, but
+he was never lonely.
+
+As he rode across the desert, even though keen eyes searched for
+the moving black dots, the rising puffs of white dust that were
+warnings, he saw Nell's face in every cloud.  The clean-cut mesas
+took on the shape of her straight profile, with its strong chin and
+lips, its fine nose and forehead.  There was always a glint of gold
+or touch of red or graceful line or gleam of blue to remind him of
+her.  Then at night her face shone warm and glowing, flushing and
+paling, in the campfire.
+
+To-night, as usual, with a keen ear to the wind, Gale listened as
+one on guard; yet he watched the changing phantom of a sweet face in
+the embers, and as he watched he thought.  The desert developed and
+multiplied thought.  A thousand sweet faces glowed in the pink and white
+ashes of his campfire, the faces of other sweethearts or wives that had
+gleamed for other men.  Gale was happy in his thought of Nell,
+for Nell, for something, when he was alone this way in the
+wilderness, told him she was near him, she thought of him, she
+loved him.  But there were many men alone on that vast
+southwestern plateau, and when they saw dream faces, surely for
+some it was a fleeting flash, a gleam soon gone, like the hope
+and the name and the happiness that had been and was now no
+more.  Often Gale thought of those hundreds of desert travelers,
+prospectors, wanderers who had ventured down the Camino del
+Diablo, never to be heard of again.  Belding had told him of that
+most terrible of all desert trails--a trail of shifting sands.  Lash
+had traversed it, and brought back stories of buried waterholes,
+of bones bleaching white in the sun, of gold mines as lost as were
+the prospectors who had sought them, of the merciless Yaqui and
+his hatred for the Mexican.  Gale thought of this trail and the men
+who had camped along it.  For many there had been one night, one
+campfire that had been the last.  This idea seemed to creep in
+out of the darkness, the loneliness, the silence, and to find a
+place in Gale's mind, so that it had strange fascination for him.
+He knew now as he had never dreamed before how men drifted into
+the desert, leaving behind graves, wrecked homes, ruined lives,
+lost wives and sweethearts.  And for every wanderer every campfire
+had a phantom face.  Gale measured the agony of these men at their
+last campfire by the joy and promise he traced in the ruddy heart
+of his own.
+
+By and by Gale remembered what he was waiting for; and, getting
+up, he took the halter and went out to find Blanco Sol.  It was
+pitch-dark now, and Gale could not see a rod ahead.  He felt his
+way, and presently as he rounded a mesquite he saw Sol's white
+shape outlined against the blackness.  The horse jumped and wheeled,
+ready to run.  It was doubtful if any one unknown to Sol could ever
+have caught him.  Gale's low call reassured him, and he went on
+grazing.  Gale haltered him in the likeliest patch of grass and
+returned to his camp.  There he lifted his saddle into a protected
+spot under a low wall of the mound, and, laying one blanket on
+the sand, he covered himself with the other and stretched himself
+for the night.
+
+Here he was out of reach of the wind; but he heard its melancholy
+moan in the mesquite.  There was no other sound.  The coyotes
+had ceased their hungry cries.  Gale dropped to sleep, and slept
+soundly during the first half of the night; and after that he seemed
+always to be partially awake, aware of increasing cold and damp.
+The dark mantle turned gray, and then daylight came quickly.  The
+morning was clear and nipping cold.  He threw off the wet blanket
+and got up cramped and half frozen.  A little brisk action was all
+that was necessary to warm his blood and loosen his muscles, and
+then he was fresh, tingling, eager.  The sun rose in a golden blaze,
+and the descending valley took on wondrous changing hues.  Then
+he fetched up Blanco Sol, saddled him, and tied him to the thickest
+clump of mesquite.
+
+"Sol, we'll have a drink pretty soon," he said, patting the splendid
+neck.
+
+Gale meant it.  He would not eat till he had watered his horse.
+Sol had gone nearly forty-eight hours without a sufficient drink,
+and that was long enough, even for a desert-bred beast.  No three
+raiders could keep Gale away from that well.  Taking his rifle in
+hand, he faced up the arroyo.  Rabbits were frisking in the short
+willows, and some were so tame he could have kicked them.  Gale
+walked swiftly for a goodly part of the distance, and then, when he
+saw blue smoke curling up above the trees, he proceeded slowly,
+with alert eye and ear.  From the lay of the land and position of
+trees seen by daylight, he found an easier and safer course that
+the one he had taken in the dark.  And by careful work he was enabled
+to get closer to the well, and somewhat above it.
+
+The Mexicans were leisurely cooking their morning meal.  They
+had two fires, one for warmth, the other to cook over.  Gale had
+an idea these raiders were familiar to him.  It seemed all these
+border hawks resembled one another--being mostly small of build,
+wiry, angular, swarthy-faced, and black-haired, and they wore
+the oddly styled Mexican clothes and sombreros.  A slow wrath
+stirred in Gale as he watched the trio.  They showed not the
+slightest indication of breaking camp.  One fellow, evidently the
+leader, packed a gun at his hip, the only weapon in sight.  Gale
+noted this with speculative eyes.  The raiders had slept inside
+the little adobe house, and had not yet brought out the carbines.
+Next Gale swept his gaze to the corral, in which he saw more than
+a dozen horses, some of them fine animals.  They were stamping
+and whistling, fighting one another, and pawing the dirt.  This
+was entirely natural behavior for desert horses penned in when they
+wanted to get at water and grass.
+
+But suddenly one of the blacks, a big, shaggy fellow, shot up his
+ears and pointed his nose over the top of the fence.  He whistled.
+Other horses looked in the same direction, and their ears went up,
+and they, too, whistled.  Gale knew that other horses or men, very
+likely both, were approaching.  But the Mexicans did not hear the
+alarm, or show any interest if they did.  These mescal-drinking
+raiders were not scouts.  It was notorious how easily they could
+be surprised or ambushed.  Mostly they were ignorant, thick-skulled
+peons.  They were wonderful horsemen, and could go long without
+food or water; but they had not other accomplishments or attributes
+calculated to help them in desert warfare.  They had poor sight,
+poor hearing, poor judgment, and when excited they resembled
+crazed ants running wild.
+
+Gale saw two Indians on burros come riding up the other side
+of the knoll upon which the adobe house stood; and apparently
+they were not aware of the presence of the Mexicans,
+for they came on up the path.  One Indian was a Papago.  The other,
+striking in appearance for other reasons than that he seemed to be
+about to fall from the burro, Gale took to be a Yaqui.  These
+travelers had absolutely nothing for an outfit except a blanket
+and a half-empty bag.  They came over the knoll and down the path
+toward the well, turned a corner of the house, and completely
+surprised the raiders.
+
+Gale heard a short, shrill cry, strangely high and wild, and this
+came from one of the Indians.  It was answered by hoarse shouts.
+Then the leader of the trio, the Mexican who packed a gun, pulled
+it and fired point-blank.  He missed once--and again.  At the third
+shot the Papago shrieked and tumbled off his burro to fall in a
+heap.  The other Indian swayed, as if the taking away of the
+support lent by his comrade had brought collapse, and with the
+fourth shot he, too, slipped to the ground.
+
+The reports had frightened the horses in the corral; and the vicious
+black, crowding the rickety bars, broke them down.  He came plunging
+out.  Two of the Mexicans ran for him, catching him by nose and
+mane, and the third ran to block the gateway.
+
+Then, with a splendid vaulting mount, the Mexican with the gun
+leaped to the back of the horse.  He yelled and waved his gun, and
+urged the black forward.  The manner of all three was savagely
+jocose.  They were having sport.  The two on the ground began to
+dance and jabber.  The mounted leader shot again, and then stuck
+like a leech upon the bare back of the rearing black.  It was a vain
+show of horsemanship.  Then this Mexican, by some strange grip,
+brought the horse down, plunging almost upon the body of the
+Indian that had fallen last.
+
+Gale stood aghast with his rifle clutched tight.  He could not
+divine the intention of the raider, but suspected something brutal.
+The horse answered to that cruel, guiding hand, yet he swerved and bucked.
+He reared aloft, pawing the air, wildly snorting, then he plunged down upon
+the prostrate Indian.  Even in the act the intelligent animal tried to
+keep from striking the body with his hoofs.  But that was not possible.
+A yell, hideous in its passion, signaled this feat of horsemanship.
+
+The Mexican made no move to trample the body of the Papago.
+He turned the black to ride again over the other Indian.  That
+brought into Gale's mind what he had heard of a Mexican's hate
+for a Yaqui.  It recalled the barbarism of these savage peons,
+and the war of extermination being waged upon the Yaquis.
+
+Suddenly Gale was horrified to see the Yaqui writhe and raise a
+feeble hand.  The action brought renewed and more savage cries
+from the Mexicans.  The horse snorted in terror.
+
+Gale could bear no more.  He took a quick shot at the rider.  He
+missed the moving figure, but hit the horse.  There was a bound,
+a horrid scream, a mighty plunge, then the horse went down, giving
+the Mexican a stunning fall.  Both beast and man lay still.
+
+Gale rushed from his cover to intercept the other raiders before
+they could reach the house and their weapons.  One fellow yelled
+and ran wildly in the opposite direction; the other stood stricken
+in his tracks.  Gale ran in close and picked up the gun that had
+dropped from the raider leader's hand.  This fellow had begun to
+stir, to come out of his stunned condition.  Then the frightened
+horses burst the corral bars, and in a thundering, dust-mantled
+stream fled up the arroyo.
+
+The fallen raider sat up, mumbling to his saints in one breath,
+cursing in his next.  The other Mexican kept his stand, intimidated
+by the threatening rifle.
+
+"Go, Greasers!  Run!" yelled Gale.  Then he yelled it in Spanish.
+At the point of his rifle he drove the two raiders out of the camp.
+His next move was to run into the house and fetch out the carbines.
+With a heavy stone he dismantled each weapon.  That done, he set out
+on a run for his horse.  He took the shortest cut down the arroyo,
+with no concern as to whether or not he would encounter the raiders.
+Probably such a meeting would be all the worse for them, and they
+knew it.  Blanco Sol heard him coming and whistled a welcome, and
+when Gale ran up the horse was snorting war.  Mounting, Gale rode
+rapidly back to the scene of the action, and his first thought, when
+he arrived at the well, was to give Sol a drink and to fill his canteens.
+
+Then Gale led his horse up out of the waterhole, and decided
+before remounting to have a look at the Indians.  The Papago had
+been shot through the heart, but the Yaqui was still alive.
+Moreover, he was conscious and staring up at Gale with great,
+strange, somber eyes, black as volcanic slag.
+
+"Gringo good--no kill," he said, in husky whisper.
+
+His speech was not affirmative so much as questioning.
+
+"Yaqui, you're done for," said Gale, and his words were positive.
+He was simply speaking aloud his mind.
+
+"Yaqui--no hurt--much," replied the Indian, and then he spoke a
+strange word--repeated it again and again.
+
+An instinct of Gale's, or perhaps some suggestion in the husky,
+thick whisper or dark face, told Gale to reach for his canteen.
+He lifted the Indian and gave him a drink, and if ever in all his
+life he saw gratitude in human eyes he saw it then.  Then he
+examined the injured Yaqui, not forgetting for an instant to send
+wary, fugitive glances on all sides.  Gale was not surprised.  The
+Indian had three wounds--a bullet hole in his shoulder, a crushed
+arm, and a badly lacerated leg.  What had been the matter with
+him before being set upon by the raider Gale could not be certain.
+
+The ranger thought rapidly.  This Yaqui would live unless left there
+to die or be murdered by the Mexicans when they found courage to
+sneak back to the well.  It never occurred to Gale to abandon the
+poor fellow.  That was where his old training, the higher order of
+human feeling, made impossible the following of any elemental instinct
+of self-preservation.  All the same, Gale knew he multiplied his
+perils a hundredfold by burdening himself with a crippled Indian.
+Swiftly he set to work, and with rifle ever under his hand, and
+shifting glance spared from his task, he bound up the Yaqui's
+wounds.  At the same time he kept keen watch.
+
+The Indians' burros and the horses of the raiders were all out
+of sight.  Time was too valuable for Gale to use any in what might
+be a vain search.  Therefore, he lifted the Yaqui upon Sol's broad
+shoulders and climbed into the saddle.  At a word Sol dropped
+his head and started eastward up the trail, walking swiftly,
+without resentment for his double burden.
+
+Far ahead, between two huge mesas where the trail mounted over
+a pass, a long line of dust clouds marked the position of the horses
+that had escaped from the corral.  Those that had been stolen would
+travel straight and true for home, and perhaps would lead the others
+with them.  The raiders were left on the desert without guns or
+mounts.
+
+Blanco Sol walked or jog-trotted six miles to the hour.  At that
+gait fifty miles would not have wet or turned a hair of his dazzling
+white coat.  Gale, bearing in mind the ever-present possibility of
+encountering more raiders and of being pursued, saved the strength
+of the horse.  Once out of sight of Papago Well, Gale dismounted
+and walked beside the horse, steadying with one firm hand the
+helpless, dangling Yaqui.
+
+The sun cleared the eastern ramparts, and the coolness of morning
+fled as if before a magic foe.  The whole desert changed.  The grays
+wore bright; the mesquites glistened; the cactus took the silver
+hue of frost, and the rocks gleamed gold and red.  Then, as the
+heat increased, a wind rushed up out of the valley behind Gale,
+and the hotter the sun blazed down the swifter rushed the wind.
+The wonderful transparent haze of distance lost its bluish hue for
+one with tinge of yellow.  Flying sand made the peaks dimly outlined.
+
+Gale kept pace with his horse.  He bore the twinge of pain that
+darted through his injured hip at every stride.  His eye roved
+over the wide, smoky prospect seeking the landmarks he knew.
+When the wild and bold spurs of No Name Mountains loomed through
+a rent in flying clouds of sand he felt nearer home.  Another hour
+brought him abreast of a dark, straight shaft rising clear from a
+beetling escarpment.  This was a monument marking the international
+boundary line.  When he had passed it he had his own country under
+foot.  In the heat of midday he halted in the shade of a rock, and,
+lifting the Yaqui down, gave him a drink.  Then, after a long,
+sweeping survey of the surrounding desert, he removed Sol's saddle
+and let him roll, and took for himself a welcome rest and a bite
+to eat.
+
+The Yaqui was tenacious of life.  He was still holding his own.
+For the first time Gale really looked at the Indian to study him.
+He had a large head nobly cast, and a face that resembled a
+shrunken mask.  It seemed chiseled in the dark-red, volcanic lava
+of his Sooner wilderness.  The Indian's eyes were always black
+and mystic, but this Yaqui's encompassed all the tragic desolation
+of the desert.  They were fixed on Gale, moved only when he moved.
+The Indian was short and broad, and his body showed unusual
+muscular development, although he seemed greatly emaciated from
+starvation or illness.
+
+Gale resumed his homeward journey.  When he got through the pass
+he faced a great depression, as rough as if millions of gigantic
+spikes had been driven by the hammer of Thor into a seamed and
+cracked floor.  This was Altar Valley.  It was a chaos of arroyo's,
+canyons, rocks, and ridges all mantled with cactus, and at its
+eastern end it claimed the dry bed of Forlorn River and water
+when there was any.
+
+With a wounded, helpless man across the saddle, this stretch of thorny
+and contorted desert was practically impassable.  Yet Gale headed into
+it unflinchingly.  He would carry the Yaqui as far as possible, or
+until death make the burden no longer a duty.  Blanco Sol plodded on
+over the dragging sand, up and down the steep, loose banks of washes,
+out on the rocks, and through the rows of white-tooled choyas.
+
+The sun sloped westward, bending fiercer heat in vengeful, parting
+reluctance.  The wind slackened.  The dust settled.  And the bold,
+forbidding front of No Name Mountains changed to red and gold.
+Gale held grimly by the side of the tireless, implacable horse,
+holding the Yaqui on the saddle, taking the brunt of the merciless
+thorns.  In the end it became heartrending toil.  His heavy chaps
+dragged him down; but he dared not go on without them, for,
+thick and stiff as they were, the terrible, steel-bayoneted spikes
+of the choyas pierced through to sting his legs.
+
+To the last mile Gale held to Blanco Sol's gait and kept
+ever-watchful gaze ahead on the trail.  Then, with the low, flat
+houses of Forlorn River shining red in the sunset, Gale flagged
+and rapidly weakened.  The Yaqui slipped out of the saddle and
+dropped limp in the sand.  Gale could not mount his horse.  He
+clutched Sol's long tail and twisted his hand in it and staggered on.
+
+Blanco Sol whistled a piercing blast.  He scented cool water and
+sweet alfalfa hay.  Twinkling lights ahead meant rest.  The
+melancholy desert twilight rapidly succeeded the sunset.  It
+accentuated the forlorn loneliness of the gray, winding river of
+sand and its grayer shores.  Night shadows trooped down from the
+black and looming mountains.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+
+WHITE HORSES
+
+"A CRIPPLED Yaqui!  Why the hell did you saddle yourself with him?"
+roared Belding, as he laid Gale upon the bed.
+
+Belding had grown hard these late, violent weeks.
+
+"Because I chose," whispered Gale, in reply.  "Go after him--he
+dropped in the trail--across the river--near the first big saguaro."
+
+Belding began to swear as he fumbled with matches and the lamp;
+but as the light flared up he stopped short in the middle of a word.
+
+"You said you weren't hurt?" he demanded, in sharp anxiety, as he
+bent over Gale.
+
+"I'm only--all in....Will you go--or send some one--for the Yaqui?"
+
+"Sure, Dick, sure," Belding replied, in softer tones.  Then he
+stalked out; his heels rang on the flagstones; he opened a door
+and called: "Mother--girls, here's Dick back.  He's done up....Now
+--no, no, he's not hurt or in bad shape.  You women!...Do what
+you can to make him comfortable.  I've got a little job on hand."
+
+There were quick replies that Gale's dulling ears did not
+distinguish.  Then it seemed Mrs. Belding was beside his bed, her
+presence so cool and soothing and helpful, and Mercedes and Nell,
+wide-eyed and white-faced, were fluttering around him.  He drank
+thirstily, but refused food.  He wanted rest.  And with their faces
+drifting away in a kind of haze, with the feeling of gentle hands
+about him, he lost consciousness.
+
+He slept twenty hours.  Then he arose, thirsty, hungry, lame,
+overworn, and presently went in search of Belding and the business
+of the day.
+
+"Your Yaqui was near dead, but guess we'll pull him through," said
+Belding.  "Dick, the other day that Indian came here by rail and
+foot and Lord only knows how else, all the way from New Orleans!
+He spoke English better than most Indians, and I know a little
+Yaqui.  I got some of his story and guessed the rest.  The Mexican
+government is trying to root out the Yaquis.  A year ago his tribe
+was taken in chains to a Mexican port on the Gulf.  The fathers,
+mothers, children, were separated and put in ships bound for
+Yucatan.  There they were made slaves on the great henequen
+plantations.  They were driven, beaten, starved.  Each slave had
+for a day's rations a hunk of sour dough, no more.  Yucatan is low,
+marshy, damp, hot.  The Yaquis were bred on the high, dry Sonoran
+plateau, where the air is like a knife.  They dropped dead in the
+henequen fields, and their places were taken by more.  You see,
+the Mexicans won't kill outright in their war of extermination of
+the Yaquis.  They get use out of them.  It's a horrible
+thing....Well, this Yaqui you brought in escaped from his captors,
+got aboard ship, and eventually reached New Orleans.  Somehow
+he traveled way out here.  I gave him a bag of food, and he went
+off with a Papago Indian.  He was a sick man then.  And he must
+have fallen foul of some Greasers."
+
+Gale told of his experience at Papago Well.
+
+"That raider who tried to grind the Yaqui under a horse's hoofs--he
+was a hyena!"  concluded Gale, shuddering.  "I've seen some blood
+spilled and some hard sights, but that inhuman devil took my nerve.
+Why, as I told you, Belding, I missed a shot at him--not twenty
+paces!"
+
+"Dick, in cases like that the sooner you clean up the bunch the
+better," said Belding, grimly.  "As for hard sights--wait till you've
+seen a Yaqui do up a Mexican.  Bar none, that is the limit!  It's
+blood lust, a racial hate, deep as life, and terrible.  The Spaniards
+crushed the Aztecs four or five hundred years ago.  That hate has had
+time to grow as deep as a cactus root.  The Yaquis are mountain
+Aztecs.  Personally, I think they are noble and intelligent, and if
+let alone would be peaceable and industrious.  I like the few I've
+known.  But they are a doomed race.  Have you any idea what ailed
+this Yaqui before the raider got in his work?"
+
+"No, I haven't.  I noticed the Indian seemed in bad shape; but I
+couldn't tell what was the matter with him."
+
+"Well, my idea is another personal one.  Maybe it's off color.  I
+think that Yaqui was, or is, for that matter, dying of a broken
+heart.  All he wanted was to get back to his mountains and die.
+There are no Yaquis left in that part of Sonora he was bound for."
+
+"He had a strange look in his eyes," said Gale, thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes, I noticed that.  But all Yaquis have a wild look.  Dick, if
+I'm not mistaken, this fellow was a chief.  It was a waste of
+strength, a needless risk for you to save him, pack him back here.
+But, damn the whole Greaser outfit generally, I'm glad you did!"
+
+Gale remembered then to speak of his concern for Ladd.
+
+"Laddy didn't go out to meet you," replied Belding.  "I knew you
+were due in any day, and, as there's been trouble between here
+and Casita, I sent him that way.  Since you've been out our friend
+Carter lost a bunch of horses and a few steers.  Did you get a good
+look at the horses those raiders had at Papago Well?"
+
+Dick had learned, since he had become a ranger, to see everything
+with keen, sure, photographic eye; and, being put to the test so
+often required of him, he described the horses as a dark-colored
+drove, mostly bays and blacks, with one spotted sorrel.
+
+"Some of Carter's--sure as you're born!" exclaimed Belding.  "His
+bunch has been split up, divided among several bands of raiders.
+He has a grass ranch up here in Three Mile Arroyo.  It's a good
+long ride in U. S. territory from the border."
+
+"Those horses I saw will go home, don't you think?" asked Dick.
+
+"Sure.  They can't be caught or stopped."
+
+"Well, what shall I do now?"
+
+"Stay here and rest," bluntly replied Belding.  "You need it.  Let
+the women fuss over you--doctor you a little.  When Jim gets back
+from Sonoyta I'll know more about what we ought to do.  By Lord!
+it seems our job now isn't keeping Japs and Chinks out of the U. S.
+It's keeping our property from going into Mexico."
+
+"Are there any letters for me?" asked Gale.
+
+"Letters!  Say, my boy, it'd take something pretty important to
+get me or any man here back Casita way.  If the town is safe these
+days the road isn't.  It's a month now since any one went to
+Casita."
+
+Gale had received several letters from his sister Elsie, the last of
+which he had not answered.  There had not been much opportunity
+for writing on his infrequent returns to Forlorn River; and,
+besides, Elsie had written that her father had stormed over what
+he considered Dick's falling into wild and evil ways.
+
+"Time flies," said Dick.  "George Thorne will be free before long,
+and he'll be coming out.  I wonder if he'll stay here or try to take
+Mercedes away?"
+
+"Well, he'll stay right here in Forlorn River, if I have any say,"
+replied Belding.  "I'd like to know how he'd ever get that Spanish
+girl out of the country now, with all the trails overrun by rebels
+and raiders.  It'd be hard to disguise her.  Say, Dick, maybe we can
+get Thorne to stay here.  You know, since you've discovered the
+possibility of a big water supply, I've had dreams of a future for
+Forlorn River....If only this war was over!  Dick, that's what it
+is--war--scattered war along the northern border of Mexico from gulf
+to gulf.  What if it isn't our war?  We're on the fringe.  No, we
+can't develop Forlorn River until there's peace."
+
+The discovery that Belding alluded to was one that might very
+well lead to the making of a wonderful and agricultural district
+of Altar Valley.  While in college Dick Gale had studied
+engineering, but he had not set the scientific world afire with his
+brilliance.  Nor after leaving college had he been able to satisfy
+his father that he could hold a job.  Nevertheless, his smattering
+of engineering skill bore fruit in the last place on earth where
+anything might have been expected of it--in the desert.  Gale had
+always wondered about the source of Forlorn River.  No white man
+or Mexican, or, so far as known, no Indian, had climbed those
+mighty broken steps of rock called No Name Mountains, from which
+Forlorn River was supposed to come.  Gale had discovered a long,
+narrow, rock-bottomed and rock-walled gulch that could be dammed
+at the lower end by the dynamiting of leaning cliffs above.  An
+inexhaustible supply of water could be stored there.  Furthermore,
+he had worked out an irrigation plan to bring the water down for
+mining uses, and to make a paradise out of that part of Altar Valley
+which lay in the United States.  Belding claimed there was gold in
+the arroyos, gold in the gulches, not in quantities to make a
+prospector rejoice, but enough to work for.  And the soil on the
+higher levels of Altar Valley needed only water to make it grow
+anything the year round.  Gale, too, had come to have dreams of
+a future for Forlorn River.
+
+On the afternoon of the following day Ladd unexpectedly appeared
+leading a lame and lathered horse into the yard.  Belding and Gale,
+who were at work at the forge, looked up and were surprised out
+of speech.  The legs of the horse were raw and red, and he seemed
+about to drop.  Ladd's sombrero was missing; he wore a bloody scarf
+round his head; sweat and blood and dust had formed a crust on his
+face; little streams of powdery dust slid from him; and the lower
+half of his scarred chaps were full of broken white thorns.
+
+"Howdy, boys," he drawled.  "I shore am glad to see you all."
+
+"Where'n hell's your hat?"  demanded Belding, furiously.  It was a
+ridiculous greeting.  But Belding's words signified little.  The
+dark shade of worry and solicitude crossing his face told more
+than his black amaze.
+
+The ranger stopped unbuckling the saddle girths, and, looking
+at Belding, broke into his slow, cool laugh.
+
+"Tom, you recollect that whopper of a saguaro up here where
+Carter's trail branches off the main trail to Casita?  Well, I
+climbed it an' left my hat on top for a woodpecker's nest."
+
+"You've been running--fighting?" queried Belding, as if Ladd had
+not spoken at all.
+
+"I reckon it'll dawn on you after a while," replied Ladd, slipping
+the saddle.
+
+"Laddy, go in the house to the women," said Belding.  "I'll tend to
+your horse."
+
+"Shore, Tom, in a minute.  I've been down the road.  An' I found
+hoss tracks an' steer tracks goin' across the line.  But I seen no
+sign of raiders till this mornin'.  Slept at Carter's last night.
+That raid the other day cleaned him out.  He's shootin' mad.  Well,
+this mornin' I rode plumb into a bunch of Carter's hosses, runnin'
+wild for home.  Some Greasers were tryin' to head them round an'
+chase them back across the line.  I rode in between an' made
+matters embarrassin'.  Carter's hosses got away.  Then me an' the
+Greasers had a little game of hide an' seek in the cactus.  I was on
+the wrong side, an' had to break through their line to head toward
+home.  We run some.  But I had a closer call than I'm stuck on
+havin'."
+
+"Laddy, you wouldn't have any such close calls if you'd ride one
+of my horses," expostulated Belding.  "This broncho of yours
+can run, and Lord knows he's game.  But you want a big,
+strong horse, Mexican bred, with cactus in his blood.
+Take one of the bunch--Bull, White Woman, Blanco Jose."
+
+"I had a big, fast horse a while back, but I lost him," said Ladd.
+"This bronch ain't so bad.  Shore Bull an' that white devil with
+his Greaser name--they could run down my bronch, kill him in
+a mile of cactus.  But, somehow, Tom, I can't make up my mind to
+take one of them grand white hosses.  Shore I reckon I'm kinda
+soft.  An' mebbe I'd better take one before the raiders clean up
+Forlorn River."
+
+Belding cursed low and deep in his throat, and the sound resembled
+muttering thunder.  The shade of anxiety on his face changed to
+one of dark gloom and passion.  Next to his wife and daughter there
+was nothing so dear to him as those white horses.  His father and
+grandfather--all his progenitors of whom he had trace--had been
+lovers of horses.  It was in Belding's blood.
+
+"Laddy, before it's too late can't I get the whites away from the
+border?"
+
+"Mebbe it ain't too late; but where can we take them?"
+
+"To San Felipe?"
+
+"No.  We've more chance to hold them here."
+
+"To Casita and the railroad?"
+
+"Afraid to risk gettin' there.  An' the town's full of rebels who
+need hosses."
+
+"Then straight north?"
+
+"Shore man, you're crazy.  Ther's no water, no grass for a hundred
+miles.  I'll tell you, Tom, the safest plan would be to take the
+white bunch south into Sonora, into some wild mountain valley.
+Keep them there till the raiders have traveled on back east.  Pretty
+soon there won't be any rich pickin' left for these Greasers.  An'
+then they'll ride on to new ranges."
+
+"Laddy, I don't know the trails into Sonora.  An' I can't trust a
+Mexican or a Papago.  Between you and me, I'm afraid of this
+Indian who herds for me."
+
+"I reckon we'd better stick here, Tom....Dick, it's some good to
+see you again.  But you seem kinda quiet.  Shore you get quieter
+all the time.  Did you see any sign of Jim out Sonoyta way?"
+
+Then Belding led the lame horse toward the watering-trough,
+while the two rangers went toward the house, Dick was telling
+Ladd about the affair at Papago Well when they turned the corner
+under the porch.  Nell was sitting in the door.  She rose with a
+little scream and came flying toward them.
+
+"Now I'll get it," whispered Ladd.  "The women'll make a baby of
+me.  An' shore I can't help myself."
+
+"Oh, Laddy, you've been hurt!" cried Nell, as with white cheeks
+and dilating eyes she ran to him and caught his arm.
+
+"Nell, I only run a thorn in my ear."
+
+"Oh, Laddy, don't lie!  You've lied before.  I know you're hurt.
+Come in to mother."
+
+"Shore, Nell, it's only a scratch.  My bronch throwed me."
+
+"Laddy, no horse every threw you."  The girl's words and accusing
+eyes only hurried the ranger on to further duplicity.
+
+"Mebbe I got it when I was ridin' hard under a mesquite, an' a
+sharp snag--"
+
+"You've been shot!...Mama, here's Laddy, and he's been shot!....Oh,
+these dreadful days we're having!  I can't bear them!  Forlorn River
+used to be so safe and quiet.  Nothing happened.  But now!  Jim
+comes home with a bloody hole in him--then Dick--then Laddy!....Oh,
+I'm afraid some day they'll never come home."
+
+
+
+The morning was bright, still, and clear as crystal.  The heat waves
+had not yet begun to rise from the desert.
+
+A soft gray, white, and green tint perfectly blended lay like a
+mantle over mesquite and sand and cactus.  The canyons of distant
+mountain showed deep and full of lilac haze.
+
+Nell sat perched high upon the topmost bar of the corral gate.  Dick
+leaned beside her, now with his eyes on her face, now gazing out
+into the alfalfa field where Belding's thoroughbreds grazed and
+pranced and romped and whistled.  Nell watched the horses.  She
+loved them, never tired of watching them.  But her gaze was too
+consciously averted from the yearning eyes that tried to meet hers
+to be altogether natural.
+
+A great fenced field of dark velvety green alfalfa furnished a rich
+background for the drove of about twenty white horses.  Even without
+the horses the field would have presented a striking contrast to the
+surrounding hot, glaring blaze of rock and sand.  Belding had bred a
+hundred or more horses from the original stock he had brought up
+from Durango.  His particular interest was in the almost
+unblemished whites, and these he had given especial care.  He made
+a good deal of money selling this strain to friends among the
+ranchers back in Texas.  No mercenary consideration, however, could
+have made him part with the great, rangy white horses he had gotten
+from the Durango breeder.  He called them Blanco Diablo (White
+Devil), Blanco Sol (White Sun), Blanca Reina (White Queen), Blanca
+Mujer (White Woman), and El Gran Toro Blanco (The Big White Bull).
+Belding had been laughed at by ranchers for preserving the
+sentimental Durango names, and he had been unmercifully ridiculed
+by cowboys.  But the names had never been changed.
+
+Blanco Diablo was the only horse in the field that was not free to
+roam and graze where he listed.  A stake and a halter held him to
+one corner, where he was severely let alone by the other horses.
+He did not like this isolation.  Blanco Diablo was not happy unless
+he was running, or fighting a rival.  Of the two he would rather fight.
+If anything white could resemble a devil, this horse surely did.  He had
+nothing beautiful about him, yet he drew the gaze and held it.  The look
+of him suggested discontent, anger, revolt, viciousness.  When he
+was not grazing or prancing, he held his long, lean head level,
+pointing his nose and showing his teeth.  Belding's favorite was
+almost all the world to him, and he swore Diablo could stand more
+heat and thirst and cactus than any other horse he owned, and
+could run down and kill any horse in the Southwest.  The fact that
+Ladd did not agree with Belding on these salient points was a great
+disappointment, and also a perpetual source for argument.  Ladd and
+Lash both hated Diablo; and Dick Gale, after one or two narrow
+escapes from being brained, had inclined to the cowboys' side of
+the question.
+
+El Gran Toro Blanco upheld his name.  He was a huge, massive,
+thick-flanked stallion, a kingly mate for his full-bodied, glossy
+consort, Blanca Reina.  The other mare, Blanca Mujer, was dazzling
+white, without a spot, perfectly pointed, racy, graceful, elegant,
+yet carrying weight and brawn and range that suggested her relation
+to her forebears.
+
+The cowboys admitted some of Belding's claims for Diablo, but they
+gave loyal and unshakable allegiance to Blanco Sol.  As for Dick, he
+had to fight himself to keep out of arguments, for he sometimes
+imagined he was unreasonable about the horse.  Though he could not
+understand himself, he knew he loved Sol as a man loved a friend,
+a brother.  Free of heavy saddle and the clumsy leg shields, Blanco
+Sol was somehow all-satisfying to the eyes of the rangers.  As long
+and big as Diablo was, Sol was longer and bigger.  Also, he was
+higher, more powerful.  He looked more a thing for action--speedier.
+At a distance the honorable scars and lumps that marred his muscular
+legs were not visible.  He grazed aloof from the others, and did not
+cavort nor prance; but when he lifted his head to whistle, how wild
+he appeared, and proud and splendid!  The dazzling whiteness of the
+desert sun shone from his coat; he had the fire and spirit of the desert
+in his noble head,  its strength and power in his gigantic frame.
+
+"Belding swears Sol never beat Diablo," Dick was saying.
+
+"He believes it," replied Nell.  "Dad is queer about that horse."
+
+"But Laddy rode Sol once--made him beat Diablo.  Jim saw the race."
+
+Nell laughed.  "I saw it, too.  For that matter, even I have made
+Sol put his nose before Dad's favorite."
+
+"I'd like to have seen that.  Nell, aren't you ever going to ride
+with me?"
+
+"Some day--when it's safe."
+
+"Safe!"
+
+"I--I mean when the raiders have left the border."
+
+"Oh, I'm glad you mean that," said Dick, laughing.  "Well, I've often
+wondered how Belding ever came to give Blanco Sol to me."
+
+"He was jealous.  I think he wanted to get rid of Sol."
+
+"No?  Why, Nell, he'd give Laddy or Jim one of the whites any day."
+
+"Would he?  Not Devil or Queen or White Woman.  Never in this
+world!  But Dad has lots of fast horses the boys could pick from.
+Dick, I tell you Dad wants Blanco Sol to run himself out--lose his
+speed on the desert.  Dad is just jealous for Diablo."
+
+"Maybe.  He surely has strange passion for horses.  I think I
+understand better than I used to.  I owned a couple of racers
+once.  They were just animals to me, I guess.  But Blanco Sol!"
+
+"Do you love him?" asked Nell; and now a warm, blue flash of eyes
+swept his face.
+
+"Do I?  Well, rather."
+
+"I'm glad.  Sol has been finer, a better horse since you
+owned him.  He loves you, Dick.  He's always watching for you.
+See him raise his head.  That's for you.  I know as much about
+horses as Dad or Laddy any day.  Sol always hated Diablo, and
+he never had much use for Dad."
+
+Dick looked up at her.
+
+"It'll be--be pretty hard to leave Sol--when I go away."
+
+Nell sat perfectly still.
+
+"Go away?" she asked, presently, with just the faintest tremor in
+her voice.
+
+"Yes.  Sometimes when I get blue--as I am to-day--I think I'll go.
+But, in sober truth, Nell, it's not likely that I'll spend all my
+life here."
+
+There was no answer to this.  Dick put his hand softly over hers;
+and, despite her half-hearted struggle to free it, he held on.
+
+"Nell!"
+
+Her color fled.  He saw her lips part.  Then a heavy step on the
+gravel, a cheerful, complaining voice interrupted him, and made
+him release Nell and draw back.  Belding strode into view round
+the adobe shed.
+
+"Hey, Dick, that darned Yaqui Indian can't be driven or hired or
+coaxed to leave Forlorn River.  He's well enough to travel.  I
+offered him horse, gun, blanket, grub.  But no go."
+
+"That's funny," replied Gale, with a smile.  "Let him stay--put
+him to work."
+
+"It doesn't strike me funny.  But I'll tell you what I think.  That
+poor, homeles, heartbroken Indian has taken a liking to you, Dick.
+These desert Yaquis are strange folk.  I've heard strange stories
+about them.  I'd believe 'most anything.  And that's how I figure
+his case.  You saved his life.  That sort of thing counts big with
+any Indian, even with an Apache.  With a Yaqui maybe it's of deep
+significance.  I've heard a Yaqui say that with his tribe no debt to
+friend or foe ever went unpaid.  Perhaps that's what ails this fellow."
+
+"Dick, don't laugh," said Nell.  "I've noticed the Yaqui.  It's
+pathetic the way his great gloomy eyes follow you."
+
+"You've made a friend," continued Belding.  "A Yaqui could be a
+real friend on this desert.  If he gets his strength back he'll be
+of service to you, don't mistake me.  He's welcome here.  But
+you're responsible for him, and you'll have trouble keeping him
+from massacring all the Greasers in Forlorn River."
+
+
+The probability of a visit from the raiders, and a dash bolder
+than usual on the outskirts of a ranch, led Belding to build a
+new corral.  It was not sightly to the eye, but it was high and
+exceedingly strong.  The gate was a massive affair, swinging on
+huge hinges and fastening with heavy chains and padlocks.  On the
+outside it had been completely covered with barb wire, which would
+make it a troublesome thing to work on in the dark.
+
+At night Belding locked his white horses in this corral.  The
+Papago hersman slept in the adobe shed adjoining.  Belding did
+not imagine that any wooden fence, however substantially built,
+could keep determined raiders from breaking it down.  They
+would have to take time, however, and make considerable noise;
+and Belding relied on these facts.  Belding did not believe a band
+of night raiders would hold out against a hot rifle fire.  So he
+began to make up some of the sleep he had lost.  It was noteworthy,
+however, that Ladd did not share Belding's sanguine hopes.
+
+Jim Lash rode in, reporting that all was well out along the line
+toward the Sonoyta Oasis.  Days passed, and Belding kept his rangers
+home.  Nothing was heard of raiders at hand.  Many of the newcomers,
+both American and Mexican, who came with wagons and pack trains
+from Casita stated that property and life were cheap back in that
+rebel-infested town.
+
+One January morning Dick Gale was awakened by a shrill,
+menacing cry.  He leaped up bewildered and frightened.
+He heard Belding's booming voice answering shouts, and rapid
+steps on flagstones.  But these had not awakened him.  Heavy
+breaths, almost sobs, seemed at his very door.  In the cold and
+gray dawn Dick saw something white.  Gun in hand, he bounded
+across the room.  Just ouside his door stood Blanco Sol.
+
+It was not unusual for Sol to come poking his head in at Dick's
+door during daylight.  But now in the early dawn, when he had
+been locked in the corral, it meant raiders--no less.  Dick called
+softly to the snorting horse; and, hurriedly getting into clothes
+and boots, he went out with a gun in each hand.  Sol was quivering
+in every muscle.  Like a dog he followed Dick around the house.
+Hearing shouts in the direction of the corrals, Gale bent swift
+steps that way.
+
+He caught up with Jim Lash, who was also leading a white horse.
+
+"Hello, Jim!  Guess it's all over but the fireworks," said Dick.
+
+"I cain't say just what has come off," replied Lash.  "I've got the
+Bull.  Found him runnin' in the yard."
+
+They reached the corral to find Belding shaking, roaring like a
+madman.  The gate was open, the corral was empty.  Ladd stooped
+over the ground, evidently trying to find tracks.
+
+"I reckon we might jest as well cool off an' wait for daylight,"
+suggested Jim.
+
+"Shore.  They've flown the coop, you can gamble on that.  Tom,
+where's the Papago?"  said Ladd.
+
+"He's gone, Laddy--gone!"
+
+"Double-crossed us, eh?  I see here's a crowbar lyin' by the
+gatepost.  That Indian fetched it from the forge.  It was used to
+pry out the bolts an' steeples.  Tom, I reckon there wasn't much
+time lost forcin' that gate."
+
+Belding, in shirt sleeves and barefooted, roared with rage.
+He said he had heard the horses running as he leaped out of bed.
+
+"What woke you?" asked Laddy.
+
+"Sol.  He came whistling for Dick.  Didn't you hear him before I
+called you?"
+
+"Hear him!  He came thunderin' right under my window.  I jumped
+up in bed, an' when he let out that blast Jim lit square in the
+middle of the floor, an' I was scared stiff.  Dick, seein' it was
+your room he blew into, what did you think?"
+
+"I couldn't think.  I'm shaking yet, Laddy."
+
+"Boys, I'll bet Sol spilled a few raiders if any got hands on him,"
+said Jim.  "Now, let's sit down an' wait for daylight.  It's my
+idea we'll find some of the hosses runnin' loose.  Tom, you go
+an' get some clothes on.  It's freezin' cold.  An' don't forget to
+tell the women folks we're all right."
+
+Daylight made clear some details of the raid.  The cowboys found
+tracks of eight raiders coming up from the river bed where their
+horses had been left.  Evidently the Papago had been false to his
+trust.  He few personal belongings were gone.  Lash was correct
+in his idea of finding more horses loose in the fields.  The men
+soon rounded up eleven of the whites, all more or less frightened,
+and among the number were Queen and Blanca Mujer.  The raiders
+had been unable to handle more than one horse for each man.  It
+was bitter irony of fate that Belding should lose his favorite, the
+one horse more dear to him than all the others.  Somewhere out on
+the trail a raider was fighting the iron-jawed savage Blanco Diablo.
+
+"I reckon we're some lucky," observed Jim Lash.
+
+"Lucky ain't enough word," replied Ladd.  "You see, it was this way.
+Some of the raiders piled over the fence while the others worked
+on the gate.  Mebbe the Papago went inside to pick out the best
+hosses.  But it didn't work except with Diablo, an' how they ever
+got him I don't know.  I'd have gambled it'd take all of eight
+men to steal him.  But Greasers have got us skinned on handlin'
+hosses."
+
+Belding was unconsolable.  He cursed and railed, and finally
+declared he was going to trail the raiders.
+
+"Tom, you just ain't agoin' to do nothin' of the kind," said Ladd
+coolly.
+
+Belding groaned and bowed his head.
+
+"Laddy, you're right," he replied, presently.  "I've got to stand
+it.  I can't leave the women and my property.  But it's sure tough.
+I'm sore way down deep, and nothin' but blood would ever satisfy
+me."
+
+"Leave that to me an' Jim," said Ladd.
+
+"What do you mean to do?" demanded Belding, starting up.
+
+"Shore I don't know yet....Give me a light for my pipe.  An' Dick,
+go fetch out your Yaqui."
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+THE RUNNING OF BLANCO SOL
+
+THE Yaqui's strange dark glance roved over the corral, the swinging
+gate with its broken fastenings, the tracks in the road, and then
+rested upon Belding.
+
+"Malo," he said, and his Spanish was clear.
+
+"Shore Yaqui, about eight bad men, an' a traitor Indian," said Ladd.
+
+"I think he means my herder," added Belding.  "If he does, that
+settles any doubt it might be decent to have--Yaqui--malo
+Papago--Si?"
+
+The Yaqui spread wide his hands.  Then he bent over the tracks in
+the road.  They led everywhither, but gradually he worked out of
+the thick net to take the trail that the cowboys had followed down
+to the river.  Belding and the rangers kept close at his heels.
+Occasionally Dick lent a helping hand to the still feeble Indian.
+He found a trampled spot where the raiders had left their horses.
+From this point a deeply defined narrow trail led across the dry
+river bed.
+
+Belding asked the Yaqui where the raiders would head for in the
+Sonora Desert.  For answer the Indian followed the trail across
+the stream of sand, through willows and mesquite, up to the level
+of rock and cactus.  At this point he halted.  A sand-filled,
+almost obliterated trail led off to the left, and evidently went
+round to the east of No Name Mountains.  To the right stretched
+the road toward Papago Well and the Sonoyta Oasis.  The trail
+of the raiders took a southeasterly course over untrodden desert.
+The Yaqui spoke in his own tongue, then in Spanish.
+
+"Think he means slow march," said Belding.  "Laddy, from the looks
+of that trail the Greasers are having trouble with the horses."
+
+"Tom, shore a boy could see that," replied Laddy.  "Ask Yaqui to tell
+us where the raiders are headin', an' if there's water."
+
+It was wonderful to see the Yaqui point.  His dark hand stretched,
+he sighted over his stretched finger at a low white escarpment in
+the distance.  Then with a stick he traced a line in the sand, and
+then at the end of that another line at right angles.  He made
+crosses and marks and holes, and as he drew the rude map he talked
+in Yaqui, in Spanish; with a word here and there in English.
+Belding translated as best he could.  The raiders were heading
+southeast toward the railroad that ran from Nogales down into
+Sonora.  It was four days' travel, bad trail, good sure waterhole
+one day out; then water not sure for two days.  Raiders traveling
+slow; bothered by too many horses, not looking for pursuit; were
+never pursued, could be headed and ambushed that night at the first
+waterhole, a natural trap in a valley.
+
+The men returned to the ranch.  The rangers ate and drank while
+making hurried preparations for travel.  Blanco Sol and the cowboys'
+horses were fed, watered, and saddled.  Ladd again refused to ride
+one of Belding's whites.  He was quick and cold.
+
+"Get me a long-range rifle an' lots of shells.  Rustle now," he
+said.
+
+"Laddy, you don't want to be weighted down?" protested Belding.
+
+"Shore I want a gun that'll outshoot the dinky little carbines an'
+muskets used by the rebels.  Trot one out an' be quick."
+
+"I've got a .405, a long-barreled heavy rifle that'll shoot a mile.
+I use it for mountain sheep.  But Laddy, it'll break
+that bronch's back."
+
+"His back won't break so easy....Dick, take plenty of shells for
+your Remington.  An' don't forget your field glass."
+
+In less than an hour after the time of the raid the three rangers,
+heavily armed and superbly mounted on fresh horses, rode out
+on the trail.  As Gale turned to look back from the far bank of
+Forlorn River, he saw Nell waving a white scarf.  He stood high
+in his stirrups and waved his sombrero.  Then the mesquites hid
+the girl's slight figure, and Gale wheeled grim-faced to follow
+the  rangers.
+
+They rode in single file with Ladd in the lead.  He did not keep
+to the trail of the raiders all the time.  He made short cuts.
+The raiders were traveling leisurely, and they evinced a liking
+for the most level and least cactus-covered stretches of ground.
+But the cowboy took a bee-line course for the white escarpment
+pointed out by the Yaqui; and nothing save deep washes and
+impassable patches of cactus or rocks made him swerve from it.
+He kept the broncho at a steady walk over the rougher places and
+at a swinging Indian canter over the hard and level ground.  The
+sun grew hot and the wind began to blow.  Dust clouds rolled
+along the blue horizon.  Whirling columns of sand, like water spouts
+at sea, circled up out of white arid basins, and swept away and
+spread aloft before the wind.  The escarpment began to rise, to
+change color, to show breaks upon its rocky face.
+
+Whenever the rangers rode out on the brow of a knoll or ridge
+or an eminence, before starting to descend, Ladd required of
+Gale a long, careful, sweeping survey of the desert ahead through
+the field glass.  There were streams of white dust to be seen,
+streaks of yellow dust, trailing low clouds of sand over the
+glistening dunes, but no steadily rising, uniformly shaped puffs
+that would tell a tale of moving horses on the desert.
+
+At noon the rangers got out of the thick cactus.  Moreover, the
+gravel-bottomed washes, the low weathering, rotting ledges of
+yellow rock gave place to hard sandy rolls and bare clay knolls.
+The desert resembled a rounded hummocky sea of color.  All light
+shades of blue and pink and yellow and mauve were there dominated
+by the glaring white sun.  Mirages glistened, wavered, faded in the
+shimmering waves of heat.  Dust as fine as powder whiffed up from
+under the tireless hoofs.
+
+The rangers rode on and the escarpment began to loom.  The desert
+floor inclined perceptibly upward.  When Gale got an unobstructed
+view of the slope of the escarpment he located the raiders and
+horses.  In another hour's travel the rangers could see with naked
+eyes a long, faint moving streak of black and white dots.
+
+"They're headin' for that yellow pass," said Ladd, pointing to a
+break in the eastern end of the escarpment.  "When they get out of
+sight we'll rustle.  I'm thinkin' that waterhole the Yaqui spoke of
+lays in the pass."
+
+The rangers traveled swiftly over the remaining miles of level
+desert leading to the ascent of the escarpment.  When they achieved
+the gateway of the pass the sun was low in the west.  Dwarfed
+mesquite and greasewood appeared among the rocks.  Ladd gave the
+word to tie up horses and go forward on foot.
+
+The narrow neck of the pass opened and descended into a valley
+half a mile wide, perhaps twice that in length.  It had apparently
+unscalable slopes of weathered rock leading up to beetling walls.
+With floor bare and hard and white, except for a patch of green
+mesquite near the far end it was a lurid and desolate spot, the
+barren bottom of a desert bowl.
+
+"Keep down, boys" said Ladd.  "There's the waterhole an' hosses
+have sharp eyes.  Shore the Yaqui figgered this place.  I never
+seen its like for a trap."
+
+Both white and black horses showed against the green,
+and a thin curling column of blue smoke rose lazily from amid
+the mesquites.
+
+"I reckon we'd better wait till dark, or mebbe daylight," said
+Jim Lash.
+
+"Let me figger some.  Dick, what do you make of the outlet to
+this hole?  Looks rough to me."
+
+With his glass Gale studied the narrow construction of walls and
+roughened rising floor.
+
+"Laddy, it's harder to get out at that end than here," he replied.
+
+"Shore that's hard enough.  Let me have a look....Well, boys, it
+don't take no figgerin' for this job.  Jim, I'll want you at the
+other end blockin' the pass when we're ready to start."
+
+"When'll that be?" inquired Jim.
+
+"Soon as it's light enough in the mornin'.  That Greaser outfit
+will hang till to-morrow.  There's no sure water ahead for two
+days, you remember."
+
+"I reckon I can slip through to the other end after dark," said
+Lash, thoughtfully.  "It might get me in bad to go round."
+
+The rangers stole back from the vantage point and returned to their
+horses, which they untied and left farther round among broken
+sections of cliff.  For the horses it was a dry, hungry camp, but
+the rangers built a fire and had their short though strengthening
+meal.
+
+The location was high, and through a break in the jumble of rocks
+the great colored void of desert could be seen rolling away
+endlessly to the west.  The sun set, and after it had gone down
+the golden tips of mountains dulled, their lower shadows creeping
+upward.
+
+Jim Lash rolled in his saddle blanket, his feet near the fire, and
+went to sleep.  Ladd told Gale to do likewise while he kept the
+fire up and waited until it was late enough for Jim to undertake
+circling round the raiders.  When Gale awakened the night was
+dark, cold, windy.  The stars shone with white brilliance.
+Jim was up saddling his horse, and Ladd was talking low.
+When Gale rose to accompany them both rangers said he need not go.
+But Gale wanted to go because that was the thing Ladd or Jim would
+have done.
+
+With Ladd leading, they moved away into the gloom.  Advance was
+exceedingly slow, careful, silent.  Under the walls the blackness
+seemed impenetrable.  The horse was as cautious as his master.
+Ladd did not lose his way, nevertheless he wound between blocks
+of stone and clumps of mesquite, and often tried a passage to
+abandon it.  Finally the trail showed pale in the gloom, and eastern
+stars twinkled between the lofty ramparts of the pass.
+
+The advance here was still as stealthily made as before, but not so
+difficult or slow.  When the dense gloom of the pass lightened,
+and there was a wide space of sky and stars overhead, Ladd halted
+and stood silent a moment.
+
+"Luck again!" he whispered.  "The wind's in your face, Jim.  The
+horses won't scent you.  Go slow.  Don't crack a stone.  Keep close
+under the wall.  Try to get up as high as this at the other end.
+Wait till daylight before riskin' a loose slope.  I'll be ridin' the
+job early.  That's all."
+
+Ladd's cool, easy speech was scarcely significant of the perilous
+undertaking.  Lash moved very slowly away, leading his horse.
+The soft pads of hoofs ceased to sound about the time the gray
+shape merged into the black shadows.  Then Ladd touched Dick's
+arm, and turned back up the trail.
+
+But Dick tarried a moment.  He wanted a fuller sense of that
+ebony-bottomed abyss, with its pale encircling walls reaching
+up to the dusky blue sky and the brilliant stars.  There was
+absolutely no sound.
+
+He retraced his steps down, soon coming up with Ladd; and together
+they picked a way back through the winding recesses of cliff.  The
+campfire was smoldering.  Ladd replenished it and lay down to get
+a few hours' sleep, while Gale kept watch.  The after part of the
+night wore on till the paling of stars, the thickening of gloom indicated
+the dark hour before dawn.  The spot was secluded from wind, but
+the air grew cold as ice.  Gale spent the time stripping wood from
+a dead mesquite, in pacing to and fro, in listening.  Blanco Sol
+stamped occasionally, which sound was all that broke the stilliness.
+Ladd awoke before the faintest gray appeared.  The rangers ate
+and drank.  When the black did lighten to gray they saddled the
+horses and led them out to the pass and down to the point where
+they had parted with Lash.  Here they awaited daylight.
+
+To Gale it seemed long in coming.  Such a delay always aggravated
+the slow fire within him.  He had nothing of Ladd's patience.  He
+wanted action.  The gray shadow below thinned out, and the patch
+of mesquite made a blot upon the pale valley.  The day dawned.
+
+Still Ladd waited.  He grew more silent, grimmer as the time of
+action approached.  Gale wondered what the plan of attack would
+be.  Yet he did not ask.  He waited ready for orders.
+
+The valley grew clear of gray shadow except under leaning walls
+on the eastern side.  Then a straight column of smoke rose from
+among the mesquites.  Manifestly this was what Ladd had been
+awaiting.  He took the long .405 from its sheath and tried the
+lever.  Then he lifted a cartridge belt from the pommel of his
+saddle.  Every ring held a shell and these shells were four inches
+long.  He buckled the belt round him.
+
+"Come on, Dick."
+
+Ladd led the way down the slope until he reached a position that
+commanded the rising of the trail from a level.  It was the only
+place a man or horse could leave the valley for the pass.
+
+"Dick, here's your stand.  If any raider rides in range take a crack
+at him....Now I want the lend of your hoss."
+
+"Blanco Sol!"  exclaimed Gale, more in amazement that
+Ladd should ask for the horse than in reluctance to lend him.
+
+"Will you let me have him?" Ladd repeated, almost curtly.
+
+"Certainly, Laddy."
+
+A smile momentarily chased the dark cold gloom that had set upon
+the ranger's lean face.
+
+"Shore I appreciate it, Dick.  I know how you care for that hoss.
+I guess mebbe Charlie Ladd has loved a hoss!  An' one not so
+good as Sol.  I was only tryin' your nerve, Dick, askin' you without
+tellin' my plan.  Sol won't get a scratch, you can gamble on that!
+I'll ride him down into the valley an' pull the greasers out in the
+open.  They've got short-ranged carbines.  They can't keep out of
+range of the .405, an' I'll be takin' the dust of their lead.  Sabe,
+senor?"
+
+"Laddy!  You'll run Sol away from the raiders when they chase you?
+Run him after them when they try to get away?"
+
+"Shore.  I'll run all the time.  They can't gain on Sol, an' he'll
+run them down when I want.  Can you beat it?"
+
+"No.  It's great!...But suppose a raider comes out on Blanco
+Diablo?"
+
+"I reckon that's the one weak place in my plan.  I'm figgerin'
+they'll never think of that till it's too late.  But if they do,
+well, Sol can outrun Diablo.  An' I can always kill the white
+devil!"
+
+Ladd's strange hate of the horse showed in the passion of his
+last words, in his hardening jaw and grim set lips.
+
+Gale's hand went swiftly to the ranger's shoulder.
+
+"Laddy.  Don't kill Diablo unless it's to save your life."
+
+"All right.  But, by God, if I get a chance I'll make Blanco Sol
+run him off his legs!"
+
+He spoke no more and set about changing the length of Sol's
+stirrups.  When he had them adjusted to suit he mounted
+and rode down the trail and out upon the level.  He rode
+leisurely as if merely going to water his horse.  The long black
+rifle lying across his saddle, however, was ominous.
+
+Gale securely tied the other horse to a mesquite at hand, and took
+a position behind a low rock over which he could easily see and
+shoot when necessary.  He imagined Jim Lash in a similar position at
+the far end of the valley blocking the outlet.  Gale had grown
+accustomed to danger and the hard and fierce feelings peculiar to
+it.  But the coming drama was so peculiarly different in promise
+from all he had experienced, that he waited the moment of action
+with thrilling intensity.  In him stirred long, brooding wrath at
+these border raiders--affection for Belding, and keen desire to
+avenge the outrages he had suffered--warm admiration for the
+cold, implacable Ladd and his absolute fearlessness, and a curious
+throbbing interest in the old, much-discussed and never-decided
+argument as to whether Blanco Sol was fleeter, stronger horse
+than Blanco Diablo.  Gale felt that he was to see a race between
+these great rivals--the kind of race that made men and horses
+terrible.
+
+Ladd rode a quarter of a mile out upon the flat before anything
+happened.  Then a whistle rent the still, cold air.  A horse had
+seen or scented Blanco Sol.  The whistle was prolonged, faint, but
+clear.  It made the blood thrum in Gale's ears.  Sol halted.  His
+head shot up with the old, wild, spirited sweep.  Gale leveled his
+glass at the patch of mesquites.  He saw the raiders running to an
+open place, pointing, gesticulating.  The glass brought them so
+close that he saw the dark faces.  Suddenly they broke and fled
+back among the trees.  Then he got only white and dark gleams
+of moving bodies.  Evidently that moment was one of boots, guns,
+and saddles for the raiders.
+
+Lowering the glass, Gale saw that Blanco Sol had started
+forward again.  His gait was now a canter, and he had covered
+another quarter of a mile before horses and raiders appeared
+upon the outskirts of the mesquites.  Then Blanco Sol stopped.
+His shrill, ringing whistle came distinctly to Gale's ears.
+The raiders were mounted on dark horses, and they stood abreast
+in a motionless line.  Gale chuckled as he appreciated what
+a puzzle the situation presented for them.  A lone horseman in the
+middle of the valley did not perhaps seem so menacing himself
+as the possibilities his presence suggested.
+
+Then Gale saw a raider gallop swiftly from the group toward the
+farther outlet of the valley.  This might have been owing to
+characteristic cowardice; but it was more likely a move of the
+raiders to make sure of retreat.  Undoubtedly Ladd saw this
+galloping horseman.  A few waiting moments ensued.  The galloping
+horseman reached the slope, began to climb.  With naked eyes Gale
+saw a puff of white smoke spring out of the rocks.  Then the raider
+wheeled his plunging horse back to the level, and went racing wildly
+down the valley.
+
+The compact bunch of bays and blacks seemed to break apart and
+spread rapidly from the edge of the mesquites.  Puffs of white smoke
+indicated firing, and showed the nature of the raiders' excitement.
+They were far out of ordinary range, but they spurred toward Ladd,
+shooting as they rode.  Ladd held his ground; the big white horse
+stood like a rock in his tracks.  Gale saw little spouts of dust
+rise in front of Blanco Sol and spread swift as sight to his rear.
+The raiders' bullets, striking low, were skipping along the hard,
+bare floor of the valley.  Then Ladd raised the long rifle.  There
+was no smoke, but three high, spanging reports rang out.  A gap
+opened in the dark line of advancing horsemen; then a riderless
+steed sheered off to the right.  Blanco Sol seemed to turn as on
+a pivot and charged back toward the lower end of the valley.  He
+circled over to Gale's right and stretched out into his run.  There
+were now five raiders in pursuit, and they came sweeping down,
+yelling and shooting, evidently sure of their quarry.  Ladd reserved
+his fire.  He kept turning from back to front in his saddle.
+
+Gale saw how the space widened between pursuers and pursued, saw
+distinctly when Ladd eased up Sol's running.  Manifestly Ladd
+intended to try to lead the raiders round in front of Gale's
+position, and, presently, Gale saw he was going to succeed.  The
+raiders, riding like vaqueros, swept on in a curve, cutting off
+what distance they could.  One fellow, a small, wiry rider, high
+on his mount's neck like a jockey, led his companions by many
+yards.  He seemed to be getting the range of Ladd, or else he
+shot high, for his bullets did not strike up the dust behind Sol.
+Gale was ready to shoot.  Blanco Sol pounded by, his rapid, rhythmic
+hoofbeats plainly to be heard.  He was running easily.
+
+Gale tried to still the jump of heart and pulse, and turned his
+eye again on the nearest pursuer.  This raider was crossing in,
+his carbine held muzzle up in his right hand, and he was coming
+swiftly.  It was a long shot, upward of five hundred yards.  Gale
+had not time to adjust the sights of the Remington, but he knew
+the gun and, holding coarsely upon the swiftly moving blot, he
+began to shoot.  The first bullet sent up a great splash of dust
+beneath the horse's nose, making him leap as if to hurdle a fence.
+The rifle was automatic; Gale needed only to pull the trigger.  He
+saw now that the raiders behind were in line.  Swiftly he worked
+the trigger.  Suddenly the leading horse leaped convulsively, not
+up nor aside, but straight ahead, and then he crashed to the ground
+throwing his rider like a catapult, and then slid and rolled.  He
+half got up, fell back, and kicked; but his rider never moved.
+
+The other raiders sawed the reins of plunging steeds and whirled to
+escape the unseen battery.  Gale slipped a fresh clip into the
+magazine of his rifle.  He restrained himself from useless firing and
+gave eager eye to the duel below.  Ladd began to shoot while Sol was
+running.  The .405 rang out sharply--then again.  The heavy bullets
+streaked the dust all the way across the valley.  Ladd aimed
+deliberately and pulled slowly, unmindful of the kicking dust-puffs
+behind Sol, and to the side.  The raiders spurred madly in pursuit,
+loading and firing.  They shot ten times while Ladd shot once, and
+all in vain; and on Ladd's sixth shot a raider topped backward, threw
+his carbine and fell with his foot catching in a stirrup.  The
+frightened horse plunged away, dragging him in a path of dust.
+
+Gale had set himself to miss nothing of that fighting race, yet
+the action passed too swiftly for clear sight of all.  Ladd had
+emptied a magazine, and now Blanco Sol quickened and lengthened
+his running stride.  He ran away from his pursuers.  Then it was
+that the ranger's ruse was divined by the raiders.  They hauled
+sharply up and seemed to be conferring.  But that was a fatal
+mistake.  Blanco Sol was seen to break his gait and slow down
+in several jumps, then square away and stand stockstill.  Ladd fired
+at the closely grouped raiders.  An instant passed.  Then Gale
+heard the spat of a bullet out in front, saw a puff of dust, then
+heard the lead strike the rocks and go whining away.  And it
+was after this that one of the raiders fell prone from his saddle.
+The steel-jacketed .405 had gone through him on its uninterrupted
+way to hum past Gale's positon.
+
+The remaining two raiders frantically spurred their horses and fled
+up the valley.  Ladd sent Sol after them.  It seemed to Gale, even
+though he realized his excitement, that Blanco Sol made those horses
+seem like snails.  The raiders split, one making for the eastern
+outlet, the other circling back of the mesquites.  Ladd kept on
+after the latter.  Then puffs of white smoke and rifle shots faintly
+crackling told Jim Lash's hand in the game.  However, he succeeded
+only in driving the raider back into the valley.  But Ladd had
+turned the other horseman, and now it appeared the two raiders
+were between Lash above on the stony slope and Ladd below on the level.
+There was desperate riding on part of the raiders to keep from being hemmed
+in closer.  Only one of them got away, and he came riding for life down
+under the eastern wall.  Blanco Sol settled into his graceful, beautiful
+swing.  He gained steadily, though he was far from extending
+himself.  By Gale's actual count the raider fired eight times in
+that race down the valley, and all his bullets went low and wide.
+He pitched the carbine away and lost all control in headlong flight.
+
+Some few hundred rods to the left of Gale the raider put his horse
+to the weathered slope.  He began to climb.  The horse was superb,
+infinitely more courageous than his rider.  Zigzag they went up
+and up, and when Ladd reached the edge of the slope they were
+high along the cracked and guttered rampart.  Once--twice Ladd
+raised the long rifle, but each time he lowered it.  Gale divined
+that the ranger's restraint was not on account of the Mexican,
+but for that valiant and faithful horse.  Up and up he went, and
+the yellow dust clouds rose, and an avalanche rolled rattling and
+cracking down the slope.  It was beyond belief that a horse,
+burdened or unburdened, could find footing and hold it upon that
+wall of narrow ledges and inverted, slanting gullies.  But he
+climbed on, sure-footed as a mountain goat, and, surmounting
+the last rough steps, he stood a moment silhouetted against
+the white sky.  Then he disappeared.  Ladd sat astride Blanco Sol
+gazing upward.  How the cowboy must have honored that raider's
+brave steed!
+
+Gale, who had been too dumb to shout the admiration he felt,
+suddenly leaped up, and his voice came with a shriek:
+
+"LOOK OUT, LADDY!"
+
+A big horse, like a white streak, was bearing down to the right
+of the ranger.  Blanco Diablo!  A matchless rider swung with the
+horse's motion.  Gale was stunned.  Then he remembered the first
+raider, the one Lash had shot at and driven away from the outlet.
+This fellow had made for the mesquite and had put a saddle on Belding's
+favorite.  In the heat of the excitement, while Ladd had been intent upon
+the climbing horse, this last raider had come down with the speed of
+the wind straight for the western outlet.  Perhaps, very probably,
+he did not know Gale was there to block it; and certainly he hoped
+to pass Ladd and Blanco Sol.
+
+A touch of the spur made Sol lunge forward to head off the raider.
+Diablo was in his stride, but the distance and angle favored Sol.
+The raider had no carbine.  He held aloft a gun ready to level it
+and fire.  He sat the saddle as if it were a stationary seat.  Gale
+saw Ladd lean down and drop the .405 in the sand.  He would take
+no chances of wounding Belding's best-loved horse.
+
+Then Gale sat transfixed with suspended breath watching the horses
+thundering toward him.  Blanco Diablo was speeding low, fleet as
+an antelope, fierce and terrible in his devilish action, a horse for
+war and blood and death.  He seemed unbeatable.  Yet to see the
+magnificently running Blanco Sol was but to court a doubt.  Gale
+stood spellbound.  He might have shot the raider; but he never
+thought of such a thing.  The distance swiftly lessened.  Plain it
+was the raider could not make the opening ahead of Ladd.  He saw it
+and swerved to the left, emptying his six-shooter as he turned.
+His dark face gleamed as he flashed by Gale.
+
+Blanco Sol thundered across.  Then the race became straight away
+up the valley.  Diablo was cold and Sol was hot; therein lay the
+only handicap and vantage.  It was a fleet, beautiful, magnificent
+race.  Gale thrilled and exulted and yelled as his horse settled
+into a steadily swifter run and began to gain.  The dust rolled in
+a funnel-shaped cloud from the flying hoofs.  The raider wheeled
+with gun puffing white, and Ladd ducked low over the neck of his
+horse.
+
+The gap between Diablo and Sol narrowed yard by yard.  At first
+it had been a wide one.  The raider beat his mount and spurred,
+beat and spurred, wheeled round to shoot, then bent forward again.
+In his circle at the upper end of the valley he turned far short
+of the jumble of rocks.
+
+All the devil that was in Blanco Diablo had its running on the
+downward stretch.  The strange, cruel urge of bit and spur, the
+crazed rider who stuck like a burr upon him, the shots and smoke
+added terror to his natural violent temper.  He ran himself off his
+feet.  But he could not elude that relentless horse behind him.
+The running of Blanco Sol was that of a sure, remorseless driving
+power--steadier--stronger--swifter with every long and wonderful
+stride.
+
+The raider tried to sheer Diablo off closer under the wall, to make
+the slope where his companion had escaped.  But Diablo was
+uncontrollable.  He was running wild, with breaking gait.  Closer
+and closer crept that white, smoothly gliding, beautiful machine
+of speed.
+
+Then, like one white flash following another, the two horses
+gleamed down the bank of a wash and disappeared in clouds
+of dust.
+
+Gale watched with strained and smarting eyes.  The thick throb
+in his ears was pierced by faint sounds of gunshots.  Then he
+waited in almost unendurable suspense.
+
+Suddenly something whiter than the background of dust appeared
+above the low roll of valley floor.  Gale leveled his glass.  In the
+clear circle shone Blanco Sol's noble head with its long black
+bar from ears to nose.  Sol's head was drooping now.  Another
+second showed Ladd still in the saddle.
+
+The ranger was leading Blanco Diable--spent--broken--dragging
+--riderless.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+AN INTERRUPTED SIESTA
+
+NO man ever had a more eloquent and beautiful pleader for his
+cause than had Dick Gale in Mercedes Castaneda.  He peeped
+through the green, shining twigs of the palo verde that shaded his
+door.  The hour was high noon, and the patio was sultry.  The only
+sounds were the hum of bees in the flowers and the low murmur of
+the Spanish girl's melodious voice.  Nell lay in the hammock, her
+hands behind her head, with rosy cheeks and arch eyes.  Indeed,
+she looked rebellious.  Certain it was, Dick reflected, that the
+young lady had fully recovered the wilful personality which had
+lain dormant for a while.  Equally certain it seemed that Mercedes's
+earnestness was not apparently having the effect it should have had.
+
+Dick was inclined to be rebellious himself.  Belding had kept the
+rangers in off the line, and therefore Dick had been idle most of
+the time, and, though he tried hard, he had been unable to stay
+far from Nell's vicinity.  He believed she cared for him; but he
+could not catch her alone long enough to verify his tormenting
+hope.  When alone she was as illusive as a shadow, as quick as a
+flash, as mysterious as a Yaqui.  When he tried to catch her in
+the garden or fields, or corner her in the patio, she eluded him,
+and left behind a memory of dark-blue, haunting eyes.  It was
+that look in her eyes which lent him hope.  At other times, when
+it might have been possible for Dick to speak, Nell clung closely
+to Mercedes.  He had long before enlisted the loyal Mercedes in his
+cause; but in spite of this Nell had been more than a match for them both.
+
+Gale pondered over an idea he had long revolved in mind, and
+which now suddenly gave place to a decision that made his heart
+swell and his cheek burn.  He peeped again through the green
+branches to see Nell laughing at the fiery Mercedes.
+
+"Qui'en sabe," he called, mockingly, and was delighted with Nell's
+quick, amazed start.
+
+Then he went in search of Mrs. Belding, and found her busy in the
+kitchen.  The relation between Gale and Mrs. Belding had subtly and
+incomprehensively changed.  He understood her less than when at
+first he divined an antagonism in her.  If such a thing were
+possible she had retained the antagonism while seeming to yield
+to some influence that must have been fondness for him.  Gale
+was in no wise sure of her affection, and he had long imagined
+she was afraid of him, or of something that he represented.  He
+had gone on, openly and fairly, though discreetly, with his rather
+one-sided love affair; and as time passed he had grown less
+conscious of what had seemed her unspoken opposition.  Gale had
+come to care greatly for Nell's mother.  Not only was she the
+comfort and strength of her home, but also of the inhabitants of
+Forlorn River.  Indian, Mexican, American were all the same to her
+in trouble or illness; and then she was nurse, doctor, peacemaker,
+helper.  She was good and noble, and there was not a child or
+grownup in Forlorn River who did not love and bless her.  But Mrs.
+Belding did not seem happy.  She was brooding, intense, deep,
+strong, eager for the happiness and welfare of others; and she
+was dominated by a worship of her daughter that was as strange
+as it was pathetic.  Mrs. Belding seldom smiled, and never laughed.
+There was always a soft, sad, hurt look in her eyes.  Gale often
+wondered if there had been other tragedy in her life than the
+supposed loss of her father in the desert.  Perhaps it
+was the very unsolved nature of that loss which made it haunting.
+
+Mrs. Belding heard Dick's step as he entered the kitchen, and,
+looking up, greeted him.
+
+"Mother," began Dick, earnestly.  Belding called her that, and so
+did Ladd and Lash, but it was the first time for Dick.  "Mother
+--I want to speak to you."
+
+The only indication Mrs. Belding gave of being started was in her
+eyes, which darkened, shadowed with multiplying thought.
+
+"I love Nell," went on Dick, simply, "and I want you to let me ask
+her to be my wife."
+
+Mrs. Belding's face blanched to a deathly white.  Gale, thinking
+with surprise and concern that she was going to faint, moved
+quickly toward her, took her arm.
+
+"Forgive me.  I was blunt....But I thought you knew."
+
+"I've known for a long time," replied Mrs. Belding.  Her voice was
+steady, and there was no evidence of agitation except in her
+pallor.  "Then you--you haven't spoken to Nell?"
+
+Dick laughed.  "I've been trying to get a chance to tell her.  I
+haven't had it yet.  But she knows.  There are other ways besides
+speech.  And Mercedes has told her.  I hope, I almost believe Nell
+cares a little for me."
+
+"I've known that, too, for a long time," said Mrs. Belding, low
+almost as a whisper.
+
+"You know!" cried Dick, with a glow and rush of feeling.
+
+"Dick, you must be very blind not to see what has been plain
+to all of us....I guess--it couldn't have been helped.  You're a
+splendid fellow.  No wonder she loves you."
+
+"Mother!  You'll give her to me?"
+
+She drew him to the light and looked with strange, piercing
+intentness into his face.  Gale had never dreamed a woman's eyes
+could hold such a world of thought and feeling.  It seemed all
+the sweetness of life was there, and all the pain.
+
+"Do you love her?" she asked.
+
+"With all my heart."
+
+"You want to marry her?"
+
+"Ah, I want to!  As much as I want to live and work for her."
+
+"When would you marry her?"
+
+"Why!...Just as soon as she will do it.  To-morrow!" Dick gave a
+wild, exultant little laugh.
+
+"Dick Gale, you want my Nell?  You love her just as she is--her
+sweetness--her goodness?  Just herself, body and soul?...There's
+nothing could change you--nothing?"
+
+"Dear Mrs. Belding, I love Nell for herself.  If she loves me I'll
+be the happiest of men.  There's absolutely nothing that could
+make any difference in me."
+
+"But your people?  Oh, Dick, you come of a proud family.  I can
+tell.  I--I once knew a young man like you.  A few months can't
+change pride--blood.  Years can't change them.  You've become a
+ranger.  You love the adventure--the wild life.  That won't last.
+Perhaps you'll settle down to ranching.  I know you love the West.
+But, Dick, there's your family--"
+
+"If you want to know anything about my family, I'll tell you,"
+interrupted Dick, with strong feeling.  "I've not secrets about
+them or myself.  My future and happiness are Nell's to make.  No
+one else shall count with me."
+
+"Then, Dick--you may have her.  God--bless--you--both."
+
+Mrs. Belding's strained face underwent a swift and mobile
+relaxation, and suddenly she was weeping in strangely mingled
+happiness and bitterness.
+
+"Why, mother!"  Gale could say no more.  He did not comprehend
+a mood seemingly so utterly at variance with Mrs. Belding's habitual
+temperament.  But he put his arm around her.  In another moment she
+had gained command over herself, and, kissing him, she pushed him
+out of the door.
+
+"There!  Go tell her, Dick...And have some spunk about it!"
+
+Gale went thoughtfully back to his room.  He vowed that he would
+answer for Nell's happiness, if he had the wonderful good fortune
+to win her.  Then remembering the hope Mrs. Belding had given him,
+Dick lost his gravity in a flash, and something began to dance and
+ring within him.  He simply could not keep his steps turned from
+the patio.  Every path led there.  His blood was throbbing, his
+hopes mounting, his spirit soaring.  He knew he had never before
+entered the patio with that inspirited presence.
+
+"Now for some spunk!" he said, under his breath.
+
+Plainly he meant his merry whistle and his buoyant step to
+interrupt this first languorous stage of the siesta which the girls
+always took during the hot hours.  Nell had acquired the habit
+long before Mercedes came to show how fixed a thing it was in the
+life of the tropics.  But neither girl heard him.  Mercedes lay
+under the palo verde, her beautiful head dark and still upon a
+cushion.  Nell was asleep in the hammock.  There was an abandonment
+in her deep repose, and a faint smile upon her face.  Her sweet, red
+lips, with the soft, perfect curve, had always fascinated Dick, and
+now drew him irresistibly.  He had always been consumed with a
+desire to kiss her, and now he was overwhelmed with his opportunity.
+It would be a terrible thing to do, but if she did not awaken at
+once--  No, he would fight the temptation.  That would be more than
+spunk.  It would--  Suddenly an ugly green fly sailed low over Nell,
+appeared about to alight on her.  Noiselessly Dick stepped close to
+the hammock bent under the tree, and with a sweep of his hand
+chased the intruding fly away.  But he found himself powerless to
+straighten up.  He was close to her--bending over her face--near the
+sweet lips.  The insolent, dreaming smile just parted them.  Then he
+thought he was lost.  But she stirred--he feared she would awaken.
+
+He had stepped back erect when she opened her eyes.  They were
+sleepy, yet surprised until she saw him.  Then she was wide awake
+in a second, bewildered, uncertain.
+
+"Why--you here?" she asked, slowly.
+
+"Large as life!" replied Dick, with unusual gayety.
+
+"How long have you been here?"
+
+"Just got here this fraction of a second," he replied,
+lying shamelessly.
+
+It was evident that she did not know whether or not to believe
+him, and as she studied him a slow blush dyed her cheek.
+
+"You are absolutely truthful when you say you just stepped there?"
+
+"Why, of course," answered Dick, right glad he did not have to lie
+about that.
+
+"I thought--I was--dreaming," she said, and evidently the sound
+of her voice reassured her.
+
+"Yes, you looked as if you were having pleasant dreams," replied
+Dick.  "So sorry to wake you.  I can't see how I came to do it, I
+was so quiet.  Mercedes didn't wake.  Well, I'll go and let you
+have your siesta and dreams."
+
+But he did not move to go.  Nell regarded him with curious,
+speculative eyes.
+
+"Isn't it a lovely day?" queried Dick.
+
+"I think it's hot."
+
+"Only ninety in the shade.  And you've told me the mercury goes
+to one hundred and thirty in midsummer.  This is just a glorious
+golden day."
+
+"Yesterday was finer, but you didn't notice it."
+
+"Oh, yesterday was somewhere back in the past--the inconsequential
+past."
+
+Nell's sleepy blue eyes opened a little wider.  She did
+not know what to make of this changed young man.  Dick felt gleeful
+and tried hard to keep the fact from becoming manifest.
+
+"What's the inconsequential past?  You seem remarkably happy
+to-day."
+
+"I certainly am happy.  Adios.  Pleasant dreams."
+
+Dick turned away then and left the patio by the opening into the
+yard.  Nell was really sleepy, and when she had fallen asleep again
+he would return.  He walked around for a while.  Belding and the
+rangers were shoeing a broncho.  Yaqui was in the field with the
+horses.  Blanco Sol grazed contently, and now and then lifted his
+head to watch.  His long ears went up at sight of his master, and
+he whistled.  Presently Dick, as if magnet-drawn, retraced his steps
+to the patio and entered noiselessly.
+
+Nell was now deep in her siesta.  She was inert, relaxed, untroubled
+by dreams.  Her hair was damp on her brow.
+
+Again Nell stirred, and gradually awakened.  Her eyes unclosed,
+humid, shadowy, unconscious.  They rested upon Dick for a moment
+before they became clear and comprehensive.  He stood back fully
+ten feet from her, and to all outside appearances regarded her
+calmly.
+
+"I've interrupted your siesta again," he said.  "Please forgive me.
+I'll take myself off."
+
+He wandered away, and when it became impossible for him to stay
+away any longer he returned to the patio.
+
+The instant his glance rested upon Nell's face he divined she was
+feigning sleep.  The faint rose-blush had paled.  The warm, rich,
+golden tint of her skin had fled.  Dick dropped upon his knees and
+bent over her.  Though his blood was churning in his veins, his
+breast laboring, his mind whirling with the wonder of that moment
+and its promise, he made himself deliberate.  He wanted more than
+anything he had ever wanted in his life to see if she would keep
+up that pretense of sleep and let him kiss her.  She must have felt
+his breath, for her hair waved off her brow.  Her cheeks were now white.
+Her breast swelled and sank.  He bent down closer--closer.  But he must
+have been maddeningly slow, for as he bent still closer Nell's eyes opened,
+and he caught a swift purple gaze of eyes as she whirled her head.
+Then, with  a little cry, she rose and fled.
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+ROJAS
+
+NO word from George Thorne had come to Forlorn River in weeks.
+Gale grew concerned over the fact, and began to wonder if anything
+serious could have happened to him.  Mercedes showed a slow, wearing strain.
+
+Thorne's commission expired the end of January, and if he could not
+get his discharge immediately, he surely could obtain leave of
+absence.  Therefore, Gale waited, not without growing anxiety, and
+did his best to cheer Mercedes.  The first of February came bringing
+news of rebel activities and bandit operations in and around Casita,
+but not a word from the cavalryman.
+
+Mercedes became silent, mournful.  Her eyes were great black
+windows of tragedy.  Nell devoted herself entirely to the
+unfortunate girl; Dick exerted himself to persuade her that all
+would yet come well; in fact, the whole household could not have
+been kinder to a sister or a daughter.  But their united efforts
+were unavailing.  Mercedes seemed to accept with fatalistic
+hopelessness a last and crowning misfortune.
+
+A dozen times Gale declared he would ride in to Casita and find
+out why they did not hear from Thorne; however, older and wiser
+heads prevailed over his impetuosity.  Belding was not sanguine
+over the safety of the Casita trail.  Refugees from there arrived
+every day in Forlorn River, and if tales they told were true,
+real war would have been preferable to what was going on along
+the border.  Belding and the rangers and the Yaqui held a
+consultation.  Not only had the Indian become a faithful servant
+to Gale, but he was also of value to Belding.  Yaqui had all the
+craft of his class, and superior intelligence.  His knowledge of
+Mexicans was second only to his hate of them.  And Yaqui, who had
+been scouting on all the trails, gave information that made Belding
+decide to wait some days before sending any one to Casita.  He
+required promises from his rangers, particularly Gale, not to leave
+without his consent.
+
+It was upon Gale's coming from this conference that he encountered
+Nell.  Since the interrupted siesta episode she had been more than
+ordinarily elusive, and about all he had received from her was a
+tantalizing smile from a distance.  He got the impression now,
+however, that she had awaited him.  When he drew close to her he
+was certain of it, and he experienced more than surprise.
+
+"Dick," she began, hurriedly.  "Dad's not going to send any one to
+see about Thorne?"
+
+"No, not yet.  He thinks it best not to.  We all think so.  I'm
+sorry.  Poor Mercedes!"
+
+"I knew it.  I tried to coax him to send Laddy or even Yaqui.
+He wouldn't listen to me.  Dick, Mercedes is dying by inches.
+Can't you see what ails her?  It's more than love or fear.  It's
+uncertainty--suspense.  Oh, can't we find out for her?"
+
+"Nell, I feel as badly as you about her.  I wanted to ride in to
+Casita.  Belding shut me up quick, the last time."
+
+Nell came close to Gale, clasped his arm.  There was no color
+in her face.  Her eyes held a dark, eager excitement.
+
+"Dick, will you slip off without Dad's consent?  Risk it!  Go to
+Casita and find out what's happened to Thorne--at least if he
+ever started for Forlorn River?"
+
+"No, Nell, I won't do that."
+
+She drew away from him with passionate suddenness.
+
+"Are you afraid?"
+
+This certainly was not the Nell Burton that Gale knew.
+
+"No, I'm not afraid," Gale replied, a little nettled.
+
+"Will you go--for my sake?"  Like lightning her mood changed
+and she was close to him again, hands on his, her face white,
+her whole presence sweetly alluring.
+
+"Nell, I won't disobey Belding," protested Gale.  "I won't break
+my word."
+
+"Dick, it'll not be so bad as that.  But--what if it is?...Go,
+Dick, if not for poor Mercedes's sake, then for mine--to please
+me.  I'll--I'll...you won't lose anything by going.  I think I know
+how Mercedes feels.  Just a word from Thorne or about him
+would save her.  Take Blanco Sol and go, Dick.  What rebel outfit
+could ever ride you down on that horse?  Why, Dick, if I was up
+on Sol I wouldn't be afraid of the whole rebel army."
+
+"My dear girl, it's not a question of being afraid.  It's my
+word--my duty to Belding."
+
+"You said you loved me.  If you love me you will go...You don't
+love me!"
+
+Gale could only stare at this transformed girl.
+
+"Dick, listen!...If you go--if you fetch some word of Thorne to
+comfort Mercedes, you--well, you will have your reward."
+
+"Nell!"
+
+Her dangerous sweetness was as amazing as this newly revealed
+character.
+
+"Dick, will you go?"
+
+"No-no!" cried Gale, in violence, struggling with himself.  "Nell
+Burton, I'll tell you this.  To have the reward I want would mean
+pretty near heaven for me.  But not even for that will I break my
+word to your father."
+
+She seemed the incarnation of girlish scorn and wilful passion.
+
+"Gracias, senor," she replied, mockingly.  "Adios."  Then she
+flashed out of his sight.
+
+Gale went to his room at once, disturbed and thrilling, and did
+not soon recover from that encounter.
+
+The following morning at the breakfast table Nell was not present.
+Mrs. Belding evidently considered the fact somewhat unusual, for
+she called out into the patio and then into the yard.  Then she went
+to Mercedes's room.  But Nell was not there, either.
+
+"She's in one of her tantrums lately," said Belding.  "Wouldn't
+speak to me this morning.  Let her alone, mother.  She's spoiled
+enough, without running after her.  She's always hungry.  She'll
+be on hand presently, don't mistake me."
+
+Notwithstanding Belding's conviction, which Gale shared, Nell did
+not appear at all during the hour.  When Belding and the rangers
+went outside, Yaqui was eating his meal on the bench where he
+always sat.
+
+"Yaqui--Lluvia d' oro, si?" asked Belding, waving his hand toward
+the corrals.  The Indian's beautiful name for Nell meant "shower
+of gold," and Belding used it in asking Yaqui if he had seen her.
+He received a negative reply.
+
+Perhaps half an hour afterward, as Gale was leaving his room, he
+saw the Yaqui running up the path from the fields.  It was markedly
+out of the ordinary to see the Indian run.  Gale wondered what was
+the matter.  Yaqui ran straight to Belding, who was at work at his
+bench under the wagon shed.  In less than a moment Belding was
+bellowing for his rangers.  Gale got to him first, but Ladd and Lash
+were not far behind.
+
+"Blanco Sol gone!" yelled Belding, in a rage.
+
+"Gone?  In broad daylight, with the Indian a-watch-in?" queried
+Ladd.
+
+"It happened while Yaqui was at breakfast.  That's sure.  He'd
+just watered Sol."
+
+"Raiders!" exclaimed Jim Lash.
+
+"Lord only knows.  Yaqui says it wasn't raiders."
+
+"Mebbe Sol's just walked off somewheres."
+
+"He was haltered in the corral."
+
+"Send Yaqui to find the hoss's trail, an' let's figger," said
+Ladd.  "Shore this 's no raider job."
+
+In the swift search that ensued Gale did not have anything to
+say; but his mind was forming a conclusion.  When he found his old
+saddle and bridle missing from the peg in the barn his conclusion
+became a positive conviction, and it made him, for the moment,
+cold and sick and speechless.
+
+"Hey, Dick, don't take it so much to heart," said Belding.  "We'll
+likely find Sol, and if we don't, there's other good horses."
+
+"I'm not thinking of Sol," replied Gale.
+
+Ladd cast a sharp glance at Gale, snapped his fingers, and said:
+
+"Damn me if I ain't guessed it, too!"
+
+"What's wrong with you locoed gents?" bluntly demanded Belding.
+
+"Nell has slipped away on Sol," answered Dick.
+
+There was a blank pause, which presently Belding broke.
+
+"Well, that's all right, if Nell's on him.  I was afraid we'd lost
+the horse."
+
+"Belding, you're trackin' bad," said Ladd, wagging his head.
+
+"Nell has started for Casita," burst out Gale.  "She has gone
+to fetch Mercedes some word about Thorne.  Oh, Belding, you
+needn't shake your head.  I know she's gone.  She tried to persuade
+me to go, and was furious when I wouldn't."
+
+"I don't believe it," replied Belding, hoarsely.  "Nell may have her
+temper.  She's a little devil at times, but she always had good
+sense."
+
+"Tom, you can gamble she's gone," said Ladd.
+
+"Aw, hell, no!  Jim, what do you think?" implored Belding.
+
+"I reckon Sol's white head is pointed level an' straight
+down the Casita trail.  An' Nell can ride.  We're losing' time."
+
+That roused Belding to action.
+
+"I say you're all wrong," he yelled, starting for the corrals.
+"She's only taking a little ride, same as she's done often.  But
+rustle now.  Find out.  Dick, you ride cross the valley.  Jim, you
+hunt up and down the river.  I'll head up San Felipe way.  And you,
+Laddy, take Diablo and hit the Casita trail.  If she really has gone
+after Thorne you can catch her in an hour or so."
+
+"Shore I'll go," replied Ladd.  "But, Beldin', if you're not plumb
+crazy you're close to it.  That big white devil can't catch Sol.
+Not in an hour or a day or a week!  What's more, at the end of any
+runnin' time, with an even start, Sol will be farther in the lead.
+An' now Sol's got an hour's start."
+
+"Laddy, you mean to say Sol is a faster horse than Diablo?"
+thundered Belding, his face purple.
+
+"Shore.  I mean to tell you just that there," replied the ranger.
+
+"I'll--I'll bet a--"
+
+"We're wastin' time," curtly interrupted Ladd.  "You can gamble
+on this if you want to.  I'll ride your Blanco Devil as he never
+was rid before, 'cept once when a damn sight better hossman
+than I am couldn't make him outrun Sol."
+
+Without more words the men saddled and were off, not waiting for
+the Yaqui to come in with possible information as to what trail
+Blanco Sol had taken.  It certainly did not show in the clear sand
+of the level valley where Gale rode to and fro.  When Gale returned
+to the house he found Belding and Lash awaiting him.  They did not
+mention their own search, but stated that Yaqui had found Blanco
+Sol's tracks in the Casita trail.  After some consultation Belding
+decided to send Lash along after Ladd.
+
+The interminable time that followed contained for
+Gale about as much suspense as he could well bear.
+What astonished him and helped him greatly to fight off
+actual distress was the endurance of Nell's mother.
+
+Early on the morning of the second day, Gale, who had acquired
+an unbreakable habit of watching, saw three white horses and a
+bay come wearily stepping down the road.  He heard Blanco Sol's
+familiar whistle, and he leaped up wild with joy.  The horse was
+riderless.  Gale's sudden joy received a violent check, then
+resurged when he saw a limp white form in Jim Lash's arms.  Ladd
+was supporting a horseman who wore a military uniform.
+
+Gale shouted with joy and ran into the house to tell the good news.
+It was the ever-thoughtful Mrs. Belding who prevented him from
+rushing in to tell Mercedes.  Then he hurried out into the yard,
+closely followed by the Beldings.
+
+Lash handed down a ragged, travel-stained, wan girl into Belding's
+arms.
+
+"Dad!  Mama!"
+
+It was indeed a repentant Nell, but there was spirit yet in the
+tired blue eyes.  Then she caught sight of Gale and gave him a
+faint smile.
+
+"Hello--Dick."
+
+"Nell!"  Gale reached for her hand, held it tightly, and found
+speech difficult.
+
+"You needn't worry--about your old horse," she said, as Belding
+carried her toward the door.  "Oh, Dick!  Blanco Sol is--glorious!"
+
+Gale turned to greet his friend.  Indeed, it was but a haggard ghost
+of the cavalryman.  Thorne looked ill or wounded.  Gale's greeting
+was also a question full of fear.
+
+Thorne's answer was a faint smile.  He seemed ready to drop from
+the saddle.  Gale helped Ladd hold Thorne upon the horse until
+they reached the house.  Belding came out again.  His welcome was
+checked as he saw the condition of the cavalryman.  Thorne reeled
+into Dick's arms.  But he was able to stand and walk.
+
+"I'm not--hurt.  Only weak--starved," he said.  "Is Mercedes--
+Take me to her."
+
+"She'll be well the minute she sees him," averred Belding, as he and
+Gale led the cavalryman to Mercedes's room.  There they left him;
+and Gale, at least, felt his ears ringing with the girl's broken cry
+of joy.
+
+When Belding and Gale hurried forth again the rangers were tending
+the tired horses.  Upon returning to the house Jim Lash calmly lit
+his pipe, and Ladd declared that, hungry as he was, he had to tell
+his story.
+
+"Shore, Beldin'," began Ladd, "that was funny about Diablo catchin'
+Blanco Sol.  Funny ain't the word.  I nearly laughed myself to
+death.  Well, I rode in Sol's tracks all the way to Casita.  Never
+seen a rebel or a raider till I got to town.  Figgered Nell made
+the trip in five hours.  I went straight to the camp of the
+cavalrymen, an' found them just coolin' off an' dressin' down their
+hosses after what looked to me like a big ride.  I got there too
+late for the fireworks.
+
+"Some soldier took me to an officer's tent.  Nell was there, some
+white an' all in.  She just said, 'Laddy!'  Thorne was there, too,
+an' he was bein' worked over by the camp doctor.  I didn't ask no
+questions, because I seen quiet was needed round that tent.  After
+satisfying myself that Nell was all right, an' Thorne in no danger,
+I went out.
+
+"Shore there was so darn many fellers who wanted to an' tried to
+tell me what'd come off, I thought I'd never find out.  But I got
+the story piece by piece.  An' here's what happened.
+
+"Nell rode Blanco Sol a-tearin' into camp, an' had a crowd round
+her in a jiffy.  She told who she was, where she'd come from, an'
+what she wanted.  Well, it seemed a day or so before Nell got there
+the cavalrymen had heard word of Thorne.  You see, Thorne had
+left camp on leave of absence some time before.  He was shore
+mysterious, they said, an' told nobody where he was goin'.
+A week or so after he left camp some Greaser give it away that
+Rojas had a prisoner in a dobe shack near his camp.  Nobody paid
+much attention to what the Greaser said.  He wanted money for
+mescal.  An' it was usual for Rojas to have prisoners.  But in a
+few more days it turned out pretty sure that for some reason
+Rojas was holdin' Thorne.
+
+"Now it happened when this news came Colonel Weede was in Nogales
+with his staff, an' the officer left in charge didn't know how to
+proceed.  Rojas's camp was across the line in Mexico, an' ridin'
+over there was serious business.  It meant a whole lot more than
+just scatterin' one Greaser camp.  It was what had been botherin'
+more'n one colonel along the line.  Thorne's feller soldiers was
+anxious to get him out of a bad fix, but they had to wait for
+orders.
+
+"When Nell found out Thorne was bein' starved an' beat in a dobe
+shack no more'n two mile across the line, she shore stirred up
+that cavalry camp.  Shore!  She told them soldiers Rojas was
+holdin' Thorne--torturin' him to make him tell where Mercedes was.
+She told about Mercedes--how sweet an' beautiful she was--how
+her father had been murdered by Rojas--how she had been hounded
+by the bandit--how ill an' miserable she was, waitin' for her lover.
+An' she begged the cavalrymen to rescue Thorne.
+
+"From the way it was told to me I reckon them cavalrymen went up
+in the air.  Fine, fiery lot of young bloods, I thought, achin' for
+a scrap.  But the officer in charge, bein' in a ticklish place,
+still held out for higher orders.
+
+"Then Nell broke loose.  You-all know Nell's tongue is sometimes
+like a choya thorn.  I'd have give somethin' to see her work up
+that soldier outfit.  Nell's never so pretty as when she's mad.
+An' this last stunt of hers was no girly tantrum, as Beldin' calls
+it.  She musta been ragin' with all the hell there's in a
+woman....Can't you fellers see her on Blanco Sol with her eyes
+turnin' black?"
+
+Ladd mopped his sweaty face with his dusty scarf.  He was beaming.
+He was growing excited, hurried in his narrative.
+
+"Right out then Nell swore she'd go after Thorne.  If them
+cavalrymen couldn't ride with a Western girl to save a brother
+American--let them hang back!  One feller, under orders, tried to
+stop Blanco Sol.  An' that feller invited himself to the hospital.
+Then the cavalrymen went flyin' for their hosses.  Mebbe Nell's
+move was just foxy--woman's cunnin'.  But I'm thinkin' as she
+felt then she'd have sent Blanco Sol straight into Rojas's camp,
+which, I'd forgot to say, was in plain sight.
+
+"It didn't take long for every cavalryman in that camp to get wind
+of what was comin' off.  Shore they musta been wild.  They strung
+out after Nell in a thunderin' troop.
+
+"Say, I wish you fellers could see the lane that bunch of hosses
+left in the greasewood an' cactus.  Looks like there'd been a
+cattle stampede on the desert....Blanco Sol stayed out in front,
+you can gamble on that.  Right into Rojas's camp!  Sabe, you
+senors?  Gawd Almighty!  I never had grief that 'd hold a candle
+to this one of bein' too late to see Nell an' Sol in their one best
+race.
+
+"Rojas an' his men vamoosed without a shot.  That ain't surprisin'.
+There wasn't a shot fired by anybody.  The cavalrymen soon found
+Thorne an' hurried with him back on Uncle Sam's land.  Thorne was
+half naked, black an' blue all over, thin as a rail.  He looked
+mighty sick when I seen him first.  That was a little after midday.
+He was given food an' drink.  Shore he seemed a starved man.
+But he picked up wonderful, an' by the time Jim came along he was
+wantin' to start for Forlorn River.  So was Nell.  By main strength
+as much as persuasion we kept the two of them quiet till next
+evenin' at dark.
+
+"Well, we made as sneaky a start in the dark as Jim an' me could
+manage, an' never hit the trail till we was miles from town.
+Thorne's nerve held him up for a while.  Then all at once he tumbled
+out of his saddle.  We got him back, an' Lash held him on.
+Nell didn't give out till daybreak."
+
+As Ladd paused in his story Belding began to stutter, and finally
+he exploded.  His mighty utterances were incoherent.  But plainly
+the wrath he had felt toward the wilful girl was forgotten.  Gale
+remained gripped by silence.
+
+"I reckon you'll all be some surprised when you see Casita," went
+on Ladd.  "It's half burned an' half tore down.  An' the rebels are
+livin' fat.  There was rumors of another federal force on the road
+from Casa Grandes.  I seen a good many Americans from interior
+Mexico, an' the stories they told would make your hair stand up.
+They all packed guns, was fightin' mad at Greasers, an' sore on
+the good old U. S.  But shore glad to get over the line!  Some
+were waitin' for trains, which don't run reg'lar no more, an'
+others were ready to hit the trails north."
+
+"Laddy, what knocks me is Rojas holding Thorne prisoner, trying
+to make him tell where Mercedes had been hidden," said Belding.
+
+"Shore.  It 'd knock anybody."
+
+"The bandit's crazy over her.  That's the Spanish of it," replied
+Belding, his voice rolling.  "Rojas is a peon.  He's been a slave
+to the proud Castilian.  He loves Mercedes as he hates her.  When
+I was down in Durango I saw something of these peons' insane
+passions.  Rojas wants this girl only to have her, then kill her.
+It's damn strange, boys, and even with Thorne here our troubles
+have just begun."
+
+"Tom, you spoke correct," said Jim Ladd, in his cool drawl.
+
+"Shore I'm not sayin' what I think," added Ladd.  But the look
+of him was not indicative of a tranquil optimism.
+
+Thorne was put to bed in Gale's room.  He was very weak, yet he
+would keep Mercedes's hand and gaze at her with unbelieving eyes.
+Mercedes's failing hold on hope and strength seemed to have been
+a fantasy; she was again vivid, magnetic, beautiful, shot through
+and through with intense and throbbing life.  She induced him to
+take food and drink.  Then, fighting sleep with what little strength
+he had left, at last he succumbed.
+
+For all Dick could ascertain his friend never stirred an eyelash nor
+a finger for twenty-seven hours.  When he awoke he was pale, weak,
+but the old Thorne.
+
+"Hello, Dick; I didn't dream it then," he said.  "There you are, and
+my darling with the proud, dark eyes--she's here?"
+
+"Why, yes, you locoed cavalryman."
+
+"Say, what's happened to you?  It can't be those clothes and a
+little bronze on your face....Dick, you're older--you've changed.
+You're not so thickly built.  By Gad, if you don't look fine!"
+
+"Thanks.  I'm sorry I can't return the compliment.  You're about
+the seediest, hungriest-looking fellow I ever saw....Say, old man,
+you must have had a tough time."
+
+A dark and somber fire burned out the happiness in Thorne's eyes.
+
+"Dick, don't make me--don't let me think of that fiend Rojas!....I'm
+here now.  I'll be well in a day or two.  Then!..."
+
+Mercedes came in, radiant and soft-voiced.  She fell upon her knees
+beside Thorne's bed, and neither of them appeared to see Nell enter
+with a tray.  Then Gale and Nell made a good deal of unnecessary
+bustle in moving a small table close to the bed.  Mercedes had
+forgotten for the moment that her lover had been a starving man.
+If Thorne remembered it he did not care.  They held hands and
+looked at each other without speaking.
+
+"Nell, I thought I had it bad," whispered Dick.  "But I'm not--"
+
+"Hush.  It's beautiful," replied Nell, softly; and she tried to coax
+Dick from the room.
+
+Dick, however, thought he ought to remain at least long enough
+to tell Thorne that a man in his condition could not exist solely
+upon love.
+
+Mercedes sprang up blushing with pretty, penitent manner and
+moving white hands eloquent of her condition.
+
+"Oh, Mercedes--don't go!" cried Thorne, as she stepped to the door.
+
+"Senor Dick will stay.  He is not mucha malo for you--as I am."
+
+Then she smiled and went out.
+
+"Good Lord!" exclaimed Thorne.  "How I love her.  Dick, isn't she
+the most beautiful, the loveliest, the finest--"
+
+"George, I share your enthusiasm," said Dick, dryly, "but Mercedes
+isn't the only girl on earth."
+
+Manifestly this was a startling piece of information, and struck
+Thorne in more than one way.
+
+"George," went on Dick, "did you happen to observe the girl who
+saved your life--who incidentally just fetched in your breakfast?"
+
+"Nell Burton!  Why, of course.  She's brave, a wonderful girl, and
+really nice-looking."
+
+"You long, lean, hungry beggar!  That was the young lady who might
+answer the raving eulogy you just got out of your system....I--well,
+you haven't cornered the love market!"
+
+Thorne uttered some kind of a sound that his weakened condition
+would not allow to be a whoop.
+
+"Dick!  Do you mean it?"
+
+"I shore do, as Laddy says."
+
+"I'm glad, Dick, with all my heart.  I wondered at the changed
+look you wear.  Why, boy, you've got a different front....Call the
+lady in, and you bet I'll look her over right.  I can see better
+now."
+
+"Eat your breakfast.  There's plenty of time to dazzle you
+afterward."
+
+Thorne fell to upon his breakfast and made it vanish with magic speed.
+Meanwhile Dick told him something of a ranger's life along the border.
+
+"You needn't waste your breath," said Thorne.  "I guess I can see.
+Belding and those rangers have made you the real thing--the real
+Western goods....What I want to know is all about the girl."
+
+"Well, Laddy swears she's got your girl roped in the corral for looks."
+
+"That's not possible.  I'll have to talk to Laddy....But she must be
+a wonder, or Dick Gale would never have fallen for her....Isn't it
+great, Dick?  I'm here!  Mercedes is well--safe!  You've got a
+girl!  Oh!....But say, I haven't a dollar to my name.  I had a lot
+of money, Dick, and those robbers stole it, my watch--everything.
+Damn that little black Greaser!  He got Mercedes's letters.  I wish
+you could have seen him trying to read them.  He's simply nutty
+over her, Dick.  I could have borne the loss of money and
+valuables--but those beautiful, wonderful letters--they're gone!"
+
+"Cheer up.  You have the girl.  Belding will make you a proposition
+presently.  The future smiles, old friend.  If this rebel business
+was only ended!"
+
+"Dick, you're going to be my savior twice over....Well, now, listen
+to me."  His gay excitement changed to earnest gravity.  "I want
+to marry Mercedes at once.  Is there a padre here?"
+
+"Yes.  But are you wise in letting any Mexican, even a priest,
+know Mercedes is hidden in Forlorn River?"
+
+"It couldn't be kept much longer."
+
+Gale was compelled to acknowledge the truth of this statement.
+
+"I'll marry her first, then I'll face my problem.  Fetch the padre,
+Dick.  And ask our kind friends to be witnesses at the ceremony."
+
+Much to Gale's surprise neither Belding nor Ladd objected to the
+idea of bringing a padre into the household, and thereby making
+known to at least one Mexican the whereabouts of Mercedes Castaneda.
+Belding's caution was wearing out in wrath at the persistent unsettled
+condition of the border, and Ladd grew only the cooler and more silent
+as possibilities of trouble multiplied.
+
+Gale fetched the padre, a little, weazened, timid man who was old
+and without interest or penetration.  Apparently he married Mercedes
+and Thorne as he told his beads or mumbled a prayer.  It was Mrs.
+Belding who kept the occasion from being a merry one, and she
+insisted on not exciting Thorne.  Gale marked her unusual pallor
+and the singular depth and sweetness of her voice.
+
+"Mother, what's the use of making a funeral out of a marriage?"
+protested Belding.  "A chance for some fun doesn't often come to
+Forlorn River.  You're a fine doctor.  Can't you see the girl is
+what Thorne needed?  He'll be well to-morrow, don't mistake me."
+
+"George, when you're all right again we'll add something to present
+congratulations," said Gale.
+
+"We shore will," put in Ladd.
+
+So with parting jests and smiles they left the couple to themselves.
+
+Belding enjoyed a laugh at his good wife's expense, for Thorne
+could not be kept in bed, and all in a day, it seemed, he grew
+so well and so hungry that his friends were delighted, and Mercedes
+was radiant.  In a few days his weakness disappeared and he was
+going the round of the fields and looking over the ground marked
+out in Gale's plan of water development.  Thorne was highly
+enthusiastic, and at once staked out his claim for one hundred and
+sixty acres of land adjoining that of Belding and the rangers.
+These five tracts took in all the ground necessary for their
+operations, but in case of the success of the irrigation project the
+idea was to increase their squatter holdings by purchase of more
+land down the valley.  A hundred families had lately moved to
+Forlorn River; more were coming all the time; and Belding vowed
+he could see a vision of the whole Altar Valley green with farms.
+
+Meanwhile everybody in Belding's household, except the quiet Ladd
+and the watchful Yaqui, in the absence of disturbance of any kind
+along the border, grew freer and more unrestrained, as if anxiety
+was slowly fading in the peace of the present.  Jim Lash made a
+trip to the Sonoyta Oasis, and Ladd patrolled fifty miles of the
+line eastward without incident or sight of raiders.  Evidently all
+the border hawks were in at the picking of Casita.
+
+The February nights were cold, with a dry, icy, penetrating coldness
+that made a warm fire most comfortable.  Belding's household
+usually congregated in the sitting-room, where burning mesquite
+logs crackled in the open fireplace.  Belding's one passion besides
+horses was the game of checkers, and he was always wanting to
+play.  On this night he sat playing with Ladd, who never won a
+game and never could give up trying.  Mrs. Belding worked with
+her needle, stopping from time to time to gaze with thoughtful
+eyes into the fire.  Jim Lash smoked his pipe by the hearth and
+played with the cat on his knee.  Thorne and Mercedes were at
+the table with pencil and paper; and he was trying his best to keep
+his attention from his wife's beautiful, animated face long enough
+to read and write a little Spanish.  Gale and Nell sat in a corner
+watching the bright fire.
+
+There came a low knock on the door.  It may have been an ordinary
+knock, for it did not disturb the women; but to Belding and his
+rangers it had a subtle meaning.
+
+"Who's that?" asked Belding, as he slowly pushed back his chair
+and looked at Ladd.
+
+"Yaqui," replied the ranger.
+
+"Come in," called Belding.
+
+The door opened, and the short, square, powerfully built Indian
+entered.  He had a magnificent head, strangely staring, somber
+black eyes, and very darkly bronzed face.  He carried a rifle
+and strode with impressive dignity.
+
+"Yaqui, what do you want?" asked Belding, and repeated his
+question in Spanish.
+
+"Senor Dick," replied the Indian.
+
+Gale jumped up, stifling an exclamation, and he went outdoors
+with Yaqui.  He felt his arm gripped, and allowed himself to be
+led away without asking a question.  Yaqui's presence was always
+one of gloom, and now his stern action boded catastrophe.  Once
+clear of trees he pointed to the level desert across the river,
+where a row of campfires shone bright out of the darkness.
+
+"Raiders!" ejaculated Gale.
+
+Then he cautioned Yaqui to keep sharp lookout, and, hurriedly
+returning to the house, he called the men out and told them there
+were rebels or raiders camping just across the line.
+
+Ladd did not say a word.  Belding, with an oath, slammed down
+his cigar.
+
+"I knew it was too good to last....Dick, you and Jim stay here while
+Laddy and I look around."
+
+Dick returned to the sitting-room.  The women were nervous and not
+to be deceived.  So Dick merely said Yaqui had sighted some lights
+off in the desert, and they probably were campfires.  Belding did
+not soon return, and when he did he was alone, and, saying he
+wanted to consult with the men, he sent Mrs. Belding and the girls
+to their rooms.  His gloomy anxiety had returned.
+
+"Laddy's gone over to scout around and try to find out who the
+outfit belongs to and how many are in it," said Belding.
+
+"I reckon if they're raiders with bad intentions we wouldn't see
+no fires," remarked Jim, calmly.
+
+"It 'd be useless, I suppose, to send for the cavalry," said Gale.
+"Whatever's coming off would be over before the soldiers could
+be notified, let alone reach here."
+
+"Hell, fellows!  I don't look for an attack on Forlorn River,"
+burst out Belding.  "I can't believe that possible.  These
+rebel-raiders have a little sense.  They wouldn't spoil their
+game by pulling U. S. soldiers across the line from Yuma to
+El Paso.  But, as Jim says, if they wanted to steal a few horses
+or cattle they wouldn't build fires.  I'm afraid it's--"
+
+Belding hesitated and looked with grim concern at the cavalryman.
+
+"What?" queried Thorne.
+
+"I'm afraid it's Rojas."
+
+Thorne turned pale but did not lose his nerve.
+
+"I thought of that at once.  If true, it'll be terrible for Mercedes
+and me.  But Rojas will never get his hands on my wife.  If I can't
+kill him, I'll kill her!...Belding, this is tough on you--this risk
+we put upon your family. I regret--"
+
+"Cut that kind of talk," replied Belding, bluntly.  "Well, if it is
+Rojas he's acting damn strange for a raider.  That's what worries
+me.  We can't do anything but wait.  With Laddy and Yaqui out there
+we won't be surprised.  Let's take the best possible view of the
+situation until we know more.  That'll not likely be before
+to-morrow."
+
+The women of the house might have gotten some sleep that night,
+but it was certain the men did not get any.  Morning broke cold
+and gray, the 19th of February.  Breakfast was prepared earlier
+than usual, and an air of suppressed waiting excitement pervaded
+the place.  Otherwise the ordinary details of the morning's work
+continued as on any other day.  Ladd came in hungry and cold,
+and said the Mexicans were not breaking camp.  He reported a
+good-sized force of rebels, and was taciturn as to his idea of
+forthcoming events.
+
+About an hour after sunrise Yaqui ran in with the information
+that part of the rebels were crossing the river.
+
+"That can't mean a fight yet," declared Belding.  "But get in the
+house, boys, and make ready anyway.  I'll meet them."
+
+"Drive them off the place same as if you had a company of soldiers
+backin' you," said Ladd.  "Don't give them an inch.  We're in bad,
+and the bigger bluff we put up the more likely our chance."
+
+"Belding, you're an officer of the United States.  Mexicans are
+much impressed by show of authority.  I've seen that often in camp,"
+said Thorne.
+
+"Oh, I know the white-livered Greasers better than any of you, don't
+mistake me," replied Belding.  He was pale with rage, but kept
+command over himself.
+
+The rangers, with Yaqui and Thorne, stationed themselves at the
+several windows of the sitting-room.  Rifles and smaller arms and
+boxes of shells littered the tables and window seats.  No small
+force of besiegers could overcome a resistance such as Belding
+and his men were capable of making.
+
+"Here they come, boys," called Gale, from his window.
+
+"Rebel-raiders I should say, Laddy."
+
+"Shore.  An' a fine outfit of buzzards!"
+
+"Reckon there's about a dozen in the bunch," observed the calm
+Lash.  "Some hosses they're ridin'.  Where 'n the hell do they get
+such hosses, anyhow?"
+
+"Shore, Jim, they work hard an' buy 'em with real silver pesos,"
+replied Ladd, sarcastically.
+
+"Do any of you see Rojas?" whispered Thorne.
+
+"Nix.  No dandy bandit in that outfit."
+
+"It's too far to see," said Gale.
+
+The horsemen halted at the corrals.  They were orderly and showed
+no evidence of hostility.  They were, however, fully armed.  Belding
+stalked out to meet them.  Apparently a leader wanted to parley
+with him, but Belding would hear nothing.  He shook his head, waved
+his arms, stamped to and fro, and his loud, angry voice could be
+heard clear back at the house.  Whereupon the detachment of rebels
+retired to the bank of the river, beyond the white post that marked
+the boundary line, and there they once more drew rein.  Belding remained
+by the corrals watching them, evidently still in threatening mood.
+Presently a single rider left the troop and trotted his horse back
+down the road.  When he reached the corrals he was seen to halt
+and pass something to Belding.  Then he galloped away to join
+his comrades.
+
+Belding looked at whatever it was he held in his hand, shook his
+burley head, and started swiftly for the house.  He came striding
+into the room holding a piece of soiled paper.
+
+"Can't read it and don't know as I want to," he said, savagely.
+
+"Beldin', shore we'd better read it," replied Ladd.  "What we want
+is a line on them Greasers.  Whether they're Campo's men or
+Salazar's, or just a wanderin' bunch of rebels--or Rojas's bandits.
+Sabe, senor?"
+
+Not one of the men was able to translate the garbled scrawl.
+
+"Shore Mercedes can read it," said Ladd.
+
+Thorne opened a door and called her.  She came into the room
+followed by Nell and Mrs. Belding.  Evidently all three divined a
+critical situation.
+
+"My dear, we want you to read what's written on this paper,"
+said Thorne, as he led her to the table.  "It was sent in by rebels,
+and--and we fear contains bad news for us."
+
+Mercedes gave the writing one swift glance, then fainted in Thorne's
+arms.  He carried her to a couch, and with Nell and Mrs. Belding
+began to work over her.
+
+Belding looked at his rangers.  It was characteristic of the man
+that, now when catastrophe appeared inevitable, all the gloom
+and care and angry agitation passed from him.
+
+"Laddy, it's Rojas all right.  How many men has he out there?"
+
+"Mebbe twenty.  Not more."
+
+"We can lick twice that many Greasers."
+
+"Shore."
+
+Jim Lash removed his pipe long enough to speak.
+
+"I reckon.  But it ain't sense to start a fight when mebbe we can
+avoid it."
+
+"What's your idea?"
+
+"Let's stave the Greaser off till dark.  Then Laddy an' me an'
+Thorne will take Mercedes an' hit the trail for Yuma."
+
+"Camino del Diablo!  That awful trail with a woman!  Jim, do you
+forget how many hundreds of men have perished on the Devil's
+Road?"
+
+"I reckon I ain't forgettin' nothin'," replied Jim.  "The waterholes
+are full now.  There's grass, an' we can do the job in six days."
+
+"It's three hundred miles to Yuma."
+
+"Beldin', Jim's idea hits me pretty reasonable," interposed Ladd.
+"Lord knows that's about the only chance we've got except fightin'."
+
+"But suppose we do stave Rojas off, and you get safely away with
+Mercedes.  Isn't Rojas going to find it out quick?  Then what'll he
+try to do to us who're left here?"
+
+"I reckon he'd find out by daylight," replied Jim.  "But, Tom, he
+ain't agoin' to start a scrap then.  He'd want time an' hosses an'
+men to chase us out on the trail.  You see, I'm figgerin' on the
+crazy Greaser wantin' the girl.  I reckon he'll try to clean up
+here to get her.  But he's too smart to fight you for nothin'.
+Rojas may be nutty about women, but he's afraid of the U. S.
+Take my word for it he'd discover the trail in the mornin' an'
+light out on it.  I reckon with ten hours' start we could travel
+comfortable."
+
+Belding paced up and down the room.  Jim and Ladd whispered
+together.  Gale walked to the window and looked out at the distant
+group of bandits, and then turned his gaze to rest upon Mercedes.
+She was conscious now, and her eyes seemed all the larger and
+blacker for the whiteness of her face.  Thorne held her hands,
+and the other women were trying to still her tremblings.
+
+No one but Gale saw the Yaqui in the background looking down
+upon the Spanish girl.  All of Yaqui's looks were strange; but this
+singularly so.  Gale marked it, and felt he would never forget.
+Mercedes's beauty had never before struck him as being so exquisite,
+so alluring as now when she lay stricken.  Gale wondered if the
+Indian was affected by her loveliness, her helplessness, or her
+terror.  Yaqui had seen Mercedes only a few times, and upon each
+of these he had appeared to be fascinated.  Could the strange
+Indian, because his hate for Mexicans was so great, be gloating
+over her misery?  Something about Yaqui--a noble austerity of
+countenance--made Gale feel his suspicion unjust.
+
+Presently Belding called his rangers to him, and then Thorne.
+
+"Listen to this," he said, earnestly.  "I'll go out and have a talk
+with Rojas.  I'll try to reason with him; tell him to think a long
+time before he sheds blood on Uncle Sam's soil.  That he's now
+after an American's wife!  I'll not commit myself, nor will I refuse
+outright to consider his demands, nor will I show the least fear
+of him.  I'll play for time.  If my bluff goes through...well and
+good....After dark the four of you, Laddy, Jim, Dick, and Thorne,
+will take Mercedes and my best white horses, and, with Yaqui as
+guide, circle round through Altar Valley to the trail, and head
+for Yuma....Wait now, Laddy.  Let me finish.  I want you to take
+the white horses for two reasons--to save them and to save you.
+Savvy?  If Rojas should follow on my horses he'd be likely to
+catch you.  Also, you can pack a great deal more than on the
+bronchs.  Also, the big horses can travel faster and farther on
+little grass and water.  I want you to take the Indian, because
+in a case of this kind he'll be a godsend.  If you get headed or
+lost or have to circle off the trail, think what it 'd mean to have
+Yaqui with you.  He knows Sonora as no Greaser knows it.  He could
+hide you, find water and grass, when you would absolutely
+believe it impossible.  The Indian is loyal.  He has his debt to
+pay, and he'll pay it, don't mistake me.  When you're gone I'll
+hide Nell so Rojas won't see her if he searches the place.  Then
+I think I could sit down and wait without any particular worry."
+
+The rangers approved of Belding's plan, and Thorne choked in his
+effort to express his gratitude.
+
+"All right, we'll chance it," concluded Belding.  "I'll go out now
+and call Rojas and his outfit over...Say, it might be as well for
+me to know just what he said in that paper."
+
+Thorne went to the side of his wife.
+
+"Mercedes, we've planned to outwit Rojas.  Will you tell us just
+what he wrote?"
+
+The girl sat up, her eyes dilating, and with her hands clasping
+Thorne's.  She said:
+
+"Rojas swore--by his saints and his virgin--that if I wasn't
+given--to him--in twenty-four hours--he would set fire to the
+village--kill the men--carry off the women--hang the children
+on cactus thorns!"
+
+A moment's silence followed her last halting whisper.
+
+"By his saints an' his virgin!" echoed Ladd.  He laughed--a cold,
+cutting, deadly laugh--significant and terrible.
+
+Then the Yaqui uttered a singular cry.  Gale had heard this once
+before, and now he remembered it was at the Papago Well.
+
+"Look at the Indian," whispered Belding, hoarsely.  "Damn if I
+don't believe he understood every word Mercedes said.  And,
+gentlemen, don't mistake me, if he ever gets near Senor Rojas
+there'll be some gory Aztec knife work."
+
+Yaqui had moved close to Mercedes, and stood beside her as she
+leaned against her husband.  She seemed impelled to meet the
+Indian's gaze, and evidently it was so powerful or hypnotic that
+it wrought irresistibly upon her.  But she must have seen or
+divined what was beyond the others, for she offered him her
+trembling hand.  Yaqui took it and laid it against his body
+in a strange motion, and bowed his head.  Then he stepped back
+into the shadow of the room.
+
+Belding went outdoors while the rangers took up their former
+position at the west window.  Each had his own somber thoughts,
+Gale imagined, and knew his own were dark enough.  A slow fire
+crept along his veins.  He saw Belding halt at the corrals and wave
+his hand.  Then the rebels mounted and came briskly up the road,
+this time to rein in abreast.
+
+Wherever Rojas had kept himself upon the former advance was not
+clear; but he certainly was prominently in sight now.  He made a
+gaudy, almost a dashing figure.  Gale did not recognize the white
+sombrero, the crimson scarf, the velvet jacket, nor any feature of
+the dandy's costume; but their general effect, the whole ensemble,
+recalled vividly to mind his first sight of the bandit.  Rojas
+dismounted and seemed to be listening.  He betrayed none of the
+excitement Gale had seen in him that night at the Del Sol.
+Evidently this composure struck Ladd and Lash as unusual in a
+Mexican supposed to be laboring under stress of feeling.  Belding
+made gestures, vehemently bobbed his big head, appeared to talk
+with his body as much as with his tongue.  Then Rojas was seen to
+reply, and after that it was clear that the talk became painful and
+difficult.  It ended finally in what appeared to be mutual
+understanding.  Rojas mounted and rode away with his men, while
+Belding came tramping back to the house.
+
+As he entered the door his eyes were shining, his big hands were
+clenched, and he was breathing audibly.
+
+"You can rope me if I'm not locoed!" he burst out.  "I went out
+to conciliate a red-handed little murderer, and damn me if I didn't
+meet a--a--well, I've not suitable name handy.  I started my bluff
+and got along pretty well, but I forgot to mention that Mercedes
+was Thorne's wife.  And what do you think?  Rojas swore he loved Mercedes--
+swore he'd marry her right here in Forlorn River--swore he would give up
+robbing and killing people, and take her away from Mexico.  He has
+gold--jewels.  He swore if he didn't get her nothing mattered.  He'd
+die anyway without her....And here's the strange thing.  I believe
+him!  He was cold as ice, and all hell inside.  Never saw a Greaser
+like him.  Well, I pretended to be greatly impressed.  We got to
+talking friendly, I suppose, though I didn't understand half he
+said, and I imagine he gathered less what I said.  Anyway, without
+my asking he said for me to think it over for a day and then we'd
+talk again."
+
+"Shore we're born lucky!" ejaculated Ladd.
+
+"I reckon Rojas'll be smart enough to string his outfit across the
+few trails leadin' out of Forlorn River," remarked Jim.
+
+"That needn't worry us.  All we want is dark to come," replied
+Belding.  "Yaqui will slip through.  If we thank any lucky stars
+let it be for the Indian....Now, boys, put on your thinking caps.
+You'll take eight horses, the pick of my bunch.  You must pack
+all that's needed for a possible long trip.  Mind, Yaqui may lead
+you down into some wild Sonora valley and give Rojas the slip.
+You may get to Yuma in six days, and maybe in six weeks.  Yet
+you've got to pack light--a small pack in saddles--larger ones
+on the two free horses.  You may have a big fight.  Laddy, take
+the .405.  Dick will pack his Remington.  All of you go gunned
+heavy.  But the main thing is a pack that 'll be light enough for
+swift travel, yet one that 'll keep you from starving on the
+desert."
+
+The rest of that day passed swiftly.  Dick had scarcely a word with
+Nell, and all the time, as he chose and deliberated and worked
+over his little pack, there was a dull pain in his heart.
+
+The sun set, twilight fell, then night closed down fortunately
+a night slightly overcast.  Gale saw the white horses pass
+his door like silent ghosts.  Even Blanco Diablo made no sound,
+and that fact was indeed a tribute to the Yaqui.  Gale went out
+to put his saddle on Blanco Sol.  The horse rubbed a soft nose
+against his shoulder.  Then Gale returned to the sitting-room.
+There was nothing more to do but wait and say good-by.  Mercedes
+came clad in leather chaps and coat, a slim stripling of a cowboy,
+her dark eyes flashing.  Her beauty could not be hidden, and now
+hope and courage had fired her blood.
+
+Gale drew Nell off into the shadow of the room.  She was trembling,
+and as she leaned toward him she was very different from the coy
+girl who had so long held him aloof.  He took her into his arms.
+
+"Dearest, I'm going--soon....And maybe I'll never--"
+
+"Dick, do--don't say it," sobbed Nell, with her head on his breast.
+
+"I might never come back," he went on, steadily.  "I love you--I've
+loved you ever since the first moment I saw you.  Do you care for
+me--a little?"
+
+"Dear Dick--de-dear Dick, my heart is breaking," faltered Nell, as
+she clung to him.
+
+"It might be breaking for Mercedes--for Laddy and Jim.  I want to
+hear something for myself.  Something to have on long marches--round
+lonely campfires.  Something to keep my spirit alive.  Oh, Nell, you
+can't imagine that silence out there--that terrible world of sand
+and stone!...Do you love me?"
+
+"Yes, yes.  Oh, I love you so!  I never knew it till now.  I love
+you so.  Dick, I'll be safe and I'll wait--and hope and pray for
+your return."
+
+"If I come back--no--when I come back, will you marry me?"
+
+"I--I--oh yes!" she whispered, and returned his kiss.
+
+Belding was in the room speaking softly.
+
+"Nell, darling, I must go," said Dick.
+
+"I'm a selfish little coward," cried Nell.  "It's so splendid of you
+all.  I ought to glory in it, but I can't.  ...Fight if you must,
+Dick.  Fight for that lovely persecuted girl.  I'll love you--the
+more....Oh!  Good-by!  Good-by!"
+
+With a wrench that shook him Gale let her go.  He heard
+Belding's soft voice.
+
+"Yaqui says the early hour's best.  Trust him, Laddy.  Remember
+what I say--Yaqui's a godsend."
+
+Then they were all outside in the pale gloom under the trees.
+Yaqui mounted Blanco Diablo; Mercedes was lifted upon White
+Woman; Thorne climbed astride Queen; Jim Lash was already
+upon his horse, which was as white as the others but bore no
+name; Ladd mounted the stallion Blanco Torres, and gathered
+up the long halters of the two pack horses; Gale came last with
+Blanco Sol.
+
+As he toed the stirrup, hand on mane and pommel, Gale took one
+more look in at the door.  Nell stood in the gleam of light, her
+hair shining, face like ashes, her eyes dark, her lips parted, her
+arms outstretched.  That sweet and tragic picture etched its
+cruel outlines into Gale's heart.  He waved his hand and then
+fiercely leaped into the saddle.
+
+Blanco Sol stepped out.
+
+Before Gale stretched a line of moving horses, white against dark
+shadows.  He could not see the head of that column; he scarcely
+heard a soft hoofbeat.  A single star shone out of a rift in thin
+clouds.  There was no wind.  The air was cold.  The dark space
+of desert seemed to yawn.  To the left across the river flickered a
+few campfires.  The chill night, silent and mystical, seemed to
+close in upon Gale; and he faced the wide, quivering, black level
+with keen eyes and grim intent, and an awakening of that wild
+rapture which came like a spell to him in the open desert.
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+ACROSS CACTUS AND LAVA
+
+BLANCO SOL showed no inclination to bend his head to the alfalfa
+which swished softly about his legs.  Gale felt the horse's
+sensitive, almost human alertness.  Sol knew as well as his master
+the nature of that flight.
+
+At the far corner of the field Yaqui halted, and slowly the line of
+white horses merged into a compact mass.  There was a trail here
+leading down to the river.  The campfires were so close that the
+bright blazes could be seen in movement, and dark forms crossed
+in front of them.  Yaqui slipped out of his saddle.  He ran his hand
+over Diablo's nose and spoke low, and repeated this action for
+each of the other horses.  Gale had long ceased to question the
+strange Indian's behavior.  There was no explaining or understanding
+many of his manoeuvers.  But the results of them were always
+thought-provoking.  Gale had never seen horse stand so silently as
+in this instance; no stamp--no champ of bit--no toss of head--no
+shake of saddle or pack--no heave or snort!  It seemed they had
+become imbued with the spirit of the Indian.
+
+Yaqui moved away into the shadows as noiselessly as if he were one
+of them.  The darkness swallowed him.  He had taken a parallel with
+the trail.  Gale wondered if Yaqui meant to try to lead his string
+of horses by the rebel sentinels.  Ladd had his head bent low, his
+ear toward the trail.  Jim's long neck had the arch of a listening
+deer.  Gale listened, too, and as the slow, silent moments went
+by his faculty of hearing grew more acute from strain.  He heard
+Blanco Sol breathe; he heard the pound of his own heart;
+he heard the silken rustle of the alfalfa; he heard a faint,
+far-off sound of voice, like a lost echo.  Then his ear seemed
+to register a movement of air, a disturbance so soft
+as to be nameless.  Then followed long, silent moments.
+
+Yaqui appeared as he had vanished.  He might have been part of
+the shadows.  But he was there.  He started off down the trail
+leading Diablo.  Again the white line stretched slowly out.  Gale
+fell in behind.  A bench of ground, covered with sparse greasewood,
+sloped gently down to the deep, wide arroyo of Forlorn River.
+Blanco Sol shied a few feet out of the trail.  Peering low with keen
+eyes, Gale made out three objects--a white sombrero, a blanket,
+and a Mexican lying face down.  The Yaqui had stolen upon this
+sentinel like a silent wind of death.  Just then a desert coyote
+wailed, and the wild cry fitted the darkness and the Yaqui's deed.
+
+Once under the dark lee of the river bank Yaqui caused another
+halt, and he disappeared as before.  It seemed to Gale that the
+Indian started to cross the pale level sandbed of the river, where
+stones stood out gray, and the darker line of opposite shore was
+visible.  But he vanished, and it was impossible to tell whether
+he went one way or another.  Moments passed.  The horses held
+heads up, looked toward the glimmering campfires and listened.
+Gale thrilled with the meaning of it all--the night--the silence
+--the flight--and the wonderful Indian stealing with the slow
+inevitableness of doom upon another sentinel.  An hour passed
+and Gale seemed to have become deadened to all sense of hearing.
+There were no more sounds in the world.  The desert was as silent
+as it was black.  Yet again came that strange change in the tensity
+of Gale's ear-strain, a check, a break, a vibration--and this time
+the sound did not go nameless.  It might have been moan of wind
+or wail of far-distant wolf, but Gale imagined it was the strangling
+death-cry of another guard, or that strange, involuntary utterance
+of the Yaqui.  Blanco Sol trembled in all his great frame, and then
+Gale was certain the sound was not imagination.
+
+That certainty, once for all, fixed in Gale's mind the mood of
+his flight.  The Yaqui dominated the horses and the rangers.
+Thorne and Mercedes were as persons under a spell.  The Indian's
+strange silence, the feeling of mystery and power he seemed to
+create, all that was incomprehensible about him were emphasized in
+the light of his slow, sure, and ruthless action.  If he dominated
+the others, surely he did more for Gale--colored his
+thoughts--presage the wild and terrible future of that flight.  If
+Rojas embodied all the hatred and passion of the peon--scourged
+slave for a thousand years--then Yaqui embodied all the darkness,
+the cruelty, the white, sun-heated blood, the ferocity, the tragedy
+of the desert.
+
+Suddenly the Indian stalked out of the gloom.  He mounted Diablo
+and headed across the river.  Once more the line of moving white
+shadows stretched out.  The soft sand gave forth no sound at all.
+The glimmering campfires sank behind the western bank.  Yaqui
+led the way into the willows, and there was faint swishing of
+leaves; then into the mesquite, and there was faint rustling of
+branches.  The glimmering lights appeared again, and grotesque
+forms of saguaros loomed darkly.  Gale peered sharply along the
+trail, and, presently, on the pale sand under a cactus, there lay
+a blanketed form, prone, outstretched, a carbine clutched in one
+hand, a cigarette, still burning, in the other.
+
+The cavalcade of white horses passed within five hundred yards of
+campfires, around which dark forms moved in plain sight.  Soft pads
+in sand, faint metallic tickings of steel on thorns, low, regular
+breathing of horses--these were all the sounds the fugitives made,
+and they could not have been heard at one-fifth the distance.
+The lights disappeared from time to time, grew dimmer, more
+flickering, and at last they vanished altogether.  Belding's fleet
+and tireless steeds were out in front; the desert opened ahead wide,
+dark, vast.  Rojas and his rebels were behind, eating, drinking, careless.
+The somber shadow lifted from Gale's  heart.  He held now an unquenchable
+faith in the Yaqui.  Belding would be listening back there along the river.
+He would know of the escape.  He would tell Nell, and then hide her safely.
+As Gale accepted a strange and fatalistic foreshadowing of toil, blood,
+and agony in this desert journey, so he believed in Mercedes's ultimate
+freedom and happiness, and his own return to the girl who had grown
+dearer than life.
+
+
+A cold, gray dawn was fleeing before a rosy sun when Yaqui halted
+the march at Papago Well.  The horses were taken to water, then
+led down the arroyo into the grass.  Here packs were slipped,
+saddles removed.  Mercedes was cold, lame, tired, but happy.  It
+warmed Gale's blood to look at her.  The shadow of fear still lay
+in her eyes, but it was passing.  Hope and courage shone there,
+and affection for her ranger protectors and the Yaqui, and
+unutterable love for the cavalryman.  Jim Lash remarked how
+cleverly they had fooled the rebels.
+
+"Shore they'll be comin' along," replied Ladd.
+
+They built a fire, cooked and ate.  The Yaqui spoke only one
+word:  "Sleep."  Blankets were spread.  Mercedes dropped into a
+deep slumber, her head on Thorne's shoulder.  Excitement kept
+Throne awake.  The two rangers dozed beside the fire.  Gale
+shared the Yaqui's watch.  The sun began to climb and the icy
+edge of dawn to wear away.  Rabbits bobbed their cotton tails
+under the mesquite.  Gale climbed a rocky wall above the arroyo
+bank, and there, with command over the miles of the back-trail, he
+watched.
+
+It was a sweeping, rolling, wrinkled, and streaked range of desert
+that he saw, ruddy in the morning sunlight, with patches of cactus
+and mesquite rough-etched in shimmering gloom.  No Name Mountains
+split the eastern sky, towering high, gloomy, grand, with purple veils
+upon their slopes.  They were forty miles away and looked five.
+Gale thought of the girl who was there under their shadow.
+
+Yaqui kept the horses bunched, and he led them from one little
+park of galleta grass to another.  At the end of three hours he took
+them to water.  Upon his return Gale clambered down from his
+outlook, the rangers grew active.  Mercedes was awakened; and soon
+the party faced westward, their long shadows moving before them.
+Yaqui led with Blanco Diablo in a long, easy lope.  The arroyo
+washed itself out into flat desert, and the greens began to shade
+into gray, and then the gray into red.  Only sparse cactus and
+weathered ledges dotted the great low roll of a rising escarpment.
+Yaqui suited the gait of his horse to the lay of the land, and his
+followers accepted his pace.  There were canter and trot, and
+swift walk and slow climb, and long swing--miles up and down
+and forward.  The sun soared hot.  The heated air lifted, and
+incoming currents from the west swept low and hard over the
+barren earth.  In the distance, all around the horizon,
+accumulations of dust seemed like ranging, mushrooming yellow
+clouds.
+
+Yaqui was the only one of the fugitives who never looked back.
+Mercedes did it the most.  Gale felt what compelled her, he could
+not resist it himself.  But it was a vain search.  For a thousand
+puffs of white and yellow dust rose from that backward sweep
+of desert, and any one of them might have been blown from under
+horses' hoofs.  Gale had a conviction that when Yaqui gazed back
+toward the well and the shining plain beyond, there would be reason
+for it.  But when the sun lost its heat and the wind died down Yaqui
+took long and careful surveys westward from the high points on the
+trail.  Sunset was not far off, and there in a bare, spotted valley
+lay Coyote Tanks, the only waterhole between Papago Well and
+the Sonoyta Oasis.  Gale used his glass, told Yaqui there was no
+smoke, no sign of life; still the Indian fixed his falcon eyes
+on distant spots looked long.  It was as if his vision
+could not detect what reason or cunning or intuition, perhaps
+an instinct, told him was there.  Presently in a sheltered spot,
+where blown sand had not obliterated the trail, Yaqui found the
+tracks of horses.  The curve of the iron shoes pointed westward.
+An intersecting trail from the north came in here.  Gale thought the
+tracks either one or two days old.  Ladd said they were one day.
+The Indian shook his head.
+
+No farther advance was undertaken.  The Yaqui headed south and
+traveled slowly, climbing to the brow of a bold height of weathered
+mesa.  There he sat his horse and waited.  No one questioned him.
+The rangers dismounted to stretch their legs, and Mercedes was
+lifted to a rock, where she rested.  Thorne had gradually yielded
+to the desert's influence for silence.  He spoke once or twice to
+Gale, and occasionally whispered to Mercedes.  Gale fancied his
+friend would soon learn that necessary speech in desert travel meant
+a few greetings, a few words to make real the fact of human
+companionship, a few short, terse terms for the business of day or
+night, and perhaps a stern order or a soft call to a horse.
+
+The sun went down, and the golden, rosy veils turned to blue and
+shaded darker till twilight was there in the valley.  Only the spurs
+of mountains, spiring the near and far horizon, retained their clear
+outline.  Darkness approached, and the clear peaks faded.  The
+horses stamped to be on the move.
+
+"Malo!" exclaimed the Yaqui.
+
+He did not point with arm, but his falcon head was outstretched,
+and his piercing eyes gazed at the blurring spot which marked
+the location of Coyote Tanks.
+
+"Jim, can you see anything?" asked Ladd.
+
+"Nope, but I reckon he can."
+
+Darkness increased momentarily till night shaded the deepest part
+of the valley.
+
+Then Ladd suddenly straightened up, turned to his horse, and
+muttered low under his breath.
+
+"I reckon so," said Lash, and for once his easy, good-natured tone
+was not in evidence.  His voice was harsh.
+
+Gale's eyes, keen as they were, were last of the rangers to see
+tiny, needle-points of light just faintly perceptible in the
+blackness.
+
+"Laddy!  Campfires?" he asked, quickly.
+
+"Shore's you're born, my boy."
+
+"How many?"
+
+Ladd did not reply; but Yaqui held up his hand, his fingers wide.
+Five campfires!  A strong force of rebels or raiders or some other
+desert troop was camping at Coyote Tanks.
+
+Yaqui sat his horse for a moment, motionless as stone, his dark
+face immutable and impassive.  Then he stretched wide his right arm
+in the direction of No Name Mountains, now losing their last faint
+traces of the afterglow, and he shook his head.  He made the same
+impressive gesture toward the Sonoyta Oasis with the same somber
+negation.
+
+Thereupon he turned Diablo's head to the south and started down
+the slope.  His manner had been decisive, even stern.  Lash did not
+question it, nor did Ladd.  Both rangers hesitated, however, and
+showed a strange, almost sullen reluctance which Gale had never
+seen in them before.  Raiders were one thing, Rojas was another;
+Camino del Diablo still another; but that vast and desolate and
+unwatered waste of cactus and lava, the Sonora Desert, might
+appall the stoutest heart.  Gale felt his own sink--felt himself
+flinch.
+
+"Oh, where is he going?" cried Mercedes.  Her poignant voice seemed
+to break a spell.
+
+"Shore, lady, Yaqui's goin' home," replied Ladd, gently.  "An'
+considerin' our troubles I reckon we ought to thank God he knows
+the way."
+
+They mounted and rode down the slope toward the darkening south.
+
+Not until night travel was obstructed by a wall of cactus did the
+Indian halt to make a dry camp.  Water and grass for the horses
+and fire to cook by were not to be had.  Mercedes bore up
+surprisingly; but she fell asleep almost the instant her thirst had
+been allayed.  Thorne laid her upon a blanket and covered her.
+The men ate and drank.  Diablo was the only horse that showed
+impatience; but he was angry, and not in distress.  Blanco Sol
+licked Gale's hand and stood patiently.  Many a time had he taken
+his rest at night without a drink.  Yaqui again bade the men sleep.
+Ladd said he would take the early watch; but from the way the
+Indian shook his head and settled himself against a stone, it
+appeared if Ladd remained awake he would have company.  Gale
+lay down weary of limb and eye.  He heard the soft thump of hoofs,
+the sough of wind in the cactus--then no more.
+
+When he awoke there was bustle and stir about him.  Day had not
+yet dawned, and the air was freezing cold.  Yaqui had found a scant
+bundle of greasewood which served to warm them and to cook
+breakfast.  Mercedes was not aroused till the last moment.
+
+Day dawned with the fugitives in the saddle.  A picketed wall of
+cactus hedged them in, yet the Yaqui made a tortuous path, that,
+zigzag as it might, in the main always headed south.  It was
+wonderful how he slipped Diablo through the narrow aisles of thorns,
+saving the horse and saving himself.  The others were torn and
+clutched and held and stung.  The way was a flat, sandy pass between
+low mountain ranges.  There were open spots and aisles and squares
+of sand; and hedging rows of prickly pear and the huge spider-legged
+ocatillo and hummocky masses of clustered bisnagi.  The day grew dry
+and hot.  A fragrant wind blew through the pass.  Cactus flowers
+bloomed, red and yellow and magenta.  The sweet, pale Ajo lily
+gleamed in shady corners.
+
+Ten miles of travel covered the length of the pass.  It opened wide
+upon a wonderful scene, an arboreal desert, dominated by its pure
+light green, yet lined by many merging colors.  And it rose slowly
+to a low dim and dark-red zone of lava, spurred, peaked, domed
+by volcano cones, a wild and ragged region, illimitable as the
+horizon.
+
+The Yaqui, if not at fault, was yet uncertain.  His falcon eyes
+searched and roved, and became fixed at length at the southwest,
+and toward this he turned his horse.  The great, fluted saguaros,
+fifty, sixty feet high, raised columnal forms, and their branching
+limbs and curving lines added a grace to the desert.  It was the
+low-bushed cactus that made the toil and pain of travel.  Yet
+these thorny forms were beautiful.
+
+In the basins between the ridges, to right and left along the floor
+of low plains the mirage glistened, wavered, faded, vanished--lakes
+and trees and clouds.  Inverted mountains hung suspended in the
+lilac air and faint tracery of white-walled cities.
+
+At noon Yaqui halted the cavalcade.  He had selected a field of
+bisnagi cactus for the place of rest.  Presently his reason became
+obvious.  With long, heavy knife he cut off the tops of these
+barrel-shaped plants.  He scooped out soft pulp, and with stone and
+hand then began to pound the deeper pulp into a juicy mass.  When
+he threw this out there was a little water left, sweet, cool water
+which man and horse shared eagerly.  Thus he made even the desert's
+fiercest growths minister to their needs.
+
+But he did not halt long.  Miles of gray-green spiked walls lay
+between him and that line of ragged, red lava which manifestly he
+must reach before dark.  The travel became faster, straighter.
+And the glistening thorns clutched and clung to leather and cloth
+and flesh.  The horses reared, snorted, balked, leaped--but they
+were sent on.  Only Blanco Sol, the patient, the plodding, the
+indomitable, needed no goad or spur.  Waves and scarfs
+and wreaths of heat smoked up from the sand.  Mercedes reeled
+in her saddle.  Thorne bade her drink, bathed her face, supported
+her, and then gave way to Ladd, who took the girl with him on
+Torre's broad back.  Yaqui's unflagging purpose and iron arm were
+bitter and hateful to the proud and haughty spirit of Blanco Diablo.
+For once Belding's great white devil had met his master.  He fought
+rider, bit, bridle, cactus, sand--and yet he went on and on,
+zigzagging, turning, winding, crashing through the barbed growths.
+The middle of the afternoon saw Thorne reeling in his saddle, and
+then, wherever possible, Gale's powerful arm lent him strength to
+hold his seat.
+
+The giant cactus came to be only so in name.  These saguaros were
+thinning out, growing stunted, and most of them were single columns.
+Gradually other cactus forms showed a harder struggle for existence,
+and the spaces of sand between were wider.  But now the dreaded,
+glistening choya began to show pale and gray and white upon the
+rising slope.  Round-topped hills, sunset-colored above, blue-black
+below, intervened to hide the distant spurs and peaks.  Mile and
+mile long tongues of red lava streamed out between the hills and
+wound down to stop abruptly upon the slope.
+
+The fugitives were entering a desolate, burned-out world.  It rose
+above them in limitless, gradual ascent and spread wide to east
+and west.  Then the waste of sand began to yield to cinders.  The
+horses sank to their fetlocks as they toiled on.  A fine, choking
+dust blew back from the leaders, and men coughed and horses
+snorted.  The huge, round hills rose smooth, symmetrical, colored
+as if the setting sun was shining on bare, blue-black surfaces.
+But the sun was now behind the hills.  In between ran the streams
+of lava.  The horsemen skirted the edge between slope of hill and
+perpendicular ragged wall.  This red lava seemed to have flowed
+and hardened there only yesterday.  It was broken sharp,
+dull rust color, full of cracks and caves and crevices, and
+everywhere upon its jagged surface grew the white-thorned choya.
+
+Again twilight encompassed the travelers.  But there was still
+light enough for Gale to see the constricted passage open into a
+wide, deep space where the dull color was relieved by the gray
+of gnarled and dwarfed mesquite.  Blanco Sol, keenest of scent,
+whistled his welcome herald of water.  The other horses answered,
+quickened their gait.  Gale smelled it, too, sweet, cool, damp on
+the dry air.
+
+Yaqui turned the corner of a pocket in the lava wall.  The file
+of white horses rounded the corner after him.  And Gale, coming
+last, saw the pale, glancing gleam of a pool of water beautiful in
+the twilight.
+
+
+Next day the Yaqui's relentless driving demand on the horses was
+no longer in evidence.  He lost no time, but he did not hasten.  His
+course wound between low cinder dunes which limited their view of
+the surrounding country.  These dunes finally sank down to a black
+floor as hard as flint with tongues of lava to the left, and to the
+right the slow descent into the cactus plain.  Yaqui was now
+traveling due west.  It was Gale's idea that the Indian was skirting
+the first sharp-toothed slope of a vast volcanic plateau which
+formed the western half of the Sonora Desert and extended to the
+Gulf of California.  Travel was slow, but not exhausting for rider
+or beast.  A little sand and meager grass gave a grayish tinge to
+the strip of black ground between lava and plain.
+
+That day, as the manner rather than the purpose of the Yaqui
+changed, so there seemed to be subtle differences in the others
+of the party.  Gale himself lost a certain sickening dread, which
+had not been for himself, but for Mercedes and Nell, and Thorne
+and the rangers.  Jim, good-natured again, might have been
+patrolling the boundary line.  Ladd lost his taciturnity and his
+gloom changed to a cool, careless air.  A mood that was almost defiance
+began to be manifested in Thorne.  It was in Mercedes, however, that Gale
+marked the most significant change.  Her collapse the preceding
+day might never have been.  She was lame and sore; she rode
+her saddle sidewise, and often she had to be rested and helped;
+but she had found a reserve fund of strength, and her mental
+condition was not the same that it had been.  Her burden of fear
+had been lifted. Gale saw in her the difference he always felt in
+himself after a few days in the desert.  Already Mercedes and he,
+and all of them, had begun to respond to the desert spirit.
+Moreover, Yaqui's strange influence must have been a call to the
+primitive.
+
+Thirty miles of easy stages brought the fugitives to another
+waterhole, a little round pocket under the heaved-up edge of lava.
+There was spare, short, bleached grass for the horses, but no wood
+for a fire.  This night there was question and reply, conjecture,
+doubt, opinion, and conviction expressed by the men of the party.
+But the Indian, who alone could have told where they were, where
+they were going, what chance they had to escape, maintained his
+stoical silence.  Gale took the early watch, Ladd the midnight one,
+and Lash that of the morning.
+
+The day broke rosy, glorious, cold as ice.  Action was necessary
+to make useful benumbed hands and feet.  Mercedes was fed while
+yet wrapped in blankets.  Then, while the packs were being put on
+and horses saddled, she walked up and down, slapping her hands,
+warming her ears.  The rose color of the dawn was in her cheeks,
+and the wonderful clearness of desert light in her eyes.  Thorne's
+eyes sought her constantly.  The rangers watched her.  The Yaqui
+bent his glance upon her only seldom; but when he did look it seemed
+that his strange, fixed, and inscrutable face was about to break
+into a smile.  Yet that never happened.  Gale himself was surprised
+to find how often his own glance found the slender, dark, beautiful
+Spaniard.  Was this because of her beauty? he wondered.  He thought
+not altogether.  Mercedes was a woman.  She represented something
+in life that men of all races for thousands of years had loved to
+see and own, to revere and debase, to fight and die for.
+
+It was a significant index to the day's travel that Yaqui should
+keep a blanket from the pack and tear it into strips to bind the
+legs of the horses.  It meant the dreaded choya and the knife-edged
+lava.  That Yaqui did not mount Diablo was still more significant.
+Mercedes must ride; but the others must walk.
+
+The Indian led off into one of the gray notches between the tumbled
+streams of lava.  These streams were about thirty feet high, a
+rotting mass of splintered lava, rougher than any other kind of
+roughness in the world.  At the apex of the notch, where two streams
+met, a narrow gully wound and ascended.  Gale caught sight of the
+dim, pale shadow of a one-time trail.  Near at hand it was
+invisible; he had to look far ahead to catch the faint tracery.
+Yaqui led Diablo into it, and then began the most laborious and
+vexatious and painful of all slow travel.
+
+Once up on top of that lava bed, Gale saw stretching away, breaking
+into millions of crests and ruts, a vast, red-black field sweeping
+onward and upward, with ragged, low ridges and mounds and spurs
+leading higher and higher to a great, split escarpment wall, above
+which dim peaks shone hazily blue in the distance.
+
+He looked no more in that direction.  To keep his foothold, to save
+his horse, cost him all energy and attention.  The course was marked
+out for him in the tracks of the other horses.  He had only to
+follow.  But nothing could have been more difficult.  The
+disintegrating surface of a lava bed was at once the roughest, the
+hardest, the meanest, the cruelest, the most deceitful kind of
+ground to travel.
+
+It was rotten, yet it had corners as hard and sharp as pikes.
+It was rough, yet as slippery as ice.  If there was a foot
+of level surface, that space would be one to break through
+under a horse's hoofs.  It was seamed, lined, cracked, ridged,
+knotted iron.  This lava bed resembled a tremendously magnified
+clinker.  It had been a running sea of molten flint, boiling,
+bubbling, spouting, and it had burst its surface into a million
+sharp facets as it hardened.  The color was dull, dark, angry
+red, like no other red, inflaming to the eye.  The millions of
+minute crevices were dominated by deep fissures and holes,
+ragged and rough beyond all comparison.
+
+The fugitives made slow progress.  They picked a cautious, winding
+way to and fro in little steps here and there along the many twists
+of the trail, up and down the unavoidable depressions, round and
+round the holes.  At noon, so winding back upon itself had been
+their course, they appeared to have come only a short distance up
+the lava slope.
+
+It was rough work for them; it was terrible work for the horses.
+Blanco Diablo refused to answer to the power of the Yaqui.  He
+balked, he plunged, he bit and kicked.  He had to be pulled and
+beaten over many places.  Mercedes's horse almost threw her,
+and she was put upon Blanco Sol.  The white charger snorted
+a protest, then, obedient to Gale's stern call, patiently lowered
+his noble head and pawed the lava for a footing that would hold.
+
+The lava caused Gale toil and worry and pain, but he hated the
+choyas.  As the travel progressed this species of cactus increased
+in number of plants and in size.  Everywhere the red lava was
+spotted with little round patches of glistening frosty white.  And
+under every bunch of choya, along and in the trail, were the
+discarded joints, like little frosty pine cones covered with spines.
+It was utterly impossible always to be on the lookout for these,
+and when Gale stepped on one, often as not the steel-like thorns
+pierced leather and flesh.  Gale came almost to believe what he had
+heard claimed by desert travelers--that the choya was alive and
+leaped at man or beast.  Certain it was when Gale passed one,
+if he did not put all attention to avoiding it, he was hooked
+through his chaps and held by barbed thorns.  The pain was
+almost unendurable.  It was like no other.  It burned, stung,
+beat--almost seemed to freeze.  It made useless arm or leg.
+It made him bite his tongue to keep from crying out.
+It made the sweat roll off him.  It made him sick.
+
+Moreover, bad as the choya was for man, it was infinitely worse
+for beast.  A jagged stab from this poisoned cactus was the only
+thing Blanco Sol could not stand.  Many times that day, before he
+carried Mercedes, he had wildly snorted, and then stood trembling
+while Gale picked broken thorns from the muscular legs.  But after
+Mercedes had been put upon Sol Gale made sure no choya touched him.
+
+The afternoon passed like the morning, in ceaseless winding and
+twisting and climbing along this abandoned trail.  Gale saw many
+waterholes, mostly dry, some containing water, all of them
+catch-basins, full only after rainy season.  Little ugly bunched
+bushes, that Gale scarcely recognized as mesquites, grew near
+these holes; also stunted greasewood and prickly pear.  There
+was no grass, and the choya alone flourished in that hard soil.
+
+Darkness overtook the party as they unpacked beside a pool of water
+deep under an overhanging shelf of lava.  It had been a hard day.
+The horses drank their fill, and then stood patiently with drooping
+heads.  Hunger and thirst appeased, and a warm fire cheered the
+weary and foot-sore fugitives.  Yaqui said, "Sleep."  And so another
+night passed.
+
+
+Upon the following morning, ten miles or more up the slow-ascending
+lava slope, Gale's attention was called from his somber search for
+the less rough places in the trail.
+
+"Dick, why does Yaqui look back?" asked Mercedes.
+
+Gale was startled.
+
+"Does he?"
+
+"Every little while," replied Mercedes.
+
+Gale was in the rear of all the other horses, so as to take, for
+Mercedes's sake, the advantage of the broken trail.  Yaqui was
+leading Diablo, winding around a break.  His head was bent as he
+stepped slowly and unevenly upon the lava.  Gale turned to look
+back, the first time in several days.  The mighty hollow of the
+desert below seemed wide strip of red--wide strip of green--wide
+strip of gray--streaking to purple peaks.  It was all too vast, too
+mighty to grasp any little details.  He thought, of course, of Rojas
+in certain pursuit; but it seemed absurded to look for him.
+
+Yaqui led on, and Gale often glanced up from his task to watch the
+Indian.  Presently he saw him stop, turn, and look back.  Ladd did
+likewise, and then Jim and Thorne.  Gale found the desire
+irresistible.  Thereafter he often rested Blanco Sol, and looked
+back the while.  He had his field-glass, but did not choose to use
+it.
+
+"Rojas will follow," said Mercedes.
+
+Gale regarded her in amaze.  The tone of her voice had been
+indefinable.  If there were fear then he failed to detect it.  She
+was gazing back down the colored slope, and something about
+her, perhaps the steady, falcon gaze of her magnificent eyes,
+reminded him of Yaqui.
+
+Many times during the ensuing hour the Indian faced about, and
+always his followers did likewise.  It was high noon, with the sun
+beating hot and the lava radiating heat, when Yaqui halted for a
+rest.  The place selected was a ridge of lava, almost a promontory,
+considering its outlook.  The horses bunched here and drooped their
+heads.  The rangers were about to slip the packs and remove
+saddles when Yaqui restrained them.
+
+He fixed a changeless, gleaming gaze on the slow descent; but did
+not seem to look afar.
+
+Suddenly he uttered his strange cry--the one Gale considered
+involuntary, or else significant of some tribal trait or feeling.
+It was incomprehensible, but no one could have doubted its
+potency.  Yaqui pointed down the lava slope, pointed with finger
+and arm and neck and head--his whole body was instinct with
+direction.  His whole being seemed to have been animated and
+then frozen.  His posture could not have been misunderstood,
+yet his expression had not altered.  Gale had never seen the
+Indian's face change its hard, red-bronze calm.  It was the color
+and the flintiness and the character of the lava at his feet.
+
+"Shore he sees somethin'," said Ladd.  "But my eyes are not good."
+
+"I reckon I ain't sure of mine," replied Jim.  "I'm bothered by a
+dim movin' streak down there."
+
+Thorne gazed eagerly down as he stood beside Mercedes, who
+sat motionless facing the slope.  Gale looked and looked till he
+hurt his eyes.  Then he took his glass out of its case on Sol's
+saddle.
+
+There appeared to be nothing upon the lava but the innumerable
+dots of choya shining in the sun.  Gale swept his glass slowly
+forward and back.  Then into a nearer field of vision crept a
+long white-and-black line of horses and men.  Without a word
+he handed the glass to Ladd.  The ranger used it, muttering to
+himself.
+
+"They're on the lava fifteen miles down in an air line," he said,
+presently.  "Jim, shore they're twice that an' more accordin' to
+the trail."
+
+Jim had his look and replied:  "I reckon we're a day an' a night
+in the lead."
+
+"Is it Rojas?" burst out Thorne, with set jaw.
+
+"Yes, Thorne.  It's Rojas and a dozen men or more," replied Gale,
+and he looked up at Mercedes.
+
+She was transformed.  She might have been a medieval princess
+embodying all the Spanish power and passion of that time, breathing
+revenge, hate, unquenchable spirit of fire.  If her beauty had been
+wonderful in her helpless and appealing moments, now, when she looked
+back white-faced and flame-eyed, it was transcendant.
+
+Gale drew a long, deep breath.  The mood which had presaged pursuit,
+strife, blood on this somber desert, returned to him tenfold.  He
+saw Thorne's face corded by black veins, and his teeth exposed like
+those of a snarling wolf.  These rangers, who had coolly risked
+death many times, and had dealt it often, were white as no fear
+or pain could have made them.  Then, on the moment, Yaqui raised
+his hand, not clenched or doubled tight, but curled rigid like an
+eagle's claw; and he shook it in a strange, slow gesture which
+was menacing and terrible.
+
+It was the woman that called to the depths of these men.  And
+their passion to kill and to save was surpassed only by the wild
+hate which was yet love, the unfathomable emotion of a peon
+slave.  Gale marveled at it, while he felt his whole being cold
+and tense, as he turned once more to follow in the tracks of his
+leaders.  The fight predicted by Belding was at hand.  What a fight
+that must be!  Rojas was traveling light and fast.  He was gaining.
+He had bought his men with gold, with extravagant promises,
+perhaps with offers of the body and blood of an aristocrat hateful
+to their kind.  Lastly, there was the wild, desolate environment,
+a tortured wilderness of jagged lava and poisoned choya, a lonely,
+fierce, and repellant world, a red stage most somberly and fittingly
+colored for a supreme struggle between men.
+
+Yaqui looked back no more.  Mercedes looked back no more.  But
+the others looked, and the time came when Gale saw the creeping
+line of pursuers with naked eyes.
+
+A level line above marked the rim of the plateau.  Sand began to
+show in the little lava pits.  On and upward toiled the cavalcade,
+still very slowly advancing.  At last Yaqui reached the rim.  He
+stood with his hand on Blanco Diablo; and both were silhouetted
+against the sky.  That was the outlook for a Yaqui.  And his great
+horse, dazzlingly white in the sunlight, with head wildly and
+proudly erect, mane and tail flying in the wind, made a magnificent
+picture.  The others toiled on and upward, and at last Gale led
+Blanco Sol over the rim.  Then all looked down the red slope.
+
+But shadows were gathering there and no moving line could be seen.
+
+Yaqui mounted and wheeled Diablo away.  The others followed.
+Gale saw that the plateau was no more than a vast field of low,
+ragged circles, levels, mounds, cones, and whirls of lava.  The lava
+was of a darker red than that down upon the slope, and it was harder
+than flint.  In places fine sand and cinders covered the uneven
+floor.  Strange varieties of cactus vied with the omnipresent choya.
+Yaqui, however, found ground that his horse covered at a swift walk.
+
+But there was only an hour, perhaps, of this comparatively easy
+going.  Then the Yaqui led them into a zone of craters.  The top of
+the earth seemed to have been blown out in holes from a few rods
+in width to large craters, some shallow, others deep, and all red
+as fire.  Yaqui circled close to abysses which yawned sheer from
+a level surface, and he appeared always to be turning upon his
+course to avoid them.
+
+The plateau had now a considerable dip to the west.  Gale marked
+the slow heave and ripple of the ocean of lava to the south, where
+high, rounded peaks marked the center of this volcanic region.  The
+uneven nature of the slope westward prevented any extended view,
+until suddenly the fugitives emerged from a rugged break to come
+upon a sublime and awe-inspiring spectacle.
+
+They were upon a high point of the western slope of the plateau.
+It was a slope, but so many leagues long in its descent that only
+from a height could any slant have been perceptible.  Yaqui and
+his white horse stood upon the brink of a crater miles in
+circumference, a thousand feet deep, with its red walls patched
+in frost-colored spots by the silvery choya.  The giant tracery of
+lava streams waved down the slope to disappear in undulating sand dunes.
+And these bordered a seemingly endless arm of blue sea.  This
+was the Gulf of California.  Beyond the Gulf rose dim, bold
+mountains, and above them hung the setting sun, dusky red, flooding
+all that barren empire with a sinister light.
+
+It was strange to Gale then, and perhaps to the others, to see
+their guide lead Diablo into a smooth and well-worn trail along
+the rim of the awful crater.  Gale looked down into that red chasm.
+It resembled an inferno.  The dark cliffs upon the opposite side
+were veiled in blue haze that seemed like smoke.  Here Yaqui was
+at home.  He moved and looked about him as a man coming at last
+into his own.  Gale saw him stop and gaze out over that red-ribbed
+void to the Gulf.
+
+Gale devined that somewhere along this crater of hell the Yaqui
+would make his final stand; and one look into his strange,
+inscrutable eyes made imagination picture a fitting doom for the
+pursuing Rojas.
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+THE CRATER OF HELL
+
+THE trail led along a gigantic fissure in the side of the crater,
+and then down and down into a red-walled, blue hazed labyrinth.
+
+Presently Gale, upon turning a sharp corner, was utterly amazed to
+see that the split in the lava sloped out and widened into an
+arroyo.  It was so green and soft and beautiful in all the angry,
+contorted red surrounding that Gale could scarcely credit his sight.
+Blanco Sol whistled his welcome to the scent of water.  Then Gale
+saw a great hole, a pit in the shiny lava, a dark, cool, shady well.
+There was evidence of the fact that at flood seasons the water
+had an outlet into the arroyo.  The soil appeared to be a fine sand,
+in which a reddish tinge predominated; and it was abundantly
+covered with a long grass, still partly green.  Mesquites and palo
+verdes dotted the arroyo and gradually closed in thickets that
+obstructed the view.
+
+"Shore it all beats me," exclaimed Ladd.  "What a place to hole-up
+in!  We could have hid here for a long time.  Boys, I saw mountain
+sheep, the real old genuine Rocky Mountain bighorn.  What do you
+think of that?"
+
+"I reckon it's a Yaqui hunting-ground," replied Lash.  "That trail
+we hit must be hundreds of years old.  It's worn deep and smooth
+in iron lava."
+
+"Well, all I got to say is--Beldin' was shore right about the
+Indian.  An' I can see Rojas's finish somewhere up along that
+awful hell-hole."
+
+Camp was made on a level spot.  Yaqui took the horses to water,
+and then turned them loose in the arroyo.  It was a tired and
+somber group that sat down to eat.  The strain of suspense
+equaled the wearing effects of the long ride.  Mercedes was calm,
+but her great dark eyes burned in her white face.  Yaqui watched
+her.  The others looked at her with unspoken pride.  Presently
+Thorne wrapped her in his blankets, and she seemed to fall asleep
+at once.  Twilight deepened.  The campfire blazed brighter.  A
+cool wind played with Mercedes's black hair, waving strands across
+her brow.
+
+Little of Yaqui's purpose or plan could be elicited from him.  But
+the look of him was enough to satisfy even Thorne.  He leaned
+against a pile of wood, which he had collected, and his gloomy
+gaze pierced the campfire, and at long intervals strayed over the
+motionless form of the Spanish girl.
+
+The rangers and Thorne, however, talked in low tones.  It was
+absolutely impossible for Rojas and his men to reach the waterhole
+before noon of the next day.  And long before that time the
+fugitives would have decided on a plan of defense.  What that
+defense would be, and where it would be made, were matters over
+which the men considered gravely.  Ladd averred the Yaqui would put
+them into an impregnable position, that at the same time would prove
+a death-trap for their pursuers.  They exhausted every possibility,
+and then, tired as they were, still kept on talking.
+
+"What stuns me is that Rojas stuck to our trail," said Thorne, his
+lined and haggard face expressive of dark passion.  "He has followed
+us into this fearful desert.  He'll lose men, horses, perhaps his
+life.  He's only a bandit, and he stands to win no gold.  If he
+ever gets out of here it 'll be by herculean labor and by terrible
+hardship.  All for a poor little helpless woman--just a woman!
+My God, I can't understand it."
+
+"Shore--just a woman," replied Ladd, solemnly nodding his head.
+
+Then there was a long silence during which the men gazed into the
+fire.  Each, perhaps, had some vague conception of the enormity
+of Rojas's love or hate--some faint and amazing glimpse of the
+gulf of human passion.  Those were cold, hard, grim faces upon
+which the light flickered.
+
+"Sleep," said the Yaqui.
+
+Thorne rolled in his blanket close beside Mercedes.  Then one by
+one the rangers stretched out, feet to the fire.  Gale found that
+he could not sleep.  His eyes were weary, but they would not stay
+shut; his body ached for rest, yet he could not lie still.  The
+night was so somber, so gloomy, and the lava-encompassed arroyo full
+of shadows.  The dark velvet sky, fretted with white fire, seemed to
+be close.  There was an absolute silence, as of death.  Nothing
+moved--nothing outside of Gale's body appeared to live.  The
+Yaqui sat like an image carved out of lava.  The others lay prone
+and quiet.  Would another night see any of them lie that way,
+quiet forever?  Gale felt a ripple pass over him that was at once
+a shudder and a contraction of muscles.  Used as he was to the
+desert and its oppression, why should he feel to-night as if the
+weight of its lava and the burden of its mystery were bearing
+him down?
+
+He sat up after a while and again watched the fire.  Nell's sweet
+face floated like a wraith in the pale smoke--glowed and flushed
+and smiled in the embers.  Other faces shone there--his sister's
+--that of his mother.  Gale shook off the tender memories.  This
+desolate wilderness with its forbidding silence and its dark
+promise of hell on the morrow--this was not the place to unnerve
+oneself with thoughts of love and home.  But the torturing paradox
+of the thing was that this was just the place and just the night
+for a man to be haunted.
+
+By and by Gale rose and walked down a shadowy aisle
+between the mesquites.  On his way back the Yaqui joined him.
+Gale was not surprised.  He had become used to the Indian's
+strange guardianship.  But now, perhaps because of Gale's poignancy
+of thought, the contending tides of love and regret, the deep,
+burning premonition of deadly strife, he was moved to keener
+scrutiny of the Yaqui.  That, of course, was futile.  The Indian
+was impenetrable, silent, strange.  But suddenly, inexplicably,
+Gale felt Yaqui's human quality.  It was aloof, as was everything
+about this Indian; but it was there.  This savage walked silently
+beside him, without glance or touch or word.  His thought was
+as inscrutable as if mind had never awakened in his race.  Yet
+Gale was conscious of greatness, and, somehow, he was reminded
+of the Indian's story.  His home had been desolated, his people
+carried off to slavery, his wife and children separated from him
+to die.  What had life meant to the Yaqui?  What had been in his
+heart?  What was now in his mind?  Gale could not answer these
+questions.  But the difference between himself and Yaqui, which
+he had vaguely felt as that between savage and civilized men,
+faded out of his mind forever.  Yaqui might have considered he
+owed Gale a debt, and, with a Yaqui's austere and noble fidelity
+to honor, he meant to pay it.  Nevertheless, this was not the thing
+Gale found in the Indian's silent presence.  Accepting the desert
+with its subtle and inconceivable influence, Gale felt that the
+savage and the white man had been bound in a tie which was
+no less brotherly because it could not be comprehended.
+
+Toward dawn Gale managed to get some sleep.  Then the morning broke
+with the sun hidden back of the uplift of the plateau.  The horses
+trooped up the arroyo and snorted for water.  After a hurried
+breakfast the packs were hidden in holes in the lava.  The saddles
+were left where they were, and the horses allowed to graze and wander
+at will.  Canteens were filled, a small bag of food was packed, and
+blankets made into a bundle.  Then Yaqui faced the steep ascent of
+the lava slope.
+
+The trail he followed led up on the right side of the fissure,
+opposite to the one he had come down.  It was a steep climb, and
+encumbered as the men were they made but slow progress.  Mercedes
+had to be lifted up smooth steps and across crevices.  They passed
+places where the rims of the fissure were but a few yards apart.
+At length the rims widened out and the red, smoky crater yawned
+beneath.  Yaqui left the trail and began clambering down over
+the rough and twisted convolutions of lava which formed the rim.
+Sometimes he hung sheer over the precipice.  It was with extreme
+difficulty that the party followed him.  Mercedes had to be held
+on narrow, foot-wide ledges.  The choya was there to hinder passage.
+Finally the Indian halted upon a narrow bench of flat, smooth lava,
+and his followers worked with exceeding care and effort down to
+his position.
+
+At the back of this bench, between bunches of choya, was a niche,
+a shallow cave with floor lined apparently with mold.  Ladd said
+the place was a refuge which had been inhabited by mountain sheep
+for many years.  Yaqui spread blankets inside, left the canteen and
+the sack of food, and with a gesture at once humble, yet that of a
+chief, he invited Mercedes to enter.  A few more gestures and fewer
+words disclosed his plan.  In this inaccessible nook Mercedes was
+to be hidden.  The men were to go around upon the opposite rim, and
+block the trail leading down to the waterhole.
+
+Gale marked the nature of this eyrie.  It was the wildest and most
+rugged place he had ever stepped upon.  Only a sheep could have
+climbed up the wall above or along the slanting shelf of lava
+beyond.  Below glistened a whole bank of choya, frosty in the
+sunlight, and it overhung an apparently bottomless abyss.
+
+Ladd chose the smallest gun in the party and gave it to Mercedes.
+
+"Shore it's best to go the limit on bein' ready," he said, simply.
+"The chances are you'll never need it.  But if you do--"
+
+He left off there, and his break was significant.  Mercedes answered
+him with a fearless and indomitable flash of eyes.  Thorne was the
+only one who showed any shaken nerve.  His leave-taking of his wife
+was affecting and hurried.  Then he and the rangers carefully
+stepped in the tracks of the Yaqui.
+
+They climbed up to the level of the rim and went along the edge.
+When they reached the fissure and came upon its narrowest point,
+Yaqui showed in his actions that he meant to leap it.  Ladd
+restrained the Indian.  They then continued along the rim till they
+reached several bridges of lava which crossed it.  The fissures
+was deep in some parts, choked in others.  Evidently the crater had
+no direct outlet into the arroyo below.  Its bottom, however, must
+have been far beneath the level of the waterhole.
+
+After the fissure was crossed the trail was soon found.  Here it ran
+back from the rim.  Yaqui waved his hand to the right, where along
+the corrugated slope of the crater there were holes and crevices
+and coverts for a hundred men.  Yaqui strode on up the trail toward
+a higher point, where presently his dark figure stood motionless
+against the sky.  The rangers and Thorne selected a deep depression,
+out of which led several ruts deep enough for cover.  According to
+Ladd it was as good a place as any, perhaps not so hidden as others,
+but freer from the dreaded choya.  Here the men laid down rifles
+and guns, and, removing their heavy cartridge belts, settled down
+to wait.
+
+Their location was close to the rim wall and probably five hundred
+yards from the opposite rim, which was now seen to be considerably
+below them.  The glaring red cliff presented a deceitful and
+baffling appearance.  It had a thousand ledges and holes in its
+surfaces, and one moment it looked perpendicular and the next
+there seemed to be a long slant.  Thorne pointed out where
+he thought Mercedes was hidden; Ladd selected another place,
+and Lash still another.  Gale searched for the bank of choya
+he had seen under the bench where Mercedes's retreat lay,
+and when he found it the others disputed his opinion.
+Then Gale brought his field glass into requisition, proving that
+he  was right.  Once located and fixed in sight, the white patch
+of choya, the bench, and the sheep eyrie stood out from the other
+features of that rugged wall.  But all the men were agreed that
+Yaqui had hidden Mercedes where only the eyes of a vulture could
+have found her.
+
+Jim Lash crawled into a little strip of shade and bided the time
+tranquilly.  Ladd was restless and impatient and watchful, every
+little while rising to look up the far-reaching slope, and then to
+the right, where Yaqui's dark figure stood out from a high point
+of the rim.  Thorne grew silent, and seemed consumed by a slow,
+sullen rage.  Gale was neither calm nor free of a gnawing suspense
+nor of a waiting wrath.  But as best he could he put the pending
+action out of mind.
+
+It came over him all of a sudden that he had not grasped the
+stupendous nature of this desert setting.  There was the measureless
+red slope, its lower ridges finally sinking into white sand dunes
+toward the blue sea.  The cold, sparkling light, the white sun,
+the deep azure of sky, the feeling of boundless expanse all around
+him--these meant high altitude.  Southward the barren red simply
+merged into distance.  The field of craters rose in high, dark
+wheels toward the dominating peaks.  When Gale withdrew his gaze
+from the magnitude of these spaces and heights the crater beneath
+him seemed dwarfed.  Yet while he gazed it spread and deepened
+and multiplied its ragged lines.  No, he could not grasp the meaning
+of size or distance here.  There was too much to stun the sight.
+But the mood in which nature had created this convulsed world
+of lava seized hold upon him.
+
+Meanwhile the hours passed.  As the sun climbed the clear, steely
+lights vanished, the blue hazes deepened, and slowly the glistening
+surfaces of lava turned redder.  Ladd was concerned to discover that
+Yaqui was missing from his outlook upon the high point.  Jim Lash
+came out of the shady crevice, and stood up to buckle on his
+cartridge belt.  His narrow, gray glance slowly roved from the
+height of lava down along the slope, paused in doubt, and then
+swept on to resurvey the whole vast eastern dip of the plateau.
+
+"I reckon my eyes are pore," he said.  "Mebbe it's this damn red
+glare.  Anyway, what's them creepin' spots up there?"
+
+"Shore I seen them.  Mountain sheep," replied Ladd.
+
+"Guess again, Laddy.  Dick, I reckon you'd better flash the glass
+up the slope."
+
+Gale adjusted the field glass and began to search the lava,
+beginning close at hand and working away from him.  Presently
+the glass became stationary.
+
+"I see half a dozen small animals, brown in color.  They look like
+sheep.  But I couldn't distinguish mountain sheep from antelope."
+
+"Shore they're bighorn," said Laddy.
+
+"I reckon if you'll pull around to the east an' search under that
+long wall of lava--there--you'll see what I see," added Jim.
+
+The glass climbed and circled, wavered an instant, then fixed
+steady as a rock.  There was a breathless silence.
+
+"Fourteen horses--two packed--some mounted--others without
+riders, and lame," said Gale, slowly.
+
+Yaqui appeared far up the trail, coming swiftly.  Presently he saw
+the rangers and halted to wave his arms and point.  Then he vanished
+as if the lava had opened beneath him.
+
+"Lemme that glass," suddenly said Jim Lash.  "I'm seein' red, I tell
+you....Well, pore as my eyes are they had it right.  Rojas an' his
+outfit have left the trail."
+
+"Jim, you ain't meanin' they've taken to that awful slope?" queried Ladd.
+
+"I sure do.  There they are--still comin', but goin' down, too."
+
+"Mebbe Rojas is crazy, but it begins to look like he--"
+
+"Laddy, I'll be danged if the Greaser bunch hasn't vamoosed.  Gone
+out of sight!  Right there not a half mile away, the whole
+caboodle--gone!"
+
+"Shore they're behind a crust or have gone down into a rut,"
+suggested Ladd.  "They'll show again in a minute.  Look sharp,
+boys, for I'm figgerin' Rojas 'll spread his men."
+
+Minutes passed, but nothing moved upon the slope.  Each man crawled
+up to a vantage point along the crest of rotting lava.  The watchers
+were careful to peer through little notches or from behind a spur,
+and the constricted nature of their hiding-place kept them close
+together.  Ladd's muttering grew into a growl, then lapsed into the
+silence that marked his companions.  From time to time the rangers
+looked inquiringly at Gale.  The field glass, however, like the
+naked sight, could not catch the slightest moving object out there
+upon the lava.  A long hour of slow, mounting suspense wore on.
+
+"Shore it's all goin' to be as queer as the Yaqui," said Ladd.
+
+Indeed, the strange mien, the silent action, the somber character
+of the Indian had not been without effect upon the minds of the
+men.  Then the weird, desolate, tragic scene added to the vague
+sense of mystery.  And now the disappearance of Rojas's band,
+the long wait in the silence, the boding certainty of invisible
+foes crawling, circling closer and closer, lent to the situation
+a final touch that made it unreal.
+
+"I'm reckonin' there's a mind behind them Greasers," replied Jim.
+"Or mebbe we ain't done Rojas credit...If somethin' would only
+come off!"
+
+That Lash, the coolest, most provokingly nonchalant
+of men in times of peril, should begin to show a nervous strain
+was all the more indicative of a suble pervading unreality.
+
+"Boys, look sharp!" suddenly called Lash.  "Low down to the left
+--mebbe three hundred yards.  See, along by them seams of lava
+--behind the choyas.  First off I thought it was a sheep.  But it's
+the Yaqui!...Crawlin' swift as a lizard!  Can't you see him?"
+
+It was a full moment before Jim's companions could locate the
+Indian.  Flat as a snake Yaqui wound himself along with incredible
+rapidity.  His advance was all the more remarkable for the fact that
+he appeared to pass directly under the dreaded choyas.  Sometimes
+he paused to lift his head and look.  He was directly in line with a
+huge whorl of lava that rose higher than any point on the slope.
+This spur was a quarter of a mile from the position of the rangers.
+
+"Shore he's headin' for that high place,"  said Ladd.  "He's goin'
+slow now.  There, he's stopped behind some choyas.  He's gettin'
+up--no, he's kneelin'....Now what the hell!"
+
+"Laddy, take a peek at the side of that lava ridge," sharply called
+Jim.  "I guess mebbe somethin' ain't comin' off.  See!  There's
+Rojas an' his outfit climbin'.  Don't make out no hosses....Dick,
+use your glass an' tell us what's doin'.  I'll watch Yaqui an' tell
+you what his move means."
+
+Clearly and distinctly, almost as if he could have touched them,
+Gale had Rojas and his followers in sight.  They were toiling up
+the rough lava on foot.  They were heavily armed.  Spurs, chaps,
+jackets, scarfs were not in evidence.  Gale saw the lean, swarthy
+faces, the black, straggly hair, the ragged, soiled garments which
+had once been white.
+
+"They're almost up now," Gale was saying.  "There!  They halt on
+top.  I see Rojas.  He looks wild.  By----! fellows, an Indian!
+...It's a Papago.  Belding's old herder!...The Indian points--
+this way--then down.  He's showing Rojas the lay of the trail."
+
+"Boys, Yaqui's in range of that bunch," said Jim, swiftly.  "He's
+raisin' his rifle slow--Lord, how slow he is!...He's covered some
+one.  Which one I can't say.  But I think he'll pick Rojas."
+
+"The Yaqui can shoot.  He'll pick Rojas," added Gale, grimly.
+
+"Rojas--yes--yes!" cried Thorne, in passion of suspense.
+
+"Not on your life!"  Ladd's voice cut in with scorn.  "Gentlemen,
+you can gamble Yaqui 'll kill the Papago.  That traitor Indian
+knows these sheep haunts.  He's tellin' Rojas--"
+
+A sharp rifle shot rang out.
+
+"Laddy's right," called Gale.  "The Papago's hit--his arm
+falls--There, he tumbles!"
+
+More shots rang out.  Yaqui was seen standing erect firing rapidly
+at the darting Mexicans.  For all Gale could make out no second
+bullet took effect.  Rojas and his men vanished behind the bulge
+of lava.  Then Yaqui deliberately backed away from his postion.
+He made no effort to run or hide.  Evidently he watched cautiously
+for signs of pursuers in the ruts and behind the choyas.  Presently
+he turned and came straight toward the position of the rangers,
+sheered off perhaps a hundred paces below it, and disappeared
+in a crevice.  Plainly his intention was to draw pursuers within
+rifle shot.
+
+"Shore, Jim, you had your wish.  Somethin' come off," said Ladd.
+"An' I'm sayin' thank God for the Yaqui!  That Papago 'd have
+ruined us.  Even so, mebbe he's told Rojas more'n enough to make
+us sweat blood."
+
+"He had a chance to kill Rojas," cried out the drawn-faced,
+passionate Thorne.  "He didn't take it!...He didn't take it!"
+
+Only Ladd appeared to be able to answer the cavalryman's
+poignant cry.
+
+"Listen, son," he said, and his voice rang.  "We-all know how
+you feel.  An' if I'd had that one shot never in the world could
+I have picked the Papago guide.  I'd have had to kill Rojas.  That's
+the white man of it.  But Yaqui was right.  Only an Indian could
+have done it.  You can gamble the Papago alive meant slim chance
+for us.  Because he'd led straight to where Mercedes is hidden, an'
+then we'd have left cover to fight it out...When you come to think
+of the Yaqui's hate for Greasers, when you just seen him pass up
+a shot at one--well, I don't know how to say what I mean, but
+damn me, my som-brer-ro is off to the Indian!"
+
+"I reckon so, an' I reckon the ball's opened," rejoined Lash, and
+now that former nervous impatience so unnatural to him was as
+if it had never been.  He was smilingly cool, and his voice had
+almost a caressing note.  He tapped the breech of his Winchester
+with a sinewy brown hand, and he did not appear to be addressing
+any one in particular.  "Yaqui's opened the ball.  Look up your
+pardners there, gents, an' get ready to dance."
+
+Another wait set in then, and judging by the more direct rays of the
+sun and a receding of the little shadows cast by the choyas, Gale
+was of the opinion that it was a long wait.  But it seemed short.
+The four men were lying under the bank of a half circular hole in
+the lava.  It was notched and cracked, and its rim was fringed by
+choyas.  It sloped down and opened to an unobstructed view of
+the crater.  Gale had the upper position, fartherest to the right,
+and therefore was best shielded from possible fire from the higher
+ridges of the rim, some three hundred yards distant.  Jim came
+next, well hidden in a crack.  The positions of Thorne and Ladd
+were most exposed.  They kept sharp lookout over the uneven
+rampart of their hiding-place.
+
+The sun passed the zenith, began to slope westward, and to grow
+hotter as it sloped.  The men waited and waited.  Gale saw no
+impatience even in Thorne.  The sultry air seemed to be laden
+with some burden or quality that was at once composed of heat,
+menace, color, and silence.  Even the light glancing up from the
+lava seemed red and the silence had substance.  Sometimes Gale
+felt that it was unbearable.  Yet he made no effort to break it.
+
+Suddenly this dead stillness was rent by a shot, clear and stinging,
+close at hand.  It was from a rifle, not a carbine.  With startling
+quickness a cry followed--a cry that pierced Gale--it was so thin,
+so high-keyed, so different from all other cries.  It was the
+involuntary human shriek at death.
+
+"Yaqui's called out another pardner," said Jim Lash, laconically.
+
+Carbines began to crack.  The reports were quick, light, like sharp
+spats without any ring.  Gale peered from behind the edge of his
+covert.  Above the ragged wave of lava floated faint whitish clouds,
+all that was visible of smokeless powder.  Then Gale made out round
+spots, dark against the background of red, and in front of them
+leaped out small tongues of fire.  Ladd's .405 began to "spang" with
+its beautiful sound of power.  Thorne was firing, somewhat wildly
+Gale thought.  Then Jim Lash pushed his Winchester over the rim
+under a choya, and between shots Gale could hear him singing:
+"Turn the lady, turn--turn the lady, turn!...Alaman left!...Swing
+your pardners!...Forward an' back!...Turn the lady, turn!"  Gale
+got into the fight himself, not so sure that he hit any of the
+round, bobbing objects he aimed at, but growing sure of himself
+as action liberated something forced and congested within his
+breast.
+
+Then over the position of the rangers came a hail of steel bullets.
+Those that struck the lava hissed away into the crater; those that
+came biting through the choyas made a sound which resembled a
+sharp ripping of silk.  Bits of cactus stung Gale's face, and he
+dreaded the flying thorns more than he did the flying bullets.
+
+"Hold on, boys," called Ladd, as he crouched down to reload his
+rifle.  "Save your shells.  The greasers are spreadin' on us, some
+goin' down below Yaqui, others movin' up for that high ridge.  When
+they get up there I'm damned if it won't be hot for us.  There ain't
+room for all of us to hide here."
+
+Ladd raised himself to peep over the rim.  Shots were now
+scattering, and all appeared to come from below.  Emboldened by
+this he rose higher.  A shot from in front, a rip of bullet through
+the choya, a spat of something hitting Ladd's face, a steel missle
+hissing onward--these inseparably blended sounds were all registered
+by Gale's sensitive ear.
+
+With a curse Ladd tumbled down into the hole.  His face showed a
+great gray blotch, and starting blood.  Gale felt a sickening
+assurance of desperate injury to the ranger.  He ran to him calling:
+"Laddy!  Laddy!"
+
+"Shore I ain't plugged.  It's a damn choya burr.  The bullet knocked
+it in my face.  Pull it out!"
+
+The oval, long-spiked cone was firmly imbedded in Ladd's cheek.
+Blood streamed down his face and neck.  Carefully, yet with no
+thought of pain to himself, Gale tried to pull the cactus joint
+away.  It was as firm as if it had been nailed there.  That was
+the damnable feature of the barbed thorns:  once set, they held
+on as that strange plant held to its desert life.  Ladd began to
+writhe, and sweat mingled with the blood on his face.  He cursed
+and raved, and his movements made it almost impossible for Gale
+to do anything.
+
+"Put your knife-blade under an' tear it out!" shouted Ladd,
+hoarsely.
+
+Thus ordered, Gale slipped a long blade in between the imbedded
+thorns, and with a powerful jerk literally tore the choya out of
+Ladd's quivering flesh.  Then, where the ranger's face was not
+red and raw, it certainly was white.
+
+A volley of shots from a different angle was followed by
+the quick ring of steel bullets striking the lava all around Gale.
+His first idea, as he heard the projectiles sing and hum and whine
+away into the air, was that they were coming from above him.  He
+looked up to see a number of low, white and dark knobs upon the
+high point of lava.  They had not been there before.  Then he saw
+little, pale, leaping tongues of fire.  As he dodged down he
+distinctly heard a bullet strike Ladd.  At the same instant he
+seemed to hear Thorne cry out and fall, and Lash's boots scrape
+rapidly away.
+
+Ladd fell backward still holding the .405.  Gale dragged him into the
+shelter of his own position, and dreading to look at him, took up the
+heavy weapon.  It was with a kind of savage strength that he gripped
+the rifle; and it was with a cold and deadly intent that he aimed and
+fired.  The first Greaser huddled low, let his carbine go clattering
+down, and then crawled behind the rim.  The second  and third jerked
+back.  The fourth seemed to flop up over the crest of lava.  A dark
+arm reached for him, clutched his leg, tried to drag him up.  It was
+in vain.  Wildly grasping at the air the bandit fell, slid down a
+steep shelf, rolled over the rim, to go hurtling down out of sight.
+
+Fingering the hot rifle with close-pressed hands, Gale watched
+the sky line along the high point of lava.  It remained unbroken.
+As his passion left him he feared to look back at his companions,
+and the cold chill returned to his breast.
+
+"Shore--I'm damn glad--them Greasers ain't usin' soft-nose bullets,"
+drawled a calm voice.
+
+Swift as lightning Gale whirled.
+
+"Laddy!  I thought you were done for," cried Gale, with a break in
+his voice.
+
+"I ain't a-mindin' the bullet much.  But that choya joint took my
+nerve, an' you can gamble on it.  Dick, this hole's pretty high up,
+ain't it?"
+
+The ranger's blouse was open at the neck, and on his right shoulder
+under the collar bone was a small hole just beginning to bleed.
+
+"Sure it's high, Laddy," replied Gale, gladly.  "Went clear through,
+clean as a whistle!"
+
+He tore a handkerchief into two parts, made wads, and pressing them
+close over the wounds he bound them there with Ladd's scarf.
+
+"Shore it's funny how a bullet can floor a man an' then not do any
+damage," said Ladd.  "I felt a zip of wind an' somethin' like a pat
+on my chest an' down I went.  Well, so much for the small caliber
+with their steel bullets.  Supposin' I'd connected with a .405!"
+
+"Laddy, I--I'm afraid Thorne's done for," whispered Gale.  "He's
+lying over there in that crack.  I can see part of him.  He doesn't
+move."
+
+"I was wonderin' if I'd have to tell you that.  Dick, he went down
+hard hit, fallin', you know, limp an' soggy.  It was a moral cinch
+one of us would get it in this fight; but God!  I'm sorry Thorne had
+to be the man."
+
+"Laddy, maybe he's not dead," replied Gale.  He called aloud to his
+friend.  There was no answer.
+
+Ladd got up, and, after peering keenly at the height of lava, he
+strode swiftly across the space.  It was only a dozen steps to the
+crack in the lava where Thorne had fallen head first.  Ladd bent
+over, went to his knees, so that Gale saw only his head.  Then
+he appeared rising with arms round the cavalryman.  He dragged
+him across the hole to the sheltered corner that alone afforded
+protection.  He had scarcely reached it when a carbine cracked
+and a bullet struck the flinty lava, striking sparks, then singing
+away into the air.
+
+Thorne was either dead or unconscious, and Gale, with a contracting
+throat and numb heart, decided for the former.  Not so Ladd, who
+probed the bloody gash on Thorne's temple, and then felt his breast.
+
+"He's alive an' not bad hurt.  That bullet hit him glancin'.  Shore them
+steel bullets are some lucky for us.  Dick, you needn't look so glum.
+I tell you he ain't bad hurt.  I felt his skull with my finger.
+There's no hole in it.  Wash him off an' tie--  Wow! did you get
+the wind of that one?  An' mebbe it didn't sing off the lava!...
+Dick, look after Thorne now while I--"
+
+The completion of his speech was the stirring ring of the .405, and
+then he uttered a laugh that was unpleasant.
+
+"Shore, Greaser, there's a man's size bullet for you.  No slim,
+sharp-pointed, steel-jacket nail!  I'm takin' it on me to believe
+you're appreciatin' of the .405, seein' as you don't make no fuss."
+
+It was indeed a joy to Gale to find that Thorne had not received
+a wound necessarily fatal, though it was serious enough.  Gale
+bathed and bound it, and laid the cavalryman against the slant
+of the bank, his head high to lessen the probability of bleeding.
+
+As Gale straightened up Ladd muttered low and deep, and swung
+the heavy rifle around to the left.  Far along the slope a figure
+moved.  Ladd began to work the lever of the Winchester and to
+shoot.  At every shot the heavy firearm sprang up, and the recoil
+made Ladd's shoulder give back.  Gale saw the bullets strike the
+lava behind, beside, before the fleeing Mexican, sending up dull
+puffs of dust.  On the sixth shot he plunged down out of sight,
+either hit or frightened into seeking cover.
+
+"Dick, mebbe there's one or two left above; but we needn't figure
+much on it," said Ladd, as, loading the rifle, he jerked his
+fingers quickly from the hot breech.  "Listen!  Jim an' Yaqui are
+hittin' it up lively down below.  I'll sneak down there.  You stay
+here an' keep about half an eye peeled up yonder, an' keep the
+rest my way."
+
+Ladd crossed the hole, climbed down into the deep crack where Thorne
+had fallen, and then went stooping along with only his head above
+the level.  Presently he disappeared.  Gale, having little to fear
+from the high ridge, directed most of his attention toward the point
+beyond which Ladd had gone.  The firing had become desultory,
+and the light carbine shots outnumbered the sharp rifle shots five
+to one.  Gale made a note of the fact that for some little time he
+had not heard the unmistakable report of Jim Lash's automatic.
+Then ensued a long interval in which the desert silence seemed
+to recover its grip.  The .405 ripped it asunder--spang--spang
+--spang.  Gale fancied he heard yells.  There were a few pattering
+shots still farther down the trail.  Gale had an uneasy conviction
+that Rojas and some of his band might go straight to the waterhole.
+It would be hard to dislodge even a few men from that retreat.
+
+There seemed a lull in the battle.  Gale ventured to stand high, and
+screened behind choyas, he swept the three-quarter circle of lava
+with his glass.  In the distance he saw horses, but no riders.
+Below him, down the slope along the crater rim and the trail, the
+lava was bare of all except tufts of choya.  Gale gathered
+assurance.  It looked as if the day was favoring his side.  Then
+Thorne, coming partly to consciousness, engaged Gale's care.  The
+cavalryman stirred and moaned, called for water, and then for
+Mercedes.  Gale held him back with a strong hand, and presently
+he was once more quiet.
+
+For the first time in hours, as it seemed, Gale took note of the
+physical aspect of his surroundings.  He began to look upon them
+without keen gaze strained for crouching form, or bobbing head,
+or spouting carbine.  Either Gale's sense of color and proportion
+had become deranged during the fight, or the encompassing air
+and the desert had changed.  Even the sun had changed.  It seemed
+lowering, oval in shape, magenta in hue, and it had a surface that
+gleamed like oil on water.  Its red rays shone through red haze.
+Distances that had formerly been clearly outlined were now dim,
+obscured.  The yawning chasm was not the same.  It circled wider,
+redder, deeper.  It was a weird, ghastly mouth of hell.  Gale stood
+fascinated, unable to tell how much he saw was real, how
+much exaggeration of overwrought emotions.  There was no beauty
+here, but an unparalleled grandeur, a sublime scene of devastation
+and desolation which might have had its counterpart upon the
+burned-out moon.  The mood that gripped Gale now added to its
+somber portent an unshakable foreboding of calamity.
+
+He wrestled with the spell as if it were a physical foe.  Reason
+and intelligence had their voices in his mind; but the moment was
+not one wherein these things could wholly control.  He felt life
+strong within his breast, yet there, a step away, was death,
+yawning, glaring, smoky, red.  It was a moment--an hour for a
+savage, born, bred, developed in this scarred and blasted place
+of jagged depths and red distances and silences never meant
+to be broken.  Since Gale was not a savage he fought that call
+of the red gods which sent him back down the long ages toward
+his primitive day.  His mind combated his sense of sight and the
+hearing that seemed useless; and his mind did not win all the
+victory.  Something fatal was here, hanging in the balance, as the
+red haze hung along the vast walls of that crater of hell.
+
+Suddenly harsh, prolonged yells brought him to his feet, and the
+unrealities vanished.  Far down the trails where the crater rims
+closed in the deep fissure he saw moving forms.  They were three in
+number.  Two of them ran nimbly across the lava bridge.  The third
+staggered far behind.  It was Ladd.  He appeared hard hit.  He
+dragged at the heavy rifle which he seemed unable to raise.  The
+yells came from him.  He was calling the Yaqui.
+
+Gale's heart stood still momentarily.  Here, then, was the
+catastrophe!  He hardly dared sweep that fissure with his glass.
+The two fleeing figures halted--turned to fire at Ladd.  Gale
+recognized the foremost one--small, compact, gaudy.  Rojas!
+The bandit's arm was outstretched.  Puffs of white smoke
+rose, and shots rapped out.  When Ladd went down Rojas
+threw his gun aside and with a wild yell bounded over the lava.
+His companion followed.
+
+A tide of passion, first hot as fire, then cold as ice, rushed over
+Gale when he saw Rojas take the trail toward Mercedes's
+hiding-place.  The little bandit appeared to have the
+sure-footedness of a mountain sheep.  The Mexican following
+was not so sure or fast.  He turned back.  Gale heard the trenchant
+bark of the .405.  Ladd was kneeling.  He shot again--again.  The
+retreating bandit seemed to run full into an invisible obstacle,
+then fell lax, inert, lifeless.  Rojas sped on unmindful of the
+spurts of dust about him.  Yaqui, high above Ladd, was also firing
+at the bandit.  Then both rifles were emptied.  Rojas turned at a
+high break in the trail.  He shook a defiant hand, and his exulting
+yell pealed faintly to Gale's ears.  About him there was something
+desperate, magnificent.  Then he clambered down the trail.
+
+Ladd dropped the .405, and rising, gun in hand, he staggered toward
+the bridge of lava.  Before he had crossed it Yaqui came bounding
+down the slope, and in one splendid leap he cleared the fissure.
+He ran beyond the trail and disappeared on the lava above.  Rojas
+had not seen this sudden, darting move of the Indian.
+
+Gale felt himself bitterly powerless to aid in that pursuit.  He
+could only watch.  He wondered, fearfully, what had become of
+Lash.  Presently, when Rojas came out of the cracks and ruts
+of lava there might be a chance of disabling him by a long shot.
+His progress was now slow.  But he was making straight for
+Mercedes's hiding-place.  What was it leading him there--an eagle
+eye, or hate, or instinct?  Why did he go on when there could be
+no turning back for him on that trail?  Ladd was slow, heavy,
+staggering on the trail; but he was relentless.  Only death could
+stop the ranger now.  Surely Rojas must have known that when
+he chose the trail.  From time to time Gale caught glimpses of
+Yaqui's dark figure stealing along the higher rim of the crater.
+He was making for a point above the bandit.
+
+Moments--endless moments dragged by.  The lowering sun colored
+only the upper half of the crater walls.  Far down the depths were
+murky blue.  Again Gale felt the insupportable silence.  The red
+haze became a transparent veil before his eyes.  Sinister, evil,
+brooding, waiting, seemed that yawning abyss.  Ladd staggered
+along the trail, at times he crawled.  The Yaqui gained; he might
+have had wings; he leaped from jagged crust to jagged crust;
+his sure-footedness was a wonderful thing.
+
+But for Gale the marvel of that endless period of watching was
+the purpose of the bandit Rojas.  He had now no weapon.  Gale's
+glass made this fact plain.  There was death behind him, death
+below him, death before him, and though he could not have known
+it, death above him.  He never faltered--never made a misstep
+upon the narrow, flinty trail.  When he reached the lower end of
+the level ledge Gale's poignant doubt became a certainty.  Rojas
+had seen Mercedes.  It was incredible, yet Gale believed it.  Then,
+his heart clamped as in an icy vise, Gale threw forward the
+Remington, and sinking on one knee, began to shoot.  He emptied
+the magazine.  Puffs of dust near Rojas did not even make him turn.
+
+As Gale began to reload he was horror-stricken by a low cry from
+Thorne.  The cavalryman had recovered consciousness.  He was
+half raised, pointing with shaking hand at the opposite ledge.  His
+distended eyes were riveted upon Rojas.  He was trying to utter
+speech that would not come.
+
+Gale wheeled, rigid now, steeling himself to one last forlorn hope
+--that Mercedes could defend herself.  She had a gun.  He doubted
+not at all that she would use it.  But, remembering her terror of
+this savage, he feared for her.
+
+Rojas reached the level of the ledge.  He halted.  He crouched.
+It was the act of a panther.  Manifestly he saw Mercedes within
+the cave.  Then faint shots patted the air, broke in quick echo.
+Rojas went down as if struck a heavy blow.  He was hit.
+But even as Gale yelled in sheer madness the bandit leaped erect.
+He seemed too quick, too supple to be badly wounded.  A slight,
+dark figure flashed out of the cave.  Mercedes!  She backed
+against the wall.  Gale saw a puff of white--heard a report.  But
+the bandit lunged at her.  Mercedes ran, not to try to pass him, but
+straight for the precipice.  Her intention was plain.  But Rojas
+oustripped her, even as she reached the verge.  Then a piercing
+scream pealed across the crater--a scream of despair.
+
+Gale closed his eyes.  He could not bear to see more.
+
+Thorne echoed Mercedes's scream.  Gale looked round just in time
+to leap and catch the cavalryman as he staggered, apparently for
+the steep slope.  And then, as Gale dragged him back, both fell.
+Gale saved his friend, but he plunged into a choya.  He drew his
+hands away full of the great glistening cones of thorns.
+
+"For God's sake, Gale, shoot!  Shoot!  Kill her!  Kill her!...Can't
+--you--see-Rojas--"
+
+Thorne fainted.
+
+Gale, stunned for the instant, stood with uplifted hands, and gazed
+from Thorne across the crater.  Rojas had not killed Mercedes.  He
+was overpowering her.  His actions seemed slow, wearing, purposeful.
+Hers were violent.  Like a trapped she-wolf, Mercedes was fighting.
+She tore, struggled, flung herself.
+
+Rojas's intention was terribly plain.
+
+In agony now, both mental and physical, cold and sick and weak,
+Gale gripped his rifle and aimed at the struggling forms on the
+ledge.  He pulled the trigger.  The bullet struck up a cloud of red
+dust close to the struggling couple.  Again Gale fired, hoping to
+hit Rojas, praying to kill Mercedes.  The bullet struck high.
+A third--fourth--fifth time the Remington spoke--in vain!
+The rifle fell from Gale's racked hands.
+
+How horribly plain that fiend's intention!  Gale tried to close his
+eyes, but could not.  He prayed wildly for a sudden blindness
+--to faint as Thorne had fainted.  But he was transfixed to the spot
+with eyes that pierced the red light.
+
+Mercedes was growing weaker, seemed about to collapse.
+
+"Oh, Jim Lash, are you dead?" cried Gale.  "Oh, Laddy!...Oh, Yaqui!"
+
+Suddenly a dark form literally fell down the wall behind the ledge
+where Rojas fought the girl.  It sank in a heap, then bounded erect.
+
+"Yaqui!" screamed Gale, and he waved his bleeding hands till the
+blood bespattered his face.  Then he choked.  Utterance became
+impossible.
+
+The Indian bent over Rojas and flung him against the wall.
+Mercedes, sinking back, lay still.  When Rojas got up the Indian
+stood between him and escape from the ledge.  Rojas backed
+the other way along the narrowing shelf of lava.  His manner
+was abject, stupefied.  Slowly he stepped backward.
+
+It was then that Gale caught the white gleam of a knife in Yaqui's
+hand.  Rojas turned and ran.  He rounded a corner of wall where the
+footing was precarious.  Yaqui followed slowly.  His figure was dark
+and menacing.  But he was not in a hurry.  When he passed off the
+ledge Rojas was edging farther and farther along the wall.  He
+was clinging now to the lava, creeping inch by inch.  Perhaps he
+had thought to work around the buttress or climb over it.  Evidently
+he went as far as possible, and there he clung, an unscalable wall
+above, the abyss beneath.
+
+The approach of the Yaqui was like a slow dark shadow of gloom.
+If it seemed so to the stricken Gale what must it have been to
+Rojas?  He appeared to sink against the wall.  The Yaqui stole
+closer and closer.  He was the savage now, and for him the moment
+must have been glorified.  Gale saw him gaze up at the great
+circling walls of the crater, then down into the depths.
+Perhaps the red haze hanging above him, or the purple
+haze below, or the deep caverns in the lava, held for Yaqui
+spirits of the desert, his gods to whom he called.  Perhaps he
+invoked shadows of his loved ones and his race, calling them in this
+moment of vengeance.
+
+Gale heard--or imagined he heard--that wild, strange Yaqui cry.
+
+Then the Indian stepped close to Rojas, and bent low, keeping out
+of reach.  How slow were his motions!  Would Yaqui never--never
+end it?...A wail drifted across the crater to Gale's ears.
+
+Rojas fell backward and plunged sheer.  The bank of white choyas
+caught him, held him upon their steel spikes.  How long did the
+dazed Gale sit there watching Rojas wrestling and writhing in
+convulsive frenzy?  The bandit now seemed mad to win the delayed
+death.
+
+When he broke free he was a white patched object no longer human,
+a ball of choya burrs, and he slipped off the bank to shoot down
+and down into the purple depths of the crater.
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+CHANGES AT FORLORN RIVER
+
+THE first of March saw the federal occupation of the garrison at
+Casita.  After a short, decisive engagement the rebels were
+dispersed into small bands and driven eastward along the boundary
+line toward Nogales.
+
+It was the destiny of Forlorn River, however, never to return to the
+slow, sleepy tenor of its former existence.  Belding's predictions
+came true.  That straggling line of home-seekers was but a
+forerunner of the real invasion of Altar Valley.  Refugees from
+Mexico and from Casita spread the word that water and wood and grass
+and land were to be had at Forlorn River; and as if by magic the
+white tents and red adobe houses sprang up to glisten in the sun.
+
+Belding was happier than he had been for a long time.  He believed
+that evil days for Forlorn River, along with the apathy and lack of
+enterprise, were in the past.  He hired a couple of trustworthy
+Mexicans to ride the boundary line, and he settled down to think
+of ranching and irrigation and mining projects.  Every morning he
+expected to receive some word form Sonoyta or Yuma, telling
+him that Yaqui had guided his party safely across the desert.
+
+Belding was simple-minded, a man more inclined to action than
+reflection.  When the complexities of life hemmed him in, he
+groped his way out, never quite understanding.  His wife had
+always been a mystery to him.  Nell was sunshine most of the
+time, but, like the sun-dominated desert, she was subject to
+strange changes, wilful, stormy, sudden.  It was enough for Belding
+now to find his wife in a lighter, happier mood, and to see Nell
+dreamily turning a ring round and round the third finger of her
+left hand and watching the west.  Every day both mother and daughter
+appeared farther removed from the past darkly threatening
+days.  Belding was hearty in his affections, but undemonstrative.
+If there was any sentiment in his make-up it had an outlet in
+his memory of Blanco Diablo and a longing to see him.  Often
+Belding stopped his work to gaze out over the desert toward
+the west.  When he thought of his rangers and Thorne and Mercedes
+he certainly never forgot his horse.  He wondered if Diablo was
+running, walking, resting; if Yaqui was finding water and grass.
+
+In March, with the short desert winter over, the days began to
+grow warm.  The noon hours were hot, and seemed to give promise
+of the white summer blaze and blasting furnace wind soon to come.
+No word was received from the rangers.  But this caused Belding
+no concern, and it seemed to him that his women folk considered
+no news good news.
+
+Among the many changes coming to pass in Forlorn River were the
+installing of post-office service and the building of a mescal
+drinking-house.  Belding had worked hard for the post office, but
+he did not like the idea of a saloon for Forlorn River.  Still, that
+was an inevitable evil.  The Mexicans would have mescal.  Belding
+had kept the little border hamlet free of an establishment for
+distillation of the fiery cactus drink.  A good many Americans
+drifted into Forlorn River--miners, cowboys, prospectors, outlaws,
+and others of nondescript character; and these men, of course,
+made the saloon, which was also an inn, their headquarters.
+Belding, with Carter and other old residents, saw the need of a
+sheriff for Forlorn River.
+
+One morning early in this spring month, while Belding was on his
+way from the house to the corrals, he saw Nell running
+Blanco Jose down the road at a gait that amazed him.
+She did not take the turn of the road to come in by the gate.
+She put Jose at a four-foot wire fence, and came clattering into
+the yard.
+
+"Nell must have another tantrum," said Belding.  "She's long past due."
+
+Blanco Jose, like the other white horses, was big of frame and
+heavy, and thunder rolled from under his great hoofs.  Nell pulled
+him up, and as he pounded and slid to a halt in a cloud of dust
+she swung lightly down.
+
+It did not take more than half an eye for Belding to see that she
+was furious.
+
+"Nell, what's come off now?" asked Belding.
+
+"I'm not going to tell you," she replied, and started away, leading
+Jose toward the corral.
+
+Belding leisurely followed.  She went into the corral, removed
+Jose's bridle, and led him to the watering-trough.  Belding came
+up, and without saying anything began to unbuckle Jose's saddle
+girths.  But he ventured a look at Nell.  The red had gone from
+her face, and he was surprised to see her eyes brimming with tears.
+Most assuredly this was not one of Nell's tantrums.  While taking
+off Jose's saddle and hanging it in the shed Belding pondered in
+his slow way.  When he came back to the corral Nell had her face
+against the bars, and she was crying.  He slipped a big arm around
+her and waited.  Although it was not often expressed, there was a
+strong attachment between them.
+
+"Dad, I don't want you to think me a--a baby any more," she said.
+"I've been insulted."
+
+With a specific fact to make clear thought in Belding's mind he was
+never slow.
+
+"I knew something unusual had come off.  I guess you'd better tell me."
+
+"Dad, I will, if you promise."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Not to mention it to mother, not to pack a gun down there, and
+never, never tell Dick."
+
+Belding was silent.  Seldom did he make promises readily.
+
+"Nell, sure something must have come off, for you to ask all that."
+
+"If you don't promise I'll never tell, that's all," she declared,
+firmly.
+
+Belding deliberated a little longer.  He knew the girl.
+
+"Well, I promise not to tell mother," he said, presently; "and
+seeing you're here safe and well, I guess I won't go packing a gun
+down there, wherever that is.  But I won't promise to keep anything
+from Dick that perhaps he ought to know."
+
+"Dad, what would Dick do if--if he were here and I were to tell
+him I'd--I'd been horribly insulted?"
+
+"I guess that 'd depend.  Mostly, you know, Dick does what you
+want.  But you couldn't stop him--nobody could--if there was
+reason, a man's reason, to get started.  Remember what he did to
+Rojas!...Nell, tell me what's happened."
+
+Nell, regaining her composure, wiped her eyes and smoothed back
+her hair.
+
+"The other day, Wednesday," she began, "I was coming home, and
+in front of that mescal drinking-place there was a crowd.  It was
+a noisy crowd.  I didn't want to walk out into the street or seem
+afraid.  But I had to do both.  There were several young men, and
+if they weren't drunk they certainly were rude.  I never saw them
+before, but I think they must belong to the mining company that was
+run out of Sonora by rebels.  Mrs. Carter was telling me.  Anyway,
+these young fellows were Americans.  They stretched themselves
+across the walk and smiled at me.  I had to go out in the road.  One
+of them, the rudest, followed me.  He was a big fellow, red-faced,
+with prominent eyes and a bold look.  He came up beside me and
+spoke to me.  I ran home.  And as I ran I heard his companions
+jeering.
+
+"Well, to-day, just now, when I was riding up the valley road I came
+upon the same fellows.  They had instruments and were surveying.
+Remembering Dick, and how he always wished for an instrument
+to help work out his plan for irrigation, I was certainly surprised
+to see these strangers surveying--and surveying upon Laddy's plot of
+land.  It was a sandy road there, and Jose happened to be walking.
+So I reined in and asked these engineers what they were doing.
+The leader, who was that same bold fellow who had followed me,
+seemed much pleased at being addressed.  He was swaggering--too
+friendly; not my idea of a gentleman at all.  He said he was glad to
+tell me he was going to run water all over Altar Valley.  Dad, you
+can bet that made me wild.  That was Dick's plan, his discovery,
+and here were surveyors on Laddy's claim.
+
+"Then I told him that he was working on private land and he'd better
+get off.  He seemed to forget his flirty proclivities in amazement.
+Then he looked cunning.  I read his mind.  It was news to him that
+all the land along the valley had been taken up.
+
+"He said something about not seeing any squatters on the land,
+and then he shut up tight on that score.  But he began to be
+flirty again.  He got hold of Jose's bridle, and before I could
+catch my breath he said I was a peach, and that he wanted to make
+a date with me, that his name was Chase, that he owned a gold mine
+in Mexico.  He said a lot more I didn't gather, but when he called
+me 'Dearie' I--well, I lost my temper.
+
+"I jerked on the bridle and told him to let go.  He held on and
+rolled his eyes at me.  I dare say he imagined he was a gentlemen to
+be infatuated with.  He seemed sure of conquest.  One thing certain,
+he didn't know the least bit about horses.  It scared me the way he
+got in front of Jose.  I thanked my stars I wasn't up on Blanco
+Diablo.  Well, Dad, I'm a little ashamed now, but I was mad.  I
+slashed him across the face with my quirt.  Jose jumped and knocked
+Mr. Chase into the sand.  I didn't get the horse under control till I
+was out of sight of those surveyors, and then I let him run home."
+
+"Nell, I guess you punished the fellow enough.  Maybe he's only a
+conceited softy.  But I don't like that sort of thing.  It isn't
+Western.  I guess he won't be so smart next time.  Any fellow
+would remember being hit by Blanco Jose.  If you'd been up on Diablo
+we'd have to bury Mr. Chase."
+
+"Thank goodness I wasn't!  I'm sorry now, Dad.  Perhaps the fellow
+was hurt.  But what could I do?  Let's forget all about it, and I'll
+be careful where I ride in the future....Dad, what does it mean,
+this surveying around Forlorn River?"
+
+"I don't know, Nell," replied Belding, thoughtfully.  "It worries
+me.  It looks good for Forlorn River, but bad for Dick's plan to
+irrigate the valley.  Lord, I'd hate to have some one forestall
+Dick on that!"
+
+"No, no, we won't let anybody have Dick's rights," declared Nell.
+
+"Where have I been keeping myself not to know about these
+surveyors?" muttered Belding.  "They must have just come."
+
+"Go see Mrs. Cater.  She told me there were strangers in town,
+Americans, who had mining interests in Sonora, and were run
+out by Orozco.  Find out what they're doing, Dad."
+
+Belding discovered that he was, indeed, the last man of consequence
+in Forlorn River to learn of the arrival of Ben Chase and son,
+mineowners and operators in Sonora.  They, with a force of miners,
+had been besieged by rebels and finally driven off their property.
+This property was not destroyed, but held for ransom.  And the
+Chases, pending developments, had packed outfits and struck
+for the border.  Casita had been their objective point, but, for
+some reason which Belding did not learn, they had arrived instead
+at Forlorn River.  It had taken Ben Chase just one day to see
+the possibilities of Altar Valley, and in three days he had men at work.
+
+Belding returned home without going to see the Chases and their
+operations.  He wanted to think over the situation.  Next morning he
+went out to the valley to see for himself.  Mexicans were hastily
+erecting adobe houses upon Ladd's one hundred and sixty acres, upon
+Dick Gale's, upon Jim Lash's and Thorne's.  There were men staking
+the valley floor and the river bed.  That was sufficient for
+Belding.  He turned back toward town and headed for the camp of
+these intruders.
+
+In fact, the surroundings of Forlorn River, except on the river
+side, reminded Belding of the mushroom growth of a newly discovered
+mining camp.  Tents were everywhere; adobe shacks were in all
+stages of construction; rough clapboard houses were going up.
+The latest of this work was new and surprising to Belding, all
+because he was a busy man, with no chance to hear village gossip.
+When he was directed to the headquarters of the Chase Mining
+Company he went thither in slow-growing wrath.
+
+He came to a big tent with a huge canvas fly stretched in front,
+under which sat several men in their shirt sleeves.  They were
+talking and smoking.
+
+"My name's Belding.  I want to see this Mr. Chase," said Belding,
+gruffly.
+
+Slow-witted as Belding was, and absorbed in his own feelings, he
+yet saw plainly that his advent was disturbing to these men.  They
+looked alarmed, exchanged glances, and then quickly turned to
+him.  One of them, a tall, rugged man with sharp face and shrewd
+eyes and white hair, got up and offered his hand.
+
+"I'm Chase, senior," he said.  "My son Radford Chase is here
+somewhere.  You're Belding, the line inspector, I take it?  I
+meant to call on you."
+
+He seemed a rough-and-ready, loud-spoken man, withal cordial enough.
+
+"Yes, I'm the inspector," replied Belding, ignoring the
+proffered hand, "and I'd like to know what in the hell you mean by
+taking up land claims--staked ground that belongs to my rangers?"
+
+"Land claims?" slowly echoed Chase, studying his man.  "We're taking
+up only unclaimed land."
+
+"That's a lie.  You couldn't miss the stakes."
+
+"Well, Mr. Belding, as to that, I think my men did run across some
+staked ground.  But we recognize only squatters.  If your rangers
+think they've got property just because they drove a few stakes
+in the ground they're much mistaken.  A squatter has to build a
+house and live on his land so long, according to law, before he owns
+it."
+
+This argument was unanswerable, and Belding knew it.
+
+"According to law!" exclaimed Belding.  "Then you own up; you've
+jumped our claims."
+
+"Mr. Belding, I'm a plain business man.  I come along.  I see a good
+opening.  Nobody seems to have tenable grants.  I stake out claims,
+locate squatters, start to build.  It seems to me your rangers have
+overlooked certain precautions.  That's unfortunate for them.  I'm
+prepared to hold my claim and to back all the squatters who work
+for me.  If you don't like it you can carry the matter to Tucson.
+The law will uphold me."
+
+"The law?  Say, on this southwest border we haven't any law except
+a man's word and a gun."
+
+"Then you'll find United States law has come along with Ben Chase,"
+replied the other, snapping his fingers.  He was still smooth,
+outspoken, but his mask had fallen.
+
+"You're not a Westerner?" queried Belding.
+
+"No, I'm from Illinois."
+
+"I thought the West hadn't bred you.  I know your kind.  You'd last
+a long time on the Texas border; now, wouldn't you?  You're one
+of the land and water hogs that has come to root in the West.
+You're like the timber sharks--take it all and leave none for those
+who follow.  Mr. Chase, the West would fare better and last longer
+if men like you were driven out."
+
+"You can't drive me out."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that.  Wait till my rangers come back.  I
+wouldn't be in your boots.  Don't mistake me.  I don't suppose
+you could be accused of stealing another man's ideas or plan,
+but sure you've stolen these four claims.  Maybe the law might
+uphold you.  But the spirit, not the letter, counts with us
+bordermen."
+
+"See here, Belding, I think you're taking the wrong view of the
+matter.  I'm going to develop this valley.  You'd do better to get
+in with me.  I've a proposition to make you about that strip of
+land of yours facing the river."
+
+"You can't make any deals with me.  I won't have anything to do
+with you."
+
+Belding abruptly left the camp and went home.  Nell met him,
+probably intended to question him, but one look into his face
+confirmed her fears.  She silently turned away.  Belding
+realized he was powerless to stop Chase, and he was sick
+with disappointment for the ruin of Dick's hopes and his own.
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+A LOST SON
+
+TIME passed.  The population of Forlorn River grew apace.  Belding,
+who had once been the head of the community, found himself a person
+of little consequence.  Even had he desired it he would not have
+had any voice in the selection of postmaster, sheriff, and a few
+other officials.  The Chases divided their labors between Forlorn
+River and their Mexican gold mine, which had been restored to
+them.  The desert trips between these two places were taken in
+automobiles.  A month's time made the motor cars almost as familiar
+a sight in Forlorn River as they had been in Casita before the
+revolution.
+
+Belding was not so busy as he had been formerly.  As he lost
+ambition he began to find less work to do.  His wrath at the
+usurping Chases increased as he slowly realized his powerlessness
+to cope with such men.  They were promoters, men of big interests
+and wide influence in the Southwest.  The more they did for Forlorn
+River the less reason there seemed to be for his own grievance.
+He had to admit that it was personal; that he and Gale and the
+rangers would never have been able to develop the resources of the
+valley as these men were doing it.
+
+All day long he heard the heavy booming blasts and the rumble of
+avalanches up in the gorge.  Chase's men were dynamiting the cliffs
+in the narrow box canyon.  They were making the dam just as Gale had
+planned to make it.  When this work of blasting was over Belding
+experienced a relief.  He would not now be continually reminded of
+his and Gale's loss.  Resignation finally came to him.  But he could
+not reconcile himself to misfortune for Gale.
+
+Moreover, Belding had other worry and strain.  April arrived with no
+news of the rangers.  From Casita came vague reports of raiders
+in the Sonoyta country--reports impossible to verify until his
+Mexican rangers returned.  When these men rode in, one of them,
+Gonzales, an intelligent and reliable halfbreed, said he had met
+prospectors at the oasis.  They had just come in on the Camino
+del Diablo, reported a terrible trip of heat and drought, and not
+a trace of the Yaqui's party.
+
+"That settles it," declared Belding.  "Yaqui never went to Sonoyta.
+He's circled round to the Devil's Road, and the rangers, Mercedes,
+Thorne, the horses--they--I'm afraid they have been lost in the
+desert.  It's an old story on Camino del Diablo."
+
+He had to tell Nell that, and it was an ordeal which left him weak.
+
+Mrs. Belding listened to him, and was silent for a long time while
+she held the stricken Nell to her breast. Then she opposed his
+convictions with that quiet strength so characteristic of her
+arguments.
+
+"Well, then," decided Belding, "Rojas headed the rangers at Papago
+Well or the Tanks."
+
+"Tom, when you are down in the mouth you use poor judgment,"
+she went on.  "You know only by a miracle could Rojas or anybody
+have headed those white horses.  Where's your old stubborn
+confidence?  Yaqui was up on Diablo.  Dick was up on Sol.  And
+there were the other horses.  They could not have been headed or
+caught.  Miracles don't happen."
+
+"All right, mother, it's sure good to hear you," said Belding.  She
+always cheered him, and now he grasped at straws.  "I'm not myself
+these days, don't mistake that.  Tell us what you think. You always
+say you feel things when you really don't know them."
+
+"I can say little more than what you said yourself the
+night Mercedes was taken away.  You told Laddy to trust Yaqui,
+that he was a godsend.  He might go south into some wild Sonora
+valley.  He might lead Rojas into a trap.  He would find water and
+grass where no Mexican or American could."
+
+"But mother, they're gone seven weeks.  Seven weeks!  At the most
+I gave them six weeks.  Seven weeks in the desert!"
+
+"How do the Yaquis live?" she asked.
+
+Belding could not reply to that, but hope revived in him.  He had
+faith in his wife, though he could not in the least understand what
+he imagined was something mystic in her.
+
+"Years ago when I was searching for my father I learned many things
+about this country," said Mrs. Belding.  "You can never tell how
+long a man may live in the desert.  The fiercest, most terrible and
+inaccessible places often have their hidden oasis.  In his later
+years my father became a prospector.  That was strange to me, for
+he never cared for gold or money.  I learned that he was often
+gone in the desert for weeks, once for months.  Then the time came
+when he never came back.  That was years before I reached the
+southwest border and heard of him.  Even then I did not for long
+give up hope of his coming back,  I know now--something tells
+me--indeed, it seems his spirit tells me--he was lost.  But I don't
+have that feeling for Yaqui and his party.  Yaqui has given Rojas
+the slip or has ambushed him in some trap.  Probably that took
+time and a long journey into Sonora.  The Indian is too wise to
+start back now over dry trails.  He'll curb the rangers; he'll wait.
+I seem to know this, dear Nell, so be brave, patient.  Dick Gale
+will come back to you."
+
+"Oh, mother!" cried Nell.  "I can't give up hope while I have you."
+
+That talk with the strong mother worked a change in Nell
+and Belding.  Nell, who had done little but brood and watch
+the west and take violent rides, seemed to settle into a
+waiting patience that was sad, yet serene.  She helped her mother
+more than ever; she was a comfort to Belding; she began to take
+active interest in the affairs of the growing village.  Belding, who
+had been breaking under the strain of worry, recovered himself
+so that to outward appearance he was his old self.  He alone knew,
+however, that his humor was forced, and that the slow burning
+wrath he felt for the Chases was flaming into hate.
+
+Belding argued with himself that if Ben Chase and his son, Radford,
+had turned out to be big men in other ways than in the power to
+carry on great enterprises he might have become reconciled to them.
+But the father was greedy, grasping, hard, cold; the son added to
+those traits an overbearing disposition to rule, and he showed a
+fondness for drink and cards.  These men were developing the valley,
+to be sure, and a horde of poor Mexicans and many Americans were
+benefiting from that development; nevertheless, these Chases were
+operating in a way which proved they cared only for themselves.
+
+Belding shook off a lethargic spell and decided he had better set
+about several by no means small tasks, if he wanted to get them
+finished before the hot months.  He made a trip to the Sonoyta
+Oasis.  He satisfied himself that matters along the line were
+favorable, and that there was absolutely no trace of his rangers.
+Upon completing this trip he went to Casita with a number of his
+white thoroughbreds and shipped them to ranchers and horse-breeders
+in Texas.  Then, being near the railroad, and having time, he went
+up to Tucson.  There he learned some interesting particulars about
+the Chases.  They had an office in the city; influential friends in
+the Capitol.  They were powerful men in the rapidly growing finance
+of the West.  They had interested the Southern Pacific Railroad, and
+in the near future a branch line was to be constructed from San
+Felipe to Forlorn River.  These details of the Chase development were
+insignificant when compared to a matter striking close home to Belding.
+His responsibility had been subtly attacked.  A doubt had been cast
+upon his capability of executing the duties of immigration inspector
+to the best advantage of the state.  Belding divined that this was
+only an entering wedge.  The Chases were bent upon driving him
+out of Forlorn River; but perhaps to serve better their own ends,
+they were proceeding at leisure.  Belding returned home consumed
+by rage.  But he controlled it.  For the first time in his life he
+was afraid of himself.  He had his wife and Nell to think of; and
+the old law of the West had gone forever.
+
+"Dad, there's another Rojas round these diggings," was Nell's
+remark, after the greetings were over and the usual questions
+and answers passed.
+
+Belding's exclamation was cut short by Nell's laugh.  She was
+serious with a kind of amused contempt.
+
+"Mr. Radford Chase!"
+
+"Now Nell, what the--" roared Belding.
+
+"Hush, Dad!  Don't swear," interrupted Nell.  "I only meant to
+tease you."
+
+"Humph!  Say, my girl, that name Chase makes me see red.  If you
+must tease me hit on some other way.  Sabe, senorita?"
+
+"Si, si, Dad."
+
+"Nell, you may as well tell him and have it over," said Mrs.
+Belding, quietly.
+
+"You promised me once, Dad, that you'd not go packing a gun off
+down there, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, I remember," replied Belding; but he did not answer her smile.
+
+"Will you promise again?" she asked, lightly.  Here was Nell with
+arch eyes, yet not the old arch eyes, so full of fun and mischief.
+Her lips were tremulous; her cheeks seemed less round.
+
+"Yes," rejoined Belding; and he knew why his voice was a little
+thick.
+
+"Well, if you weren't such a good old blind Dad you'd have seen
+long ago the way Mr. Radford Chase ran round after me.  At first
+it was only annoying, and I did not want to add to your worries.
+But these two weeks you've been gone I've been more than annoyed.
+After that time I struck Mr. Chase with my quirt he made all
+possible efforts to meet me.  He did meet me wherever I went.  He
+sent me letters till I got tired of sending them back.
+
+"When you left home on your trips I don't know that he grew bolder,
+but he had more opportunity.  I couldn't stay in the house all the
+time.  There were mama's errands and sick people and my Sunday
+school, and what not.  Mr. Chase waylaid me every time I went out.
+If he works any more I don't know when, unless it's when I'm asleep.
+He followed me until it was less embarassing for me to let him walk
+with me and talk his head off.  He made love to me.  He begged me
+to marry him.  I told him I was already in love and engaged to be
+married.  He said that didn't make any difference.  Then I called
+him a fool.
+
+"Next time he saw me he said he must explain.  He meant I was being
+true to a man who, everybody on the border knew, had been lost in
+the desert.  That--that hurt.  Maybe--maybe it's true.  Sometimes
+it seems terribly true.  Since then, of course, I have stayed in the
+house to avoid being hurt again.
+
+"But, Dad, a little thing like a girl sticking close to her mother
+and room doesn't stop Mr. Chase.  I think he's crazy.  Anyway,
+he's a most persistent fool.  I want to be charitable, because
+the man swears he loves me, and maybe he does, but he is making
+me nervous.  I don't sleep.  I'm afraid to be in my room at night.
+I've gone to mother's room.  He's always hanging round.  Bold!
+Why, that isn't the thing to call Mr. Chase.  He's absolutely
+without a sense of decency.  He bribes our servants.  He comes
+into our patio.  Think of that!  He makes the most ridiculous
+excuses.  He bothers mother to death.  I feel like a poor little
+rabbit holed by a hound.  And I daren't peep out."
+
+Somehow the thing struck Belding as funny, and he laughed.  He
+had not had a laugh for so long that it made him feel good.  He
+stopped only at sight of Nell's surprise and pain.  Then he put
+his arms round her.
+
+"Never mind, dear.  I'm an old bear.  But it tickled me, I guess.
+I sure hope Mr. Radford Chase has got it bad...Nell, it's only the
+old story.  The fellows fall in love with you.  It's your good
+looks, Nell.  What a price women like you and Mercedes have
+to pay for beauty!  I'd a d-- a good deal rather be ugly as a
+mud fence."
+
+"So would I, Dad, if--if Dick would still love me."
+
+"He wouldn't, you can gamble on that, as Laddy says.
+...Well, the first time I catch this locoed Romeo sneaking round
+here I'll--I'll--"
+
+"Dad, you promised."
+
+"Confound it, Nell, I promised not to pack a gun.  That's all.
+I'll only shoo this fellow off the place, gently, mind you, gently.
+I'll leave the rest for Dick Gale!"
+
+"Oh, Dad!" cried Nell; and she clung to him wistful, frightened,
+yet something more.
+
+"Don't mistake me, Nell.  You have your own way, generally.  You
+pull the wool over mother's eyes, and you wind me round your
+little finger.  But you can't do either with Dick Gale.  You're
+tender-hearted; you overlook the doings of this hound, Chase.
+But when Dick comes back, you just make up your mind to a little
+hell in the Chase camp.  Oh, he'll find it out.  And I sure want to
+be round when Dick hands Mr. Radford the same as he handed
+Rojas!"
+
+Belding kept a sharp lookout for young Chase, and then, a few days
+later, learned that both son and father had gone off upon one of
+their frequent trips to Casa Grandes, near where their mines were
+situated.
+
+April grew apace, and soon gave way to May.  One morning
+Belding was called from some garden work by the whirring
+of an automobile and a "Holloa!"  He went forward to the front yard
+and there saw a car he thought resembled one he had seen in Casita.
+It contained a familiar-looking driver, but the three figures in
+gray coats and veils were strange to him.  By the time he had gotten
+to the road he decided two were women and the other a man.  At the
+moment their faces were emerging from dusty veils.  Belding saw an
+elderly, sallow-faced, rather frail-appearing man who was an entire
+stranger to him; a handsome dark-eyed woman whose hair showed
+white through her veil; and a superbly built girl, whose face made
+Belding at once think of Dick Gale.
+
+"Is this Mr. Tom Belding, inspector of immigration?" inquired the
+gentleman, courteously.
+
+"I'm Belding, and I know who you are," replied Belding in hearty
+amaze, as he stretched forth his big hand.  "You're Dick Gale's
+Dad--the Governor, Dick used to say.  I'm sure glad to meet you."
+
+"Thank you.  Yes, I'm Dick's governor, and here, Mr. Belding--Dick's
+mother and his sister Elsie."
+
+Beaming his pleasure, Belding shook hands with the ladies, who
+showed their agitation clearly.
+
+"Mr. Belding, I've come west to look up my lost son," said Mr. Gale.
+"His sister's letters were unanswered.  We haven't heard from him
+in months.  Is he still here with you?"
+
+"Well, now, sure I'm awful sorry," began Belding, his slow mind
+at work.  "Dick's away just now--been away for a considerable
+spell.  I'm expecting him back any day....Won't you come in?  You're
+all dusty and hot and tired.  Come in, and let mother and Nell make
+you comfortable.  Of course you'll stay.  We've a big house.  You
+must stay till Dick comes back.  Maybe that 'll be-- Aw, I guess
+it won't be long....Let me handle the baggage, Mr. Gale....Come in.
+I sure am glad to meet you all."
+
+Eager, excited, delighted, Belding went on talking as he ushered
+the Gales into the sitting-room, presenting them in his hearty way
+to the astounded Mrs. Belding and Nell.  For the space of a few
+moments his wife and daughter were bewildered.  Belding did
+not recollect any other occasion when a few callers had thrown
+them off their balance.  But of course this was different.  He was
+a little flustered himself--a circumstance that dawned upon him
+with surprise.  When the Gales had been shown to rooms, Mrs.
+Belding gained the poise momentarily lost; but Nell came rushing
+back, wilder than a deer, in a state of excitement strange even
+for her.
+
+"Oh!  Dick's mother, his sister!" whispered Nell.
+
+Belding observed the omission of the father in Nell's exclamation
+of mingled delight and alarm.
+
+"His mother!" went on Nell.  "Oh, I knew it!  I always guessed it!
+Dick's people are proud, rich; they're somebody.  I thought I'd
+faint when she looked at me.  She was just curious--curious,
+but so cold and proud.  She was wondering about me.  I'm wearing
+his ring.  It was his mother's, he said.  I won't--I can't take it
+off.  And I'm scared....But the sister--oh, she's lovely and sweet
+--proud, too.  I felt warm all over when she looked at me.  I--I
+wanted to kiss her.  She looks like Dick when he first came to
+us.  But he's changed.  They'll hardly recognize him....To think
+they've come!  And I had to be looking a fright, when of all times
+on earth I'd want to look my best."
+
+Nell, out of breath, ran away evidently to make herself presentable,
+according to her idea of the exigency of the case.  Belding caught
+a glimpse of his wife's face as she went out, and it wore a sad,
+strange, anxious expression.  Then Belding sat alone, pondering
+the contracting emotions of his wife and daughter.  It was beyond
+his understanding.  Women were creatures of feeling.  Belding
+saw reason to be delighted to entertain Dick's family; and
+for the time being no disturbing thought entered his mind.
+
+Presently the Gales came back into the sitting-room, looking
+very different without the long gray cloaks and veils.  Belding
+saw distinction and elegance.  Mr. Gale seemed a grave, troubled,
+kindly person, ill in body and mind.  Belding received the same
+impression of power that Ben Chase had given him, only here it
+was minus any harshness or hard quality.  He gathered that Mr. Gale
+was a man of authority.  Mrs. Gale rather frightened Belding, but
+he could not have told why.  The girl was just like Dick as he used
+to be.
+
+Their manner of speaking also reminded Belding of Dick.  They
+talked of the ride from Ash Fork down to the border, of the
+ugly and torn-up Casita, of the heat and dust and cactus along
+the trail.  Presently Nell came in, now cool and sweet in white,
+with a red rose at her breast.  Belding had never been so proud
+of her.  He saw that she meant to appear well in the eyes of
+Dick's people, and began to have a faint perception of what the
+ordeal was for her.  Belding imagined the sooner the Gales were
+told that Dick was to marry Nell the better for all concerned, and
+especially for Nell.  In the general conversation that ensued he
+sought for an opening in which to tell this important news, but
+he was kept so busy answering questions about his position on
+the border, the kind of place Forlorn River was, the reason for
+so many tents, etc., that he was unable to find opportunity.
+
+"It's very interesting, very interesting," said Mr. Gale.  "At
+another time I want to learn all you'll tell me about the West.
+It's new to me.  I'm surprised, amazed, sir, I may say....But, Mr.
+Belding, what I want to know most is about my son.  I'm broken
+in health.  I've worried myself ill over him.  I don't mind telling
+you, sir, that we quarreled.  I laughed at his threats.  He went
+away.  And I've come to see that I didn't know Richard.  I was
+wrong to upbraid him.  For a year we've known nothing of his
+doings, and now for almost six months we've not heard from him
+at all.  Frankly, Mr. Belding, I weakened first, and I've come to
+hunt him up.  My fear is that I didn't start soon enough.  The
+boy will have a great position some day--God knows, perhaps
+soon!  I should not have allowed him to run over this wild country
+for so long.  But I hoped, though I hardly believed, that he might
+find himself.  Now I'm afraid he's--"
+
+Mr. Gale paused and the white hand he raised expressively shook
+a little.
+
+Belding was not so thick-witted where men were concerned.  He
+saw how the matter lay between Dick Gale and his father.
+
+"Well, Mr. Gale, sure most young bucks from the East go to the bad
+out here," he said, bluntly.
+
+"I've been told that," replied Mr. Gale; and a shade overspread his
+worn face.
+
+"They blow their money, then go punching cows, take to whiskey."
+
+"Yes," rejoined Mr. Gale, feebly nodding.
+
+"Then they get to gambling, lose their jobs," went on Belding.
+
+Mr. Gale lifted haggard eyes.
+
+"Then it's bumming around, regular tramps, and to the bad
+generally."  Belding spread wide his big arms, and when one of
+them dropped round Nell, who sat beside him, she squeezed his
+hand tight.  "Sure, it's the regular thing," he concluded,
+cheerfully.
+
+He rather felt a little glee at Mr. Gale's distress, and Mrs. Gale's
+crushed I-told-you-so woe in no wise bothered him; but the look
+in the big, dark eyes of Dick's sister was too much for Belding.
+
+He choked off his characteristic oath when excited and blurted
+out, "Say, but Dick Gale never went to the bad!...Listen!"
+
+Belding had scarcely started Dick Gale's story when he perceived
+that never in his life had he such an absorbed and
+breathless audience.  Presently they were awed, and at the
+conclusion of that story they sat white-faced, still, amazed beyond
+speech.  Dick Gale's advent in Casita, his rescue of Mercedes, his
+life as a border ranger certainly lost no picturesque or daring or
+even noble detail in Belding's telling.  He kept back nothing but
+the present doubt of Dick's safety.
+
+Dick's sister was the first of the three to recover herself.
+
+"Oh, father!" she cried; and there was a glorious light in her
+eyes.  "Deep down in my heart I knew Dick was a man!"
+
+Mr. Gale rose unsteadily from his chair.  His frailty was now
+painfully manifest.
+
+"Mr. Belding, do you mean my son--Richard Gale--has done all
+that you told us?" he asked, incredulously.
+
+"I sure do," replied Belding, with hearty good will.
+
+"Martha, do you hear?"  Mr. Gale turned to question his wife.  She
+could not answer.  Her face had not yet regained its natural color.
+
+"He faced that bandit and his gang alone--he fought them?" demanded
+Mr. Gale, his voice stronger.
+
+"Dick mopped up the floor with the whole outfit!"
+
+"He rescued a Spanish girl, went into the desert without food,
+weapons, anything but his hands?  Richard Gale, whose hands
+were always useless?"
+
+Belding nodded with a grin.
+
+"He's a ranger now--riding, fighting, sleeping on the sand,
+preparing his own food?"
+
+"Well, I should smile," rejoined Belding.
+
+"He cares for his horse, with his own hands?"  This query seemed
+to be the climax of Mr. Gale's strange hunger for truth.  He had
+raised his head a little higher, and his eye was brighter.
+
+Mention of a horse fired Belding's blood.
+
+"Does Dick Gale care for his horse?  Say, there are not many men as
+well loved as that white horse of Dick's.  Blanco Sol he is, Mr.
+Gale.  That's Mex for White Sun.  Wait till you see Blanco Sol!  Bar
+one, the whitest, biggest, strongest, fastest, grandest horse in the
+Southwest!"
+
+"So he loves a horse!  I shall not know my own son....Mr. Belding,
+you say Richard works for you.  May I ask, at what salary?"
+
+"He gets forty dollars, board and outfit," replied Belding,
+proudly.
+
+"Forty dollars?" echoed the father.  "By the day or week?"
+
+"The month, of course," said Belding, somewhat taken aback.
+
+"Forty dollars a month for a young man who spent five hundred
+in the same time when he was at college, and who ran it into
+thousands when he got out!"
+
+Mr. Gale laughed for the first time, and it was the laugh of a man
+who wanted to believe what he heard yet scarcely dared to do it.
+
+"What does he do with so much money--money earned by peril, toil,
+sweat, and blood?  Forty dollars a month!"
+
+"He saves it," replied Belding.
+
+Evidently this was too much for Dick Gale's father, and he gazed
+at his wife in sheer speechless astonishment.  Dick's sister clapped
+her hands like a little child.
+
+Belding saw that the moment was propitious.
+
+"Sure he saves it.  Dick's engaged to marry Nell here.  My
+stepdaughter, Nell Burton."
+
+"Oh-h, Dad!" faltered Nell; and she rose, white as her dress.
+
+How strange it was to see Dick's mother and sister rise, also, and
+turn to Nell with dark, proud, searching eyes.  Belding vaguely
+realized some blunder he had made.  Nell's white, appealing face
+gave him a pang.  What had he done?  Surely this family of Dick's
+ought to know his relation to Nell.  There was a silence that
+positively made Belding nervous.
+
+Then Elsie Gale stepped close to Nell.
+
+"Miss Burton, are you really Richard's betrothed?"
+
+Nell's tremulous lips framed an affirmative, but never uttered it.
+She held out her hand, showing the ring Dick had given her.  Miss
+Gale's recognition was instant, and her response was warm, sweet,
+gracious.
+
+"I think I am going to be very, very glad," she said, and kissed
+Nell.
+
+"Miss Burton, we are learning wonderful things about Richard,"
+added Mr. Gale, in an earnest though shaken voice.  "If you have
+had to do with making a man of him--and now I begin to see, to
+believe so--may God bless you!...My dear girl, I have not really
+looked at you.  Richard's fiancee!...Mother, we have not found him
+yet, but I think we've found his secret.  We believed him a lost
+son.  But here is his sweetheart!"
+
+It was only then that the pride and hauteur of Mrs. Gale's face
+broke into an expression of mingled pain and joy.  She opened
+her arms.  Nell, uttering a strange little stifled cry, flew into
+them.
+
+Belding suddenly discovered an unaccountable blur in his sight.
+He could not see perfectly, and that was why, when Mrs. Belding
+entered the sitting-room, he was not certain that her face was
+as sad and white as it seemed.
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+BOUND IN THE DESERT
+
+FAR away from Forlorn River Dick Gale sat stunned, gazing down into
+the purple depths where Rojas had plunged to his death.  The Yaqui
+stood motionless upon the steep red wall of lava from which he had
+cut the bandit's hold.  Mercedes lay quietly where she had fallen.
+From across the depths there came to Gale's ear the Indian's
+strange, wild cry.
+
+Then silence, hollow, breathless, stony silence enveloped the great
+abyss and its upheaved lava walls.  The sun was setting.  Every
+instant the haze reddened and thickened.
+
+Action on the part of the Yaqui loosened the spell which held Gale
+as motionless as his surroundings.  The Indian was edging back
+toward the ledge.  He did not move with his former lithe and sure
+freedom.  He crawled, slipped, dragged himself, rested often, and
+went on again.  He had been wounded.  When at last he reached
+the ledge where Mercedes lay Gale jumped to his feet, strong and
+thrilling, spurred to meet the responsibility that now rested upon
+him.
+
+Swiftly he turned to where Thorne lay.  The cavalryman was just
+returning to consciousness.  Gale ran for a canteen, bathed his
+face, made him drink.  The look in Thorne's eyes was hard to bear.
+
+"Thorne!  Thorne!  it's all right, it's all right!" cried Gale, in
+piercing tones.  "Mercedes is safe!  Yaqui saved her!  Rojas is done
+for!  Yaqui jumped down the wall and drove the bandit off the ledge.
+Cut him loose from the wall, foot by foot, hand by hand!  We've won
+the fight, Thorne."
+
+For Thorne these were marvelous strength-giving words.  The
+dark horror left his eyes, and they began to dilate, to shine.  He
+stood up, dizzily but unaided, and he gazed across the crater.
+Yaqui had reached the side of Mercedes, was bending over her.
+She stirred.  Yaqui lifted her to her feet.  She appeared weak,
+unable to stand alone.  But she faced across the crater and waved
+her hand.  She was unharmed.  Thorne lifted both arms above head,
+and from his lips issued a cry.  It was neither call nor holloa nor
+welcome nor answer.  Like the Yaqui's, it could scarcely be named.
+But it was deep, husky, prolonged, terribly human in its intensity.
+It made Gale shudder and made his heart beat like a trip hammer.
+Mercedes again waved a white hand.  The Yaqui waved, too, and Gale
+saw in the action an urgent signal.
+
+Hastily taking up canteen and rifles, Gale put a supporting arm
+around Thorne.
+
+"Come, old man.  Can you walk?  Sure you can walk!  Lean on me,
+and we'll soon get out of this.  Don't look across.  Look where you
+step.  We've not much time before dark.  Oh, Thorne, I'm afraid
+Jim has cashed in!  And the last I saw of Laddy he was badly hurt."
+
+Gale was keyed up to a high pitch of excitement and alertness.
+He seemed to be able to do many things.  But once off the ragged
+notched lava into the trail he had not such difficulty with Thorne,
+and could keep his keen gaze shifting everywhere for sight of
+enemies.
+
+"Listen, Thorne!  What's that?" asked Gale, halting as they came
+to a place where the trail led down through rough breaks in the
+lava.  The silence was broken by a strange sound, almost
+unbelieveable considering the time and place.  A voice was droning:
+"Turn the lady, turn!  Turn the lady, turn!  Alamon left.  All
+swing; turn the lady, turn!"
+
+"Hello, Jim," called Gale, dragging Thorne round the corner of
+lava.  "Where are you?  Oh, you son of a gun! I thought you were
+dead.  Oh, I'm glad to see you!  Jim, are you hurt?"
+
+Jim Lash stood in the trail leaning over the butt of his rifle,
+which evidently he was utilizing as a crutch.  He was pale but
+smiling.  His hands were bloody.  A scarf had been bound tightly
+round his left leg just above the knee.  The leg hung limp, and
+the foot dragged.
+
+"I reckon I ain't injured much," replied Him.  "But my leg hurts
+like hell, if you want to know."
+
+"Laddy!  Oh, where's Laddy?"
+
+"He's just across the crack there.  I was trying to get to him.  We
+had it hot an' heavy down here.  Laddy was pretty bad shot up
+before he tried to head Rojas off the trail....Dick, did you see the
+Yaqui go after Rojas?"
+
+"Did I!" exclaimed Gale, grimly.
+
+"The finish was all that saved me from runnin' loco plumb over the
+rim.  You see I was closer'n you to where Mercedes was hid.  When
+Rojas an' his last Greaser started across, Laddy went after them,
+but I couldn't.  Laddy did for Rojas's man, then went down himself.
+But he got up an' fell, got up, went on, an' fell again.  Laddy kept
+doin' that till he dropped for good.  I reckon our chances are
+against findin' him alive....I tell you, boys, Rojas was hell-bent.
+An' Mercedes was game.  I saw her shoot him.  But mebbe bullets
+couldn't stop him then.  If I didn't sweat blood when Mercedes was
+fightin' him on the cliff!  Then the finish!  Only a Yaqui could
+have done that....Thorne, you didn't miss it?"
+
+"Yes, I was down and out," replied the cavalryman.
+
+"It's a shame.  Greatest stunt I ever seen!  Thorne, you're standin'
+up pretty fair.  How about you?  Dick, is he bad hurt?"
+
+"No, he's not.  A hard knock on the skull and a scalp wound,"
+replied Dick.  "Here, Jim, let me help you over this place."
+
+Step by step Gale got the two injured men down the uneven declivity
+and then across the narrow lava bridge over the fissure.  Here he
+bade them rest while he went along the trail on that side to search
+for Laddy.  Gale found the ranger stretched out, face downward,
+a reddened hand clutching a gun.  Gale thought he was dead.  Upon
+examination, however, it was found that Ladd still lived, though he
+had many wounds.  Gale lifted him and carried him back to the
+others.
+
+"He's alive, but that's all," said Dick, as he laid the ranger down.
+"Do what you can.  Stop the blood.  Laddy's tough as cactus, you
+know.  I'll hurry back for Mercedes and Yaqui."
+
+Gale, like a fleet, sure-footed mountain sheep, ran along the
+trail.  When he came across the Mexican, Rojas's last ally, Gale
+had evidence of the terrible execution of the .405.  He did not
+pause.  On the first part of that descent he made faster time
+than had Rojas.  But he exercised care along the hard, slippery,
+ragged slope leading to the ledge.  Presently he came upon
+Mercedes and the Yaqui.  She ran right into Dick's arms, and there
+her strength, if not her courage, broke, and she grew lax.
+
+"Mercedes, you're safe!  Thorne's safe.  It's all right now."
+
+"Rojas!" she whispered.
+
+"Gone!  To the bottom of the crater!  A Yaqui's vengeance,
+Mercedes."
+
+He heard the girl whisper the name of the Virgin.  Then he gathered
+her up in his arms.
+
+"Come, Yaqui."
+
+The Indian grunted.  He had one hand pressed close over a bloody
+place in his shoulder.  Gale looked keenly at him.  Yaqui was
+inscrutable, as of old, yet Gale somehow knew that wound meant
+little to him.  The Indian followed him.
+
+Without pausing, moving slowly in some places, very carefully
+in others, and swiftly on the smooth part of the trail, Gale
+carried Mercedes up to the rim and along to the the others.
+Jim Lash worked awkardly over Ladd.  Thorne was trying
+to assist.  Ladd, himself, was conscious, but he was a pallid,
+apparently a death-stricken man.  The greeting between Mercedes
+and Thorne was calm--strangely so, it seemed to Gale.  But he was
+calm himself.  Ladd smiled at him, and evidently would have spoken
+had he the power.  Yaqui then joined the group, and his piercing
+eyes roved from one to the other, lingering longest over Ladd.
+
+"Dick, I'm figger'n hard," said Jim, faintly.  "In a minute it 'll
+be up to you an' Mercedes.  I've about shot my bolt....Reckon
+you'll do-- best by bringin' up blankets--water--salt--firewood.
+Laddy's got--one chance--in a hundred.  Fix him up--first.  Use
+hot salt water.  If my leg's broke--set it best you can.  That hole
+in Yaqui--only 'll bother him a day.  Thorne's bad hurt...Now
+rustle--Dick, old--boy."
+
+Lash's voice died away in a husky whisper, and he quietly lay back,
+stretching out all but the crippled leg.  Gale examined it, assured
+himself the bones had not been broken, and then rose ready to go
+down the trail.
+
+"Mercedes, hold Thorne's head up, in your lap--so.  Now I'll go."
+
+On the moment Yaqui appeared to have completed the binding of
+his wounded shoulder, and he started to follow Gale.  He paid no
+attention to Gale's order for him to stay back.  But he was slow,
+and gradually Gale forged ahead.  The lingering brightness of the
+sunset lightened the trail, and the descent to the arroyo was swift
+and easy.  Some of the white horses had come in for water.  Blanco
+Sol spied Gale and whistled and came pounding toward him.  It was
+twilight down in the arroyo.  Yaqui appeared and began collecting
+a bundle of mesquite sticks.  Gale hastily put together the things
+he needed; and, packing them all in a tarpaulin, he turned to
+retrace his steps up the trail.
+
+Darkness was setting in.  The trail was narrow, exceedingly steep,
+and in some places fronted on precipices.  Gale's burden was not
+very heavy, but its bulk made it unwieldy, and it was always
+overbalancing him or knocking against the wall side of the trail.
+Gale found it necessary to wait for Yaqui to take the lead.  The
+Indian's eyes must have seen as well at night as by day.  Gale
+toiled upward, shouldering, swinging, dragging the big pack; and,
+though the ascent of the slope was not really long, it seemed
+endless.  At last they reached a level, and were soon on the spot
+with Mercedes and the injured men.
+
+Gale then set to work.  Yaqui's part was to keep the fire blazing
+and the water hot, Mercedes's to help Gale in what way she could.
+Gale found Ladd had many wounds, yet not one of them was directly
+in a vital place.  Evidently, the ranger had almost bled to death.
+He remained unconcious through Gale's operations.  According to
+Jim Lash, Ladd had one chance in a hundred, but Gale considered
+it one in a thousand.  Having done all that was possible for the
+ranger, Gale slipped blankets under and around him, and then
+turned his attention to Lash.
+
+Jim came out of his stupor.  A mushrooming bullet had torn a
+great hole in his leg.  Gale, upon examination, could not be sure
+the bones had been missed, but there was no bad break.  The
+application of hot salt water made Jim groan.  When he had been
+bandaged and laid beside Ladd, Gale went on to the cavalryman.
+Thorne was very weak and scarcely conscious.  A furrow had been
+plowed through his scalp down to the bone.  When it had been
+dressed, Mercedes collapsed.  Gale laid her with the three in a row
+and covered them with blankets and the tarpaulin.
+
+Then Yaqui submitted to examination.  A bullet had gone through the
+Indian's shoulder.  To Gale it appeared serious.  Yaqui said it was a
+flea bite.  But he allowed Gale to bandage it, and obeyed when he was
+told to lie quiet in his blanket beside the fire.
+
+Gale stood guard.  He seemed still calm, and wondered at what he
+considered a strange absence of poignant feeling.  If he had felt
+weariness it was now gone.  He coaxed the fire with as little wood
+as would keep it burning; he sat beside it; he walked to and fro
+close by; sometimes he stood over the five sleepers, wondering if
+two of them, at least, would ever awaken.
+
+Time had passed swiftly, but as the necessity for immediate action
+had gone by, the hours gradually assumed something of their normal
+length.  The night wore on.  The air grew colder, the stars
+brighter, the sky bluer, and, if such could be possible, the silence
+more intense.  The fire burned out, and for lack of wood could not
+be rekindled.  Gale patrolled his short beat, becoming colder and
+damper as dawn approached.  The darkness grew so dense that he could
+not see the pale faces of the sleepers.  He dreaded the gray dawn
+and the light.  Slowly the heavy black belt close to the lava
+changed to a pale gloom, then to gray, and after that morning came
+quickly.
+
+The hour had come for Dick Gale to face his great problem.  It was
+natural that he hung back a little at first; natural that when he
+went forward to look at the quiet sleepers he did so with a grim
+and stern force urging him.  Yaqui stirred, roused, yawned, got up;
+and, though he did not smile at Gale, a light shone swiftly across
+his dark face.  His shoulder drooped and appeared stiff, otherwise
+he was himself.  Mercedes lay in deep slumber.  Thorne had a high
+fever, and was beginning to show signs of restlessness.  Ladd
+seemed just barely alive.  Jim Lash slept as if he was not much
+the worse for his wound.
+
+Gale rose from his examination with a sharp breaking of his cold
+mood.  While there was life in Thorne and Ladd there was hope
+for them.  Then he faced his problem, and his decision was instant.
+
+He awoke Mercedes.  How wondering, wistful, beautiful was that first
+opening flash of her eyes!  Then the dark, troubled thought came.
+Swiftly she sat up.
+
+"Mercedes--come.  Are you all right?  Laddy is alive Thorne's not
+--not so bad.  But we've got a job on our hands!  You must help me."
+
+She bent over Thorne and laid her hands on his hot face.  Then she
+rose--a woman such as he had imagined she might be in an hour of
+trial.
+
+Gale took up Ladd as carefully and gently as possible.
+
+"Mercedes, bring what you can carry and follow me," he said.  Then,
+motioning for Yaqui to remain there, he turned down the slope with
+Ladd in his arms.
+
+Neither pausing nor making a misstep nor conscious of great effort,
+Gale carried the wounded man down into the arroyo.  Mercedes
+kept at his heels, light, supple, lithe as a panther.  He left her
+with Ladd and went back.  When he had started off with Thorne
+in his arms he felt the tax on his strength.  Surely and swiftly,
+however, he bore the cavalryman down the trail to lay him beside
+Ladd.  Again he started back, and when he began to mount the
+steep lava steps he was hot, wet, breathing hard.  As he reached
+the scene of that night's camp a voice greeted him.  Jim Lash was
+sitting up.
+
+"Hello, Dick.  I woke some late this mornin'.  Where's Laddy?  Dick,
+you ain't a-goin' to say--"
+
+"Laddy's alive--that's about all," replied Dick.
+
+"Where's Thorne an' Mercedes?  Look here, man.  I reckon you ain't
+packin' this crippled outfit down that awful trail?"
+
+"Had to, Jim.  An hour's sun--would kill--both Laddy and Thorne.
+Come on now."
+
+For once Jim Lash's cool good nature and careless indifference
+gave precedence to amaze and concern.
+
+"Always knew you was a husky chap.  But, Dick, you're no hoss!
+Get me a crutch an' give me a lift on one side."
+
+"Come on," replied Gale.  "I've no time to monkey."
+
+He lifted the ranger, called to Yaqui to follow with some of the
+camp outfit, and once more essayed the steep descent.  Jim Lash
+was the heaviest man of the three, and Gale's strength was put
+to enormous strain to carry him on that broken trail.
+Nevertheless, Gale went down, down, walking swiftly and surely
+over the bad places; and at last he staggered into the arroyo with
+bursting heart and red-blinded eyes.  When he had recovered he
+made a final trip up the slope for the camp effects which Yaqui had
+been unable to carry.
+
+Then he drew Jim and Mercedes and Yaqui, also, into an earnest
+discussion of ways and means whereby to fight for the life of
+Thorne.  Ladd's case Gale now considered hopeless, though he
+meant to fight for him, too, as long as he breathed.
+
+In the labor of watching and nursing it seemed to Gale that two
+days and two nights slipped by like a few hours.  During that time
+the Indian recovered from his injury, and became capable of
+performing all except heavy tasks.  Then Gale succumbed to
+weariness.  After his much-needed rest he relieved Mercedes of the
+care and watch over Thorne which, up to that time, she had
+absolutely refused to relinquish.  The cavalryman had high fever,
+and Gale feared he had developed blood poisoning.  He required
+constant attention.  His condition slowly grew worse, and there
+came a day which Gale thought surely was the end.  But that day
+passed, and the night, and the next day, and Thorne lived on,
+ghastly, stricken, raving.  Mercedes hung over him with jealous,
+passionate care and did all that could have been humanly done for
+a man.  She grew wan, absorbed, silent.  But suddenly, and to Gale's
+amaze and thanksgiving, there came an abatement of Thorne's fever.
+With it some of the heat and redness of the inflamed wound
+disappeared.  Next morning he was conscious, and Gale grasped some
+of the hope that Mercedes had never abandoned.  He forced her to
+rest while he attended to Thorne.  That day he saw that the crisis
+was past.  Recovery for Thorne was now possible, and would perhaps
+depend entirely upon the care he received.
+
+Jim Lash's wound healed without any aggravating symptoms.  It would
+be only a matter of time until he had the use of his leg again.  All
+these days, however, there was little apparent change in Ladd's
+condition unless it was that he seemed to fade away as he lingered.
+At first his wounds remained open; they bled a little all the time
+outwardly, perhaps internally also; the blood did not seem to clot,
+and so the bullet holes did not close.  Then Yaqui asked for the
+care of Ladd.  Gale yielded it with opposing thoughts--that Ladd
+would waste slowly away till life ceased, and that there never was
+any telling what might lie in the power of this strange Indian.
+Yaqui absented himself from camp for a while, and when he returned
+he carried the roots and leaves of desert plants unknown to Gale.
+From these the Indian brewed an ointment.  Then he stripped the
+bandages from Ladd and applied the mixture to his wounds.  That
+done, he let him lie with the wounds exposed to the air, at night
+covering him.  Next day he again exposed the wounds to the warm,
+dry air.  Slowly they closed, and Ladd ceased to bleed externally.
+
+Days passed and grew into what Gale imagined must have been weeks.
+Yaqui recovered fully.  Jim Lash began to move about on a crutch;
+he shared the Indian's watch over Ladd.  Thorne lay haggard,
+emaciated ghost of his rugged self, but with life in the eyes that
+turned always toward Mercedes.  Ladd lingered and lingered.  The
+life seemingly would not leave his bullet-pierced body.  He faded,
+withered, shrunk till he was almost a skeleton.  He knew those who
+worked and watched over him, but he had no power of speech.  His
+eyes and eyelids moved; the rest of him seemed stone.  All those
+days nothing except water was given him.  It was marvelous how
+tenaciously, however feebly, he clung to life.  Gale imagined it was
+the Yaqui's spirit that held back death.  That tireless, implacable,
+inscrutable savage was ever at the ranger's side.  His great somber
+eyes burned.  At length he went to Gale, and, with that strange light
+flitting across the hard bronzed face, he said Ladd would live.
+
+
+The second day after Ladd had been given such thin nourishment as
+he could swallow he recovered the use of his tongue.
+
+"Shore--this's--hell," he whispered.
+
+That was a characteristic speech for the ranger, Gale thought; and
+indeed it made all who heard it smile while their eyes were wet.
+
+From that time forward Ladd gained, but he gained so immeasurably
+slowly that only the eyes of hope could have seen any improvement.
+Jim Lash threw away his crutch, and Thorne was well, if still somewhat
+weak, before Ladd could lift his arm or turn his head.  A kind of
+long, immovable gloom passed, like a shadow, from his face.  His
+whispers grew stronger.  And the day arrived when Gale, who was
+perhaps the least optimistic, threw doubt to the winds and knew the
+ranger would get well.  For Gale that joyous moment of realization
+was one in which he seemed to return to a former self long absent.
+He experienced an elevation of soul.  He was suddenly overwhelmed
+with gratefulness, humility, awe.  A gloomy black terror had passed
+by.  He wanted to thank the faithful Mercedes, and Thorne for
+getting well, and the cheerful Lash, and Ladd himself, and that
+strange and wonderful Yaqui, now such a splendid figure.  He thought
+of home and Nell.  The terrible encompassing red slopes lost something
+of their fearsomeness, and there was a good spirit hovering near.
+
+
+"Boys, come round," called Ladd, in his low voice.  "An' you,
+Mercedes.  An' call the Yaqui."
+
+Ladd lay in the shade of the brush shelter that had been
+erected.  His head was raised slightly on a pillow.  There seemed
+little of him but long lean lines, and if it had not been for his
+keen, thoughtful, kindly eyes, his face would have resembled a
+death mask of a man starved.
+
+"Shore I want to know what day is it an' what month?" asked Ladd.
+
+Nobody could answer him.  The question seemed a surprise to Gale,
+and evidently was so to the others.
+
+"Look at that cactus," went on Ladd.
+
+Near the wall of lava a stunted saguaro lifted its head.  A few
+shriveled blossoms that had once been white hung along the fluted
+column.
+
+"I reckon according to that giant cactus it's somewheres along the
+end of March," said Jim Lash, soberly.
+
+"Shore it's April.  Look where the sun is.  An' can't you feel
+it's gettin' hot?"
+
+"Supposin' it is April?" queried Lash slowly.
+
+"Well, what I'm drivin' at is it's about time you all was hittin'
+the trail back to Forlorn River, before the waterholes dry out."
+
+"Laddy, I reckon we'll start soon as you're able to be put on a
+hoss."
+
+"Shore that 'll be too late."
+
+A silence ensued, in which those who heard Ladd gazed fixedly at
+him and then at one another.  Lash uneasily shifted the position
+of his lame leg, and Gale saw him moisten his lips with his tongue.
+
+"Charlie Ladd, I ain't reckonin' you mean we're to ride off an'
+leave you here?"
+
+"What else is there to do?  The hot weather's close.  Pretty soon
+most of the waterholes will be dry.  You can't travel then....I'm
+on my back here, an' God only knows when I could be packed out.
+Not for weeks, mebbe.  I'll never be any good again, even if I was
+to get out alive....You see, shore this sort of case comes round
+sometimes in the desert.  It's common enough.  I've heard of several
+cases where men had to go an' leave a feller behind.  It's reasonable.
+If you're fightin' the desert you can't afford to be sentimental...
+Now, as I said, I'm all in.  So what's the sense of you waitin' here,
+when it means the old desert story?  By goin' now mebbe you'll get home.
+If you wait on a chance of takin' me, you'll be too late.  Pretty soon
+this lava 'll be one roastin' hell.  Shore now, boys, you'll see this
+the right way?  Jim, old pard?"
+
+"No, Laddy, an' I can't figger how you could ever ask me."
+
+"Shore then leave me here with Yaqui an' a couple of the hosses.
+We can eat sheep meat.  An' if the water holds out--"
+
+"No!" interrupted Lash, violently.
+
+Ladd's eyes sought Gale's face.
+
+"Son, you ain't bull-headed like Jim.  You'll see the sense of it.
+There's Nell a-waitin' back at Forlorn River.  Think what it means
+to her!  She's a damn fine girl, Dick, an' what right have you to
+break her heart for an old worn-out cowpuncher?  Think how she's
+watchin' for you with that sweet face all sad an' troubled, an'
+her eyes turnin' black.  You'll go, son, won't you?"
+
+Dick shook his head.
+
+The ranger turned his gaze upon Thorne, and now the keen, glistening
+light in his gray eyes had blurred.
+
+"Thorne, it's different with you.  Jim's a fool, an' young Gale has
+been punctured by choya thorns.  He's got the desert poison in his
+blood.  But you now--you've no call to stick--you can find that
+trail out.  It's easy to follow, made by so many shod hosses.  Take
+your wife an' go....Shore you'll go, Thorne?"
+
+Deliberately and without an instant's hesitation the calvaryman
+replied "No."
+
+Ladd then directed his appeal to Mercedes.  His face was now
+convulsed, and his voice, though it had sunk to a whisper, was
+clear, and beautiful with some rich quality that Gale had never
+heard in it.
+
+"Mercedes, you're a woman.  You're the woman we fought for.  An'
+some of us are shore goin' to die for you.  Don't make it all for
+nothin'.  Let us feel we saved the woman.  Shore you can make Thorne
+go.  He'll have to go if you say.  They'll all have to go.  Think of
+the years of love an' happiness in store for you.  A week or so
+an' it 'll be too late.  Can you stand for me seein' you?...Let
+me tell you, Mercedes, when the summer heat hits the lava we'll
+all wither an' curl up like shavin's near a fire.  A wind of hell
+will blow up this slope.  Look at them mesquites.  See the twist
+in them.  That's the torture of heat an' thirst.  Do you want me
+or all us men seein'you like that?...Mercedes, don't make it all
+for nothin'.  Say you'll persuade Thorne, if not the others."
+
+For all the effect his appeal had to move her Mercedes might have
+possessed a heart as hard and fixed as the surrounding lava.
+
+"Never!"
+
+White-faced, with great black eyes flashing, the Spanish girl
+spoke the word that bound her and her companions in the desert.
+
+The subject was never mentioned again.  Gale thought that he read
+a sinister purpose in Ladd's mind.  To his astonishment, Lash
+came to him with the same fancy.  After that they made certain
+there never was a gun within reach of Ladd's clutching, clawlike
+hands.
+
+Gradually a somber spell lifted from the ranger's mind.  When he
+was entirely free of it he began to gather strength daily.  Then
+it was as if he had never known patience--he who had shown so well
+how to wait.  He was in a frenzy to get well.  He appetite could
+not be satisfied.
+
+The sun climbed higher, whiter, hotter.  At midday a wind from
+gulfward roared up the arroyo, and now only palos verdes and the
+few saguaros were green.  Every day the water in the lava hole
+sank an inch.
+
+The Yaqui alone spent the waiting time in activity.  He made
+trips up on the lava slope, and each time he returned with
+guns or boots or sombreros, or something belonging to the
+bandits that had fallen.  He never fetched in a saddle or bridle,
+and from that the rangers concluded Rojas's horses had long before
+taken their back trail.  What speculation, what consternation
+those saddled horses would cause if they returned to Forlorn River!
+
+As Ladd improved there was one story he had to hear every day.  It
+was the one relating to what he had missed--the sight of Rojas
+pursued and plunged to his doom.  The thing had a morbid fascination
+for the sick ranger.  He reveled in it.  He tortured Mercedes.
+His gentleness and consideration, heretofore so marked, were in
+abeyance to some sinister, ghastly joy.  But to humor him Mercedes
+racked her soul with the sensations she had sufferd when Rojas
+hounded her out on the ledge; when she shot him; when she sprang
+to throw herself over the precipice; when she fought him; when
+with half-blinded eyes she looked up to see the merciless Yaqui
+reaching for the bandit.  Ladd fed his cruel longing with Thorne's
+poignant recollections, with the keen, clear, never-to-be-forgotten
+shocks to Gale's eye and ear.  Jim Lash, for one at least, never
+tired of telling how he had seen and heard the tragedy, and every
+time in the telling it gathered some more tragic and gruesome
+detail.  Jim believed in satiating the ranger.  Then in the
+twilight, when the campfire burned, Ladd would try to get the
+Yaqui to tell his side of the story.  But this the Indian would
+never do.  There was only the expression of his fathomless eyes
+and the set passion of his massive face.
+
+Those waiting days grew into weeks.  Ladd gained very slowly.
+Nevertheless, at last he could walk about, and soon he averred
+that, strapped to a horse, he could last out the trip to Forlorn
+River.
+
+There was rejoicing in camp, and plans were eagerly suggested.
+The Yaqui happened to be absent.  When he returned the rangers
+told him they were now ready to undertake the journey back across
+lava and cactus.
+
+Yaqui shook his head.  They declared again their intention.
+
+"No!" replied the Indian, and his deep, sonorous voice rolled
+out upon the quiet of the arroyo.  He spoke briefly then.  They
+had waited too long.  The smaller waterholes back in the trail
+were dry.  The hot summer was upon them.  There could be only
+death waiting down in the burning valley.  Here was water and
+grass and wood and shade from the sun's rays, and sheep to be
+killed on the peaks.  The water would hold unless the season was
+that dreaded ano seco of the Mexicans.
+
+"Wait for rain," concluded Yaqui, and now as never before he
+spoke as one with authority.  "If no rain--"  Silently he lifted
+his hand.
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+MOUNTAIN SHEEP
+
+WHAT Gale might have thought an appalling situation, if considered
+from a safe and comfortable home away from the desert, became, now
+that he was shut in by the red-ribbed lava walls and great dry
+wastes, a matter calmly accepted as inevitable.  So he imagined it
+was accepted by the others.  Not even Mercedes uttered a regret.
+No word was spoken of home.  If there was thought of loved one,
+it was locked deep in their minds.  In Mercedes there was no change
+in womanly quality, perhaps because all she had to love was there
+in the desert with her.
+
+Gale had often pondered over this singular change in character.
+He had trained himself, in order to fight a paralyzing something
+in the desert's influence, to oppose with memory and thought an
+insidious primitive retrogression to what was scarcely consciousness
+at all, merely a savage's instinct of sight and sound.  He felt the
+need now of redoubled effort.  For there was a sheer happiness in
+drifting.  Not only was it easy to forget, it was hard to remember.
+His idea was that a man laboring under a great wrong, a great crime,
+a great passion might find the lonely desert a fitting place for
+either remembrance or oblivion, according to the nature of his soul.
+But an ordinary, healthy, reasonably happy mortal who loved the open
+with its blaze of sun and sweep of wind would have a task to keep
+from going backward to the natural man as he was before civilization.
+
+By tacit agreement Ladd again became the leader of the party.
+Ladd was a man who would have taken all the responsibility
+whether or not it was given him.  In moments of hazard, of
+uncertainty, Lash and Gale, even Belding, unconsciously looked to the
+ranger.  He had that kind of power.
+
+The first thing Ladd asked was to have the store of food that
+remained spread out upon a tarpaulin.  Assuredly, it was a slender
+enough supply.  The ranger stood for long moments gazing down at
+it.  He was groping among past experiences, calling back from his
+years of life on range and desert that which might be valuable for
+the present issue.  It was impossible to read the gravity of Ladd's
+face, for he still looked like a dead man, but the slow shake of
+his head told Gale much.  There was a grain of hope, however, in
+the significance with which he touched the bags of salt and said,
+"Shore it was sense packin' all that salt!"
+
+Then he turned to face his comrades.
+
+"That's little grub for six starvin' people corralled in the desert.
+But the grub end ain't worryin' me.  Yaqui can get sheep up the
+slopes.  Water!  That's the beginnin' and middle an' end of our
+case."
+
+"Laddy, I reckon the waterhole here never goes dry," replied Jim.
+
+"Ask the Indian."
+
+Upon being questioned, Yaqui repeated what he had said about the
+dreaded ano seco of the Mexicans.  In a dry year this waterhole
+failed.
+
+"Dick, take a rope an' see how much water's in the hole."
+
+Gale could not find bottom with a thirty foot lasso.  The water
+was as cool, clear, sweet as if it had been kept in a shaded
+iron receptable.
+
+Ladd welcomed this information with surprise and gladness.
+
+"Let's see.  Last year was shore pretty dry.  Mebbe this summer
+won't be.  Mebbe our wonderful good luck'll hold.  Ask Yaqui if he
+thinks it 'll rain."
+
+Mercedes questioned the Indian.
+
+"He says no man can tell surely.  But he thinks the rain will
+come," she replied.
+
+"Shore it 'll rain, you can gamble on that now," continued Ladd.
+"If there's only grass for the hosses!  We can't get out of here
+without hosses.  Dick, take the Indian an' scout down the arroyo.
+To-day I seen the hosses were gettin' fat.  Gettin' fat in this
+desert!  But mebbe they've about grazed up all the grass.  Go an'
+see, Dick.  An' may you come back with more good news!"
+
+Gale, upon the few occasions when he had wandered down the arroyo,
+had never gone far.  The Yaqui said there was grass for the horses,
+and until now no one had given the question more consideration.
+Gale found that the arroyo widened as it opened.  Near the head,
+where it was narrow, the grass lined the course of the dry stream
+bed.  But farther down this stream bed spread out.  There was every
+indication that at flood seasons the water covered the floor of the
+arroyo.  The farther Gale went the thicker and larger grew the
+gnarled mesquites and palo verdes, the more cactus and greasewood
+there were, and other desert growths.  Patches of gray grass grew
+everywhere.  Gale began to wonder where the horses were.  Finally
+the trees and brush thinned out, and a mile-wide gray plain
+stretched down to reddish sand dunes.  Over to one side were the
+white horses, and even as Gale saw them both Blanco Diablo and
+Sol lifted their heads and, with white manes tossing in the wind,
+whistled clarion calls.  Here was grass enough for many horses;
+the arroyo was indeed an oasis.
+
+Ladd and the others were awaiting Gale's report, and they received
+it with calmness, yet with a joy no less evident because it was
+restrained.  Gale, in his keen observation at the moment, found
+that he and his comrades turned with glad eyes to the woman of
+the party.
+
+"Senor Laddy, you think--you believe--we shall--" she faltered,
+and her voice failed.  It was the woman in her, weakening in the
+light of real hope, of the happiness now possible beyond that
+desert barrier.
+
+"Mercedes, no white man can tell what'll come to pass out here,"
+said Ladd, earnestly.  "Shore I have hopes now I never dreamed of.
+I was pretty near a dead man.  The Indian saved me.  Queer notions
+have come into my head about Yaqui.  I don't understand them.  He
+seems when you look at him only a squalid, sullen, vengeful savage.
+But Lord! that's far from the truth.  Mebbe Yaqui's different from
+most Indians.  He looks the same, though.  Mebbe the trouble is we
+white folks never knew the Indian.  Anyway, Beldin' had it right.
+Yaqui's our godsend.  Now as to the future, I'd like to know mebbe
+as well as you if we're ever to get home.  Only bein' what I am,
+I say, Quien sabe?  But somethin' tells me Yaqui knows.  Ask him,
+Mercedes.  Make him tell.  We'll all be the better for knowin'.
+We'd be stronger for havin' more'n our faith in him.  He's silent
+Indian, but make him tell."
+
+Mercedes called to Yaqui.  At her bidding there was always a suggestion
+of hurry, which otherwise was never manifest in his actions.  She
+put a hand on his bared muscular arm and began to speak in Spanish.
+Her voice was low, swift, full of deep emotion, sweet as the sound
+of a bell.  It thrilled Gale, though he understood scarcely a word
+she said.  He did not need translation to know that here spoke the
+longing of a woman for life, love, home, the heritage of a woman's
+heart.
+
+Gale doubted his own divining impression.  It was that the Yaqui
+understood this woman's longing.  In Gale's sight the Indian's
+stoicism, his inscrutability, the lavalike hardness of his face,
+although they did not change, seemed to give forth light, gentleness,
+loyalty.  For an instant Gale seemed to have a vision; but it did
+not last, and he failed to hold some beautiful illusive thing.
+
+"Si!" rolled out the Indian's reply, full of power and depth.
+
+Mercedes drew a long breath, and her hand sought Thorne's.
+
+"He says yes," she whispered.  "He answers he'll save us; he'll
+take us all back--he knows!"
+
+The Indian turned away to his tasks, and the silence that held the
+little group was finally broken by Ladd.
+
+"Shore I said so.  Now all we've got to do is use sense.  Friends,
+I'm the commissary department of this outfit, an' what I say goes.
+You all won't eat except when I tell you.  Mebbe it'll not be so
+hard to keep our health.  Starved beggars don't get sick.  But
+there's the heat comin', an' we can all go loco, you know.  To
+pass the time!  Lord, that's our problem.  Now if you all only had
+a hankerin' for checkers.  Shore I'll make a board an' make you
+play.  Thorne, you're the luckiest.  You've got your girl, an' this
+can be a honeymoon.  Now with a few tools an' little material see
+what a grand house you can build for your wife.  Dick, you're
+lucky, too.  You like to hunt, an' up there you'll find the finest
+bighorn huntin' in the West.  Take Yaqui and the .405.  We need
+the meat, but while you're gettin' it have your sport.  The same
+chance will never come again.  I wish we all was able to go.  But
+crippled men can't climb the lava.  Shore you'll see some country
+from the peaks.  There's no wilder place on earth, except the poles.
+An' when you're older, you an' Nell, with a couple of fine boys,
+think what it'll be to tell them about bein' lost in the lava, an'
+huntin' sheep with a Yaqui.  Shore I've hit it.  You can take
+yours out in huntin' an' thinkin'.  Now if I had a girl like Nell
+I'd never go crazy.  That's your game, Dick.  Hunt, an' think of
+Nell, an' how you'll tell those fine boys about it all, an' about
+the old cowman you knowed, Laddy, who'll by then be long past the
+divide.  Rustle now, son.  Get some enthusiasm.  For shore you'll
+need it for yourself an' us."
+
+Gale climbed the lava slope, away round to the right of the arroyo,
+along an old trail that Yaqui said the Papagos had made before his
+own people had hunted there.  Part way it led through spiked,
+crested, upheaved lava that would have been almost impassable even
+without its silver coating of choya cactus.  There were benches
+and ledges and ridges bare and glistening in the sun.  From the
+crests of these Yaqui's searching falcon gaze roved near and far
+for signs of sheep, and Gale used his glass on the reaches of lava
+that slanted steeply upward to the corrugated peaks, and down over
+endless heave and roll and red-waved slopes.  The heat smoked up
+from the lava, and this, with the red color and the shiny choyas,
+gave the impression of a world of smoldering fire.
+
+Farther along the slope Yaqui halted and crawled behind projections
+to a point commanding a view over an extraordinary section of
+country.  The peaks were off to the left.  In the foreground were
+gullies, ridges, and canyons, arroyos, all glistening with choyas
+and some other and more numerous white bushes, and here and there
+towered a green cactus.  This region was only a splintered and more
+devastated part of the volcanic slope, but it was miles in extent.
+Yaqui peeped over the top of a blunt block of lava and searched
+the sharp-billowed wilderness.  Suddenly he grasped Gale and
+pointed across a deep wide gully.
+
+With the aid of his glass Gale saw five sheep.  They were much
+larger than he had expected, dull brown in color, and two of
+them were rams with great curved horns.  They were looking in his
+direction.  Remembering what he had heard about the wonderful
+eyesight of these mountain animals, Gale could only conclude that
+they had seen the hunters.
+
+Then Yaqui's movements attracted and interested him.  The Indian
+had brought with him a red scarf and a mesquite branch.  He tied
+the scarf to the stick, and propped this up in a crack of the lava.
+The scarf waved in the wind.  That done, the Indian bade Gale watch.
+
+Once again he leveled the glass at the sheep.  All five were
+motionless, standing like statues, heads pointed across the gully.
+They were more than a mile distant.  When Gale looked without his
+glass they merged into the roughness of the lava.  He was intensely
+interested. Did the sheep see the red scarf?  It seemed incredible,
+but nothing else could account for that statuesque alertness.  The
+sheep held this rigid position for perhaps fifteen minutes.  Then
+the leading ram started to approach.  The others followed.  He
+took a few steps, then halted.  Always he held his head up, nose
+pointed.
+
+"By George, they're coming!" exclaimed Gale.  "They see that flag.
+They're hunting us.  They're curious.  If this doesn't beat me!"
+
+Evidently the Indian understood, for he grunted.
+
+Gale found difficulty in curbing his impatience.  The approach of
+the sheep was slow.  The advances of the leader and the intervals
+of watching had a singular regularity.  He worked like a machine.
+Gale followed him down the opposite wall, around holes, across
+gullies, over ridges.  Then Gale shifted the glass back to find
+the others.  They were coming also, with exactly the same pace
+and pause of their leader.  What steppers they were!  How
+sure-footed!  What leaps they made!  It was thrilling to watch
+them. Gale forgot he had a rifle.  The Yaqui pressed a heavy hand
+down upon his shoulder.  He was to keep well hidden and to be quiet.
+Gale suddenly conceived the idea that the sheep might come clear
+across to investigate the puzzling red thing fluttering in the
+breeze.  Strange, indeed, would that be for the wildest creatures
+in the world.
+
+The big ram led on with the same regular persistence, and in half an
+hour's time he was in the bottom of the great gulf, and soon he was
+facing up the slope.  Gale knew then that the alluring scarf had
+fascinated him.  It was no longer necessary now for Gale to use his
+glass.  There was a short period when an intervening crest of lava
+hid the sheep from view.  After that the two rams and their smaller
+followers were plainly in sight for perhaps a quarter of an hour.
+Then they disappeared behind another ridge.  Gale kept watching sure
+they would come out farther on.  A tense period of waiting passed,
+then a suddenly electrifying pressure of Yaqui's hand made Gale
+tremble with excitement.
+
+Very cautiously he shifted his position.  There, not fifty feet
+distant upon a high mound of lava, stood the leader of the sheep.
+His size astounded Gale.  He seemed all horns.  But only for a
+moment did the impression of horns overbalancing body remain with
+Gale.  The sheep was graceful, sinewy, slender, powerfully built,
+and in poise magnificent.  As Gale watched, spellbound, the second
+ram leaped lightly upon the mound, and presently the three others
+did likewise.
+
+Then, indeed, Gale feasted his eyes with a spectacle for a hunter.
+It came to him suddenly that there had been something he expected
+to see in this Rocky Mountain bighorn, and it was lacking.  They
+were beautiful, as wonderful as even Ladd's encomiums had led him
+to suppose.  He thought perhaps it was the contrast these soft,
+sleek, short-furred, graceful animals afforded to what he imagined
+the barren, terrible lava mountains might develop.
+
+The splendid leader stepped closer, his round, protruding amber
+eyes, which Gale could now plainly see, intent upon that fatal
+red flag.  Like automatons the other four crowded into his tracks.
+A few little slow steps, then the leader halted.
+
+At this instant Gale's absorbed attention was directed by Yaqui
+to the rifle, and so to the purpose of the climb.  A little cold
+shock affronted Gale's vivid pleasure.  With it dawned a realization
+of what he had imagined was lacking in these animals.  They did not
+look wild!  The so-called wildest of wild creatures appeared tamer
+than sheep he had followed on a farm.  It would be little less than
+murder to kill them.  Gale regretted the need of slaughter.
+Nevertheless, he could not resist the desire to show himself and
+see how tame they really were.
+
+He reached for the .405, and as he threw a shell into the chamber
+the slight metallic click made the sheep jump.  Then Gale rose
+quickly to his feet.
+
+The noble ram and his band simply stared at Gale.  They had never
+seen a man.  They showed not the slightest indication of instinctive
+fear.  Curiosity, surprise, even friendliness, seemed to mark
+their attitude of attention.  Gale imagined that they were going
+to step still closer.  He did not choose to wait to see if this
+were true.  Certainly it already took a grim resolution to raise
+the heavy .405.
+
+His shot killed the big leader.  The others bounded away with
+remarkable nimbleness.  Gale used up the remaining four shells
+to drop the second ram, and by the time he had reloaded the others
+were out of range.
+
+
+The Yaqui's method of hunting was sure and deadly and saving of
+energy, but Gale never would try it again.  He chose to stalk the
+game.  This entailed a great expenditure of strength, the eyes
+and lungs of a mountaineer, and, as Gale put it to Ladd, the need
+of seven-league boots.  After being hunted a few times and shot
+at, the sheep became exceedingly difficult to approach.  Gale
+learned to know that their fame as the keenest-eyed of all animals
+was well founded.  If he worked directly toward a flock, crawling
+over the sharp lava, always a sentinel ram espied him before he
+got within range.  The only method of attack that he found successful
+was to locate sheep with his glass, work round to windward of
+them, and then, getting behind a ridge or buttress, crawl like a
+lizard to a vantage point.  He failed often.  The stalk called
+forth all that was in him of endurance, cunning, speed.
+As the days grew hotter he hunted in the early morning
+hours and a while before the sun went down.  More than one night
+he lay out on the lava, with the great stars close overhead and
+the immense void all beneath him.  This pursuit he learned to love.
+Upon those scarred and blasted slopes the wild spirit that was in
+him had free rein.  And like a shadow the faithful Yaqui tried
+ever to keep at his heels.
+
+One morning the rising sun greeted him as he surmounted the higher
+cone of the volcano.  He saw the vastness of the east algow with a
+glazed rosy whiteness, like the changing hue of an ember.  At this
+height there was a sweeping wind, still cool.  The western slopes
+of lava lay dark, and all that world of sand and gulf and mountain
+barrier beyond was shrouded in the mystic cloud of distance.  Gale
+had assimilated much of the loneliness and the sense of ownership
+and the love of lofty heights that might well belong to the great
+condor of the peak.  Like this wide-winged bird, he had an
+unparalleled range of vision.  The very corners whence came the
+winds seemed pierced by Gale's eyes.
+
+Yaqui spied a flock of sheep far under the curved broken rim of
+the main crater.  Then began the stalk.  Gale had taught the Yaqui
+something--that speed might win as well as patient cunning.  Keeping
+out of sight, Gale ran over the spike-crusted lava, leaving the
+Indian far behind.  His feet were magnets, attracting supporting
+holds and he passed over them too fast to fall.  The wind, the keen
+air of the heights, the red lava, the boundless surrounding blue,
+all seemed to have something to do with his wildness.  Then, hiding,
+slipping, creeping, crawling, he closed in upon his quarry until
+the long rifle grew like stone in his grip, and the whipping "spang"
+ripped the silence, and the strange echo boomed deep in the crater,
+and rolled around, as if in hollow mockery at the hopelessness of
+escape.
+
+Gale's exultant yell was given as much to free himself of some
+bursting joy of action as it was to call the slower Yaqui.
+Then he liked the strange echoes.  It was a maddening whirl of
+sound that bored deeper and deeper along the whorled and caverned
+walls of the crater.  It was as if these aged walls resented the
+violating of their silent sanctity.  Gale felt himself a man, a
+thing alive, something superior to all this savage, dead, upflung
+world of iron, a master even of all this grandeur and sublimity
+because he had a soul.
+
+He waited beside his quarry, and breathed deep, and swept the long
+slopes with searching eyes of habit.
+
+When Yaqui came up they set about the hardest task of all, to pack
+the best of that heavy sheep down miles of steep, ragged,
+choya-covered lava.  But even in this Gale rejoiced.  The heat was
+nothing, the millions of little pits which could hold and twist a
+foot were nothing; the blade-edged crusts and the deep fissures and
+the choked canyons and the tangled, dwarfed mesquites, all these
+were as nothing but obstacles to be cheerfully overcome.  Only the
+choya hindered Dick Gale.
+
+When his heavy burden pulled him out of sure-footedness, and he
+plunged into a choya, or when the strange, deceitful, uncanny,
+almost invisible frosty thorns caught and pierced him, then there
+was call for all of fortitude and endurance.  For this cactus had
+a malignant power of torture.  Its pain was a stinging, blinding,
+burning, sickening poison in the blood.  If thorns pierced his
+legs he felt the pain all over his body; if his hands rose from
+a fall full of the barbed joints, he was helpless and quivering
+till Yaqui tore them out.
+
+But this one peril, dreaded more than dizzy height of precipice
+or sunblindness on the glistening peak, did not daunt Gale.  His
+teacher was the Yaqui, and always before him was an example that
+made him despair of a white man's equality.  Color, race, blood,
+breeding--what were these in the wilderness?  Verily, Dick Gale
+had come to learn the use of his hands.
+
+So in a descent of hours he toiled down the lava slope, to stalk
+into the arroyo like a burdened giant, wringing wet, panting,
+clear-eyed and dark-faced, his ragged clothes and boots white
+with choya thorns.
+
+The gaunt Ladd rose from his shaded seat, and removed his pipe from
+smiling lips, and turned to nod at Jim, and then looked back again.
+
+The torrid summer heat came imperceptibly, or it could never have
+been borne by white men.  It changed the lives of the fugitives,
+making them partly nocturnal in habit.  The nights had the balmly
+coolness of spring, and would have been delightful for sleep, but
+that would have made the blazing days unendurable.
+
+The sun rose in a vast white flame.  With it came the blasting,
+withering wind from the gulf.  A red haze, like that of earlier
+sunsets, seemed to come sweeping on the wind, and it roared up
+the arroyo, and went bellowing into the crater, and rushed on
+in fury to lash the peaks.
+
+During these hot, windy hours the desert-bound party slept in
+deep recesses in the lava; and if necessity brought them forth
+they could not remain out long.  the sand burned through boots,
+and a touch of bare hand on lava raised a blister.
+
+A short while before sundown the Yaqui went forth to build a
+campfire, and soon the others came out, heat-dazed, half
+blinded, with parching throats to allay and hunger that was
+never satisfied.  A little action and a cooling of the air
+revived them, and when night set in they were comfortable
+round the campfire.
+
+As Ladd had said, one of their greatest problems was the
+passing of time.  The nights were interminably long, but
+they had to be passed in work or play or dream--anything
+except sleep.  That was Ladd's most inflexible command.  He gave
+no reason.  But not improbably the ranger thought that the terrific
+heat of the day spend in slumber lessened a wear and strain, if
+not a real danger of madness.
+
+Accordingly, at first the occupations of this little group were
+many and various.  They worked if they had something to do, or
+could invent a pretext.  They told and retold stories until all
+were wearisome.  They sang songs.  Mercedes taught Spanish.  They
+played every game they knew.  They invented others that were so
+trivial children would scarcely have been interested, and these
+they played seriously.  In a word, with intelligence and passion,
+with all that was civilized and human, they fought the ever-infringing
+loneliness, the savage solitude of their environment.
+
+But they had only finite minds.  It was not in reason to expect a
+complete victory against this mighty Nature, this bounding horizon
+of death and desolation and decay.  Gradually they fell back upon
+fewer and fewer occupations, until the time came when the silence
+was hard to break.
+
+Gale believed himself the keenest of the party, the one who thought
+most, and he watched the effect of the desert upon his companions.
+He imagined that he saw Ladd grow old sitting round the campfire.
+Certain it was that the ranger's gray hair had turned white.  What
+had been at times hard and cold and grim about him had strangely
+vanished in sweet temper and a vacant-mindedness that held him
+longer as the days passed.  For hours, it seemed, Ladd would bend
+over his checkerboard and never make a move.  It mattered not now
+whether or not he had a partner.  He was always glad of being
+spoken to, as if he were called back from vague region of mind.
+Jim Lash, the calmest, coolest, most nonchalant, best-humored
+Westerner Gale had ever met, had by slow degrees lost that cheerful
+character which would have been of such infinite good to his
+companions, and always he sat broding, silently brooding.  Jim had
+no ties, few memories, and the desert was claiming him.
+
+Thorne and Mercedes, however, were living, wonderful proof
+that spirit, mind, and heart were free--free to soar in scorn
+of the colossal barrenness and silence and space of that
+terrible hedging prison of lava.  They were young; they
+loved; they were together; and the oasis was almost a paradise.
+Gale believe he helped himself by watching them.  Imagination had
+never pictured real happiness to him.  Thorne and Mercedes had
+forgotten the outside world.  If they had been existing on the
+burned-out desolate moon they could hardly have been in a harsher,
+grimmer, lonelier spot than this red-walled arroyo.  But it might
+have been a statelier Eden than that of the primitive day.
+
+Mercedes grew thinner, until she was a slender shadow of her former
+self.  She became hard, brown as the rangers, lithe and quick as
+a panther.  She seemed to live on water and the air--perhaps, indeed,
+on love.  For of the scant fare, the best of which was continually
+urged upon her, she partook but little.  She reminded Gale of a
+wild brown creature, free as the wind on the lava slopes.  Yet,
+despite the great change, her beauty remained undiminished.  Her
+eyes, seeming so much larger now in her small face, were great
+black, starry gulfs.  She was the life of that camp.  Her smiles,
+her rapid speech, her low laughter, her quick movements, her
+playful moods with the rangers, the dark and passionate glance,
+which rested so often on her lover, the whispers in the dusk as
+hand in hand they paced the campfire beat--these helped Gale to
+retain his loosening hold on reality, to resist the lure of a
+strange beckoning life where a man stood free in the golden open,
+where emotion was not, nor trouble, nor sickness, nor anything but
+the savage's rest and sleep and action and dream.
+
+Although the Yaqui was as his shadow, Gale reached a point when
+he seemed to wander alone at twilight, in the night, at dawn.  Far
+down the arroyo, in the deepening red twilight, when the heat
+rolled away on slow-dying wind, Blanco Sol raised his splendid
+head and whistled for his master.  Gale reproached himself for
+neglect of the noble horse.  Blanco Sol was always the same.  He
+loved four things--his master, a long drink of cool water, to graze
+at will, and to run.  Time and place, Gale thought, meant little
+to Sol if he could have those four things.  Gale put his arm over
+the great arched neck and laid his cheek against the long white
+mane, and then even as he stood there forgot the horse.  What was
+the dull, red-tinged, horizon-wide mantle creeping up the slope?
+Through it the copper sun glowed, paled, died.  Was it only twilight?
+Was it gloom?  If he thought about it he had a feeling that it was
+the herald of night and the night must be a vigil, and that made
+him tremble.
+
+At night he had formed a habit of climbing up the lava slope as
+far as the smooth trail extended, and there on a promontory he
+paced to and fro, and watched the stars, and sat stone-still for
+hours looking down at the vast void with its moving, changing
+shadows.  From that promontory he gazed up at a velvet-blue sky,
+deep and dark, bright with millions of cold, distant, blinking
+stars, and he grasped a little of the meaning of infinitude.  He
+gazed down into the shadows, which, black as they were and
+impenetrable, yet have a conception of immeasurable space.
+
+Then the silence!  He was dumb, he was awed, he bowed his head,
+he trembled, he marveled at the desert silence.  It was the one
+thing always present.  Even when the wind roared there seemed to
+be silence.  But at night, in this lava world of ashes and canker,
+he waited for this terrible strangeness of nature to come to him
+with the secret.  He seemed at once a little child and a strong man,
+and something very old.  What tortured him was the incomprehensibility
+that the vaster the space the greater the silence!  At one moment
+Gale felt there was only death here, and that was the secret; at
+another he heard the slow beat of a mighty heart.
+
+He came at length to realize that the desert was a teacher.  He
+did not realize all that he had learned, but he was a different
+man.  And when he decided upon that, he was not thinking of the slow,
+sure call to the primal instincts of man; he was thinking that the desert,
+as much as he had experienced and no more, would absolutely overturn the
+whole scale of a man's values, break old habits, form new ones, remake him.
+More of desert experience, Gale believe, would be too much for intellect.
+The desert did not breed civilized man, and that made Gale ponder over
+a strange thought: after all, was the civilized man inferior to the savage?
+
+Yaqui was the answer to that.  When Gale acknowledged this he always
+remembered his present strange manner of thought.  The past, the
+old order of mind, seemed as remote as this desert world was from
+the haunts of civilized men.  A man must know a savage as Gale knew
+Yaqui before he could speak authoritatively, and then something
+stilled his tongue.  In the first stage of Gale's observation of
+Yaqui he had marked tenaciousness of life, stoicism, endurance,
+strength.  These were the attributes of the desert.  But what of
+that second stage wherein the Indian had loomed up a colossal
+figure of strange honor, loyalty, love?  Gale doubted his convictions
+and scorned himself for doubting.
+
+There in the gloom sat the silent, impassive, inscrutable Yaqui.
+His dark face, his dark eyes were plain in the light of the stars.
+Always he was near Gale, unobtrusive, shadowy, but there.  Why?
+Gale absolutely could not doubt that the Indian had heart as well
+as mind.  Yaqui had from the very first stood between Gale and
+accident, toil, peril.  It was his own choosing.  Gale could not
+change him or thwart him.  He understood the Indian's idea of
+obligation and sacred duty.  But there was more, and that baffled
+Gale.  In the night hours, alone on the slope, Gale felt in Yaqui,
+as he felt the mighty throb of that desert pulse, a something that
+drew him irresistibly to the Indian.  Sometimes he looked around
+to find the Indian, to dispel these strange, pressing thoughts
+of unreality, and it was never in vain.
+
+Thus the nights passed, endlessly long, with Gale fighting for his
+old order of thought, fighting the fascination of the infinite sky,
+and the gloomy insulating whirl of the wide shadows, fighting for
+belief, hope, prayer, fighting against that terrible ever-recurring
+idea of being lost, lost, lost in the desert, fighting harder than
+any other thing the insidious, penetrating, tranquil, unfeeling
+self that was coming between him and his memory.
+
+He was losing the battle, losing his hold on tangible things,
+losing his power to stand up under this ponderous, merciless weight
+of desert space and silence.
+
+He acknowledged it in a kind of despair, and the shadows of the
+night seemed whirling fiends.  Lost!  Lost!  Lost!  What are you
+waiting for?  Rain!. . . Lost!  Lost!  Lost in the desert!  So the
+shadows seemed to scream in voiceless mockery.
+
+At the moment he was alone on the promontory.  The night was far
+spent.  A ghastly moon haunted the black volcanic spurs.  The winds
+blew silently.  Was he alone?  No, he did not seem to be alone.
+The Yaqui was there.  Suddenly a strange, cold sensation crept over
+Gale.  It was new.  He felt a presence.  Turning, he expected to
+see the Indian, but instead, a slight shadow, pale, almost white,
+stood there, not close nor yet distant.  It seemed to brighten.
+Then he saw a woman who resembled a girl he had seemed to know long
+ago.  She was white-faced, golden-haired, and her lips were sweet,
+and her eyes were turning black.  Nell!  He had forgotten her.
+Over him flooded a torrent of memory.  There was tragic woe in this
+sweet face.  Nell was holding out her arms--she was crying aloud
+to him across the sand and the cactus and the lava.  She was in
+trouble, and he had been forgetting.
+
+That night he climbed the lava to the topmost cone, and never
+slipped on a ragged crust nor touched a choya thorn.  A voice
+called to him.  He saw Nell's eyes in the stars, in the velvet
+blue of sky, in the blackness of the engulfing shadows.
+She was with him, a slender shape, a spirit, keeping step
+with him, and memory was strong, sweet, beating, beautiful.
+Far down in the west, faintly golden with light of the sinking moon,
+he saw a cloud that resembled her face.  A cloud on the desert horizon!
+He gazed and gazed.  Was that a spirit face like the one by his
+side?  No--he did not dream.
+
+
+In the hot, sultry morning Yaqui appeared at camp, after long hours
+of absence, and he pointed with a long, dark arm toward the west.
+A bank of clouds was rising above the mountain barrier.
+
+"Rain!" he cried; and his sonorous voice rolled down the arroyo.
+
+Those who heard him were as shipwrecked mariners at sight of a
+distant sail.
+
+
+Dick Gale, silent, grateful to the depths of his soul, stood with
+arm over Blanco Sol and watched the transforming west, where
+clouds of wonderous size and hue piled over one another, rushing,
+darkening, spreading, sweeping upward toward that white and glowing
+sun.
+
+When they reached the zenish and swept round to blot out the blazing
+orb, the earth took on a dark, lowering aspect.  The red of sand
+and lava changed to steely gray.  Vast shadows, like ripples on
+water, sheeted in from the gulf with a low, strange moan.  Yet
+the silence was like death.  The desert was awaiting a strange
+and hated visitation--storm!  If all the endless torrid days, the
+endless mystic nights had seemed unreal to Gale, what, then, seemed
+this stupendous spectacle?
+
+"Oh!  I felt a drop of rain on my face!" cried Mercedes; and
+whispering the name of a saint, she kissed her husband.
+
+The white-haired Ladd, gaunt, old, bent, looked up at the maelstrom
+of clouds, and he said, softly, "Shore we'll get in the hosses,
+an' pack light, an' hit the trail, an' make night marches!"
+
+Then up out of the gulf of the west swept a bellowing wind and a
+black pall and terrible flashes of lightning and thunder like the
+end of the world--fury, blackness, chaos, the desert storm.
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+THE WHISTLE OF A HORSE
+
+AT the ranch-house at Forlorn River Belding stood alone in his
+darkened room.  It was quiet there and quiet outside; the sickening
+midsummer heat, like a hot heavy blanket, lay upon the house.
+
+He took up the gun belt from his table and with slow hands buckled
+it around his waist.  He seemed to feel something familiar and
+comfortable and inspiring in the weight of the big gun against
+his hip.  He faced the door as if to go out, but hesitated, and
+then began a slow, plodding walk up and down the length of the
+room.  Presently he halted at the table, and with reluctant hands
+he unbuckled the gun belt and laid it down.
+
+The action did not have an air of finality, and Belding knew it.
+He had seen border life in Texas in the early days; he had been
+a sheriff when the law in the West depended on a quickness of
+wrist; he had seen many a man lay down his gun for good and all.
+His own action was not final.  Of late he had done the same thing
+many times and this last time it seemed a little harder to do, a
+little more indicative of vacillation.  There were reasons why
+Belding's gun held for him a gloomy fascination.
+
+The Chases, those grasping and conscienceless agents of a new force
+in the development of the West, were bent upon Belding's ruin,
+and so far as his fortunes at Forlorn River were concerned, had
+almost accomplished it.  One by one he lost points for which he
+contended with them.  He carried into the Tucson courts the matter
+of the staked claims, and mining claims, and water claims, and he
+lost all.  Following that he lost his government position as inspector
+of immigration; and this fact, because of what he considered its
+injustice, had been a hard blow.  He had been made to suffer a
+humiliation equally as great.  It came about that he actually had
+to pay the Chases for water to irrigate his alfalfa fields.  The
+never-failing spring upon his land answered for the needs of
+household and horses, but no more.
+
+These matters were unfortunate for Belding, but not by any means
+wholly accountable for his worry and unhappiness and brooding hate.
+He believed Dick Gale and the rest of the party taken into the
+desert by the Yaqui had been killed or lost.  Two months before
+a string of Mexican horses, riderless, saddled, starved for grass
+and wild for water, had come in to Forlorn River.  They were a part
+of the horses belonging to Rojas and his band.  Their arrival
+complicated the mystery and strengthened convictions of the loss
+of both pursuers and pursued.  Belding was wont to say that he had
+worried himself gray over the fate of his rangers.
+
+Belding's unhappiness could hardly be laid to material loss.  He
+had been rich and was now poor, but change of fortune such as that
+could not have made him unhappy.  Something more somber and
+mysterious and sad than the loss of Dick Gale and their friends had
+come into the lives of his wife and Nell.  He dated the time of
+this change back to a certain day when Mrs. Belding recognized in
+the elder Chase an old schoolmate and a rejected suitor.  It took
+time for slow-thinking Belding to discover anything wrong in his
+household, especially as the fact of the Gales lingering there
+made Mrs. Belding and Nell, for the most part, hide their real
+and deeper feelings.  Gradually, however, Belding had forced on
+him the fact of some secret cause for grief other than Gale's loss.
+He was sure of it when his wife signified her desire to make a
+visit to her old home back in Peoria.  She did not give many reasons,
+but she did show him a letter that had found its way from
+old friends.  This letter contained news that may or may not have
+been authentic; but it was enough, Belding thought, to interest
+his wife.  An old prospector had returned to Peoria, and he had told
+relatives of meeting Robert Burton at the Sonoyta Oasis fifteen
+years before, and that Burton had gone into the desert never to
+return.  To Belding this was no surprise, for he had heard that
+before his marriage.  There appeared to have been no doubts as to
+the death of his wife's first husband.  The singular thing was that
+both Nell's father and grandfather had been lost somewhere in the
+Sonora Desert.
+
+Belding did not oppose his wife's desire to visit her old home.
+He thought it would be a wholesome trip for her, and did all in his
+power to persuade Nell to accompany her.  But Nell would not go.
+
+It was after Mrs. Belding's departure that Belding discovered in
+Nell a condition of mind that amazed and distressed him.  She had
+suddenly become strangely wretched, so that she could not conceal
+it from even the Gales, who, of all people, Belding imagined, were
+the ones to make Nell proud.  She would tell him nothing.  But
+after a while, when he had thought it out, he dated this further
+and more deplorable change in Nell back to a day on which he had
+met Nell with Radford Chase.  This indefatigable wooer had not
+in the least abandoned his suit.  Something about the fellow made
+Belding grind his teeth.  But Nell grew not only solicitously,
+but now strangely, entreatingly earnest in her importunities to
+Belding not to insult or lay a hand on Chase.  This had bound
+Belding so far; it had made him think and watch.  He had never
+been a man to interfere with his women folk.  They could do as
+they liked, and usually that pleased him.  But a slow surprise
+gathered and grew upon him when he saw that Nell, apparently,
+was accepting young Chase's attentions.  At least, she no longer
+hid from him.  Belding could not account for this, because he was
+sure Nell cordially despised the fellow.  And toward the end
+he divined, if he did not actually know, that these Chases
+possessed some strange power over Nell, and were using it.
+That stirred a hate in Belding--a hate he had felt at the very first
+and had manfully striven against, and which now gave him over to
+dark brooding thoughts.
+
+Midsummer passed, and the storms came late.  But when they arrived
+they made up for tardiness.  Belding did not remember so terrible
+a storm of wind and rain as that which broke the summer's drought.
+
+In a few days, it seemed, Altar Valley was a bright and green expanse,
+where dust clouds did not rise.  Forlorn River ran, a slow, heavy,
+turgid torrent.  Belding never saw the river in flood that it did
+not give him joy; yet now, desert man as he was, he suffered a
+regret when he thought of the great Chase reservoir full and
+overflowing.  The dull thunder of the spillway was not pleasant.  It
+was the first time in his life that the sound of falling water
+jarred upon him.
+
+Belding noticed workmen once more engaged in the fields bounding
+his land.  The Chases had extended a main irrigation ditch down
+to Belding's farm, skipped the width of his ground, then had gone
+on down through Altar Valley.  They had exerted every influence to
+obtain right to connect these ditches by digging through his land,
+but Belding had remained obdurate.  He refused to have any dealings
+with them.  It was therefore with some curiosity and suspicion that
+he saw a gang of Mexicans once more at work upon these ditches.
+
+At daylight next morning a tremendous blast almost threw Belding
+out of his bed.  It cracked the adobe walls of his house and broke
+windows and sent pans and crockery to the floor with a crash.
+Belding's idea was that the store of dynamite kept by the Chases
+for blasting had blown up.  Hurriedly getting into his clothes, he
+went to Nell's room to reassure her; and, telling her to have a
+thought for their guests, he went out to see what had happened.
+
+The villagers were pretty badly frightened.  Many of the poorly
+constructed adobe huts had crumbled almost into dust.  A great
+yellow cloud, like smoke, hung over the river.  This appeared
+to be at the upper end of Belding's plot, and close to the river.
+When he reached his fence the smoke and dust were so thick he
+could scarcely breathe, and for a little while he was unable to
+see what had happened.  Presently he made out a huge hole in the
+sand just about where the irrigation ditch had stopped near his
+line.  For some reason or other, not clear to Belding, the Mexicans
+had set off an extraordinarily heavy blast at that point.
+
+Belding pondered.  He did not now for a moment consider an accidental
+discharge of dynamite.  But why had this blast been set off?  The
+loose sandy soil had yielded readily to shovel; there were no rocks;
+as far as construction of a ditch was concerned such a blast
+would have done more harm than good.
+
+Slowly, with reluctant feet, Belding walked toward a green hollow,
+where in a cluster of willows lay the never-failing spring that
+his horses loved so well, and, indeed, which he loved no less.
+He was actually afraid to part the drooping willows to enter the
+little cool, shady path that led to the spring.  Then, suddenly
+seized by suspense, he ran the rest of the way.
+
+He was just in time to see the last of the water.  It seemed to sink
+as in quicksand.  The shape of the hole had changed.  The tremendous
+force of the blast in the adjoining field had obstructed or diverted
+the underground stream of water.
+
+Belding's never-failing spring had been ruined.  What had made
+this little plot of ground green and sweet and fragrant was now
+no more.  Belding's first feeling was for the pity of it.  The
+pale Ajo lilies would bloom no more under those willows.  The
+willows themselves would soon wither and die.  He thought how many
+times in the middle of hot summer nights he had come down to the
+spring to drink.  Never again!
+
+Suddenly he thought of Blanco Diablo.  How the great white
+thoroughbred had loved this spring!  Belding straightened up and
+looked with tear-blurred eyes out over the waste of desert to the
+west.  Never a day passed that he had not thought of the splendid
+horse; but this moment, with its significant memory, was doubly
+keen, and there came a dull pang in his breast.
+
+"Diablo will never drink here again!" muttered Belding.
+
+The loss of Blanco Diablo, though admitted and mourned by Belding,
+had never seemed quite real until this moment.
+
+The pall of dust drifting over him, the din of the falling water up
+at the dam, diverted Belding's mind to the Chases.  All at once he
+was in the harsh grip of a cold certainty.  The blast had been set
+off intentionally to ruin his spring.  What a hellish trick!  No
+Westerner, no Indian or Mexican, no desert man could have been
+guilty of such a crime.  To ruin a beautiful, clear, cool, never-failing
+stream of water in the desert!
+
+It was then that Belding's worry and indecision and brooding were
+as if they had never existed.  As he strode swiftly back to the
+house, his head, which had long been bent thoughtfully and sadly,
+was held erect.  He went directly to his room, and with an air
+that was now final he buckled on his gun belt.  He looked the gun
+over and tried the action.  He squared himself and walked a little
+more erect.  Some long-lost individuality had returned to Belding.
+
+"Let's see," he was saying.  "I can get Carter to send the horses
+I've left back to Waco to my brother.  I'll make Nell take what
+money there is and go hunt up her mother.  The Gales are ready
+to go--to-day, if I say the word.  Nell can travel with them part
+way East.  That's your game, Tom Belding, don't mistake me."
+
+As he went out he encountered Mr. Gale coming up the walk.  The
+long sojourn at Forlorn River, despite the fact that it had been
+laden with a suspense which was gradually changing to a sad certainty,
+had been of great benefit to Dick's father.  The dry air, the heat,
+and the quiet had made him, if not entirely a well man, certainly stronger
+than he had been in many years.
+
+"Belding, what was that terrible roar?" asked Mr. Gale.  "We were
+badly frightened until Miss Nell came to us.  We feared it was an
+earthquake."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you, Mr. Gale, we've had some quakes here, but
+none of them could hold a candle to this jar we just had."
+
+Then Belding explained what had caused the explosion, and why it
+had been set off so close to his property.
+
+"It's an outrage, sir, an unspeakable outrage," declared Mr. Gale,
+hotly.  "Such a thing would not be tolerated in the East.  Mr.
+Belding, I'm amazed at your attitude in the face of all this
+trickery."
+
+"You see--there was mother and Nell," began Belding, as if apologizing.
+He dropped his head a little and made marks in the sand with the
+toe of his boot.  "Mr. Gale, I've been sort of half hitched, as
+Laddy used to say.  I'm planning to have a little more elbow room
+round this ranch.  I'm going to send Nell East to her mother.  Then
+I'll--  See here, Mr. Gale, would you mind having Nell with you
+part way when you go home?"
+
+"We'd all be delighted to have her go all the way and make us a
+visit," replied Mr. Gale.
+
+"That's fine.  And you'll be going soon?  Don't take that as if I
+wanted to--" Belding paused, for the truth was that he did want
+to hurry them off.
+
+"We would have been gone before this, but for you," said Mr. Gale.
+"Long ago we gave up hope of--of Richard ever returning.  And I
+believe, now we're sure he was lost, that we'd do well to go home
+at once.  You wished us to remain until the heat was broken--till
+the rains came to make traveling easier for us.  Now I see no
+need for further delay.  My stay here has greatly benefited my
+health.  I shall never forget your hospitality.  This Western trip
+would have made me a new man if--only--Richard--"
+
+"Sure.  I understand," said Belding, gruffly.  "Let's go in and
+tell the women to pack up."
+
+Nell was busy with the servants preparing breakfast.  Belding
+took her into the sitting-room while Mr. Gale called his wife
+and daughter.
+
+"My girl, I've some news for you," began Belding.  "Mr. Gale is
+leaving to-day with his family.  I'm going to send you with
+them--part way, anyhow.  You're invited to visit them.  I think
+that 'd be great for you--help you to forget.  But the main thing
+is--you're going East to join mother."
+
+Nell gazed at him, white-faced, without uttering a word.
+
+"You see, Nell, I'm about done in Forlorn River," went on Belding.
+"That blast this morning sank my spring.  There's no water now.
+It was the last straw.  So we'll shake the dust of Forlorn River.
+I'll come on a little later--that's all."
+
+"Dad, you're packing your gun!" exclaimed Nell, suddenly pointing
+with a trembling finger.  She ran to him, and for the first time
+in his life Belding put her away from him.  His movements had lost
+the old slow gentleness.
+
+"Why, so I am," replied Belding, coolly, as his hand moved down
+to the sheath swinging at his hip.  "Nell, I'm that absent-minded
+these days!"
+
+"Dad!" she cried.
+
+"That'll do from you," he replied, in a voice he had never used
+to her.  "Get breakfast now, then pack to leave Forlorn River."
+
+"Leave Forlorn River!" whispered Nell, with a thin white hand
+stealing up to her breast.  How changed the girl was!  Belding
+reproached himself for his hardness, but did not speak his thought
+aloud.  Nell was fading here, just as Mercedes had faded before
+the coming of Thorne.
+
+Nell turned away to the west window and looked out
+across the desert toward the dim blue peaks in the distance.
+Belding watched her; likewise the Gales; and no one spoke.
+There ensued a long silence.  Belding felt a lump rise in his
+throat.  Nell laid her arm against the window frame, but gradually
+it dropped, and she was leaning with her face against the wood.
+A low sob broke from her.  Elsie Gale went to her, embraced her,
+took the drooping head on her shoulder.
+
+"We've come to be such friends," she said.  "I believe it'll be
+good for you to visit me in the city.  Here--all day you look out
+across that awful lonely desert....Come, Nell."
+
+Heavy steps sounded outside on the flagstones, then the door rattled
+under a strong knock.  Belding opened it.  The Chases, father and
+son, stood beyond the threshold.
+
+"Good morning, Belding," said the elder Chase.  "We were routed
+out early by that big blast and came up to see what was wrong.  All
+a blunder.  The Greaser foreman was drunk yesterday, and his
+ignorant men made a mistake.  Sorry if the blast bothered you."
+
+"Chase, I reckon that's the first of your blasts I was ever glad
+to hear," replied Belding, in a way that made Chase look blank.
+
+"So?  Well, I'm glad you're glad," he went on, evidently puzzled.
+"I was a little worried--you've always been so touchy--we never
+could get together.  I hurried over, fearing maybe you might think
+the blast--you see, Belding--"
+
+"I see this, Mr. Ben Chase," interrupted Belding, in curt and
+ringing voice.  "That blast was a mistake, the biggest you ever
+made in your life."
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded Chase.
+
+"You'll have to excuse me for a while, unless you're dead set on
+having it out right now.  Mr. Gale and his family are leaving, and
+my daughter is going with them.  I'd rather you'd wait a little."
+
+"Nell going away!"  exclaimed Radford Chase.  He reminded Belding
+of an overgrown boy in disappointment.
+
+"Yes.  But--Miss Burton to you, young man--"
+
+"Mr. Belding, I certainly would prefer a conference with you right
+now," interposed the elder Chase, cutting short Belding's strange
+speech.  "There are other matters--important matters to discuss.
+They've got to be settled.  May we step in, sir?"
+
+"No, you may not," replied Belding, bluntly.  "I'm sure particular
+who I invite into my house.  But I'll go with you."
+
+Belding stepped out and closed the door.  "Come away from the house
+so the women won't hear the--the talk."
+
+The elder Chase was purple with rage, yet seemed to be controlling
+it.  The younger man looked black, sullen, impatient.  He appeared
+not to have a thought of Belding.  He was absolutely blind to the
+situation, as considered from Belding's point of view.  Ben Chase
+found his voice about the time Belding halted under the trees out
+of earshot from the house.
+
+"Sir, you've insulted me--my son.  How dare you?  I want you to
+understand that you're--"
+
+"Chop that kind of talk with me, you ------- ------- ------- -------!"
+interrupted Belding.  He had always been profane, and now he
+certainly did not choose his language.  Chase turned livid, gasped,
+and seemed about to give way to fury.  But something about Belding
+evidently exerted a powerful quieting influence.  "If you talk
+sense I'll listen," went on Belding.
+
+Belding was frankly curious.  He did not think any argument or
+inducement offered by Chase could change his mind on past dealings
+or his purpose of the present.  But he believed by listening he
+might get some light on what had long puzzled him.  The masterly
+effort Chase put forth to conquer his aroused passions gave Belding
+another idea of the character of this promoter.
+
+"I want to make a last effort to propitiate you," began
+Chase, in his quick, smooth voice.  That was a singular change to
+Belding--the dropping instantly into an easy flow of speech.
+"You've had losses here, and naturally you're sore.  I don't blame
+you.  But you can't see this thing from my side of the fence.
+Business is business.  In business the best man wins.  The law
+upheld those transactions of mine the honesty of which you questioned.
+As to mining and water claims, you lost on this technical point--that
+you had nothing to prove you had held them for five years.  Five
+years is the time necessary in law.  A dozen men might claim the
+source of Forlorn River, but if they had no house or papers to
+prove their squatters' rights any man could go in and fight them
+for the water.  ....Now I want to run that main ditch along the
+river, through your farm.  Can't we make a deal?  I'm ready to be
+liberal--to meet you more than halfway.  I'll give you an interest
+in the company.  I think I've influence enough up at the Capitol
+to have you reinstated as inspector.  A little reasonableness on
+your part will put you right again in Forlorn River, with a chance
+of growing rich.  There's a big future here....My interest, Belding,
+has become personal.  Radford is in love with your step-daughter.
+He wants to marry her.  I'll admit now if I had foreseen this
+situation I wouldn't have pushed you so hard.  But we can square
+the thing.  Now let's get together not only in business, but in
+a family way.  If my son's happiness depends upon having this girl,
+you may rest assured I'll do all I can to get her for him.  I'll
+absolutely make good all your losses.  Now what do you say?"
+
+"No," replied Belding.  "Your money can't buy a right of way across
+my ranch.  And Nell doesn't want your son.  That settles that."
+
+"But you could persuade her."
+
+"I won't, that's all."
+
+"May I ask why?"  Chases's voice was losing its suave quality, but
+it was even swifter than before.
+
+"Sure.  I don't mind your asking," replied Belding in slow
+deliberation.  "I wouldn't do such a low-down trick.  Besides, if
+I would, I'd want it to be a man I was persuading for.  I know
+Greasers--I know a Yaqui I'd rather give Nell to than your son."
+
+Radford Chase began to roar in inarticulate rage.  Belding paid no
+attention to him; indeed, he never glanced at the young man.  The
+elder Chase checked a violent start.  He plucked at the collar of
+his gray flannel shirt, opened it at the neck.
+
+"My son's offer of marriage is an honor--more an honor, sir, than
+you perhaps are aware of."
+
+Belding made no reply.  His steady gaze did not turn from the long
+lane that led down to the river.  He waited coldly, sure of himself.
+
+"Mrs. Belding's daughter has no right to the name of Burton,"
+snapped Chase.  "Did you know that?"
+
+"I did not," replied Belding, quietly.
+
+"Well, you know it now," added Chase, bitingly.
+
+"Sure you can prove what you say?" queried Belding, in the same
+cool, unemotional tone.  It struck him strangely at the moment what
+little knowledge this man had of the West and of Western character.
+
+"Prove it?  Why, yes, I think so, enough to make the truth plain
+to any reasonable man.  I come from Peoria--was born and raised
+there.  I went to school with Nell Warren.  That was your wife's
+maiden name.  She was a beautiful, gay girl.  All the fellows
+were in love with her.  I knew Bob Burton well.  He was a splendid
+fellow, but wild.  Nobody ever knew for sure, but we all supposed
+he was engaged to marry Nell.  He left Peoria, however, and soon
+after that the truth about Nell came out.  She ran away.  It was
+at least a couple of months before Burton showed up in Peoria.
+He did not stay long.  Then for years nothing was heard of either
+of them.  When word did come Nell was in Oklahoma, Burton was in Denver.
+There's chance, of course, that Burton followed Nell and married her.
+That would account for Nell Warren taking the name of Burton.  But it
+isn't likely.  None of us ever heard of such a thing and wouldn't have
+believed it if we had.  The affair seemed destined to end unfortunately.
+But Belding, while I'm at it, I want to say that Nell Warren was one of
+the sweetest, finest, truest girls in the world.  If she drifted to
+the Southwest and kept her past a secret that was only natural.
+Certainly it should not be held against her.  Why, she was only
+a child--a girl--seventeen--eighteen years old....In a moment of
+amazement--when I recognized your wife as an old schoolmate--I
+blurted the thing out to Radford.  You see now how little it matters
+to me when I ask your stepdaughter's hand in marriage for my son."
+
+Belding stood listening.  The genuine emotion in Chase's voice was
+as strong as the ring of truth.  Belding knew truth when he heard
+it.  The revelation did not surprise him.  Belding did not soften,
+for he devined that Chase's emotion was due to the probing of an
+old wound, the recalling of a past both happy and painful.  Still,
+human nature was so strange that perhaps kindness and sympathy
+might yet have a place in this Chase's heart.  Belding did not
+believe so, but he was willing to give Chase the benefit of the
+doubt.
+
+"So you told my wife you'd respect her secret--keep her dishonor
+from husband and daughter?" demanded Belding, his dark gaze
+sweeping back from the lane.
+
+"What!  I--I" stammered Chase.
+
+"You made your son swear to be a man and die before he'd hint the
+thing to Nell?" went on Belding, and his voice rang louder.
+
+Ben Chase had no answer.  The red left his face.  His son slunk
+back against the fence.
+
+"I say you never held this secret over the heads of my wife and
+her daughter?" thundered Belding.
+
+He had his answer in the gray faces, in the lips that fear
+made mute.  Like a flash Belding saw the whole truth of Mrs.
+Belding's agony, the reason for her departure; he saw what had
+been driving Nell; and it seemed that all the dogs of hell were
+loosed within his heart.  He struck out blindly, instinctively in
+his pain, and the blow sent Ben Chase staggering into the fence
+corner.  Then he stretched forth a long arm and whirled Radford
+Chase back beside his father.
+
+"I see it all now," went on Belding, hoarsely.  "You found the
+woman's weakness--her love for the girl.  You found the girl's
+weakness--her pride and fear of shame.  So you drove the one and
+hounded the other.  God, what a base thing to do!  To tell the
+girl was bad enough, but to threaten her with betrayal; there's
+no name for that!"
+
+Belding's voice thickened, and he paused, breathing heavily.  He
+stepped back a few paces; and this, an ominous action for an armed
+man of his kind, instead of adding to the fear of the Chases, seemed
+to relieve them.  If there had been any pity in Belding's heart he
+would have felt it then.
+
+"And now, gentlemen," continued Belding, speaking low and with
+difficulty, "seeing I've turned down your proposition, I suppose
+you think you've no more call to keep your mouths shut?"
+
+The elder Chase appeared fascinated by something he either saw or
+felt in Belding, and his gray face grew grayer.  He put up a shaking
+hand.  Then Radford Chase, livid and snarling, burst out: "I'll talk
+till I'm black in the face.  You can't stop me!"
+
+"You'll go black in the face, but it won't be from talking," hissed
+Belding.
+
+His big arm swept down, and when he threw it up the gun glittered
+in his hand.  Simultaneously with the latter action pealed out a
+shrill, penetrating whistle.
+
+The whistle of a horse!  It froze Belding's arm aloft.
+For an instant he could not move even his eyes.  The familiarity
+of that whistle was terrible in its power to rob him of strength.
+Then he heard the rapid, heavy pound of hoofs, and again
+the piercing whistle.
+
+"Blanco Diablo!" he cried, huskily.
+
+He turned to see a huge white horse come thundering into the yard.
+A wild, gaunt, terrible horse; indeed, the loved Blanco Diablo.
+A bronzed, long-haired Indian bestrode him.  More white horses
+galloped into the yard, pounded to a halt, whistling home.  Belding
+saw a slim shadow of a girl who seemed all great black eyes.
+
+Under the trees flashed Blanco Sol, as dazzling white, as beautiful
+as if he had never been lost in the desert.  He slid to a halt, then
+plunged and stamped.  His rider leaped, throwing the bridle.  Belding
+saw a powerful, spare, ragged man, with dark, gaunt face and eyes
+of flame.
+
+Then Nell came running from the house, her golden hair flying, her
+hands outstretched, her face wonderful.
+
+"Dick!  Dick!  Oh-h-h, Dick!" she cried.  Her voice seemed to quiver
+in Belding's heart.
+
+Belding's eyes began to blur.  He was not sure he saw clearly.
+Whose face was this now close before him--a long thin, shrunken
+face, haggard, tragic in its semblance of torture, almost of
+death?  But the eyes were keen and kind.  Belding thought wildly
+that they proved he was not dreaming.
+
+"I shore am glad to see you all," said a well-remembered voice
+in a slow, cool drawl.
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+REALITY AGAINST DREAMS
+
+LADD, Lash, Thorne, Mercedes, they were all held tight in Belding's
+arms.  Then he ran to Blanco Diablo.  For once the great horse was
+gentle, quiet, glad.  He remembered this kindest of masters and
+reached for him with warm, wet muzzle.
+
+Dick Gale was standing bowed over Nell's slight form, almost
+hidden in his arms.  Belding hugged them both.  He was like a boy.
+He saw Ben Chase and his son slip away under the trees, but the
+circumstances meant nothing to him then.
+
+"Dick!  Dick!" he roared.  "Is it you?...Say, who do you think's
+here--here, in Forlorn River?"
+
+Gale gripped Belding with a hand as rough and hard as a file and
+as strong as a vise.  But he did not speak a word.  Belding thought
+Gale's eyes would haunt him forever.
+
+It was then three more persons came upon the scene--Elsie Gale,
+running swiftly, her father assisting Mrs. Gale, who appeared
+about to faint.
+
+"Belding!  Who on earth's that?" cried Dick Hoarsely.
+
+"Quien sabe, my son," replied Belding; and now his voice seemed
+a little shaky.  "Nell, come here.  Give him a chance."
+
+Belding slipped his arm round Nell, and whispered in her ear.
+"This 'll be great!"
+
+Elsie Gale's face was white and agitated, a face expressing extreme joy.
+
+"Oh, brother!  Mama saw you--Papa saw you, and never knew you!  But I
+knew you when you jumped quick--that way--off your horse.  And now I
+don't know you.  You wild man!  You giant!  You splendid
+barbarian!...Mama, Papa, hurry!  It is Dick!  Look at him.  Just look
+at him!  Oh-h, thank God!"
+
+Belding turned away and drew Nell with him.  In another second
+she and Mercedes were clasped in each other's arms.  Then followed
+a time of joyful greetings all round.
+
+The Yaqui stood leaning against a tree watching the welcoming home
+of the lost.  No one seemed to think of him, until Belding, ever
+mindful of the needs of horses, put a hand on Blanco Diablo and
+called to Yaqui to bring the others.  They led the string of whites
+down to the barn, freed them of wet and dusty saddles and packs,
+and turned them loose in the alfalfa, now breast-high.  Diablo
+found his old spirit; Blanco Sol tossed his head and whistled
+his satisfaction; White Woman pranced to and fro; and presently
+they all settled down to quiet grazing.  How good it was for
+Belding to see those white shapes against the rich background
+of green!  His eyes glistened.  It was a sight he had never expected
+to see again.  He lingered there many moments when he wanted to
+hurry back to his rangers.
+
+At last he tore himself away from watching Blanco Diablo and
+returned to the house.  It was only to find that he might have
+spared himself the hurry.  Jim and Ladd were lying on the beds
+that had not held them for so many months.  Their slumber seemed
+as deep and quiet as death.  Curiously Belding gazed down upon them.
+They had removed only boots and chaps.  Their clothes were in
+tatters.  Jim appeared little more than skin and bones, a long
+shape, dark and hard as iron.  Ladd's appearance shocked Belding.
+The ranger looked an old man, blasted, shriveled, starved.  Yet
+his gaunt face, though terrible in its records of tortures, had
+something fine and noble, even beautiful to Belding, in its
+strength, its victory.
+
+Thorne and Mercedes had disappeared.  The low murmur of voices
+came from Mrs. Gale's room, and Belding concluded that Dick was
+still with his family.  No doubt he, also, would soon seek rest
+and sleep.  Belding went through the patio and called in at Nell's
+door.  She was there sitting by her window.  The flush of happiness
+had not left her face, but she looked stunned, and a shadow of fear
+lay dark in her eyes.  Belding had intended to talk.  He wanted
+some one to listen to him.  The expression in Nell's eyes, however,
+silenced him.  He had forgotten.  Nell read his thought in his
+face, and then she lost all her color and dropped her head.  Belding
+entered, stood beside her with a hand on hers.  He tried desperately
+hard to think of the right thing to say, and realized so long as
+he tried that he could not speak at all.
+
+"Nell--Dick's back safe and sound," he said, slowly.  "That's the
+main thing.  I wish you could have seen his eyes when he held you
+in his arms out there....Of course, Dick's coming knocks out your
+trip East and changes plans generally.  We haven't had the happiest
+time lately.  But now it 'll be different.  Dick's as true as a
+Yaqui.  He'll chase that Chase fellow, don't mistake me....Then
+mother will be home soon.  She'll straighten out this--this mystery.
+And Nell--however it turns out--I know Dick Gale will feel just the
+same as I feel.  Brace up now, girl."
+
+Belding left the patio and traced thoughtful steps back toward the
+corrals.  He realized the need of his wife.  If she had been at
+home he would not have come so close to killing two men.  Nell
+would never have fallen so low in spirit.  Whatever the real truth
+of the tragedy of his wife's life, it would not make the slightest
+difference to him.  What hurt him was the pain mother and daughter
+had suffered, were suffering still.  Somehow he must put an end
+to that pain.
+
+He found the Yaqui curled up in a corner of the barn in as deep
+a sleep as that of the rangers.  Looking down at him, Belding
+felt again the rush of curious thrilling eagerness to learn all
+that had happened since the dark night when Yaqui had led the
+white horses away into the desert.  Belding curbed his
+impatience and set to work upon tasks he had long neglected.
+Presently he was interrupted by Mr. Gale, who came out, beside
+himself with happiness and excitement.  He flung a hundred questions
+at Belding and never gave him time to answer one, even if that had
+been possible.  Finally, when Mr. Gale lost his breath, Belding
+got a word in.  "See here, Mr. Gale, you know as much as I know.
+Dick's back.  They're all back--a hard lot, starved, burned, torn
+to pieces, worked out to the limit I never saw in desert travelers,
+but they're alive--alive and well, man!  Just wait.  Just gamble
+I won't sleep or eat till I hear that story.  But they've got to
+sleep and eat."
+
+Belding gathered with growing amusement that besides the joy,
+excitement, anxiety, impatience expressed by Mr. Gale there was
+something else which Belding took for pride.  It pleased him.  Looking
+back, he remembered some of the things Dick had confessed his
+father thought of him.  Belding's sympathy had always been with the
+boy.  But he had learned to like the old man, to find him kind
+and wise, and to think that perhaps college and business had not
+brought out the best in Richard Gale.  The West had done that,
+however, as it had for many a wild youngster; and Belding resolved
+to have a little fun at the expense of Mr. Gale.  So he began by
+making a few remarks that appeared to rob Dick's father of both
+speech and breath.
+
+"And don't mistake me," concluded Belding, "just keep out of earshot
+when Laddy tells us the story of that desert trip, unless you're
+hankering to have your hair turn pure white and stand curled on
+end and freeze that way."
+
+
+About the middle of the forenoon on the following day the rangers
+hobbled out of the kitchen to the porch.
+
+"I'm a sick man, I tell you," Ladd was complaining, "an' I gotta be
+fed.  Soup!  Beef tea!  That ain't so much as wind to me.  I want
+about a barrel of bread an' butter, an' a whole platter of mashed
+potatoes with gravy an' green stuff--all kinds of green stuff--an'
+a whole big apple pie.  Give me everythin' an' anythin' to eat but
+meat.  Shore I never, never want to taste meat again, an' sight
+of a piece of sheep meat would jest about finish me....Jim, you
+used to be a human bein' that stood up for Charlie Ladd."
+
+"Laddy, I'm lined up beside you with both guns," replied Jim,
+plaintively.  "Hungry?  Say, the smell of breakfast in that kitchen
+made my mouth water so I near choked to death.  I reckon we're
+gettin' most onhuman treatment."
+
+"But I'm a sick man," protested Ladd, "an' I'm agoin' to fall over
+in a minute if somebody doesn't feed me.  Nell, you used to be fond
+of me."
+
+"Oh, Laddy, I am yet," replied Nell.
+
+"Shore I don't believe it.  Any girl with a tender heart just
+couldn't let a man starve under her eyes...Look at Dick, there.
+I'll bet he's had something to eat, mebbe potatoes an' gravy, an'
+pie an'--"
+
+"Laddy, Dick has had no more than I gave you--in deed, not nearly
+so much."
+
+"Shore he's had a lot of kisses then, for he hasn't hollered onct
+about this treatment."
+
+"Perhaps he has," said Nell, with a blush; "and if you think
+that--they would help you to be reasonable I might--I'll--"
+
+"Well, powerful fond as I am of you, just now kisses 'll have
+to run second to bread an' butter."
+
+"Oh, Laddy, what a gallant speech!" laughed Nell.  "I'm sorry,
+but I've Dad's orders."
+
+"Laddy," interrupted Belding, "you've got to be broke in gradually
+to eating.  Now you know that.  You'd be the severest kind of a
+boss if you had some starved beggars on your hands."
+
+"But I'm sick--I'm dyin'," howled Ladd.
+
+"You were never sick in your life, and if all the bullet holes I
+see in you couldn't kill you, why, you never will die."
+
+"Can I smoke?" queried Ladd, with sudden animation.  "My Gawd, I
+used to smoke.  Shore I've forgot.  Nell, if you want to be reinstated
+in my gallery of angels, just find me a pipe an' tobacco."
+
+"I've hung onto my pipe," said Jim, thoughtfully.  "I reckon I had
+it empty in my mouth for seven years or so, wasn't it, Laddy?  A
+long time!  I can see the red lava an' the red haze, an' the red
+twilight creepin' up.  It was hot an' some lonely.  Then the wind,
+and always that awful silence!  An' always Yaqui watchin' the west,
+an' Laddy with his checkers, an' Mercedes burnin' up, wastin'
+away to nothin' but eyes!  It's all there--I'll never get rid--"
+
+"Chop that kind of talk," interrupted Belding, bluntly.  "Tell us
+where Yaqui took you--what happened to Rojas--why you seemed lost
+for so long."
+
+"I reckon Laddy can tell all that best; but when it comes to Rojas's
+finish I'll tell what I seen, an' so'll Dick an' Thorne.  Laddy
+missed Rojas's finish.  Bar none, that was the--"
+
+"I'm a sick man, but I can talk," put in Ladd, "an' shore I don't
+want the whole story exaggerated none by Jim."
+
+Ladd filled the pipe Nell brought, puffed ecstatically at it, and
+settled himself upon the bench for a long talk.  Nell glanced
+appealingly at Dick, who tried to slip away.  Mercedes did go, and
+was followed by Thorne.  Mr. Gale brought chairs, and in subdued
+excitement called his wife and daughter.  Belding leaned forward,
+rendered all the more eager by Dick's reluctance to stay, the
+memory of the quick tragic change in the expression of Mercedes's
+beautiful eyes, by the strange gloomy cast stealing over Ladd's
+face.
+
+The ranger talked for two hours--talked till his voice weakened
+to a husky whisper.  At the conclusion of his story there was an
+impressive silence.  Then Elsie Gale stood up, and with her hand
+on Dick's shoulder, her eyes bright and warm as sunlight, she
+showed the rangers what a woman thought of them and of the Yaqui.
+Nell clung to Dick, weeping silently.  Mrs. Gale was overcome,
+and Mr. Gale, very white and quiet, helped her up to her room.
+
+"The Indian! the Indian!" burst out Belding, his voice deep and
+rolling.  "What did I tell you?  Didn't I say he'd be a godsend?
+Remember what I said about Yaqui and some gory Aztec knifework?
+So he cut Rojas loose from that awful crater wall, foot by foot,
+finger by finger, slow and terrible?  And Rojas didn't hang long
+on the choya thorns?  Thank the Lord for that!...Laddy, no story
+of Camino del Diablo can hold a candle to yours.  The flight
+and the fight were jobs for men.  But living through this long
+hot summer and coming out--that's a miracle.  Only the Yaqui
+could have done it.  The Yaqui!  The Yaqui!"
+
+"Shore.  Charlie Ladd looks up at an Indian these days.  But
+Beldin', as for the comin' out, don't forget the hosses.  Without
+grand old Sol an' Diablo, who I don't hate no more, an' the other
+Blancos, we'd never have got here.  Yaqui an' the hosses, that's
+my story!"
+
+
+Early in the afternoon of the next day Belding encountered Dick
+at the water barrel.
+
+"Belding, this is river water, and muddy at that," said Dick.
+"Lord knows I'm not kicking.  But I've dreamed some of our cool
+running spring, and I want a drink from it."
+
+"Never again, son.  The spring's gone, faded, sunk, dry as dust."
+
+"Dry!"  Gale slowly straightened.  "We've had rains.  The river's
+full.  The spring ought to be overflowing.  What's wrong?  Why is
+it dry?"
+
+"Dick, seeing you're interested, I may as well tell you that a
+big charge of nitroglycerin choked my spring."
+
+"Nitroglycerin?" echoed Gale.  Then he gave a quick start.  "My
+mind's been on home, Nell, my family.  But all the same I felt
+something was wrong here with the ranch, with you, with
+Nell...Belding, that ditch there is dry.  The roses are dead.
+The little green in that grass has come with the rains.  What's
+happened?  The ranch's run down.  Now I look around I see a change."
+
+"Some change, yes," replied Belding, bitterly.  "Listen, son."
+
+Briefly, but not the less forcibly for that, Belding related his
+story of the operations of the Chases.
+
+Astonishment appeared to be Gale's first feeling. "Our water gone,
+our claims gone, our plans forestalled!  Why, Belding, it's
+unbelievable.  Forlorn River with promoters, business, railroad,
+bank, and what not!"
+
+Suddenly he became fiery and suspicious.  "These Chases--did
+they do all this on the level?"
+
+"Barefaced robbery!  Worse than a Greaser holdup," replied Belding,
+grimly.
+
+"You say the law upheld them?"
+
+"Sure.  Why, Ben Chase has a pull as strong as Diablo's on a down
+grade.  Dick, we're jobbed, outfigured, beat, tricked, and we can't
+do a thing."
+
+"Oh, I'm sorry, Belding, most of all for Laddy," said Gale,
+feelingly.  "He's all in.  He'll never ride again.  He wanted to
+settle down here on the farm he thought he owned, grow grass and
+raise horses, and take it easy.  Oh, but it's tough!  Say, he
+doesn't know it yet.  He was just telling me he'd like to go out
+and look the farm over.  Who's going to tell him?  What's he going
+to do when he finds out about this deal?"
+
+"Son, that's made me think some," replied Belding, with keen eyes
+fast upon the young man.  "And I was kind of wondering how you'd
+take it."
+
+"I?  Well, I'll call on the Chases.  Look here, Belding, I'd better
+do some forestalling myself.  If Laddy gets started now there'll be
+blood spilled.  He's not just right in his mind yet.  He talks in his
+sleep sometimes about how Yaqui finished Rojas.  If it's left to
+him--he'll kill these men.  But if I take it up--"
+
+"You're talking sense, Dick.  Only here, I'm not so sure of you.
+And there's more to tell.  Son, you've Nell to think of and your
+mother."
+
+Belding's ranger gave him a long and searching glance.
+
+"You can be sure of me," he said.
+
+"All right, then; listen," began Belding.  With deep voice that
+had many a beak and tremor he told Gale how Nell had been hounded
+by Radford Chase, how her mother had been driven by Ben Chase--the
+whole sad story.
+
+"So that's the trouble!  Poor little girl!" murmured Gale, brokenly.
+"I felt something was wrong.  Nell wasn't natural, like her old
+self.  And when I begged her to marry me soon, while Dad was here,
+she couldn't talk.  She could only cry."
+
+"It was hard on Nell," said Belding, simply.  "But it 'll be better
+now you're back.  Dick, I know the girl.  She'll refuse to marry
+you and you'll have a hard job to break her down, as hard as the
+one you just rode in off of.  I think I know you, too, or I wouldn't
+be saying--"
+
+"Belding, what 're you hinting at?" demanded Gale.  "Do you dare
+insinuate that--that--if the thing were true it'd make any difference
+to me?"
+
+"Aw, come now, Dick; I couldn't mean that.  I'm only awkward at
+saying things.  And I'm cut pretty deep--"
+
+"For God's dake, you don't believe what Chase said?" queried Gale,
+in passionate haste.  "It's a lie.  I swear it's a lie.  I know
+it's a lie.  And I've got to tell Nell this minute.  Come on in with
+me.  I want you, Belding.  Oh, why didn't you tell me sooner?"
+
+Belding felt himself dragged by an iron arm into the sitting-room out
+into the patio, and across that to where Nell sat in her door.  At
+sight of them she gave a little cry, drooped for an instant, then
+raised a pale, still face, with eyes beginning to darken.
+
+"Dearest, I know now why you are not wearing my mother's ring,"
+said Gale, steadily and low-voiced.
+
+"Dick, I am not worthy," she replied, and held out a trembling
+hand with the ring lying in the palm.
+
+Swift as light Gale caught her hand and slipped the ring back
+upon the third finger.
+
+"Nell!  Look at me.  It is your engagement ring....Listen.  I don't
+believe this--this thing that's been torturing you.  I know it's
+a lie.  I am absolutely sure your mother will prove it a lie.  She
+must have suffered once--perhaps there was a sad error--but the
+thing you fear is not true.  But, hear me, dearest; even if it was
+true it wouldn't make the slightest difference to me.  I'd promise
+you on my honor I'd never think of it again.  I'd love you all the
+more because you'd suffered.  I want you all the more to be my
+wife--to let me make you forget--to--"
+
+She rose swiftyly with the passionate abandon of a woman stirred
+to her depths, and she kissed him.
+
+"Oh, Dick, you're good--so good!  You'll never know--just what
+those words mean to me.  They've saved me--I think."
+
+"Then, dearest, it's all right?"  Dick questioned, eagerly.  "You
+will keep your promise?  You will marry me?"
+
+The glow, the light faded out of her face, and now the blue eyes
+were almost black.  She drooped and shook her head.
+
+"Nell!" exclaimed Gale, sharply catching his breath.
+
+"Don't ask me, Dick.  I--I won't marry you."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"You know.  It's true that I--"
+
+"It's a lie," interrupted Gale, fiercely.  "But even if it's
+true--why--why won't you marry me?  Between you and me love is the
+thing.  Love, and nothing else!  Don't you love me any more?"
+
+They had forgotten Belding, who stepped back into the shade.
+
+"I love you with my whole heart and soul.  I'd die for you,"
+whispered Nell, with clenching hands.  "But I won't disgrace you."
+
+"Dear, you have worried over this trouble till you're morbid.  It
+has grown out of all proportion.  I tell you that I'll not only
+be the happiest man on earth, but the luckiest, if you marry me."
+
+"Dick, you give not one thought to your family.  Would they receive
+me as your wife?"
+
+"They surely would," replied Gale, steadily.
+
+"No! oh no!"
+
+"You're wrong, Nell.  I'm glad you said that.  You give me a chance
+to prove something.  I'll go this minute and tell them all.  I'll
+be back here in less than--"
+
+"Dick, you will not tell her--your mother?" cried Nell, with her
+eyes streaming.  "You will not?  Oh, I can't bear it!  She's so
+proud!  And Dick, I love her.  Don't tell her!  Please, please
+don't!  She'll be going soon.  She needn't ever know--about me.
+I want her always to think well of me.  Dick, I beg of you.  Oh,
+the fear of her knowing has been the worst of all!  Please don't
+go!"
+
+"Nell, I'm sorry.  I hate to hurt you.  But you're wrong.  You
+can't see things clearly.  This is your happiness I'm fighting
+for.  And it's my life....Wait here, dear.  I won't be long."
+
+Gale ran across the patio and disappeared.  Nell sank to the
+doorstep, and as she met the question in Belding's eyes she
+shook her head mournfully.  They waited without speaking.  It
+seemed a long while before Gale returned.  Belding thrilled at
+sight of him.  There was more boy about him than Belding had
+ever seen.  Dick was coming swiftly, flushed, glowing, eager,
+erect, almost smiling.
+
+"I told them.  I swore it was a lie, but I wanted them
+to decide as if it were true.  I didn't have to waste a minute
+on Elsie.  She loves you, Nell.  The Governor is crazy about you.
+I didn't have to waste two minutes on him.  Mother used up the
+time.  She wanted to know all there was to tell.  She is proud,
+yes; but, Nell, I wish you could have seen how she took the--the
+story about you.  Why, she never thought of me at all, until she
+had cried over you.  Nell, she loves you, too.  They all love you.
+Oh, it's so good to tell you.  I think mother realizes the part
+you have had in the--what shall I call it?--the regeneration of
+Richard Gale.  Doesn't that sound fine?  Darling, mother not only
+consents, she wants you to be my wife.  Do you hear that?  And
+listen--she had me in a corner and, of course, being my mother,
+she put on the screws.  She made me promise that we'd live in the
+East half the year.  That means Chicago, Cape May, New York--you
+see, I'm not exactly the lost son any more.  Why, Nell, dear,
+you'll have to learn who Dick Gale really is.  But I always want
+to be the ranger you helped me become, and ride Blanco Sol, and
+see a little of the desert.  Don't let the idea of big cities
+frighten you.  Well always love the open places best.  Now,
+Nell, say you'll forget this trouble.  I know it'll come all right.
+Say you'll marry me soon....Why, dearest, you're crying....Nell!"
+
+"My--heart--is broken," sobbed Nell, "for--I--I--can't marry you."
+
+The boyish brightness faded out of Gale's face.  Here, Belding
+saw, was the stern reality arrayed against his dreams.
+
+"That devil Radford Chase--he'll tell my secret," panted Nell.
+"He swore if you ever came back and married me he'd follow us all
+over the world to tell it."
+
+Belding saw Gale grow deathly white and suddenly stand stock-still.
+
+"Chase threatened you, then?" asked Dick; and the forced naturalness
+of his voice struck Belding.
+
+"Threatened me?  He made my life a nightmare," replied Nell, in a
+rush of speech.  "At first I wondered how he was worrying mother
+sick.  But she wouldn't tell me.  Then when she went away he began
+to hint things.  I hated him all the more.  But when he told me--I
+was frightened, shamed.  Still I did not weaken.  He was pretty
+decent when he was sober.  But when he was half drunk he was the
+devil.  He laughed at me and my pride.  I didn't dare shut the
+door in his face.  After a while he found out that your mother
+loved me and that I loved her.  Then he began to threaten me.
+If I didn't give in to him he'd see she learned the truth.  That
+made me weaken.  It nearly killed me.  I simply could not bear
+the thought of Mrs. Gale kowing.  But I couldn't marry him.  Besides,
+he got so half the time, when he was drunk, he didn't want or ask
+me to be his wife.  I was about ready to give up and go mad when
+you--you came home."
+
+She ended in a whisper, looking up wistfully and sadly at him.
+Belding was a raging fire within, cold without.  He watched Gale,
+and believed he could foretell that young man's future conduct.
+Gale gathered Nell up into his arms and held her to his breast
+for a long moment.
+
+"Dear Nell, I'm sure the worst of your trouble is over," he said
+gently.  "I will not give you up.  Now, won't you lie down, try
+to rest and calm yourself.  Don't grieve any more.  This thing
+isn't so bad as you make it.  Trust me.  I'll shut Mr. Radford
+Chase's mouth."
+
+As he released her she glanced quickly up at him, then lifted
+appealing hands.
+
+"Dick, you won't hunt for him--go after him?"
+
+Gale laughed, and the laugh made Belding jump.
+
+"Dick, I beg of you.  Please don't make trouble.  The Chases have
+been hard enough on us.  They are rich, powerful.  Dick, say you
+will not make matters worse.  Please promise me you'll not go to him."
+
+"You ask me that?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes.  Oh yes!"
+
+"But you know it's useless.  What kind of a man do you want me to be?"
+
+"It's only that I'm afraid.  Oh, Dick, he'd shoot you in the back."
+
+"No, Nell, a man of his kind wouldn't have nerve enough even for that."
+
+"You'll go?" she cried wildly.
+
+Gale smiled, and the smile made Belding cold.
+
+"Dick, I cannot keep you back?"
+
+"No," he said.
+
+Then the woman in her burst through instinctive fear, and with
+her eyes blazing black in her white face she lifted parted quivering
+lips and kissed him.
+
+Gale left the patio, and Belding followed closely at his heels.
+They went through the sitting-room.  Outside upon the porch sat
+the rangers, Mr. Gale, and Thorne.  Dick went into his room without
+speaking.
+
+"Shore somethin's comin' off," said Ladd, sharply; and he sat up
+with keen eyes narrowing.
+
+Belding spoke a few words; and, remembering an impression he had
+wished to make upon Mr. Gale, he made them strong.  But now it was
+with grim humor that he spoke.
+
+"Better stop that boy," he concluded, looking at Mr. Gale.  "He'll
+do some mischief.  He's wilder'n hell."
+
+"Stop him?  Why, assuredly," replied Mr. Gale, rising with nervous
+haste.
+
+Just then Dick came out of his door.  Belding eyed him keenly.  The
+only change he could see was that Dick had put on a hat and a pair
+of heavy gloves.
+
+"Richard, where are you going?" asked his father.
+
+"I'm going over here to see a man."
+
+"No.  It is my wish that you remain.  I forbid you to go," said
+Mr. Gale, with a hand on his son's shoulder.
+
+Dick put Mr. Gale aside gently, respectfully, yet forcibly.  The
+old man gasped.
+
+"Dad, I haven't gotten over my bad habit of disobeying you.  I'm
+sorry.  Don't interfere with me now.  And don't follow me.  You
+might see something unpleasant."
+
+"But my son!  What are you going to do?"
+
+"I'm going to beat a dog."
+
+Mr. Gale looked helplessly from this strangely calm and cold son
+to the restless Belding.  Then Dick strode off the porch.
+
+"Hold on!"  Ladd's voice would have stopped almost any man.  "Dick,
+you wasn't agoin' without me?"
+
+"Yes, I was.  But I'm thoughtless just now, Laddy."
+
+"Shore you was.  Wait a minute, Dick.  I'm a sick man, but at that
+nobody can pull any stunts round here without me."
+
+He hobbled along the porch and went into his room.  Jim Lash
+knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and, humming his dance tune,
+he followed Ladd.  In a moment the rangers appeared, and both were
+packing guns.
+
+Not a little of Belding's grim excitement came from observation
+of Mr. Gale.  At sight of the rangers with their guns the old
+man turned white and began to tremble.
+
+"Better stay behind," whispered Belding.  "Dick's going to beat
+that two-legged dog, and the rangers get excited when they're
+packing guns."
+
+"I will not stay behind," replied Mr. Gale, stoutly.  "I'll see
+this affair through.  Belding, I've guessed it.  Richard is going
+to fight the Chases, those robbers who have ruined you."
+
+"Well, I can't guarantee any fight on their side," returned Belding,
+dryly.  "But maybe there'll be Greasers with a gun or two."
+
+Belding stalked off to catch up with Dick, and Mr. Gale came trudging
+behind with Thorne.
+
+"Where will we find these Chases?" asked Dick of Belding.
+
+"They've got a place down the road adjoining the inn.  They call
+it their club.  At this hour Radford will be there sure.
+I don't know about the old man.  But his office is now just
+across the way."
+
+They passed several houses, turned a corner into the main street,
+and stopped at a wide, low adobe structure.  A number of saddled
+horses stood haltered to posts.  Mexicans lolled around the wide
+doorway.
+
+"There's Ben Chase now over on the corner," said Belding to Dick.
+"See, the tall man with the white hair, and leather band on his
+hat.  He sees us.  He knows there's something up.  He's got men
+with him.  They'll come over.  We're after the young buck, and
+sure he'll be in here."
+
+They entered.  The place was a hall, and needed only a bar to make
+it a saloon.  There were two rickety pool tables.  Evidently Chase
+had fitted up this amusement room for his laborers as well as for
+the use of his engineers and assistants, for the crowd contained
+both Mexicans and Americans.  A large table near a window was
+surrounded by a noisy, smoking, drinking circle of card-players.
+
+"Point out this Radford Chase to me," said Gale.
+
+"There!  The big fellow with the red face.  His eyes stick out a
+little.  See!  He's dropped his cards and his face isn't red any
+more."
+
+Dick strode across the room.
+
+Belding grasped Mr. Gale and whispered hoarsely: "Don't miss anything.
+It 'll be great.  Watch Dick and watch Laddy!  If there's any gun
+play, dodge behind me."
+
+Belding smiled with a grim pleasure as he saw Mr. Gales' face turn
+white.
+
+Dick halted beside the table.  His heavy boot shot up, and with a
+crash the table split, and glasses, cards, chips flew everywhere.
+As they rattled down and the chairs of the dumfounded players
+began to slide Dick called out: "My name is Gale.  I'm looking
+for Mr. Radford Chase."
+
+A tall, heavy-shouldered fellow rose, boldly enough, even swaggeringly,
+and glowered at Gale.
+
+"I'm Radford Chase," he said.  His voice betrayed the boldness of
+his action.
+
+
+It was over in a few moments.  The tables and chairs were tumbled
+into a heap; one of the pool tables had been shoved aside; a lamp
+lay shattered, with oil running dark upon the floor.  Ladd leaned
+against a post with a smoking gun in his hand.  A Mexican crouched
+close to the wall moaning over a broken arm.  In the far corner
+upheld by comrades another wounded Mexican cried out in pain.  These
+two had attempted to draw weapons upon Gale, and Ladd had crippled
+them.
+
+In the center of the room lay Radford Chase, a limp, torn, hulking,
+bloody figure.  He was not seriously injured.  But he was helpless,
+a miserable beaten wretch, who knew his condition and felt the
+eyes upon him.  He sobbed and moaned and howled.  But no one offered
+to help him to his feet.
+
+Backed against the door of the hall stood Ben Chase, for once
+stripped of all authority and confidence and courage.  Gale
+confronted him, and now Gale's mien was in striking contrast to
+the coolness with which he had entered the place.  Though sweat
+dripped from his face, it was as white as chalk.  Like dark flames
+his eyes seemed to leap and dance and burn.  His lean jaw hung
+down and quivered with passion.  He shook a huge gloved fist in
+Chase's face.
+
+"Your gray hairs save you this time.  But keep out of my way!  And
+when that son of yours comes to, tell him every time I meet him
+I'll add some more to what he got to-day!"
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+
+THE SECRET OF FORLORN RIVER
+
+IN the early morning Gale, seeking solitude where he could brood
+over his trouble, wandered alone.  It was not easy for him to elude
+the Yaqui, and just at the moment when he had cast himself down in
+a secluded shady corner the Indian appeared, noiseless, shadowy,
+mysterious as always.
+
+"Malo," he said, in his deep voice.
+
+"Yes, Yaqui, it's bad--very bad," replied Gale.
+
+The Indian had been told of the losses sustained by Belding and
+his rangers.
+
+"Go--me!" said Yaqui, with an impressive gesture toward the lofty
+lilac-colored steps of No Name Mountains.
+
+He seemed the same as usual, but a glance on Gale's part, a moment's
+attention, made him conscious of the old strange force in the Yaqui.
+"Why does my brother want me to climb the nameless mountains with
+him?" asked Gale.
+
+"Lluvia d'oro," replied Yaqui, and he made motions that Gale found
+difficult of interpretation.
+
+"Shower of Gold," translated Gale.  That was the Yaqui's name for
+Nell.  What did he mean by using it in connection with a climb into
+the mountains?  Were his motions intended to convey an idea of a
+shower of golden blossoms from that rare and beautiful tree, or a
+golden rain?  Gale's listlessness vanished in a flash of thought.
+The Yaqui meant gold.  Gold!  He meant he could retrieve the fallen
+fortunes of the white brother who had saved his life that evil day
+at the Papago Well.  Gale thrilled as he gazed piercingly into the
+wonderful eyes of this Indian.  Would Yaqui never consider his debt paid?
+
+"Go--me?" repeat the Indian, pointing with the singular directness
+that always made this action remarkable in him.
+
+"Yes, Yaqui."
+
+Gale ran to his room, put on hobnailed boots, filled a canteen,
+and hurried back to the corral.  Yaqui awaited him.  The Indian
+carried a coiled lasso and a short stout stick.  Without a word
+he led the way down the lane, turned up the river toward the
+mountains.  None of Belding's household saw their departure.
+
+What had once been only a narrow mesquite-bordered trail was now
+a well-trodden road.  A deep irrigation ditch, full of flowing
+muddy water, ran parallel with the road.  Gale had been curious
+about the operations of the Chases, but bitterness he could not
+help had kept him from going out to see the work.  He was not
+surprised to find that the engineers who had contructed the ditches
+and dam had anticipated him in every particular.  The dammed-up
+gulch made a magnificent reservoir, and Gale could not look upon
+the long narrow lake without a feeling of gladness.  The dreaded
+ano seco of the Mexicans might come again and would come, but never
+to the inhabitants of Forlorn River.  That stone-walled, stone-floored
+gulch would never leak, and already it contained water enough to
+irrigate the whole Altar Valley for two dry seasons.
+
+Yaqui led swiftly along the lake to the upper end, where the
+stream roared down over unscalable walls.  This point was the
+farthest Gale had ever penetrated into the rough foothills, and
+he had Belding's word for it that no white man had ever climbed
+No Name Mountains from the west.
+
+But a white man was not an Indian.  The former might have
+stolen the range and valley and mountain, even the desert,
+but his possessions would ever remain mysteries.  Gale had
+scarcely faced the great gray ponderous wall of cliff before
+the old strange interest in the Yaqui seized him again.  It recalled
+the tie that existed between them, a tie almost as close as blood.
+Then he was eager and curious to see how the Indian would conquer
+those seemingly insurmountable steps of stone.
+
+Yaqui left the gulch and clambered up over a jumble of weathered
+slides and traced a slow course along the base of the giant wall.
+He looked up and seemed to select a point for ascent.  It was the
+last place in that mountainside where Gale would have thought
+climbing possible.  Before him the wall rose, leaning over him,
+shutting out the light, a dark mighty mountain mass.  Innumerable
+cracks and crevices and caves roughened the bulging sides of dark
+rock.
+
+Yaqui tied one end of his lasso to the short, stout stick and,
+carefully disentangling the coils, he whirled the stick round and
+round and threw it almost over the first rim of the shelf, perhaps
+thirty feet up.  The stick did not lodge.  Yaqui tried again.
+This time it caught in a crack.  He pulled hard.  Then, holding
+to the lasso, he walked up the steep slant, hand over hand on the
+rope.  When he reached the shelf he motioned for Gale to follow.
+Gale found that method of scaling a wall both quick and easy.
+Yaqui pulled up the lasso, and threw the stick aloft into another
+crack.  He climbed to another shelf, and Gale followed him.  The
+third effort brought them to a more rugged bench a hundred feet
+above the slides.  The Yaqui worked round to the left, and turned
+into a dark fissure.  Gale kept close to his heels.  They came
+out presently into lighter space, yet one that restricted any
+extended view.  Broken sections of cliff were on all sides.
+
+Here the ascent became toil.  Gale could distance Yaqui
+going downhill; on the climb, however, he was hard put
+to it to keep the Indian in sight.  It was not a question
+of strength or lightness of foot.  These Gale had beyond the
+share of most men.  It was a matter of lung power, and the Yaqui's
+life had been spent scaling the desert heights.  Moreover, the
+climbing was infinitely slow, tedious, dangerous.  On the way up
+several times Gale imagined he heard a dull roar of falling water.
+The sound seemed to be under him, over him to this side and to that.
+When he was certain he could locate the direction from which it
+came then he heard it no more until he had gone on.  Gradually he
+forgot it in the physical sensations of the climb.  He burned his
+hands and knees.  He grew hot and wet and winded.  His heart
+thumped so that it hurt, and there were instants when his sight
+was blurred.  When at last he had toiled to where the Yaqui sat
+awaiting him upon the rim of that great wall, it was none too soon.
+
+Gale lay back and rested for a while without note of anything
+except the blue sky.  Then he sat up.  He was amazed to find that
+after that wonderful climb he was only a thousand feet or so above
+the valley.  Judged by the nature of his effort, he would have
+said he had climbed a mile.  The village lay beneath him, with its
+new adobe structures and tents and buildings in bright contrast with
+the older habitations.  He saw the green alfalfa fields, and
+Belding's white horses, looking very small and motionless.  He
+pleased himself by imagining he could pick out Blanco Sol.  Then
+his gaze swept on to the river.
+
+Indeed, he realized now why some one had named it Forlorn River.
+Even at this season when it was full of water it had a forlorn
+aspect.  It was doomed to fail out there on the desert--doomed
+never to mingle with the waters of the Gulf.  It wound away down
+the valley, growing wider and shallower, encroaching more and more
+on the gray flats, until it disappeared on its sad journey toward
+Sonoyta.  That vast shimmering, sun-governed waste recognized its
+life only at this flood season, and was already with parched tongue
+and insatiate fire licking and burning up its futile waters.
+
+Yaqui put a hand on Gale's knee.  It was a bronzed, scarred,
+powerful hand, always eloquent of meaning.  The Indian was listening.
+His bent head, his strange dilating eyes, his rigid form, and that
+close-pressing hand, how these brought back to Gale the terrible
+lonely night hours on the lava!
+
+"What do you hear, Yaqui?" asked Gale.  He laughed a little at the
+mood that had come over him.  But the sound of his voice did not
+break the spell.  He did not want to speak again.  He yielded to
+Yaqui's subtle nameless influence.  He listened himself, heard
+nothing but the scream of an eagle.  Often he wondered if the
+Indian could hear things that made no sound.  Yaqui was beyond
+understanding.
+
+Whatever the Indian had listened to or for, presently he satisfied
+himself, and, with a grunt that might mean anything, he rose and
+turned away from the rim.  Gale followed, rested now and eager to
+go on.  He saw that the great cliff they had climbed was only a
+stairway up to the huge looming dark bulk of the plateau above.
+
+Suddenly he again heard the dull roar of falling water.  It seemed
+to have cleared itself of muffled vibrations.  Yaqui mounted a little
+ridge and halted.  The next instant Gale stood above a bottomless
+cleft into which a white stream leaped.  His astounded gaze swept
+backward along this narrow swift stream to its end in a dark, round,
+boiling pool.  It was a huge spring, a bubbling well, the outcropping
+of an underground river coming down from the vast plateau above.
+
+Yaqui had brought Gale to the source of Forlorn River.
+
+Flashing thoughts in Gale's mind were no swifter than the thrills
+that ran over him.  He would stake out a claim here and never be
+cheated out of it.  Ditches on the benches and troughs on the steep
+walls would carry water down to the valley.  Ben Chase had build
+a great dam which would be useless if Gale chose to turn Forlorn River
+from its natural course.  The fountain head of that mysterious desert
+river belonged to him.
+
+His eagerness, his mounting passion, was checked by Yaqui's unusual
+action.  The Indian showed wonder, hesitation, even reluctance.  His
+strange eyes surveyed this boiling well as if they could not
+believe the sight they saw.  Gale divined instantly that Yaqui had
+never before seen the source of Forlorn River.  If he had ever
+ascended to this plateau, probably it had been to some other part,
+for the water was new to him.  He stood gazing aloft at peaks,
+at lower ramparts of the mountain, and at nearer landmarks of
+prominence.  Yaqui seemed at fault.  He was not sure of his location.
+
+Then he strode past the swirling pool of dark water and began to
+ascend a little slope that led up to a shelving cliff.  Another
+object halted the Indian.  It was a pile of stones, weathered,
+crumbled, fallen into ruin, but still retaining shape enough to
+prove it had been built there by the hands of men.  Round and
+round this the Yaqui stalked, and his curiosity attested a further
+uncertainty.  It was as if he had come upon something surprising.
+Gale wondered about the pile of stones.  Had it once been a
+prospector's claim?
+
+"Ugh!" grunted the Indian; and, though his exclamation expressed
+no satisfaction, it surely put an end to doubt.  He pointed up to
+the roof of the sloping yellow shelf of stone.  Faintly outlined
+there in red were the imprints of many human hands with fingers
+spread wide.  Gale had often seen such paintings on the walls of
+the desert caverns.  Manifestly these told Yaqui he had come to
+the spot for which he had aimed.
+
+Then his actions became swift--and Yaqui seldom moved swiftly.
+The fact impressed Gale.  The Indian searched the level floor
+under the shelf.  He gathered up handfuls of small black stones,
+and thrust them at Gale.  Their weight made Gale start, and then
+he trembled.  The Indian's next move was to pick up a piece
+of weathered rock and throw it against the wall.  It broke.
+He snatched up parts, and showed the broken edges to Gale.
+They contained yellow steaks, dull glints, faint tracings of green.
+It was gold.
+
+Gale found his legs shaking under him; and he sat down, trying
+to take all the bits of stone into his lap.  His fingers were
+all thumbs as with knife blade he dug into the black pieces
+of rock.  He found gold.  Then he stared down the slope, down
+into the valley with its river winding forlornly away into the
+desert.  But he did not see any of that.  Here was reality as sweet,
+as wonderful, as saving as a dream come true.  Yaqui had led him
+to a ledge of gold.  Gale had learned enough about mineral to know
+that this was a rich strike.  All in a second he was speechless
+with the joy of it.  But his mind whirled in thought about this
+strange and noble Indian, who seemed never to be able to pay a
+debt.  Belding and the poverty that had come to him!  Nell, who
+had wept over the loss of a spring!  Laddy, who never could ride
+again!  Jim Lash, who swore he would always look after his friend!
+Thorne and Mercedes!  All these people, who had been good to him
+and whom he loved, were poor.  But now they would be rich.  They
+would one and all be his partners.  He had discovered the source
+of Forlorn River, and was rich in water.  Yaqui had made him rich
+in gold.  Gale wanted to rush down the slope, down into the valley,
+and tell his wonderful news.
+
+Suddenly his eyes cleared and he saw the pile of stones.  His
+blood turned to ice, then to fire.  That was the mark of a prospector's
+claim.  But it was old, very old.  The ledge had never been worked.
+the slope was wild.  There was not another single indication that
+a prospector had ever been there.  Where, then, was he who had
+first staked this claim?  Gale wondered with growing hope, with
+the fire easing, with the cold passing.
+
+The Yaqui uttered the low, strange, involuntary cry so
+rare with him, a cry somehow always associated with death.
+Gale shuddered.
+
+The Indian was digging in the sand and dust under the shelving wall.
+He threw out an object that rang against the stone.  It was a belt
+buckle.  He threw out old shrunken, withered boots.  He came upon
+other things, and then he ceased to dig.
+
+The grave of desert prospectors!  Gale had seen more than one.
+Ladd had told him many a story of such gruesome finds.  It was grim,
+hard fact.
+
+Then the keen-eyed Yaqui reached up to a little projecting shelf
+of rock and took from it a small object.  He showed no curiosity
+and gave the thing to Gale.
+
+How strangely Gale felt when he received into his hands a flat
+oblong box!  Was it only the influence of the Yaqui, or was there
+a nameless and unseen presence beside that grave?  Gale could not
+be sure.  But he knew he had gone back to the old desert mood.  He
+knew something hung in the balance.  No accident, no luck, no
+debt-paying Indian could account wholly for that moment.  Gale
+knew he held in his hands more than gold.
+
+The box was a tin one, and not all rusty.  Gale pried open the
+reluctant lid.  A faint old musty odor penetrated his nostrils.
+Inside the box lay a packet wrapped in what once might have been
+oilskin.  He took it out and removed this covering.  A folded paper
+remained in his hands.
+
+It was growing yellow with age.  But he descried a dim tracery of
+words.  A crabbed scrawl, written in blood, hard to read!  He held
+it more to the light, and slowly he deciphered its content.
+
+
+"We, Robert Burton and Jonas Warren, give half of this gold claim
+to the man who finds it and half to Nell Burton, daughter and
+granddaughter."
+
+
+Gasping, with a bursting heart, ovewhelmed by an unutterable joy
+of divination, Gale fumbled with the paper until he got it open.
+
+It was a certificate twenty-one years old, and recorded the marriage
+of Robert Burton and Nellie Warren.
+
+
+
+XX
+
+
+DESERT GOLD
+
+A SUMMER day dawned on Forlorn River, a beautiful, still, hot,
+golden day with huge sail clouds of white motionless over No Name
+Peaks and the purple of clear air in the distance along the desert
+horizon.
+
+Mrs. Belding returned that day to find her daughter happy and the
+past buried forever in two lonely graves.  The haunting shadow left
+her eyes.  Gale believed he would never forget the sweetness, the
+wonder, the passion of her embrace when she called him her boy and
+gave him her blessing.
+
+The little wrinkled padre who married Gale and Nell performed the
+ceremoney as he told his beads, without interest or penetration,
+and went his way, leaving happiness behind.
+
+"Shore I was a sick man," Ladd said, "an' darn near a dead one, but
+I'm agoin' to get well.  Mebbe I'll be able to ride again someday.
+Nell, I lay it to you.  An' I'm agoin' to kiss you an' wish you
+all the joy there is in this world.  An', Dick, as Yaqui says,
+she's shore your Shower of Gold."
+
+He spoke of Gale's finding love--spoke of it with the deep and
+wistful feeling of the lonely ranger who had always yearned for
+love and had never known it.  Belding, once more practical, and
+important as never before with mining projects and water claims
+to manage, spoke of Gale's great good fortune in finding of
+gold--he called it desert gold.
+
+"Ah, yes.  Desert Gold!" exclaimed Dick's father, softly,
+with eyes of pride.  Perhaps he was glad Dick had found the rich
+claim; surely he was happy that Dick had won the girl he loved.
+But it seemed to Dick himself that his father meant something
+very different from love and fortune in his allusion to desert gold.
+
+
+That beautiful happy day, like life or love itself, could not be
+wholly perfect.
+
+Yaqui came to Dick to say good-by.  Dick was startled, grieved,
+and in his impulsiveness forgot for a moment the nature of the
+Indian.  Yaqui was not to be changed.
+
+Belding tried to overload him with gifts.  The Indian packed a
+bag of food, a blanket, a gun, a knife, a canteen, and no more.
+The whole household went out with him to the corrals and fields
+from which Belding bade him choose a horse--any horse, even the
+loved Blanco Diablo.  Gale's heart was in his throat for fear the
+Indian might choose Blanco Sol, and Gale hated himself for a
+selfishness he could not help.  But without a word he would have
+parted with the treasured Sol.
+
+Yaqui whistled the horses up--for the last time.  Did he care for
+them?  It would have been hard to say.  He never looked at the
+fierce and haughty Diablo, nor at Blanco Sol as he raised his noble
+head and rang his piercing blast.  The Indian did not choose one
+of Belding's whites.  He caught a lean and wiry broncho, strapped
+a blanket on him, and fastened on the pack.
+
+Then he turned to these friends, the same emotionless, inscrutable
+dark and silent Indian that he had always been.  This parting was
+nothing to him.  He had stayed to pay a debt, and now he was going
+home.
+
+He shook hands with the men, swept a dark fleeting glance over Nell,
+and rested his strange eyes upon Mercedes's beautiful and agitated
+face.  It must have been a moment of intense feeling for the Spanish
+girl.  She owed it to him that she had life and love and happiness.
+She held out those speaking slender hands.  But Yaqui did not touch them.
+Turning away, he mounted the broncho and rode down the trail toward the river.
+
+"He's going home," said Belding.
+
+"Home!" whispered Ladd; and Dick knew the ranger felt the resurging
+tide of memory.  Home--across the cactus and lava, through solemn
+lonely days, the silent, lonely nights, into the vast and red-hazed
+world of desolation.
+
+"Thorne, Mercedes, Nell, let's climb the foothill yonder and watch
+him out of sight," said Dick.
+
+They climbed while the others returned to the house.  When they reached
+the summit of the hill Yaqui was riding up the far bank of the river.
+
+"He will turn to look--to wave good-by?" asked Nell.
+
+"Dear he is an Indian," replied Gale.
+
+From that height they watched him ride through the mesquites, up
+over the river bank to enter the cactus.  His mount showed dark
+against the green and white, and for a long time he was plainly
+in sight.  The sun hung red in a golden sky.  The last the watchers
+saw of Yaqui was when he rode across a ridge and stood silhouetted
+against the gold of desert sky--a wild, lonely, beautiful picture.
+Then he was gone.
+
+Strangely it came to Gale then that he was glad.  Yaqui had returned
+to his own--the great spaces, the desolation, the solitude--to the
+trails he had trodden when a child, trails haunted now by ghosts
+of his people, and ever by his gods.  Gale realized that in the
+Yaqui he had known the spirit of the desert, that this spirit had
+claimed all which was wild and primitive in him.
+
+Tears glistened in Mercedes's magnificent black eyes, and Thorne
+kissed them away--kissed the fire back to them and the flame to
+her cheeks.
+
+That action recalled Gale's earlier mood, the joy of the present, and
+he turned to Nell's sweet face.  The desert was there, wonderful,
+constructive, ennobling, beautiful, terrible, but it was not for him
+as it was for the Indian.  In the light of Nell's tremulous returning
+smile that strange, deep, clutching shadow faded, lost its hold
+forever; and he leaned close to her, whispering: "Lluvia d'oro"--
+"Shower of Gold."
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Desert Gold, by Zane Grey