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.