The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1922-12-12

bclu1uS, DuI lOl ny dAy AcdIlS WuOlAy
accountable for his worry and unhap-
piness and brooding hate. He be-
!: lieved 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
to Forlorn River. They were a part
Of the horses belonging to Rojas and
his band. Their arrival complicG ted
the mystery and strengthened convic.
tions of the loss Of both pursuers and
pursued.
Belongs 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 o: his wife
and Nell. He dated the tine of this
change back to Z certain day when
Mrs. Bedding rnrogniZ"'! in the elder
Chase IN old SchOo.',a' +",l rn
iected suitor. It took time for slow
thinking Bedding to discover anything
wrong in his household, but gradually
he had forced on him the fact Of some
secret cause for grief other than Gales
loss. He was sure Of it when his wife
signified her desire to make visit to
her old home back in Peoria.
A letter she had received contained
news that may or may not have been
authentic; but it was enough, Bedding
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 re-
turn. To Belding this was no sur
prise, 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 Eell's father and
grandfather had been lost somewhere
in the Sonora desert.
Bedding did not oppose his wife's
desire to visit her old home. He
thought it would be wholesome trip
for her. and did all in his power to
persuade Nell to accompany her. But
Nell would not 60.
It was after Mrs. Belongs depar-
ture that Bedding discovered in Nell
a condition of mind that amazed and
distressed him. She had suddenly be-
came strangely wretched. She would
tell him nothing. But after while,
when he had thought it out, he dated
this deplorable change in Nell back
to q day on which he had met Nell
with Radford Chase. This indefatiga-
BILE wooer- had not in the least aban-
doned his suit. A SLOW surprise gath
cred upon Tom Belding when he saw
that Nell, apparently, was accepting
young Chase's attentions. At least
she no longer hid from him. Bedding
could not account for this, because he
was sure Nell cordially despised the
fellow. And toward the end he di'
vined, if he did not actually know
that these Chases possessed some
strange power over Nell, and were US
ing it. That stirred hate in Beldine
"a hate he had felt at the first ant
had manfully striven against, which
now gave him over to dark broodine
thoughts.
Midsummer passed, and the storm!
! came late. But when they arrived
they made up for tardiness. Beld
ing did not remember so terrible
storm Of wind and rain as that which
broke the summers drought.
, The Chases had extended a mair
irrigation ditch down to Belding''
farm, skipped the width Of his ground
then had gone on down through Altal
valley. They had exerted every infiu
.ence to obtain right to connect thes'
bitches by digging through his land
but Belding had remained obdurate
He refused to have any dealings witl
them. It was therefore with SOM
curiosity and suspicion that he saw I
.. gang Of Mexicans once more at .worl
upon these bitches: H,-,-.--.--
! 10y ,...