The Nevada County picayune., 1923-04-19
CHAPTER XIX
The Secret of ForIorn River.


 solitude where he could brood over his trouble, wandered alone. It was not easy for him to elude the Yaqui end just at the moment when he had cast himself down in secluded shady corner the Indian appeared, noiseless, ahadowy, mysterious as always.
 The Indian had been told of the loses sustained by Bedding and his H1ngers.
 "Go-me!" and Yaqui, with an i'm pressive gesture toward the lofty lilac colored stets of No Name mountains.
 He seemed the same as usual, but . glance on Gales part, moments at. tention. 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 diffi- cult of interpretation.
 Shower of Gold" translated Gale. That was the Yaqui's name for Nell. What did he mean by using it in con- nection with climb into the noun tains? Were his motions intended to convey an idea of shower of golden blossoms from that rare and beautiful tree or golden rain? Gales listless- ness vanished in flash of thought. The Yaqui meant gold Gold He meant he could retrieve the fallen for tunes of the white brother who had saved his life that evil day at the Pa pago we'll. Gale thrilled as he gazed piereingly into the wonderful eyes of this Indian. Would Yaqui never con- slider his debt paid?
 "Go-me?' repeated the Indian, pointing with the singular directness that always made this action remark able in him.
 'Yes, Yaqui."
 Gale ran to his rom, put on hobnailed boots. filled canteen and hurried back to the corral. Yaqui awaited him. The Indian carried a coiled lasso and short stout stick. Without word he led the way down the lane, turned up the river toward the mountains. None of Belding's household saw their de- parture.
 What had once been only narrow mesquite-bordered trail was now 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 Glasses, but a 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 con- structed the ditches and dam had an ticipated him in every particular The dammed-up gulch made a magnificent reservoir. and Gale could not look up- on the long narrow lake without feeling of gladness. The dreaded ano seco of the Mexicans might come again and would come. but never to the in- habitants of Forlorn River. That stone-walled, stone-foored gulch would never leak, and already it contained water enough to irrigate the whole of 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 foot hills, and he had Belding's word for 1t that no white man had ever climbed No Name mountains from the west.
 The Indian left the gulch and clam bered up over tumble 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 mountain side where Gale would have thought climbing possible Before him the wall rose, leaning over him. shut ting out the light, dark mighty noun tain mass. Innumerahle 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 disen- tangling the coils, he whirled the stick round and round and threw it almost over the first rim of the shelf, per haps thirty feet up. The stick did not lodge. Yaqui tried again. This time 1t caught in 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