The Elk Mountain pilot., 1923-04-05
CHAPTER Xxx.
Desert Gold.

Desert Gold.
A summer day dawned on Forlorn
River, 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
nnd 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 pas
sion of her embrace when she called
him her boy and gave him her bless
Ing.
The little wrinkled padre who mar
ried Gale and Nell performed the
ceremony as he told his beads, with
out interest or penetration, and went
his way, leaving happiness behind.
"Shore I was 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 some day. Nell,
lay 1t 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 Gales 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 Irac
teal, and important as never before
with MINING Nd
claims to manage. spoke of Gales
great good fortune in the finding OF
gold-he called 1t desert gold.
"Ah, yes. Desert Gold =" exclaimed
Dicks 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
Yaqui came to Dick to say good
by. Dick was startled, grieved, and
In his impulsiveness forgot for a mo-
ment 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, blanket, a gun, q knife, q cam
teen, and no more. The whole house
hold went out with him to the corrals
and fields from which Belding bade
him choose q horse-any horse, even
the loved Blanco Diable. Gales heart
was u his throat for fear the Indian
might choose Blanco Sol, and he
hated himself for q selfshness he
could not help. But without q word
he would have parted with the treas
ured Sol.
Yaqui whistled the horses up-for
the last time. Did he care for them :
1t would have been hard to say. He
never looked at the fierce and naughty
Diablo, nor at Blanco Sol as he RAISED
his noble head and rang his piercing
blast. The Indian did not choose one
of Belongs whites. He caught
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 debt, and now he
was going home.
He shook hands with the men, swept
q dark f1eeting glance over Nell, and
rested his strange eyes upon Mercedes
beautiful and agitated face. 1t must
have been a moment of intense feeling
for the Spanish girl She owed it to
him fhQt ChA
happiness. She held out those speak
ing slender hands. But Yaqui did not
touch them. Turning away, he mount
ed the broncho and rode down the
trail toward the river.
Hes going home" said Bedding.
Home !" whispered Ladd; and Dick
knew the ranger had 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 desola-
tion.
"Thorne, Mercedes, Nell, let's climb
the foothin yonder and watch him out
Of sight," said Dick.
They climbed while the others re-
turned 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
byr asked Nell.
Dear. he is an Indian" replied Gale.
From the 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 long time he was
plainly in sight. The sun hung red
In golden sky. The last the watch
ers 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.