, 1923-03-28
CHAPTER Xxx.
Desert Gold.

River, n 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. Bedding 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 neve. 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 / was II sick man." Ladd
said, IAN darn near a dead one, but
Tn agoin' to get well. Mebbe I'll be-
able to ride again some day. Nell, I
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 Yauui
says, she's shore your Shower of
Gold"
He spoke of Gales finding love-
spoke of II with the deep and wistful
feeling of the lonely range- who had
always yeatned for love and had never
known 1t. Bedding, once more trac-
teal, and important as never before
with mining projects and water
claims to manage spoke of Gales
great good fortune in the finding of
| Unlh-hn anIlaI IL -. -
"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
alluslon to desert gold.
! faqui 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. Yauui
was not to be changed.
I. Bedding tried % overload him with
gifts. The Indian packed n bag of
1000, n blanket, n gun, a knife, a can
teen, and no more. The whole house
mold went out with him to the corrals
and fields from which Bedding babe
him choose a horse-any horse, even
the loved Blanco Diable. Gales heart
was in his throat for fear the Indian
might choose Blanco Sol, and he
mated himself for a selfishness he
could not help. But without a word
he would have parted with the treas
ured Sol.
faqui 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 a
lean n wiry broncho, STRAPPED a
blanket on him. and fastened on the
pack.
Then he turned to these friends, the
same emotlonless, inscrutable dark and
silent Indian that he had always been.
He shook hands with the men, swept
a dark fieeting glance over Nell, and
rested his strange eyes upon Mercedes
beautiful and ngitated face. 1t must
have been "A m of intense feeling
for the Spanish girl. She owed It to
him that she had life and love and
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.
He's going home,' said Beldlng.
Home - whispered Ladd and Dick
knew the ranger had felt the re~surging
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-
ton.
"Thorne, Mercedes, Nell. let's climb
the foothill 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 YnquI
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 the height they wntched him
ride through the mosquitoes, up over the
river bank to enter the cactus. His
mount showed dark against the green
and white, and for n long time he was
plainly in sight. The sun hung red
In n golden sky. The last the watch
ers saw Of YnquI was when he rode
across a ridge and stood %sllhouetted
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. Ynuul had returned to
his own-the great spaces, the desola.
tlon, the solltudc-to the trails he had
trodden when n child, trails hnunted
now by ghosts OF his people, and ever
hy his pods GnIq rpnlty6d TINT tp thu