The Elk Mountain pilot., 1923-03-15

Of vacillation. There were reasons
why Belongs gun held for him a
gloomy fascination
The Chases. those grasping and con-
scienceless agents of a new force in
bent upon Belongs ruin. and, so far
as his fortunes at Forlorn River were
concerned, had almost accomplished
It. One by one he lost points for
which he contended with them. He
carried into the Tucson courts the
matter of the staked claims, and min
ing claims, and water claims. and he
lost ALL Following that, he lost his
government position as inspector of
immigration; and this fact, because
of what he considered It's injustice,
had been a hard blow He had been
made to suffer a humiliation equally
as great 1t came about that he ac-
tually had to pay the Chases for water
to irrigate his alfalfa fields. The
never-failing spring upon his land an
and horses, but no more.
These matters were unfortunate for
Belding. but not by any means wholly
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 complicated
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 of his wife
and Nell. He dated the time of this
change back to a certain day when
Mrs. Belding recognized In the elder
Chase an old schoolmate and re-
jected sultor. Il took time for slow
thinking Belding 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 1t when his wife
signihed her desire to make 4 visit to
her old hsme back in Peoria.
A letter she had received contained
news that may or may not have been
authentic; but 1t was enough, Belding
thought, to interest his wife. An old
prospector had returned to Peoria,
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 Nell'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 1t would be wholesome trip
persuade Nell to accompany her. But
Neil WOuiO not co.
1t was after Mrs Belongs depar
ture that Belding discovered in Nell
condition Of mind that amazed and
distressed him. She had suddenly be-
came strangely wretched She would
tell him nothing But after q while,
when he had thought It out. he dated
this ,deplorable change In Nell back
to 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. Belding
could not account for this, because he
was sure Nell cordially despised the
fellow. And toward the end he d.
vined. II he did not actually know,
that these Chases possessed some
strange power over Nell, and were u.s.
ing It. That stirred hate In Belding
IA hate he had felt at the first and
had manfully striven against, which
now gave him over to dark brooding
thoughts.
Midsummer passed, and the storms
came late. But when they arrived
they made up for hardness. Beld-
ing did not remember SO terrible
storm Of wind and rain as that which
broke the summers drought.
The Chases had extended a main
irrigation ditch down to Belongs
farm, skipped the width Of his ground,
then had gone on down through Altar
valley. They had exerted every infiu-
ence to obtain right to connect these
bitches by digging through his land.
but Belding had remained obdurate.
He refused to have any dealings with
them. 1t was therefore with some
curiosity and suspicion that he saw a