Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-05-10
unouekied the gun pelt and laid ii

wrist; he had seen many man lay
down his gun for good and all. His
own action was not final. Of late he
had done the same thing many times,
and this last time it seemed little
harder to do, little more indicative
of vacillation. There were reasons
why Belongs gun held for him a
gloomy fascination.
The Chases, those grasping and con-
scienceless agents Of new force in
the development of the West, were
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 its injustice,
had been a Lard 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 irrfgate his alfalfa fields The
never-failing spring upon his land an.
swered for the needs of household
and horses, hut 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-
lions 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 certain day when
Mrs. Bedding recognized in the elder
Chase an old schoolmate and a re-
jected sutton. 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 a 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 Bedding 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 it would be a wholesome trip
for her, and did all in his power to
persuade Nell to accompany her. But
Nell would not go.
It was after Mrs. Belongs depar
ture that Bedding 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 a While,
when he had thought it cut, he dated
this deplorable change in Mel. back
to a day on which heshad met Nell
with Radford Chase. This indefatiga-
bic wooer had not in the least aban-
doned his suit. A slow surprise gath
cred upon Tom Bedding when he saw
that Nell, apparently, was accepting
yOullS NlidSC dllCAJAO41S. a. ACeth'ef
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-
vfned If he did not actually know,
that these Chases possessed some
strange power over Nell, and We're US.
ing it. That stirred a hate in Bedding
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 a
storm of wind and rain as that which
broke the summers drought.
The Chases had extended 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
gang of Aexieans once more at work
,,ro,, thaSo bitches