, 1923-03-07

us MS fortunes Ut ! oTloTH itlNeT were
concerned. had almost accomplished
1t. 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 hard blow. He had been
made to suffer n 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
swered for the needs of household
and horses, but no more.
These matters were unfortunate for
Bedding, but not by any means wholly
accountable for his worry and unhap-
piness n broodlng hate. He be-
lleved 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. saddleo, starved for
| SASS NV VIII vi NdlpT, Hau come
to ForlOrn River. They were a part
of the horses belonging to Rojas and
his band. Their arrival complicated
the mystery and strengthened convlc.
lions of the loss of both pursuers and
pursued.
Belongs unhappiness could hardly
be laid to material loss. He had been
rich and vas 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. Bedding recognized in the elder
Chase an old schoolmate and a re-
iected sutton. 1t took time for slow.
thinking Bedding to discover anything
wrong in his household, but gradually
lie had forced on him the fact of some
secret cause for grief other than Gales
loss. He was sure of 1t when his wife
signified her desire to make a visit to
her old home back in Peoria.
A letter she had received contained
news ina may VI Iuuy hui nave Dteu
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 1t would be a wholesome trip
for her, and did all in his power to
persuade Nell to accompany her. But
Neii Wouiu not go.
IL was AFTER Mrs. beldihgs epa
ture 'nat beidihg d~iscoVered IN Mel
~cohultion OF mlnd nat amazed ano
distressed MIN. she had suddenly be
came strahgeiy wretched. she wouio
- I pu, aiter a whne
,hiS ,men" 'ousn' ou', ne ua'e.
80 AZ" n e Z ~en
u,.h 80, %'"Ia r,, Ven
n,a n m .
.onoa H. -. noa.i
ga rna, w., noIa,na sas
80. vi
-. app"ienuy, was a.eep''ns
~ - 49,. IA - ,,s.
FAAt III Nll-NI llll HUH Hill. DtIlII-
u,aa &c vi, aens,aun Ss,"es .n u
eou.S "esp,'.u ~
r,noa 10 NV a,a ~. n.smn ~
'hn. "u " "e.uis Nno",
SUM
81" pp"e u.ei ven, i" ~ 10
- TO- ten e, 90 "n
haa nanrmun - ~.
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