Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1923-08-10

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 Nelrs father and
grandfather had been lost somewhere
in the Sonora desert.
Bedding did not oppose his wifes
desire TO visit her old home. He
thought it would be 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
a 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 ii out, he dated
this deplorable change In Nell back
to a 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 Bedding when he saw
that Neil, apparently, was accepting
young Chase's attentions At least,
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 d.
vlned, If he did not actually know,
that these Chases possessed some
strange power over Nell, and were us
ing It, That stirred 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
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 inhu-
ence to obtain right TO connect these
bitches by digging through his land,
but Bedding had remained obdurate.
He refused to have any dealings with
them. 1t was therefore with some
curiosity and suspicion that he saw
gang of Mexlcans once more at work
upon these bitches.
At daylight next morning ire
mendous blast almost threw Bedding |
out of his bed. II cracked the adobe |
walls OF his house and broke windows
and sent pans and crockery to the
floor with a crash. Belongs idea was
that the store of dynamite kept by |
the Chases for blasting had blown up
Hurriedly getting into his clothes, he /
went TO Nells room to reassure her
and, telling her to have thought for
their guests, he went out 10 see what
had happened.
A great yellow cloud like smoke,
hung over the river This appeared
to be at the upper end Of Belongs
plot, and close 10 the river When he
reached his fence the smoke and dust
were so thick he could scarcely
breathe, and for a little while he was
unable to see what had happened
Presently he made out huge hole In
the sand just about where the irrlga-
ton ditch had stopped near his line
For some reason or other, not clear to
Bedding, the Mexicans had set on an
extraordinarily heavy blast at that
point.
BeldIng pondered He did not now
for a moment consider an accidental
discharge Of dynamite. But why had
this blast been set Off The loose
sandy soil had yielded readily to
there were no rocks; as far