He received a potent impression
of the nature of that blasted age-worn waste which he had divined
was to give him strength and work and love.
V
A DESERT ROSE
BELDING assigned Dick to a little room which had no windows but
two doors, one opening into the patio, the other into the yard on
the west side of the house. It contained only the barest necessities
for comfort. Dick mentioned the baggage he had left in the hotel
at Casita, and it was Belding's opinion that to try to recover his
property would be rather risky; on the moment Richard Gale was
probably not popular with the Mexicans at Casita. So Dick bade
good-by to fine suits of clothes and linen with a feeling that,
as he had said farewell to an idle and useless past, it was just
as well not to have any old luxuries as reminders. As he possessed,
however, not a thing save the clothes on his back, and not even
a handkerchief, he expressed regret that he had come to Forlorn
River a beggar.
"Beggar hell!" exploded Belding, with his eyes snapping in the
lamplight. "Money's the last thing we think of out here. All
the same, Gale, if you stick you'll be rich."
"It wouldn't surprise me," replied Dick, thoughtfully. But he was
not thinking of material wealth. Then, as he viewed his stained
and torn shirt, he laughed and said "Belding, while I'm getting
rich I'd like to have some respectable clothes."
"We've a little Mex store in town, and what you can't get there
the women folks will make for you.
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