"
Much to Gale's surprise neither Belding nor Ladd objected to the
idea of bringing a padre into the household, and thereby making
known to at least one Mexican the whereabouts of Mercedes Castaneda.
Belding's caution was wearing out in wrath at the persistent unsettled
condition of the border, and Ladd grew only the cooler and more silent
as possibilities of trouble multiplied.
Gale fetched the padre, a little, weazened, timid man who was old
and without interest or penetration. Apparently he married Mercedes
and Thorne as he told his beads or mumbled a prayer. It was Mrs.
Belding who kept the occasion from being a merry one, and she
insisted on not exciting Thorne. Gale marked her unusual pallor
and the singular depth and sweetness of her voice.
"Mother, what's the use of making a funeral out of a marriage?"
protested Belding. "A chance for some fun doesn't often come to
Forlorn River. You're a fine doctor. Can't you see the girl is
what Thorne needed? He'll be well to-morrow, don't mistake me."
"George, when you're all right again we'll add something to present
congratulations," said Gale.
"We shore will," put in Ladd.
So with parting jests and smiles they left the couple to themselves.
Belding enjoyed a laugh at his good wife's expense, for Thorne
could not be kept in bed, and all in a day, it seemed, he grew
so well and so hungry that his friends were delighted, and Mercedes
was radiant. In a few days his weakness disappeared and he was
going the round of the fields and looking over the ground marked
out in Gale's plan of water development.
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