They were making the dam just as Gale had
planned to make it. When this work of blasting was over Belding
experienced a relief. He would not now be continually reminded of
his and Gale's loss. Resignation finally came to him. But he could
not reconcile himself to misfortune for Gale.
Moreover, Belding had other worry and strain. April arrived with no
news of the rangers. From Casita came vague reports of raiders
in the Sonoyta country--reports impossible to verify until his
Mexican rangers returned. When these men rode in, one of them,
Gonzales, an intelligent and reliable halfbreed, said he had met
prospectors at the oasis. They had just come in on the Camino
del Diablo, reported a terrible trip of heat and drought, and not
a trace of the Yaqui's party.
"That settles it," declared Belding. "Yaqui never went to Sonoyta.
He's circled round to the Devil's Road, and the rangers, Mercedes,
Thorne, the horses--they--I'm afraid they have been lost in the
desert. It's an old story on Camino del Diablo."
He had to tell Nell that, and it was an ordeal which left him weak.
Mrs. Belding listened to him, and was silent for a long time while
she held the stricken Nell to her breast. Then she opposed his
convictions with that quiet strength so characteristic of her
arguments.
"Well, then," decided Belding, "Rojas headed the rangers at Papago
Well or the Tanks."
"Tom, when you are down in the mouth you use poor judgment,"
she went on.
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