And toward the end
he divined, if he did not actually know, that these Chases
possessed some strange power over Nell, and were using it.
That stirred a hate in Belding--a hate he had felt at the very first
and had manfully striven against, and which now gave him over to
dark brooding thoughts.
Midsummer passed, and the storms came late. But when they arrived
they made up for tardiness. Belding did not remember so terrible
a storm of wind and rain as that which broke the summer's drought.
In a few days, it seemed, Altar Valley was a bright and green expanse,
where dust clouds did not rise. Forlorn River ran, a slow, heavy,
turgid torrent. Belding never saw the river in flood that it did
not give him joy; yet now, desert man as he was, he suffered a
regret when he thought of the great Chase reservoir full and
overflowing. The dull thunder of the spillway was not pleasant. It
was the first time in his life that the sound of falling water
jarred upon him.
Belding noticed workmen once more engaged in the fields bounding
his land. The Chases had extended a main irrigation ditch down
to Belding's farm, skipped the width of his ground, then had gone
on down through Altar Valley. They had exerted every influence to
obtain right to connect these ditches by digging through his land,
but Belding had remained obdurate. He refused to have any dealings
with them. It was therefore with some curiosity and suspicion that
he saw a gang of Mexicans once more at work upon these ditches.
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