CHAPTER X

DEATH IN THE DESERT

"Don't scold Gustav," cried Felicia.

"I won't," replied Roger, grimly, and the child sped up the path to the
porch.

"Roger! I did not mean nodings to hurt you! Vy, you ver like my own son.
I vas having a plan to help you. Please, Roger, listen--Bitte sehr!"

Roger was a little pale and his lips were stiff but he had himself well
in hand.

"Look here, Gustav, you know you sneaked on me, don't you?"

"Yes, but it vas to help you. I vas an inventor, Roger. I haf many
ideas."

"Oh! That was it, was it?" He looked at Gustav's sweaty face, usually so
placid, now distorted with pain and anxiety. "Well, all right, old man!
I guess I was a bit hasty. But I want you to give me your word of honor
to take no more notes and under no circumstances to give any one any
information about my work."

Gustav's face cleared as if by magic. He shook Roger's proffered hand
heartily. "I promise. Absolute, I promise. Thank you; thank you much,
Roger."

"Right-o--come on now, let's go to supper," and the two swung up the
trail, and into the adobe, where, after a glance at their faces, their
waiting friends greeted them hilariously.

"The alfalfa has come through, Roger," shouted Dick. "I guess the worst
is over for me, all right. I'll take an order right now for five tons of
alfalfa from you, Charley."

"Better let Felicia order," replied Charley. "I understand that Mr. von
Minden is going to find a burro for her, the exact twin of Peter."

"And he's going to learn to do everything Peter does," added Felicia,
"and Ernest says I must name him Re-peater. Please let's have supper."

Gustav made a poor fist at eating. His arm gave him a great deal of pain
and it was finally decided that Ernest should take the patient team and
that night drive Gustav to the doctor. They made the start immediately
after supper and did not return until the third day following. Gustav
was one-armed for some time but managed to make himself indispensable,
nevertheless.

As summer advanced, a new working schedule that precluded labor in the
middle of the day was inaugurated. The more intense the heat grew, the
more intense, it seemed to Roger, grew the weird beauty of the desert.
The midnight stars seemed hardly to have blossomed before dawn turned
the desert world to a delicate transparent yellow, deepening at the
zenith to blue and on the desert floor to orange. As the sun rose, the
yellow changed suddenl