hoofs--he was
a hyena!" concluded Gale, shuddering. "I've seen some blood spilled
and some hard sights, but that inhuman devil took my nerve. Why, as I
told you, Belding, I missed a shot at him--not twenty paces!"

"Dick, in cases like that the sooner you clean up the bunch the
better," said Belding, grimly. "As for hard sights--wait till you've
seen a Yaqui do up a Mexican. Bar none, that is the limit! It's blood
lust, a racial hate, deep as life, and terrible. The Spaniards crushed
the Aztecs four or five hundred years ago. That hate has had time to
grow as deep as a cactus root. The Yaquis are mountain Aztecs.
Personally, I think they are noble and intelligent, and if let alone
would be peaceable and industrious. I like the few I've known. But
they are a doomed race. Have you any idea what ailed this Yaqui before
the raider got in his work?"

"No, I haven't. I noticed the Indian seemed in bad shape; but I
couldn't tell what was the matter with him."

"Well, my idea is another personal one. Maybe it's off color. I think
that Yaqui was, or is, for that matter, dying of a broken heart. All
he wanted was to get back to his mountains and die. There are no Yaquis
left in that part of Sonora he was bound for."

"He had a strange look in his eyes," said Gale, thoughtfully.

"Yes, I noticed that. But all Yaquis have a wild look. Dick, if I'm
not mistaken, this fellow was a chief. It was a waste of strength, a
needless risk for you to save him, pack him back here. But, damn the
whole Greaser outfit generally, I'm glad you did!"

Gale remembered then to speak of his concern for Ladd.

"Laddy didn't go out to meet you," replied Belding. "I knew you were
due in any day, and, as there's been trouble between here and Casita, I
sent him that way. Since you've been out our friend Carter lost a
bunch of horses and a few steers. Did you get a good look at the
horses those raiders had at Papago Well?"

Dick had learned, since he had become a ranger, to see everything with
keen, sure, photographic eye; and, being put to the test so often
required of him, he described the horses as a dark-colored drove,
mostly bays and blacks, with one spotted sorrel.

"Some of Carter's--sure as you're born!" exclaimed Belding. "His bunch
has been split up, divided among several bands of raiders. He has a
grass ranch up here in Three Mile Arroyo. It's a good long ride in U.
S. territory from the border."

"Those horses