I saw will go home, don't you think?" asked Dick.

"Sure. They can't be caught or stopped."

"Well, what shall I do now?"

"Stay here and rest," bluntly replied Belding. "You need it. Let the
women fuss over you--doctor you a little. When Jim gets back from
Sonoyta I'll know more about what we ought to do. By Lord! it seems
our job now isn't keeping Japs and Chinks out of the U. S. It's keeping
our property from going into Mexico."

"Are there any letters for me?" asked Gale.

"Letters! Say, my boy, it'd take something pretty important to get me
or any man here back Casita way. If the town is safe these days the
road isn't. It's a month now since any one went to Casita."

Gale had received several letters from his sister Elsie, the last of
which he had not answered. There had not been much opportunity for
writing on his infrequent returns to Forlorn River; and, besides, Elsie
had written that her father had stormed over what he considered Dick's
falling into wild and evil ways.

"Time flies," said Dick. "George Thorne will be free before long, and
he'll be coming out. I wonder if he'll stay here or try to take
Mercedes away?"

"Well, he'll stay right here in Forlorn River, if I have any say,"
replied Belding. "I'd like to know how he'd ever get that Spanish girl
out of the country now, with all the trails overrun by rebels and
raiders. It'd be hard to disguise her. Say, Dick, maybe we can get
Thorne to stay here. You know, since you've discovered the possibility
of a big water supply, I've had dreams of a future for Forlorn
River.... If only this war was over! Dick, that's what it
is--war--scattered war along the northern border of Mexico from gulf to
gulf. What if it isn't our war? We're on the fringe. No, we can't
develop Forlorn River until there's peace."

The discovery that Belding alluded to was one that might very well lead
to the making of a wonderful and agricultural district of Altar Valley.
While in college Dick Gale had studied engineering, but he had not set
the scientific world afire with his brilliance. Nor after leaving
college had he been able to satisfy his father that he could hold a
job. Nevertheless, his smattering of engineering skill bore fruit in
the last place on earth where anything might have been expected of
it--in the desert. Gale had always wondered about the source of
Forlorn River. No white man or Mexican, or, so far as known, no
Indian, had climbed those