ter wall, foot by foot, finger by
finger, slow and terrible? And Rojas didn't hang long on the choya
thorns? Thank the Lord for that!... Laddy, no story of Camino del
Diablo can hold a candle to yours. The flight and the fight were jobs
for men. But living through this long hot summer and coming
out--that's a miracle. Only the Yaqui could have done it. The Yaqui!
The Yaqui!"

"Shore. Charlie Ladd looks up at an Indian these days. But Beldin',
as for the comin' out, don't forget the hosses. Without grand old Sol
an' Diablo, who I don't hate no more, an' the other Blancos, we'd never
have got here. Yaqui an' the hosses, that's my story!"

Early in the afternoon of the next day Belding encountered Dick at the
water barrel.

"Belding, this is river water, and muddy at that," said Dick. "Lord
knows I'm not kicking. But I've dreamed some of our cool running
spring, and I want a drink from it."

"Never again, son. The spring's gone, faded, sunk, dry as dust."

"Dry!" Gale slowly straightened. "We've had rains. The river's full.
The spring ought to be overflowing. What's wrong? Why is it dry?"

"Dick, seeing you're interested, I may as well tell you that a big
charge of nitroglycerin choked my spring."

"Nitroglycerin?" echoed Gale. Then he gave a quick start. "My mind's
been on home, Nell, my family. But all the same I felt something was
wrong here with the ranch, with you, with Nell... Belding, that ditch
there is dry. The roses are dead. The little green in that grass has
come with the rains. What's happened? The ranch's run down. Now I
look around I see a change."

"Some change, yes," replied Belding, bitterly. "Listen, son."

Briefly, but not the less forcibly for that, Belding related his story
of the operations of the Chases.

Astonishment appeared to be Gale's first feeling. "Our water gone, our
claims gone, our plans forestalled! Why, Belding, it's unbelievable.
Forlorn River with promoters, business, railroad, bank, and what not!"

Suddenly he became fiery and suspicious. "These Chases--did they do
all this on the level?"

"Barefaced robbery! Worse than a Greaser holdup," replied Belding,
grimly.

"You say the law upheld them?"

"Sure. Why, Ben Chase has a pull as strong as Diablo's on a down
grade. Dick, we're jobbed, outfigured, beat, tricked, and we can't do
a thing."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Belding, most of all for Laddy," said Gale, feelingly.
"He's all in. He'll neve