mighty broken steps of rock called No Name
Mountains, from which Forlorn River was supposed to come. Gale had
discovered a long, narrow, rock-bottomed and rock-walled gulch that
could be dammed at the lower end by the dynamiting of leaning cliffs
above. An inexhaustible supply of water could be stored there.
Furthermore, he had worked out an irrigation plan to bring the water
down for mining uses, and to make a paradise out of that part of Altar
Valley which lay in the United States. Belding claimed there was gold
in the arroyos, gold in the gulches, not in quantities to make a
prospector rejoice, but enough to work for. And the soil on the higher
levels of Altar Valley needed only water to make it grow anything the
year round. Gale, too, had come to have dreams of a future for Forlorn
River.

On the afternoon of the following day Ladd unexpectedly appeared
leading a lame and lathered horse into the yard. Belding and Gale, who
were at work at the forge, looked up and were surprised out of speech.
The legs of the horse were raw and red, and he seemed about to drop.
Ladd's sombrero was missing; he wore a bloody scarf round his head;
sweat and blood and dust had formed a crust on his face; little streams
of powdery dust slid from him; and the lower half of his scarred chaps
were full of broken white thorns.

"Howdy, boys," he drawled. "I shore am glad to see you all."

"Where'n hell's your hat?" demanded Belding, furiously. It was a
ridiculous greeting. But Belding's words signified little. The dark
shade of worry and solicitude crossing his face told more than his
black amaze.

The ranger stopped unbuckling the saddle girths, and, looking at
Belding, broke into his slow, cool laugh.

"Tom, you recollect that whopper of a saguaro up here where Carter's
trail branches off the main trail to Casita? Well, I climbed it an'
left my hat on top for a woodpecker's nest."

"You've been running--fighting?" queried Belding, as if Ladd had not
spoken at all.

"I reckon it'll dawn on you after a while," replied Ladd, slipping the
saddle.

"Laddy, go in the house to the women," said Belding. "I'll tend to
your horse."

"Shore, Tom, in a minute. I've been down the road. An' I found hoss
tracks an' steer tracks goin' across the line. But I seen no sign of
raiders till this mornin'. Slept at Carter's last night. That raid the
other day cleaned him out. He's shootin' mad. Well, this mornin' I
rode plumb into