a question of being afraid. It's my word--my
duty to Belding."

"You said you loved me. If you love me you will go... You don't love
me!"

Gale could only stare at this transformed girl.

"Dick, listen!... If you go--if you fetch some word of Thorne to
comfort Mercedes, you--well, you will have your reward."

"Nell!"

Her dangerous sweetness was as amazing as this newly revealed character.

"Dick, will you go?"

"No-no!" cried Gale, in violence, struggling with himself. "Nell
Burton, I'll tell you this. To have the reward I want would mean
pretty near heaven for me. But not even for that will I break my word
to your father."

She seemed the incarnation of girlish scorn and wilful passion.

"Gracias, senor," she replied, mockingly. "Adios." Then she flashed
out of his sight.

Gale went to his room at once, disturbed and thrilling, and did not
soon recover from that encounter.

The following morning at the breakfast table Nell was not present. Mrs.
Belding evidently considered the fact somewhat unusual, for she called
out into the patio and then into the yard. Then she went to Mercedes's
room. But Nell was not there, either.

"She's in one of her tantrums lately," said Belding. "Wouldn't speak
to me this morning. Let her alone, mother. She's spoiled enough,
without running after her. She's always hungry. She'll be on hand
presently, don't mistake me."

Notwithstanding Belding's conviction, which Gale shared, Nell did not
appear at all during the hour. When Belding and the rangers went
outside, Yaqui was eating his meal on the bench where he always sat.

"Yaqui--Lluvia d' oro, si?" asked Belding, waving his hand toward the
corrals. The Indian's beautiful name for Nell meant "shower of gold,"
and Belding used it in asking Yaqui if he had seen her. He received a
negative reply.

Perhaps half an hour afterward, as Gale was leaving his room, he saw
the Yaqui running up the path from the fields. It was markedly out of
the ordinary to see the Indian run. Gale wondered what was the matter.
Yaqui ran straight to Belding, who was at work at his bench under the
wagon shed. In less than a moment Belding was bellowing for his
rangers. Gale got to him first, but Ladd and Lash were not far behind.

"Blanco Sol gone!" yelled Belding, in a rage.

"Gone? In broad daylight, with the Indian a-watch-in?" queried Ladd.

"It happened while Yaqui was at breakfast. That's sure. He'd just
watered Sol