“Dick,” she began, hurriedly.  “Dad’s not going to send any one to see about Thorne?”

“No, not yet.  He thinks it best not to.  We all think so.  I’m sorry.  Poor Mercedes!”

“I knew it.  I tried to coax him to send Laddy or even Yaqui.  He wouldn’t listen to me.  Dick, Mercedes is dying by inches.  Can’t you see what ails her?  It’s more than love or fear.  It’s uncertainty—­suspense.  Oh, can’t we find out for her?”

“Nell, I feel as badly as you about her.  I wanted to ride in to Casita.  Belding shut me up quick, the last time.”

Nell came close to Gale, clasped his arm.  There was no color in her face.  Her eyes held a dark, eager excitement.

“Dick, will you slip off without Dad’s consent?  Risk it!  Go to Casita and find out what’s happened to Thorne—­at least if he ever started for Forlorn River?”

“No, Nell, I won’t do that.”

She drew away from him with passionate suddenness.

“Are you afraid?”

This certainly was not the Nell Burton that Gale knew.

“No, I’m not afraid,” Gale replied, a little nettled.

“Will you go—­for my sake?” Like lightning her mood changed and she was close to him again, hands on his, her face white, her whole presence sweetly alluring.

“Nell, I won’t disobey Belding,” protested Gale.  “I won’t break my word.”

“Dick, it’ll not be so bad as that.  But—­what if it is?...Go, Dick, if not for poor Mercedes’s sake, then for mine—­to please me.  I’ll—­I’ll...you won’t lose anything by going.  I think I know how Mercedes feels.  Just a word from Thorne or about him would save her.  Take Blanco Sol and go, Dick.  What rebel outfit could ever ride you down on that horse?  Why, Dick, if I was up on Sol I wouldn’t be afraid of the whole rebel army.”

“My dear girl, it’s not 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.