“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.”

“Raiders!” exclaimed Jim Lash.

“Lord only knows.  Yaqui says it wasn’t raiders.”

“Mebbe Sol’s just walked off somewheres.”

“He was haltered in the corral.”

“Send Yaqui to find the hoss’s trail, an’ let’s figger,” said Ladd.  “Shore this ’s no raider job.”

In the swift search that ensued Gale did not have anything to say; but his mind was forming a conclusion.  When he found his old saddle and bridle missing from the peg in the barn his conclusion became a positive conviction, and it made him, for the moment, cold and sick and speechless.

“Hey, Dick, don’t take it so much to heart,” said Belding.  “We’ll likely find Sol, and if we don’t, there’s other good horses.”

“I’m not thinking of Sol,” replied Gale.

Ladd cast a sharp glance at Gale, snapped his fingers, and said: 

“Damn me if I ain’t guessed it, too!”

“What’s wrong with you locoed gents?” bluntly demanded Belding.

“Nell has slipped away on Sol,” answered Dick.

There was a blank pause, which presently Belding broke.

“Well, that’s all right, if Nell’s on him.  I was afraid we’d lost the horse.”

“Belding, you’re trackin’ bad,” said Ladd, wagging his head.

“Nell has started for Casita,” burst out Gale.  “She has gone to fetch Mercedes some word about Thorne.  Oh, Belding, you needn’t shake your head.  I know she’s gone.  She tried to persuade me to go, and was furious when I wouldn’t.”

“I don’t believe it,” replied Belding, hoarsely.  “Nell may have her temper.  She’s a little devil at times, but she always had good sense.”