DUST OF THE DESERT Dust of the Desert BY ROBERT WELLES RITCHIE [Illustration] A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers New York Published by arrangement with Dodd, Mead & Company Printed in U. S. A. COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY [Transcriber’s Note: printer’s information was not supplied in the source text.] CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PROLOGUE 1 I WHAT HAPPENED ON THE LIMITED 17 II A GIRL NAMED BENICIA 25 III DOC STOODER 36 IV COLONEL URGO REPAYS 51 V THE GARDEN OF SOLITUDE 65 VI JUSTICE 76 VII THE CHAIN GANG 85 VIII THE HEART OF BENICIA 98 IX GOLD AND PEARLS 108 X AT THE CASA O’DONOJU 112 XI THE MARK OF EL ROJO 129 XII DESERT SECRETS 145 XIII CROSSCURRENTS 159 XIV REVELATION 168 XV WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NIGHT 178 XVI ACCUSATION 184 XVII THE ORDEAL 195 XVIII THE DESERT INTERVENES 211 XIX THIRST 219 XX THE COMING OF EL DOCTOR 232 XXI TREASURE QUEST 247 XXII ALTAR TAKES ITS TOLL 257 XXIII INTO THE FURNACE 266 XXIV STORM 279 XXV TREASURE TROVE 293 DUST OF THE DESERT PROLOGUE Roads of men thread the world. They thunder with a life flood. They are vibrant with a pulse of affairs. By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow. But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays. Its faint sign-posts once were vivid in lettering of tears and blood. Its stages were measured by the sum of all human hardihood. Faith, valour, reckless adventuring, thirst for gold, love o’ women--these the links in the measuring chain that marked its course through a dead land. And black crosses formed of lava stones laid down in the sand; these abide over all the length of the Road of the Dead Men from Caborca to Yuma to cry to the white-hot sky of slain hopes and faith betrayed in those buried years gone.