Deringham smiled a little.  “This,” he said, “is the best whisky I have tasted in Canada.”

Hallam laughed.  “Well,” he said, “I’m glad I met you, especially as you’ll no doubt stop here a little, and size up the mineral resources of the country.  There’s lots of information lying round that should be useful to you.  Anyway, you made a big mistake when you took up the Peveril.  Dropped a good many dollars that time, didn’t you?”

Deringham’s face grew a trifle grim.  “As you probably know just what the mistake cost us there is no use in me denying it,” said he.

“Well,” said Hallam sympathetically, “one can’t always come out on top, and if you’re stopping down at Vancouver I may be of some use to you, and you to me.  If you’ll come up to-morrow I’ll show you the Tyee, and I’ve something better still up the valley.”

“I’m sorry,” said Deringham indifferently; “I’m going through to Somasco!”

Hallam glanced at him steadily.  “Of course you are,” said he.  “Well, I’ve told you nothing Alton doesn’t know, and I’ve letters to answer.  You’ll excuse me?”

Deringham rose with him, and strolling along the verandah together they stopped a moment at the door, close by where Alice Deringham sat at an open window.  It was growing dark now, but the last of the afterglow was flung down into their faces by the snow, and it seemed to the girl that the resemblance between them had grown stronger.  Her father’s appeared a trifle less refined in its chiselling than it had been, and there was a look which did not please her in his eyes.  It suggested cupidity and cunning in place of intellectuality.

“Well,” said Hallam, “you’ll call on me at Vancouver anyway, and it’s possible we may be some use to each other.”

The hint of a confidence or understanding between them which the man’s tone conveyed irritated the girl, but she saw that her father did not resent it.  “Yes,” he said.  “If I think I can benefit by your co-operation in any way I will not fail to let you know.”

Hallam went in, and Deringham leaned upon the verandah balustrade smoking tranquilly while the shadows that left the rolling mist behind crept higher and higher up the climbing pines until at last they touched and smeared into dimness the ethereal snow.  Then the girl rose with a shiver and turned towards her father as Horton lighted the big lantern at the door.  Deringham’s face was, she fancied, a trifle haggard.

“I wonder why you have borne with that man so long,” she said.

Deringham smiled a little.  “There are many kinds of men, and presumably all of them are useful in their place,” said he.

CHAPTER V

THE HEIR OF CARNABY