“Sorry, but there was no other way out of it,” he said a trifle hoarsely.  “Now I’ve got to size up the ruin, if you’ll excuse me.”

Deringham turned away with his daughter in time to see a dripping object crawl out on the opposite side of the river.  “Are you still pleased with your tame bear?” he said ironically.

The girl laughed a little, though her colour was perhaps a trifle higher than usual.  “There is a good deal of the beast still unsubdued in him,” she said.

Deringham nodded.  “Still, he had some provocation, and I think he was right.  So far as I could follow the discussion, the other man meant to question his ability to dismiss him, with the pistol.”

Alice Deringham said nothing further upon the subject until Alton joined them as they sat out on the verandah that night.  “You are not pleased with me?” he said.

“There is nothing to warrant me telling you so, and I may have been mistaken,” said the girl reflectively.

“No,” said Alton, “that’s the pity; but couldn’t you remember just now and then that you are friends with me?”

“Things of this kind make it a little difficult,” said Miss Deringham.

“Well,” said Alton, “that machine cost me twelve months’ grim self-denial, and the fellow broke it out of temper because I spoke to him.”

“It was,” said Miss Deringham, “sufficiently exasperating, but was the rest justifiable because you were a stronger or bolder man than him?”

Alton laughed a little.  “You don’t understand.  I did it because I was afraid,” said he.  “Now if I hadn’t been, I’d have backed that man right into the river without touching him.”

The girl glanced at him and then lapsed into a ripple of laughter.  “I’m afraid I must give you up,” said she.

Just then Deringham came into the verandah, and Alton turned towards him.  “It’s a little difficult to put it as I would like to, but I’m glad it was you.  You know what I mean.”

Deringham appeared a trifle embarrassed.  “I’m not sure that you are indebted to me at all,” he said.  “I only seized his shoulder, and you would not have expected me to look on?”

Alton shook his head.  “I don’t think he would have missed if you hadn’t done it, and I will not forget,” he said.  “This thing will always count for a good deal between you and me.”

He went away, and Alice Deringham glanced at her father with a flush in her face.  “I did not understand before.  The man had a pistol and you took it from him?”

“No,” said Deringham, with a curious little laugh.  “I meant to knock his arm up, and am not sure that I did it.  It was, considering all things, a somewhat disinterested action.”

CHAPTER VIII

HALLAM’S CONFEDERATE