Damer appeared irresolute, but he sat down.  “Nobody knows how he got there.”

“No?  Well, I have a notion, and I guess Tom Winstanley and one other man could tell.”

“Winstanley’s dead.”

Hallam laughed.  “Still, the other man is on my pay-roll, but where you can’t get at him unless I want you to.  Now, are you going to gain anything by kicking against me?”

Damer was evidently astonished, and sat for almost a minute as though lost in reflection.  Then he made a little gesture as one who abandons a struggle.

“I guess that takes me.  What do you want?” he said.

“Nothing very much in the meanwhile.  They’ll start you rock-drilling at the Tyee, but it’s quite likely I’ll send you up into the ranges prospecting by and by.  Still, I don’t want any of the folks down here to know you’re with me, and you’ll start out by the railroad trail to-morrow, and wait at the lake until I come up with you.  There’s somebody coming now!”

Damer moved abruptly, for there was a step on the stairway, and as he reached the verandah a man brushed past him.  He stopped, and for a moment Damer and Alton stood face to face.  The latter, however, passed on, and swept his glance round the room, seeing only a man he did not recognize sitting at the opposite end with his back to him.  Then he swung round again, and went down the stairway shouting, “Horton!” until a man came out from a shed at the back of the store.

“Well,” he said, “I’m here.  You needn’t raise the whole place, Harry.”

Alton laughed.  “I’ve been up to Grantly’s, and he’s going in to the railroad to-morrow.  You can send that order for the crockery along with him.  Dollars are no object so long as it’s pretty.  The tea is to be the best they keep in Vancouver, too.”

He swung himself into the saddle, and shook the bridle, while Damer leaned on the verandah balustrade gazing up the dusky trail he had taken until the last faint beat of horsehoofs sank into the silence of the bush.  It was now very black and solemn, but away beyond it the snow still shone faintly cold and white against the sky, and once more Damer shivered a little as he turned towards the lighted store.  He had meant to leave the country, but fate had been too strong for him, and remembering what Hallam had told him about the prospecting he wondered if he and Alton would meet again under that cold gleam of snow amidst the great desolation of the ranges.

CHAPTER IX

MISS DERINGHAM FEELS SLIGHTED

The morning was still and almost unpleasantly warm, but Miss Deringham looked very fresh and cool in her long white dress as she lay in a deerhide chair on the verandah of the Somasco ranch.  She had hung her hat on the back of the chair, and a shaft of sunlight called up an answering brightness from the coils of lustrous hair.  One foot in the scantiest form of slipper rested on the lowest rail of the balustrade, and she had slightly curled herself up in the chair in a fashion which implied a languid content with her surroundings, and that there was no longer any need for ceremony between herself and her companion.  It is possible that Miss Deringham was aware of this, even if she had not intended to convey that impression.