“Then you will have to fall back upon Horton’s tea,” said Alton, smiling.  “Nobody knows where he gets it from except that it isn’t China, but he seems to think it’s my duty to buy it from him, and the rasp of it brings the bush back to me.  Makes one smell the cedars, and see the lake flashing, and I’m very tired of the city.”

Mrs. Seaforth laughed as she glanced at the bottles Forel was pitching out of a box, for as yet he had not found one with anything in it.

“Have you a mineral water factory at Somasco, too?” she said.

“Not yet,” said Alton gravely.  “But we may have by and by, though some of my partners would have more use for a distillery.  We’re going to have everything that will pay, but we’ve been too busy making roads lately.”

Forel stood up, looking a little more thoughtful.  “You are, at any rate, running up a confoundedly long bill,” he said.  “You will get very few new dresses, Mrs. Seaforth, unless you make your husband stop him.  Of course you heard nothing, Alton, from the roads and trails?”

Alton laughed softly.  “That’s where you’re wrong.  I wrote them wanting to know if they thought it my duty to open up the country for them, and I got a letter that the affair is receiving consideration.  If the bush country members can get the new appropriation through, the surveyor’s going up to look at what we’ve done.”

“Effrontery is the thing that pays,” said Forel.  “But have you heard from Tom?”

Alton’s face grew a trifle graver.  “He and more of the boys are sitting on the claim, and there’s another crowd camped down with stakes ready right in front of him.  He tells me he finds it hard to keep his hands off them, and I’d have gone up only that I’m waiting for the Crown folks’ decision.”

“I think they can only declare the claim open,” said Forel, “and that being so they couldn’t well send you an intimation before they made the fact public.”

Nobody said anything for a little.  Forel had told them nothing new, and they could guess at the suspense Alton had been enduring, for the decision of the Crown authorities meant a good deal to all of them.  If the claim were declared open, the first man to restake it and get in his papers could take possession.

“It would be dreadful if Harry lost it,” said Mrs. Seaforth.  “Still, I don’t think he will.”

Alton laughed a little.  “I don’t mean to if I can help it,” he said.  “I’ve had Thomson prospecting for the fastest road down, and he has found one that is rideable.”

Forel nodded.  “That reminds,” he said.  “Hettie wants to get away from the city, and I thought of taking her and Miss Deringham up to Somasco.  You will lend us the house for a week or two?”

“Of course,” said Alton.  “Go as soon as it’s possible.  I want a man with a business grip up there.  My head will scarcely hold all the things I’ve been trying to cram into it lately.”