Alton took up the paddle, and the pair found Deringham waiting them when they landed.  They crossed the valley together, and the girl, who had seen little of industrial activity, became interested when at her father’s desire they followed Alton into the mill.  A cloud of pungent smoke hung about it, and the steady pounding of an engine jarred through the monotone of the river, which was low just then, while there was a pleasant fragrance in the open-sided building where brawny men moved amidst the whirling dust with the precision of the machines they handled.  Alice Deringham could see with untrained eyes that there was no waste of effort here.  The great logs that slid in at one end passed straight forward over the rattling rollers, and made no deviation until they went out as planking.  Silent men and whirring saws, whose strident scream changed to a deeper humming as they rent into the great redwood trunks, alike did their work with swift efficiency, and once more the girl glanced with a little wonder at the man who had organized it all.

“This appears to be a remarkably well-laid-out mill,” said her father.

Alton laughed a little.  “We shall have a bigger one by and by,” he said.  “The only thing I’m proud of is the planer, and she cost me a pile of dollars.  I had to cut down all round before I could buy the thing, and then I pulled her all to pieces, and fixed her up myself.”

Alice Deringham followed her father towards a big, humming machine that was tearing off the surface of the planks fed to it and flinging them out polished into whiteness.  Alton glanced at it admiringly.

“Yes, I’m proud of that,” he said.  “It was a tight fit buying her, and now she’s saving me dollars every day.”  Then he turned to a stooping man.  “You’re crowding her a little.”

Alice Deringham noticed the resentment in the man’s face, which was not a pleasant one, and that, in place of relaxing the pressure, he seemed to thrust a little more strenuously upon the plank he guided; but that was all she saw, for the next moment there was a crash and a loud whirring, and a cloud of woody dust was flung all over her.

Alton sprang forward through it, and a big leather belt suddenly stopped, but the girl could never clearly remember what happened next, for the dust still whirled about her.  There, however, appeared to be a brief altercation, and as Alton moved towards him the other man dropped his hand to his belt.  Guessing what the action meant, Alice Deringham shrank back with a little shiver, and her father appeared to grasp the man’s shoulder.  Alton swayed suddenly sideways, and then hurled himself forward, while next moment two men fell violently against the wrecked machine.  One of them seemed to be helpless in the grasp of the other, and staggering clear of the planer they went reeling through the mill.  Then there was a splash in the river, and Alton returned alone, breathless and somewhat white in face.