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

It was about the middle of the afternoon of the day following Alton's
affray with the workman when the cook came limping into the verandah of
the Somasco ranch, where Deringham leaned, cigar in hand, against a
pillar talking to his daughter. She lay in a hide chair Alton had
found for her, listening more to the drowsy roar of the river than to
her father, but she lifted her head when the man appeared. He carried
a tray whereon were displayed a badly dinted metal teapot of
considerable size, two large, flat cakes of bread, a can of condensed
milk, and a saucer swimming with partially melted butter, which had
resolved itself into little lumps of whitish grease and a thin golden
fluid under the afternoon s