as lying for weeks at Somasco. Well, while the claim
is unrecorded anybody can jump it, but I couldn't get back up there
through the snow, and didn't figure Hallam's man knew just where to
find it. Now you've told me we'll get in ahead of him yet, and the man
he sends up there will have his journey for nothing. Do you know that
what you have done means just everything to Somasco?"

Alton stopped suddenly, and there was consternation in the girl's face
as she glanced at him.

"I think there's somebody coming," he said slowly.

Now there was still just time for Alton to have shut the outer door,
but he remembered for the first time that the girl's visit at that hour
might be considered unusual, and it appeared probable that she would
not approve of the action, while having as yet only dealt with men, his
usual quick decision deserted him. He glanced once from his companion
to the partition and the door of the inner room, and shook his head.
Then he sprang forward towards the outer door, forgetting that he was
lame. That, however, did not alter the fact, and as he stumbled a
little the tray on the table he struck went down with a crash,
scattering its contents about the room, while before he reached the
door it swung open and a man stood smiling in the opening.

"Hello! I seem to have scared you," he said. "Got anything you don't
want folks to know about in here?"

The stranger moved forward another step, and then stopped abruptly with
a little gasp as his glance took in the overturned tray, scattered
crockery, and the rigid figure of the girl standing with a flushed face
beside the stove. Then he glanced at Alton, and noticing the old
jacket and deerhide slippers, appeared to have some difficulty in
checking a smile, for this was a young man who knew nothing of the
simple strenuous life of the bush, but a good deal about the under-side
of that of the cities.

"I'll come back in business hours to-morrow," he said. "Sorry to
disturb you, but I hadn't a minute all day, and there was a question I
figured we could best talk over quietly."

"Then you had better start in with it," said Alton quietly. "This
lady, who came here on business, is just going."

"Of course," said the stranger. "I think I have had the pleasure of
meeting her."

He turned with a little smile which broadened into a grin Alton found
intolerable, for there was a patter of feet on the stairway, and when
he looked round except for himsel