ty to him,
and, as in this case there does not seem to be a wicked uncle, Mr.
Deringham, the next of kin and a distinguished London financier who
has, we believe, had some dealings in local mines, has come out to look
for him. Mr. Alton of Somasco will probably stop right where he is if
he is the sensible man his neighbours seem to think him."

"That's correct?" said Hallam, glancing at Deringham.

"I knew who you were when I saw you."

"Yes," said Deringham. "The taste is questionable, but I can't deny
its comparative accuracy."

"Then," said Hallam, "Alton stands between you and this Carnaby
property?"

"I believe so," said Deringham quietly.

"It's a big estate?" said Hallam, and Alice Deringham, who knew his
capabilities, wondered when her father would effectually silence this
presumptuous stranger. In the meanwhile he, however, showed no
intention of doing so.

"No," he said languidly. "It is a small one, and heavily in debt. I
presume you know rancher Alton by the interest you show in him?"

"Yes," said Hallam, "and I don't like him."

Deringham scarcely glanced at his daughter, but she realized that her
presence was not especially desired, and when she rose and went back
into the building her father glanced steadily at Hallam.

"I wonder why you told me that," he said.

Hallam laughed. "Well, I generally talk straight, and I feel like
that," he said. "Now, they don't keep anything that doesn't burn a
hole in you here, and I've a bottle of English whisky. Don't see any
reason why you shouldn't take a drink with me?"

"No," said Deringham indifferently. "I am, however, a somewhat
abstemious man."

Hallam went into the building and returned with a cigar-case and a
bottle. The contents of both were good, and Deringham sat languidly
glancing over the curling smoke towards the glimmering snow. It
towered white and cold against a pale green, shining high above
climbing pines and dusky valley, while the fleecy mist crept higher and
higher athwart the serried waves of trees that fell to the river
hollow. Alice Deringham saw it, and drinking in the wonderful
freshness that came down from the peaks and permeated the silence of
the valley, realized a little of that great white rampart's awful
serenity. She also wondered vacantly what the two men on the verandah
were talking about; but in this she was wrong, for Hallam, overcharged
with Western vivacity, was talking, and her father waiting quietl