Alton's face was once more flushed, and the girl fancied his fingers quivered a little, but while he sat silent there was a tapping at the door and an urchin flung a journal into the room.

"Colonist," he said, and vanished suddenly.

Forel, who appeared glad of the diversion, picked up the paper, and then stood up. "News at last," he said excitedly. "I fancied we would have had it first, but the news agency fellows have beaten us, Harry; it's more than probable they're going to rush the railroad through."

Alton's eyes glittered. "Great news, but it will keep," he said. "No, don't worry over any more of it. Look at the notices."

Forel folded back the sheet. Then it rustled in his hand, and his voice shook as he read disjointedly: "Vacant Crown lands. To all it may concern. Mineral claim on left bank headwaters Somasco River in unsurveyed territory, frontage declared to be——"

"Give it to me, or get on," Alton said hoarsely.

The paper was shaking visibly. "Is declared to be on or after 12 P.M. on the date undermentioned eligible for relocation," and Forel ended with a little gasp, "You have lost it, Harry."

Alton was on his feet by this time and snatching out his watch. "No, by the Lord!" he said. "I've still rather a better chance than most other men. Head straight for the freight traffic man, Charley, and tell him I'm going up with the fast Atlantic freight they're sending our empty cars back on. Forel, run across and send in your stenographer. There are lots of things I've got to do, and the freight will be going out in an hour or so."

Nellie Seaforth laughed a little. "Then Mr. Forel will not have time, and there's another woman anxious to do a little for Somasco. Give me a pencil, Harry, and begin right away."

Alton only flung her a grateful glance, and dictated rapidly, until Seaforth appeared in the doorway flushed with haste, when shouting his thanks after him he ran down the stairway.

Nellie Seaforth laughed a little. "Good fortune go with him. That is Alton—of Somasco," she said. "I wonder whether he will remember to put on his hat."

"I don't think it's likely," said her husband. "Nellie, I can't help wondering if you were right just now."

Mrs. Seaforth smiled at him curiously. "It was right I did," she said. "Possibly the distinction is too fine for you, but I think the future will justify me."

Then she drew off her gloves, and endeavoured to remember only that she had been considered a capable business lady.

Forel went up to Somasco next day, and one afternoon sat with his wife and Miss Deringham upon the verandah of Horton's hotel. Horton himself was pacing up and down, and a group of bronzed bush ranchers stood in the dust below. They spoke more rapidly than was usual with them, their movements were curiously restless for impassive men, and their eyes were fixed upon the shadowy trail that led down the valley beneath the sombre pines. The afternoon was still, and a drowsy resinous fragrance hung heavily about the hotel. There was no sound but the low voices, and the murmur of sliding water in the distance.

Alice Deringham was pale and very quiet, though there was an intentness in her eyes, and when Horton stopped close by her she looked at him.

"They have heard nothing yet?" she said.

"No," said the storekeeper. "Still, some of them should have been here by now."

The little nervous tremor in his voice did not escape the girl, and though it had all been explained to her before, she said, "Then you expect more than Mr. Alton?"

"Well," said Horton, who seemed glad to find an outlet in speech, "I don't quite know. You see there was a man brought a wire in before Harry got through, and once the claim was posted vacant anybody could stake it. There's a holy crowd of jumpers hanging round the mine, and because there'd be such a circus nobody could be sure who'd got his pegs in first, the Crown people would probably listen to the man who got through and recorded. Oh, yes, they'll be pounding down the trail as if the devil was after them now, but there's none of them got the relays of horses we've fixed up for Harry."

Horton moved away, and the girl sat still listening, while Mrs. Forel stirred nervously, and her husband apparently found it necessary to light his cigar again every now and then. The voices had died away, and there was no sound but the faint song of water and the patter of restless feet. How long the silence continued Alice Deringham did not know, but a quiver went through her as a hoarse shout rose up, "They're coming!"

Then there was silence again, and she watched a bronzed man rubbing down a great black horse whose blood had not come from a Cayuse pedigree until a faint drumming grew louder down the trail. It swelled into a sharp staccato, and the murmurs commenced again. "Two of them. Another man behind. Riding like brimstone. Can you see them yet?"

The drumming sound sank, and rose again in a confused roar as the horsemen crossed a wooden bridge while Alice Deringham stood up, when once more the voices rose stridently.

"One of the jumpers first. Harry's coming along behind. Cayuse played out. Lord, how they're riding!"

Then lips were set tight, and steady eyes blazed, as a man grimed with sweat and dust who reeled in his saddle swept out from the forest on a jaded horse. Most of those who watched him had a heavy stake in that race, for it was with Alton's prosperity they must stand or fall; but the bushman's code of honour is as high as it is simple, and they sprang aside to give the rider a free passage. The man blinked at them in a curious dazed fashion, as he rode on, the dust whirling behind him and the lather dripping tinged with red from the horse's whitened sides.

Still, the drumming behind grew louder, and he had scarcely sunk into the shadows when Alton, stripped to shirt and trousers, rode in. He, too, swayed in the saddle, and his face was foul with dust, but it was firmly set, and there was a glint in his eyes, while as he swept out of the shadow of the pines two men led the horse out into the trail. He reined his beast in upon its haunches, swung himself down, thrust aside the pitcher somebody tendered him, and with a swing that rent the white shirt was once more in the saddle. Then there was a scattering of the crowd and a shouting broke out.

"You'll have him in a league, Harry. Another horse ready at Thomson's ranch."

Alice Deringham held her breath as, while a third beat of hoofs grew louder behind, Alton gathered up the bridle and drove his heels home. The horse, frightened by the clamour, reared almost upright and then backed across the trail, while the girl wondered with a tense anxiety whether the man would look up. Then for just a second he turned his head, and saw her standing on the verandah with a blaze in her cheeks and a dimness in her eyes.

"Off with you, Harry, and remember you're riding for all of us and Somasco," cried somebody.



Alton had the beast's head up the trail now, but as he sent his heels home he swung up his right hand, and the girl smiled down on him bravely out of misty eyes.

"And for Carnaby," he cried. "I can't be beaten."

Then the horse shot forward, and he was away, his torn shirt fluttering as the wind rushed past, while Alice Deringham hastened to the end of the verandah with Forel to see the last of him just as another man rode in at a floundering gallop.

The trail led straight beneath the pines, and her heart throbbed painfully while she watched the second rider closing with the one in front of him, until the two figures became blurred before her eyes, and she turned suddenly cold.

"He's fouling him," cried somebody, and a roar of execrations went up. "Both of them for the same company. The condemned jumper's right across the trail."

There was silence once more, and the two objects seemed to rush together, then another roar went up.

"Down. Oh, yes, the jumper's down. Harry rode straight into him—the fool might have known his horse was blown. The other one's used up. Somasco's leading clear again."

Alice Deringham was trembling visibly, and knew that Mrs. Forel's eyes were upon her, but that did not seem to count at all. She could see a figure standing over a fallen horse up the trail, while another that had already left it far behind was sinking into the shadow of the pines. The jumper was beaten, but Alton was riding still—for Somasco and Carnaby—with a fresh horse beneath him.

Then she turned to Mrs. Forel with a softness in her eyes which somewhat astonished the elder lady.

"I should like to go back to Somasco now," she said. "I am a little tired, and I know that he will win."

A wagon was awaiting them, and Forel several times came near overturning it in his excitement as he drove them home to the ranch.

It was a week later when one evening the leading inhabitants of the district assembled in Somasco ranch. Those who were married had brought their wives with them, and the cook and Mrs. Margery had toiled since morning to set out the table in a fashion befitting the occasion, for the chief roads and trails surveyor and a member of the Provincial Government were to be entertained that evening.

The sombre green of cedar-sprays relieved the red-veined panelling, there were flowers and early fruits upon the table, and the fragrance of the firs came in through the open windows, while when the bronzed men filed in there was expectancy in their steady eyes. Several of them had ridden here and there with the surveyor all that day, and he had expressed grave approval of all they had shown him. Once, too, he appeared a trifle astonished when pointed out the new road they had driven under Alton's guidance along the mountain side. It would reduce the distance to the settlement several miles, but it had cost many dollars and weeks of perilous toil, while the surveyor had only stated that it was well done, and the men of Somasco had as yet no answer to the important question whether the Government would complete what remained unfinished or in any way recompense them.

Supper was served with as much ceremony as was possible at Somasco, but the meal was a somewhat silent one. The ranchers were a trifle anxious while the surveyor spoke most to Alice Deringham, who sat next him near the head of the table, and the member of the Government divided his observations between the wife of a big axeman and Mrs. Forel. All of those present knew that events of great importance to them were happening in the city, but save for a brief telegram from Alton stating that he had been allowed to record the mine and would return in a day or two they had no authentic news.

It was almost a relief when the meal was over, and there was a sudden hush of attention as the surveyor rose up. Every eye was turned upon the grave-faced gentleman at the head of the table.

"I have spent a good many years building roads and bridges in various parts of the Dominion, and have never seen better work than you have shown me to-day," he said. "Now I don't quite know if you expected me to talk business on this occasion, but I'm going out early to-morrow, and I fancy your good ladies are as anxious as you are about the welfare of Somasco."

A woman with hard brown hands turned in her chair.

"Oh, yes," she said. "We are that, anyway, and because we're most of us working twelve hours every day just for the right to live, we've sent out our men to make the roads that are to bring the dollars that will make things easier in. The Government don't help us, we're doing the work ourselves, and we'll go out, too, with the drill and shovel if the men are beaten."

There was a deprecatory murmur that had yet in it grim approval, and the surveyor smiled a little.

"That, I think, is the spirit which is going to make this province the greatest in the Dominion," he said. "Well, I may tell you that I was sent up here with a tolerably wide discretion, and after seeing the rock cutting by the lake I'm going to use it now. Nothing better has been done in the province, and the man who planned it for you had courage as well as genius. It is a most daring and successful piece of engineering."

A little flush crept into the bronzed faces, and Mrs. Forel noticed the brightness in Alice Deringham's eyes, for the man who had spoken was a famous engineer.

"Well," he said gravely, "we are going to take over that road—as from the beginning—and finish it for you. That is, you will be paid by the province for every day you spent upon it, and I leave it to the man who commenced it to see the work through. His pay orders will be honoured, and I should very much like to see and compliment him."

A murmur ran along the table, for the Government pay is good and a road-making grant a coveted boon in each lonely valley, whose inhabitants are usually glad to keep the work in their own hands.

"Boys," said somebody, "this is what comes of trusting Harry."

It was a simple speech, but the second murmur which followed it and the confidence in the bronzed faces stirred Alice Deringham. She had been taught a little about these silent men, and knew the value of their testimony.

The surveyor sat down, and the member stood up. "I can add a little, gentlemen," he said. "Roads are always useful, and we'll give you a good one, and, if my word goes far enough, a grant to cut across trails with and improve your bridges, but you're going to have a better one than any you can build."

He stopped a moment, and there was not a sound in the room. The men sat still as statues, the women drew in their breath, and the song of the river came in through the windows in slow pulsations. Every eye was on the speaker, and now and then a hard brown hand quivered a little, but in the midst of their suspense there was no man weak enough to ask a premature question.

The surveyor smiled a little. "Gentlemen," he said slowly, "you have all heard conflicting rumours, but I have had a message, and you can take it as a fact that you will have the steel road very shortly."

This time there was a roar that shook the rafters, and a rattle of flung-back chairs as the men rose to their feet. They had toiled and hoped for this, holding on with grim endurance when hope had almost gone, and now all that they had looked for was to be given them. There was no man present who did not know that his ranch was worth treble what it had been a few days ago, or woman who could not see that henceforward there need be no more ceaseless drudgery. One, indeed, laughed inanely, clasping her hardened hands, and a dimness crept into eyes, more than one pair of eyes, from which the care that had long lurked there had vanished suddenly.

Then a man swung up a brimming glass. "Boys," he said, a trifle hoarsely, "it's only cider this time, but you can drink what I'm going to give you in champagne when the railroad's through. Here's the man who stood right with us through everything, the man who beat off Hallam, and brought the railroad in."

There was a jingle of glasses, and the surveyor and the member stood up with the rest, while, for the men had let themselves go at last, a great shout rang out, "Harry Alton, Alton of Somasco."

Then there was silence, and while the men stood with flushed faces too stirred as yet to remember that they had done an unusual thing, Seaforth, who had come up on some business from Vancouver with his wife, moved out a little from the rest.

"Boys," he said, and his voice shook a little, "I would have tried to thank you on behalf of the best comrade you or I ever had, only that I fancy he will be here in a minute to answer for himself."

He stopped abruptly, and through the silence that followed all heard a drumming that might have been made by the hoofs of a galloping horse, and Mrs. Forel wondered as she glanced at the girl opposite her across the table. Alice Deringham had like the rest been stirred out of her reticence, and now she seemed almost transfigured with the warm flush in her cheeks and the pride discernible through the softness in her eyes.

The beat of hoofs stopped presently, and a man came hastily through the verandah. Alice Deringham could not see him, but the flush in her cheeks grew deeper, for she knew that slightly uneven step. Then there was a move towards the door, and she sat almost alone at the head of the table, knowing that somebody was shouldering his way through those who thronged about him in her direction. Still she could not look until a man dropped into the vacant chair beside her. Then she saw that Alton was glancing down at her with a question in his face.

"You are pleased that we have won?" he said.

"Yes," said the girl, who felt that speech had its limits. "I knew you would."

Alton seemed to sigh with a great contentment. "Then," he said quietly, "if it was only to hear that I would begin it all again."

He had no opportunity for further speech. There were questions to be asked and answers given, while it was some hours later and most of the guests had departed when he found Alice Deringham alone upon the verandah. The moon hung over the cedars on a black hillside, the lake flung back its radiance steelily, and the stillness was made musical by the sound of falling water. Alton had come out from the presence of the surveyor with a glint of triumph in his eyes.

"There is only one thing wanting to make this the greatest day of my life, but without it all the rest counts for nothing. You know what it is," he said.

"Yes," said Alice Deringham simply. "But why did you not ask for it earlier, Harry? It would have saved one of us so much."

Alton laughed a little, and glanced down at his knee. "Well, I fancied—but, pshaw, I was a fool," said he.

"Yes," said Alice Deringham. "I think you were—for I was only sorry then. And—after all that has happened—are you not foolish still? I am not the woman you fancy I am, Harry, and you know how I have wronged you."

"You are the one I want," said Alton gravely. "And I know who it was gave all she had to help me when I was beaten."

Alice Deringham still drew back from him. "It was your own, and you do not quite know all yet," she said. "I am a penniless girl——"

Alton laughed exultantly as he stooped and caught her wrist. "All that I want the most you give, and when you sent me away I knew it was mine," he said. "But Somasco, and the silver up yonder, is mine, too, and that when we have redeemed Carnaby will be quite enough for two."

Alice Deringham made no further resistance, but glanced up into his eyes as he drew her to him, and then felt his arm close round her with a great contentment.

It was half an hour later when she met Nellie Seaforth in a corridor, and the latter stretched her hands out impulsively and kissed her.

"You need not tell me, and I am very glad," she said. "Of course you will be happy. He is a good man."

Alice Deringham coloured in a fashion Nellie Seaforth had not believed her capable of, and there was a depth of grave tenderness in her eyes.

"Yes," she said simply. "And because of his goodness I must try to be a better woman."

She passed on, and Nellie Seaforth, who found her husband, smiled at him. "It has all come right, and I don't think Harry will be sorry, though he might have been had it happened earlier," she said,

"That strikes me as a little mixed," said Seaforth dryly.

Mrs. Seaforth shook her head at him. "No. It's quite plain," she said. "I think Miss Deringham has been taught a good deal, and whatever she may have been she will only be lovable as Mrs. Alton."

Seaforth smiled gravely. "Now I understand—fellow-feeling prompts me to, and of course you are right," he said. "There must be a special blessing on those who, like you and Harry, ask very little, and give with an open hand."

THE END