then toppled further,
and with a great humming came rushing down. Then there was a stunning
crash, and he stood gasping, deafened, and bereft of sight, amidst a
stifling cloud of dust which swept into his mouth and nostrils and
almost suffocated him. When he could see anything again the horse was
quivering, and the dust still rising from a shapeless pile a few yards
behind him. Alton, who was black and grey to the ankles, took his hat
off, shook it, and put it on again in a curious unconcerned fashion
which suggested that he did it unconsciously.

"Those six feet make a big difference," said he. As he spoke there was
a crash a little farther behind them, another ahead, and they stood
still; Alton gripping the horse's bridle, Seaforth staring about him
and scarcely breathing, while concussion answered concussion, until
there was a silence that was almost bewildering again.

"Now," said Alton quietly, "we'll get out of this, though I don't know
that we need worry, because that should have cleared out the shaky
ones. When one goes, more of them generally follow. It wouldn't have
grieved Hallam of the Tyee very much if we had been a yard or two
farther back."

Seaforth was possibly a little shaken, for he answered as he might not
otherwise have done. "I wonder if it would have displeased anybody
else," he said.

Alton jerked the horse to a standstill and looked at him. "I don't
think you meant that, Charley."

Seaforth noticed the glint in his comrade's eyes, and departed a little
from veracity. "No," he said. "There are times when a man is apt to
talk a little at random."

Alton nodded. "You'll not forget again. The man is a kinsman of mine."

Seaforth smote the pack-horse, because he did not quite know what to
answer. He had vague suspicions concerning Deringham, but was quite
aware that it would be inappropriate for him to express them. Also,
having seen a little of the smoother side of life in England, he knew a
trifle more about young women of Miss Deringham's description than his
comrade did. He admired the girl, as most men would have done, but the
qualities Alton had evidently endowed her with were not especially
apparent to him. He also fancied that Miss Deringham would have found
some of them distinctly irksome now and then.

It was dark when they came out of the _brulee_ and pitched camp amidst
the boulders beside a lonely lake. The mists crawled about the pines
that shut it in, and its