Mrs. Margery, her words had left him with a
vague uneasiness.

In the meantime Alton dropped very stiffly from the saddle in front of
Horton's hotel, and, limping up the stairway, found the man who kept it
upon the verandah.

"Glad to see you coming round, Harry; but you're looking very white,
and walking kind of stiff," he said.

"Yes," said Alton dryly. "I shall probably walk just that way all my
life."

Horton made no attempt to condole with him. He knew Alton tolerably
well, and felt that any sympathy he could offer would be inadequate.
"Well," he said, "here's a letter Thomson brought you in from the
railroad."

Alton tore open the envelope, and read the message with a faint relief,
for it was from Deringham, and stated that an affair of business would
prevent him returning to Somasco for some little time. Then he
remembered that to delay a question which must be asked would but
prolong the suspense.

"I'm going through to the railroad, but the ride has shaken me, and
I'll lie down and sleep a while," he said.

"Well," said Horton, "you know best, but you look a long way more fit
to be sitting beside the stove up there at the ranch. That was a
tolerably bad accident you had?"

Alton glanced at him sharply, but his voice was indifferent as he
answered. "Oh, yes, I came to grief bringing in a deer, and lay out in
the frost a good while before they found me. Have you had many
strangers round here?"

Horton nodded. "The bush is just full of them--looking for timber
rights and prospecting round the Crown lands--Hallam's friends, I
think. There was one of them seemed kind of anxious about you lately."

Alton's eyes grew a trifle keener, but he was shaken and weary, and
made a little gesture which seemed to indicate that he would ask
questions later.

"You'll give the horse a light feed, and let me know when supper's on,"
he said.

It was dark when he mounted with Horton's assistance, and the horse
plunged once or twice. Then it started at a gallop, and Alton had some
difficulty in pulling it up, for the snow was beaten down and the trail
was good. He had not been gone half-an-hour when Seaforth, whose horse
was smoking, swung himself down before the hotel.

"Where's Harry?" he said.

"On the trail," said Horton. "I wanted to keep him, but he lit out a
little while ago, and borrowed a rifle. What he wanted it for I don't
know, but he wouldn't be lonely, anyway. One of the boys who was
st