ll be successful."

"Thank you," said Alton. "It would mean a good deal to everybody--and
now I think I have already stayed too long."

Alice Deringham heard the creaking of a chair, and when she looked
round he had gone, but she said very little to any one when the curtain
came down again, while Alton, turning in a doorway for a moment, set
his lips as he caught the gleam of her hair.

"I think I have done the right thing all round, but it was condemnably
hard," he said as he went down the corridor.

By chance he came face to face with Forel a few moments later, and both
men stopped. "I am glad I found you," said Alton. "It is only fitting
to tell you that for a minute or two I joined your party."

Forel looked uncomfortable. "To be frank, there are unpleasant tales
about you, and while they needn't interfere with business one has
to----" he said, and stopped.

Alton nodded. "You needn't be too explicit. The tales, so far as you
have heard them, are not true. I tell you so on my word of honour--and
I want you to show that you believe me by finding Miss Townshead
something to do. You can draw on me for the salary if it's necessary."

Forel, who was a good-tempered man, flushed a little. "If there was
anything in the stories I should take this very ill."

"Of course," said Alton. "I shouldn't have objected if you had knocked
me down, but, as I see you are not quite sure yet, for just five
minutes you have got to listen to me."

Forel did so, and nodded when Alton concluded, "I think you should do
what I want you to, because in the first place it will give you very
little trouble, and if you can't take my word so far, I'm not fit to be
trusted with your interests in the big deal we have in hand."

"And in the second?" said Forel, who stood to benefit considerably by
the success of the Somasco Consolidated, dryly.

Alton laughed. "I think it would be more tasteful to leave that
unexpressed, because it's connected with the other one," he said.

"Well," said Forel, "frankly, I should have doubted what you have told
me had it come from most other men, but in this case I will see what I
can do. We are, as it happens, in want of somebody at Westminster, and
I'll send them down a line to-morrow."

"Thanks," said Alton, with a little sigh of relief. "Now I think I've
straightened up everything, and I can go back to the ranges contented."

CHAPTER XXIX

THE PRICE OF DELAY

It was raining with