Alton of Somasco. Harold Bindloss
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and then sat down on a pile of cedar-wood staring at the speaker. "I wish to see Mr. Alton as soon as possible," he said.
The other man looked up again, and grinned. "You'd better not," said he. "Harry Alton's a bit short in temper when he's busy, and if you're peddling anything it would be better if you saw him after supper. Then if you can't make a deal you can go on to-morrow. There's plenty good straw in the barn."
Deringham was not especially flattered at being mistaken for a peddler, nor had the prospect of sleeping on straw any great attraction for him, but he had a sense of humour, and, being desirous of acquiring information, took up the fowl.
"Do you put up every stranger who calls here, and give him a fowl for supper? What am I to do with this one?" he said.
"Now, where did you come from?" said the other. "That's just what we do. A fowl's not much for a man, anyway, and Harry will eat two of them when he's hungry. What are you going to do with it? Well, you can, pull the feathers off it, and fix it for cooking, unless you like them better with their insides in."
Deringham gravely pulled out four or five feathers, and then, finding it more difficult than he had expected, desisted. "Mr. Alton is apparently not married," he said.
The man grinned. "No, Harry knows when he's well off, and it would take a woman with a mighty firm grip to manage him," said he. "Still, there's one or two of them quite ready to see what they could make of him, but Mrs. Margery scares them off when they come round bringing him little things, and Harry's a bit pernicketty. His father was a duke or something in the old country."
"Mrs. Margery?" said Deringham inquiringly.
"Yes," said the other. "She's not here just now, but she keeps the house for him. I help round and do the cooking."
Deringham, who could adapt himself to his surroundings, nodded. "That is what you would consider a soft job in this country?"
"Well," said the man grimly, as he pointed to the deformation of one lower limb, "I am not fond of it, but it's about all I'm good for now. That's where the axe went in, and anybody but Harry Alton might have fired me. It was my own blame foolishness, too, but when the doctor told him Harry comes to me. 'You needn't worry about one thing, anyway. There'll be a job for you just so long as you're wanting it,'" says he.
"He does that kind of thing sometimes?" said Deringham curiously.
"No, sir," said the other dryly. "He does it every time, but the devil himself wouldn't squeeze ten cents out of Harry if he didn't want to give it him. But how long are you going to be stripping that fowl?"
"As I'm afraid it would take me all night, I would prefer to give you a half-a-dollar to do it for me," said Deringham.
The man straightened himself a little, and Deringham received another surprise.
"Patent medicines and hair-growers are up?" said he.
"I don't quite understand," said Deringham quietly.
"No?" said the other. "Well, you will do presently unless you get right out of this shanty. I'm fit to make my wages yet, if I've only got one handy leg, and I can put my mark on any blame peddler who talks that way to me."
"I'm sorry," said Deringham gravely. "I have, you see, just come from England, where folks are not always so well paid as you seem to be. I think I will look for Mr. Alton. Can you tell me where he is?"
The man, who appeared a trifle mollified, pointed to the bush. "He's yonder, but if he scares you, you needn't blame me," he said.
Deringham picked his way amidst the six-foot fir-stumps girdled with tall fern, over a breadth of white ashes and charcoal where the newly-won land lay waiting for the plough, in and out amidst the chaos of trunks that lay piled athwart each other all round the clearing, and stopped close by three men who were making an onslaught on a majestic tree. Its topmost sprays towered two hundred feet above them, and the great trunk ran a stupendous column to the vault of dusky green above. It was, however, the men who most attracted Deringham's attention, and he stood for a moment watching them.
Two were poised on narrow boards notched into the tree a man's height from the ground, and one was huge and swarthy, so that the heavy axe he held seemed a toy in his great gnarled hand. The other, whose figure seemed in some respects familiar, stooped a little with the bright axe blade laid flat in one palm as though he were examining it, and Deringham, who could not see his face, turned towards another who sat at the foot of the tree sharpening a big saw. His overalls were in tolerable repair, while from an indefinite something in his face and the way he wore them Deringham set him down as an Englishman. Still, he did not think he was an Alton.
"Can you tell me where Mr. Henry Alton is?" he said. The young man nodded. "Harry!" he said.
Then the man on the plank above turned round, and Deringham felt inclined to gasp as he stood face to face with the new heir to Carnaby. The man was grimed with dust and ashes. His blue shirt rolled back to the shoulders left uncovered arms that were corded like a smith's, and was rent at the neck so that Deringham could see the finely-arched chest. The overalls, tight-belted round the waist, set off the solidity of his shoulders and the leanness of the flank, while with the first glance at his face Deringham recognized the teamster who had driven them through the bush.
He stood poised on the few inches of springy redwood looking down upon him with a grimly humorous twinkle in his eyes, but through the smears of perspiration and the charcoal grime Deringham now recognized the expression of quiet forcefulness and the directness of gaze which was his birthright.
"Mr. Henry Alton?" he said.
"Yes," said the other quietly.
There was a moment's embarrassing silence, for Alton said nothing further, and Deringham gazed at the man he had journeyed three thousand miles to see.
"I should like a little talk with you," he said presently.
"Can't oblige you," said the other. "I couldn't spare more than a minute now for a railroad director. You can tell me anything you want after supper."
Deringham lost a little of his usual serenity. "My business is of some importance," he said.
Alton smiled grimly. "I can't help that. So is mine," said he. "A lawyer, by the stamp of you. Well, you're trailing the wrong man, because I don't owe anybody money. We'll put you up to-night, and you can look for him to-morrow."
"I have come from Carnaby, England," said Deringham, watching the effect upon the man. "You are, I presume the grandson of its late owner."
This shot got home, but the effect was not altogether what Deringham had anticipated, for Alton's big hands tightened on the axe and his face grew very stern. "I'm not proud of the connection, anyway," he said. "Alton of Somasco is good enough for me."
"But," said Deringham quietly, "I have come to talk things over with you. Tristan Alton left you Carnaby."
Alton straightened himself a little and flung out an arm, while Deringham recognized the Alton pride as with a sweeping gesture he pointed to wide lake, forest-shrouded hillside, and the clearing in the valley.
"He turned out my father because he knew his mind, and now when there is no one else leaves me the played-out property. Thank God, I don't want it, while that's all mine," he said. "What brings you here to talk of Carnaby?"
Deringham smiled a little. "The executor sent me, and I have come a long way," said he. "When I tell you that I am Ralph Deringham you should know me."
Alton nodded gravely. "Then you can tell me all about it after supper, and we'll have plenty time for talking, because you'll stay a while with me," he said. "If you'll go back to the house you'll find some cigars that might please you in the bureau. Sorry I can't come with you, but I'm busy. Are you ready, Tom?"
He turned, and swung up the axe while the big bushman swept his blade aloft, and Deringham watched them curiously. Alton swayed with a steely suppleness from the waist, and the broad wedge of steel flashed about his head before it came down