frequent of late, and though the girl sometimes wondered what she found
to please her in the company and conversation of the bush rancher, the
fact that she usually went with him when he crossed the lake remained.

"I have seen that trail of smoke up there before. Where does it come
from?" she said languidly, pointing to a distant film of vapour that
drifted in a faint blue wreath along the slope of a hill.

"That," said Alton, "is the Tyee mine."

"I have heard of it. They find silver there?"

"Yes," said Alton dryly. "They find a little."

"There is silver in those mountains, then?" said Miss Deringham.

Alton nodded. "Lots of it. Still, it costs a good deal to get out,
and then it doesn't pay for the mining occasionally. That's the
trouble with the Tyee."

"Still, it must pay somebody, or they would not go on," said Miss
Deringham.

Alton laughed a little. "Oh, yes," he said dryly. "It pays a man
called Hallam and some others of his kind who got up the company.
Still, sometime and somehow, I think he will be sorry he stole poor
folks' money."

"You," said Miss Deringham, smiling, "are an optimist, then?"