"No," said Alton. "I'm just where I can, and it hurts me to owe
anybody anything, whether it's a favour, or the other thing."

Miss Deringham understood him, and reflected as she glanced at him out
of the corners of her eyes that her father would do well if he dealt
openly with this man. She fancied he could be remorseless in a
reckoning, and she had now and then of late had unpleasant suspicions
respecting Deringham's intentions concerning him.

Alton took up the paddle, and the pair found Deringham waiting them
when they landed. They crossed the valley together, and the girl, who
had seen little of industrial activity, became interested when at her
father's desire they followed Alton into the mill. A cloud of pungent
smoke hung about it, and the steady pounding of an engine jarred
through the monotone of the river, which was low just then, while there
was a pleasant fragrance in the open-sided building where brawny men
moved amidst the whirling dust with the precision of the machines they
handled. Alice Deringham could see with untrained eyes that there was
no waste of effort here. The great logs that slid in at one end passed
straight forward over the rattling rollers, and made no deviation until
they went out as planking. Silent men and whirring saws, whose
strident scream changed to a deeper humming as they rent into the great
redwood trunks, alike did their work with swift efficiency, and once
more the girl glanced with a little wonder at the man who had organized
it all.

"This appears to be a remarkably well-laid-out mill," said her father.

Alton laughed a little. "We shall have a bigger one by and by," he
said. "The only thing I'm proud of is the planer, and she cost me a