The bush was dim and shadowy before the meal was finished, but Alton flung fresh branches on the fire, and the blaze that whirled aloft rent a track of radiance through the rain, and called up the vague outlines of the columnar trunks.  Then he stretched himself out upon an armful of dripping twigs, and his garments steamed about him as he lighted an old blackened pipe.  Seaforth lay amidst the packages, feeling blissfully drowsy as the warmth crept slowly into his aching limbs.  Overhead the pine branches, wailed in wild harmonies, and the showers they shook down beat upon the tent.

“It seems to me this journey might have begun better,” said Alton presently.

Seaforth nodded full concurrence.  “It would be a little difficult to imagine it commencing very much worse.  Wouldn’t it have been wiser if you had waited a little longer, Harry?”

Alton seemed to notice something unusual in his companion’s inflection.  “You will have to talk straighter, Charley,” he said.

Seaforth, who saw the glint in his eyes, laughed.  “I merely meant that spring is coming, and it would be a trifle warmer then.  I’m inclined to be a little cantankerous to-night, but, of course, it is not my business how long you stayed at the ranch.”

“No,” said Alton dryly, “I don’t think it is.  Spring would have been nicer, but, you see, Hallam was crowding me.  Did anything else strike you, Charley?”

“Nothing of much importance,” said Seaforth, smiling.  “Only that while we lie shivering here Hallam is probably dining in state in the big hotel at Vancouver.  Jingling glasses, good wine, light and warmth, flowers and silver on the table.  The contrast’s a little exasperating.”

Alton glanced at the saturated canvas and his steaming clothes, while Seaforth, for no apparent reason, stretched out one foot and kicked over the dinted kettle.

“There are folks who would think that’s only fit,” he said.  “Mr. Hallam is one of the men who are building up the future greatness of this wonderful country.  At least, that’s what they called him at the last big speech-making, but I don’t quite see what good it would do us if you kicked the bottom of that kettle in, Charley.  Now it’s curious how a thing that’s once started goes on.  Jimmy took a notion that there was silver here, and that drew me in as well as Mrs. Jimmy.  Then you came along, and presently it got hold of Hallam.  The Somasco Consolidated has got drawn in, too—­now there are you and I, with only the Almighty knows how much upon our shoulders, up here in the rain and snow.”

Seaforth glanced at his comrade reflectively as he said, “I was wondering if there was anybody else.”

Alton’s face grew suddenly impassive.  “Oh, yes,” he said.  “There’s another man I don’t know, the one who lighted the fire.  He’s back there somewhere.”

Seaforth said nothing for a minute or two, but as he glanced about him the shadows seemed to grow darker beyond the flickering radiance of the fire, and the roar of wind in the branches angrier.  He had been a prey to half-formed suspicions of late, and there was something sinister in the thought of that man who followed them.