Then the cars stopped with a jerk, and Miss Deringham stepped down from the platform.

Her first glance showed her long ranks of climbing pines, with a great white peak silhouetted hard and sharp above them against the blue.

Then she became conscious of the silver mist streaming ethereally athwart the sombre verdure from the river hollow, and that a new and pungent smell cut through the odours of dust and creosote which reeked along the track.

It came from a cord of cedar-wood piled up close by, and she found it curiously refreshing.

The drowsy roar of the river mingled with the panting of the locomotive pump, but there was a singular absence of life and movement in the station until the door of the baggage-car slid open, and her father sprang aside as her trunks were shot out on to the platform.