A bag or two of something followed them, the great engines panted, and the dusty cars went on again, while it dawned upon Alice Deringham that her last hold upon civilization had gone, and she was left to her own resources in a new and somewhat barbarous land.
There were no obsequious porters to collect her baggage, which lay where it had alighted with one trunk gaping open, while a couple of men in blue shirts and soil-stained jeans leaned upon the neighbouring fence watching her with mild curiosity.

Her father addressed another one somewhat differently attired who stood in the door of the office.
"There is a hotel here, but they couldn't take you in," said the man.
"Party of timber-right prospectors came along, and they're kind of frolicsome.

They might find you a berth on the verandah, but I don't know that it would suit the lady.

It mixes things up considerable when you bring a woman." Deringham glanced at his daughter, and the girl laughed.

"Then is there any means of getting on to Cedar Valley ?" she said.
The man slowly shook his head.