I'm fit to make my wages yet, if I've only got one handy leg, and I can put my mark on any blame peddler who talks that way to me." "I'm sorry," said Deringham gravely.

"I have, you see, just come from England, where folks are not always so well paid as you seem to be.

I think I will look for Mr.Alton.

Can you tell me where he is ?" The man, who appeared a trifle mollified, pointed to the bush.

"He's yonder, but if he scares you, you needn't blame me," he said.
Deringham picked his way amidst the six-foot fir-stumps girdled with tall fern, over a breadth of white ashes and charcoal where the newly-won land lay waiting for the plough, in and out amidst the chaos of trunks that lay piled athwart each other all round the clearing, and stopped close by three men who were making an onslaught on a majestic tree.