Its topmost sprays towered two hundred feet above them, and the great trunk ran a stupendous column to the vault of dusky green above.
It was, however, the men who most attracted Deringham's attention, and he stood for a moment watching them.
Two were poised on narrow boards notched into the tree a man's height from the ground, and one was huge and swarthy, so that the heavy axe he held seemed a toy in his great gnarled hand.

The other, whose figure seemed in some respects familiar, stooped a little with the bright axe blade laid flat in one palm as though he were examining it, and Deringham, who could not see his face, turned towards another who sat at the foot of the tree sharpening a big saw.

His overalls were in tolerable repair, while from an indefinite something in his face and the way he wore them Deringham set him down as an Englishman.

Still, he did not think he was an Alton.
"Can you tell me where Mr.Henry Alton is ?" he said.

The young man nodded.