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-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY DALE'S ENGAGEMENT ***

-

-

-

-

-

-  Transcriber’s Note

-  Italic text displayed as: _italic_

-

-

-

-

-[Illustration: “NO, DADDY,” SHE SAID, “I—I THINK I—I AM IN LOVE.”

-

-  _Dorothy Dale’s Engagement_      _Page 165_

-]

-

-

-

-

-  DOROTHY DALE’S

-  ENGAGEMENT

-

-  BY

-

-  MARGARET PENROSE

-

-  AUTHOR OF “DOROTHY DALE: A GIRL OF TO-DAY,” “DOROTHY

-  DALE AT GLENWOOD SCHOOL,” “DOROTHY DALE IN

-  THE CITY,” “THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES,” ETC.

-

-  ILLUSTRATED

-

-  NEW YORK

-

-  CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

-

-

-

-

-BOOKS BY MARGARET PENROSE

-

-_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price, per volume, 75 cents, postpaid_

-

-

-THE DOROTHY DALE SERIES

-

-  DOROTHY DALE: A GIRL OF TO-DAY

-  DOROTHY DALE AT GLENWOOD SCHOOL

-  DOROTHY DALE’S GREAT SECRET

-  DOROTHY DALE AND HER CHUMS

-  DOROTHY DALE’S QUEER HOLIDAYS

-  DOROTHY DALE’S CAMPING DAYS

-  DOROTHY DALE’S SCHOOL RIVALS

-  DOROTHY DALE IN THE CITY

-  DOROTHY DALE’S PROMISE

-  DOROTHY DALE IN THE WEST

-  DOROTHY DALE’S STRANGE DISCOVERY

-  DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT

-

-

-THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON A TOUR

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS AT LOOKOUT BEACH

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS THROUGH NEW ENGLAND

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CEDAR LAKE

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON THE COAST

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CRYSTAL BAY

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON WATERS BLUE

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS AT CAMP SURPRISE

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS

-

- _Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York_

-

-

-  COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY

-  CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

-

-  DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT

-

-

-

-

-CONTENTS

-

-

-  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE

-

-  I.      “ALONE IN A GREAT CITY”                                      1

-

-  II.     G. K. TO THE RESCUE                                         17

-

-  III.    TAVIA IN THE SHADE                                          26

-

-  IV.     SOMETHING ABOUT “G. KNAPP”                                  32

-

-  V.      DOROTHY IS DISTURBED                                        40

-

-  VI.     SOMETHING OF A MYSTERY                                      47

-

-  VII.    GARRY SEES A WALL AHEAD                                     57

-

-  VIII.   AND STILL DOROTHY IS NOT HAPPY                              66

-

-  IX.     THEY SEE GARRY’S BACK                                       72

-

-  X.      “HEART DISEASE”                                             78

-

-  XI.     A BOLD THING TO DO!                                         84

-

-  XII.    UNCERTAINTIES                                               92

-

-  XIII.   DOROTHY MAKES A DISCOVERY                                  101

-

-  XIV.    TAVIA IS DETERMINED                                        109

-

-  XV.     THE SLIDE ON SNAKE HILL                                    116

-

-  XVI.    THE FLY IN THE AMBER                                       127

-

-  XVII.   “DO YOU UNDERSTAND TAVIA?”                                 135

-

-  XVIII.  CROSS PURPOSES                                             141

-

-  XIX.    WEDDING BELLS IN PROSPECT                                  147

-

-  XX.     A GIRL OF TO-DAY                                           154

-

-  XXI.    THE BUD UNFOLDS                                            162

-

-  XXII.   DOROTHY DECIDES                                            169

-

-  XXIII.  NAT JUMPS AT A CONCLUSION                                  179

-

-  XXIV.   THIN ICE                                                   188

-

-  XXV.    GARRY BALKS                                                200

-

-  XXVI.   SERIOUS THOUGHTS                                           207

-

-  XXVII.  “IT’S ALL OFF!”                                            213

-

-  XXVIII. THE CASTAWAYS                                              225

-

-  XXIX.   SOMETHING AMAZING                                          235

-

-  XXX.    SO IT WAS ALL SETTLED                                      243

-

-

-

-

-DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER I

-

-“ALONE IN A GREAT CITY”

-

-

-“Now, Tavia!”

-

-“Now, Dorothy!” mocked Octavia Travers, making a little face as she did

-so; but then, Tavia Travers could afford to “make faces,” possessing as

-she did such a naturally pretty one.

-

-“We must decide immediately,” her chum, Dorothy Dale, said decidedly,

-“whether to continue in the train under the river and so to the main

-station, or to change for the Hudson tube. You know, we can walk from

-the tube station at Twenty-third Street to the hotel Aunt Winnie always

-patronizes.”

-

-“With these heavy bags, Doro?”

-

-“Only a block and a half, my dear Tavia. You are a strong, healthy

-girl.”

-

-“But I do so like to have people do things for me,” sighed Tavia,

-clasping her hands. “And taxicabs are _so_ nice.”

-

-“And expensive,” rejoined Dorothy.

-

-“Of course. That is what helps to make them nice,” declared Tavia.

-“Doro, I just love to throw away money!”

-

-“You only think you do, my dear,” her chum said placidly. “Once you had

-thrown some of your own money away—some of that your father sent you to

-spend for your fall and winter outfit—you would sing a different tune.”

-

-“I don’t believe I would—not if by throwing it away I really made a

-splurge, Doro,” sighed Tavia. “I _love_ money.”

-

-“You mean, you love what money enables us to have.”

-

-“Yep,” returned the slangy Tavia. “And taxicab rides eat up money

-horribly. We found that out, Doro, when we were in New York before,

-that time—before we graduated from dear old Glenwood School.”

-

-“But _this_ isn’t getting us anywhere. To return——”

-

-“‘_Revenons à nos moutons!_’ Sure! I know,” gabbled Tavia. “Let us

-return to our mutton. He, he! Have I forgotten my French?”

-

-“I really think you have,” laughed Dorothy Dale. “Most of it. And

-almost everything else you learned at dear old Glenwood, Tavia. But,

-quick! Decide, my dear. How shall we enter New York City? We are

-approaching the Manhattan Transfer.”

-

-“Mercy! So quick?”

-

-“Yes. Just like that.”

-

-“I tell you,” whispered Tavia, suddenly becoming confidential, her

-sparkling eyes darting a glance ahead. “Let’s leave it to that nice

-man.”

-

-“Who? What man do you mean, Tavia?” demanded Dorothy, her face at once

-serious. “Do try to behave.”

-

-“Am behaving,” declared Tavia, nodding. “But I’m a good sport. Let’s

-leave it to him.”

-

-“Whom do you mean?”

-

-“You know. That nice, Western looking young man who opened the window

-for us that time. He is sitting in that chair just yonder. Don’t you

-see?” and she indicated a pair of broad shoulders in a gray coat, above

-which was revealed a well-shaped head with a thatch of black hair.

-

-“Do consider!” begged Dorothy, catching Tavia’s hand as though she

-feared her chum was about to get up to speak to this stranger. “This is

-a public car. We are observed.”

-

-“Little silly!” said Tavia, smiling upon her chum tenderly. “You

-don’t suppose I would do anything so crude—or rude—as to speak to the

-gentleman? ‘Fie! fie! fie for shame! Turn your back and tell his name!’

-And you don’t know it, you know you don’t, Doro.”

-

-Dorothy broke into smiles again and shook her head; her own eyes, too,

-dancing roguishly.

-

-“I only know his initials,” she said.

-

-“What?” gasped Tavia Travers in something more than mock horror.

-

-“Yes. They are ‘G. K.’ I saw them on his bag. Couldn’t help it,”

-explained Dorothy, now laughing outright. “But decide, dear! Shall we

-change at Manhattan Transfer?”

-

-“If _he_ does—there!” chuckled Tavia. “We’ll get out if the nice

-Western cowboy person does. Oh! he’s a whole lot nicer looking than

-Lance Petterby.”

-

-“Dear me, Tavia! Haven’t you forgotten Lance yet?”

-

-“Never!” vowed Tavia, tragically. “Not till the day of my death—and

-then some, as Lance would himself say.”

-

-“You are incorrigible,” sighed Dorothy. Then: “He’s going to get out,

-Tavia!”

-

-“Oh! oh! oh!” crowed her chum, under her breath. “You were looking.”

-

-“Goodness me!” returned Dorothy, in some exasperation. “Who could miss

-that hat?”

-

-The young man in question had put on his broad-brimmed gray hat. He was

-just the style of man that such a hat became.

-

-The young man lifted down the heavy suitcase from the rack—the one on

-which Dorothy had seen the big, black letters, “G. K.” He had a second

-suitcase of the same description under his feet. He set both out into

-the aisle, threw his folded light overcoat over his arm, and prepared

-to make for the front door of the car as the train began to slow down.

-

-“Come on, now!” cried Tavia, suddenly in a great hurry.

-

-But Dorothy had to put on her coat, and to make sure that she looked

-just right in the mirror beside her chair. All Tavia had to do was to

-toss her summer fur about her neck and grab up her traveling bag.

-

-“We’ll be left!” she cried. “The train doesn’t stop here long.”

-

-“You run, then, and tell them to wait,” Dorothy said calmly.

-

-They were, however, the last to leave the car—the last to leave the

-train, in fact—at the elevated platform which gives a broad view of the

-New Jersey meadows.

-

-“My goodness me!” gasped Tavia, as the brakeman helped them to the

-platform, and waved his hand for departure. “My goodness me! We’re

-clear at this end of this awful platform, and the tube train stops—and

-of course starts—at the far end. A mile to walk with these bags and not

-a redcap in sight. Oh, yes! there’s one,” she added faintly.

-

-“Redcap?” queried Dorothy. “Oh! you mean a porter.”

-

-“Yes,” Tavia said. “Of course you would be slow. Everybody’s got a

-porter but us.”

-

-Dorothy laughed mellowly. “Who’s fault do you intimate it is?” she

-asked. “We might have been the first out of the car.”

-

-“_He’s_ got one,” whispered Tavia.

-

-Oddly enough her chum did not ask “Who?” this time. She, too, was

-looking at the back of the well-set-up young man whose initials seemed

-to be G. K. He stood confronting an importunate porter, whose smiling

-face was visible to the girls as he said:

-

-“Why, Boss, yo’ can’t possibly kerry dem two big bags f’om dis end ob

-de platfo’m to de odder.”

-

-The porter held out both hands for the big suitcases carried by the

-Western looking young man, who really appeared to be physically much

-better able to carry his baggage than the negro.

-

-“I don’t suppose two-bits has anything to do with your desire to tote

-my bag?” suggested the white man, and the listening girls knew he must

-be smiling broadly.

-

-“Why, Boss, _yo’_ can’t earn two-bits carryin’ bags yere; but _I_ kin,”

-and the negro chuckled delightedly as he gained possession of the bags.

-“Come right along, Boss.”

-

-As the porter set off, the young man turned and saw Dorothy Dale and

-Tavia Travers behind him. Besides themselves, indeed, this end of the

-long cement platform was clear. Other passengers from the in-bound

-train had either gone forward or descended into the tunnel under the

-tracks to reach the north-side platform. The only porter in sight was

-the man who had taken G. K.’s bags.

-

-The weight of the shiny black bags the girls carried was obvious.

-Indeed, perhaps Tavia sagged perceptibly on that side—and

-intentionally; and, of course, her hazel eyes said “Please!” just as

-plain as eyes ever spoke before.

-

-Off came the broad-brimmed hat just for an instant. Then he held out

-both hands.

-

-“Let me help you, ladies,” he said, with the pleasantest of smiles.

-“Seeing that I have obtained the services of the only Jasper in sight,

-you’d better let me play porter. Going to take this tube train, ladies?”

-

-“Yes, indeed!” cried Tavia, twinkling with smiles at once, and first to

-give him a bag.

-

-Dorothy might have hesitated, but the young man was insistent and

-quick. He seized both bags as a matter of course, and Dorothy Dale

-could not pull hers away from him.

-

-“You must let us pay your porter, then,” she said, in her quietly

-pleasant way.

-

-“Bless you! we won’t fight over that,” chuckled the young man.

-

-He was agreeably talkative, with that wholesome, free, yet chivalrous

-manner which the girls, especially the thoughtful Dorothy, had noticed

-as particular attributes of the men they had met during their memorable

-trip to the West, some months before.

-

-She noticed, too, that his attentions to Tavia and herself were nicely

-balanced. Of course, Tavia, as she always did, began to run on in her

-light-hearted and irresponsible way; but though the young man listened

-to her with a quiet smile, he spoke directly to Dorothy quite as often

-as he did to the flyaway girl. He did not seek to take advantage of

-Tavia’s exuberant good spirits as so many strangers might have done.

-

-Tavia’s flirtatious ways were a sore trial to her more sober chum; but

-this young man seemed to understand Tavia at once.

-

-“Of course, you’re from the West?” Tavia finished one “rattlety-bang”

-series of remarks with this direct question.

-

-“Of course I am. Right from the desert—Desert City, in fact,” he said,

-with a quiet smile.

-

-“Oh!” gasped Tavia, turning her big eyes on her chum. “Did you hear

-that, Doro? Desert City!”

-

-For the girls, during their visit to the West had, as Tavia often

-claimed in true Western slang, helped “put Desert City on the map.”

-

-Dorothy, however, did not propose to let this conversation with a

-strange man become at all personal. She ignored her chum’s observation

-and, as the city-bound tube train came sliding in beside the platform,

-she reached for her own bag and insisted upon taking it from the

-Westerner’s hand.

-

-“Thank you so much,” she said, with just the right degree of firmness

-as well as of gratitude.

-

-Perforce he had to give up the bag, and Tavia’s, too, for there was the

-red-capped, smiling negro expectant of the “two-bits.”

-

-“You are _so_ kind,” breathed Tavia, with one of her wonderful

-“man-killing” glances at the considerate G. K., as Dorothy’s cousin,

-Nat White, would have termed her expression of countenance.

-

-G. K. was polite and not brusk; but he was not flirtatious. Dorothy

-entered the Hudson tube train with a feeling of considerable

-satisfaction. G. K. did not even enter the car by the same door as

-themselves nor did he take the empty seat opposite the girls, as he

-might have done.

-

-“There! he is one young man who will not flirt with you, Tavia,” she

-said, admonishingly.

-

-“Pooh! I didn’t half try,” declared her chum, lightly.

-

-“My dear! you would be tempted, I believe, to flirt with a blind man!”

-

-“Oh, Doro! Never!” Then she dimpled suddenly, glancing out of the

-window as the train swept on. “_There’s_ a man I didn’t try to flirt

-with.”

-

-“Where?” laughed Dorothy.

-

-“Outside there beside the tracks,” for they had not yet reached the

-Summit Avenue Station, and it is beyond that spot that the trains dive

-into the tunnel.

-

-“We passed him too quickly then,” said Dorothy. “Lucky man!”

-

-The next moment—or so it seemed—Tavia began on another tack:

-

-“To think! In fifteen minutes, Doro my dear, we shall be ‘Alone in a

-Great City.’”

-

-“How alone?” drawled her friend. “Do you suppose New York has suddenly

-been depopulated?”

-

-“But we shall be alone, Doro. What more lonesome than a crowd in which

-you know nobody?”

-

-“How very thoughtful you have become of a sudden. I hope you will keep

-your hand on your purse, dear. There will be some people left in the

-great city—and perhaps one may be a pickpocket.”

-

-The electric lights were flashed on, and the train soon dived into the

-great tunnel, “like a rabbit into his burrow,” Tavia said. They had

-to disembark at Grove Street to change for an uptown train. The tall

-young Westerner did likewise, but he did not accost them.

-

-The Sixth Avenue train soon whisked the girls to their destination, and

-they got out at Twenty-third Street. As they climbed the steps to the

-street level, Tavia suddenly uttered a surprised cry.

-

-“Look, will you, Doro?” she said. “Right ahead!”

-

-“G. K.!” exclaimed her friend, for there was the young man mounting the

-stairs, lugging his two heavy suitcases.

-

-“Suppose he goes to the very same hotel?” giggled Tavia.

-

-“Well—maybe that will be nice,” Dorothy said composedly. “He looks nice

-enough for us to get acquainted with him—in some perfectly proper way,

-of course.”

-

-“Whew, Doro!” breathed Tavia, her eyes opening wide again. “You’re

-coming on, my dear.”

-

-“I am speaking sensibly. If he is a nice young man and perfectly

-respectable, why shouldn’t he find some means of meeting us—if he wants

-to—and we are all at the same hotel?”

-

-“But——”

-

-“I don’t believe in flirting,” said Dorothy Dale, calmly, yet with a

-twinkle in her eyes. “But I certainly would not fly in the face of

-Providence—as Miss Higley, our old teacher at Glenwood, would say—and

-refuse to meet G. K. He looks like a really nice young man.”

-

-“Doro!” gasped Tavia. “You amaze me! I shall next expect to see the

-heavens fall!”

-

-“Don’t be ridiculous,” said her friend, as they reached the exit of the

-tube station and stepped out upon the sidewalk.

-

-There was the Westerner already dickering with a boy to carry his bags.

-

-“_He_ likes to throw money away, too!” whispered Tavia. “I suppose we

-must be economical and carry ours.”

-

-“As there seems to be no other boy in sight—yes,” laughed her friend.

-

-“That young man gets the best of us every time,” complained Tavia under

-her breath.

-

-“He is typically Western,” said Dorothy. “He is prompt.”

-

-But then, the boy starting off with the heavy bags in a little

-box-wagon he drew, the young man whose initials were G. K., turned with

-a smile to the two girls.

-

-“Ladies,” he said, lifting his hat again, “at the risk of being

-considered impertinent, I wish to ask you if you are going my way? If

-so I will help you with your bags, having again cinched what seems to

-be the only baggage transportation facilities at this station.”

-

-For once Tavia was really speechless. It was Dorothy who quite coolly

-asked the young man:

-

-“Which is your direction?”

-

-“To the Fanuel,” he said.

-

-“That is where we are going,” Dorothy admitted, giving him her bag

-again without question.

-

-“Oh!” exclaimed Tavia, “getting into the picture with a bounce,” as she

-would have expressed it. “Aren’t you the _handiest_ young man!”

-

-“Thank you,” he replied, laughing. “That is a reputation to make one

-proud. I never was in this man’s town before, but I was recommended to

-the Fanuel by my boss.”

-

-“Oh!” Tavia hastened to take the lead in the conversation. “We’ve been

-here before—Doro and I. And we always stop at the Fanuel.”

-

-“Now, I look on that as a streak of pure luck,” he returned. He looked

-at Dorothy, however, not at Tavia.

-

-The boy with the wagon went on ahead and the three voyagers followed,

-laughing and chatting, G. K. swinging the girls’ bags as though they

-were light instead of heavy.

-

-“I want awfully to know his name,” whispered Tavia, when they came to

-the hotel entrance and the young man handed over their bags again and

-went to the curb to get his own suitcases from the boy.

-

-“Let’s,” added Tavia, “go to the clerk’s desk and ask for the rooms

-your Aunt Winnie wrote about. Then I’ll get a chance to see what he

-writes on the book.”

-

-“Nonsense, Tavia!” exclaimed Dorothy. “We’ll do nothing of the kind.

-We must go to the ladies’ parlor and send a boy to the clerk, or the

-manager, with our cards. This is a family hotel, I know; but the lobby

-and the office are most likely full of men at this time in the day.”

-

-“Oh, dear! Come on, then, Miss Particular,” groaned Tavia. “And we

-didn’t even bid him good-bye at parting.”

-

-“What did you want to do?” laughed Dorothy. “Weep on his shoulder and

-give him some trinket, for instance, as a souvenir?”

-

-“Dorothy Dale!” exclaimed her friend. “I believe you have something up

-your sleeve. You seem just _sure_ of seeing this nice cowboy person

-again.”

-

-“All men from the West do not punch cattle for a living. And it would

-not be the strangest thing in the world if we should meet G. K. again,

-as he is stopping at this hotel.”

-

-However, the girls saw nothing more of the smiling and agreeable

-Westerner that day. Dorothy Dale’s aunt had secured by mail two rooms

-and a bath for her niece and Tavia. The girls only appeared at dinner,

-and retired early. Even Tavia’s bright eyes could not spy out G. K.

-while they were at dinner.

-

-Besides, the girls had many other things to think about, and Tavia’s

-mind could not linger entirely upon even as nice a young man as G. K.

-appeared to be.

-

-This was their first visit to New York alone, as the more lively girl

-indicated. Aunt Winnie White had sprained her ankle and could not come

-to the city for the usual fall shopping. Dorothy was, for the first

-time, to choose her own fall and winter outfit. Tavia had come on from

-Dalton, with the money her father had been able to give her for a

-similar purpose, and the friends were to shop together.

-

-They left the hotel early the next morning and arrived at the first

-huge department store on their list almost as soon as the store was

-opened, at nine o’clock.

-

-An hour later they were in the silk department, pricing goods and “just

-looking” as Tavia said. In her usual thoughtless and incautious way,

-Tavia dropped her handbag upon the counter while she used both hands to

-examine a particular piece of goods, calling Dorothy’s attention to it,

-too.

-

-“No, dear; I do not think it is good enough, either for the money or

-for your purpose,” Dorothy said. “The color _is_ lovely; but don’t be

-guided wholly by that.”

-

-“No. I suppose you are right,” sighed Tavia.

-

-She shook her head at the clerk and prepared to follow her friend,

-who had already left the counter. Hastily picking up what she supposed

-to be her bag, Tavia ran two or three steps to catch up with Dorothy.

-As she did so a feminine shriek behind her startled everybody within

-hearing.

-

-“That girl—she’s got my bag! Stop her!”

-

-“Oh! what is it?” gasped Dorothy, turning.

-

-“Somebody’s stolen something,” stammered Tavia, turning around too.

-

-Then she looked at the bag in her hand. Instead of her own seal-leather

-one, it was a much more expensive bag, gold mounted and plethoric.

-

-“There she is! She’s got it in her hand!”

-

-A woman dressed in the most extreme fashion and most expensively,

-darted down the aisle upon the two girls. She pointed a quivering,

-accusing finger directly at poor Tavia.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER II

-

-G. K. TO THE RESCUE

-

-

-Dorothy Dale and her friend Tavia Travers had often experienced very

-serious adventures, but the shock of this incident perhaps was as great

-and as thrilling as anything that had heretofore happened to them.

-

-The series of eleven previous stories about Dorothy, Tavia, and their

-friends began with “Dorothy Dale: A Girl of To-day,” some years before

-the date of this present narrative. At that time Dorothy was living

-with her father, Major Frank Dale, a Civil War veteran, who owned and

-edited the _Bugle_, a newspaper published in Dalton, a small town in

-New York State.

-

-Then Major Dale’s livelihood and that of the family, consisting of

-Dorothy and her small brothers, Joe and Roger, depended upon the

-success of the _Bugle_. Taken seriously ill in the midst of a lively

-campaign for temperance and for a general reform government in Dalton,

-it looked as though the major would lose his paper and the better

-element in the town lose their fight for prohibition; but Dorothy Dale,

-confident that she could do it, got out the _Bugle_ and did much,

-young girl though she was, to save the day. In this she was helped by

-Tavia Travers, a girl brought up entirely differently from Dorothy, and

-who possessed exactly the opposite characteristics to serve as a foil

-for Dorothy’s own good sense and practical nature.

-

-Major Dale was unexpectedly blessed with a considerable legacy which

-enabled him to sell the _Bugle_ and take his children to The Cedars,

-at North Birchland, to live with his widowed sister and her two boys,

-Ned and Nat White, who were both older than their cousin Dorothy.

-In “Dorothy Dale at Glenwood School,” is related these changes for

-the better in the fortunes of the Dale family, and as well there is

-narrated the beginning of a series of adventures at school and during

-vacation times, in which Dorothy and Tavia are the central characters.

-

-Subsequent books are entitled respectively: “Dorothy Dale’s Great

-Secret,” “Dorothy Dale and Her Chums,” “Dorothy Dale’s Queer Holidays,”

-“Dorothy Dale’s Camping Days,” “Dorothy Dale’s School Rivals,” “Dorothy

-Dale in the City,” and “Dorothy Dale’s Promise,” in which story the two

-friends graduate from Glenwood and return to their homes feeling—and

-looking, of course—like real, grown-up young ladies. Nevertheless, they

-are not then through with adventures, surprising happenings, and much

-fun.

-

-About the time the girls graduated from school an old friend of Major

-Dale, Colonel Hardin, passed away, leaving his large estate in the West

-partly to the major and partly to be administered for the local public

-good. Cattle raising was not so generally followed as formerly in that

-section and dry farming was being tried.

-

-Colonel Hardin had foreseen that nothing but a system of irrigation

-would save the poor farmers from ruin and on his land was the fountain

-of supply that should water the whole territory about Desert City and

-make it “blossom as the rose.” There were mining interests, however,

-selfishly determined to obtain the water rights on the Hardin Estate

-and that by hook or by crook.

-

-Major Dale’s health was not at this time good enough for him to look

-into these matters actively or to administer his dead friend’s estate.

-Therefore, it is told in “Dorothy Dale in the West,” how Aunt Winnie

-White, Dorothy’s two cousins, Ned and Nat, and herself with Tavia, go

-far from North Birchland and mingle with the miners, and other Western

-characters to be found on and about the Hardin property, including a

-cowboy named Lance Petterby, who shows unmistakable signs of being

-devoted to Tavia. Indeed, after the party return to the East, Lance

-writes to Tavia and the latter’s apparent predilection for the cowboy

-somewhat troubles Dorothy.

-

-However, after their return to the East the chums went for a long visit

-to the home of a school friend, Jennie Hapgood, in Pennsylvania; and

-there Tavia seemed to have secured other—and less dangerous—interests.

-In “Dorothy Dale’s Strange Discovery,” the narrative immediately

-preceding this present tale, Dorothy displays her characteristic

-kindliness and acute reasoning powers in solving a problem that brings

-to Jennie Hapgood’s father the very best of good fortune.

-

-Naturally, the Hapgoods are devoted to Dorothy. Besides, Ned and Nat,

-her cousins, have visited Sunnyside and are vastly interested in

-Jennie. The girl chums now in New York City on this shopping tour,

-expect on returning to North Birchland to find Jennie Hapgood there for

-a promised visit.

-

-At the moment, however, that we find Dorothy and Tavia at the beginning

-of this chapter, neither girl is thinking much about Jennie Hapgood and

-her expected visit, or of anything else of minor importance.

-

-The flashily dressed woman who had run after Tavia down the aisle,

-again screamed her accusation at the amazed and troubled girl:

-

-“That’s my bag! It’s cram full of money, too.”

-

-There was no great crowd in the store, for New York ladies do not as

-a rule shop much before luncheon. Nevertheless, besides salespeople,

-there were plenty to hear the woman’s unkind accusation and enough

-curious shoppers to ring in immediately the two troubled girls and the

-angry woman.

-

-“Give me it!” exclaimed the latter, and snatched the bag out of Tavia’s

-hand. As this was done the catch slipped in some way and the handbag

-burst open.

-

-It was “cram full” of money. Bills of large denomination were rolled

-carelessly into a ball, with a handkerchief, a purse for change,

-several keys, and a vanity box. Some of these things tumbled out upon

-the floor and a young boy stooped and recovered them for her.

-

-“You’re a bad, bad girl!” declared the angry woman. “I hope they send

-you to jail.”

-

-“Why—why, I didn’t know it was yours,” murmured Tavia, quite upset.

-

-“Oh! you thought somebody had forgotten it and you could get away with

-it,” declared the other, coarsely enough.

-

-“I beg your pardon, Madam,” Dorothy Dale here interposed. “It was a

-mistake on my friend’s part. And _you_ are making another mistake, and

-a serious one.”

-

-She spoke in her most dignified tone, and although Dorothy was barely

-in her twentieth year she had the manner and stability of one much

-older. She realized that poor Tavia was in danger of “going all to

-pieces” if the strain continued. And, too, her own anger at the woman’s

-harsh accusation naturally put the girl on her mettle.

-

-“Who are _you_, I’d like to know?” snapped the woman.

-

-“I am her friend,” said Dorothy Dale, quite composedly, “and I know her

-to be incapable of taking your bag save by chance. She laid her own

-down on the counter and took up yours——”

-

-“And where _is_ mine?” suddenly wailed Tavia, on the verge of an

-hysterical outbreak. “My bag! My money——”

-

-“Hush!” whispered Dorothy in her friend’s pretty ear. “Don’t become a

-second harridan—like this creature.”

-

-The woman had led the way back to the silk counter. Tavia began to claw

-wildly among the broken bolts of silk that the clerk had not yet been

-able to return to the shelves. But she stopped at Dorothy’s command,

-and stood, pale and trembling.

-

-A floorwalker hastened forward. He evidently knew the noisy woman as a

-good customer of the store.

-

-“Mrs. Halbridge! What is the matter? Nothing serious, I hope?”

-

-“It would have been serious all right,” said the customer, in her

-high-pitched voice, “if I hadn’t just seen that girl by luck. Yes,

-by luck! There she was making for the door with this bag of mine—and

-there’s several hundred dollars in it, I’d have you know.”

-

-“I beg of you, Mrs. Halbridge,” said the floorwalker in a low tone,

-“for the sake of the store to make no trouble about it here. If you

-insist we will take the girl up to the superintendent’s office——”

-

-Here Dorothy, her anger rising interrupted:

-

-“You would better not. Mrs. Winthrop White, of North Birchland, is a

-charge customer of your store, and is probably just as well known to

-the heads of the firm as this—this person,” and she cast what Tavia—in

-another mood—would have called a “scathing glance” at Mrs. Halbridge.

-

-“I am Mrs. White’s niece and this is my particular friend. We are here

-alone on a shopping tour; but if our word is not quite as good as that

-of this—this person, we certainly shall buy elsewhere.”

-

-Tavia, obsessed with a single idea, murmured again:

-

-“But I haven’t got my bag! Somebody’s taken my bag! And all my money——”

-

-The floorwalker was glancing about, hoping for some avenue of escape

-from the unfortunate predicament, when a very tall, white-haired and

-soldierly looking man appeared in the aisle.

-

-“Mr. Schuman!” gasped the floorwalker.

-

-The man was one of the chief proprietors of the big store. He scowled

-slightly at the floorwalker when he saw the excited crowd, and then

-raised his eyebrows questioningly.

-

-“This is not the place for any lengthy discussion, Mr. Mink,” said Mr.

-Schuman, with just the proper touch of admonition in his tone.

-

-“I know! I know, Mr. Schuman!” said the floorwalker. “But this

-difficulty—it came so suddenly—Mrs. Halbridge, here, makes the

-complaint,” he finally blurted out, in an attempt to shoulder off some

-of the responsibility for the unfortunate situation.

-

-“Mrs. Halbridge?” The old gentleman bowed in a most courtly style. “One

-of our customers, I presume, Mr. Mink?”

-

-“Oh, yes, indeed, Mr. Schuman,” the floorwalker hastened to say. “One

-of our _very_ good customers. And I am so sorry that anything should

-have happened——”

-

-“But what has happened?” asked Mr. Schuman, sharply.

-

-“She—she accuses this—it’s all a mistake, I’m sure—this young lady of

-taking her bag,” stuttered Mr. Mink, pointing to Tavia.

-

-“She ought to be arrested,” muttered the excited Mrs. Halbridge.

-

-“What? But this is a matter for the superintendent’s office, Mr.

-Mink,” returned Mr. Schuman.

-

-“Oh!” stammered the floorwalker. “The bag is returned.”

-

-“And now,” put in Dorothy Dale, haughtily, and looking straight and

-unflinchingly into the keen eyes of Mr. Schuman, “my friend wishes to

-know what has become of _her_ bag?”

-

-Mr. Schuman looked at the two girls with momentary hesitation.

-

-There was something compelling in the ladylike look and behaviour of

-these two girls—and especially in Dorothy’s speech. At the moment, too,

-a hand was laid tentatively upon Mr. Schuman’s arm.

-

-“Beg pardon, sir,” said the full, resonant voice that Dorothy had noted

-the day before. “I know the young ladies—Miss Dale and Miss Travers,

-respectively, Mr. Schuman.”

-

-“Oh, Mr. Knapp—thank you!” said the old gentleman, turning to the tall

-young Westerner with whom he had been walking through the store at the

-moment he had spied the crowd. “You are a discourager of embarrassment.”

-

-“Oh! blessed ‘G. K.’!” whispered Tavia, weakly clinging to Dorothy’s

-arm.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER III

-

-TAVIA IN THE SHADE

-

-

-Mrs. Halbridge was slyly slipping through the crowd. She had suddenly

-lost all interest in the punishment of the girl she had accused of

-stealing her bag and her money.

-

-There was something so stern about Mr. Schuman that it was not strange

-that the excitable woman should fear further discussion of the matter.

-The old gentleman turned at once to Dorothy Dale and Tavia Travers.

-

-“This is an unfortunate and regrettable incident, young ladies,” he

-said suavely. “I assure you that such things as this seldom occur under

-our roof.”

-

-“I am confident it is a single occurrence,” Dorothy said, with

-conviction, “or my aunt, Mrs. Winthrop White, of North Birchland, would

-not have traded with you for so many years.”

-

-“One of our charge customers, Mr. Schuman,” whispered Mr. Mink,

-deciding it was quite time now to come to the assistance of the girls.

-

-“Regrettable! Regrettable!” repeated the old gentleman.

-

-Here Tavia again entered her wailing protest:

-

-“I did not mean to take her bag from the counter. But somebody has

-taken my bag.”

-

-“Oh, Tavia!” exclaimed her friend, now startled into noticing what

-Tavia really said about it.

-

-“It’s gone!” wailed Tavia. “And all the money father sent me. Oh,

-dear, Doro Dale! I guess I _have_ thrown my money away, and, as you

-prophesied, it isn’t as much fun as I thought it might be.”

-

-“My dear young lady,” hastily inquired Mr. Schuman, “have you really

-lost your purse?”

-

-“My bag,” sobbed Tavia. “I laid it down while I examined some silk.

-That clerk saw me,” she added, pointing to the man behind the counter.

-

-“It is true, Mr. Schuman,” the silk clerk admitted, blushing painfully.

-“But, of course, I did not notice what became of the lady’s bag.”

-

-“Nor did I see the other bag until I found it in my hand,” Tavia cried.

-

-The crowd was dissipated by this time, and all spoke in low voices.

-Outside the counter was a cash-girl, a big-eyed and big-eared little

-thing, who was evidently listening curiously to the conversation. Mr.

-Mink said sharply to her:

-

-“Number forty-seven! do you know anything about this bag business?”

-

-“No—no, sir!” gasped the frightened girl.

-

-“Then go on about your business,” the floorwalker said, waving her away

-in his most lordly manner.

-

-Meanwhile, Dorothy had obtained a word with the young Mr. Knapp who had

-done her and Tavia such a kindness.

-

-“Thank you a thousand times, Mr. Knapp,” she whispered, her eyes

-shining gratefully into his. “It might have been awkward for us without

-you. And,” she added, pointedly, “how fortunate you knew our names!”

-

-He was smiling broadly, but she saw the color rise in his bronzed

-cheeks at her last remark. She liked him all the better for blushing so

-boyishly.

-

-“Got me there, Miss Dale,” he blurted out. “I was curious, and I looked

-on the hotel register to see your names after the clerk brought it

-back from the parlor where he went to greet you yesterday. Hope you’ll

-forgive me for being so—er—rubbery.”

-

-“It proves to be a very fortunate curiosity on your part,” she told

-him, smiling.

-

-“Say!” he whispered, “your friend is all broken up over this. Has she

-lost much?”

-

-“All the money she had to pay for the clothes she wished to buy, I’m

-afraid,” sighed Dorothy.

-

-“Well, let’s get her out of here—go somewhere to recuperate. There’s a

-good hotel across the street. I had my breakfast there before I began

-to shop,” and he laughed. “A cup of tea will revive her, I’m sure.”

-

-“And you are suffering for a cup, too, I am sure,” Dorothy told him,

-her eyes betraying her amusement, at his rather awkward attempt to

-become friendly with Tavia and herself.

-

-But Dorothy approved of this young man. Aside from the assistance he

-had undoubtedly rendered her chum and herself, G. Knapp seemed to be

-far above the average young man.

-

-She turned now quickly to Tavia. Mr. Schuman was saying very kindly:

-

-“Search shall be made, my dear young lady. I am exceedingly sorry that

-such a thing should happen in our store. Of course, somebody picked

-up your bag before you inadvertently took the other lady’s. If I had

-my way I would have it a law that every shopper should have her purse

-riveted to her wrist with a chain.”

-

-It was no laughing matter, however, for poor Tavia. Her family was not

-in the easy circumstances that Dorothy’s was. Indeed, Mr. Travers was

-only fairly well-to-do, and Tavia’s mother was exceedingly extravagant.

-It was difficult sometimes for Tavia to obtain sufficient money to get

-along with.

-

-Besides, she was incautious herself. It was natural for her to be

-wasteful and thoughtless. But this was the first time in her experience

-that she had either wasted or lost such a sum of money.

-

-She wiped her eyes very quickly when Dorothy whispered to her that they

-were going out for a cup of tea with Mr. Knapp.

-

-“Oh dear, that perfectly splendid cowboy person!” groaned Tavia. “And

-I am in no mood to make an impression. Doro! you’ll have to do it all

-yourself this time. Do keep him in play until I recover from, this

-blow—if I ever do.”

-

-The young man, who led the way to the side door of the store which was

-opposite the hotel and restaurant of which he had spoken, heard the

-last few words and turned to ask seriously:

-

-“Surely Miss Travers did not lose _all_ the money she had?”

-

-“All I had in the world!” wailed Tavia. “Except a lonely little five

-dollar bill.”

-

-“Where is that?” asked Dorothy, in surprise.

-

-“In the First National Bank,” Tavia said demurely.

-

-“Oh, then, _that’s_ safe enough,” said Mr. Knapp.

-

-“I didn’t know you had even that much in the bank,” remarked Dorothy,

-doubtfully. “The First National?”

-

-“Yep!” declared Tavia promptly, but nudged her friend. “Hush!” she

-hissed.

-

-Dorothy did not understand, but she saw there was something queer

-about this statement. It was news to her that her chum ever thought of

-putting a penny on deposit in any bank. It was not like Tavia.

-

-“How do you feel now, dear?” she asked the unfortunate girl, as they

-stepped out into the open air behind the broad-shouldered young

-Westerner, who held the door open for their passage.

-

-“Oh, dear me!” sighed Tavia. “I’m forty degrees in the shade—and the

-temperature is still going down. What ever _shall_ I do? I’ll be

-positively naked before Thanksgiving!”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER IV

-

-SOMETHING ABOUT “G. KNAPP”

-

-

-But how can three people with all the revivifying flow of youth in

-their veins remain in the dumps, to use one of Tavia’s own illuminating

-expressions. Impossible! That tea at the Holyoke House, which began so

-miserably, scaled upward like the notes of a coloratura soprano until

-they were all three chatting and laughing like old friends. Even Tavia

-had to forget her miserable financial state.

-

-Dorothy believed her first impression of G. Knapp had not been wrong.

-Indeed, he improved with every moment of increasing familiarity.

-

-In the first place, although his repartee was bright enough, and he was

-very jolly and frank, he had eyes and attention for somebody besides

-the chatterbox, Tavia. Perhaps right at first Tavia was a little under

-the mark, her mind naturally being upon her troubles; but with a

-strange young man before her the gay and sparkling Tavia would soon be

-inspired.

-

-However, for once she did not absorb all the more or less helpless

-male’s attention. G. Knapp insisted upon dividing equally his glances,

-his speeches, and his smiles between the two young ladies.

-

-They discovered that his full and proper name was Garford Knapp—the

-first, of course, shortened to “Garry.” He was of the West, Western,

-without a doubt. He had secured a degree at a Western university,

-although both before and after his scholastic course he had, as Tavia

-in the beginning suggested, been a “cowboy person.”

-

-“And it looks as if I’d be punching cows and doing other chores for Bob

-Douglas, who owns the Four-Square ranch, for the rest of my natural,”

-was one thing Garry Knapp told the girls, and told them cheerfully.

-“I did count on falling heir to a piece of money when Uncle Terrence

-cashed in. But not—no more!”

-

-“Why is that?” Dorothy asked, seeing that the young man was serious

-despite his somewhat careless way of speaking.

-

-“The old codger is just like tinder,” laughed Garry. “Lights up if a

-spark gets to him. And I unfortunately and unintentionally applied

-the spark. He’s gone off to Alaska mad as a hatter and left me in the

-lurch. And we were chums when I was a kid and until I came back from

-college.”

-

-“You mean you have quarreled with your uncle?” Dorothy queried, with

-some seriousness.

-

-“Not at all, Miss Dale,” he declared, promptly. “The old fellow

-quarreled with me. They say it takes two to make a quarrel. That’s not

-always so. One can do it just as _e-easy_. At least, one like Uncle

-Terrence can. He had red hair when he was young, and he has a strong

-fighting Irish strain in him. The row began over nothing and ended with

-his lighting out between evening and sunrise and leaving me flat.

-

-“Of course, I broke into a job with Bob Douglas right away——”

-

-“Do you mean, Mr. Knapp, that your uncle went away and left you without

-money?” Dorothy asked.

-

-“Only what I chanced to have in my pocket,” Garry Knapp said

-cheerfully. “He’d always been mighty good to me. Put me through

-school and all that. All I have is a piece of land—and a good big

-piece—outside of Desert City; but it isn’t worth much. Cattle raising

-is petering out in that region. Last year the mouth and hoof disease

-just about ruined the man that grazed my land. His cattle died like

-flies.

-

-“Then, the land was badly grazed by sheepmen for years. Sheep about

-poison land for anything else to live on,” he added, with a cattleman’s

-usual disgust at the thought of “mutton on the hoof.”

-

-“One thing I’ve come East for, Miss Dale, is to sell that land. Got

-a sort of tentative offer by mail. Bob wanted a lot of stuff for the

-ranch and for his family and couldn’t come himself. So I combined his

-business and mine and hope to make a sale of the land my father left me

-before I go back.

-

-“Then, with that nest-egg, I’ll try to break into some game that will

-offer a man-sized profit,” and Garry Knapp laughed again in his mellow,

-whole-souled way.

-

-“Isn’t he just a _dear_?” whispered Tavia as Garry turned to speak to

-the waiter. “Don’t you love to hear him talk?”

-

-“And have you never heard from your old uncle who went away and left

-you?” Dorothy asked.

-

-“Not a word. He’s too mad to speak, let alone write,” and a cloud for

-a moment crossed the open, handsome face of the Westerner. “But I know

-where he is, and every once in a while somebody writes me telling me

-Uncle Terry is all right.”

-

-“But, an old man, away up there in Alaska——?”

-

-“Bless you, Miss Dale,” chuckled Garry Knapp. “That dear old codger has

-been knocking about in rough country all his days. He’s always been a

-miner. Prospected pretty well all over our West. He’s made, and then

-bunted away, big fortunes sometimes.

-

-“He always has a stake laid down somewhere. Never gets real poor, and

-never went hungry in his life—unless he chanced to run out of grub on

-some prospecting tour, or his gun was broken and he couldn’t shoot a

-jackrabbit for a stew.

-

-“Oh, Uncle Terrence isn’t at all the sort of hampered prospector you

-read about in the books. He doesn’t go mooning around, expecting to

-‘strike it rich’ and running the risk of leaving his bones in the

-desert.

-

-“No, Uncle Terry is likely to make another fortune before he dies——”

-

-“Oh! Then maybe you will be rich!” cried Tavia, breaking in.

-

-“No.” Garry shook his head with a quizzical smile on his lips and

-in his eyes. “No. He vowed I should never see the color of his

-money. First, he said, he’d leave it to found a home for indignant

-rattlesnakes. And he’d surely have plenty of inmates, for rattlers seem

-always to be indignant,” he added with a chuckle.

-

-Dorothy wanted awfully to ask him why he had quarreled with his

-uncle—or _vice versa_; but that would have been too personal upon first

-meeting. She liked the young man more and more; and in spite of Tavia’s

-loss they parted at the end of the hour in great good spirits.

-

-“I’m going to be just as busy as I can be this afternoon,” Garry Knapp

-announced, as they went out. “But I shall get back to the hotel to

-supper. I wasn’t in last night when you ladies were down. May I eat at

-your table?” and his eyes squinted up again in that droll way Dorothy

-had come to look for.

-

-“How do you know we ate in the hotel last evening?” demanded Tavia,

-promptly.

-

-“Asked the head waiter,” replied Garry Knapp, unabashed.

-

-“If you are so much interested in whether we take proper nourishment or

-not, you had better join us at dinner,” Dorothy said, laughing.

-

-“It’s a bet!” declared the young Westerner, and lifting his

-broad-brimmed hat he left the girls upon the sidewalk outside the

-restaurant.

-

-“Isn’t he the very nicest—but, oh, Doro! what shall I do?” exclaimed

-the miserable Tavia. “All my money——”

-

-“Let’s go back and see if it’s been found.”

-

-“Oh, not a chance!” gasped Tavia. “That horrid woman——”

-

-“I scarcely believe that we can lay it to Mrs. Halbridge’s door in any

-particular,” said Dorothy, gravely. “You should not have left your bag

-on the counter.”

-

-“She laid hers there! And, oh, Doro! it was full of money,” sighed her

-friend.

-

-“Probably your bag had been taken before you even touched hers.”

-

-“Oh, dear! why did it have to happen to _me_—and at just this time.

-When I need things so much. Not a thing to wear! And it’s going to be a

-cold, cold winter, too!”

-

-Tavia would joke “if the heavens fell”—that was her nature. But that

-she was seriously embarrassed for funds Dorothy Dale knew right well.

-

-“If it had only been your bag that was lost,” wailed Tavia, “you would

-telegraph to Aunt Winnie and get more money!”

-

-“And I shall do that in this case,” said her friend, placidly.

-

-“Oh! no you won’t!” cried Tavia, suddenly. “I will not take another

-cent from your Aunt Winnie White—who’s the most blessed, generous,

-free, open-handed person who ever——”

-

-“Goodness! no further attributes?” laughed Dorothy.

-

-“No, Doro,” Tavia said, suddenly serious. “I have done this thing

-myself. It is _awful_. Poor old daddy earns his money too hardly for

-_me_ to throw it away. I should know better. I should have learned

-caution and economy by this time with you, my dear, as an example ever

-before me.

-

-“Poor mother wastes money because she doesn’t _know_. I have had every

-advantage of a bright and shining example,” and she pinched Dorothy’s

-arm as they entered the big store again. “If I have lost my money, I’ve

-lost it, and that’s the end of it. No new clothes for little Tavia—and

-serves her right!” she finished, bitterly.

-

-Dorothy well knew that this was a tragic happening for her friend.

-Generously she would have sent for more money, or divided her own store

-with Tavia. But she knew her chum to be in earnest, and she approved.

-

-It was not as though Tavia had nothing to wear. She had a full and

-complete wardrobe, only it would be no longer up to date. And she would

-have to curtail much of the fun the girls had looked forward to on

-this, their first trip, unchaperoned, to the great city.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER V

-

-DOROTHY IS DISTURBED

-

-

-Nothing, of course, had been seen or heard of Tavia’s bag. Mr. Schuman

-himself had made the investigation, and he came to the girls personally

-to tell them how extremely sorry he was. But being sorry did not help.

-

-“I’m done for!” groaned Tavia, as they returned to their rooms at the

-hotel just before luncheon. “I can’t even buy a stick of peppermint

-candy to send to the kids at Dalton.”

-

-“How about that five dollars in the bank?” asked Dorothy, suddenly

-remembering Tavia’s previous and most surprising statement. “And how

-did you ever come to have a bank account? Is it in the First National

-of Dalton?”

-

-There was a laugh from Tavia, a sudden flash of lingerie and the

-display of a silk stocking. Then she held out to her chum a neatly

-folded banknote wrapped in tissue paper.

-

-[Illustration: THE TWO GIRLS STEPPED OUT OF THE ELEVATOR AND FOUND

-GARRY KNAPP WAITING FOR THEM.

-

-  _Dorothy Dale’s Engagement_      _Page 41_

-]

-

-“First National Bank of Womankind,” she cried gaily. “I always carry it

-there in case of accident—being run over, robbed, or an earthquake. But

-that five dollars is all I own. Oh, dear! I wish I had stuffed the

-whole roll into my stocking.”

-

-“Don’t, Tavia! it’s not ladylike.”

-

-“I don’t care. Pockets are out of style again,” pouted her friend.

-“And, anyway, you must admit that _this_ was a stroke of genius, for I

-would otherwise be without a penny.”

-

-However, Tavia was too kind-hearted, as well as light-hearted, to allow

-her loss to cloud the day for Dorothy. She was just as enthusiastic in

-the afternoon in helping her friend select the goods she wished to buy

-as though all the “pretties” were for herself.

-

-They came home toward dusk, tired enough, and lay down for an

-hour—“relaxing as per instructions of Lovely Lucy Larriper, the

-afternoon newspaper statistician,” Tavia said.

-

-“Why ‘statistician’?” asked Dorothy, wonderingly.

-

-“Why! isn’t she a ‘figger’ expert?” laughed Tavia. “Now relax!”

-

-A brisk bath followed and then, at seven, the two girls stepped out of

-the elevator into the lobby of the hotel and found Garry Knapp waiting

-for them. He was likewise well tubbed and scrubbed, but he did not

-conform to city custom and wear evening dress. Indeed, Dorothy could

-not imagine him in the black and severe habiliments of society.

-

-“Not that his figure would not carry them well,” she thought.

-“But he would somehow seem out of place. Some of his breeziness

-and—and—yes!—his _nice_ kind of ‘freshness’ would be gone. That gray

-business suit becomes him and so does his hat.”

-

-But, of course, the hat was not in evidence at present. The captain of

-the waiters had evidently expected this party, for he beckoned them to

-a retired table the moment the trio entered the long dining-room.

-

-“How cozy!” exclaimed Dorothy. “You must have what they call a ‘pull’

-with people in authority, Mr. Knapp.”

-

-“How’s that?” he asked.

-

-“Why, you can get the best table in the dining-room, and this morning

-you rescued us from trouble through your acquaintanceship with Mr.

-Schuman.”

-

-“The influence of the Almighty Dollar,” said Garry Knapp, briefly.

-“This morning I had just spent several hundred dollars of Bob Douglass’

-good money in that store. And here at this hotel Bob’s name is as good

-as a gold certificate.”

-

-“Oh, money! money!” groaned Tavia, “what crimes are committed in thy

-name—and likewise, what benefits achieved! I wonder what the person who

-stole it is doing with _my_ money?”

-

-“Perhaps it was somebody who needed it more than you do,” said

-Dorothy, rather quizzically.

-

-“Can’t be such a person. And needy people seldom find money. Besides,

-needy folk are always honest—in the books. I’m honest myself, and

-heaven knows I’m needy!”

-

-“Was it truly all the money you had with you?” asked Garry Knapp,

-commiseratingly.

-

-“Honest and true, black and blue, lay me down and cut me in two!”

-chanted Tavia.

-

-“All but the five dollars in the bank,” Dorothy said demurely, but with

-dancing eyes.

-

-And for once Tavia actually blushed and was silenced—for a moment.

-Garry drawled:

-

-“I wonder who did get your bag, Miss Travers? Of course, there are

-always light-fingered people hanging about a store like that.”

-

-“And the money will be put to no good use,” declared the loser,

-dejectedly. “If the person finding it would only found a hospital—or

-something—with it, I’d feel a lot better. But I know just what will

-happen.”

-

-“What?” asked Dorothy.

-

-“The person who took my bag will go and blow themselves to a fancy

-dinner—oh! better even than _this_ one. I only hope he or she will eat

-so much that they will be sick——”

-

-“Don’t! don’t!” begged Dorothy, stopping her ears. “You are dreadfully

-mixed in your grammar.”

-

-“Do you wonder? After having been robbed so ruthlessly?”

-

-“But, certainly, dear,” cooed Dorothy, “your knowledge of grammar was

-not in your bag, too?”

-

-Thus they joked over Tavia’s tragedy; but all the time Dorothy’s agile

-mind was working hard to scheme out a way to help her chum over this

-very, very hard place.

-

-Just at this time, however, she had to give some thought to Garry

-Knapp. He took out three slips of pasteboard toward the end of the very

-pleasant meal and flipped them upon the cloth.

-

-“I took a chance,” he said, in his boyish way. “There’s a good show

-down the street—kill a little time. Vaudeville and pictures. Good

-seats.”

-

-“Oh, let’s!” cried Tavia, clasping her hands.

-

-Dorothy knew that the theatre in question was respectable enough,

-although the entertainment was not of the Broadway class. But she knew,

-too, that this young man from the West probably could not afford to pay

-two dollars or more for a seat for an evening’s pleasure.

-

-“Of course we’ll be delighted to go. And we’d better go at once,”

-Dorothy said, without hesitation. “I’m ready. Are you, Tavia?”

-

-“You dear!” whispered Tavia, squeezing her arm as they followed Garry

-Knapp from the dining-room. “I never before knew you to be so amenable

-where a young man was concerned.”

-

-“Is that so?” drawled Dorothy, but hid her face from her friend’s sharp

-eyes.

-

-It was late, but a fine, bright, dry evening when the trio came out of

-the theatre and walked slowly toward their hotel. On the block in the

-middle of which the Fanuel was situated there were but few pedestrians.

-As they approached the main entrance to the hotel a girl came slowly

-toward them, peering, it seemed, sharply into their faces.

-

-She was rather shabbily dressed, but was not at all an unattractive

-looking girl. Dorothy noticed that her passing glance was for Garry

-Knapp, not for herself or for Tavia. The young man had half dropped

-behind as they approached the hotel entrance and was saying:

-

-“I think I’ll take a brisk walk for a bit, having seen you ladies

-home after a very charming evening. I feel kind of shut in after that

-theatre, and want to expand my lungs.”

-

-“Good-night, then, Mr. Knapp,” Dorothy said lightly. “And thank you for

-a pleasant evening.”

-

-“Ditto!” Tavia said, hiding a little yawn behind her gloved fingers.

-

-The girls stepped toward the open door of the hotel. Garry Knapp

-wheeled and started back the way they had come. Tavia clutched her

-chum’s arm with excitement.

-

-“Did you see that girl?”

-

-“Why—yes,” Dorothy said wonderingly.

-

-“Look back! Quick!”

-

-Impelled by her chum’s tone, Dorothy turned and looked up the street.

-Garry Knapp had overtaken the girl. The girl looked sidewise at

-him—they could see her turn her head—and then she evidently spoke.

-Garry dropped into slow step with her, and they strolled along, talking

-eagerly.

-

-“Why, he must know her!” gasped Tavia.

-

-“Why didn’t he introduce her then?” Dorothy said shortly. “It serves me

-right.”

-

-“What serves you right?”

-

-“For allowing you, as well as myself, to become so familiar with a

-strange man.”

-

-“Oh!” murmured Tavia, slowly. “It’s not so bad as all _that_. You’re

-making a mountain out of a molehill.”

-

-But Dorothy would not listen.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VI

-

-SOMETHING OF A MYSTERY

-

-

-Tavia slept her usually sweet, sound sleep that night, despite the

-strange surroundings of the hotel and the happenings of a busy day; but

-Dorothy lay for a long time, unable to close her eyes.

-

-In the morning, however, she was as deep in slumber as ever her chum

-was when a knock came on the door of their anteroom. Both girls sat up

-and said in chorus:

-

-“Who’s there?”

-

-“It’s jes’ me, Missy,” said the soft voice of the colored maid. “Did

-one o’ youse young ladies lost somethin’?”

-

-“Oh, mercy me, yes!” shouted Tavia, jumping completely out of her bed

-and running toward the door.

-

-“Nonsense, Tavia!” admonished Dorothy, likewise hopping out of bed.

-“She can’t have found your money.”

-

-“Oh! what is it, please?” asked Tavia, opening the door just a trifle.

-

-“Has you lost somethin’?” repeated the colored girl.

-

-“I lost my handbag in a store yesterday,” said Tavia.

-

-“Das it, Missy,” chuckled the maid. “De clark, he axed me to ax yo’

-’bout it. It’s done come back.”

-

-“What’s come back?” demanded Dorothy, likewise appearing at the door

-and in the same dishabille as her friend.

-

-“De bag. De clark tol’ me to tell yo’ ladies dat all de money is safe

-in it, too. Now yo’ kin go back to sleep again. He’s done got de bag in

-he’s safe;” and the girl went away chuckling.

-

-Tavia fell up against the door and stared at Dorothy.

-

-“Oh, Doro! Can it be?” she panted.

-

-“Oh, Tavia! What luck!”

-

-“There’s the telephone! I’m going to call up the office,” and Tavia

-darted for the instrument on the wall.

-

-But there was something the matter with the wires; that was why the

-clerk had sent the maid to the room.

-

-“Then I’m going to dress and go right down and see about it,” Tavia

-said.

-

-“But it’s only six o’clock,” yawned Dorothy. “The maid was right. We

-should go back to bed.”

-

-Her friend scorned the suggestion and she fairly “hopped” into her

-clothes.

-

-“Be sure and powder your nose, dear,” laughed Dorothy. “But I _am_ glad

-for you, Tavia.”

-

-“Bother my nose!” responded her friend, running out of her room and

-into the corridor.

-

-She whisked back again before Dorothy was more than half dressed with

-the precious bag in her hands.

-

-“Oh, it is! it is!” she cried, whirling about Dorothy’s room and her

-own and the bath and anteroom, in a dervish dance of joy. “Doro! Doro!

-I’m saved!”

-

-“I don’t know whether you are saved or not, dear. But you plainly are

-delighted.”

-

-“Every penny safe.”

-

-“Are you sure?”

-

-“Oh, yes. I counted. I had to sign a receipt for the clerk, too. He is

-the _dearest_ man.”

-

-“Well, dear, I hope this will be a lesson to you,” Dorothy said.

-

-“It will be!” declared the excited Tavia. “Do you know what I am going

-to do?”

-

-“Spend your money more recklessly than ever, I suppose,” sighed her

-friend.

-

-“Say! seems to me you’re awfully glum this morning. You’re not nice

-about my good luck—not a bit,” and Tavia stared at her in puzzlement.

-

-“Of course I’m delighted that you should recover your bag,” Dorothy

-hastened to say. “How did it come back?”

-

-“Why, the clerk gave it to me, I tell you.”

-

-“What clerk? The one at the silk counter?”

-

-“Goodness! The hotel clerk downstairs.”

-

-“But how did _he_ come by it?”

-

-Tavia slowly sat down and blinked. “Why—why,” she said, “I didn’t even

-think to ask him.”

-

-“Well, Tavia!” exclaimed Dorothy, rather aghast at this admission of

-her flyaway friend.

-

-“I do seem to have been awfully thoughtless again,” admitted Tavia,

-slowly. “I thanked him—the clerk, I mean! Oh, I did! I could have

-kissed him!”

-

-“Tavia!”

-

-“I could; but I didn’t,” said the wicked Tavia, her eyes sparkling

-once more. “But I never thought to ask how he came by it. Maybe some

-poor person found it and should be rewarded. Should I give a tithe of

-it, Doro, as a reward, as we give a tithe to the church? Let’s see! I

-had just eighty-nine dollars and thirty-seven cents, and an old copper

-penny for a pocket-piece. One-tenth of that would be——”

-

-“Do be sensible!” exclaimed Dorothy, rather tartly for her. “You might

-at least have asked how the bag was sent here—whether by the store

-itself, or by some employee, or brought by some outside person.”

-

-“Goodness! if it were your money would you have been so curious?”

-demanded Tavia. “I don’t believe it. You would have been just as

-excited as I was.”

-

-“Perhaps,” admitted Dorothy, after a moment. “Anyway, I’m glad you have

-it back, dear.”

-

-“And do you know what I am going to do? I am going to take that old

-man’s advice.”

-

-“What old man, Tavia?”

-

-“That Mr. Schuman—the head of the big store. I am going to go out right

-after breakfast and buy me a dog chain and chain that bag to my wrist.”

-

-Dorothy laughed at this—yet she did not laugh happily. There was

-something wrong with her, and as soon as Tavia began to quiet down a

-bit she noticed it again.

-

-“Doro,” she exclaimed, “I do believe something has happened to you!”

-

-“What something?”

-

-“I don’t know. But you are not—not happy. What is it?”

-

-“Hungry,” said Dorothy, shortly. “Do stop primping now and come on down

-to breakfast.”

-

-“Well, you must be savagely hungry then, if it makes you like this,”

-grumbled Tavia. “And it is an hour before our usual breakfast time.”

-

-They went down in the elevator to the lower floor, Tavia carrying the

-precious bag. She would not trust it out of her sight again, she said,

-as long as a penny was left in it.

-

-She attempted to go over to the clerk’s desk at the far side of the

-lobby to ask for the details of the recovery of her bag; but there were

-several men at the desk and Dorothy stopped her.

-

-“Wait until he is more at leisure,” she advised Tavia. “And until there

-are not so many men about.”

-

-“Oh, nonsense!” ejaculated Tavia, but she turned to follow Dorothy.

-Then she added: “Ah, there is one you won’t mind speaking to——”

-

-“Where?” cried Dorothy, stopping instantly.

-

-“Going into the dining-room,” said Tavia.

-

-Dorothy then saw the gray back of Garford Knapp ahead of them. She

-turned swiftly for the exit of the hotel.

-

-“Come!” she said, “let’s get a breath of air before breakfast. It—it

-will give us an appetite!” And she fairly dragged Tavia to the sidewalk.

-

-“Well, I declare to goodness!” volleyed Tavia, staring at her. “And

-just now you were as hungry as a bear. And you still seem to have a

-bear’s nature. How rough! Don’t you want to see that young man?”

-

-“Never!” snapped Dorothy, and started straight along toward the Hudson

-River.

-

-Tavia was for the moment silenced. But after a bit she asked slyly:

-

-“You’re not really going to walk clear home, are you, dear? North

-Birchland is a long, long walk—and the river intervenes.”

-

-Dorothy had to laugh. But her face almost immediately fell into very

-serious lines. Tavia, for once, considered her chum’s feelings. She

-said nothing regarding Garry Knapp.

-

-“Well,” she murmured. “_I_ need no appetite—no more than I have. Aren’t

-you going to eat at all this morning, Dorothy?”

-

-“Here is a restaurant; let us go in,” said her friend promptly.

-

-They did so, and Dorothy lingered over the meal (which was nowhere

-as good as that they would have secured at the Fanuel) until she was

-positive that Mr. Knapp must have finished his own breakfast and left

-the hotel.

-

-In fact, they saw him run out and catch a car in front of the hotel

-entrance while they were still some rods from the door. Dorothy at once

-became brisker of movement, hurrying Tavia along.

-

-“We must really shop to-day,” she said with decision. “Not merely look

-and window-shop.”

-

-“Surely,” agreed Tavia.

-

-“And we’ll not come back to luncheon—it takes too much time,” Dorothy

-went on, as they hurried into the elevator. “Perhaps we can get

-tickets for that nice play Ned and Nat saw when they were down here

-last time. Then, if we do, we will stay uptown for dinner——”

-

-“Mercy! All that time in the same clothes and without the prescribed

-‘relax’?” groaned Tavia. “We’ll look as though we had been ground

-between the upper and the nether millstone.”

-

-“Well——”

-

-They had reached their rooms. Tavia turned upon her and suddenly seized

-Dorothy by both shoulders, looking accusingly into her friend’s eyes.

-

-“I know what you are up to. You are running away from that man.”

-

-“Oh! What——”

-

-“Never mind trying to dodge the issue,” said Tavia, sternly. “That

-Garry Knapp. And it seems he must be a pretty nappy sort, sure enough.

-He probably knew that girl and was ashamed to have us see him speaking

-to one so shabby. Now! what do you care what he does?”

-

-“I don’t,” denied Dorothy, hotly. “I’m only ashamed that we have been

-seen with him. And it is my fault.”

-

-“I’d like to know why?”

-

-“It was unnecessary for us to have become so friendly with him just

-because he did us a favor.”

-

-“Yes—but——”

-

-“It was I. I did it,” said Dorothy, almost in tears. “We should never

-allow ourselves to become acquainted with strangers in any such way.

-Now you see what it means, Tavia. It is not your fault—it is mine. But

-it should teach you a lesson as well as me.”

-

-“Goodness!” said the startled Tavia. “I don’t see that it is anything

-very terrible. The fellow is really nothing to us.”

-

-“But people having seen us with him—and then seeing him with that

-common-acting girl——”

-

-“Pooh! what do we care?” repeated Tavia. “Garry Knapp is nothing to us,

-and never would be.”

-

-Dorothy said not another word, but turned quickly away from her friend.

-She was very quiet while they made ready for their shopping trip, and

-Tavia could not arouse her.

-

-Careless and unobservant as Tavia was, anything seriously the matter

-with her chum always influenced her. She gradually “simmered down”

-herself, and when they started forth from their rooms both girls were

-morose.

-

-As they passed through the lobby a bellhop was called to the desk, and

-then he charged after the two girls.

-

-“Please, Miss! Which is Miss Dale?” he asked, looking at the letter in

-his hand.

-

-Dorothy held out her hand and took it. It was written on the hotel

-stationery, and the handwriting was strange to her. She tore it open

-at once. She read the line or two of the note, and then stopped,

-stunned.

-

-“What is it?” asked Tavia, wonderingly.

-

-Dorothy handed her the note. It was signed “G. Knapp” and read as

-follows:

-

-  “Dear Miss Dale:

-

- “Did your friend get her bag and money all right?”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VII

-

-GARRY SEES A WALL AHEAD

-

-

-“Why, what under the sun! How did _he_ come to know about it?” demanded

-Tavia. “Goodness!”

-

-“He—he maybe—had something to do with recovering it for you,” Dorothy

-said faintly. Yet in her heart she knew that it was hope that suggested

-the idea, not reason.

-

-“Well, I am going to find out right now,” declared Tavia Travers, and

-she marched back to the clerk’s desk before Dorothy could object, had

-she desired to.

-

-“This note to my friend is from Mr. Knapp, who is stopping here,” Tavia

-said to the young man behind the counter. “Did he have anything to do

-with getting back my bag?”

-

-“I know nothing about your bag, Miss,” said the clerk. “I was not on

-duty, I presume, when it was handed in. You are Miss——”

-

-“Travers.”

-

-The clerk went to the safe and found a memorandum, which he read and

-then returned to the desk.

-

-“Your supposition is correct, Miss Travers. Mr. Knapp handed in the

-handbag and took a receipt for it.”

-

-“When did he do that?” asked Tavia, quickly, almost overpowered with

-amazement.

-

-“Some time during the night. Before I came on duty at seven o’clock.”

-

-“Well! isn’t that the strangest thing?” Tavia said to Dorothy, when she

-rejoined her friend at the hotel entrance after thanking the clerk.

-

-“How ever could he have got it in the night?” murmured Dorothy.

-

-“Say! he’s all right—Garry Knapp is!” Tavia cried, shaking the bag to

-which she now clung so tightly, and almost on the verge of doing a few

-“steps of delight” on the public thoroughfare. “I could hug him!”

-

-“It—it is very strange,” murmured Dorothy, for she was still very much

-disturbed in her mind.

-

-“It’s particularly jolly,” said Tavia. “And I am going to—well,

-thank him, at least,” as she saw her friend start and glance at her

-admonishingly, “just the very first chance I get. But I ought to hug

-him! He deserves _some_ reward. You said yourself that perhaps I should

-reward the finder.”

-

-“Mr. Knapp could not possibly have been the finder. The bag was merely

-returned through him.” Dorothy spoke positively.

-

-“Don’t care. I must be grateful to somebody,” wailed Tavia. “Don’t nip

-my finer feelings in the bud. Your name should be Frost—Mademoiselle

-Jacquesette Frost! You’re always nipping me.”

-

-Dorothy, however, remained grave. She plainly saw that this incident

-foretold complications. She had made up her mind that she and Tavia

-would have nothing more to do with the Westerner, Garry Knapp; and now

-her friend would insist on thanking him—of course, she must if only for

-politeness’ sake—and any further intercourse with Mr. Knapp would make

-the situation all the more difficult.

-

-She wished with all her heart that their shopping was over, and then

-she could insist upon taking the train immediately out of New York,

-even if she had to sink to the abhorred subterfuge of playing ill, and

-so frightening Tavia.

-

-She wished they might move to some other hotel; but if they did that an

-explanation must be made to Aunt Winnie as well as to Tavia. It seemed

-to Dorothy that she blushed all over—fairly _burned_—whenever she

-thought of discussing her feelings regarding Garry Knapp.

-

-Never before in her experience had Dorothy Dale been so quickly and so

-favorably impressed by a man. Tavia had joked about it, but she by no

-means understood how deeply Dorothy felt. And Dorothy would have been

-mortified to the quick had she been obliged to tell even her dearest

-chum the truth.

-

-Dorothy’s home training had been most delicate. Of course, in the

-boarding school she and Tavia had attended there were many sorts

-of girls; but all were from good families, and Mrs. Pangborn, the

-preceptress of Glenwood, had had a strict oversight over her girls’

-moral growth as well as over their education.

-

-Dorothy’s own cousins, Ned and Nat White, though collegians, and of

-what Tavia called “the harum-scarum type” like herself, were clean,

-upright fellows and possessed no low ideas or tastes. It seemed to

-Dorothy for a man to make the acquaintance of a strange girl on the

-street and talk with her as Garry Knapp seemed to have done, savored of

-a very coarse mind, indeed.

-

-And all the more did she criticise his action because he had taken

-advantage of the situation of herself and her friend and “picked

-acquaintance” in somewhat the same fashion with them on their entrance

-into New York.

-

-He was “that kind.” He went about making the acquaintance of every girl

-he saw who would give him a chance to speak to her! That is the way it

-looked to Dorothy in her present mood.

-

-She gave Garry Knapp credit for being a Westerner and being not as

-conservative as Eastern folk. She knew that people in the West were

-freer and more easily to become acquainted with than Eastern people.

-But she had set that girl down as a common flirt, and she believed

-no gentleman would so easily and naturally fall into conversation

-with her as Garry Knapp had, unless he were quite used to making such

-acquaintances.

-

-It shamed Dorothy, too, to think that the young man should go straight

-from her and Tavia to the girl.

-

-That was the thought that made the keenest wound in Dorothy Dale’s mind.

-

-They shopped “furiously,” as Tavia declared, all the morning, only

-resting while they ate a bite of luncheon in one of the big stores, and

-then went at it again immediately afterward.

-

-“The boys talk about ‘bucking the line’ about this time of

-year—football slang, you know,” sighed Tavia; “but believe me! this is

-some ‘bucking.’ I never shopped so fast and furiously in all my life.

-Dorothy, you actually act as though you wanted to get it all over with

-and go home. And we can stay a week if we like. We’re having no fun at

-all.”

-

-Dorothy would not answer. She wished they could go home. It seemed to

-her as though New York City was not big enough in which to hide away

-from Garry Knapp.

-

-They could not secure seats—not those they wanted—for the play Ned and

-Nat had told them to see, for that evening; and Tavia insisted upon

-going back to the hotel.

-

-“I am done up,” she announced. “I am a dish-rag. I am a disgrace to

-look at, and I feel that if I do not follow Lovely Lucy Larriper’s

-advice and relax, I may be injured for life. Come, Dorothy, we must go

-back to our rooms and lie down, or I shall lie right down here in the

-gutter and do my relaxing.”

-

-They returned to the hotel, and Dorothy almost ran through the lobby

-to the elevator, she was so afraid that Garry Knapp would be waiting

-there. She felt that he would be watching for them. The note he had

-written her that morning proved that he was determined to keep up their

-acquaintanceship if she gave him the slightest opening.

-

-“And I’ll never let him—never!” she told herself angrily.

-

-“Goodness! how can you hurry so?” plaintively panted Tavia, as she sank

-into the cushioned seat in the elevator.

-

-All the time they were resting, Dorothy was thinking of Garry. He would

-surely be downstairs at dinner time, waiting his chance to approach

-them. She had a dozen ideas as to how she would treat him—and none of

-them seemed good ideas.

-

-She was tempted to write him a note in answer to the line he had left

-with the clerk for her that morning, warning him never to speak to her

-friend or herself again. But then, how could she do so bold a thing?

-

-Tavia got up at last and began to move about her room. “Aren’t you

-going to get up ever again, Doro?” she asked. “Doesn’t the inner man

-call for sustenance? Or even the outer man? I’m just crazy to see Garry

-Knapp and ask him how he came by my bag.”

-

-“Oh, Tavia! I wish you wouldn’t,” groaned Dorothy.

-

-“Wish I wouldn’t what?” demanded her friend, coming to her open door

-with a hairbrush in her hand and wielding it calmly.

-

-Dorothy “bit off” what she had intended to say. She could not bring

-herself to tell Tavia all that was in her mind. She fell back upon that

-“white fib” that seems first in the feminine mind when trouble portends:

-

-“I’ve _such_ a headache!”

-

-“Poor dear!” cried Tavia. “I should think you had. You ate scarcely any

-luncheon——”

-

-“Oh, don’t mention eating!” begged Dorothy, and she really found she

-did have a slight headache now that she had said so.

-

-“Don’t you want your dinner?” cried Tavia, in horror.

-

-“No, dear. Just let me lie here. You—you go down and eat. Perhaps I’ll

-have something light by and by.”

-

-“That’s what the Esquimau said when he ate the candle,” said Tavia, but

-without smiling. It was a habit with Tavia, this saying something funny

-when she was thinking of something entirely foreign to her remark.

-

-“You’re not going to be sick, are you, Doro?” she finally asked.

-

-“No, indeed, my dear.”

-

-“Well! you’ve acted funny all day.”

-

-“I don’t feel a bit funny,” groaned Dorothy. “Don’t make me talk—now.”

-

-So Tavia, who could be sympathetic when she chose, stole away and

-dressed quietly. She looked in at Dorothy when she was ready to go

-downstairs, and as her chum lay with her eyes closed Tavia went out

-without speaking.

-

-Garry Knapp was fidgeting in the lobby when Tavia stepped out of the

-car. His eye brightened—then clouded again. Tavia noticed it, and her

-conclusion bore out the thought she had evolved about Dorothy upstairs.

-

-“Oh, Mr. Knapp!” she cried, meeting him with both hands outstretched.

-“Tell me! How did you find my bag?”

-

-And Garry Knapp was impolite enough to put her question aside for the

-moment while he asked:

-

-“Where’s Miss Dale?”

-

-Two hours later Tavia returned to her chum. Garry walked out of the

-hotel with his face heavily clouded.

-

-“Just my luck! She’s a regular millionaire. Her folks have got more

-money than I’ll ever even _see_ if I beat out old Methuselah in age!

-And Miss Tavia says Miss Dale will be rich in her own right. Ah, Garry,

-old man! There’s a blank wall ahead of you. You can’t jump it in a

-hurry. You haven’t got the _spring_. And this little mess of money I

-may get for the old ranch won’t put me in Miss Dorothy Dale’s class—not

-by a million miles!”

-

-He walked away from the hotel, chewing on this thought as though it had

-a very, very bitter taste.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VIII

-

-AND STILL DOROTHY IS NOT HAPPY

-

-

-“But what did he _say_?” demanded Dorothy, almost wildly, sitting up in

-bed at Tavia’s first announcement. “I want to know what he _said_!”

-

-“We-ell, maybe he didn’t tell the truth,” said Tavia, slowly.

-

-“We’ll find out about that later,” Dorothy declared. “Go on.”

-

-“How?”

-

-“Why, of course we must hunt up these girls and give them something for

-returning your bag.”

-

-“Oh! I s’pose so,” Tavia said. “Though I guess the little one, Number

-Forty-seven, wanted to keep it.”

-

-“Now, tell me _all_” breathed Dorothy, her eyes shining. “All he

-said—every word.”

-

-“Goodness! I guess your headache is better, Doro Dale,” laughed Tavia,

-sitting down on the edge of the bed. Dorothy said not a word, but her

-“listening face” put Tavia on her mettle.

-

-“Well, the very first thing he said,” she told her chum, her eyes

-dancing, “when I ran up to him and thanked him for getting my bag, was:

-

-“‘Where’s Miss Dale?’

-

-“What do you know about _that_?” cried Tavia, in high glee. “You

-have made a deep, wide, long, and high impression—a four-dimension

-impression—on that young man from the ‘wild and woolly.’ Oh yes, you

-have!”

-

-The faint blush that washed up into Dorothy Dale’s face like a gentle

-wave on the sea-strand made her look “ravishing,” so Tavia declared.

-She simply had to stop to hug her friend before she went on. Dorothy

-recovered her serenity almost at once.

-

-“Don’t tease, dear,” she said. “Go on with your story.”

-

-“You see, the little cash-girl—or ‘check’, as they call them—picked

-the bag up off the floor and hid it under her apron. Then she was

-scared—especially when Mr. Schuman chanced to come upon us all as we

-were quarreling. I suppose Mr. Schuman seems like a god to little

-Forty-seven.

-

-“Anyhow,” Tavia pursued, “whether the child meant to steal the bag

-or not at first, she was afraid to say anything about it then. Her

-sister—this girl who came to the hotel—works in the house furnishing

-department. Before night Forty-seven told her sister. She had heard Mr.

-Knapp’s name, and from the shipping clerk the big girl obtained the

-name of the hotel at which Mr. Knapp was staying. Do you see?”

-

-“Yes,” breathed Dorothy. “Go on, dear.”

-

-“Why, the girl just came here and asked for Mr. Knapp and found he was

-out. She didn’t know any better than to linger about outside and wait

-for him to appear—like Mary’s little lamb, you know! Little Forty-seven

-had told her sister what Mr. Knapp looked like, of course.”

-

-“Of course!” cried Dorothy, agreeing again, but in such a tone that

-Tavia frankly stared at her.

-

-“I do wish I knew just what is the matter with you to-day, Doro,” she

-murmured.

-

-“And the rest of it?” demanded Dorothy, her eyes shining and her cheeks

-still pink.

-

-“Why, when little Forty-seven’s sister saw us with Mr. Knapp she jumped

-to the correct conclusion that we were the girls who had lost the

-money, and so she was afraid to speak right out before us——”

-

-“Why?”

-

-“Well, Dorothy,” said Tavia, with considerable gravity for her, “I

-guess because of the old and well-established reason.”

-

-“What’s that?”

-

-“Because a man will be kinder to a girl in trouble than other girls

-will—ordinarily, I mean.”

-

-“Oh, Tavia!”

-

-“Suppose it had been that Mrs. Halbridge who had really lost her bag,”

-Tavia went on to say. “If this girl had tried to return it, she and

-little Forty-seven both would have lost their jobs. Perhaps the police

-would have been called in. Do you see? I expect the big girl read

-kindness in Mr. Knapp’s face——”

-

-Dorothy suddenly threw both arms about Tavia, and hugged her tightly.

-“Oh, you _dear_!” she cried; but she would not explain what she meant

-by this sudden burst of affection.

-

-“Go on!” was her repeated demand.

-

-“You are insatiable, my dear,” laughed Tavia. “Well, there isn’t much

-more ‘go on’ to it. The girl spoke to him when he passed her on the

-street and quickly told him all the story. Of course, he promised that

-nothing should happen to either of them. They are honest girls—the

-older one at least. And the temptation came so suddenly to little

-Forty-seven, whose wages are so pitiably small.”

-

-“I know,” said Dorothy, gently. “You remember, we learned something

-about it when little Miette De Pleau told us how she worked as

-cash-girl here years ago.”

-

-“Of course I remember,” Tavia said. “Well, that’s all, I guess. Oh no!

-I asked Mr. Knapp if he didn’t notice the big girl staring at us as we

-got to the hotel door last night. And what do you suppose he said?”

-

-“I don’t know,” and Dorothy was still smiling happily.

-

-“Why, he said he didn’t. ‘You see,’ he added, in that funny way of his,

-‘I expect my eyes were elsewhere’; and he wasn’t complimenting me,

-either,” added Tavia, rolling her big eyes. “Whom do you suppose he

-could have meant he was looking at, Doro?”

-

-Her friend ignored the question, but hopped out of bed.

-

-“What are you going to do?” asked Tavia, in wonder.

-

-“Dress.”

-

-“But it is nine o’clock! Almost bedtime.”

-

-“_Bedtime?_” demanded Dorothy. “And in the city? Why, Tavia! you amaze

-me, child!”

-

-“But you’re not going out?” cried her friend.

-

-“Do you realize I haven’t had a bite of dinner?” demanded the bold

-Dorothy. “I think you are very selfish.”

-

-“Well, anyway,” snapped Tavia, suddenly showing her claws—and who does

-not once in a while?—“_he’s_ gone out for a long walk and he expects to

-finish his business to-morrow and go home.”

-

-“Oh!” gasped Dorothy.

-

-She sat on the edge of her bed with her first stocking in her hand.

-Tavia had gone back into her own room. Had she been present she must

-have noticed all the delight fading out of Dorothy Dale’s countenance.

-Finally, the latter tossed away the stocking, and crept back into bed.

-

-“I—I guess I’m too lazy to dress after all, dear,” she said, in a still

-little voice. “And you are tired, too, Tavia. The telephone has been

-fixed; just call down, will you, and ask them to send me up some tea

-and toast?”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER IX

-

-THEY SEE GARRY’S BACK

-

-

-The following day Dorothy was her old cheerful self—or so Tavia

-thought. They did not shop with such abandon, but took matters more

-easily. And they returned to the hotel for luncheon and for rest.

-

-“But he isn’t here!” Tavia exclaimed, when they entered the big

-restaurant for the midday meal. “And I remember now he said

-last evening that he would probably be down town almost all day

-to-day—trying to sell that property of his, you know.”

-

-“Who, dear?” asked Dorothy, with a far-away look on her face.

-

-“Peleg Swift!” snapped Tavia. “You know very well of whom I am talking.

-Garry Owen!” and she hummed a few bars of the old, old march.

-

-Garry certainly was not present; but Dorothy still smiled. They went

-out again and purchased a few more things. When they returned late in

-the afternoon the young Westerner was visible in the lobby the moment

-the girls came through the doorway.

-

-But he was busy. He did not even see them. He was talking with two

-men of pronounced New York business type who might have been brokers

-or Wall Street men. All three sat on a lounge near the elevators, and

-Dorothy heard one of the strangers say crisply, as she and Tavia waited

-for a car:

-

-“That’s our top price, I think, Mr. Knapp. And, of course, we cannot

-pay you any money until I have seen the land, save the hundred for the

-option. I shall be out in a fortnight, I believe. It must hang fire

-until then, even at this price.”

-

-“Well, Mr. Stiffbold—it’s a bet!” Garry said, and Dorothy could imagine

-the secret sigh he breathed. Evidently, he was not getting the price

-for the wornout ranch that he had hoped.

-

-The two girls went up in the elevator and later made their dinner

-toilet. To-night Dorothy was the one who took the most pains in her

-primping; but Tavia said never a word. Nevertheless, she “looked

-volumes.”

-

-They were downstairs again not much later than half past six. Not a

-sign of Garry Knapp either in the lobby or in the dining-room. The

-girls ate their dinner slowly and “lived in hopes,” as Tavia expressed

-it.

-

-Both were frankly hoping Garry would appear. Tavia was grateful to him

-for the part he had taken in the recovery of her bag; and, too, he was

-“nice.” Dorothy felt that she had misjudged the young Westerner, and

-she was fired with a desire to be particularly pleasant to him so as to

-salve over her secret compunctions of conscience.

-

-“‘He cometh not, she said,’” Tavia complained. “What’s the matter with

-the boy, anyway? Can he be eating in the cafê with those two men?”

-

-“Oh, Tavia!” suddenly exclaimed Dorothy. “You said he was going home

-to-day.”

-

-“Oh—ah—yes. He did say he expected to get out for the West again some

-time to-day——”

-

-“Maybe he’s go-o-one!” and Dorothy’s phrase was almost a wail.

-

-“Goodness! Never! Without looking us up and saying a word of good-bye?”

-

-Dorothy got up with determination. “I am going to find out,” she said.

-“I feel that I would like to see Mr. Knapp again.”

-

-“Well! if _I_ said a thing like that about a young man——”

-

-However, Tavia let the remark trail off into silence and followed her

-chum. As they came out of the dining-room the broad shoulders and

-broad-brimmed hat of Garry Knapp were going through the street door!

-

-“Oh!” gasped Dorothy.

-

-“He’s going!” added Tavia, stricken quite as motionless.

-

-“Going——”

-

-“Gone!” ended Tavia, sepulchrally. “It’s all off, Dorothy. Garry Knapp,

-of Desert City, has departed.”

-

-“Oh, we must stop him—speak to him——”

-

-Dorothy started for the door and Tavia, nothing loath, followed at a

-sharp pace. Just as they came out into the open street a car stopped

-before the hotel door and Garry Knapp, “bag and baggage” stepped

-aboard. He did not even look back!

-

-As the girls returned to the hotel lobby the two men with whom they

-had seen Garry Knapp earlier in the evening, were passing out. They

-lingered while one of the men lit his cigar, and Dorothy heard the

-second man speaking.

-

-“I could have paid him spot cash for the land right here and been sure

-of a bargain, Lightly. I know just where it is and all about it. But

-it will do no harm to let the thing hang fire till I get out there.

-Perhaps, if I’m not too eager, I can get him to knock off a few dollars

-per acre. The boy wants to sell—that’s sure.”

-

-“Uh-huh!” grunted the one with the cigar. “It’ll make a tidy piece of

-wheat land without doubt, Stiffbold. You go for it!”

-

-They passed out then and the girl who had listened followed her friend

-slowly to the elevator, deep in thought. She said not a word until they

-were upstairs again. Perhaps her heart was really too full just then

-for utterance.

-

-As they entered Dorothy’s room the girls saw that the maid had been in

-during their absence at dinner. There was a long box, unmistakably a

-florist’s box, on the table.

-

-“Oh, see what’s here!” cried Tavia, springing forward.

-

-The card on the box read: “Miss Dale.”

-

-“For you!” cried Tavia. “What meaneth it, fair Lady Dorothy? Hast thou

-made a conquest already? Some sweet swain——”

-

-“I don’t believe you know what a ‘sweet swain’ is,” laughed Dorothy.

-

-Her fingers trembled as she untied the purple cord. Tavia asked, with

-increased curiosity:

-

-“Who can they be from, Doro? Flowers, of course!”

-

-Dorothy said nothing in reply; but in her heart she knew—she knew!

-The cord was untied at last, the tissue paper, all fragrant and dewy,

-lifted.

-

-“Why!” said Tavia, rather in disappointment and doubt. “Not roses—or

-chrysanthemums—or—or——”

-

-“Or anything foolish!” finished Dorothy, firmly.

-

-She lifted from their bed of damp moss a bouquet of the simplest

-old-fashioned flowers; mignonette, and several long-stemmed, dewy

-violets and buttercups, pansies, forget-me-nots——

-

-“He must have been robbing all the old-fashioned gardens around New

-York,” said Tavia. “But that’s a lovely ribbon—and yards of it.”

-

-Dorothy did not speak at first. The cost of the gift meant nothing to

-her. Yet she knew that the monetary value of such a bouquet in New York

-must be far above what was ordinarily paid for roses and the like.

-

-A note was nestling in the stems. She opened it and read:

-

-  “Dear Miss Dale:

-

- “Was mighty sorry to hear you are still in retirement. Your friend

- said last evening that you were quite done-up. Now I am forced to

- leave in a hurry without seeing you. Sent bellhop up to your room and

- he reports ‘no answer.’

-

- “But, without seeming too bold, will hope that we shall meet again—and

- that these few flowers will be a reminder of

-

-  “Faithfully and regretfully yours,

-  “G. KNAPP.”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER X

-

-“HEART DISEASE”

-

-

-After one passes the railroad station at The Beeches, and before

-reaching the town limits of North Birchland, the traveler sees a gray

-road following closely the railway tracks, sometimes divided from them

-by rail-fences, sometimes by a ditch, and sometimes the railway roadbed

-is high on a bank overlooking the highway.

-

-For several miles the road grades downward—not a sharp grade, but a

-steady one—and so does the railroad. At the foot of the slope the

-highway keeps straight on over a bridge that spans the deep and

-boisterous creek; but a fork of the road turns abruptly and crosses the

-railroad at grade.

-

-There is no flagman at this grade crossing, nor is there a drop-gate.

-Just a “Stop, Look, Listen” sign—two words of which are unnecessary, as

-some philosopher has pointed out. There had been some serious accidents

-at this crossing; but thus far the railroad company had found it

-cheaper to pay court damages than to pay a flagman and the upkeep of a

-proper gate on both sides of its right-of-way.

-

-When they came in sight of the down-hill part of the road Dorothy Dale

-and Tavia Travers knew it was time to begin to put on their wraps and

-take down their bags. The North Birchland station would soon be in

-sight.

-

-It was Dorothy who first stood up to reach for her bag. As she did so

-she glanced through the broad window, out upon the highway.

-

-“Oh, Tavia!” she gasped.

-

-“What’s the matter, dear? You don’t see Garry Knapp, do you? Maybe his

-buying those flowers—that ‘parting blessing’—‘busted’ him and he’s got

-to walk home clear to Desert City.”

-

-“Don’t be a goose!” half laughed Dorothy. “Look out. See if you see

-what I see.”

-

-“Why, Doro! it’s Joe and Roger I do believe!”

-

-“I was sure it was,” returned her friend. “What can those boys be doing

-now?”

-

-“Well, what they are doing seems plain enough,” said Tavia. “What they

-are going to do is the moot question, my dear. You never know what a

-boy will do next, or what he did last; you’re only sure of what he is

-doing just now.”

-

-What the young brothers of Dorothy Dale were doing at that moment was

-easily explained. They were riding down the long slope of the gray

-road toward North Birchland, racing with the train Dorothy and Tavia

-were on. The vehicle upon which the boys were riding was a nondescript

-thing composed of a long plank, four wheels, a steering arrangement of

-more or less dependence, and a soap box.

-

-In the soap box was a bag, and unless the girls were greatly mistaken

-Joe and Roger Dale had been nutting over toward The Beeches, and the

-bag was filled with hickory nuts and chestnuts in their shells and

-burrs.

-

-Roger, who was the youngest, and whom Dorothy continued to look upon as

-a baby, occupied the box with the nuts. Joe, who was fifteen, straddled

-the plank with his feet on the rests and steered. The boys’ vehicle was

-going like the wind. It looked as though a small stone in the road,

-or an uncertain jerk by Joe on the steering lines, would throw the

-contraption on which they rode sideways and dump out the boys.

-

-“Enough to give one heart disease,” said Tavia. “I declare! small

-brothers are a nuisance. When I’m at home in Dalton I have to wear

-blinders so as not to see _my_ kid brothers at their antics.”

-

-“If something should happen, Tavia!” murmured Dorothy.

-

-“Something is always happening. But not often is it something bad,”

-said Tavia, coolly. “‘There’s a swate little cherub that sits up

-aloft, and kapes out an eye for poor Jack,’ as the Irish tar says.

-And there is a similar cherub looking out for small boys—or a special

-providence.”

-

-The train was now high on the embankment over the roadway. The two boys

-sliding down the hill looked very small, indeed, below the car windows.

-

-“Suppose a wagon should start up the hill,” murmured Dorothy.

-

-“There’s none in sight. I never saw the road more deserted—oh, Doro!”

-

-Tavia uttered this cry before she thought. She had looked far ahead to

-the foot of the hill and had seen something that her friend had not yet

-observed.

-

-“What is it?” gasped Dorothy, whose gaze was still fixed upon her

-brothers.

-

-“My dear! The bridge!”

-

-The words burst from Tavia involuntarily. She could not keep them in.

-

-At the foot of the hill the road forked as has before been shown. To

-the left it crossed the railroad tracks at grade. Of course, these

-reckless boys had not intended to try for the crossing ahead of the

-train. But the main road, which kept straight on beside the tracks,

-crossed the creek on a wooden bridge. Tavia, looking ahead, saw that

-the bridge boards were up and there was a rough fence built across the

-main road!

-

-“They’ll be killed!” screamed Dorothy Dale, and sank back into her

-chair.

-

-The train was now pitching down the grade. It was still a mile to the

-foot of the slope where railroad and highway were on a level again. The

-boys in their little “scooter” were traveling faster than the train

-itself, for the brakes had been applied when the descent was begun.

-

-The boys and their vehicle, surrounded by a little halo of dust, were

-now far ahead of the chair car in which their sister and Tavia rode.

-The girls, clinging to each other, craned their necks to see ahead.

-There were not many other passengers in the car and nobody chanced to

-notice the horror-stricken girls.

-

-It was a race between the boys and the train, and the boys would never

-be able to halt their vehicle on the level at the bottom of the hill

-before crashing into the fence that guarded the open bridge.

-

-Were the barrier not there, the little cart would dart over the edge

-of the masonry wall of the bridge and all be dashed into the deep and

-rock-strewn bed of the creek.

-

-There was but one escape for the boys in any event. Perhaps their

-vehicle could be guided to the left, into the branch road and so across

-the railroad track. But if Joe undertook that would not the train be

-upon them?

-

-“Heart disease,” indeed! It seemed to Dorothy Dale as though her own

-heart pounded so that she could no longer breathe. Her eyes strained

-to see the imperiled boys down in the road.

-

-The “scooter” ran faster and faster or was the train itself slowing

-down?

-

-“For sure and certain they are beating us!” murmured Tavia.

-

-She could appreciate the sporting chance in the race; but to Dorothy

-there loomed up nothing but the peril facing her brothers.

-

-The railroad tracks pitched rather sharply here. It was quite a descent

-into the valley where North Birchland lay. When the engineers of the

-passenger trains had any time to make up running west they could always

-regain schedule on this slope.

-

-Dorothy knew this. She realized that the engineer, watching the track

-ahead and not the roadway where the boys were, might be tempted to

-release his brakes when half way down the slope and increase his speed.

-

-If he did so and the boys, Joe and Roger, turned to cross the rails,

-the train must crash into the “scooter.”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XI

-

-A BOLD THING TO DO!

-

-

-The threatening peril—which looked so sure to Dorothy Dale if to nobody

-else—inspired her to act, not to remain stunned and helpless. She

-jerked her hand from Tavia’s clutch and sprang to her feet. She had

-been reaching for her bag on first observing the boys coasting down

-the long hill beside the railroad tracks; and her umbrella was in the

-rack, too. She seized this. Its handle was a shepherd’s crook. Reaching

-with it, and without a word to Tavia, she hooked the handle into the

-emergency cord that ran overhead the length of the car, and pulled down

-sharply. Instantly there was a shriek from the engine whistle and the

-brakes were sharply applied.

-

-The brake shoes so suddenly applied to the wheels on this downgrade

-did much harm to the wheels themselves. Little cared Dorothy for this

-well-known fact. If every wheel under the train had to go to the repair

-shop she would have made this bold attempt to stop the train or retard

-its speed, so that Joe and Roger could cross the tracks ahead of it.

-

-Glancing through the window she saw the boys’ “scooter” dart swiftly

-and safely into the fork-road and disappear some rods ahead of the

-pilot of the engine. The boys were across before the brakeman and the

-Pullman conductor opened the car door and rushed in.

-

-“Who pulled that emergency cord? Anybody here?” shouted the conductor.

-

-“Oh! don’t tell him!” breathed Tavia.

-

-But her friend, if physically afraid, was never a moral coward. She

-looked straight into the angry conductor’s face and said:

-

-“I did.”

-

-“What for?” he demanded.

-

-“To stop the train. My brothers were in danger——”

-

-“Say! What’s that?” demanded the Pullman conductor of Tavia. “Where are

-her brothers?”

-

-The brakeman, who had long run over this road, pulled at the

-conductor’s sleeve.

-

-“That’s Major Dale’s girl,” he whispered, and Tavia heard if Dorothy

-did not.

-

-“Who’s Major Dale?” asked the conductor, in a low voice, turning aside.

-“Somebody on the road?”

-

-“Owns stock in it all right. And a bigwig around North Birchland. Go

-easy, I say,” advised the brakeman, immediately turning back to the

-door.

-

-The train, meanwhile, had started on again, for undoubtedly the other

-conductor had given the engineer the signal to go ahead. Through the

-window across the car Dorothy could see out upon the road beyond the

-tracks. There was the little “scooter” at a standstill. Joe and Roger

-were standing up and waving their caps at the train.

-

-“They’re safe!” Dorothy cried to Tavia.

-

-“I see they are; but you’re not—yet,” returned her chum.

-

-“Who’s that is safe?” asked the conductor, still in doubt.

-

-“My brothers—there,” answered Dorothy, pointing. “They had to cross in

-front of the train because the bridge is open. They couldn’t stop at

-the bottom of the hill.”

-

-The Pullman conductor understood at last. “But I’ll have to make a

-report of this, Miss Dale,” he said, complainingly.

-

-Dorothy had seated herself and she was very pale. The fright for her at

-least had been serious.

-

-“Make a dozen reports if you like—help yourself,” said Tavia, tartly,

-bending over her friend. “If there is anything to pay send the bill to

-Major Dale.”

-

-The conductor grumbled something and went out, notebook in hand. In

-a few moments the train came to a standstill at the North Birchland

-station. The girls had to bestir themselves to get out in season, and

-that helped rouse Dorothy.

-

-“Those rascals!” said Tavia, once they were on the platform. “Joe and

-Roger should be spanked.”

-

-“I’m afraid Joe is too big for that,” sighed Dorothy. “And who would

-spank them? It is something they didn’t get when they were little——”

-

-“And see the result!”

-

-“Your brothers were whipped sufficiently, I am sure,” Dorothy said,

-smiling at length. “They are not one whit better than Joe and Roger.”

-

-“Dear me! that’s so,” admitted Tavia. “But just the same, I belieev in

-whippings—for boys.”

-

-“And no whippings for girls?”

-

-“I should say not!” cried Tavia. “There never _was_ a girl who deserved

-corporal punishment.”

-

-“Not even Nita Brandt?” suggested Dorothy, naming a girl who had ever

-been a thorn in the flesh for Tavia during their days at Glenwood.

-

-“Well—perhaps _she_. But Nita’s about the only one, I guess.”

-

-The next moment Tavia started to run down the long platform, dropping

-her bag and screaming:

-

-“Jennie Hapgood! Jennie Jane Jemina Jerusha Happiness—_good_! How ever

-came you here?”

-

-Dorothy was excited, too, when she saw the pretty girl whom Tavia

-greeted with such ebullition; but she looked beyond Jennie Hapgood, the

-expected guest from Pennsylvania.

-

-There was the boys’ new car beside the station platform and Ned was

-under the steering-wheel while Nat was just getting out after Jennie.

-Of course, the two girls just back from New York were warmly kissed by

-Jennie. Then Nat came next and before Tavia realized what was being

-done to her, she was soundly kissed, too!

-

-“Bold, bad thing!” she cried, raising a gloved hand toward the laughing

-Nat. But it never reached him. Then Dorothy had to submit—as she always

-did—to the bearlike hugs of both her cousins, for Ned quickly joined

-them on the platform. Tavia escaped Ned—if, indeed, he had intended to

-follow his brother’s example.

-

-“What is the use of having a pretty cousin,” the White boys always

-said, “if we can’t kiss her? Keeps our hands in, you know. And if she

-has pretty friends, why shouldn’t we kiss them, too?”

-

-“Did you boys kiss Jennie when she arrived this morning?” Tavia

-demanded, repairing the ruffled hair that had fallen over her ears.

-

-“Certainly!” declared Nat, boldly. “Both of us.”

-

-“They never!” cried Jennie, turning very red. “You know I wouldn’t let

-these boys kiss me.”

-

-“I bet a boy kissed you the last thing before you started up here from

-home,” teased Nat.

-

-“I _never_ let boys kiss me,” repeated Jennie.

-

-“Oh, no!” drawled Ned, joining in with his brother. “How about Jack?”

-

-“Oh, well, _Jack_!”

-

-“Jack isn’t a boy, I suppose?” hooted Nat. “I guess that girl he’s

-going to marry about Christmas time thinks he’s a pretty nice boy.”

-

-“But he’s only my brother,” announced Jennie Hapgood, tossing her head.

-

-“Is he really?” cried Tavia, clasping her hands eagerly.

-

-“Is he really my brother?” demanded Jennie, in amazement. “Why, you

-_know_ he is, Tavia Travers!”

-

-“Oh, no! I mean are they going to be married at Christmas?”

-

-“Yes. That is the plan now. And you’ve all got to come to Sunnyside to

-the wedding. Nothing less would suit Jack—or father and mother,” Jennie

-said happily. “So prepare accordingly.”

-

-Nat raced with Tavia for the bag she had dropped. He got it and clung

-to it all the way in the car to The Cedars, threatening to open it and

-examine its contents.

-

-“For I know very well that Tavia’s got oodles of new face powder and

-rouge, and a rabbit’s foot to put it on with—or else a kalsomine

-brush,” Nat declared. “Joe and Roger want to paint the old pigeon

-house, anyway, and this stuff Tavia’s got in here will be just the

-thing.”

-

-In fact, the two big fellows were so glad to see their cousin and Tavia

-again that they teased worse than ever. A queer way to show their

-affection, but a boy’s way, after all. And, of course, everybody else

-at the Cedars was delighted to greet Dorothy and Tavia. It was some

-time before the returned travelers could run upstairs to change their

-dresses for dinner. Jennie had gone into her room to change, too, and

-Tavia came to Dorothy’s open door.

-

-“Oh, that letter!” she exclaimed, seeing Dorothy standing very gravely

-with a letter in her hand. “Haven’t you sent it?”

-

-“You see I haven’t,” Dorothy said seriously.

-

-“But why not?”

-

-“It seems such a bold thing to do,” confessed her friend. “We know so

-little about him. And it might encourage him to write in return——”

-

-“Of course it will!” laughed Tavia.

-

-“There! that’s what I mean. It is bold.”

-

-“But, you silly!” cried Tavia. “You only write Mr. Knapp to do him a

-good turn. And he did us a good turn—at least, he did _me_ one that I

-shall never forget.”

-

-“True,” Dorothy said thoughtfully. “And I have only repeated to him in

-this note what I heard that man, Stiffbold, say about the purchase of

-Mr. Knapp’s ranch.”

-

-“Oh, help the poor fellow out. Those men will rob him,” Tavia advised.

-“Why didn’t you send it at once, when you had written it?”

-

-“I—I thought I’d wait and consult Aunt Winnie,” stammered Dorothy.

-

-“Then consult her.”

-

-“But—but _now_ I don’t want to.”

-

-Tavia looked at her with certainty in her own gaze. “I know what is the

-matter with you,” she said.

-

-Dorothy flushed quickly and Tavia shook her head, saying nothing more.

-But when the girls went downstairs to dinner, Tavia saw Dorothy drop

-the stamped letter addressed to “Mr. Garford Knapp, Desert City,” into

-the mail bag in the hall.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XII

-

-UNCERTAINTIES

-

-

-Dorothy had no time before dinner, but after that meal she seized upon

-her brothers, Joe and Roger, and led them aside. The boys thought she

-had something nice for them, brought from New York. They very quickly

-found out their mistake.

-

-“I want to know what you boys mean by taking such risks as you did

-this afternoon?” she demanded, when out of hearing of the rest of the

-family. She would not have her aunt or the major troubled by knowing of

-the escapade.

-

-“You, especially, Joe,” she went on, with an accusing finger raised.

-“You both might have been killed. _Then_ how would you have felt?”

-

-“Er—dead, I guess, Sister,” admitted Roger, for Joe was silent.

-

-“Didn’t you know the road was closed because of repairs on the bridge?”

-she asked the older boy sternly.

-

-“No-o. We forgot. We didn’t go over to the nutting woods that way. Say!

-who told you?” blurted out Joe.

-

-“Who told me what?”

-

-“About our race with the train. Cricky, but it was great!”

-

-“It was fine!” Roger added his testimony with equal enthusiasm.

-

-“I saw you,” said Dorothy, her face paling as she remembered her fright

-in the train. “I—I thought I should faint I was so frightened.”

-

-“Say! isn’t that just like a girl?” grumbled Joe; but he looked at his

-sister with some compunction, for he and Roger almost worshipped her.

-Only, of course, they were boys and the usual boy cannot understand the

-fluttering terror in the usual girl’s heart when danger threatens. Not

-that Dorothy was a weakling in any way; she could be courageous for

-herself. But her fears were always excited when those she loved were in

-peril.

-

-“Why, we were only having fun, Sister,” Roger blurted out. Being

-considerably younger than his brother he was quicker to be moved by

-Dorothy’s expression of feeling.

-

-“Fun!” she gasped.

-

-“Yes,” Joe said sturdily. “It was a great race. And you and Tavia were

-in that train? We didn’t have an idea, did we, Roger?”

-

-“Nop,” said his small brother thoughtlessly. “If we had we wouldn’t

-have raced _that_ train.”

-

-“Now, I want to tell you something!” exclaimed their sister, with

-a sharper note in her voice. “You’re not to race _any_ train!

-Understand, boys? Suppose that engine had struck you as you crossed the

-tracks?”

-

-“Oh, it wouldn’t,” Joe said stoutly. “I know the engineer. He’s a

-friend of mine. He saw I had the ‘right-of-way,’ as they call it. I’d

-beat him down the hill; so he held up the train.”

-

-“Yes—he held up the train,” said Dorothy with a queer little laugh. “He

-put on brakes because I pulled the emergency cord. You boys would never

-have crossed ahead of that train if I hadn’t done so.”

-

-“Oh, Dorothy!” gasped Joe.

-

-“Oh, Sister!” cried Roger.

-

-“Tavia and I almost had heart disease,” the young woman told them

-seriously. “Engineers do not watch boys on country roads when they are

-guiding a great express train. It is a serious matter to control a

-train and to have the destinies of the passengers in one’s hands. The

-engineer is looking ahead—watching the rails and the roadbed. Remember

-that, boys.”

-

-“I’d like to be an engineer!” sighed Roger, his eyes big with longing.

-

-“Pooh!” Joe said. “It’s more fun to drive an automobile—like this new

-one Ned and Nat have. You don’t have to stay on the tracks, you know.”

-

-“Nobody but cautious people can learn to drive automobiles,” said

-Dorothy, seriously.

-

-“I’m big enough,” stated Joe, with conviction.

-

-“You may be. But you’re not careful enough,” his sister told him.

-“Your racing our train to-day showed that. Now, I won’t tell father or

-auntie, for I do not wish to worry them. But you must promise me not

-to ride down that hill in your little wagon any more or enter into any

-such reckless sports.”

-

-“Oh, we won’t, of course, if you say not, Dorothy,” sniffed Joe. “But

-you must remember we’re boys and boys have got to take chances. Even

-father says that.”

-

-“Yes. When you are grown. You may be placed in situations where your

-courage will be tested. But, goodness me!” finished Dorothy Dale.

-“Don’t scare us to death, boys. And now see what I bought you in New

-York.”

-

-However, her lecture made some impression upon the boys’ minds despite

-their excitement over the presents which were now brought to light.

-Full football outfits for both the present was, and Joe and Roger were

-delighted. They wanted to put them on and go out at once with the ball

-to “pass signals,” dark as it had become.

-

-However, they compromised on this at Dorothy’s advice, by taking the

-suits, pads and guards off to their room and trying them on, coming

-downstairs later to “show off” before the folks in the drawing-room.

-

-Major Dale was one of those men who never grow old in their hearts.

-Crippled as he was—both by his wounded leg and by rheumatism—he

-delighted to see the young life about him, and took as much interest in

-the affairs of the young people as ever he had.

-

-Aunt Winnie looked a very interesting invalid, indeed, with her lame

-ankle, and rested on the couch. The big boys and Dorothy and her

-friends always made much of Aunt Winnie in any case; now that she

-was “laid up in drydock,” as Nat expressed it, they were especially

-attentive.

-

-Jennie and Tavia, with the two older boys, spent most of the evening

-hovering about the lady’s couch, or at the piano where they played

-and sang college songs and old Briarwood songs, till eleven o’clock.

-Dorothy sat between her father and Aunt Winnie and talked to them.

-

-“What makes you so sober, Captain?” the major asked during the evening.

-He had always called her “his little captain” and sometimes seemed

-really to forget that she had any other name.

-

-“I’m all right, Major,” she returned brightly. “I have to think,

-sometimes, you know.”

-

-“What is the serious problem now, Dorothy?” asked her aunt, with a

-little laugh. “Did you forget to buy something while you were in New

-York?”

-

-Dorothy dimpled. “Wait till you see all I did buy,” she responded, “and

-you will not ask that question. I have been the most reckless person!”

-

-“Why the serious pucker to your brow, Captain?” went on the major.

-

-“Oh, I have problems. I admit the fact,” Dorothy said, trying to laugh

-off their questioning.

-

-“Out with them,” advised her father. “Here are two old folks who have

-been solving problems all their lives. Maybe we can help.”

-

-Dorothy laughed again. “Try this one,” she said, with her eyes upon the

-quartette “harmonizing” at the piano in dulcet tones, singing “Seeing

-Nellie Ho-o-ome.” “Which of our big boys does Tavia like best?”

-

-“Goodness!” exclaimed her aunt, while the major chuckled mellowly.

-“Don’t you know, really, Dorothy? I was going to ask _you_. I thought,

-of course, Tavia confided everything to you.”

-

-“Sooner or later she may,” the young woman said, still with the

-thoughtful air upon her. “But I am as much in the dark about this query

-as anybody—perhaps as the boys themselves.”

-

-“Humph!” muttered the major. “Which of them likes _her_ the better?”

-

-“And _that_ I’d like to know,” said his sister earnestly. “There is

-another thing, Dorothy: Which of my sons is destined to fall in love

-with this very, very pretty girl you have invited here—Jennie Hapgood,

-I mean?”

-

-“Oh! they’re all doing it, are they?” grunted the major. “How about our

-Dorothy? Where does she come in? No mate for her?”

-

-“I think I shall probably become an old maid,” Dorothy Dale said, but

-with a conscious flush that made her aunt watch her in a puzzled way

-for some time.

-

-But the major put back his head and laughed delightedly. “No more

-chance of your remaining a spinster—when you are really old enough to

-be called one—than there is of my leading troops into battle again,” he

-declared with warmth. “Hey, Sister?”

-

-“Our Dorothy is too attractive I am sure to escape the chance to marry,

-at least,” said Aunt Winnie, still watching her niece with clouded

-gaze. “I wonder whence the right knight will come riding—from north, or

-south, east or west?”

-

-And in spite of herself Dorothy flushed up again at her aunt’s last

-word.

-

-It was a question oft-repeated in Dorothy Dale’s mind during the

-following days, this one regarding the state of mind of her two cousins

-and her two school friends.

-

-It had always seemed to Dorothy, whenever she had thought of it, that

-one of her cousins, either Ned or Nat, must in the end be preferred by

-Tavia. To think of Tavia’s really settling down to caring for any other

-man than Ned or Nat, was quite impossible.

-

-On the other hand, the boys had both shown a great fondness for

-the society of Jennie Hapgood when they were all at her home in

-Pennsylvania such a short time previous; and now that all four were

-together again Dorothy could not guess “which was which” as Tavia

-herself would have said.

-

-The boys did not allow Dorothy to be overlooked in any particular. She

-was not neglected in the least; yet she did, as the days passed, find

-more time to spend with her father and with her Aunt Winnie.

-

-“The little captain is getting more thoughtful. She is steadying down,”

-the major told Mrs. White.

-

-“But I wonder _why_?” was that good woman’s puzzled response.

-

-Dorothy Dale sitting by herself with a book that she was not reading

-or with fancywork on which she only occasionally took stitches, was

-entirely out of her character. She had never been this way before going

-to New York, Mrs. White was sure.

-

-There were several uncertainties upon the girl’s mind. One of them

-almost came to light when, after ten days, her letter addressed to “Mr.

-Garford Knapp, Desert City,” was returned to her by the post-office

-department, as instructed in the upper left-hand corner of the envelope.

-

-Her letter, warning Garry Knapp of the advantage the real estate men

-wished to take of him, would, after all, do him no good. He would never

-know that she had written. Perhaps her path and Garry Knapp’s would

-never cross again.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIII

-

-DOROTHY MAKES A DISCOVERY

-

-

-The boys had a dog—Old Brindle he was called—and he had just enough

-bull in him to make him a faithful friend and a good watchdog. But,

-of course, he was of little use in the woods, and Joe and Roger were

-always begging for a hunting dog.

-

-“We’ve got these now—pump-rifles,” Roger said eagerly to Dorothy, whom

-he thought able to accomplish any wonder she might undertake. “They

-shoot fifty shots. Think of it, Sister! That’s a lot. And father taught

-us how to use ’em long ago, of course. Just think! I could stand right

-up and shoot down fifty people—just like that.”

-

-“Oh, Roger!” gasped Dorothy. “Don’t say such awful things.”

-

-“Oh, I wouldn’t, you know; but I could,” the boy said confidently. “Now

-the law is off rabbits and partridges and quail. Joe and I saw lots of

-’em when we went after those nuts the other day. If we’d had our guns

-along maybe we might have shot some.”

-

-“The poor little birds and the cunning little rabbits,” said Dorothy

-with a sigh.

-

-“Oh! they’re not like our pigeons and our tame rabbits. These are real

-_wild_. If some of ’em weren’t shot they’d breed an’ breed till there

-were so many that maybe it wouldn’t be safe to go out into the woods,”

-declared the small boy, whose imagination never needed spurring.

-

-Joe came up on the porch in time to hear this last. He chuckled, but

-Dorothy was saying to Roger:

-

-“How foolish, dear! Who ever heard of a rabbit being cross?”

-

-“Just the same I guess you’ve heard of being as ‘mad as a March hare,’

-haven’t you?” demanded Joe, his eyes twinkling. “And we _do_ want a

-bird dog, Sis, to jump a rabbit for us, or to flush a flock of quail.”

-

-“Those dear little bobwhites,” Dorothy sighed again. “Why is it that

-boys want always to kill?”

-

-“So’s to eat,” Joe said bluntly. “You know yourself, Dorothy Dale, that

-you like partridge on toast and rabbit stew.”

-

-She laughed at them. “I shall go hungry, then, I’m afraid, as far as

-you boys are concerned.”

-

-“Of course we can’t get any game if we don’t have a dog. Brindle

-couldn’t jump a flea,” growled Joe.

-

-“Say! the big fellows used to have lots more pets than we’ve got,”

-complained Roger, referring to Ned and Nat.

-

-“_They_ had dogs,” added Joe. “A whole raft of ’em.”

-

-“Oh, dear me!” exclaimed Dorothy. “I’ll see what can be done. But

-another dog!”

-

-“We won’t let him bite you, Sister,” proclaimed Roger. “We only want

-him to chase rabbits or to start up the birds so we can shoot ’em.”

-

-Dorothy’s “I’ll see” was, of course, taken by the boys themselves as an

-out-and-out agreement to do as the boys desired. They were convinced

-that if she gave her mind to it their sister could perform almost any

-miracle. At least, she could always bring the rest of the family around

-to her way of thinking.

-

-Ned and Nat had opposed the bringing of another dog upon the place.

-They were fond of old Brindle; but it must be confessed that the

-watchdog was bad tempered where other dogs were concerned.

-

-Brindle seldom went off the place; but if he saw any other dog

-trespassing he was very apt to fly at the uninvited visitor. And once

-the bull’s teeth were clinched in the strange animal’s neck, it took a

-hot iron to make him loose his hold.

-

-There had been several such unfortunate happenings, and Mrs. White had

-paid several owners of dogs damages rather than have trouble with the

-neighbors. She—and even the major—had strong objections to the coming

-of any other dog upon the place as long as Brindle lived.

-

-So the chance for Joe and Roger to have their request granted was small

-indeed. Nevertheless, “hope springs eternal,” especially in the breast

-of a small boy who wants a dog.

-

-“Maybe we can find somebody that’s got a good, trained dog and will

-sell him to us, Roger,” Joe said, as they set forth from the house.

-

-“But I haven’t got much money—only what’s in the bank, and I can’t get

-that,” complained Roger.

-

-“You spend all you get for candy,” scoffed Joe. “Now, _I’ve_ got a

-whole half dollar left of my month’s spending money. But you can’t buy

-much of a dog for fifty cents.”

-

-“Maybe somebody would give us a dog.”

-

-“And folks don’t give away good dogs, either,” grumbled Joe.

-

-“I tell you!” exclaimed Roger, suddenly. “I saw a stray dog yesterday

-going down the lane behind our stables.”

-

-“How do you know it was a stray dog?”

-

-“’Cause it _looked_ so. It was sneaking along at the edge of the

-hedge and it was tired looking. Then, it had a piece of frayed rope

-tied around its neck. Oh, it was a stray dog all right,” declared the

-smaller boy eagerly.

-

-“Where’d it go to?”

-

-“Under Mr. Cummerford’s barn,” said Roger. “I bet we could coax it out,

-if it’s still there.”

-

-“Not likely,” grunted Joe.

-

-Nevertheless, he started off at once in the direction indicated by his

-brother, and the boys were soon at the stable of the neighbor whose

-place adjoined The Cedars on that side.

-

-Oddly enough, the dog was still there. He had crawled out and lay

-in the sun beside the barn. He was emaciated, his eyes were red and

-rolling, and he had a lame front paw. The gray, frayed rope was still

-tied to his neck. He was a regular tramp dog.

-

-But he allowed the boys to come close to him without making any attempt

-to get away. He eyed them closely, but neither growled nor wagged his

-tail. He was a “funny acting” dog, as Roger said.

-

-“I bet he hasn’t had anything to eat for so long and he’s come so far

-that he hasn’t got the spunk to wag his tail,” Joe said, as eager as

-Roger now. “We’ll take him home and feed him.”

-

-“He’s sure a stray dog, isn’t he, Joe?” cried the smaller boy. “I

-haven’t ever seen him before around here, have you?”

-

-“No. And I bet his owner won’t ever come after him,” said Joe, picking

-up the end of the rope. “He’s just the kind of a dog we want, too. You

-see, he’s a bird dog, or something like that. And when he’s fed up and

-rested, I bet he’ll know just how to go after partridges.”

-

-He urged the strange dog to his feet. The beast tottered, and would

-have lain down again. Roger, the tender-hearted, said:

-

-“Oh! he’s so hungry. Bet he hasn’t had a thing to eat for days. Maybe

-we’ll have to carry him.”

-

-“No. He’s too dirty to carry,” Joe said, looking at the mud caked upon

-the long hair of the poor creature and the dust upon him. “We’ll get

-him to the stable and feed him; then we’ll hose him off.”

-

-Pulling at the rope he urged the dog on. The animal staggered at first,

-but finally grew firmer on his legs. But he did not use the injured

-fore paw. He favored that as he hopped along to the White stables.

-Neither the coachman nor the chauffeur were about. There was nobody

-to observe the dog or advise the boys about the beast. Roger ran to

-the kitchen door to beg some scraps for their new possession. The cook

-would always give Roger what he asked for. When he came back Joe got

-a pan of water for the dog; but the creature backed away from it and

-whined—the first sound he had made.

-

-“Say! isn’t that funny?” Joe demanded. “See! he won’t drink. You’d

-think he’d be thirsty.”

-

-“Try him with this meat,” Roger said. “Maybe he’s too hungry to drink

-at first.”

-

-The dog was undoubtedly starving. Yet he turned his head away from the

-broken pieces of food Roger put down before his nose.

-

-Joe had tied the rope to a ring on the side of the stable. The boys

-stepped back to see if the dog would eat or drink if they were not so

-close to him. Then it was that the creature flew into an awful spasm.

-He rose up, his eyes rolling, trembling in every limb, and trying to

-break the rope that fastened him to the barn. Froth flew from his

-clashing jaws. His teeth were terrible fangs. He fell, rolling over,

-snapping at the water-dish. The boys, even Joe, ran screaming from the

-spot.

-

-At the moment Dorothy, Tavia and Jennie came walking down the path

-toward the stables. They heard the boys scream and all three started

-to run. Ned and Nat, nearer the house, saw the girls running and they

-likewise bounded down the sloping lawn.

-

-Around the corner of the stables came Joe and Roger, the former almost

-dragging the smaller boy by the hand. And, almost at the same instant,

-appeared the dog, the broken rope trailing, bounding, snapping, rolling

-over, acting as insanely as ever a dog acted.

-

-“Oh! what’s the matter?” cried Dorothy.

-

-“Keep away from that dog!” shrieked Tavia, stopping short and seizing

-both Dorothy and Jennie. “He’s mad!”

-

-The dog was blindly running, this way and that, the foam dripping from

-his clashing jaws. He was, indeed, a most fearful sight. He had no real

-intention in his savage charges, for a beast so afflicted with rabies

-loses eyesight as well as sense; but suddenly he bounded directly for

-the three girls.

-

-They all shrieked in alarm, even Dorothy. Yet the latter the better

-held her self-possession than the others. She heard Jennie scream: “Oh,

-Ned!” while Tavia cried: “Oh, Nat!”

-

-The young men were at the spot in a moment. Nat had picked up a croquet

-mallet and one good blow laid the poor dog out—harmless forever more.

-

-Tavia had seized the rescuer’s arm, Jennie was clinging to Ned.

-Dorothy, awake at last to the facts of the situation, made a great

-discovery—and almost laughed, serious as the peril had been.

-

-“I believe I know which is which now,” she thought, forgetting her

-alarm.

-

-[Illustration: SUDDENLY HE BOUNDED DIRECTLY FOR THE THREE GIRLS.

-

-  _Dorothy Dale’s Engagement_         _Page 108_

-]

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIV

-

-TAVIA IS DETERMINED

-

-

-“After that scare I’m afraid the boys will have to go without a bird

-dog,” Tavia said that night as she and Dorothy were brushing their hair

-before the latter’s dressing-glass.

-

-Tavia and Jennie and Ned and Nat were almost inseparable during the

-daytime; but when the time came to retire the flyaway girl had to have

-an old-time “confab,” as she expressed it, with her chum.

-

-Dorothy was so bright and so busy all day long that nobody

-discovered—not even the major—that she was rather “out of it.” The two

-couples of young folk sometimes ran away and left Dorothy busy at some

-domestic task in which she claimed to find much more interest than in

-the fun her friends and cousins were having.

-

-“It would have been a terrible thing if the poor dog had bitten one of

-us,” Dorothy replied. “Dr. Agnew, the veterinary, says without doubt it

-was afflicted with rabies.”

-

-“And how scared your Aunt Winnie was!” Then Tavia began to giggle. “She

-will be so afraid of anything that barks now, that she’ll want all the

-trees cut down around the house.”

-

-“That pun is unworthy of you, my dear,” Dorothy said placidly.

-

-“Dear me, Doro Doodlekins!” exclaimed Tavia, suddenly and

-affectionately, coming close to her chum and kissing her warmly. “You

-are such a tabby-cat all of a sudden. Why! _you_ have grown up, while

-the rest of us are only kids.”

-

-“Yes; I am very settled,” observed Dorothy, smiling into the mirror at

-her friend. “A cap for me and knitting very soon, Tavia. Then I shall

-sit in the chimney corner and think——”

-

-“Think about whom, my dear?” Tavia asked saucily. “That Garry Knapp, I

-bet.”

-

-“I wouldn’t _bet_,” sighed Dorothy. “It isn’t ladylike.”

-

-“Oh—de-ah—me!” groaned Tavia. “You are thinking of him just the same.”

-

-“I happened to be just now,” admitted Dorothy, and without blushing

-this time.

-

-“No! were you really?” demanded Tavia, eagerly. “Isn’t it funny he

-doesn’t write?”

-

-“No. Not at all.”

-

-“But you’d think he would write and thank you for your letter if

-nothing more,” urged the argumentative Tavia.

-

-“No,” said Dorothy again.

-

-“Why not?”

-

-“Because Mr. Knapp never got my letter,” Dorothy said, opening her

-bureau drawer and pulling the letter out from under some things laid

-there. “See. It was returned to-day.”

-

-“Oh, Dorothy!” gasped Tavia, both startled and troubled.

-

-“Yes. It—it didn’t reach him somehow,” Dorothy said, and she could not

-keep the trouble entirely out of her voice.

-

-“Oh, my _dear_!” repeated Tavia.

-

-“And I am sorry,” her friend went on to say; “for now he will not know

-about the intentions of those men, Stiffbold and Lightly.”

-

-“But, goodness! it serves him right,” exclaimed Tavia, suddenly. “He

-didn’t give us his right address.”

-

-“He gave us no address,” said Dorothy, sadly.

-

-“Why, yes! he said Desert City——”

-

-“He mentioned that place and said that his land was somewhere near

-there. But he works on a ranch, which, perhaps, is a long way from

-Desert City.”

-

-“That’s so,” grumbled Tavia. “I forgot he’s only a cowboy.”

-

-At this Dorothy flushed a little and Tavia, looking at her sideways and

-eagerly, noted the flush. Her eyes danced for a moment, for the girl

-was naturally chock-full of mischief.

-

-But in a moment the expression of Tavia Travers’ face changed.

-Dorothy was pensively gazing in the glass; she had halted in her hair

-brushing, and Tavia knew that her chum neither saw her own reflection

-nor anything else pictured in the mirror. The mirror of her mind held

-Dorothy’s attention, and Tavia could easily guess the vision there.

-A tall, broad-shouldered, broad-hatted young man with a frank and

-handsome face and a ready smile that dimpled one bronzed cheek ever so

-little and wrinkled the outer corners of his clear, far-seeing eyes.

-

-Garry Knapp!

-

-Tavia for the first time realized that Dorothy had found interest and

-evidently a deep and abiding interest, in the young stranger from

-Desert City. It rather shocked her. Dorothy, of all persons, to become

-so very deeply interested in a man about whom they knew practically

-nothing.

-

-Tavia suddenly realized that she knew more about him than Dorothy did.

-At least, she had been with Garry Knapp more than had her friend. It

-was Tavia who had had the two hours’ tête-à-tête with the Westerner at

-dinner on the evening before Garry Knapp departed so suddenly for the

-West. All that happened and was said at that dinner suddenly unrolled

-like a panorama before Tavia’s memory.

-

-Why! she could picture it all plainly. She had been highly delighted

-herself in the recovery of her bag and in listening to Garry’s story

-of how it had been returned by the cash-girl’s sister. And, of course,

-she had been pleased to be dining alone with a fine looking young man

-in a hotel dining-room. She had rattled on when her turn came to talk,

-just as irresponsibly as usual.

-

-Now, in thinking over the occasion, she realized that the young man

-from the West had been a shrewd questioner. He had got her started upon

-Dorothy Dale, and before they came to the little cups of black coffee

-Tavia had told just about all she knew regarding her chum.

-

-The reader may be sure that all Tavia said was to Dorothy’s glory. She

-had little need to explain to Garry Knapp what a beautiful character

-Dorothy Dale possessed. Tavia had told about Dorothy’s family, her Aunt

-Winnie’s wealth, the fortunes Major Dale now possessed both in the East

-and West, and the fact that when Dorothy came of age, at twenty-one,

-she would be wealthy in her own right. She had said all this to a young

-man who was struggling along as a cowpuncher on a Western ranch, and

-whose patrimony was a piece of rundown land that he could sell but for

-a song, as he admitted himself. “And no chorus to it!” Tavia thought.

-

-“I’m a bonehead!” she suddenly thought fiercely. “Nat would say my

-noodle is solid ivory. I know now what was the matter with Garry Knapp

-that evening. I know why he rushed up to me and asked for Dorothy, and

-was what the novelists call ‘distrait’ during our dinner. Oh, what a

-worm I am! A miserable, squirmy worm! Ugh!” and the conscience-stricken

-girl fairly shuddered at her own reflection in the mirror and turned

-away quickly so that Dorothy should not see her features.

-

-“It’s—it’s the most _wonderful_ thing. And it began right under my

-nose, my poor little ‘re-trousered’ nose, as Joe called it the other

-day, and I didn’t really see it! I thought it was just a fancy on

-Dorothy’s part! And I never thought of Garry Knapp’s side of it at all!

-Oh, my heaven!” groaned Tavia, deep in her own soul. “Why wasn’t I born

-with some good sense instead of good looks? I—I’ve spoiled my chum’s

-life, perhaps. Goodness! it can’t be so bad as that.

-

-“Of course, Garry Knapp is just the sort of fellow who would raise

-a barrier of Dorothy’s riches between them. Goodness me!” added the

-practical Tavia, “I’d like to see any barrier of wealth stop _me_ if I

-wanted a man. I’d shin the wall in a hurry so as to be on the same side

-of it as he was.”

-

-She would have laughed at this fancy had she not taken a look at

-Dorothy’s face again.

-

-“Good-night!” she shouted into her chum’s ear, hugged her tight, kissed

-her loudly, and ran away into her own room. Once there, she cried

-all the time she was disrobing, getting into her lacy nightgown, and

-pulling down the bedclothes.

-

-Then she did not immediately go to bed. Instead, she tiptoed back to

-the connecting door and closed it softly. She turned on the hanging

-electric light over the desk.

-

-“I’ll do it!” she said, with determined mien. “I’ll write to Lance

-Petterby.” And she did so.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XV

-

-THE SLIDE ON SNAKE HILL

-

-

-Joe and Roger marched down at an early breakfast hour from the

-upper regions of the big white house, singing energetically if not

-melodiously a pæan of joy:

-

-    “‘The frog he would a-wooing go——

-        Bully for you! Bully for all!

-      The frog he would a-wooing go——

-        Bully for all, we say!’”

-

-The boys’ determination to reach the low register of a bullfrog in that

-“bully for all” line was very, very funny, especially in Roger’s case,

-for his speaking voice was naturally a shrill treble.

-

-Their joy, however, awoke any sleepers there might have been in the

-house, and most of them came to their bedroom doors and peered out.

-

-“What’s the matter with you blamed little rascals?” Ned, in a purple

-bathrobe, demanded.

-

-“Wouldn’t you boys just as lief sing as to make that noise?” Nat, in a

-gray robe, and at his door, questioned.

-

-But he grinned at his small cousins, for it hadn’t been so long ago

-that he was just as much of a boy as they were.

-

-“Hello, kids!” cried Tavia, sticking out a tousled head from her room.

-“Tell us: What’s the good news?”

-

-Jennie Hapgood peered out for an instant, saw Ned and Nat, and darted

-back with an exclamatory “Oh!”

-

-“I—I thought something had happened,” she faintly said, closing her

-door all but a crack.

-

-“Something has,” declared Joe.

-

-“What is it, boys?” asked Dorothy, appearing fully dressed from her

-room. “The ice?”

-

-“What ice?” demanded Tavia. “Has the iceman come so early? Tell him to

-leave a big ten-cent piece.”

-

-“Huh!” grunted Roger, “there’s a whole lot more than a ten-cent piece

-outside, and you’d see it if you’d put up your shade. The whole world’s

-ice-covered.”

-

-“So it is,” Joe agreed.

-

-“There was rain last evening, you know,” Dorothy said, starting down

-the lower flight of stairs briskly. “And then it turned very cold.

-Everything is sheathed in ice out-of-doors. Doesn’t the warm air from

-the registers feel nice? I _do_ love dry heat, even if it is more

-expensive.”

-

-“Bully!” roared Nat, who had darted back to run up the shade at one of

-the windows in his room. “Look out, girls! it’s great.”

-

-Every twig on every bush and tree and every fence rail and post were

-covered with glistening ice. The sun, just rising red and rosy as

-though he had but now come from a vigorous morning bath, threw his rays

-in profusion over this fairy world and made a most spectacular scene

-for the young people to look out upon. In an hour all of them were out

-of doors to enjoy the spectacle in a “close up,” as Tavia called it.

-

-“And we all ought to have spectacles!” she exclaimed a little later.

-“This glare is blinding, and we’ll all have blinky, squinty eyes by

-night.”

-

-“Automobile goggles—for all hands!” exclaimed Nat. “They’re all smoked

-glasses, too. I’ll get ’em,” and he started for the garage.

-

-“But no automobile to-day,” laughed Jennie. “Think of the skidding on

-this sheet of ice.” For the ground was sheathed by Jack Frost, as well

-as the trees and bushes and fences.

-

-Joe and Roger, well wrapped up, were just starting from the back door

-and Dorothy hailed them:

-

-“Where away, my hearties? Ahoy!”

-

-“Aw—we’re just going sliding,” said Roger, stuttering.

-

-“Where?” demanded the determined older sister.

-

-“Snake Hill,” said Joe, shortly. He loved Dorothy; but this having

-girls “butting in” all the time frayed his manly patience.

-

-“Take care and don’t get hurt, boys!” called Tavia, roguishly, knowing

-well that the sisterly advice was on the tip of Dorothy’s tongue and

-that it would infuriate the small boys.

-

-“Aw, you——”

-

-Joe did not get any farther, for Nat in passing gave him a look. But

-he shrugged his shoulders and went on with Roger without replying to

-Tavia’s advice.

-

-“Oh, what fun!” cried Jennie Hapgood, suddenly. “Couldn’t _we_ go

-coasting?”

-

-“Sure we could,” Ned agreed instantly. Lately he seemed to agree with

-anything Jennie said and that without question.

-

-“Tobogganing—oh, my!” cried Tavia, quick to seize upon a new scheme for

-excitement and fun. Then she turned suddenly serious and added: “If

-Dorothy will go. Not otherwise.”

-

-Dorothy laughed at her openly. “Why not, Tavia?” she demanded. “Are

-you afraid to trust the boys unless I’m along? I know they are awful

-cut-ups.”

-

-“I feel that Jennie and I should be more carefully chaperoned,” Tavia

-declared with serious lips but twinkling eyes.

-

-“Oh! _Oh!_ OH!” in crescendo from Nat, returning in time to hear this.

-“Who needs a ‘bag o’ bones’——Excuse me! ‘Chaperon,’ I mean? What’s

-afoot?”

-

-Just then he slipped on the glare ice at the foot of the porch steps

-and went down with a crash.

-

-“You’re not, old man,” cried Ned as the girls squealed. “I hope you

-have your shock-absorbers on. That was a jim-dandy!”

-

-“Did—did it hurt you, Nat?” begged Tavia, with clasped hands.

-

-“Oh-ugh!” grunted Nat, gingerly arising and examining the handful of

-goggles he carried to see if they were all right. “Every bone in my

-body is broken. Gee! that was some smash.”

-

-“Do it again, dear,” Ned teased. “Your mother didn’t happen to see you

-and she’s at the window now.”

-

-“Aw, you go fish!” retorted the younger brother, for his dignity was

-hurt if nothing else. “Wish it had been you.”

-

-“So do I,” sighed Ned. “I’d have done it so much more gracefully. You

-see, practice in the tango and foxtrot, not to mention other and more

-intricate dance steps, _does_ help one. And you never would give proper

-attention to your dancing, Sonny.”

-

-“Here!” threatened Nat. “I’ll dance one of my fists off your ear——”

-

-“I shall have to part you boys,” broke in Dorothy. “Threatening each

-other with corporal punishment—and before the ladies.”

-

-“Why,” declared Ned, hugging his brother in a bearlike hug as Nat

-reached his level on the porch. “He can beat me to death if he likes,

-the dear little thing! Come on, ’Thaniel. What do you say to giving the

-girls a slide?”

-

-“Heh?” ejaculated Nat. “What do you want to let ’em slide for? Got sick

-of ’em so quick? Where are your manners?”

-

-“Oh, Ned!” groaned Tavia. “Don’t you want us hanging around any more?”

-

-“I am surprised at Mr. Edward,” Jennie joined in.

-

-“Gee, Edward,” said Nat, grinning, “but you do put your foot in your

-mouth every time you open it.”

-

-Dorothy laughed at them all, but made no comment. Despite her late

-seriousness she was jolly enough when she was one of the party. And she

-agreed to be one to-day.

-

-It was decided to get out Nat’s old “double-ripper,” see that it was

-all right, and at once start for Snake Hill, where the smaller boys had

-already gone.

-

-“For this sun is going to melt the ice a good deal by noon. Of course,

-it will be only a short cold snap this time of year,” Dorothy said,

-with her usual practical sense.

-

-They were some time in setting out, and it was not because the girls

-“prinked,” as Tavia pointed out.

-

-“I’d have you know we have been waiting five whole minutes,” she

-proclaimed when Ned and Nat drew the long, rusty-ironed, double-ripper

-sled out of the barn. “For once you boys cannot complain.”

-

-“Those kids had been trying to use this big sled, I declare,” Nat said.

-“And I had to find a couple of new bolts. Don’t want to break down on

-the hill and spill you girls.”

-

-“That would be spilling the beans for fair,” Ned put in. “Oh, beg

-pardon! Be-ings, I mean. Get aboard, beautiful beings, and we’ll drag

-you to the foot of the hill.”

-

-They went on down the back road and into the woods with much merriment.

-The foot of Snake Hill was a mile and a half from The Cedars. Part of

-the hill was rough and wild, and there was not a farm upon its side

-anywhere.

-

-“I wonder where the kids are making their slide?” said Tavia, easily.

-

-“That’s why I am glad we came this way,” Dorothy confessed. “They might

-be tempted to slide down on this steep side, instead of going over to

-the Washington Village road. _That’s_ smooth.”

-

-“Trust the boys for finding the most dangerous place,” Jennie Hapgood

-remarked. “I never saw their like.”

-

-“That’s because you only have an older brother,” said Dorothy, wisely.

-“He was past his reckless age while you were still in pinafores and

-pigtails.”

-

-“Reckless age!” scoffed Tavia. “When does a boy or a man ever cease to

-be reckless?”

-

-“Right-oh!” agreed Nat, looking back along the towline of the sled.

-“See how he forever puts himself within the danger zone of pretty

-girls. Gee! but Ned and I are a reckless team! What say, Neddie?”

-

-“I say do your share of the pulling,” returned his brother. “Those

-girls are no feather-weights, and this is up hill.”

-

-“Oh, to be so insulted!” murmured Tavia. “To accuse us of bearing

-extra flesh about with us when we all follow Lovely Lucy Larriper’s

-directions, given in the _Evening Bazoo_. Not a pound of the

-superfluous do we carry.”

-

-“Dorothy’s getting chunky,” announced Nat, wickedly.

-

-“You’re another!” cried Tavia, standing up for her chum. “Her lovely

-curves are to be praised—oh!”

-

-At that moment the young men ran the runners on one side of the sled

-over an ice-covered stump, and the girls all joined in Tavia’s scream.

-If there had not been handholds they would all three have been

-ignominiously dumped off.

-

-“Pardon, ladies! Watch your step!” Ned said. “And don’t get us confused

-with your ‘beauty-talks’ business. Besides, it isn’t really modest. I

-always blush myself when I inadvertently turn over to the woman’s page

-of the evening paper. It is a delicate place for mere man to tread.”

-

-“Hooray!” ejaculated his brother, making a false step himself just

-then. “Wish I had creepers on. _This_ is a mighty delicate place for a

-fellow to tread, too, my boy.”

-

-In fact, they soon had to order the girls off the sled. The way was

-becoming too steep and the side of the hill was just as slick as the

-highway had been.

-

-With much laughter and not a few terrified “squawks,” to quote Tavia,

-the girls scrambled up the slope after the boys and the sled. Suddenly

-piercing screams came from above them.

-

-“Those rascals!” ejaculated Ned.

-

-“Oh! they _are_ sliding on this side,” cried Dorothy. “Stop them, Ned!

-Please, Nat!”

-

-“What do you expect us to do?” demanded the latter. “Run out and catch

-’em with our bare hands?”

-

-They had come to a break in the path now and could see out over the

-sloping pasture in which the boys had been sliding for an hour. Their

-sled had worked a plain path down the hill; but at the foot of it was

-an abrupt drop over the side of a gully. Dorothy Dale—and her cousins,

-too—knew that gully very well. There was a cave in it, and in and about

-that cave they had once had some very exciting adventures.

-

-Joe and Roger had selected the smoothest part of the pasture to coast

-in, it was true; but the party of young folk just arrived could see

-that it was a very dangerous place as well. At the foot of the slide

-was a little bank overhanging the gully. The smaller boys had been

-stopping their sled right on the brink, and with a jolt, for the

-watchers could see Joe’s heelprints in the ground where the ice had

-been broken away.

-

-They could hear the boys screaming out a school song at the top of the

-hill. Ned and Nat roared a command to Joe and Roger to halt in their

-mad career; but the two smaller boys were making so much noise that it

-was evident their cousins’ shout was not heard by them.

-

-They came down, Joe sitting ahead on the sled with his brother hanging

-on behind, the feet of the boy sitting in front thrust out to halt the

-sled. But if the sled should jump over the barrier, the two reckless

-boys would fall twenty feet to the bottom of the gully.

-

-“Stop them, do!” groaned Jennie Hapgood, who was a timid girl.

-

-It was Dorothy who looked again at the little mound on the edge of

-gully’s bank. The frost had got into the earth there, for it had been

-freezing weather for several days before the ice storm of the previous

-night. Now the sun was shining full on the spot, and she could see

-where the boys’ feet, colliding with that lump of earth on the verge of

-the declivity, had knocked off the ice and bared the earth completely.

-There was, too, a long crack along the edge of the slight precipice.

-

-“Oh, boys!” she called to Ned and Nat, who were struggling up the hill

-once more, “stop them, do! You must! That bank is crumbling away. If

-they come smashing down upon it again they may go over the brink, sled

-and all!”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVI

-

-THE FLY IN THE AMBER

-

-

-“Oh, Dorothy!” cried Tavia.

-

-Jennie, with a shudder, buried her face in her hands.

-

-Joe and Roger Dale were fairly flying down the hill, and would endeavor

-to stop by collision with the same lump of frozen earth that had

-previously been their bulwark.

-

-“See! Ned! Nat!” cried Dorothy again. “We must stop them!”

-

-But how stop the boys already rushing down hill on their coaster? It

-seemed an impossible feat.

-

-The White brothers dropped the towline of the big sled and scrambled

-along the slippery slope toward the edge of the gully.

-

-With a whoop of delight the two smaller boys, on their red coaster,

-whisked past the girls.

-

-“Stop them!” shrieked the three in chorus.

-

-Ned reached the edge of the gully bank first. His weight upon the

-cracking earth sent the slight barrier crashing over the brink. Just as

-they had supposed there was not a possible chance of Joe’s stopping

-the sled when it came down to this perilous spot.

-

-Tavia groaned and wrung her hands. Jennie burst out crying. Dorothy

-knew she could not help, yet she staggered after Ned and Nat, unable to

-remain inactive like the other girls.

-

-Ned recovered himself from the slippery edge of the bank; but by a

-hair’s breadth only was he saved from being thrown to the bottom of the

-gully. He crossed the slide in a bound and whirled swiftly, gesturing

-to his brother to stay back. Nat understood and stopped abruptly.

-

-“You grab Roger—I’ll take Joe!” panted Ned.

-

-Just then the smaller boys on the sled rushed down upon them.

-Fortunately, the steeper part of the hill ended some rods back from the

-gully’s edge. But the momentum the coaster had gained brought it and

-its burden of surprised and yelling boys at a very swift pace, indeed,

-down to the point where Ned and Nat stood bracing themselves upon the

-icy ground.

-

-“Oh, boys!” shrieked Tavia, without understanding what Ned and Nat

-hoped to accomplish. “_Do something!_”

-

-And the very next instant they did!

-

-The coaster came shooting down to the verge of the gully bank. Joe Dale

-saw that the bank had given way and he could not stop the sled. Nor did

-he dare try to swerve it to one side.

-

-Ned and Nat, staring at the imperilled coasters, saw the look of fear

-come into Joe’s face. Ned shouted:

-

-“Let go all holds! We’ll grab you! Quick!”

-

-Joe was a quick-minded boy after all. He was holding the steering

-lines. Roger was clinging to his shoulders. If Joe dropped the lines,

-both boys would be free of the sled.

-

-That is what he did. Ned swooped and grabbed Joe. Nat seized upon the

-shrieking and surprised Roger. The sled darted out from beneath the two

-boys and shot over the verge of the bank, landing below in the gully

-with a crash among the icy branches of a tree.

-

-“Wha—what did you do that for?” Roger demanded of Nat, as the latter

-set him firmly on his feet.

-

-“Just for instance, kid,” growled Nat. “We ought to have let you both

-go.”

-

-“And I guess we would if it hadn’t been for Dorothy,” added Ned, rising

-from where he had fallen with Joe on top of him.

-

-“Cracky!” gasped Joe. “We’d have gone straight over that bank that

-time, wouldn’t we? Gee, Roger! we’d have broken our necks!”

-

-Even Roger was impressed by this stated fact. “Oh, Dorothy!” he cried,

-“isn’t it lucky you happened along, so’s to tell Ned and Nat what to

-do? I wouldn’t care to have a broken neck.”

-

-“You are very right, kid,” growled Nat. “It’s Dorothy ‘as does

-it’—always. She is the observant little lady who puts us wise to every

-danger. ‘Who ran to catch me when I fell?’ My cousin!”

-

-“Hold your horses, son,” advised his brother, with seriousness. “It was

-Dorothy who smelled out the danger all right.”

-

-“I do delight in the metaphors you boys use,” broke in Dorothy. “I

-might be a beagle-hound, according to Ned. ‘Smelled out,’ indeed!”

-

-“Aren’t you horrid?” sighed Jennie, for they were all toiling up the

-hill again.

-

-Ned put the cup of his hand under Jennie’s elbow and helped her over a

-particularly glary spot. “Boys are very good folk,” he said, smiling

-down into her pretty face, “if you take them just right. But they are

-explosive, of course.”

-

-Nat, likewise helping to drag the big sled, was walking beside Tavia.

-Dorothy looked from one couple to the other, smiled, and then found

-that her eyes were misty.

-

-“Why!” she gasped under her breath, “I believe I am getting to be a

-sour old maid. I am jealous!”

-

-She turned her attention to the smaller boys and they all went gaily up

-the hill. Nobody was going to discover that Dorothy Dale felt blue—not

-if she could possibly help it!

-

-Over on the other side of the hill where the smooth road lay the party

-had a wonderfully invigorating coasting time. They all piled upon the

-double-ripper—Joe and Roger, too—and after the first two or three

-slides, the runners became freed of rust and the heavy sled fairly flew.

-

-“Oh! this is great—great!” cried Tavia. “It’s just like flying. I

-always did want to fly up into the blue empyrean——”

-

-They were then resting at the top of the hill. Nat turned over on

-his back upon the sled, struggled with all four limbs, and uttered a

-soul-searching: “Woof! woof! Ow-row-row! Woof!”

-

-“Get up, silly!” ordered Tavia. “Whenever I have any flight of fancy

-_you_ always make it fall flat.”

-

-“And if you tried a literal flight into the empyrean—ugh!—you’d fall

-flat without any help,” declared Nat. “But we don’t want you to fly

-away from us, Tavia. We couldn’t get along without you.”

-

-“‘Thank you, kindly, sir, she said,’” responded his gay little friend.

-

-However, Tavia and Nat could be serious on occasion. This very day

-as the party tramped home to luncheon, dragging the sleds, having

-recovered the one from the gully, they walked apart, and Dorothy noted

-they were preoccupied. But then, so were Ned and Jennie. Dorothy’s eyes

-danced now. She had recovered her poise.

-

-“It’s great fun,” she whispered to her aunt, when they were back in the

-house. “Watching people who are pairing off, I mean. I know ‘which is

-which’ all right now. And I guess you do, too, Aunt Winnie?”

-

-Mrs. White nodded and smiled. There was nothing to fear regarding this

-intimacy between her big sons and Dorothy’s pretty friends. Indeed, she

-could wish for no better thing to happen than that Ned and Nat should

-become interested in Tavia and Jennie.

-

-“But you, my dear?” she asked Dorothy, slyly. “Hadn’t we better be

-finding somebody for you to walk and talk with?”

-

-“I must play chaperon,” declared Dorothy, gaily. “No, no! I am going

-to be an old maid, I tell you, Auntie dear.” And to herself she added:

-“But never a sour, disagreeable, jealous one! Never _that_!”

-

-Not that in secret Dorothy did not have many heavy thoughts when she

-remembered Garry Knapp or anything connected with him.

-

-“We must send those poor girls some Christmas remembrances,” Dorothy

-said to Tavia, and Tavia understood whom she meant without having it

-explained to her.

-

-“Of course we will,” she cried. “You would not let me give Forty-seven

-and her sister as much money as I wanted to for finding my bag.”

-

-“No. I don’t think it does any good to put a premium on honesty,”

-Dorothy said gravely.

-

-“Huh! that’s just what Garry Knapp said,” said Tavia, reflectively.

-

-“But now,” Dorothy hastened to add, “we can send them both at Christmas

-time something really worth while.”

-

-“Something warm to wear,” said Tavia, more than ordinarily thoughtful.

-“They have to go through the cold streets to work in all weathers.”

-

-It seemed odd, but Dorothy noticed that her chum remained rather

-serious all that day. In the evening Nat came in with the mail bag and

-dumped its contents on the hall table. This was just before dinner and

-usually the cry of “Mail!” up the stairway brought most of the family

-into the big entrance hall.

-

-Down tripped Tavia with the other girls; Ned lounged in from the

-library; Joe and Roger appeared, although they seldom had any letters,

-only funny postal cards from their old-time chums at Dalton and from

-local school friends.

-

-Mrs. White took her mail off to her own room. She walked without her

-crutch now, but favored the lame ankle. Joe seized upon his father’s

-mail and ran to find him.

-

-Nat sorted the letters out swiftly. Everybody had a few. Suddenly he

-hesitated as he picked up a rather coarse envelope on which Tavia’s

-name was scrawled. In the upper left-hand corner was written: “L.

-Petterby.”

-

-“Great Peter!” he gasped, shooting a questioning glance at Tavia. “Does

-that cowpuncher write to you still?”

-

-Perhaps there was something like an accusation in Nat’s tone. At least,

-it was not just the tone to take with such a high-spirited person as

-Tavia. Her head came up and her eyes flashed. She reached for the

-letter.

-

-“Isn’t that nice!” she cried. “Another from dear old Lance. He’s _such_

-a desperately determined chap.”

-

-At first the other young folk had not noted Nat’s tone or Tavia’s look.

-But the young man’s next query all understood:

-

-“Still at it, are you, Tavia? Can’t possibly keep from stringing ’em

-along? It’s meat and drink to you, isn’t it?”

-

-“Why, of course,” drawled Tavia, two red spots in her cheeks.

-

-She walked away, slitting Lance Petterby’s envelope as she went. Nat’s

-brow was clouded, and all through dinner he said very little. Tavia

-seemed livelier and more social than ever, but Dorothy apprehended “the

-fly in the amber.”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVII

-

-“DO YOU UNDERSTAND TAVIA?”

-

-

-“You got this old timer running round in circles, Miss Tavia, when you

-ask about a feller named Garford Knapp anywhere in this latitude, and

-working for a feller named Bob. There’s more ‘Bobs’ running ranches out

-here than there is bobwhites down there East where you live. Too bad

-you can’t remember this here Bob’s last name, or his brand.

-

-“Now, come to think, there was a feller named ‘Dimples’ Knapp used

-to be found in Desert City, but not in Hardin. And you ought to see

-Hardin—it’s growing some!”

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-This was a part of what was in Lance Petterby’s letter. Had Nat White

-been allowed to read it he would have learned something else—something

-that not only would have surprised him and his brother and cousin,

-but would have served to burn away at once the debris of trouble that

-seemed suddenly heaped between Tavia and himself.

-

-It was true that Tavia had kept up her correspondence with the

-good-natured and good-looking cowboy in whom, while she was West, she

-had become interested, and that against the advice of Dorothy Dale. She

-did this for a reason deeper than mere mischief.

-

-Lance Petterby had confided in her more than in any of the other

-Easterners of the party that had come to the big Hardin ranch. Lance

-was in love with a school teacher of the district while the party from

-the East was at Hardin; and now he had been some months married to the

-woman of his choice.

-

-When Tavia read bits of his letters, even to Dorothy, she skipped all

-mention of Lance’s romance and his marriage. This she did, it is true,

-because of a mischievous desire to plague her chum and Ned and Nat. Of

-late, since affairs had become truly serious between Nat and herself,

-she would have at any time explained the joke to Nat had she thought of

-it, or had he asked her about Lance.

-

-The very evening previous to the arrival of this letter from the

-cowpuncher to which Nat had so unwisely objected, Nat and Tavia had

-gone for a walk together in the crisp December moonlight and had talked

-very seriously.

-

-Nat, although as full of fun as Tavia herself, could be grave; and he

-made his intention and his desires very plain to the girl. Tavia would

-not show him all that was in her heart. That was not her way. She was

-always inclined to hide her deeper feelings beneath a light manner and

-light words. But she was brave and she was honest. When he pinned her

-right down to the question, yes or no, Tavia looked courageously into

-Nat’s eyes and said:

-

-“Yes, Nat. _I do._ But somebody besides you must ask me before I will

-agree to—to ‘make you happy’ as you call it.”

-

-“For the good land’s sake!” gasped Nat. “Who’s business is it but ours?

-If you love me as I love you——”

-

-“Yes, I know,” interrupted Tavia, with laughter breaking forth. “‘No

-knife can cut our love in two.’ But, _dear_——”

-

-“Oh, Tavia!”

-

-“Wait, honey,” she whispered, with her face close pressed against his

-shoulder. “No! don’t kiss me now. You’ve kissed me before—in fun. The

-next time you kiss me it must be in solemn earnest.”

-

-“By heaven, girl!” exclaimed Nat, hoarsely. “Do you think I am fooling

-now?”

-

-“No, boy,” she whispered, looking up at him again suddenly. “But

-somebody else must ask me before I have a right to promise what you

-want.”

-

-“Who?” demanded Nat, in alarm.

-

-“You know that I am a poor girl. Not only that, but I do not come from

-the same stock that you do. There is no blue blood in my veins,” and

-she uttered a little laugh that might have sounded bitter had there not

-been the tremor of tears in it.

-

-“What nonsense, Tavia!” the young man cried, shaking her gently by the

-shoulders.

-

-“Oh no, Nat! Wait! I am a poor girl and I come of very, very common

-stock. I don’t mean I am ashamed of my poverty, or of the fact that my

-father and mother both sprang from the laboring class.

-

-“But you might be expected when you marry to take for a wife a girl

-from a family whose forebears were _something_. Mine were not. Why, one

-of my grandfathers was an immigrant and dug ditches——”

-

-“Pshaw! I had a relative who dug a ditch, too. In Revolutionary times——”

-

-“That is it exactly,” Tavia hastened to say. “I know about him. He

-helped dig the breastworks on Breeds Hill and was wounded in the Battle

-of Bunker Hill. I know all about that. Your people were Pilgrim and

-Dutch stock.”

-

-“Immigrants, too,” said Nat, muttering. “And maybe some of them left

-their country across the seas for their country’s good.”

-

-“It doesn’t matter,” said the shrewd Tavia. “Being an immigrant in

-America in sixteen hundred is one thing. Being an immigrant in the

-latter end of the nineteenth century is an entirely different pair of

-boots.”

-

-“Oh, Tavia!”

-

-“No. Your mother has been as kind to me—and for years and years—as

-though I were her niece, too, instead of just one of Dorothy’s friends.

-She may have other plans for her sons, Nat.”

-

-“Nonsense!”

-

-“I will not answer you,” the girl cried, a little wildly now, and began

-to sob. “Oh, Nat! Nat! I have thought of this so much. Your mother must

-ask me, or I can never tell you what I want to tell you!”

-

-Nat respected her desire and did not kiss her although she clung,

-sobbing, to him for some moments. But after she had wiped away her

-tears and had begun to joke again in her usual way, they went back to

-the house.

-

-And Nat White knew he was walking on air! He could not feel the path

-beneath his feet.

-

-He was obliged to go to town early the next morning, and when he

-returned, as we have seen, just before dinner, he brought the mail bag

-up from the North Birchland post-office.

-

-He could not understand Tavia’s attitude regarding Lance Petterby’s

-letter, and he was both hurt and jealous. Actually he was jealous!

-

-“Do you understand Tavia?” he asked his cousin Dorothy, right after

-dinner.

-

-“My dear boy,” Dorothy Dale said, “I never claimed to be a seer. _Who_

-understands Tavia—fully?”

-

-“But you know her better than anybody else.”

-

-“Better than Tavia knows herself, perhaps,” admitted Dorothy.

-

-“Well, see here! I’ve asked her to marry me——”

-

-“Oh, Nat! my dear boy! I am so glad!” Dorothy cried, and she kissed her

-cousin warmly.

-

-“Don’t be so hasty with your congratulations,” growled Nat, still red

-and fuming. “She didn’t tell me ‘yes.’ I don’t know now that I want her

-to. I want to know what she means, getting letters from that fellow out

-West.”

-

-“Oh, Nat!” sighed Dorothy, looking at him levelly. “Are you _sure_ you

-love her?”

-

-He said nothing more, and Dorothy did not add a word. But Tavia waited

-in vain that evening for Mrs. White to come to her and ask the question

-which she had told Nat his mother must ask for him.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVIII

-

-CROSS PURPOSES

-

-

-Tavia was as loyal a girl as ever stepped in shoe-leather. That was an

-oft-repeated expression of Major Dale’s. He loved “the flyaway” for

-this very attribute.

-

-Tavia was now attempting to bring joy and happiness for Dorothy out of

-chaos. Therefore, she felt she dared take nobody into her confidence

-regarding Lance Petterby’s letter.

-

-She replied to Lance at once, explaining more fully about Garry Knapp,

-the land he was about to sell, and the fact that Eastern schemers were

-trying to obtain possession of Knapp’s ranch for wheat land and at a

-price far below its real worth.

-

-Satisfaction, Tavia might feel in this attempt to help Dorothy; but

-everything else in the world was colored blue—very blue, indeed!

-

-When one’s ear has become used to the clatter of a noisy little

-windmill, for instance, and the wind suddenly ceases and it remains

-calm, the cessation of the mill’s clatter is almost a shock to the

-nerves.

-

-This was about the way Tavia’s sudden shift of manner struck all those

-observant ones at The Cedars. As the season of joy and gladness and

-good-will approached, Tavia Travers sank lower and lower into a Slough

-of Despond.

-

-Had it not been for Dorothy Dale, the others must have audibly remarked

-Tavia’s lack of sparkle. Though Dorothy did not imagine that Tavia

-was engaged in any attempt to help her, and because of that attempt

-had refused to explain Lance Petterby’s letter to Nat White, yet she

-loyally began to act as a buffer between the others and the contrary

-Tavia. More than once did Dorothy fly to Tavia’s rescue when she seemed

-to be in difficulties.

-

-Tavia had a streak of secrecy in her character that sometimes placed

-her in a bad light when judged by unknowing people. Dorothy, however,

-felt sure that on this present occasion there was no real fault to be

-found with her dear friend.

-

-Nat refused to speak further about his feeling toward Tavia; Dorothy

-knew better than to try to tempt Tavia herself to explain. The

-outstanding difficulty was the letter from the Westerner. Feeling sure,

-as she did, that Tavia liked Nat immensely and really cared nothing for

-any other man, Dorothy refrained from hinting at the difficulty to her

-chum. Let matters take their course. That was the better way, Dorothy

-believed. She felt that Nat’s deeper affections had been moved and

-that only the surface of his pride and jealousy were nicked. On the

-other hand she knew Tavia to be a most loyal soul, and she could not

-imagine that there was really any cause, other than mischief, for Tavia

-to allow that letter to stand between Nat and herself.

-

-To smooth over the rough edges and hide any unpleasantness from the

-observation of the older members of the family, Dorothy became very

-active in the social life of The Cedars again. No longer did she

-refuse to attend the cousins and Jennie and Tavia in any venture. It

-was a quintette of apparently merry young people once more; never a

-quartette. Nor were Nat and Tavia seen alone together during those few

-short weeks preceding Christmas.

-

-Secretly, Dorothy was very unhappy over the misunderstanding between

-her chum and Nat. That it was merely a disagreement and would not cause

-a permanent break between the two was her dear hope. For she wished

-to see them both happy. Although at one time she thought the steadier

-Ned, the older cousin, might be a better mate for her flyaway friend,

-she had come to see it differently of late. If anybody could understand

-and properly appreciate Tavia Travers it was Nathaniel White. His mind,

-too, was quick, his imagination colorful. Dorothy Dale, with growing

-understanding of character and the mental equipment to judge her

-associates better than most girls, or young women, of her age, believed

-in her heart that neither Tavia nor Nat would ever get along with any

-other companion as well as the two could get along together.

-

-The two “wildfires,” as Aunt Winnie sometimes called them, had always

-had occasional bickerings. But a dispute is like a thunderstorm—it

-usually clears the air.

-

-Nor did Dorothy doubt for a moment that her cousin and her friend were

-deeply in love now, the one with the other. That Tavia had turned

-without explanation about Lance Petterby’s letter from Nat and that the

-latter had told Dorothy he was not sure he wished Tavia to answer the

-important question he had put to her, sprang only from pique on Nat’s

-side, and, Dorothy was sure, from something much the same in her chum’s

-heart.

-

-Light-minded and frivolous as Tavia had always appeared, Dorothy knew

-well that the undercurrent of her chum’s feelings was both deep and

-strong. Where she gave affection Tavia herself would have said she

-“loved hard!”

-

-Dorothy had watched, during these past few weeks especially, the

-intimacy grow between her chum and Nat White. They were bound to each

-other, Dorothy believed, by many ties. Disagreements did not count.

-All that was on the surface. Underneath, the tide of their feelings

-intermingled and flowed together. She could not believe that any

-little misunderstanding could permanently divide Tavia and Nat.

-

-But they were at cross purposes—that was plain. Nat was irritated and

-Tavia was proud. Dorothy knew that her chum was just the sort of person

-to be hurt most by being doubted.

-

-Nat should have understood that if Tavia had given him reason to

-believe she cared for him, her nature was so loyal that in no

-particular could she be unfaithful to the trust he placed in her. His

-quick appearance of doubt when he saw the letter from the West had hurt

-Tavia cruelly.

-

-Yet, Dorothy Dale did not try to make peace between the two by going

-to Nat and putting these facts before him in the strong light of good

-sense. She was quite sure that if she did so Nat would come to terms

-and beg Tavia’s pardon. That was Nat’s way. He never took a middle

-course. He must be either at one extreme of the pendulum’s swing or the

-other.

-

-And Dorothy was sure that it would not be well, either for Nat or for

-Tavia, for the former to give in without question and shoulder the

-entire responsibility for this lover’s quarrel. For to Dorothy Dale’s

-mind there was a greater shade of fault upon her chum’s side of the

-controversy than there was on Nat’s. Because of the very fact that all

-her life Tavia had been flirting or making believe to flirt, there was

-some reason for Nat’s show of spleen over the Petterby letter.

-

-Dorothy did not know what had passed between Tavia and Nat the evening

-before the arrival of the letter. She did not know what Tavia had

-demanded of Nat before she would give him the answer he craved.

-

-Nat kept silence. Mrs. White did not come to Tavia and ask the question

-which meant so much to the warm-hearted girl. Tavia suffered in every

-fiber of her being, but would not betray her feelings. And Dorothy

-waited her chance to say something to her chum that might help to clear

-up the unfortunate state of affairs.

-

-So all were at cross purposes, and gradually the good times at The

-Cedars became something of a mockery.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIX

-

-WEDDING BELLS IN PROSPECT

-

-

-Four days before Christmas Dorothy Dale, her cousins, and Tavia all

-boarded the train with Jennie Hapgood, bound for the latter’s home in

-Pennsylvania. On Christmas Eve Jennie’s brother Jack was to be married,

-and he had written jointly with the young lady who was to be “Mrs.

-Jack” after that date, that the ceremony could not possibly take place

-unless the North Birchland crowd of young folk crossed the better part

-of two states, to be “in at the finish.”

-

-“Goodness me,” drawled Tavia, when this letter had come from Sunnyside

-Farm. “He talks as though wedded bliss were something like a sentence

-to the penitentiary. How horrid!”

-

-“It is. For a lot of us men,” Nat said, grinning. “No more stag parties

-with the fellows for one thing. Cut out half the time one might spend

-at the club. And then, there is the pocket peril.”

-

-“The—the _what_?” demanded Jennie. “What under the sun is that?”

-

-“A new one on me,” said Ned. “Out with it. ’Thaniel. What is the

-‘pocket peril’?”

-

-“Why, after a fellow is married they tell me that he never knows when

-he puts his hand in his pocket whether he will find money there or not.

-Maybe Friend Wife has beaten him to it.”

-

-“For shame!” cried Dorothy. “You certainly deserve never to know what

-Tavia calls ’wedded bliss.’”

-

-“I have my doubts as to my ever doing so,” muttered Nat, his face

-suddenly expressing gloom; and he marched away.

-

-Jennie and Ned did not observe this. Indeed, it was becoming so with

-them that they saw nobody but each other. Their infatuation was so

-plain that sometimes it was really funny. Yet even Tavia, with her

-sharp tongue, spared the happy couple any gibes. Sometimes when she

-looked at them her eyes were bright with moisture. Dorothy saw this, if

-nobody else did.

-

-However, the trip to western Pennsylvania was very pleasant, indeed.

-Dorothy posed as chaperon, and the boys voted that she made an

-excellent one.

-

-The party got off gaily; but after a while Ned and Jennie slipped away

-to the observation platform, cold as the weather was, and Nat plainly

-felt ill at ease with his cousin and Tavia. He grumbled something

-about Ned having become “an old poke,” and sauntered into another car,

-leaving Tavia alone with Dorothy Dale in their compartment. Almost at

-once Dorothy said to her chum:

-

-“Tavia, dear, are you going to let this thing go on, and become worse

-and worse?”

-

-“What’s that?” demanded Tavia, a little tartly.

-

-“This misunderstanding between you and Nat? Aren’t you risking your own

-happiness as well as his?”

-

-“Dorothy——”

-

-“Don’t be angry, dear,” her chum hastened to say. “Please don’t. I hate

-to see both you and Nat in such a false position.”

-

-“How false?” demanded Tavia.

-

-“Because you are neither of you satisfied with yourselves. You are both

-wrong, perhaps; but I think that under the circumstances you, dear,

-should put forth the first effort for reconciliation.”

-

-“With Nat?” gasped Tavia.

-

-“Yes.”

-

-“Not to save my life!” cried her friend. “Never!”

-

-“Oh, Tavia!”

-

-“You take his side because of that letter,” Tavia said accusingly.

-“Well, if _that’s_ the idea, here’s another letter from Lance!” and she

-opened her bag and produced an envelope on which appeared the cowboy’s

-scrawling handwriting. Dorothy knew it well.

-

-“Oh, Tavia!”

-

-“Don’t ‘Oh, Tavia’ me!” exclaimed the other girl, her eyes bright with

-anger. “Nobody has a right to choose my correspondents for me.”

-

-“You know that all the matter is with Nat, he is jealous,” Dorothy said

-frankly.

-

-“What right has he to be?” demanded Tavia in a hard voice, but looking

-away quickly.

-

-“Dear,” said Dorothy softly, laying her hand on Tavia’s arm, “he told

-me he—he asked you to marry him.”

-

-“He never!”

-

-“But you knew that was what he meant,” Dorothy said shrewdly.

-

-Tavia was silent, and her friend went on to say:

-

-“You know he thinks the world of you, dear. If he didn’t he would not

-have been angered. And I do think—considering everything—that you ought

-not to continue to let that fellow out West write to you——”

-

-Tavia turned on her with hard, flashing eyes. She held out the letter,

-saying in a voice quite different from her usual tone:

-

-“I want you to read this letter—but only on condition that you say

-nothing to Nat White about it, not a word! Do you understand, Dorothy

-Dale?”

-

-“No,” said Dorothy, wondering. “I do _not_ understand.”

-

-“You understand that I am binding you to secrecy, at least,” Tavia

-continued in the same tone.

-

-“Why—yes—_that_,” admitted her friend.

-

-“Very well, then, read it,” said Tavia and turned to look out of the

-window while Dorothy withdrew the closely written, penciled pages from

-the envelope and unfolded them.

-

-In a moment Dorothy cried aloud:

-

-“Oh, Tavia! you wrote him about Mr. Knapp!”

-

-“Yes,” said Tavia.

-

-“Oh, my dear! is _that_ why he wrote you the other time? Of course! And

-he says he can’t find him. Dimples Knapp he calls him. Oh, my dear!”

-

-“Well,” said Tavia, in the same gruff voice. “Read on.” She did not

-turn from the window.

-

-“Oh, Tavia!” Dorothy said in a moment or two. “Those men are out there

-buying up wheat lands—Stiffbold and Lightly. Lance says he has met

-them.”

-

-“I am afraid your friend, ‘Garry Owen,’ will be beat,” said Tavia,

-shrugging her shoulders. “Do you see what Lance says next?”

-

-“He thinks he may get word of this Knapp he knows in a few days. Thinks

-he may be working for a man named Robert Douglas. Oh, Tavia! Of course

-he is! That is the name of his employer!”

-

-But Tavia displayed very little interest. “I had forgotten,” she said.

-

-“Bob Douglas! Of course you remember! And Lance says he’ll get word to

-him and tip him off, as he calls it, about the land-sharks. Oh, Tavia!”

-

-Her friend still looked out of the window. Dorothy shook her by the

-elbow, staring at the written lines of Lance Petterby’s letter.

-

-“What does this mean?” she demanded. “‘Sue sends her best, and so does

-Ma.’ Who is Sue?”

-

-“Why, that is Mrs. Petterby, the younger,” drawled Tavia, flashing a

-glance at Dorothy.

-

-“Married?” gasped Dorothy.

-

-“According to law,” responded Tavia, solemnly. “And worse. Read on.”

-

-Breathlessly, Dorothy Dale consumed the remainder of the letter. Some

-of it she murmured aloud:

-

-“‘The kid is a wonder. You’d ought to see her. Two weeks old to-day

-and I bet she could sit a bucking pony. You’re elected godmother, Miss

-Tavia, because she is going to be called ‘Octavia Susan Petterby,’

-believe me!”

-

-“Oh, Tavia!” finished Dorothy, crumpling the letter in her hand. “And

-you never told us a word about it. _That’s_ why you wanted to buy a

-silver mug!”

-

-“Yes,” Tavia admitted.

-

-“And they have been married how long?”

-

-“Almost a year. Soon after we came away from Hardin.”

-

-“And you never said a word,” Dorothy said accusingly. “We all

-supposed——”

-

-“That I was flirting with poor old Lance. Yes,” said Tavia, her eyes

-and voice both hard.

-

-“And why shouldn’t we think so?” asked Dorothy, quietly. “You do so

-many queer things. Or you _used_ to.”

-

-“I don’t now,” said her friend, bruskly.

-

-“No. But how were we to know? How was Nat to know?” she added.

-

-Then Tavia turned on her with excitement. “You promised not to tell!”

-she said. “Don’t you _dare_ let Nat White know about this letter!”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XX

-

-A GIRL OF TO-DAY

-

-

-“It was the prettiest wedding I ever saw,” Dorothy Dale declared, as

-the party, bound for North Birchland again, climbed aboard the midnight

-train at the station nearest Sunnyside Farm.

-

-“And the bride was too sweet for anything,” added Jennie Hapgood, who

-was returning to The Cedars as agreed, to remain until after New Year’s.

-

-“Jack looked quite as they always do,” said Ned in a hollow voice.

-

-“As who always do?” demanded Tavia.

-

-“The brooms.”

-

-“‘Brooms’!” cried Dorothy. “Grooms, Ned?”

-

-“He’s a ‘new broom’ all right,” chuckled Edward White. “Poor chap! he

-doesn’t know what it means to love, honor, obey, and buy frocks and

-hats for a girl of to-day.”

-

-“Pah!” retorted his brother, “you’d like to be in his shoes, Nedward.”

-

-“Me? I—guess—not!” declared Edward. “I have my own shoes to stand in,

-thank you,” and Ned looked at Jennie Hapgood with a meaning air.

-

-So the party came back to The Cedars in much the same state as it had

-gone to the wedding. Ned and Jennie were so much taken up with each

-other that they were frankly oblivious to the mutual attitude of Nat

-and Tavia. Dorothy Dale was kept busy warding off happenings that might

-attract the particular attention of Major Dale and Aunt Winnie to the

-real situation between the two.

-

-Besides, Dorothy had “troubles of her own,” as the saying goes. She

-felt that she must decide, and neglect the decision no longer, a very,

-very important matter that concerned herself more than it did anybody

-else in the world—a matter that she was selfishly interested in.

-

-Ample time had passed now for Dorothy Dale to consider from all

-standpoints this really wonderful thing that had come into her life

-and had so changed her outlook. On the surface she might seem the same

-Dorothy Dale to her friends and relatives; but secretly the whole world

-was different to her since that shopping trip she and Tavia had taken

-to New York wherein she and her chum had met Garry Knapp.

-

-A thousand times Dorothy had called up the details of every incident

-of the adventure—this greatest of all adventures Dorothy Dale had ever

-entered upon.

-

-She felt that she should never meet again a man like Garry Knapp. None

-of the boys she had known before had ever made much of an impression

-on Dorothy Dale’s well-balanced mind. But from the beginning she had

-looked upon the young Westerner with a new vision. His reflection

-filled the mirror of her thought as splendidly as at first. The

-dimple that showed faintly in one bronzed cheek, his rather large but

-well-formed features, his mop of black hair, his broad shoulders and

-well-set-up body—all these personal attributes belonging to Garry Knapp

-were as clearly fixed in Dorothy’s mind now as at first.

-

-So, too, her memory of all that had happened was clear. Garry’s

-proffered help in the department store when Tavia was in trouble first

-aroused Dorothy to an appreciation of his unstudied kindness. It was

-the most natural thing in the world for him to offer aid when he saw

-anybody in trouble.

-

-Dorothy blushed now whenever she thought of her doubts of Garry

-Knapp when she had seen him so easily fall into conversation with

-the department store salesgirl on the street. Why! that was exactly

-what he would do—especially if the girl asked him for help. She still

-blushed at the remembrance of the jealous feeling that had prompted her

-avoidance of the young man until his action was explained. Her pique

-had shortened her acquaintanceship with Garry Knapp. She might have

-known him far better had it not been for that incident of the shopgirl.

-

-“And my own suspicion was the cause of it. I refused to meet Garry

-Knapp as Tavia did. Why! she knows him better than I do,” Dorothy Dale

-told herself.

-

-It was after her discovery of why Tavia had been writing to Lance

-Petterby and receiving answers from that “happy tho’ married cowboy

-person,” to quote Tavia, that Dorothy so searched her own heart

-regarding Garry Knapp.

-

-“You are a dear, loyal friend, Tavia,” she told her chum. “But—but

-_why_ are you trying so to get in touch with Mr. Knapp?”

-

-“Really want me to tell you?” demanded Tavia.

-

-“Yes.”

-

-“Truly-rooly—black-and-bluely?”

-

-“Of course, dear.”

-

-“Because I have been a regular ivory-kopf!” cried Tavia. “Forgive my

-hybrid German. Oh, Dorothy! I didn’t want to tell you, for I hoped

-Lance might quickly find your Garry Knapp.”

-

-“_My_ Garry Knapp,” said Dorothy, blushing.

-

-“Yes, my dear. Don’t dodge the fact. We all seem to be suddenly grown

-up. We are shucking our shells of maidenhood like crabs——”

-

-“Tavia! Horrors! Don’t!” begged Dorothy.

-

-“Don’t like my metaphor, dear?” chuckled Tavia. But she was grim again

-in a moment, continuing: “No use dodging the fact, I repeat. You were

-interested in that man from the beginning. Now, weren’t you?”

-

-“Ye—es, Tavia,” admitted her friend.

-

-“And I should have seen that you were. I ought to have known, when you

-were put out with him because of that shopgirl, that for that very

-reason you were more interested in Garry Knapp than in any other fellow

-who ever shined up to you——”

-

-“Tavia! How can you?”

-

-“Huh! Just as e-asy,” responded her friend, with a wicked twinkle in

-her eye and mimicking Garry Knapp’s manner of speaking. “Now, listen!”

-she hurried on. “That night I took dinner with him alone—the evening

-you had the—er—headache and went to bed. ’Member?”

-

-“Oh, yes,” sighed Dorothy, nodding.

-

-“He just pumped me about you,” said Tavia. “And I was just foolish

-enough to tell him all about your money—how rich your folks were and

-all that.”

-

-“Oh!” and Dorothy flushed again.

-

-“You don’t get it—not yet,” said Tavia, wagging her head. “Afterwards

-I remembered how funny he looked when I had told him that you were a

-regular ‘sure-enough’ heiress, and I remembered some things he said,

-too.”

-

-“What do you mean?” asked Dorothy, faintly.

-

-“Why, I scared him away from you,” blurted out Tavia, almost in tears

-when she thought of what she called her “ivory-headedness.” “I know

-that he was just as deeply smitten with you, dear, as—as—well, as ever

-a man could be! But he’s poor—and he’s game. I think that is why he

-went off in such a hurry and without trying _very_ hard to see you

-again.”

-

-“Oh, Tavia! Do you believe that is so?” and the joy in Dorothy’s voice

-could not be mistaken.

-

-“Well!” exclaimed Tavia, “isn’t that pretty bad? You act as though you

-were pleased.”

-

-Dorothy blushed again, but she was brave. She gazed straight into

-Tavia’s eyes as she said:

-

-“I am pleased, dear. I am pleased to learn that possibly it was not his

-lack of interest in poor little me that sent him away from New York so

-hastily—at least, without making a more desperate effort to see me.”

-

-“Oh, Doro!” cried Tavia, suddenly putting both arms around her friend.

-“Do you actually mean it?”

-

-“Mean what?”

-

-“That you l-l-_like_ him so much?”

-

-Dorothy laughed aloud, but nodded emphatically. “I l-l-_like_ him just

-as much as that,” she mocked. “And if it’s only my father’s money in

-the way——”

-

-“And your own. You really will be rich when you are twenty-one,” Tavia

-reminded her. “I tell you, that young man was troubled a heap when

-he learned from me that you were so well off. If you had been a poor

-girl—if you had been _me_, for instance—he would never have left New

-York City without knowing his fate. I could see it in his eyes.”

-

-“Oh, Tavia!” gasped Dorothy, with clasped hands and shining eyes.

-

-“My dear,” said her friend, with serious mouth but dancing orbs. “I

-never would have thought it possible—of _you_. ‘Love like a lightning

-bolt’—just like that. And the cautious Dorothy!” Then she went on:

-“But, Dorothy, how will you ever find him?”

-

-“You have done your best, Tavia,” her friend said, nodding. “I

-suppose I might have tried Lance Petterby, too. But now I shall put

-Aunt Winnie’s lawyers to work out there. If possible, Mr. Knapp must

-be found before those real estate sharks buy his land. But if the

-transaction is completed, we shall have to reach him in some other way.”

-

-“Dorothy! You sound woefully strong-minded. Do you mean to go right

-after the young man—just as though it were leap year?” and Tavia

-giggled.

-

-“I hope,” said Dorothy Dale, girl of to-day that she was, “I have

-too much good sense to lose the chance of showing the man I love

-that he can win me, because of any foolish or old-fashioned ideas of

-conventionalities. If Garry Knapp thinks as much of me as I do of him,

-his lack of an equal fortune sha’n’t stand in the way, either.”

-

-“Oh, Doro! it sounds awful—but bully!” Tavia declared, her eyes round.

-“Do you mean it?”

-

-“Yes,” said Dorothy, courageously.

-

-“But suppose he is one of those stubborn beings you read about—one of

-the men who will not marry a girl with money unless he has a ‘working

-capital’ himself?”

-

-“That shall not stand in our way.”

-

-“What do you mean?” gasped Tavia. “Not that you would give up your

-money for him?”

-

-“If I find I love him enough—yes,” said Dorothy, softly.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXI

-

-THE BUD UNFOLDS

-

-

-In a certain way it ages a girl to be left motherless as Dorothy Dale

-had been. She had been obliged to “play mother” herself so early that

-her maternal instincts were strongly and early developed.

-

-Until the Dale family had come away from Dalton to live with Aunt

-Winnie at The Cedars, Dorothy had exercised her motherly oversight in

-the little family. Indeed, Roger scarcely knew any other mother than

-Dorothy, and Joe had almost forgotten her who had passed away soon

-after Roger was born.

-

-As for the major, he had soon given all domestic matters over into the

-small but capable hands of “the little captain” while they were still

-struggling in poverty. After coming to The Cedars, Dorothy, of course,

-had been relieved of the close oversight of domestic and family matters

-that had previously been her portion. But its effect upon her character

-was plain to all observing eyes. Nor had her so early developed

-maternal characteristics failed to affect the other members of the

-family.

-

-Now that she was really grown up past the schoolgirl age and of a

-serious and thoughtful demeanor, even Aunt Winnie looked upon her as

-being much older than Tavia—and years older than the boys. That Ned and

-Nat were both several years Dorothy’s senior made no difference.

-

-“Boys are to a degree irresponsible—and always are, no matter how old

-they become,” said Aunt Winnie. “But _Dorothy_——”

-

-Her emphasis was approved by the major. “The little captain is some

-girl,” he said, chuckling. “Beg pardon! woman grown, eh, Sister?”

-

-Nor was his approval merely of Dorothy’s surface qualities. He knew

-that his pretty daughter was a much deeper thinker than most girls

-of her age, and he had seldom interfered in any way with Dorothy’s

-personal decisions on any subject.

-

-“Let her find out for herself. She won’t go far wrong,” had often been

-his remark at first when his sister had worried over Dorothy in her

-school days. And so the girl developed into something that not all

-girls are—an original thinker.

-

-Knowing her as the major did and trusting in her good sense so fully,

-he was less startled, perhaps, than he would otherwise have been when

-Dorothy took him into her confidence regarding Garry Knapp. Tavia had

-refrained from joking about the Westerner from the first. Little

-had been said before the family about their adventures in New York.

-Therefore, the major was not prepared in the least for the introduction

-of the subject.

-

-Perhaps it would not have been introduced in quite the way it was

-had it not grown out of another matter. It came the day after

-Christmas—that day in which everybody is tired and rather depressed

-because of the over-exertion of celebrating the feast of good Kris

-Kringle. Dorothy was busy at the sewing basket beside her father’s

-comfortable chair. She knew that Tavia was writing letters and just at

-this moment Major Dale dropped his paper to peer out of the window.

-

-“There goes Nat—off for a tramp, I’ll be bound. And he’s alone,” the

-major said.

-

-“Yes,” agreed Dorothy without looking up.

-

-“And Ned and that Jennie girl are in the library, and you’re here,”

-pursued the major, with raised eyebrows. “Where is Tavia?”

-

-She told him; but she refrained again from looking up, and he finally

-bent forward in his chair and thrust a forefinger under her chin,

-raising it and making her look at him.

-

-“Say! what is the matter with Tavia and Nat?” he asked.

-

-“Are you sure there is anything the matter, Major?” Dorothy responded.

-

-“Can’t fool me. They’re at outs. And you, Captain? Is that what makes

-you so grave, my dear?”

-

-“No, Daddy,” she said, putting down her work and looking into his

-rugged face this time of her own volition.

-

-“Something personal, my dear?”

-

-“Very personal, Daddy,” calling him by the intimate name the children

-used. “I—I think I—I am in love.”

-

-He neither made a joke of it nor appeared astonished. He just eyed her

-quietly and nodded. The flush mounted into her face and she glowed like

-a red rose. After all, it is not the easiest thing in the world to turn

-the heart out for others to look at, even the dearest of others.

-

-“I think I am in love. And the young man is poor—and—and I am afraid

-our money is going to stand between him and me.”

-

-“My dear Dorothy,” said the major, “are you really in love with

-somebody, or in love with love?”

-

-“I know what you mean,” his daughter said, with a tremulous little

-laugh and shaking her head. “Seeing so many about us falling into

-the toils of Dan Cupid, you think I perhaps imagine I have fixed my

-affections upon some particular object. Is that it, Major?”

-

-He nodded, a quizzical little smile on his lips.

-

-“No” she said. “It isn’t anywhere near as simple as that. I—I do

-love him I believe. He is the only man I have ever really thought twice

-about. He is the center of all my thoughts now, and has been for a long

-time.”

-

-“But—but who is he?” the major gasped.

-

-“Garry Knapp.”

-

-Her father repeated the name slowly and his expression of countenance

-certainly displayed amazement. “Did I ever see the young man?”

-

-“No.”

-

-“Your aunt—one of your cousins’ friends?”

-

-“Dear Daddy,” said Dorothy, frankly and smiling a little. “I have done

-something not at all as you would expect cautious little me to do. I

-have picked a man—and, oh, he is a man, Daddy!—right out of the great

-mob of folks. Nobody introduced us. We just—well, _met_.”

-

-“The young man has been spoken of by Tavia, I believe,” said Major

-Dale, quite cheerfully. “I remember now. Mr. Knapp. You met him at the

-hotel in New York?”

-

-“Before we got to the hotel. In the train I noticed him—vaguely. On the

-platform where we changed cars at that Manhattan Transfer place, I saw

-him better. I—I never was so much interested in a man before.”

-

-Major Dale looked at her rather solemnly for a moment. “Are you sure,

-my dear, it is anything more than fancy?”

-

-“Quite sure.”

-

-“And—and—_he_——”

-

-The man’s voice actually trembled. Dorothy looked at him again, dropped

-the sewing from her lap and suddenly flung her arms about his neck.

-

-“Oh, my dear!” she murmured, her face hidden. “I know he loves me, too.

-I am sure of it! Let me tell you.”

-

-Breathlessly, her voice quavering a little but full of an element

-of happiness that fairly thrilled her listener, she related all the

-incidents—even the petty details—of her acquaintance with Garford

-Knapp, of Desert City. So clear was her picture of the young man that

-the major saw him in his mind’s eye just as Garry appeared to Dorothy

-Dale.

-

-She went over every little thing that had happened in New York

-in connection with the young Westerner. She told of her own mean

-suspicions and how they had risen from a feeling of pique and jealousy

-that never in her life had she experienced before.

-

-“That was a rather small way for me to show real feeling for a person.

-But it caught me unprepared,” said Dorothy, with a full-throated laugh

-although her eyes were full of tears. “I do not believe I am naturally

-of a jealous disposition; and I should never let such a feeling get the

-better of me again. It has cost me too much.”

-

-She went on and told the major of the incidents that followed and how

-Garry Knapp had gone away so hastily without her speaking to him again.

-

-But the major rather lost the thread of her story for a moment. He was

-staring closely at her, shaking his shaggy head slowly.

-

-“My dear! my dear!” he murmured, “you have grown up. The bud

-has unfolded. Our demure little Dorothy is—and with shocking

-abruptness—blown into full womanhood. My dear!” and he put his arms

-about her again more tightly.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXII

-

-DOROTHY DECIDES

-

-

-Joe and Roger Dale did not feel that they were exactly neglected during

-these winter holidays. It is true they found their cousins, the “big

-fellows,” not so much fun as they were wont to be, and even Dorothy

-failed them at times.

-

-But because of these very facts the lads had more freedom of action

-than ever before. They were learning to think for themselves,

-especially Joe. Nor was it always mischief they thought of, though

-frequently managing to get into trouble—for what live and healthy boys

-of their age do not?

-

-Many of their narrow escapes even Dorothy knew nothing about. None of

-the family, for instance, knew about Joe and the lame pigeon until

-the North Birchland Fire Department was on the grounds with all their

-apparatus.

-

-This moving incident (Tavia declared it should have been a movie

-incident) happened between Christmas and the new year. Although there

-had been a good fall of snow before Kris Kringle’s day, it had all gone

-now and the roads were firmly frozen again, so the Fire Department got

-to The Cedars in record time.

-

-To begin with Joe and Roger were breeders of pigeons, as Ned and Nat

-had been several years before. On pleasant days in the winter they let

-their flock into the big flying cage, and occasionally allowed the

-carriers to take a flight in the open.

-

-On one of these occasions when the flock returned there was a stray

-with them. Roger’s sharp eyes spied this bird which alighted on the

-ridgepole of the stable.

-

-“Oh, lookut! lookut!” exclaimed the youngest Dale. “What a pretty one,

-Joe!”

-

-“We’ll coax it down. It’s a stray,” his brother said eagerly, “and all

-strays are fair game.”

-

-“But it’s lame, Joe,” Roger declared. “See! it can scarcely hop. And it

-acts as if all tired out.”

-

-“It’s a carrier, all right,” Joe said. “I bet it’s come a long way.”

-

-The bird, however, would not be coaxed to the ground or into the big

-cage. It really did appear exhausted.

-

-“I bet if I could get up there on the stable roof, I could pick it

-right up in my hand,” cried Joe. “I’m—I’m a-going—to try it!”

-

-“Oh!” murmured Roger, both his eyes and mouth very round.

-

-Joe was no “blowhard,” as the boys say. When he said he’d do a thing he

-did his best to accomplish it. He threw off his thick jacket that would

-have hampered him, and kicked aside his overshoes that made his feet

-clumsy, and started to go aloft in the stable.

-

-“You go outside and watch, Roger,” he commanded. “There’s no skylight

-in this old barn roof—only the cupola, and I can’t get out through

-that.”

-

-“How are you going to do it then?” gasped Roger.

-

-“You’ll see,” his brother said with assurance, and began to climb the

-hay ladder into the top loft of the building.

-

-Roger ran out just in time to see Joe open the small door up in the

-peak of the stable roof. There were water-troughs all around the roof,

-for the cattle were supplied with drinking water from cisterns built

-under the ground.

-

-A leader ran down each corner of the stable, and one of these was

-within reach of Joe Dale’s hands when he swung himself out upon the

-door he had opened.

-

-Nobody, except the boys, were about the stable, and this end of

-the building could not be seen from the house. Joe had once before

-performed a similar trick. He had swung from the door to the

-leader-pipe and swarmed down to the ground.

-

-“Look out you don’t tumble, Joe,” advised the eager Roger. But he had

-no idea that Joe would do so. The elder brother was a hero in the sight

-of the younger lad.

-

-Joe’s skill and strength did not fail him now. He caught the leader,

-then the water-trough itself, and so scrambled upon the roof. But at

-his last kick some fastening holding the leader-pipe gave way and the

-top of it swung out from the corner of the stable.

-

-“Oh, cricky!” yelled Roger. “Lucky you got up there, Joe. That pipe’s

-busted. How’ll you get down?”

-

-“Never mind that,” grunted Joe, somewhat breathless, scrambling up the

-roof to the ridgepole. “We’ll see about that later.”

-

-The boy reached the ridge and straddled it. There he got his breath and

-then hitched along toward the cooing pigeon. It was not frightened by

-him, but it certainly was lame and exhausted. Joe picked it up in his

-hand and snuggled it into the breast of his sweater.

-

-“But how are you ever going to get down, Joe Dale?” shrilled Roger,

-from the ground.

-

-The question was a poser, as Joe very soon found out. That particular

-leader had been the only one on the stable that he could reach with any

-measure of safety; and now it hung out a couple of feet from the side

-of the building and Joe would not have dared trust his weight upon it,

-even could he have reached it.

-

-“What are you going to do?” again wailed the smaller lad.

-

-“Aw, cheese it, Roger! don’t be bawling,” advised Joe from the roof.

-“Go and get a ladder.”

-

-“There isn’t any long enough to reach up there—you know that,” said

-Roger.

-

-Neither he nor Joe observed the fact that, even had there been a

-ladder, the smaller boy could not have raised it into place so that Joe

-could have descended upon it.

-

-None of the men working on the place was at hand. Ned and Nat were

-off on some errand in their car. Secretly, Roger was panic stricken

-and might have run for Dorothy, for she was still his refuge in all

-troubles.

-

-But Joe was older—and thought himself wiser. “We’ve just got to find a

-ladder—_you’ve_ got to find it, Roger. I can’t sit up here a-straddle

-of this old roof all day. It’s co-o-old!”

-

-Roger started off blindly. He could not remember whether any of the

-neighbors possessed long ladders or not. But as he came down to the

-street corner of the White property he saw a red box affixed to a

-telegraph pole on the edge of the sidewalk.

-

-“Oh, bully!” gasped Roger, and immediately scrambled over the fence.

-

-He knew what that red box was for. It had been explained to him, and he

-had longed for a good reason for experimenting with it. You broke the

-little square of glass and pulled down the hook inside—-

-

-That is how Ned and Nat, whizzing homeward in their car, came to join

-the procession of the Fire Department racing out of town toward The

-Cedars.

-

-“Where’s the fire, Cal?” yelled Nat, seeing a man he knew riding on the

-ladder truck.

-

-“Right near your house, Mr. White. At any rate, that was the number

-pulled—that box by the corner of your mother’s place.”

-

-“Did you hear that, Ned?” shouted his brother, and Ned, who was at

-the wheel, “let her out,” breaking every speed law of the country to

-flinders.

-

-The Fire Chief in his red racing car was only a few rods ahead of the

-Whites, therefore, when Ned whirled the automobile into the driveway.

-They saw a small boy, greatly excited, dancing up and down on the

-gravel beside the chief’s car.

-

-“Yep—he’s up on the stable roof, I tell you. We’ve got to use your

-extension ladders to get him down,” Roger was saying eagerly. “I didn’t

-mean for all of the things to come—the engine, and hose cart, and all.

-Just the ladders we wanted,” and Roger seemed amazed that his pulling

-the hook of the fire-alarm box had not explained all this at fire

-headquarters down town.

-

-There was some excitement, as may well be believed in and about The

-Cedars. The Fire Chief was at first enraged; then he, as well as his

-men, laughed. They got Joe, still clinging to the stray pigeon, down

-from the roof, and then the firemen drilled back to town, reporting a

-“false alarm.”

-

-Major Dale, however, sent in a check to the Firemen’s Benefit Fund, and

-Joe and Roger were sent to bed at noon and were obliged to remain there

-until the next morning—a punishment that was likely long to be engraved

-upon their minds.

-

-The incident, however, had broken in upon a very serious conference

-between Dorothy Dale and her father. And nowadays their conferences

-were very likely to be for the discussion of but one subject:

-

-Garry Knapp and his affairs.

-

-Aunt Winnie, too, had been taken into Dorothy Dale’s confidence. “I

-want you both,” the girl said, bravely, “to meet Garry Knapp and decide

-for yourselves if he is not all I say he is. And to do that we must get

-him to come here.”

-

-“How will you accomplish it, Dorothy?” asked her aunt, still more than

-a little confused because of this entirely new departure upon the part

-of her heretofore demure niece.

-

-Dorothy explained. Another—a third—letter had come from Lance Petterby.

-He had identified Garry Knapp as the Dimples Knapp he had previously

-known upon the range. Knapp was about to sell a rundown ranch north of

-Desert City and adjoining the rough end of the great Hardin Estate,

-that now belonged to Major Dale, to some speculators in wheat lands.

-The speculators, Lance said, were “sure enough sharks.”

-

-“First of all have our lawyers out there make Mr. Knapp a much better

-offer for his land—quick, before Stiffbold and Lightly close with him,”

-Dorothy suggested. “Oh! I’ve thought it all out. Those land speculators

-will allow that option they took on Garry’s ranch to lapse. What is a

-hundred dollars to them? Then they will play a waiting game until they

-make him come to new terms—a much lower price even than they offered

-him in New York. He must not sell his land to them, and for a song.”

-

-“And then?” asked the major, his eyes bright with pride in his

-daughter’s forcefulness of character, as well as with amusement.

-

-“Have our lawyers bind the bargain with Mr. Knapp and ask him to come

-East to close the transaction with their principal. That’s _you_,

-Major. Meanwhile, have the lawyers send an expert to Mr. Knapp’s ranch

-to see if it is really promising wheat land if properly developed.”

-

-“And then?” repeated her father.

-

-“If it _is_,” said Dorothy, laughing blithely, “when Garry shows up

-and you and Aunt Winnie approve of him, as I know you both will, offer

-to advance the money necessary to develop the wheat ranch instead of

-buying the land.

-

-“That,” Dorothy Dale said earnestly, “will give him the start in

-business life he needs. I know he has it in him to make good. He can

-expect no fortune from his uncle in Alaska, who is angry with him; he

-will _never_ hear to using any of my money to help bring success; but

-in this way he will have his chance. I believe he will be independent

-in a few years.”

-

-“And, meanwhile, what of you?” cried her aunt.

-

-“I shall be waiting for him,” replied Dorothy with a smile that Tavia,

-had she seen it, would have pronounced “seraphic.”

-

-“Major! did you ever hear of such talk from a girl?” gasped Aunt Winnie.

-

-“No,” said her brother, with immense satisfaction, and thumping

-approval on the floor with his cane. “Because there never was just such

-a girl since the world began as my little captain.

-

-“I want to see this wonderful Garry Knapp—don’t you, Sister? I’m sure

-he must be a perfectly wonderful young man to so stir our Dorothy.”

-

-“No,” Dorothy said slowly shaking her head. “I know he is only

-wonderful in my eyes. But I am quite sure you and Aunt Winnie will

-commend my choice when you have met him—if we can only get him here!”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIII

-

-NAT JUMPS AT A CONCLUSION

-

-

-All this time Tavia and Nat were having anything but a happy life. Nat

-would not have admitted it for the world, but he wished he could leave

-home and never appear at The Cedars again until Tavia had gone.

-

-On her part, Tavia would have returned to Dalton before the new year

-had Dorothy allowed her to have her own way. Dorothy would not hear of

-such a thing.

-

-To make the situation worse for the pair of young people so tragically

-enduring their first vital misunderstanding, Ned and Jennie Hapgood

-were sailing upon a sea of blissful and unruffled happiness. Nat and

-Tavia could not help noting this fact. The feeling of the exalted

-couple for each other was so evident that even the Dale boys discussed

-it—and naturally with deep disgust.

-

-“Gee!” breathed Joe, scandalized. “Old Ned is so mushy over Jennie

-Hapgood that he goes around in a trance. He could tread on his own

-corns and not know it, his head is so far up in the clouds. Gee!”

-

-“_I_ wouldn’t ever get so silly over a girl—not even our Dorothy,”

-Roger declared. “Would you, Joe?”

-

-“Not in a hundred years,” was his brother’s earnest response.

-

-The major admitted with a chuckle that Ned certainly was hard hit.

-The time set for Jennie Hapgood to return to Sunnyside Farm came and

-passed, and still many reasons were found for the prolongation of her

-visit. Ned went off to New York one day by himself and brought home at

-night something that made a prominent bulge in his lower right-hand

-vest pocket.

-

-“Oh, _oh_, OH! Dorothy!” ejaculated Tavia, for the moment coming out of

-her own doldrums. “Do you know what it is? A Tiffany box! Nothing less!”

-

-“Dear old Ned,” said her chum, with a smile.

-

-Ned and Jennie disappeared together right after dinner. Then, an hour

-later, they appeared in the drawing-room where the family was assembled

-and Ned led Jennie forward by her left hand—the fingers prominently

-extended.

-

-“White gold—platinum!” murmured Tavia, standing enthralled as she

-beheld the beautifully set stone.

-

-“Set old Ned back five hundred bucks if it did a cent,” growled Nat,

-under his breath and keeping in the background.

-

-“Oh, Jennie!” cried Dorothy, jumping up.

-

-But Aunt Winnie seemed to be nearest. She reached the happy couple

-before anybody else.

-

-“Ned needn’t tell me,” she said, with a little laugh and a little sob

-and putting both arms about Jennie. “Welcome, my daughter! Very welcome

-to the White family. I have for years tried to divide Dorothy with the

-major; now I am to have at least _one_ daughter of my very own.”

-

-Did she flash a glance at Tavia standing in the background? Tavia

-thought so. The proud and headstrong girl was shot to the quick with

-the arrow of the thought that Mrs. White had been told by Nat of the

-difference between himself and Tavia and that the lady would never come

-to Tavia and ask that question on behalf of her younger son that the

-girl so desired her to ask.

-

-Never before had Tavia realized so keenly the great chasm between

-herself and Jennie Hapgood. Mrs. White welcomed Jennie so warmly, and

-was so glad, because Jennie was of the same level in society as the

-Whites. Both in blood and wealth Jennie was Ned’s equal.

-

-Tavia knew very well that by explaining to Nat about Lance Petterby’s

-letters she could easily bring that young man to his knees. In her

-heart, in the very fiber of the girl’s being, indeed, had grown the

-desire to have Dorothy Dale’s Aunt Winnie tell her that she, too, would

-be welcome in the White family. Now Tavia doubted if Aunt Winnie would

-ever do that.

-

-Jennie was to go home to Sunnyside Farm the next day. This final

-decision had probably spurred Ned to action. Because of certain

-business matters in town which occupied both Ned and Nat at train time

-and the fact that Dorothy was busy with some domestic duty, it was

-Tavia who drove the _Fire Bird_, the Whites’ old car, to the station

-with Jennie Hapgood.

-

-A train from the West had come in a few minutes before the westbound

-one which Jennie was to take was due. Tavia, sitting in the car while

-Jennie ran to get her checks, saw a tall man carrying two heavy

-suitcases and wearing a broad-brimmed hat walking down the platform.

-

-“Why! if that doesn’t look——Surely it can’t be—I—I believe I’ve got ’em

-again!” murmured Tavia Travers.

-

-Then suddenly she shot out from behind the wheel, leaped to the

-platform, and ran straight for the tall figure.

-

-“Garry Knapp!” she exploded.

-

-“Why—why—Miss Travers!” responded the big young man, smiling suddenly

-and that “cute” little dimple just showing in his bronzed cheek. “You

-don’t mean to say you live in this man’s town?”

-

-He looked about the station in a puzzled way, and, having dropped his

-bags to shake hands with her, rubbed the side of his head as though to

-awaken his understanding.

-

-“I don’t understand your being here, Miss Travers,” he murmured.

-

-“Why, _I’m_ visiting here,” she said, blithely. “But _you_——?”

-

-“I—I’m here on business. Or I think I am,” he said soberly. “How’s

-your—Miss Dale! _She_ doesn’t live here, does she?”

-

-“Of course. Didn’t you know?” demanded Tavia, eyeing him curiously.

-

-“No. Who—what’s this Major Dale to her, Miss Travers?” asked the young

-man and his heavy brows met for an instant over his nose.

-

-“Her father, of course, Mr. Knapp. Didn’t you know Dorothy’s father was

-the only Major Dale there _is_, and the nicest man there ever _was_?”

-

-“How should I know?” demanded Garry Knapp, contemplating Tavia with

-continued seriousness. “What is he—a real estate man?”

-

-“Why! didn’t you know?” Tavia asked, thinking quickly. “Didn’t I tell

-you that time that he was a close friend of Colonel Hardin, who owned

-that estate you told me joined your ranch there by Desert City?”

-

-“Uh-huh,” grunted the young man. “Seems to me you _did_ tell me

-something about that. But I—I must have had my mind on something else.”

-

-“On _somebody_ else, you mean,” said Tavia, dimpling suddenly. “Well!

-Colonel Hardin left his place to Major Dale.”

-

-“Oh! that’s why, then. He wants to buy my holdings because his land

-joins mine,” said Garry Knapp, reflectively.

-

-Tavia had her suspicions of the truth well aroused; but all she replied

-was:

-

-“I shouldn’t wonder, Mr. Knapp.”

-

-“I got a good offer—leastways, better than those sharks, Stiffbold and

-Lightly, would make me after they’d seen the ranch—from some lawyers

-out there. They planked down a thousand for an option, and told me to

-come East and close the deal with this Major Dale. And it never entered

-into this stupid head of mine that he was related to—to Miss Dale.”

-

-“Isn’t that funny?” giggled Tavia. Then, as Jennie appeared from the

-baggage room and the westbound train whistled for the station, she

-added: “Just wait for me until I see a friend off on this train, Mr.

-Knapp, and I’ll drive you out.”

-

-“Drive me out where?” asked Garry Knapp.

-

-“To see—er—_Major_ Dale,” she returned, and ran away.

-

-When the train had gone she found the Westerner standing between his

-two heavy bags about where she had left him.

-

-“Those old suitcases look so natural,” she said, laughing at his

-serious face. “Throw them into the tonneau and sit beside me in front.

-I’ll show you some driving.”

-

-“But look here! I can’t do this,” he objected.

-

-“You cannot do what?” demanded Tavia.

-

-“Are _you_ staying with Miss Dale?”

-

-“Of course I am staying with Doro. I don’t know but I am more at home

-at The Cedars than I am at the Travers domicile in Dalton.”

-

-“But wait!” he begged. “There must be a hotel here?”

-

-“In North Birchland? Of course.”

-

-“You’d better take me there, Miss Travers, if you’ll be so kind. I want

-to secure a room.”

-

-“Nothing doing! You’ve got to come out to The Cedars with me,” Tavia

-declared. “Why, Do—I mean, of course, Major Dale would never forgive me

-if I failed to bring you, baggage and all. His friends do not stop at

-the North Birchland House I’d have you know.”

-

-“But, honestly, Miss Travers, I don’t like it. I don’t understand it.

-And Major Dale isn’t my friend.”

-

-“Oh, _isn’t_ he? You just wait and see!” cried Tavia. “I didn’t know

-about your coming East. Of course, if it is business——”

-

-“That is it, exactly,” the young man said, nervously. “I—I couldn’t

-impose upon these people, you know.”

-

-“Say! you want to sell your land, don’t you?” demanded Tavia.

-

-“Ye—es,” admitted Garry Knapp, slowly.

-

-“Well, if a man came out your way to settle a business matter, you

-wouldn’t let him go to a hotel, would you? You’d be angry,” said Tavia,

-sensibly, “if he insisted upon doing such a thing. Major Dale could not

-have been informed when you would arrive, or he would have had somebody

-here at the station to meet you.”

-

-“No. I didn’t tell the lawyers when I’d start,” said Garry.

-

-“Don’t make a bad matter worse then,” laughed Tavia, her eyes twinkling

-as she climbed in and sat back of the wheel. “Hurry up. If you want

-to sell your land you’d better waste no more time getting out to The

-Cedars.”

-

-The Westerner got into the car in evident doubt. He suspected that

-he had been called East for something besides closing a real estate

-transaction. Tavia suspected so, too; and she was vastly amused.

-

-She drove slowly, for Garry began asking her for full particulars about

-Dorothy and the family. Tavia actually did not know anything about the

-proposed purchase of the Knapp ranch by her chum’s father. Dorothy had

-said not a word to her about Garry since their final talk some weeks

-before.

-

-At a place in the woods where there was not a house in sight, Tavia

-even stopped the car the better to give her full attention to Mr. Garry

-Knapp, and to talk him out of certain objections that seemed to trouble

-his mind.

-

-It was just here that Nat White, on a sputtering motorcycle he

-sometimes rode, passed the couple in the automobile. He saw Tavia

-talking earnestly to a fine-looking, broad-shouldered young man wearing

-a hat of Western style. She had an eager hand upon his shoulder and the

-stranger was evidently much interested in what the girl said.

-

-Nat did not even slow down. It is doubtful if Tavia noticed him at all.

-Nat went straight home, changed his clothes, flung a few things into a

-traveling bag, and announced to his mother that he was off for Boston

-to pay some long-promised visits to friends there and in Cambridge.

-

-Nat, with his usual impulsiveness, had jumped at a conclusion which,

-like most snap judgments, was quite incorrect. He rode to the railroad

-station by another way and so did not meet Tavia and Garry Knapp as

-they approached The Cedars.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIV

-

-THIN ICE

-

-

-Dorothy spied the Fire Bird just as it turned in at the entrance gate.

-And she identified the person sitting beside her chum, too. Therefore,

-she had a few minutes in which to prepare for her meeting with Garry

-Knapp.

-

-She was on the porch when the car stopped, and her welcome to the young

-Westerner possessed just the degree of cordiality that it should.

-Neither by word nor look did she betray the fact that her heart’s

-action was accelerated, or that she felt a thrill of joy to think that

-the first of her moves in this intricate game had been successful.

-

-“Of course, it would be Tavia’s good fortune to pick you up at the

-station,” she said, while Garry held her hand just a moment longer than

-was really necessary for politeness’ sake. “Had you telegraphed us——”

-

-“I hadn’t a thought that I was going to run up against Miss Travers or

-you, Miss Dale,” he said.

-

-“Oh, then, this is a business visit?” and she laughed. “Entirely? You

-only wish to see Major Dale?”

-

-“Well—now—that’s unfair,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “But I told Miss

-Travers she might drive me to the hotel.”

-

-“Oh, this will be your hotel while you remain, of course. Father would

-not hear of anything else I am sure.”

-

-“I can thank you, then, Miss Dale,” he said quietly and with a sudden

-serious mien, “for the chance to sell my ranch at a better price than

-those sharks were ready to give?”

-

-“No. You may thank Major Dale’s bump of acquisitiveness,” she said,

-laughing at him over her shoulder as she led the way into the house.

-“Having so much land already out there, like other great property

-owners, he is always looking for more.”

-

-If Garry Knapp was not assured that she was entirely frank upon this

-matter, he knew that his welcome was as warm as though he were really

-an old friend. He met Mrs. White almost at once, and Dorothy was

-delighted by her marked approval of him.

-

-Garry Knapp got to the major by slow degrees. Tavia marveled as she

-watched Dorothy Dale’s calm and assured methods. This was the demure,

-cautious girl whom she had always looked upon as being quite helpless

-when it came to managing “affairs” with members of the opposite sex.

-Tavia imagined she was quite able to manage any man—“put him in his

-place,” she termed it—much better than Dorothy Dale. But now!

-

-Dorothy quietly sent Joe and Roger out for Mr. Knapp’s bags and told

-them to take the bags up to an indicated room. She made no fuss about

-it, but took it for granted that Garry Knapp had come for a visit, not

-for a call.

-

-The young man from the West had to sit down and talk with Aunt Winnie.

-That lady proceeded in her good-humored and tactful way to draw him

-out. Aunt Winnie learned more about Garry Knapp in those few minutes

-than even Tavia had learned when she took dinner with the young man.

-And all the time the watchful Dorothy saw Garry Knapp growing in her

-aunt’s estimation.

-

-Ned came in. He had been fussing and fuming because business had kept

-him from personally seeing Jennie Hapgood aboard her train. He welcomed

-this big fellow from the West, perhaps, because he helped take Ned’s

-mind off his own affairs.

-

-“Come on up and dress for dinner,” Ned suggested, having gained Garry

-Knapp’s sole attention. “It’s pretty near time for the big eats, and

-mother is a stickler for the best bib and tucker at the evening meal.”

-

-“Great Scott!” gasped Garry Knapp in a panic. “You don’t mean dinner

-dress? I haven’t had on a swallowtail since I was in college.”

-

-“Tuxedo will do,” Ned said lightly. “If you didn’t bring ’em I’ll lend

-you. I’m about as broad as you, my boy.”

-

-Garry Knapp was three or four years older than Ned, and that “my boy”

-sounded rather funny. However, the Westerner did not smile. He accepted

-the loan of the dinner coat and the vest without comment, but he looked

-very serious while he was dressing.

-

-They went down together to meet the girls in the drawing-room. Dorothy

-Dale and Tavia had dressed especially for the occasion. Tavia flaunted

-her fine feathers frankly; but demure Dorothy’s eyes shone more

-gloriously than her frock. Ned said:

-

-“You look scrumptious, Coz. And, of course, Tavia, you are a vision of

-delight. Where’s Nat?”

-

-“Nat?” questioned Tavia, her countenance falling. “Is—isn’t he

-upstairs?”

-

-“Why, don’t you know?” Dorothy cried. “He’s gone to Boston. Left just

-before you came back from the station, Tavia.”

-

-“Well, of all things!” Ned said. “I’d have gone with him if I’d really

-believed he meant it. Old grouch! He’s been talking of lighting out for

-a week. But I am glad,” he added cordially, looking at Garry Knapp,

-“that I did not go. Then I, too, might have missed meeting Mr. Knapp.”

-

-Now, what was it kept Major Dale away from the dinner table that

-evening? His excuse was that a twinge or two of rheumatism kept him

-from appearing with the family when dinner was called. And yet Dorothy

-did not appear worried by her father’s absence as she ordinarily would

-have been. Tavia was secretly delighted by this added manifestation

-of Dorothy’s finesse. Garry Knapp could not find any excuse for

-withdrawing from the house until he had interviewed the major.

-

-As was usual at The Cedars, the evening meal was a lively and enjoyable

-occasion. Tavia successfully hid her chagrin at Nat’s absence; but Joe

-and Roger were this evening the life of the company.

-

-“The river’s frozen,” sang Roger, “and we’re going skating on it, Joe

-and I. Did you ever go skating, Mr. Knapp?” for Roger believed it only

-common politeness to bring the visitor into the conversation.

-

-“Sure enough,” laughed Garry Knapp. “I used to be some skater, too.”

-

-“You’d better come,” said Roger. “It’s going to be moonlight—Popeye

-Jordan says so, and he knows, for his father lights the street lamps

-and this is one of the nights he doesn’t have to work.”

-

-“I hope Popeye hasn’t made a mistake—or Mr. Jordan, either—in reading

-the almanac,” Dorothy said, when the laugh had subsided.

-

-“You’d better come, too, Dorothy,” said Joe. “The river’s as smooth as

-glass.”

-

-“Let’s all go,” proposed Tavia, glad to be in anything active that

-would occupy her mind and perhaps would push out certain unpleasant

-thoughts that lodged there.

-

-“Mr. Knapp has no skates,” said Dorothy, softly.

-

-“Don’t let that stop you,” the Westerner put in, smiling. “I can go and

-look on.”

-

-“Oh, I guess we can give you a look _in_,” said Ned. “There’s Nat’s

-skates. I think he didn’t take ’em with him.”

-

-“Will they fit Mr. Knapp?” asked Tavia.

-

-“Dead sure that nobody’s got a bigger foot than old Nat,” said his

-brother wickedly. “If Mr. Knapp can get into my coat, he’ll find no

-trouble in getting into Nat’s shoes.”

-

-Ned rather prided himself on his own small and slim foot and often took

-a fling at the size of his brother’s shoes. But now, Nat not being

-present, he hoped to “get a rise” out of Tavia. The girl, however, bit

-her lip and said nothing. She was not even defending Nat these days.

-

-It was concluded that all should go—that is, all the young people then

-present. Nat and Jennie’s absence made what Ned called “a big hole” in

-the company.

-

-“You be good to me, Dot,” he said to his cousin, as they waited in the

-side hall for Tavia to come down. “I’m going to miss Jennie awfully. I

-want to skate with you and tell you all about it.”

-

-“All about what?” demanded his cousin, laughing.

-

-“Why, all about how we came to—to—to find out we cared for each other,”

-Ned whispered, blunderingly enough but very earnest. “You know, Dot,

-it’s just wonderful——”

-

-“You go on, dear,” said Dorothy, poking a gloved forefinger at him.

-“If you two sillies didn’t know you were in love with each other till

-you brought home the ring the other night, why everybody else in the

-neighborhood was aware of the fact æons and æons ago!”

-

-“Huh?” grunted Ned, his eyes blinking in surprise.

-

-“It was the most transparent thing in the world. Everybody around here

-saw how the wind blew.”

-

-“You don’t mean it!” said the really astonished Ned. “Well! and I

-didn’t know it myself till I began to think how bad a time I was going

-to have without Jennie. I wish old Nat would play up to Tavia.”

-

-Dorothy looked at him scornfully. “Well! of all the stupid people who

-ever lived, most men are _it_,” she thought. But what she said aloud

-was:

-

-“I want to skate with Mr. Knapp, Nedward. You know he is our guest. You

-take Tavia.”

-

-“Pshaw!” muttered her cousin as the girl in question appeared and Garry

-Knapp and the boys came in from the porch where the Westerner had been

-trying on Nat’s skating boots. “I can’t talk to the flyaway as I can to

-you. But I don’t blame you for wanting to skate with Knapp. He seems

-like a mighty fine fellow.”

-

-Dorothy was getting the family’s opinion, one by one, of the man Tavia

-wickedly whispered Dorothy had “set her cap” for. The younger boys were

-plainly delighted with Garry Knapp. When the party got to the river

-Joe and Roger would scarcely let the guest and Dorothy get away by

-themselves.

-

-Garry Knapp skated somewhat awkwardly at first, for he had not been

-on the ice for several years. But he was very sure footed and it was

-evident utterly unafraid.

-

-He soon “got the hang of it,” as he said, and was then ready to skate

-away with Dorothy. The Dale boys tried to keep up; but with one of his

-smiles into the girl’s face, Knapp suddenly all but picked her up and

-carried her off at a great pace over the shining, black ice.

-

-“Oh! you take my breath!” she cried half aloud, yet clinging with

-delight to his arm.

-

-“We’ll dodge the little scamps and then get down to _talk_,” he said.

-“I want to know all about it.”

-

-“All about what?” she returned, looking at him with shy eyes and a

-fluttering at her heart that she was glad he could not know about.

-

-“About this game of getting me East again. I can see your fine Italian

-hand in this, Miss Dale. Does your father really need my land?”

-

-He said it bluntly, and although he smiled, Dorothy realized there was

-something quite serious behind his questioning.

-

-“Well, you see, after you had left the hotel in New York, Tavia and I

-overheard those two awful men you agreed to sell to talking about the

-bargain,” she said rather stumblingly, but with earnestness.

-

-“You did!” he exclaimed. “The sharks!”

-

-“That is exactly what they were. They said after Stiffbold got out West

-he would try to beat you down in your price, although at the terms

-agreed upon he knew he was getting a bargain.”

-

-“Oh-ho!” murmured Garry Knapp. “That’s the way of it, eh? They had me

-scared all right. I gave them an option for thirty days for a hundred

-dollars and they let the option run out. I was about to accept a lower

-price when your father’s lawyers came around.”

-

-“You see, Tavia and I were both interested,” Dorothy explained. “And

-Tavia wrote to a friend of ours, Lance Petterby——”

-

-[Illustration: IT SEEMED TO DOROTHY THAT THEY FAIRLY FLEW OVER THE OPEN

-WATER.

-

-  _Dorothy Dale’s Engagement_      _Page 198_

-]

-

-“Ah! that’s why old Lance came riding over to Bob Douglass’ place,

-was it?” murmured Garry.

-

-“Then,” said Dorothy, bravely, “I mentioned the matter to father,

-and he is always willing to buy property adjoining the Hardin place.

-Thinks it is a good investment. He and Aunt Winnie, too, have a high

-opinion of that section of the country. They believe it is _the_ coming

-wheat-growing land of the States.”

-

-Garry’s mind seemed not to be absorbed by this phase of the subject. He

-said abruptly:

-

-“Your folks are mighty rich, Miss Dale, aren’t they?”

-

-Dorothy started at this blunt and unusual question, but, after a

-moment’s hesitation, decided to answer as frankly as the question had

-been put.

-

-“Oh! Aunt Winnie married a wealthy man—yes,” she said. “Professor

-Winthrop White. But we were very poor, indeed, until a few years ago

-when a distant relative left the major some property. Then, of course,

-this Hardin estate is a big thing.”

-

-“Yes,” said Garry, shortly. “And you are going to be wealthy in your

-own right when you are of age. So your little friend told me.”

-

-“Yes,” sighed Dorothy. “Tavia _will_ talk. The same relative who left

-father his first legacy, tied up some thousands for poor little me.”

-

-Immediately Garry Knapp talked of other things. The night was fine and

-the moon, a silver paring, hung low above the hills. The stars were

-so bright that they were reflected in the black ice under the skaters’

-ringing steel.

-

-Garry and Dorothy had shot away from the others and were now well down

-the river toward the milldam. So perfectly had the ice frozen that

-when they turned the blades of the skates left long, soaplike shavings

-behind them.

-

-With clasped hands, they took the stroke together perfectly. Never had

-Dorothy skated with a partner that suited her so well. Nor had she ever

-sped more swiftly over the ice.

-

-Suddenly, she felt Garry’s muscles stiffen and saw his head jerk up as

-he stared ahead.

-

-“What is it?” she murmured, her own eyes so misty that she could not

-see clearly. Then in a moment she uttered a frightened “Oh!”

-

-They had crossed the river, and now, on coming back, there unexpectedly

-appeared a long, open space before them. The water was so still that at

-a distance the treacherous spot looked just like the surrounding ice.

-

-The discovery was made too late for them to stop. Indeed, Garry Knapp

-increased his speed, picked her up in his arms and it seemed to Dorothy

-that they fairly flew over the open water, landing with a resonant ring

-of steel upon the safe ice beyond.

-

-For the moment that she was held tightly in the young man’s arms, she

-clung to him with something besides fear.

-

-“Oh, Garry!” she gasped when he set her down again.

-

-“Some jump, eh?” returned the young man coolly.

-

-They skated on again without another word.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXV

-

-GARRY BALKS

-

-

-The major was ready to see Garry Knapp at nine o’clock the next

-morning. He was suffering one of his engagements with the enemy

-rheumatism, and there really was a strong reason for his having put off

-this interview until the shy Westerner had become somewhat settled at

-The Cedars as a guest.

-

-Dorothy took Garry up to the major’s room after breakfast, and they

-found him well-wrapped in a rug, sitting in his sun parlor which

-overlooked the lawns of The Cedars.

-

-The young man from the West could not help being impressed by the fact

-that he was the guest of a family that was well supplied with this

-world’s goods—one that was used to luxury as well as comfort. Is it

-strange that the most impressive point to him was the fact that he had

-no right to even _think_ of trying to win Dorothy Dale?

-

-When he had awakened that morning and looked over the luxurious

-furnishings of his chamber and the bathroom and dressing room connected

-with it, he had told himself:

-

-“Garford Knapp, you are in wrong! This is no place for a cowpuncher

-from the Western plains. What little tad of money you can sell your

-ranch for won’t put you in any such class as these folk belong to.

-

-“And as for thinking of that girl—Great Scot! I’d make a fine figure

-asking any girl used to such luxury as this to come out and share a

-shack in Desert City or thereabout, while I punched cattle, or went to

-keeping store, or tried to match my wits in real estate with the sharks

-that exploit land out there.

-

-“Forget it, Garford!” he advised himself, grimly. “If you can make an

-honest deal with this old major, make it and then clear out. This is no

-place for you.”

-

-He had, therefore, braced himself for the interview. The major, eyeing

-him keenly as he walked down the long room beside Dorothy, made his

-own judgment—as he always did—instantly. When Dorothy had gone he said

-frankly to the young man:

-

-“Mr. Knapp, I’m glad to see you. I have heard so much about you that I

-feel you and I are already friends.”

-

-“Thank you, sir,” said Garry, quietly, eyeing the major with as much

-interest as the latter eyed him.

-

-“When my daughter was talking one day about you and the land you had

-in the market adjoining the Hardin tract it struck me that perhaps it

-would be a good thing to buy,” went on the major, briskly. “So I set

-our lawyers on your trail.”

-

-“So Miss Dorothy tells me, sir,” the young man said.

-

-“Now, they know all about the offer made you by those sharpers,

-Stiffbold & Lightly. They advised me to risk a thousand dollar option

-on your ranch and I telegraphed them to make you the offer.”

-

-“And you may believe I was struck all of a heap, sir,” said the young

-man, still eyeing the major closely. “I’ll tell you something: You’ve

-got me guessing.”

-

-“How’s that?” asked the amused Major Dale.

-

-“Why, people don’t come around and hand me a thousand dollars every

-day—and just on a gamble.”

-

-“Sure I am gambling?” responded the major.

-

-“I’m not sure of anything,” admitted Garry Knapp. “But it looks like

-that. I accepted the certified check—I have it with me. I don’t know

-but I’d better hand it back to you, Major, for I think you have been

-misinformed about the real value of the ranch. The price per acre your

-lawyers offer is away above the market.”

-

-“Hey!” exclaimed Major Dale. “You call yourself a business man?”

-

-“Not much of one, I suppose,” said Garry. “I’ll sell you my ranch quick

-enough at a fair price. But this looks as if you were doing me a favor.

-I think you have been influenced.”

-

-“Eh?” stammered the astounded old gentleman.

-

-“By your daughter,” said Garry, quietly. “I’m conceited enough to think

-it is because of Miss Dale that you make me the offer you do.”

-

-“Any crime in that?” demanded the major.

-

-“No crime exactly,” rejoined Garry with one of his rare smiles, “unless

-I take advantage of it. But I’m not the sort of fellow, Major Dale, who

-can willingly accept more than I can give value for. Your offer for my

-ranch is beyond reason.”

-

-“Would you have thought so if another man—somebody instead of my

-daughter’s father——” and his eyes twinkled as he said it, “had made you

-the offer?”

-

-Garry Knapp was silent and showed confusion. The major went on with

-some grimness of expression:

-

-“But if your conscience troubles you and you wish to call the deal off,

-now is your chance to return the check.”

-

-Instantly Garry pulled his wallet from his pocket and produced the

-folded green slip, good for a thousand dollars at the Desert City Trust

-Company.

-

-“There you are, sir,” he said quietly, and laid the paper upon the arm

-of the major’s chair.

-

-The old gentleman picked it up, identified it, and slowly tore the

-check into strips, eyeing the young man meanwhile.

-

-“Then,” he said, calmly, “_that_ phase of the matter is closed. But you

-still wish to sell your ranch?”

-

-“I do, Major Dale. But I can’t accept what anybody out there would tell

-you was a price out of all reason.”

-

-“Except my lawyers,” suggested the major.

-

-“Well——”

-

-“Young man, you have done a very foolish thing,” said Major Dale. “A

-ridiculous thing, perhaps. Unless you are shrewder than you seem. My

-lawyers have had your land thoroughly cruised. You have the best wheat

-land, in embryo, anywhere in the Desert City region.”

-

-Garry started and stared at him for a minute without speaking. Then he

-sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

-

-“That may be, sir. Perhaps you _do_ know more about the intrinsic value

-of my ranch than I do myself. But I know it would cost a mint of money

-to develop that old rundown place into wheat soil.”

-

-“Humph! and if you had this—er—_mint_ of money, what would you do?”

-

-“Do? I’d develop it myself!” cried the young man, startled into

-enthusiastic speech. “I know there is a fortune there. _You_ are making

-big profits on the Hardin place already, I understand. Cattle have gone

-out; but wheat has come to stay. Oh, I know all about that! But what’s

-the use?”

-

-“Have you tried to raise money for the development of your land?” asked

-the major quietly.

-

-“I’ve talked to some bankers, yes. Nothing doing. The machinery and

-fertilizer cost at the first would be prohibitive. A couple of crop

-failures would wipe out everything, and the banks don’t want land on

-their hands. As for the money-lenders—well, Major Dale, you can imagine

-what sort of hold _they_ demand when they deal with a person in my

-situation.”

-

-“And you would rather have what seems to you a fair price for your land

-and get it off your hands?”

-

-“I’ll accept a fair price—yes. But I can’t accept any favors,” said the

-young man, his face gloomy enough but as stubborn as ever.

-

-“I see,” said the major. “Then what will you do with the money you get?”

-

-“Try to get into some business that will make me more,” and Garry

-looked up again with a sudden smile.

-

-“Raising wheat does not attract you, then?”

-

-“It’s the biggest prospect in that section. I know it has cattle

-raising and even mining backed clear across the board. But it’s no game

-for a little man with little capital.”

-

-“Then why not get into it?” asked Major Dale, still speaking quietly.

-“You seem enthusiastic. Enthusiasm and youth—why, my boy, they will

-carry a fellow far!”

-

-Garry looked at him in a rather puzzled way. “But don’t I tell you,

-Major Dale, that the banks will not let me have money?”

-

-“I’ll let you have the money—and at a fair interest,” said Major Dale.

-

-Garry smiled slowly and put out his hand. The major quickly took it and

-his countenance began to brighten. But what Garry said caused the old

-gentleman’s expression to become suddenly doleful:

-

-“I can’t accept your offer, sir. I know that it is a favor—a favor that

-is suggested by Miss Dorothy. If it were not for her, you would never

-have thought of sending for me or making either of these more than kind

-propositions you have made.

-

-“I shall have to say no—and thank you.”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVI

-

-SERIOUS THOUGHTS

-

-

-The young people at The Cedars had taken Garry Knapp right into the

-heart of their social life. He knew he was welcome and the hospitality

-shown him was a most delightful experience for the young Westerner.

-

-But “business was business.” He could not see wherein he had any right

-to accept a favor from Major Dale because Dorothy wished her father to

-aid him. That was not Garry’s idea of a manly part—to use the father of

-the girl you love as a staff in getting on in the world.

-

-There was no conceit in Garry’s belief that he had tacit permission,

-was it right to accept it, to try to win Dorothy Dale’s heart and hand.

-He was just as well assured in his soul that Dorothy had been attracted

-to him as he was that she had gained his affection. “Love like a

-lightning bolt,” Tavia had called Dorothy’s interest in Garry Knapp. It

-was literally true in the young man’s case. He had fallen in love with

-Dorothy Dale almost at first sight.

-

-Every time he saw her during that all too brief occasion in New York

-his feeling for the girl had grown. By leaps and bounds it increased

-until, just as Tavia had once said, if Dorothy had been in Tavia’s

-financial situation Garry Knapp would never have left New York without

-first learning whether or not there was any possible chance of his

-winning the girl he knew he loved.

-

-Now it was revealed to him that he had that chance—and bitterly did he

-regret the knowledge. For he gained it at the cost of his peace of mind.

-

-It is one thing to long for the object forbidden us; it is quite

-another thing to know that we may claim that longed-for object if honor

-did not interfere. To Garry Knapp’s mind he could not meet what was

-Dorothy Dale’s perfectly proper advances, and keep his own self-respect.

-

-Were he more sanguine, or a more imaginative young man, he might have

-done so. But Garry Knapp’s head was filled with hard, practical common

-sense. Young men and more often young girls allow themselves to become

-engaged with little thought for the future. Garry was not that kind.

-Suppose Dorothy Dale did accept his attentions and was willing to wait

-for him until he could win out in some line of industrial endeavor that

-would afford the competence that he believed he should possess before

-marrying a girl used to the luxuries Dorothy was used to, Garry Knapp

-felt it would be wrong to accept the sacrifice.

-

-The chances of business life, especially for a young man with the small

-experience and the small capital he would have, were too great. To

-“tie a girl up” under such circumstances was a thing Garry could not

-contemplate and keep his self-respect. He would not, he told himself,

-be led even to admit by word or look that he desired to be Dorothy’s

-suitor.

-

-To hide this desire during the few days he remained at The Cedars was

-the hardest task Garry Knapp had ever undertaken. If Dorothy was demure

-and modest she was likewise determined. Her happiness, she felt, was at

-stake and although she could but admire the attitude Garry held upon

-this momentous question she did not feel that he was right.

-

-“Why, what does it matter about money—mere money?” she said one night

-to Tavia, confessing everything when her chum had crept into her bed

-with her after the lights were out. “I believe I care for money less

-than he does.”

-

-“You bet you do!” ejaculated Tavia, vigorously. “Just at present that

-young cowboy person is caring more for money than Ananias did. Money

-looks bigger to him than anything else in the world. With money he

-could have you, Doro Doodlekins—don’t you see?”

-

-“But he can have me without!” wailed Dorothy, burying her head in the

-pillow.

-

-“Oh, no he can’t,” Tavia said wisely and quietly. “You know he can’t.

-If you could tempt him to throw up his principles in the matter, you

-know very well, Doro, that you would be heartbroken.”

-

-“What?”

-

-“Yes you would. You wouldn’t want a young man dangling after you who

-had thrown aside his self-respect for a girl. Now, would you?” And

-without waiting for an answer she continued: “Not that I approve of his

-foolishness. Some men _are_ that way, however. Thank heaven I am not a

-man.”

-

-“Oh! I’m glad you’re not, either,” confessed Dorothy with her soft lips

-now against Tavia’s cheek.

-

-“Thank you, ma’am. I have often thought I’d like to be of the hemale

-persuasion; but never, no more!” declared Tavia, with vigor. “Suppose

-_I_ should then be afflicted with an ingrowing conscience about taking

-money from the woman I married? Whe-e-e-ew!”

-

-“He wouldn’t have to,” murmured Dorothy, burying her head again and

-speaking in a muffled voice. “I’d give up the money.”

-

-“And if he had any sense or unselfishness at all he wouldn’t let you do

-_that_,” snapped Tavia. “No. You couldn’t get along without much money

-now, Dorothy.”

-

-“Nonsense——”

-

-“It is the truth. I know I should be hopelessly unhappy myself if I had

-to go home and live again just as they do there. I have been spoiled,”

-said Tavia, her voice growing lugubrious. “I want wealth—luxuries—and

-everything good that money buys. Yes, Doro, when it comes _my_ time to

-become engaged, I must get a wealthy man or none at all. I shall be put

-up at auction——”

-

-“Tavia! How you talk! Ridiculous!” exclaimed Dorothy. “You talk like a

-heathen.”

-

-“Am one when it comes to money matters,” groaned the girl. “I have got

-to marry money——”

-

-“If Nat White were as poor as a church mouse, you’d marry him in a

-minute!”

-

-“Oh—er—well,” sighed Tavia, “Nat is not going to ask me, I am afraid.”

-

-“He would in a minute if you’d tell him about those Lance Petterby

-letters.”

-

-“Don’t you dare tell him, Dorothy Dale!” exclaimed Tavia, almost in

-fear. “You must not. Now, promise.”

-

-“I have promised,” her friend said gloomily.

-

-“And see that you stick to it. I know,” said Tavia, “that I could

-bring Nat back to me by explaining. But there should be no need of

-explaining. He should know that—that—oh, well, what’s the use of

-talking! It’s all off!” and Tavia flounced around and buried her nose

-in the pillow.

-

-Dorothy’s wits were at work, however. In the morning she “put a flea

-in Ned’s ear,” as Tavia would have said, and Ned hurried off to the

-telegraph office to send a day letter to his brother. Dorothy did not

-censor that telegraph despatch or this section of it would never have

-gone over the wire:

-

- “Come back home and take a squint at the cowboy D. has picked out for

- herself.”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVII

-

-“IT’S ALL OFF!”

-

-

-By this time even Ned, dense as he sometimes showed himself to be, was

-aware of how things stood between the handsome stranger from the West

-and his cousin Dorothy.

-

-Ned’s heart was particularly warm at this juncture. He spent a good two

-hours every forenoon writing a long letter to Jennie.

-

-“What under the sun he finds to write about gets _me_,” declared Tavia.

-“He must indite sonnets to her eyebrows or the like. I never did

-believe that Ned White would fall so low as to be a poet.”

-

-“Love plays funny tricks with us,” sighed Dorothy.

-

-“Huh!” ejaculated Tavia, wide-eyed. “Do you feel like writing poetry

-yourself, Doro Dale? I vum!”

-

-However, to return to Ned, when his letter writing was done he was at

-the beck and call of the girls or was off with Garry Knapp for the

-rest of the day. Toward Garry he showed the same friendliness that

-his mother displayed and the major showed. They all liked the young

-man from Desert City; and they could not help admiring his character,

-although they could not believe him either wise or just to Dorothy.

-

-The situation was delicate in the extreme. As Dorothy and Garry had

-never approached the subject of their secret attachment for each other,

-and now, of course, did not speak of it to the others, not even Ned

-could blunder into any opening wherein he might “out with his opinion”

-to the Westerner.

-

-Garry Knapp showed nothing but the most gentlemanly regard for Dorothy.

-After that first evening on the ice, he did not often allow himself

-to be left alone in her company. He knew very well wherein his own

-weakness lay.

-

-He talked frankly of his future intentions. It had been agreed between

-him and Major Dale that the old Knapp ranch should be turned over to

-the Hardin estate lawyers when Garry went back West at a price per acre

-that was generous, as Garry said, but not so much above the market

-value that he would be “ashamed to look the lawyers in the face when he

-took the money.”

-

-Just what Garry would do with these few thousands he did not know. His

-education had been a classical one. He had taken up nothing special

-save mineralogy, and that only because of Uncle Terry’s lifelong

-interest in “prospects.”

-

-“I boned like a good fellow,” he told Ned, “on that branch just to

-please the old fellow. Of course, I’d tagged along with him on a burro

-on many a prospecting trip when I was a kid, and had learned a lot of

-prospector’s lore from the dear old codger.

-

-“But what the old prospector knows about his business is a good deal

-like what the old-fashioned farmer knows about growing things. He

-does certain things because they bring results, but the old farmer

-doesn’t know why. Just so with the old-time prospector. Uncle Terry’s

-scientific knowledge of minerals wasn’t a spoonful. I showed him things

-that made his eyes bug out—as we say in the West,” and Garry laughed

-reminiscently.

-

-“I shouldn’t have thought he’d ever have quarreled with you,” said Ned,

-having heard this fact from the girls. “You must have been helpful to

-him.”

-

-“That’s the reef we were wrecked on,” said Garry, shaking his head

-rather sadly.

-

-“You don’t mean it! How?” queried Ned.

-

-“Why, I’ll tell you. I don’t talk of it much. Of course, you understand

-Uncle Terry is one of the old timers. He’s lived a rough life and

-associated with rough men for most of it. And his slant on moral

-questions is not—well—er—what yours and mine would be, White.”

-

-“I see,” said Ned, nodding. “You collided on a matter of ethics?”

-

-“As you might say,” admitted Garry. “There are abandoned diggings

-all over the West, especially where gold was found in rich deposits

-that can now be dug over and, by scientific methods, made to yield

-comfortable fortunes.

-

-“Why, in the early rush the metal, silver, was not thought of! The

-miners cursed the black stuff which got in their way and later proved

-to be almost pure silver ore. Other valuable metals were neglected,

-too. The miners could see nothing but yellow. They were gold crazy.”

-

-“I see,” Ned agreed. “It must have been great times out there in those

-early days.”

-

-“Ha!” exclaimed Garry. “For every ounce of gold mined in the old times

-there was a man wasted. The early gold mining cost more in men than a

-war, believe me! However, that isn’t the point, or what I was telling

-you about.

-

-“Some time after I left the university Uncle Terry wanted me to go off

-on a prospecting trip with him and I went—just for the holiday, you

-understand. These last few years he hasn’t made a strike. He has plenty

-of money, anyway; but the wanderlust of the old prospector seizes him

-and he just has to pack up and go.

-

-“We struck Seeper’s Gulch. It was some strike in its day, about thirty

-years ago. The gold hunters dug fortunes out of that gulch, and then

-the Chinese came in and raked over and sifted the refuse. You’d think

-there wasn’t ten cents worth of valuable metal left in that place,

-wouldn’t you?”

-

-Ned nodded, keenly interested in the story.

-

-“Well, that’s what the old man thought. He made all kinds of jokes

-over a squatter’s family that had picketed there and were digging and

-toiling over the played out claims.

-

-“It seemed that they held legal title to a big patch of the gulch.

-Some sharper had sawed off the claim on them for good, hard-earned

-money; and here they were, broke and desperate. Why! there hadn’t been

-any gold mined there for years and years, and their title, although

-perfectly legal, wasn’t worth a cent—or so it seemed.

-

-“Uncle Terry tried to show them that. They were stubborn. They had to

-be, you see,” said Garry, shaking his head. “Every hope they had in the

-world was right in that God-forsaken gulch.

-

-“Well,” he sighed, “I got to mooning around, impatient to be gone, and

-I found something. It was so plain that I wonder I didn’t fall over it

-and break my neck,” and Garry laughed.

-

-“What was it? Not gold?”

-

-“No. Copper. And a good, healthy lead of it. I traced the vein some

-distance before I would believe it myself. And the bulk of it seemed

-to lie right inside the boundaries of that supposedly worthless claim

-those poor people had bought.

-

-“I didn’t dare tell anybody at first. I had to figure out how she could

-be mined (for copper mining isn’t like washing gold dust) and how the

-ore could be taken to the crusher. The old roads were pretty good, I

-found. It wouldn’t be much of a haul from Seeper’s Gulch to town.

-

-“Then I told Uncle Terry—and showed him.”

-

-Ned waited, looking at Garry curiously.

-

-“That—that’s where he and I locked horns,” sighed Garry. “Uncle Terry

-was for offering to buy the claim for a hundred dollars. He had that

-much in his jeans and the squatters were desperate—meat and meal

-all out and not enough gold in the bottom of the pans to color a

-finger-ring.”

-

-He was silent again for a moment, and then continued:

-

-“I couldn’t see it. To take advantage of the ignorance of that poor

-family wasn’t a square deal. Uncle Terry lost his head and then lost

-his temper. To stop him from making any such deal I out with my story

-and showed those folks just where they stood. A little money would

-start ’em, and I lent them that——”

-

-“But your Uncle Terry?” asked Ned, curiously.

-

-“Oh, he went off mad. I saw the squatters started right and then made

-for home. I was some time getting there——”

-

-“You cleaned yourself out helping the owners of the claim?” put in Ned,

-shrewdly.

-

-“Why—yes, I did. But that was nothing. I’d been broke before. I got

-a job here and there to carry me along. But when I reached home

-Uncle Terry had hiked out for Alaska and left a letter with a lawyer

-for me. I was the one bad egg in the family,” and Garry laughed

-rather ruefully, “so he said. He’d rather give his money to build a

-rattlesnake home than to me. So that’s where we stand to-day. And you

-see, White, I did not exactly prepare myself for any profession or any

-business, depending as I was on Uncle Terry’s bounty.”

-

-“Tough luck,” announced Ned White.

-

-“It was very foolish on my part. No man should look forward to

-another’s shoes. If I had gone ahead with the understanding that I

-had my own row to hoe when I got through school, believe me, I should

-have picked my line long before I left the university and prepared

-accordingly.

-

-“I figure that I’m set back several years. With this little bunch of

-money your uncle is going to pay me for my old ranch I have got to get

-into something that will begin to turn me a penny at once. Not so easy

-to do, Mr. White.”

-

-“But what about the folks you steered into the copper mine?” asked Ned.

-

-“Oh, they are making out fairly well. It was no great fortune, but a

-good paying proposition and may keep going for years. Copper is away up

-now, you know. They paid me back the loan long ago. But poor old Uncle

-Terry—well, he is still sore, and I guess he will remain so for the

-remainder of his natural. I’m sorry for him.”

-

-“And not for yourself?” asked Ned, slyly.

-

-“Why, I’d be glad if he’d back me in something. Developing my ranch

-into wheat land, for instance. Money lies that way, I believe. But it

-takes two or three years to get going and lots of money for machinery.

-Can’t raise wheat out there in a small way. It means tractors, and

-gangplows and all such things. Whew! no use thinking of that now,” and

-Garry heaved a final sigh.

-

-He had not asked Ned to keep the tale to himself; therefore, the family

-knew the particulars of Garry Knapp’s trouble with his uncle in a short

-time. It was the one thing needed to make Major Dale, at least, desire

-to keep in touch with the young Westerner.

-

-“I’m not surprised that he looks upon any understanding with Dorothy in

-the way he does,” the major said to Aunt Winnie. “He is a high-minded

-fellow—no doubt of it. And I believe he is no namby-pamby. He will go

-far before he gets through. I’ll prophesy that.”

-

-“But, my dear Major,” said his sister, with a rather tremulous smile,

-“it may be years before such an honorable young man as Garry Knapp

-will acquire a competence sufficient to encourage him to come after our

-Dorothy.”

-

-“Well—er——”

-

-“And they need each other _now_,” went on Mrs. White, with assurance,

-“while they are young and can get the good of youth and of life itself.

-Not after their hearts are starved by long and impatient waiting.”

-

-“Oh, the young idiot!” growled the major, shaking his head.

-

-Aunt Winnie laughed, although there was still a tremor in her voice.

-“You call him high-minded and an idiot——”

-

-“He is both,” growled Major Dale. “Perhaps, to be cynical, one might

-say that in this day and generation the two attributes go together! I—I

-wish I knew the way out.”

-

-“So do I,” sighed Mrs. White. “For Dorothy’s sake,” she added.

-

-“For both their sakes,” said the major. “For, believe me, this young

-man isn’t having a very good time, either.”

-

-Tavia wished she might “cut the Gordian knot,” as she expressed it. Ned

-would have gladly shown Garry a way out of the difficulty. And Dorothy

-Dale could do nothing!

-

-“What helpless folk we girls are, after all,” she confessed to Tavia.

-“I thought I was being so bold, so brave, in getting Garry to come

-East. I believed I had solved the problem through father’s aid. And

-look at it now! No farther toward what I want than before.”

-

-“Garry Knapp is a—a chump!” exclaimed Tavia, with some heat.

-

-“But a very lovable chump,” added Dorothy, smiling patiently. “Oh,

-dear! It must be his decision, not mine, after all. I tell you, even

-the most modern of girls are helpless in the end. The man decides.”

-

-Nat came back to North Birchland in haste. It needed only a word—even

-from his brother—to bring him. Perhaps he would have met Tavia as

-though no misunderstanding had arisen between them had she been willing

-to ignore their difficulty.

-

-But when he kissed Dorothy and his mother, and turned to Tavia, she put

-out her hand and looked Nat sternly in the eye. He knew better than to

-make a joke of his welcome home with her. She had raised the barrier

-herself and she meant to keep it up.

-

-“The next time you kiss me it must be in solemn earnest.”

-

-She had said that to Nat and she proposed to abide by it. The old,

-cordial, happy-go-lucky comradeship could never be renewed. Nat

-realized that suddenly and dropped his head as he went indoors with his

-bag.

-

-He had returned almost too late to meet Garry Knapp after all. The

-Westerner laughingly protested that he had loafed long enough. He had

-to run down to New York for a day or so to attend to some business for

-Bob Douglas and then must start West.

-

-“Come back here before you really start for the ‘wild and woolly,’”

-begged Ned. “We’ll get up a real house party——”

-

-“Tempt me not!” cried Garry, with hand raised. “It is hard enough for

-me to pull my freight now. If I came again I’d only have to—well! it

-would be harder, that’s all,” and his usually hopeful face was overcast.

-

-“Remember you leave friends here, my boy,” said the major, when he saw

-the young man alone the evening before his departure. “You’ll find no

-friends anywhere who will be more interested in your success than these

-at The Cedars.”

-

-“I believe you, Major. I wish I could show my appreciation of your

-kindness in a greater degree by accepting your offer to help me. But I

-can’t do it. It wouldn’t be right.”

-

-“No. From your standpoint, I suppose it wouldn’t,” admitted the major,

-with a sigh. “But at least you’ll correspond——”

-

-“Ned and I are going to write each other frequently—we’ve got quite

-chummy, you know,” and Garry laughed. “You shall all hear of me. And

-thank you a thousand times for your interest Major Dale!”

-

-“But my interest hasn’t accomplished what I wanted it to accomplish,”

-muttered the old gentleman, as Garry turned away.

-

-Dorothy showed a brave face when the time came for Garry’s departure.

-She did not make an occasion for seeing him alone, as she might easily

-have done. Somehow she felt bound in honor—in Garry’s honor—not to

-try to break down his decision. She knew he understood her; and she

-understood Garry. Why make the parting harder by any talk about it?

-

-But Tavia’s observation as Garry was whirled away by Ned in the car for

-the railway station, sounded like a knell in Dorothy Dale’s ears.

-

-“It’s all off!” remarked Tavia.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVIII

-

-THE CASTAWAYS

-

-

-Drifts covered the fences and fitted every evergreen about The Cedars

-with a white cap. The snow had come quite unexpectedly and in the arms

-of a blizzard.

-

-For two days and nights the storm had raged all over the East. Wires

-were down and many railroad trains were blocked. New York City was

-reported snowbound.

-

-“I bet old Garry is holed up in the hotel there all right,” said Ned.

-“He’d never have got away before the storm.”

-

-Dorothy hoped Garry had not started for the West and had become

-snowbound in some train; but she said nothing about it.

-

-It took two full days for the roads to be broken around North

-Birchland. And then, of course, to use an automobile was quite

-impossible.

-

-The Dale boys were naturally delighted, for there was no school for

-several days and snow-caves, snowmen and snow monuments of all kind

-were constructed all over the White lawns.

-

-Nor were Joe and Roger alone in these out-of-door activities. The

-girls, as well as Ned and Nat, lent their assistance, and Tavia proved

-to be a fine snow sculptor.

-

-“Always was. Believe I might learn to work putty and finally become a

-great sculptor,” she declared. “At Glenwood they said I had a talent

-for composition.”

-

-“What kind of figure do you prefer to sculp, Tavia?” asked Ned, with

-curiosity.

-

-“Oh, I think I should just _love_ a job in an ice-cream factory,

-turning out works of art for parties and banquets. Or making little

-figures on New Year’s and birthday cakes. And then—think of all the

-nice ‘eats’!”

-

-“Oh! I’d like to do that,” breathed Roger, with round eyes.

-

-“Now, see,” laughed Dorothy, “you have started Roger, perhaps, in a

-career. He does love ice-cream and cake.”

-

-At least the joke started something else if it did not point Roger on

-the road to fame as an “ice-cream sculptor.” The boy was inordinately

-fond of goodies and Tavia promised him a treat just as soon as ever she

-could get into town.

-

-A few days before Tavia had been the recipient of a sum of money from

-home. When he had any money himself Mr. Travers never forgot his pretty

-daughter’s need. He was doing very well in business now, as well as

-holding a political position that paid a good salary. This money she

-had received was of course burning a hole in Tavia’s pocket. She must

-needs get into town as soon as the roads were passable, to buy goodies

-as her contract with Roger called for.

-

-The horses had not been out of the stable for a week and the coachman

-admitted they needed exercise. So he was to drive Tavia to town

-directly after breakfast. It was washday, however, and something had

-happened to the furnace in the laundry. The coachman was general handy

-man about the White premises, and he was called upon to fix the furnace

-just as Tavia—and the horses—were ready.

-

-“But who’ll drive me?” asked Tavia, looking askance at the spirited

-span that the boy from the stables was holding. “Goodness! aren’t they

-full of ginger?”

-

-“Better wait till afternoon,” advised Dorothy.

-

-“But they are all ready, and so am I. Besides,” said Tavia with a

-glance at Roger’s doleful face, “somebody smells disappointment.”

-

-Roger understood and said, trying to speak gruffly:

-

-“Oh, I don’t mind.”

-

-“No. I see you don’t,” Tavia returned dryly, and just then Nat appeared

-on the porch in bearskin and driving gloves.

-

-“Get in, Tavia, if you want to go. The horses need the work, anyway;

-and the coachman may be all day at that furnace.”

-

-“Oh—I—ah——” began Tavia. Then she closed her lips and marched down the

-steps and got into the cutter. Whatever her feeling about the matter,

-she was not going to attract everybody’s attention by backing out.

-

-Nat tucked the robes around her and got in himself. Then he gathered up

-the reins, the boy sprang out of the way, and they were off.

-

-With the runners of the light sleigh humming at their heels the horses

-gathered speed each moment. Nat hung on to the reins and the roses

-began to blow in Tavia’s cheeks and the fire of excitement burn in her

-eyes.

-

-How she loved to travel fast! And in riding beside Nat the pleasure of

-speed for her was always doubled. Whether it was in the automobile, or

-behind the galloping blacks, as now, to speed along the highways by

-Nat’s side was a delight.

-

-The snow was packed just right for sleighing and the wildly excited

-span tore into town at racing speed. Indeed, so excited were the horses

-that Nat thought it better not to stop anywhere until the creatures had

-got over their first desire to run.

-

-So they swept through the town and out upon the road to The Beeches.

-

-“Don’t mind, do you?” Nat stammered, casting a quick, sidelong glance

-at Tavia.

-

-“Oh, Nat! it’s wonderful!” she gasped, but looked straight ahead.

-

-“Good little sport—the best ever!” groaned Nat; but perhaps she did not

-hear the compliment thus wrested from him.

-

-He turned into the upper road for The Beeches, believing it would be

-more traveled than the other highway. In this, however, he was proved

-mistaken in a very few minutes. The road breakers had not been far on

-this highway, so the blacks were soon floundering through the drifts

-and were rapidly brought down to a sensible pace.

-

-“Say! this is altogether too rough,” Nat declared. “It’s no fun being

-tossed about like beans in a sack. I’d better turn ’em around.”

-

-“You’ll tip us over, Nat,” objected Tavia.

-

-“Likely to,” admitted the young man. “So we’d better both hop out while

-I perform the necessary operation.”

-

-“Maybe they will get away from you,” she cried with some fear. “Be

-careful.”

-

-“Watch your Uncle Nat,” he returned lightly. “I’ll not let them get

-away.”

-

-Tavia was the last person to be cautious; so she hopped out into the

-snow on her side of the sleigh while Nat alighted on the other. A sharp

-pull on the bits and the blacks were plunging in the drift to one side

-of the half beaten track. Tavia stepped well back out of the way.

-

-The horses breasted the deep snow, snorting and tossing their heads.

-Their spirits were not quenched even after this long and hard dash from

-The Cedars.

-

-The sleigh did go over on its side; but Nat righted it quickly. This,

-however, necessitated his letting go of the reins with one hand.

-

-The next moment the sleigh came with a terrific shock into collision

-with an obstruction. It was a log beside the road, completely hidden in

-the snow.

-

-Frightened, the horses plunged and kicked. The doubletree snapped

-and the reins were jerked from Nat’s grasp. The horses leaped ahead,

-squealing and plunging, tearing the harness completely from their

-backs. The sleigh remained wedged behind the log; but the animals were

-freed and tore away along the road, back toward North Birchland.

-

-Tavia had made no outcry; but now, in the midst of the snow cloud that

-had been kicked up, she saw that Nat was floundering in the drift.

-

-“Oh, Nat! are you hurt?” she moaned, and ran to him.

-

-But he was already gingerly getting upon his feet. He had lost his cap,

-and the neck of his coat, where the big collar flared away, was packed

-with snow.

-

-“Badly hurt—in my dignity,” he growled. “Oh gee, Tavia! Come and scoop

-some of this snow out of my neck.”

-

-She giggled at that. She could not help it, for he looked really funny.

-Nevertheless she lent him some practical aid, and after he had shaken

-himself out of the loose snow and found his cap, he could grin himself

-at the situation.

-

-“We’re castaway in the snow, just the same, old girl,” he said.

-“What’ll we do—start back and go through North Birchland, the beheld of

-all beholders, or take the crossroad back to The Cedars—and so save a

-couple of miles?”

-

-“Oh, let’s go home the quickest way,” she said. “I—I don’t want to be

-the laughing stock for the whole town.”

-

-“My fault, Tavia. I’m sorry,” he said ruefully.

-

-“No more your fault than it was mine,” she said loyally.

-

-“Oh, yes it was,” he groaned, looking at her seriously. “And it always

-_is_ my fault.”

-

-“What is always your fault?” she asked him but tremulously and stepping

-back a little.

-

-“Our scraps, Tavia. Our big scrap. I _know_ I ought not to have

-questioned you about that old letter. Oh, hang it, Tavia! don’t you see

-just how sorry and ashamed I am?” he cried boyishly, putting out both

-gloved hands to her.

-

-“I—I know this isn’t just the way to tell you—or the place. But my

-heart just _aches_ because of that scrap, Tavia. I don’t care how many

-letters you have from other people. I know there’s nothing out of the

-way in them. I was just jealous—and—and mean——”

-

-“Anybody tell you why Lance Petterby was writing to me?” put in Tavia

-sternly.

-

-“No. Of course not. _Hang_ Lance Petterby, anyway——”

-

-“Oh, that would be too bad. His wife would feel dreadfully if Lance

-were hung.”

-

-“_What!_”

-

-“I knew you were still jealous of poor Lance,” Tavia shot in, wagging

-her head. “And that word proves it.”

-

-“I don’t care. I said what I meant before I knew he was married. _Is_

-he?” gasped Nat.

-

-“Very much so. They’ve got a baby girl and I’m its godmother. Octavia

-Susan Petterby.”

-

-“Tavia!” Nat whispered still holding out his hands. “Do—do you forgive

-me?”

-

-“Now! is this a time or a place to talk things over?” she demanded

-apparently inclined to keep up the wall. “We are castaway in the snow.

-Bo-o-ooh! we’re likely to freeze here——”

-

-“I don’t care if I do freeze,” he declared recklessly. “You’ve got to

-answer me here and now, Tavia.”

-

-“Have I?” with a toss of her head. “Who are _you_ to command _me_, I’d

-like to know?” Then with sudden seriousness and a flood of crimson in

-her face that fairly glorified Tavia Travers: “How about that request I

-told you your mother must make, Nat? I meant it.”

-

-“See here! See here!” cried the young man, tearing off his gloves and

-dashing them into the snow while he struggled to open his bearskin coat

-and then the coat beneath.

-

-From an inner pocket he drew forth a letter and opened it so she could

-read.

-

-“See!” Nat cried. “It’s from mother. She wrote it to me while I was in

-Boston—before old Ned’s telegram came. See what she says here—second

-paragraph, Tavia.”

-

-The girl read the words with a little intake of her breath:

-

- “And, my dear boy, I know that you have quarreled in some way and

- for some reason with our pretty, impetuous Tavia. Do not risk your

- own happiness and hers, Nathaniel, through any stubbornness. Tavia

- is worth breaking one’s pride for. She is the girl I hope to see you

- marry—nobody else in this wide world could so satisfy me as your wife.”

-

-That was as far as Tavia could read, for her eyes were misty. She hung

-her head like a child and whispered, as Nat approached:

-

-“Oh, Nat! Nat! how I doubted her! She is _so_ good!”

-

-He put his arms about her, and she snuggled up against the bearskin

-coat.

-

-“Say! how about _me_?” he demanded huskily. “Now that the Widder White

-has asked you to be her daughter-in-law, don’t I come into the picture

-at all?”

-

-Tavia raised her head, looked at him searchingly, and suddenly laid her

-lips against his eager ones.

-

-“You’re—you’re the _whole_ picture for me, Nat!” she breathed.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIX

-

-SOMETHING AMAZING

-

-

-Now that Garry Knapp had left The Cedars—had passed out of her life

-forever perhaps—Dorothy Dale found herself in a much disturbed state of

-mind. She did not wish to sit and think over her situation. If she did

-she knew she would break down.

-

-She was tempted—oh! sorely tempted—to write Garry Knapp all that was in

-her heart. Her cheeks burned when she thought of doing such a thing;

-yet, after all, she was fighting for happiness and as she saw it

-receding from her she grew desperate.

-

-But Dorothy Dale had gone as far as she could. She had done her best

-to bring the man she loved into line with her own thought. She had the

-satisfaction of believing he felt toward her as she did toward him. But

-there matters stood; she could do no more. She did not let her mind

-dwell upon this state of affairs; she could not and retain that calm

-expected of Dorothy Dale by the rest of the family at The Cedars. It is

-what is expected of us that we accomplish, after all. She had never

-been in the habit of giving away to her feelings, even as a schoolgirl.

-Much more was expected of her now.

-

-The older people about her were, of course, sympathetic. She would have

-been glad to get away from them for that very reason. Whenever Tavia

-looked at her Dorothy saw commiseration in her eyes. So, too, with Aunt

-Winnie and the major. Dorothy turned with relief to her brothers who

-had not much thought for anything but fun and frolic.

-

-Joe and Roger had quite fallen in love with Garry Knapp and talked a

-good deal about him. But their talk was innocent enough and was not

-aimed at her. They had not discovered—as they had regarding Jennie

-Hapgood and Ned—that their big sister was in the toils of this strange

-new disease that seemed to have smitten the young folk at The Cedars.

-

-On this very day that Tavia had elected to go to town and Nat had

-driven her in the cutter, Dorothy put on her wraps for a tramp through

-the snow. As she started toward the back road she saw Joe and Roger

-coming away from the kitchen door, having been whisked out by the cook.

-

-“Take it all and go and don’t youse boys be botherin’ me again

-to-day—and everything behind because of the wash,” cried Mary, as the

-boys departed.

-

-“What have you been bothering Mary for?” asked Dorothy, hailing her

-brothers.

-

-“Suet,” said Joe.

-

-“Oh, do come on, Sister,” cried the eager Roger. “We’re going to feed

-’em.”

-

-“Feed what?” asked Dorothy.

-

-“The bluejays and the clapes and the snow buntings,” Roger declared.

-

-“With suet?”

-

-“That’s for the jays,” explained Joe. “We’ve got plenty of cracked corn

-and oats for the little birds. You see, we tie the chunks of suet up in

-the trees—and you ought to see the bluejays come after it!”

-

-“Do come with us,” begged Roger again, who always found a double

-pleasure in having Dorothy attend them on any venture.

-

-“I don’t know. You boys have grown so you can keep ahead of me,”

-laughed Dorothy. “Where are you going—how far?”

-

-“Up to Snake Hill—there by the gully. Mr. Garry Knapp showed us last

-week,” Joe said. “He says he always feeds the birds in the winter time

-out where he lives.”

-

-Dorothy smiled and nodded. “I should presume he did,” she said. “He is

-that kind—isn’t he, boys?”

-

-“He’s bully,” said Roger, with enthusiasm.

-

-“_What_ kind?” asked Joe, with some caution.

-

-“Just kind,” laughed Dorothy. “Kind to everybody and everything. Birds

-and all,” she said. But to herself she thought: “Kind to everybody but

-poor little me!”

-

-However, she went on with her brothers. They plowed through the drifts

-in the back road, but found the going not as hard as in the woods. The

-tramp to the edge of the gully into which the boys had come so near to

-plunging on their sled weeks before, was quite exhausting.

-

-This distant spot had been selected because of the number of birds

-that always were to be found here, winter or summer. The undergrowth

-was thick and the berries and seeds tempted many of the songsters and

-bright-plumaged birds to remain beyond the usual season for migration.

-

-Then it would be too late for them to fly South had they so desired.

-Now, with the heavy snow heaped upon everything edible, the feathered

-creatures were going to have a time of famine if they were not thought

-of by their human neighbors.

-

-Sparrows and chicadees are friendly little things and will keep close

-to human habitations in winter; but the bluejay, that saucy rascal, is

-always shy. He and his wilder brothers must be fed in the woods.

-

-There were the tracks of the birds—thousands and thousands of tracks

-about the gully. Roger began to throw out the grain, scattering it

-carefully on the snowcrust, while Joe climbed up the first tree with a

-lump of suet tied to a cord.

-

-“I got to tie it high,” he told Dorothy, who asked him, “’cause

-otherwise, Mr. Knapp says, dogs or foxes, or such like, will get it

-instead of the birds.”

-

-“Oh, I see,” Dorothy said. “Look where you step, Roger. See! the gully

-is level full of snow. What a drift!”

-

-This was true. The snow lay in the hollow from twenty to thirty feet in

-depth. None of the Dales could remember seeing so much snow before.

-

-Dorothy held the other pieces of suet for Joe while he climbed the

-second tree. It was during this process that she suddenly missed Roger.

-She could not hear him nor see him.

-

-“Roger!” she called.

-

-“What’s the matter with you?” demanded Joe tartly. “You’re scaring the

-birds.”

-

-“But Roger is scaring _me_,” his sister told him. “Look, Joe, from

-where you are. Can you see him? Is he hiding from us?”

-

-Joe gave a glance around; then he hastened to descend the tree.

-

-“What is it?” asked Dorothy worriedly. “What has happened to him?”

-

-Joe said never a word, but hastened along the bank of the gully. They

-could scarcely distinguish the line of the bank in some places and

-right at the very steepest part was a wallow in the snow. Something

-had sunk down there and the snow had caved in after it!

-

-“Roger!” gasped Dorothy, her heart beating fast and the muscles of her

-throat tightening.

-

-“Oh, cricky!” groaned Joe. “He’s gone down.”

-

-It was the steepest and deepest part of the gully. Not a sound came up

-from the huge drift into which the smaller boy had evidently tumbled—no

-answer to their cries.

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-Dorothy and her brothers had scarcely gone out of sight of the house

-when Major Dale, looking from the broad front window of his room,

-beheld a figure plowing through the heaped up snow and in at the

-gateway of The Cedars. It was not Nat and it was not Ned; at first he

-did not recognize the man approaching the front door at all.

-

-Then he suddenly uttered a shout which brought the housemaid from her

-dusting in the hall.

-

-“Major Dale! what is it, please? Can I do anything for you?” asked the

-girl, her hand upon her heart.

-

-“Great glory! did I scare you, Mina?” he demanded. “Well! I’m pretty

-near scared myself. Leastways, I am amazed. Run down and open the door

-for Mr. Knapp—and bring him right up here.”

-

-“Mr. Knapp!” cried the maid, and was away on swift feet, for Garry had

-endeared himself to the serving people as well as to the family during

-his brief stay at The Cedars.

-

-The young man threw aside his outer clothing in haste and ran upstairs

-to the major’s room. Dorothy’s father had got up in his excitement and

-was waiting for him with eager eyes.

-

-“Garry! Garry Knapp!” he exclaimed. “What has happened? What has

-brought you back here, my dear boy?”

-

-Garry was smiling, but it was a grave smile. Indeed, something dwelt in

-the young man’s eyes that the major had never seen before.

-

-“What is it?” repeated the old gentleman, as he seized Garry’s hand.

-

-“Major, I’ve come to ask a favor,” blurted out the Westerner.

-

-“A favor—and at last?” cried Major Dale. “It is granted.”

-

-“Wait till you hear what it is—all of it. First I want you to call our

-bargain off.”

-

-“What? You don’t want to sell your ranch?” gasped the major.

-

-“No, sir. Things have—well, have changed a bit. My ranch is something

-that I must not sell, for I can see a way now to work it myself.”

-

-“You can, my boy? You can develop it? Then the bargain’s off!” cried

-the major. “I only want to see you successful.”

-

-“Thank you, sir. You are more than kind—kinder than I have any

-reason to expect. And I presume you think me a fellow of fluctuating

-intentions, eh?” and he laughed shortly.

-

-“I am waiting to hear about that, Garry,” said the major, eyeing him

-intently.

-

-With a thrill in his voice that meant joy, yet with eyes that were

-frankly bedimmed with tears, Garry Knapp put a paper into Major Dale’s

-hand, saying:

-

-“Read that, Major,—read that and tell me what you think of it.”

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXX

-

-SO IT WAS ALL SETTLED

-

-

-“What’s this—what’s this, my boy?” cried the major hastily adjusting

-his reading glasses. “A telegram? And from the West, eh?”

-

-“A night letter from Bob Douglas. I got it yesterday morning. I’ve been

-all this time getting here, Major. Believe me! the railroads are badly

-blocked.”

-

-Major Dale was reading the telegram. His face flushed and his eyes

-brightened as he read.

-

-“This is authentic, Garry?” he finally asked, with shaking voice.

-

-“Sure. I know Bob Douglas—and Gibson, the lawyer, too. Gibson has been

-in touch with the poor old man all the time. I expect Uncle Terry must

-have left the will and all his papers with Gibson when he hiked out

-for Alaska. Poor, poor old man! He’s gone without my ever having seen

-him again.” Garry’s voice was broken and he turned to look out of the

-window.

-

-“Not your fault, my boy,” said the major, clearing his throat.

-

-“No, sir. But my misfortune. I know now that the old man loved me or

-he would not have made me rich in the end.”

-

-Major Dale was reading the long telegram again. “Your friend, Mr.

-Douglas, repeats a phrase of the will, it is evident,” he said softly.

-“Your uncle says you are to have his money ‘because you are too honest

-to ever make any for yourself.’ Do you believe that, Garry?” and his

-eyes suddenly twinkled.

-

-Garry Knapp blushed and shook his head negatively. “That’s just the old

-man’s caustic wit,” he said. “I’ll make good all right. I’ve got the

-land, and now I’ve got the money to develop it——”

-

-“Major Dale! Where is Miss Dorothy?”

-

-“Gone out for a tramp in the snow. I heard her with the boys,” said the

-major, smiling. “I—I expect, Garry, you wish to tell her the good news?”

-

-“And something else, Major, if you will permit me.”

-

-The old gentleman looked at him searchingly. “I am not altogether sure

-that you deserve to get her, Garry. You are a laggard in love,” he

-said. “But you have my best wishes.”

-

-“You’ll not find me slow that way after _this_!” exclaimed Garry Knapp

-gaily, as he made for the door.

-

-Thus it was that, having traced Dorothy and her brothers from the

-house, the young Westerner came upon the site of the accident to Roger

-just as the girl and Joe discovered the disappearance of the smaller

-boy in the deep drift.

-

-“Run for help, Joe!” Dorothy was crying. “Bring somebody! And ropes!

-No! don’t you dare jump into that drift! Then there will be two of you

-lost. Oh!”

-

-“Hooray!” yelled Joe at that instant. “Here’s Mr. Knapp!”

-

-Dorothy could not understand Garry’s appearance; but she had to believe

-her eyesight. Before the young man, approaching now by great leaps, had

-reached the spot they had explained the trouble to him.

-

-“Don’t be so frightened, Dorothy,” he cried. “The boy won’t smother in

-that snowdrift. He’s probably so scared that——”

-

-Just then a muffled cry came to their ears from below in the drifted

-gulch.

-

-“He isn’t dead then!” declared Joe. “How’re we going to get him out,

-Mr. Knapp?”

-

-“By you and Miss Dorothy standing back out of danger and letting me

-burrow there,” said Garry.

-

-He had already thrown aside his coat. Now he leaped well out from the

-edge of the gully bank, turning in the air so as to face them as he

-plunged, feet first, into the drift.

-

-It was partially hollowed out underneath—and this fact Garry had

-surmised. The wind had blown the snow into the gully, but a hovering

-wreath of the frozen element had tempted Roger upon its surface and

-then treacherously let him down into the heart of it.

-

-Garry plunged through and almost landed upon the frightened boy. He

-groped for him, picked him up in his arms, and the next minute Roger’s

-head and shoulders burst through the snow crust and he was tossed by

-Garry out upon the bank.

-

-“Oh, Garry!” gasped Dorothy, trying to help the man up the bank and out

-of the snow wreath. “What ever should we have done without you?”

-

-“I don’t see what you’re going to do without me, anyway,” laughed the

-young man breathlessly, finally recovering his feet.

-

-“Garry!”

-

-She looked at him almost in fear, gazing into his flushed face. She saw

-that something had happened—something that had changed his attitude

-toward her; but she could not guess what it was.

-

-The boys were laughing, and Joe was beating the snow off the clothing

-of his younger brother. They did not notice their elders for the moment.

-

-“How——Why did you come back, Garry?” the girl asked directly.

-

-“I come back to see if you would let such a blundering fellow as I am

-tell you what is in his heart,” Garry said softly, looking at her with

-serious gaze.

-

-“Garry! What has happened?” she murmured.

-

-He told her quietly, but with a break in his voice that betrayed the

-depth of his feeling for his Uncle Terry. “The poor old boy!” he said.

-“If he had only showed me he loved me so while he lived—and given me a

-chance to show him.”

-

-“It is not your fault,” said Dorothy using the words her father had

-used in commenting upon the matter.

-

-They were standing close together—there in the snow, and his arms were

-about her. Dorothy looked up bravely into his face.

-

-“I—I guess I can’t say it very well, Dorothy. But you know how I

-feel—how much I love you, my dear. I’m going to make good out there on

-the old ranch, and then I want to come back here for you. Will you wait

-for me, Dorothy?”

-

-“I expected to have to wait much longer than that, Garry,” Dorothy

-replied with a tremulous sigh. And then as he drew her still closer she

-hid her face on his bosom.

-

-“Lookut! Lookut!” cried Roger in the background, suddenly observing the

-tableau. “What do you know about Dorothy and Garry Knapp doing it too?”

-

-“Gee!” growled Joe, in disgust. “It must be catching. Tavia and old

-Nat will get it. Come on away, Roger. Huh! they don’t even know we’re

-on earth.”

-

-And it was some time before Dorothy Dale and “that cowboy person” awoke

-to the fact that they were alone and it was a much longer time still

-before they started back for The Cedars, hand in hand.

-

-THE END.

-

-

-

-

-THE DOROTHY DALE SERIES

-

-By MARGARET PENROSE

-

-Author of “The Motor Girls Series”

-

-12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.

-

-

-[Illustration: Book]

-

-Dorothy Dale is the daughter of an old Civil War veteran who is running

-a weekly newspaper in a small Eastern town. Her sunny disposition, her

-fun-loving ways and her trials and triumphs make clean, interesting and

-fascinating reading. The Dorothy Dale Series is one of the most popular

-series of books for girls ever published.

-

-  DOROTHY DALE: A GIRL OF TO-DAY

-  DOROTHY DALE AT GLENWOOD SCHOOL

-  DOROTHY DALE’S GREAT SECRET

-  DOROTHY DALE AND HER CHUMS

-  DOROTHY DALE’S QUEER HOLIDAYS

-  DOROTHY DALE’S CAMPING DAYS

-  DOROTHY DALE’S SCHOOL RIVALS

-  DOROTHY DALE IN THE CITY

-  DOROTHY DALE’S PROMISE

-  DOROTHY DALE IN THE WEST

-  DOROTHY DALE’S STRANGE DISCOVERY

-  DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT (_New_)

-

-  CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers,      NEW YORK

-

-

-

-

-THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES

-

-By MARGARET PENROSE

-

-Author of the highly successful “Dorothy Dale Series”

-

-12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.

-

-[Illustration: Book]

-

-Since the enormous success of our “Motor Boys Series,” by Clarence

-Young, we have been asked to get out a similar series for girls. No

-one is better equipped to furnish these tales than Mrs. Penrose, who,

-besides being an able writer, is an expert automobilist.

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS

-        _or A Mystery of the Road_

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON A TOUR

-        _or Keeping a Strange Promise_

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS AT LOOKOUT BEACH

-        _or In Quest of the Runaways_

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS THROUGH NEW ENGLAND

-        _or Held by the Gypsies_

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CEDAR LAKE

-        _or The Hermit of Fern Island_

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON THE COAST

-        _or The Waif from the Sea_

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CRYSTAL BAY

-        _or The Secret of the Red Oar_

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON WATERS BLUE

-        _or The Strange Cruise of the Tartar_

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS AT CAMP SURPRISE

-        _or The Cave in the Mountain_

-

-  THE MOTOR GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS (_New_)

-        _or The Gypsy Girl’s Secret_

-

-  CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers,      NEW YORK

-

-

-

-

-THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES

-

-By LESTER CHADWICK

-

-Author of “The College Sports Series”

-

-_12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid._

-

-

-[Illustration: Book]

-

-

-BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS

-

-_or The Rivals of Riverside_

-

-In this volume, the first of the series, Joe is introduced as an

-everyday country boy who loves to play baseball and is particularly

-anxious to make his mark as a pitcher.

-

-

-BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE

-

-_or Pitching for the Blue Banner_

-

-Joe’s great ambition was to go to boarding school and play on the

-school team. He got to boarding school but found it hard to make the

-team.

-

-

-BASEBALL JOE AT YALE

-

-_or Pitching for the College Championship_

-

-From a preparatory school Baseball Joe goes to Yale University. He

-makes the freshman nine and in his second year becomes a varsity

-pitcher and pitches in several big games.

-

-

-BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE

-

-_or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher_

-

-In this volume the scene of action is shifted from Yale college to a

-baseball league of our central states.

-

-

-BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE

-

-_or A Young Pitcher’s Hardest Struggle_

-

-From the Central League Joe is drafted into the St. Louis Nationals. A

-corking baseball story that fans, both young and old, will enjoy.

-

-

-BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS

-

-_or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis_

-

-How Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay in the box

-makes an interesting baseball story.

-

-

-BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES (_New_)

-

-_or Pitching for the Championship_

-

-A story to set the hearts of all baseball fans to thumping wildly.

-The rivalry was of course of the keenest, and what Joe did to win the

-series is told in a manner to thrill the most jaded reader.

-

-

-_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_

-

-  CUPPLES & LEON CO.      Publishers      New York

-

-

-

-

-THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS SERIES

-

-By BROOKS HENDERLEY

-

-_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid._

-

-[Illustration: Book]

-

-_This new series relates the doings of a wide-awake boys’ club of the

-Y.M.C.A., full of good times and everyday, practical Christianity.

-Clean, elevating and full of fun and vigor, books that should be read

-by every boy._

-

-

-THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS OF CLIFFWOOD

-

-_or The Struggle for the Holwell Prize_

-

-Telling how the boys of Cliffwood were a wild set and how, on

-Hallowe’en, they turned the home town topsy-turvy. This led to an

-organization of a boys’ department in the local Y.M.C.A. When the lads

-realized what was being done for them, they joined in the movement with

-vigor and did all they could to help the good cause.

-

-

-THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS ON BASS ISLAND

-

-_or The Mystery of Russabaga Camp_

-

-Summer was at hand, and at a meeting of the boys of the Y.M.C.A.

-of Cliffwood, it was decided that a regular summer camp should be

-instituted. This was located at a beautiful spot on Bass Island, and

-there the lads went boating, swimming, fishing and tramping to their

-heart’s content.

-

-

-THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS AT FOOTBALL (_New_)

-

-_or Lively Doings On and Off the Gridiron_

-

-This volume will add greatly to the deserved success of this

-well-written series. The Y.M.C.A. boys are plucky lads—clean minded and

-as true as steel. They have many ups and downs, but in the end they

-“win out” in the best meaning of that term.

-

-

-_Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_

-

-  CUPPLES & LEON CO.      Publishers      New York

-

-

-

-

-  Transcriber’s Notes

-

-  pg 10 Changed: Otuside there beside the tracks

-             to: Outside there beside the tracks

-

-  pg 22 Changed: A floorwalked hastened forward.

-             to: A floorwalker hastened forward.

-

-  pg 32 Changed: like the notes of a coloratura sporano

-             to: like the notes of a coloratura soprano

-

-  pg 116 Changed: melodiously a pæn of joy

-              to: melodiously a pæan of joy

-

-  pg 117 Changed: sticking out a touseled head

-              to: sticking out a tousled head

-

-  pg 117 Changed: Jennie Hapgod peered out

-              to: Jennie Hapgood peered out

-

-

-

+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY DALE'S ENGAGEMENT ***
+
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber’s Note
+  Italic text displayed as: _italic_
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: “NO, DADDY,” SHE SAID, “I—I THINK I—I AM IN LOVE.”
+
+  _Dorothy Dale’s Engagement_      _Page 165_
+]
+
+
+
+
+  DOROTHY DALE’S
+  ENGAGEMENT
+
+  BY
+
+  MARGARET PENROSE
+
+  AUTHOR OF “DOROTHY DALE: A GIRL OF TO-DAY,” “DOROTHY
+  DALE AT GLENWOOD SCHOOL,” “DOROTHY DALE IN
+  THE CITY,” “THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES,” ETC.
+
+  ILLUSTRATED
+
+  NEW YORK
+
+  CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS BY MARGARET PENROSE
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price, per volume, 75 cents, postpaid_
+
+
+THE DOROTHY DALE SERIES
+
+  DOROTHY DALE: A GIRL OF TO-DAY
+  DOROTHY DALE AT GLENWOOD SCHOOL
+  DOROTHY DALE’S GREAT SECRET
+  DOROTHY DALE AND HER CHUMS
+  DOROTHY DALE’S QUEER HOLIDAYS
+  DOROTHY DALE’S CAMPING DAYS
+  DOROTHY DALE’S SCHOOL RIVALS
+  DOROTHY DALE IN THE CITY
+  DOROTHY DALE’S PROMISE
+  DOROTHY DALE IN THE WEST
+  DOROTHY DALE’S STRANGE DISCOVERY
+  DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT
+
+
+THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON A TOUR
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS AT LOOKOUT BEACH
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS THROUGH NEW ENGLAND
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CEDAR LAKE
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON THE COAST
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CRYSTAL BAY
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON WATERS BLUE
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS AT CAMP SURPRISE
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS
+
+ _Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York_
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
+  CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+
+  DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
+
+  I.      “ALONE IN A GREAT CITY”                                      1
+
+  II.     G. K. TO THE RESCUE                                         17
+
+  III.    TAVIA IN THE SHADE                                          26
+
+  IV.     SOMETHING ABOUT “G. KNAPP”                                  32
+
+  V.      DOROTHY IS DISTURBED                                        40
+
+  VI.     SOMETHING OF A MYSTERY                                      47
+
+  VII.    GARRY SEES A WALL AHEAD                                     57
+
+  VIII.   AND STILL DOROTHY IS NOT HAPPY                              66
+
+  IX.     THEY SEE GARRY’S BACK                                       72
+
+  X.      “HEART DISEASE”                                             78
+
+  XI.     A BOLD THING TO DO!                                         84
+
+  XII.    UNCERTAINTIES                                               92
+
+  XIII.   DOROTHY MAKES A DISCOVERY                                  101
+
+  XIV.    TAVIA IS DETERMINED                                        109
+
+  XV.     THE SLIDE ON SNAKE HILL                                    116
+
+  XVI.    THE FLY IN THE AMBER                                       127
+
+  XVII.   “DO YOU UNDERSTAND TAVIA?”                                 135
+
+  XVIII.  CROSS PURPOSES                                             141
+
+  XIX.    WEDDING BELLS IN PROSPECT                                  147
+
+  XX.     A GIRL OF TO-DAY                                           154
+
+  XXI.    THE BUD UNFOLDS                                            162
+
+  XXII.   DOROTHY DECIDES                                            169
+
+  XXIII.  NAT JUMPS AT A CONCLUSION                                  179
+
+  XXIV.   THIN ICE                                                   188
+
+  XXV.    GARRY BALKS                                                200
+
+  XXVI.   SERIOUS THOUGHTS                                           207
+
+  XXVII.  “IT’S ALL OFF!”                                            213
+
+  XXVIII. THE CASTAWAYS                                              225
+
+  XXIX.   SOMETHING AMAZING                                          235
+
+  XXX.    SO IT WAS ALL SETTLED                                      243
+
+
+
+
+DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+“ALONE IN A GREAT CITY”
+
+
+“Now, Tavia!”
+
+“Now, Dorothy!” mocked Octavia Travers, making a little face as she did
+so; but then, Tavia Travers could afford to “make faces,” possessing as
+she did such a naturally pretty one.
+
+“We must decide immediately,” her chum, Dorothy Dale, said decidedly,
+“whether to continue in the train under the river and so to the main
+station, or to change for the Hudson tube. You know, we can walk from
+the tube station at Twenty-third Street to the hotel Aunt Winnie always
+patronizes.”
+
+“With these heavy bags, Doro?”
+
+“Only a block and a half, my dear Tavia. You are a strong, healthy
+girl.”
+
+“But I do so like to have people do things for me,” sighed Tavia,
+clasping her hands. “And taxicabs are _so_ nice.”
+
+“And expensive,” rejoined Dorothy.
+
+“Of course. That is what helps to make them nice,” declared Tavia.
+“Doro, I just love to throw away money!”
+
+“You only think you do, my dear,” her chum said placidly. “Once you had
+thrown some of your own money away—some of that your father sent you to
+spend for your fall and winter outfit—you would sing a different tune.”
+
+“I don’t believe I would—not if by throwing it away I really made a
+splurge, Doro,” sighed Tavia. “I _love_ money.”
+
+“You mean, you love what money enables us to have.”
+
+“Yep,” returned the slangy Tavia. “And taxicab rides eat up money
+horribly. We found that out, Doro, when we were in New York before,
+that time—before we graduated from dear old Glenwood School.”
+
+“But _this_ isn’t getting us anywhere. To return——”
+
+“‘_Revenons à nos moutons!_’ Sure! I know,” gabbled Tavia. “Let us
+return to our mutton. He, he! Have I forgotten my French?”
+
+“I really think you have,” laughed Dorothy Dale. “Most of it. And
+almost everything else you learned at dear old Glenwood, Tavia. But,
+quick! Decide, my dear. How shall we enter New York City? We are
+approaching the Manhattan Transfer.”
+
+“Mercy! So quick?”
+
+“Yes. Just like that.”
+
+“I tell you,” whispered Tavia, suddenly becoming confidential, her
+sparkling eyes darting a glance ahead. “Let’s leave it to that nice
+man.”
+
+“Who? What man do you mean, Tavia?” demanded Dorothy, her face at once
+serious. “Do try to behave.”
+
+“Am behaving,” declared Tavia, nodding. “But I’m a good sport. Let’s
+leave it to him.”
+
+“Whom do you mean?”
+
+“You know. That nice, Western looking young man who opened the window
+for us that time. He is sitting in that chair just yonder. Don’t you
+see?” and she indicated a pair of broad shoulders in a gray coat, above
+which was revealed a well-shaped head with a thatch of black hair.
+
+“Do consider!” begged Dorothy, catching Tavia’s hand as though she
+feared her chum was about to get up to speak to this stranger. “This is
+a public car. We are observed.”
+
+“Little silly!” said Tavia, smiling upon her chum tenderly. “You
+don’t suppose I would do anything so crude—or rude—as to speak to the
+gentleman? ‘Fie! fie! fie for shame! Turn your back and tell his name!’
+And you don’t know it, you know you don’t, Doro.”
+
+Dorothy broke into smiles again and shook her head; her own eyes, too,
+dancing roguishly.
+
+“I only know his initials,” she said.
+
+“What?” gasped Tavia Travers in something more than mock horror.
+
+“Yes. They are ‘G. K.’ I saw them on his bag. Couldn’t help it,”
+explained Dorothy, now laughing outright. “But decide, dear! Shall we
+change at Manhattan Transfer?”
+
+“If _he_ does—there!” chuckled Tavia. “We’ll get out if the nice
+Western cowboy person does. Oh! he’s a whole lot nicer looking than
+Lance Petterby.”
+
+“Dear me, Tavia! Haven’t you forgotten Lance yet?”
+
+“Never!” vowed Tavia, tragically. “Not till the day of my death—and
+then some, as Lance would himself say.”
+
+“You are incorrigible,” sighed Dorothy. Then: “He’s going to get out,
+Tavia!”
+
+“Oh! oh! oh!” crowed her chum, under her breath. “You were looking.”
+
+“Goodness me!” returned Dorothy, in some exasperation. “Who could miss
+that hat?”
+
+The young man in question had put on his broad-brimmed gray hat. He was
+just the style of man that such a hat became.
+
+The young man lifted down the heavy suitcase from the rack—the one on
+which Dorothy had seen the big, black letters, “G. K.” He had a second
+suitcase of the same description under his feet. He set both out into
+the aisle, threw his folded light overcoat over his arm, and prepared
+to make for the front door of the car as the train began to slow down.
+
+“Come on, now!” cried Tavia, suddenly in a great hurry.
+
+But Dorothy had to put on her coat, and to make sure that she looked
+just right in the mirror beside her chair. All Tavia had to do was to
+toss her summer fur about her neck and grab up her traveling bag.
+
+“We’ll be left!” she cried. “The train doesn’t stop here long.”
+
+“You run, then, and tell them to wait,” Dorothy said calmly.
+
+They were, however, the last to leave the car—the last to leave the
+train, in fact—at the elevated platform which gives a broad view of the
+New Jersey meadows.
+
+“My goodness me!” gasped Tavia, as the brakeman helped them to the
+platform, and waved his hand for departure. “My goodness me! We’re
+clear at this end of this awful platform, and the tube train stops—and
+of course starts—at the far end. A mile to walk with these bags and not
+a redcap in sight. Oh, yes! there’s one,” she added faintly.
+
+“Redcap?” queried Dorothy. “Oh! you mean a porter.”
+
+“Yes,” Tavia said. “Of course you would be slow. Everybody’s got a
+porter but us.”
+
+Dorothy laughed mellowly. “Who’s fault do you intimate it is?” she
+asked. “We might have been the first out of the car.”
+
+“_He’s_ got one,” whispered Tavia.
+
+Oddly enough her chum did not ask “Who?” this time. She, too, was
+looking at the back of the well-set-up young man whose initials seemed
+to be G. K. He stood confronting an importunate porter, whose smiling
+face was visible to the girls as he said:
+
+“Why, Boss, yo’ can’t possibly kerry dem two big bags f’om dis end ob
+de platfo’m to de odder.”
+
+The porter held out both hands for the big suitcases carried by the
+Western looking young man, who really appeared to be physically much
+better able to carry his baggage than the negro.
+
+“I don’t suppose two-bits has anything to do with your desire to tote
+my bag?” suggested the white man, and the listening girls knew he must
+be smiling broadly.
+
+“Why, Boss, _yo’_ can’t earn two-bits carryin’ bags yere; but _I_ kin,”
+and the negro chuckled delightedly as he gained possession of the bags.
+“Come right along, Boss.”
+
+As the porter set off, the young man turned and saw Dorothy Dale and
+Tavia Travers behind him. Besides themselves, indeed, this end of the
+long cement platform was clear. Other passengers from the in-bound
+train had either gone forward or descended into the tunnel under the
+tracks to reach the north-side platform. The only porter in sight was
+the man who had taken G. K.’s bags.
+
+The weight of the shiny black bags the girls carried was obvious.
+Indeed, perhaps Tavia sagged perceptibly on that side—and
+intentionally; and, of course, her hazel eyes said “Please!” just as
+plain as eyes ever spoke before.
+
+Off came the broad-brimmed hat just for an instant. Then he held out
+both hands.
+
+“Let me help you, ladies,” he said, with the pleasantest of smiles.
+“Seeing that I have obtained the services of the only Jasper in sight,
+you’d better let me play porter. Going to take this tube train, ladies?”
+
+“Yes, indeed!” cried Tavia, twinkling with smiles at once, and first to
+give him a bag.
+
+Dorothy might have hesitated, but the young man was insistent and
+quick. He seized both bags as a matter of course, and Dorothy Dale
+could not pull hers away from him.
+
+“You must let us pay your porter, then,” she said, in her quietly
+pleasant way.
+
+“Bless you! we won’t fight over that,” chuckled the young man.
+
+He was agreeably talkative, with that wholesome, free, yet chivalrous
+manner which the girls, especially the thoughtful Dorothy, had noticed
+as particular attributes of the men they had met during their memorable
+trip to the West, some months before.
+
+She noticed, too, that his attentions to Tavia and herself were nicely
+balanced. Of course, Tavia, as she always did, began to run on in her
+light-hearted and irresponsible way; but though the young man listened
+to her with a quiet smile, he spoke directly to Dorothy quite as often
+as he did to the flyaway girl. He did not seek to take advantage of
+Tavia’s exuberant good spirits as so many strangers might have done.
+
+Tavia’s flirtatious ways were a sore trial to her more sober chum; but
+this young man seemed to understand Tavia at once.
+
+“Of course, you’re from the West?” Tavia finished one “rattlety-bang”
+series of remarks with this direct question.
+
+“Of course I am. Right from the desert—Desert City, in fact,” he said,
+with a quiet smile.
+
+“Oh!” gasped Tavia, turning her big eyes on her chum. “Did you hear
+that, Doro? Desert City!”
+
+For the girls, during their visit to the West had, as Tavia often
+claimed in true Western slang, helped “put Desert City on the map.”
+
+Dorothy, however, did not propose to let this conversation with a
+strange man become at all personal. She ignored her chum’s observation
+and, as the city-bound tube train came sliding in beside the platform,
+she reached for her own bag and insisted upon taking it from the
+Westerner’s hand.
+
+“Thank you so much,” she said, with just the right degree of firmness
+as well as of gratitude.
+
+Perforce he had to give up the bag, and Tavia’s, too, for there was the
+red-capped, smiling negro expectant of the “two-bits.”
+
+“You are _so_ kind,” breathed Tavia, with one of her wonderful
+“man-killing” glances at the considerate G. K., as Dorothy’s cousin,
+Nat White, would have termed her expression of countenance.
+
+G. K. was polite and not brusk; but he was not flirtatious. Dorothy
+entered the Hudson tube train with a feeling of considerable
+satisfaction. G. K. did not even enter the car by the same door as
+themselves nor did he take the empty seat opposite the girls, as he
+might have done.
+
+“There! he is one young man who will not flirt with you, Tavia,” she
+said, admonishingly.
+
+“Pooh! I didn’t half try,” declared her chum, lightly.
+
+“My dear! you would be tempted, I believe, to flirt with a blind man!”
+
+“Oh, Doro! Never!” Then she dimpled suddenly, glancing out of the
+window as the train swept on. “_There’s_ a man I didn’t try to flirt
+with.”
+
+“Where?” laughed Dorothy.
+
+“Outside there beside the tracks,” for they had not yet reached the
+Summit Avenue Station, and it is beyond that spot that the trains dive
+into the tunnel.
+
+“We passed him too quickly then,” said Dorothy. “Lucky man!”
+
+The next moment—or so it seemed—Tavia began on another tack:
+
+“To think! In fifteen minutes, Doro my dear, we shall be ‘Alone in a
+Great City.’”
+
+“How alone?” drawled her friend. “Do you suppose New York has suddenly
+been depopulated?”
+
+“But we shall be alone, Doro. What more lonesome than a crowd in which
+you know nobody?”
+
+“How very thoughtful you have become of a sudden. I hope you will keep
+your hand on your purse, dear. There will be some people left in the
+great city—and perhaps one may be a pickpocket.”
+
+The electric lights were flashed on, and the train soon dived into the
+great tunnel, “like a rabbit into his burrow,” Tavia said. They had
+to disembark at Grove Street to change for an uptown train. The tall
+young Westerner did likewise, but he did not accost them.
+
+The Sixth Avenue train soon whisked the girls to their destination, and
+they got out at Twenty-third Street. As they climbed the steps to the
+street level, Tavia suddenly uttered a surprised cry.
+
+“Look, will you, Doro?” she said. “Right ahead!”
+
+“G. K.!” exclaimed her friend, for there was the young man mounting the
+stairs, lugging his two heavy suitcases.
+
+“Suppose he goes to the very same hotel?” giggled Tavia.
+
+“Well—maybe that will be nice,” Dorothy said composedly. “He looks nice
+enough for us to get acquainted with him—in some perfectly proper way,
+of course.”
+
+“Whew, Doro!” breathed Tavia, her eyes opening wide again. “You’re
+coming on, my dear.”
+
+“I am speaking sensibly. If he is a nice young man and perfectly
+respectable, why shouldn’t he find some means of meeting us—if he wants
+to—and we are all at the same hotel?”
+
+“But——”
+
+“I don’t believe in flirting,” said Dorothy Dale, calmly, yet with a
+twinkle in her eyes. “But I certainly would not fly in the face of
+Providence—as Miss Higley, our old teacher at Glenwood, would say—and
+refuse to meet G. K. He looks like a really nice young man.”
+
+“Doro!” gasped Tavia. “You amaze me! I shall next expect to see the
+heavens fall!”
+
+“Don’t be ridiculous,” said her friend, as they reached the exit of the
+tube station and stepped out upon the sidewalk.
+
+There was the Westerner already dickering with a boy to carry his bags.
+
+“_He_ likes to throw money away, too!” whispered Tavia. “I suppose we
+must be economical and carry ours.”
+
+“As there seems to be no other boy in sight—yes,” laughed her friend.
+
+“That young man gets the best of us every time,” complained Tavia under
+her breath.
+
+“He is typically Western,” said Dorothy. “He is prompt.”
+
+But then, the boy starting off with the heavy bags in a little
+box-wagon he drew, the young man whose initials were G. K., turned with
+a smile to the two girls.
+
+“Ladies,” he said, lifting his hat again, “at the risk of being
+considered impertinent, I wish to ask you if you are going my way? If
+so I will help you with your bags, having again cinched what seems to
+be the only baggage transportation facilities at this station.”
+
+For once Tavia was really speechless. It was Dorothy who quite coolly
+asked the young man:
+
+“Which is your direction?”
+
+“To the Fanuel,” he said.
+
+“That is where we are going,” Dorothy admitted, giving him her bag
+again without question.
+
+“Oh!” exclaimed Tavia, “getting into the picture with a bounce,” as she
+would have expressed it. “Aren’t you the _handiest_ young man!”
+
+“Thank you,” he replied, laughing. “That is a reputation to make one
+proud. I never was in this man’s town before, but I was recommended to
+the Fanuel by my boss.”
+
+“Oh!” Tavia hastened to take the lead in the conversation. “We’ve been
+here before—Doro and I. And we always stop at the Fanuel.”
+
+“Now, I look on that as a streak of pure luck,” he returned. He looked
+at Dorothy, however, not at Tavia.
+
+The boy with the wagon went on ahead and the three voyagers followed,
+laughing and chatting, G. K. swinging the girls’ bags as though they
+were light instead of heavy.
+
+“I want awfully to know his name,” whispered Tavia, when they came to
+the hotel entrance and the young man handed over their bags again and
+went to the curb to get his own suitcases from the boy.
+
+“Let’s,” added Tavia, “go to the clerk’s desk and ask for the rooms
+your Aunt Winnie wrote about. Then I’ll get a chance to see what he
+writes on the book.”
+
+“Nonsense, Tavia!” exclaimed Dorothy. “We’ll do nothing of the kind.
+We must go to the ladies’ parlor and send a boy to the clerk, or the
+manager, with our cards. This is a family hotel, I know; but the lobby
+and the office are most likely full of men at this time in the day.”
+
+“Oh, dear! Come on, then, Miss Particular,” groaned Tavia. “And we
+didn’t even bid him good-bye at parting.”
+
+“What did you want to do?” laughed Dorothy. “Weep on his shoulder and
+give him some trinket, for instance, as a souvenir?”
+
+“Dorothy Dale!” exclaimed her friend. “I believe you have something up
+your sleeve. You seem just _sure_ of seeing this nice cowboy person
+again.”
+
+“All men from the West do not punch cattle for a living. And it would
+not be the strangest thing in the world if we should meet G. K. again,
+as he is stopping at this hotel.”
+
+However, the girls saw nothing more of the smiling and agreeable
+Westerner that day. Dorothy Dale’s aunt had secured by mail two rooms
+and a bath for her niece and Tavia. The girls only appeared at dinner,
+and retired early. Even Tavia’s bright eyes could not spy out G. K.
+while they were at dinner.
+
+Besides, the girls had many other things to think about, and Tavia’s
+mind could not linger entirely upon even as nice a young man as G. K.
+appeared to be.
+
+This was their first visit to New York alone, as the more lively girl
+indicated. Aunt Winnie White had sprained her ankle and could not come
+to the city for the usual fall shopping. Dorothy was, for the first
+time, to choose her own fall and winter outfit. Tavia had come on from
+Dalton, with the money her father had been able to give her for a
+similar purpose, and the friends were to shop together.
+
+They left the hotel early the next morning and arrived at the first
+huge department store on their list almost as soon as the store was
+opened, at nine o’clock.
+
+An hour later they were in the silk department, pricing goods and “just
+looking” as Tavia said. In her usual thoughtless and incautious way,
+Tavia dropped her handbag upon the counter while she used both hands to
+examine a particular piece of goods, calling Dorothy’s attention to it,
+too.
+
+“No, dear; I do not think it is good enough, either for the money or
+for your purpose,” Dorothy said. “The color _is_ lovely; but don’t be
+guided wholly by that.”
+
+“No. I suppose you are right,” sighed Tavia.
+
+She shook her head at the clerk and prepared to follow her friend,
+who had already left the counter. Hastily picking up what she supposed
+to be her bag, Tavia ran two or three steps to catch up with Dorothy.
+As she did so a feminine shriek behind her startled everybody within
+hearing.
+
+“That girl—she’s got my bag! Stop her!”
+
+“Oh! what is it?” gasped Dorothy, turning.
+
+“Somebody’s stolen something,” stammered Tavia, turning around too.
+
+Then she looked at the bag in her hand. Instead of her own seal-leather
+one, it was a much more expensive bag, gold mounted and plethoric.
+
+“There she is! She’s got it in her hand!”
+
+A woman dressed in the most extreme fashion and most expensively,
+darted down the aisle upon the two girls. She pointed a quivering,
+accusing finger directly at poor Tavia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+G. K. TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+Dorothy Dale and her friend Tavia Travers had often experienced very
+serious adventures, but the shock of this incident perhaps was as great
+and as thrilling as anything that had heretofore happened to them.
+
+The series of eleven previous stories about Dorothy, Tavia, and their
+friends began with “Dorothy Dale: A Girl of To-day,” some years before
+the date of this present narrative. At that time Dorothy was living
+with her father, Major Frank Dale, a Civil War veteran, who owned and
+edited the _Bugle_, a newspaper published in Dalton, a small town in
+New York State.
+
+Then Major Dale’s livelihood and that of the family, consisting of
+Dorothy and her small brothers, Joe and Roger, depended upon the
+success of the _Bugle_. Taken seriously ill in the midst of a lively
+campaign for temperance and for a general reform government in Dalton,
+it looked as though the major would lose his paper and the better
+element in the town lose their fight for prohibition; but Dorothy Dale,
+confident that she could do it, got out the _Bugle_ and did much,
+young girl though she was, to save the day. In this she was helped by
+Tavia Travers, a girl brought up entirely differently from Dorothy, and
+who possessed exactly the opposite characteristics to serve as a foil
+for Dorothy’s own good sense and practical nature.
+
+Major Dale was unexpectedly blessed with a considerable legacy which
+enabled him to sell the _Bugle_ and take his children to The Cedars,
+at North Birchland, to live with his widowed sister and her two boys,
+Ned and Nat White, who were both older than their cousin Dorothy.
+In “Dorothy Dale at Glenwood School,” is related these changes for
+the better in the fortunes of the Dale family, and as well there is
+narrated the beginning of a series of adventures at school and during
+vacation times, in which Dorothy and Tavia are the central characters.
+
+Subsequent books are entitled respectively: “Dorothy Dale’s Great
+Secret,” “Dorothy Dale and Her Chums,” “Dorothy Dale’s Queer Holidays,”
+“Dorothy Dale’s Camping Days,” “Dorothy Dale’s School Rivals,” “Dorothy
+Dale in the City,” and “Dorothy Dale’s Promise,” in which story the two
+friends graduate from Glenwood and return to their homes feeling—and
+looking, of course—like real, grown-up young ladies. Nevertheless, they
+are not then through with adventures, surprising happenings, and much
+fun.
+
+About the time the girls graduated from school an old friend of Major
+Dale, Colonel Hardin, passed away, leaving his large estate in the West
+partly to the major and partly to be administered for the local public
+good. Cattle raising was not so generally followed as formerly in that
+section and dry farming was being tried.
+
+Colonel Hardin had foreseen that nothing but a system of irrigation
+would save the poor farmers from ruin and on his land was the fountain
+of supply that should water the whole territory about Desert City and
+make it “blossom as the rose.” There were mining interests, however,
+selfishly determined to obtain the water rights on the Hardin Estate
+and that by hook or by crook.
+
+Major Dale’s health was not at this time good enough for him to look
+into these matters actively or to administer his dead friend’s estate.
+Therefore, it is told in “Dorothy Dale in the West,” how Aunt Winnie
+White, Dorothy’s two cousins, Ned and Nat, and herself with Tavia, go
+far from North Birchland and mingle with the miners, and other Western
+characters to be found on and about the Hardin property, including a
+cowboy named Lance Petterby, who shows unmistakable signs of being
+devoted to Tavia. Indeed, after the party return to the East, Lance
+writes to Tavia and the latter’s apparent predilection for the cowboy
+somewhat troubles Dorothy.
+
+However, after their return to the East the chums went for a long visit
+to the home of a school friend, Jennie Hapgood, in Pennsylvania; and
+there Tavia seemed to have secured other—and less dangerous—interests.
+In “Dorothy Dale’s Strange Discovery,” the narrative immediately
+preceding this present tale, Dorothy displays her characteristic
+kindliness and acute reasoning powers in solving a problem that brings
+to Jennie Hapgood’s father the very best of good fortune.
+
+Naturally, the Hapgoods are devoted to Dorothy. Besides, Ned and Nat,
+her cousins, have visited Sunnyside and are vastly interested in
+Jennie. The girl chums now in New York City on this shopping tour,
+expect on returning to North Birchland to find Jennie Hapgood there for
+a promised visit.
+
+At the moment, however, that we find Dorothy and Tavia at the beginning
+of this chapter, neither girl is thinking much about Jennie Hapgood and
+her expected visit, or of anything else of minor importance.
+
+The flashily dressed woman who had run after Tavia down the aisle,
+again screamed her accusation at the amazed and troubled girl:
+
+“That’s my bag! It’s cram full of money, too.”
+
+There was no great crowd in the store, for New York ladies do not as
+a rule shop much before luncheon. Nevertheless, besides salespeople,
+there were plenty to hear the woman’s unkind accusation and enough
+curious shoppers to ring in immediately the two troubled girls and the
+angry woman.
+
+“Give me it!” exclaimed the latter, and snatched the bag out of Tavia’s
+hand. As this was done the catch slipped in some way and the handbag
+burst open.
+
+It was “cram full” of money. Bills of large denomination were rolled
+carelessly into a ball, with a handkerchief, a purse for change,
+several keys, and a vanity box. Some of these things tumbled out upon
+the floor and a young boy stooped and recovered them for her.
+
+“You’re a bad, bad girl!” declared the angry woman. “I hope they send
+you to jail.”
+
+“Why—why, I didn’t know it was yours,” murmured Tavia, quite upset.
+
+“Oh! you thought somebody had forgotten it and you could get away with
+it,” declared the other, coarsely enough.
+
+“I beg your pardon, Madam,” Dorothy Dale here interposed. “It was a
+mistake on my friend’s part. And _you_ are making another mistake, and
+a serious one.”
+
+She spoke in her most dignified tone, and although Dorothy was barely
+in her twentieth year she had the manner and stability of one much
+older. She realized that poor Tavia was in danger of “going all to
+pieces” if the strain continued. And, too, her own anger at the woman’s
+harsh accusation naturally put the girl on her mettle.
+
+“Who are _you_, I’d like to know?” snapped the woman.
+
+“I am her friend,” said Dorothy Dale, quite composedly, “and I know her
+to be incapable of taking your bag save by chance. She laid her own
+down on the counter and took up yours——”
+
+“And where _is_ mine?” suddenly wailed Tavia, on the verge of an
+hysterical outbreak. “My bag! My money——”
+
+“Hush!” whispered Dorothy in her friend’s pretty ear. “Don’t become a
+second harridan—like this creature.”
+
+The woman had led the way back to the silk counter. Tavia began to claw
+wildly among the broken bolts of silk that the clerk had not yet been
+able to return to the shelves. But she stopped at Dorothy’s command,
+and stood, pale and trembling.
+
+A floorwalker hastened forward. He evidently knew the noisy woman as a
+good customer of the store.
+
+“Mrs. Halbridge! What is the matter? Nothing serious, I hope?”
+
+“It would have been serious all right,” said the customer, in her
+high-pitched voice, “if I hadn’t just seen that girl by luck. Yes,
+by luck! There she was making for the door with this bag of mine—and
+there’s several hundred dollars in it, I’d have you know.”
+
+“I beg of you, Mrs. Halbridge,” said the floorwalker in a low tone,
+“for the sake of the store to make no trouble about it here. If you
+insist we will take the girl up to the superintendent’s office——”
+
+Here Dorothy, her anger rising interrupted:
+
+“You would better not. Mrs. Winthrop White, of North Birchland, is a
+charge customer of your store, and is probably just as well known to
+the heads of the firm as this—this person,” and she cast what Tavia—in
+another mood—would have called a “scathing glance” at Mrs. Halbridge.
+
+“I am Mrs. White’s niece and this is my particular friend. We are here
+alone on a shopping tour; but if our word is not quite as good as that
+of this—this person, we certainly shall buy elsewhere.”
+
+Tavia, obsessed with a single idea, murmured again:
+
+“But I haven’t got my bag! Somebody’s taken my bag! And all my money——”
+
+The floorwalker was glancing about, hoping for some avenue of escape
+from the unfortunate predicament, when a very tall, white-haired and
+soldierly looking man appeared in the aisle.
+
+“Mr. Schuman!” gasped the floorwalker.
+
+The man was one of the chief proprietors of the big store. He scowled
+slightly at the floorwalker when he saw the excited crowd, and then
+raised his eyebrows questioningly.
+
+“This is not the place for any lengthy discussion, Mr. Mink,” said Mr.
+Schuman, with just the proper touch of admonition in his tone.
+
+“I know! I know, Mr. Schuman!” said the floorwalker. “But this
+difficulty—it came so suddenly—Mrs. Halbridge, here, makes the
+complaint,” he finally blurted out, in an attempt to shoulder off some
+of the responsibility for the unfortunate situation.
+
+“Mrs. Halbridge?” The old gentleman bowed in a most courtly style. “One
+of our customers, I presume, Mr. Mink?”
+
+“Oh, yes, indeed, Mr. Schuman,” the floorwalker hastened to say. “One
+of our _very_ good customers. And I am so sorry that anything should
+have happened——”
+
+“But what has happened?” asked Mr. Schuman, sharply.
+
+“She—she accuses this—it’s all a mistake, I’m sure—this young lady of
+taking her bag,” stuttered Mr. Mink, pointing to Tavia.
+
+“She ought to be arrested,” muttered the excited Mrs. Halbridge.
+
+“What? But this is a matter for the superintendent’s office, Mr.
+Mink,” returned Mr. Schuman.
+
+“Oh!” stammered the floorwalker. “The bag is returned.”
+
+“And now,” put in Dorothy Dale, haughtily, and looking straight and
+unflinchingly into the keen eyes of Mr. Schuman, “my friend wishes to
+know what has become of _her_ bag?”
+
+Mr. Schuman looked at the two girls with momentary hesitation.
+
+There was something compelling in the ladylike look and behaviour of
+these two girls—and especially in Dorothy’s speech. At the moment, too,
+a hand was laid tentatively upon Mr. Schuman’s arm.
+
+“Beg pardon, sir,” said the full, resonant voice that Dorothy had noted
+the day before. “I know the young ladies—Miss Dale and Miss Travers,
+respectively, Mr. Schuman.”
+
+“Oh, Mr. Knapp—thank you!” said the old gentleman, turning to the tall
+young Westerner with whom he had been walking through the store at the
+moment he had spied the crowd. “You are a discourager of embarrassment.”
+
+“Oh! blessed ‘G. K.’!” whispered Tavia, weakly clinging to Dorothy’s
+arm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TAVIA IN THE SHADE
+
+
+Mrs. Halbridge was slyly slipping through the crowd. She had suddenly
+lost all interest in the punishment of the girl she had accused of
+stealing her bag and her money.
+
+There was something so stern about Mr. Schuman that it was not strange
+that the excitable woman should fear further discussion of the matter.
+The old gentleman turned at once to Dorothy Dale and Tavia Travers.
+
+“This is an unfortunate and regrettable incident, young ladies,” he
+said suavely. “I assure you that such things as this seldom occur under
+our roof.”
+
+“I am confident it is a single occurrence,” Dorothy said, with
+conviction, “or my aunt, Mrs. Winthrop White, of North Birchland, would
+not have traded with you for so many years.”
+
+“One of our charge customers, Mr. Schuman,” whispered Mr. Mink,
+deciding it was quite time now to come to the assistance of the girls.
+
+“Regrettable! Regrettable!” repeated the old gentleman.
+
+Here Tavia again entered her wailing protest:
+
+“I did not mean to take her bag from the counter. But somebody has
+taken my bag.”
+
+“Oh, Tavia!” exclaimed her friend, now startled into noticing what
+Tavia really said about it.
+
+“It’s gone!” wailed Tavia. “And all the money father sent me. Oh,
+dear, Doro Dale! I guess I _have_ thrown my money away, and, as you
+prophesied, it isn’t as much fun as I thought it might be.”
+
+“My dear young lady,” hastily inquired Mr. Schuman, “have you really
+lost your purse?”
+
+“My bag,” sobbed Tavia. “I laid it down while I examined some silk.
+That clerk saw me,” she added, pointing to the man behind the counter.
+
+“It is true, Mr. Schuman,” the silk clerk admitted, blushing painfully.
+“But, of course, I did not notice what became of the lady’s bag.”
+
+“Nor did I see the other bag until I found it in my hand,” Tavia cried.
+
+The crowd was dissipated by this time, and all spoke in low voices.
+Outside the counter was a cash-girl, a big-eyed and big-eared little
+thing, who was evidently listening curiously to the conversation. Mr.
+Mink said sharply to her:
+
+“Number forty-seven! do you know anything about this bag business?”
+
+“No—no, sir!” gasped the frightened girl.
+
+“Then go on about your business,” the floorwalker said, waving her away
+in his most lordly manner.
+
+Meanwhile, Dorothy had obtained a word with the young Mr. Knapp who had
+done her and Tavia such a kindness.
+
+“Thank you a thousand times, Mr. Knapp,” she whispered, her eyes
+shining gratefully into his. “It might have been awkward for us without
+you. And,” she added, pointedly, “how fortunate you knew our names!”
+
+He was smiling broadly, but she saw the color rise in his bronzed
+cheeks at her last remark. She liked him all the better for blushing so
+boyishly.
+
+“Got me there, Miss Dale,” he blurted out. “I was curious, and I looked
+on the hotel register to see your names after the clerk brought it
+back from the parlor where he went to greet you yesterday. Hope you’ll
+forgive me for being so—er—rubbery.”
+
+“It proves to be a very fortunate curiosity on your part,” she told
+him, smiling.
+
+“Say!” he whispered, “your friend is all broken up over this. Has she
+lost much?”
+
+“All the money she had to pay for the clothes she wished to buy, I’m
+afraid,” sighed Dorothy.
+
+“Well, let’s get her out of here—go somewhere to recuperate. There’s a
+good hotel across the street. I had my breakfast there before I began
+to shop,” and he laughed. “A cup of tea will revive her, I’m sure.”
+
+“And you are suffering for a cup, too, I am sure,” Dorothy told him,
+her eyes betraying her amusement, at his rather awkward attempt to
+become friendly with Tavia and herself.
+
+But Dorothy approved of this young man. Aside from the assistance he
+had undoubtedly rendered her chum and herself, G. Knapp seemed to be
+far above the average young man.
+
+She turned now quickly to Tavia. Mr. Schuman was saying very kindly:
+
+“Search shall be made, my dear young lady. I am exceedingly sorry that
+such a thing should happen in our store. Of course, somebody picked
+up your bag before you inadvertently took the other lady’s. If I had
+my way I would have it a law that every shopper should have her purse
+riveted to her wrist with a chain.”
+
+It was no laughing matter, however, for poor Tavia. Her family was not
+in the easy circumstances that Dorothy’s was. Indeed, Mr. Travers was
+only fairly well-to-do, and Tavia’s mother was exceedingly extravagant.
+It was difficult sometimes for Tavia to obtain sufficient money to get
+along with.
+
+Besides, she was incautious herself. It was natural for her to be
+wasteful and thoughtless. But this was the first time in her experience
+that she had either wasted or lost such a sum of money.
+
+She wiped her eyes very quickly when Dorothy whispered to her that they
+were going out for a cup of tea with Mr. Knapp.
+
+“Oh dear, that perfectly splendid cowboy person!” groaned Tavia. “And
+I am in no mood to make an impression. Doro! you’ll have to do it all
+yourself this time. Do keep him in play until I recover from, this
+blow—if I ever do.”
+
+The young man, who led the way to the side door of the store which was
+opposite the hotel and restaurant of which he had spoken, heard the
+last few words and turned to ask seriously:
+
+“Surely Miss Travers did not lose _all_ the money she had?”
+
+“All I had in the world!” wailed Tavia. “Except a lonely little five
+dollar bill.”
+
+“Where is that?” asked Dorothy, in surprise.
+
+“In the First National Bank,” Tavia said demurely.
+
+“Oh, then, _that’s_ safe enough,” said Mr. Knapp.
+
+“I didn’t know you had even that much in the bank,” remarked Dorothy,
+doubtfully. “The First National?”
+
+“Yep!” declared Tavia promptly, but nudged her friend. “Hush!” she
+hissed.
+
+Dorothy did not understand, but she saw there was something queer
+about this statement. It was news to her that her chum ever thought of
+putting a penny on deposit in any bank. It was not like Tavia.
+
+“How do you feel now, dear?” she asked the unfortunate girl, as they
+stepped out into the open air behind the broad-shouldered young
+Westerner, who held the door open for their passage.
+
+“Oh, dear me!” sighed Tavia. “I’m forty degrees in the shade—and the
+temperature is still going down. What ever _shall_ I do? I’ll be
+positively naked before Thanksgiving!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SOMETHING ABOUT “G. KNAPP”
+
+
+But how can three people with all the revivifying flow of youth in
+their veins remain in the dumps, to use one of Tavia’s own illuminating
+expressions. Impossible! That tea at the Holyoke House, which began so
+miserably, scaled upward like the notes of a coloratura soprano until
+they were all three chatting and laughing like old friends. Even Tavia
+had to forget her miserable financial state.
+
+Dorothy believed her first impression of G. Knapp had not been wrong.
+Indeed, he improved with every moment of increasing familiarity.
+
+In the first place, although his repartee was bright enough, and he was
+very jolly and frank, he had eyes and attention for somebody besides
+the chatterbox, Tavia. Perhaps right at first Tavia was a little under
+the mark, her mind naturally being upon her troubles; but with a
+strange young man before her the gay and sparkling Tavia would soon be
+inspired.
+
+However, for once she did not absorb all the more or less helpless
+male’s attention. G. Knapp insisted upon dividing equally his glances,
+his speeches, and his smiles between the two young ladies.
+
+They discovered that his full and proper name was Garford Knapp—the
+first, of course, shortened to “Garry.” He was of the West, Western,
+without a doubt. He had secured a degree at a Western university,
+although both before and after his scholastic course he had, as Tavia
+in the beginning suggested, been a “cowboy person.”
+
+“And it looks as if I’d be punching cows and doing other chores for Bob
+Douglas, who owns the Four-Square ranch, for the rest of my natural,”
+was one thing Garry Knapp told the girls, and told them cheerfully.
+“I did count on falling heir to a piece of money when Uncle Terrence
+cashed in. But not—no more!”
+
+“Why is that?” Dorothy asked, seeing that the young man was serious
+despite his somewhat careless way of speaking.
+
+“The old codger is just like tinder,” laughed Garry. “Lights up if a
+spark gets to him. And I unfortunately and unintentionally applied
+the spark. He’s gone off to Alaska mad as a hatter and left me in the
+lurch. And we were chums when I was a kid and until I came back from
+college.”
+
+“You mean you have quarreled with your uncle?” Dorothy queried, with
+some seriousness.
+
+“Not at all, Miss Dale,” he declared, promptly. “The old fellow
+quarreled with me. They say it takes two to make a quarrel. That’s not
+always so. One can do it just as _e-easy_. At least, one like Uncle
+Terrence can. He had red hair when he was young, and he has a strong
+fighting Irish strain in him. The row began over nothing and ended with
+his lighting out between evening and sunrise and leaving me flat.
+
+“Of course, I broke into a job with Bob Douglas right away——”
+
+“Do you mean, Mr. Knapp, that your uncle went away and left you without
+money?” Dorothy asked.
+
+“Only what I chanced to have in my pocket,” Garry Knapp said
+cheerfully. “He’d always been mighty good to me. Put me through
+school and all that. All I have is a piece of land—and a good big
+piece—outside of Desert City; but it isn’t worth much. Cattle raising
+is petering out in that region. Last year the mouth and hoof disease
+just about ruined the man that grazed my land. His cattle died like
+flies.
+
+“Then, the land was badly grazed by sheepmen for years. Sheep about
+poison land for anything else to live on,” he added, with a cattleman’s
+usual disgust at the thought of “mutton on the hoof.”
+
+“One thing I’ve come East for, Miss Dale, is to sell that land. Got
+a sort of tentative offer by mail. Bob wanted a lot of stuff for the
+ranch and for his family and couldn’t come himself. So I combined his
+business and mine and hope to make a sale of the land my father left me
+before I go back.
+
+“Then, with that nest-egg, I’ll try to break into some game that will
+offer a man-sized profit,” and Garry Knapp laughed again in his mellow,
+whole-souled way.
+
+“Isn’t he just a _dear_?” whispered Tavia as Garry turned to speak to
+the waiter. “Don’t you love to hear him talk?”
+
+“And have you never heard from your old uncle who went away and left
+you?” Dorothy asked.
+
+“Not a word. He’s too mad to speak, let alone write,” and a cloud for
+a moment crossed the open, handsome face of the Westerner. “But I know
+where he is, and every once in a while somebody writes me telling me
+Uncle Terry is all right.”
+
+“But, an old man, away up there in Alaska——?”
+
+“Bless you, Miss Dale,” chuckled Garry Knapp. “That dear old codger has
+been knocking about in rough country all his days. He’s always been a
+miner. Prospected pretty well all over our West. He’s made, and then
+bunted away, big fortunes sometimes.
+
+“He always has a stake laid down somewhere. Never gets real poor, and
+never went hungry in his life—unless he chanced to run out of grub on
+some prospecting tour, or his gun was broken and he couldn’t shoot a
+jackrabbit for a stew.
+
+“Oh, Uncle Terrence isn’t at all the sort of hampered prospector you
+read about in the books. He doesn’t go mooning around, expecting to
+‘strike it rich’ and running the risk of leaving his bones in the
+desert.
+
+“No, Uncle Terry is likely to make another fortune before he dies——”
+
+“Oh! Then maybe you will be rich!” cried Tavia, breaking in.
+
+“No.” Garry shook his head with a quizzical smile on his lips and
+in his eyes. “No. He vowed I should never see the color of his
+money. First, he said, he’d leave it to found a home for indignant
+rattlesnakes. And he’d surely have plenty of inmates, for rattlers seem
+always to be indignant,” he added with a chuckle.
+
+Dorothy wanted awfully to ask him why he had quarreled with his
+uncle—or _vice versa_; but that would have been too personal upon first
+meeting. She liked the young man more and more; and in spite of Tavia’s
+loss they parted at the end of the hour in great good spirits.
+
+“I’m going to be just as busy as I can be this afternoon,” Garry Knapp
+announced, as they went out. “But I shall get back to the hotel to
+supper. I wasn’t in last night when you ladies were down. May I eat at
+your table?” and his eyes squinted up again in that droll way Dorothy
+had come to look for.
+
+“How do you know we ate in the hotel last evening?” demanded Tavia,
+promptly.
+
+“Asked the head waiter,” replied Garry Knapp, unabashed.
+
+“If you are so much interested in whether we take proper nourishment or
+not, you had better join us at dinner,” Dorothy said, laughing.
+
+“It’s a bet!” declared the young Westerner, and lifting his
+broad-brimmed hat he left the girls upon the sidewalk outside the
+restaurant.
+
+“Isn’t he the very nicest—but, oh, Doro! what shall I do?” exclaimed
+the miserable Tavia. “All my money——”
+
+“Let’s go back and see if it’s been found.”
+
+“Oh, not a chance!” gasped Tavia. “That horrid woman——”
+
+“I scarcely believe that we can lay it to Mrs. Halbridge’s door in any
+particular,” said Dorothy, gravely. “You should not have left your bag
+on the counter.”
+
+“She laid hers there! And, oh, Doro! it was full of money,” sighed her
+friend.
+
+“Probably your bag had been taken before you even touched hers.”
+
+“Oh, dear! why did it have to happen to _me_—and at just this time.
+When I need things so much. Not a thing to wear! And it’s going to be a
+cold, cold winter, too!”
+
+Tavia would joke “if the heavens fell”—that was her nature. But that
+she was seriously embarrassed for funds Dorothy Dale knew right well.
+
+“If it had only been your bag that was lost,” wailed Tavia, “you would
+telegraph to Aunt Winnie and get more money!”
+
+“And I shall do that in this case,” said her friend, placidly.
+
+“Oh! no you won’t!” cried Tavia, suddenly. “I will not take another
+cent from your Aunt Winnie White—who’s the most blessed, generous,
+free, open-handed person who ever——”
+
+“Goodness! no further attributes?” laughed Dorothy.
+
+“No, Doro,” Tavia said, suddenly serious. “I have done this thing
+myself. It is _awful_. Poor old daddy earns his money too hardly for
+_me_ to throw it away. I should know better. I should have learned
+caution and economy by this time with you, my dear, as an example ever
+before me.
+
+“Poor mother wastes money because she doesn’t _know_. I have had every
+advantage of a bright and shining example,” and she pinched Dorothy’s
+arm as they entered the big store again. “If I have lost my money, I’ve
+lost it, and that’s the end of it. No new clothes for little Tavia—and
+serves her right!” she finished, bitterly.
+
+Dorothy well knew that this was a tragic happening for her friend.
+Generously she would have sent for more money, or divided her own store
+with Tavia. But she knew her chum to be in earnest, and she approved.
+
+It was not as though Tavia had nothing to wear. She had a full and
+complete wardrobe, only it would be no longer up to date. And she would
+have to curtail much of the fun the girls had looked forward to on
+this, their first trip, unchaperoned, to the great city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DOROTHY IS DISTURBED
+
+
+Nothing, of course, had been seen or heard of Tavia’s bag. Mr. Schuman
+himself had made the investigation, and he came to the girls personally
+to tell them how extremely sorry he was. But being sorry did not help.
+
+“I’m done for!” groaned Tavia, as they returned to their rooms at the
+hotel just before luncheon. “I can’t even buy a stick of peppermint
+candy to send to the kids at Dalton.”
+
+“How about that five dollars in the bank?” asked Dorothy, suddenly
+remembering Tavia’s previous and most surprising statement. “And how
+did you ever come to have a bank account? Is it in the First National
+of Dalton?”
+
+There was a laugh from Tavia, a sudden flash of lingerie and the
+display of a silk stocking. Then she held out to her chum a neatly
+folded banknote wrapped in tissue paper.
+
+[Illustration: THE TWO GIRLS STEPPED OUT OF THE ELEVATOR AND FOUND
+GARRY KNAPP WAITING FOR THEM.
+
+  _Dorothy Dale’s Engagement_      _Page 41_
+]
+
+“First National Bank of Womankind,” she cried gaily. “I always carry it
+there in case of accident—being run over, robbed, or an earthquake. But
+that five dollars is all I own. Oh, dear! I wish I had stuffed the
+whole roll into my stocking.”
+
+“Don’t, Tavia! it’s not ladylike.”
+
+“I don’t care. Pockets are out of style again,” pouted her friend.
+“And, anyway, you must admit that _this_ was a stroke of genius, for I
+would otherwise be without a penny.”
+
+However, Tavia was too kind-hearted, as well as light-hearted, to allow
+her loss to cloud the day for Dorothy. She was just as enthusiastic in
+the afternoon in helping her friend select the goods she wished to buy
+as though all the “pretties” were for herself.
+
+They came home toward dusk, tired enough, and lay down for an
+hour—“relaxing as per instructions of Lovely Lucy Larriper, the
+afternoon newspaper statistician,” Tavia said.
+
+“Why ‘statistician’?” asked Dorothy, wonderingly.
+
+“Why! isn’t she a ‘figger’ expert?” laughed Tavia. “Now relax!”
+
+A brisk bath followed and then, at seven, the two girls stepped out of
+the elevator into the lobby of the hotel and found Garry Knapp waiting
+for them. He was likewise well tubbed and scrubbed, but he did not
+conform to city custom and wear evening dress. Indeed, Dorothy could
+not imagine him in the black and severe habiliments of society.
+
+“Not that his figure would not carry them well,” she thought.
+“But he would somehow seem out of place. Some of his breeziness
+and—and—yes!—his _nice_ kind of ‘freshness’ would be gone. That gray
+business suit becomes him and so does his hat.”
+
+But, of course, the hat was not in evidence at present. The captain of
+the waiters had evidently expected this party, for he beckoned them to
+a retired table the moment the trio entered the long dining-room.
+
+“How cozy!” exclaimed Dorothy. “You must have what they call a ‘pull’
+with people in authority, Mr. Knapp.”
+
+“How’s that?” he asked.
+
+“Why, you can get the best table in the dining-room, and this morning
+you rescued us from trouble through your acquaintanceship with Mr.
+Schuman.”
+
+“The influence of the Almighty Dollar,” said Garry Knapp, briefly.
+“This morning I had just spent several hundred dollars of Bob Douglass’
+good money in that store. And here at this hotel Bob’s name is as good
+as a gold certificate.”
+
+“Oh, money! money!” groaned Tavia, “what crimes are committed in thy
+name—and likewise, what benefits achieved! I wonder what the person who
+stole it is doing with _my_ money?”
+
+“Perhaps it was somebody who needed it more than you do,” said
+Dorothy, rather quizzically.
+
+“Can’t be such a person. And needy people seldom find money. Besides,
+needy folk are always honest—in the books. I’m honest myself, and
+heaven knows I’m needy!”
+
+“Was it truly all the money you had with you?” asked Garry Knapp,
+commiseratingly.
+
+“Honest and true, black and blue, lay me down and cut me in two!”
+chanted Tavia.
+
+“All but the five dollars in the bank,” Dorothy said demurely, but with
+dancing eyes.
+
+And for once Tavia actually blushed and was silenced—for a moment.
+Garry drawled:
+
+“I wonder who did get your bag, Miss Travers? Of course, there are
+always light-fingered people hanging about a store like that.”
+
+“And the money will be put to no good use,” declared the loser,
+dejectedly. “If the person finding it would only found a hospital—or
+something—with it, I’d feel a lot better. But I know just what will
+happen.”
+
+“What?” asked Dorothy.
+
+“The person who took my bag will go and blow themselves to a fancy
+dinner—oh! better even than _this_ one. I only hope he or she will eat
+so much that they will be sick——”
+
+“Don’t! don’t!” begged Dorothy, stopping her ears. “You are dreadfully
+mixed in your grammar.”
+
+“Do you wonder? After having been robbed so ruthlessly?”
+
+“But, certainly, dear,” cooed Dorothy, “your knowledge of grammar was
+not in your bag, too?”
+
+Thus they joked over Tavia’s tragedy; but all the time Dorothy’s agile
+mind was working hard to scheme out a way to help her chum over this
+very, very hard place.
+
+Just at this time, however, she had to give some thought to Garry
+Knapp. He took out three slips of pasteboard toward the end of the very
+pleasant meal and flipped them upon the cloth.
+
+“I took a chance,” he said, in his boyish way. “There’s a good show
+down the street—kill a little time. Vaudeville and pictures. Good
+seats.”
+
+“Oh, let’s!” cried Tavia, clasping her hands.
+
+Dorothy knew that the theatre in question was respectable enough,
+although the entertainment was not of the Broadway class. But she knew,
+too, that this young man from the West probably could not afford to pay
+two dollars or more for a seat for an evening’s pleasure.
+
+“Of course we’ll be delighted to go. And we’d better go at once,”
+Dorothy said, without hesitation. “I’m ready. Are you, Tavia?”
+
+“You dear!” whispered Tavia, squeezing her arm as they followed Garry
+Knapp from the dining-room. “I never before knew you to be so amenable
+where a young man was concerned.”
+
+“Is that so?” drawled Dorothy, but hid her face from her friend’s sharp
+eyes.
+
+It was late, but a fine, bright, dry evening when the trio came out of
+the theatre and walked slowly toward their hotel. On the block in the
+middle of which the Fanuel was situated there were but few pedestrians.
+As they approached the main entrance to the hotel a girl came slowly
+toward them, peering, it seemed, sharply into their faces.
+
+She was rather shabbily dressed, but was not at all an unattractive
+looking girl. Dorothy noticed that her passing glance was for Garry
+Knapp, not for herself or for Tavia. The young man had half dropped
+behind as they approached the hotel entrance and was saying:
+
+“I think I’ll take a brisk walk for a bit, having seen you ladies
+home after a very charming evening. I feel kind of shut in after that
+theatre, and want to expand my lungs.”
+
+“Good-night, then, Mr. Knapp,” Dorothy said lightly. “And thank you for
+a pleasant evening.”
+
+“Ditto!” Tavia said, hiding a little yawn behind her gloved fingers.
+
+The girls stepped toward the open door of the hotel. Garry Knapp
+wheeled and started back the way they had come. Tavia clutched her
+chum’s arm with excitement.
+
+“Did you see that girl?”
+
+“Why—yes,” Dorothy said wonderingly.
+
+“Look back! Quick!”
+
+Impelled by her chum’s tone, Dorothy turned and looked up the street.
+Garry Knapp had overtaken the girl. The girl looked sidewise at
+him—they could see her turn her head—and then she evidently spoke.
+Garry dropped into slow step with her, and they strolled along, talking
+eagerly.
+
+“Why, he must know her!” gasped Tavia.
+
+“Why didn’t he introduce her then?” Dorothy said shortly. “It serves me
+right.”
+
+“What serves you right?”
+
+“For allowing you, as well as myself, to become so familiar with a
+strange man.”
+
+“Oh!” murmured Tavia, slowly. “It’s not so bad as all _that_. You’re
+making a mountain out of a molehill.”
+
+But Dorothy would not listen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SOMETHING OF A MYSTERY
+
+
+Tavia slept her usually sweet, sound sleep that night, despite the
+strange surroundings of the hotel and the happenings of a busy day; but
+Dorothy lay for a long time, unable to close her eyes.
+
+In the morning, however, she was as deep in slumber as ever her chum
+was when a knock came on the door of their anteroom. Both girls sat up
+and said in chorus:
+
+“Who’s there?”
+
+“It’s jes’ me, Missy,” said the soft voice of the colored maid. “Did
+one o’ youse young ladies lost somethin’?”
+
+“Oh, mercy me, yes!” shouted Tavia, jumping completely out of her bed
+and running toward the door.
+
+“Nonsense, Tavia!” admonished Dorothy, likewise hopping out of bed.
+“She can’t have found your money.”
+
+“Oh! what is it, please?” asked Tavia, opening the door just a trifle.
+
+“Has you lost somethin’?” repeated the colored girl.
+
+“I lost my handbag in a store yesterday,” said Tavia.
+
+“Das it, Missy,” chuckled the maid. “De clark, he axed me to ax yo’
+’bout it. It’s done come back.”
+
+“What’s come back?” demanded Dorothy, likewise appearing at the door
+and in the same dishabille as her friend.
+
+“De bag. De clark tol’ me to tell yo’ ladies dat all de money is safe
+in it, too. Now yo’ kin go back to sleep again. He’s done got de bag in
+he’s safe;” and the girl went away chuckling.
+
+Tavia fell up against the door and stared at Dorothy.
+
+“Oh, Doro! Can it be?” she panted.
+
+“Oh, Tavia! What luck!”
+
+“There’s the telephone! I’m going to call up the office,” and Tavia
+darted for the instrument on the wall.
+
+But there was something the matter with the wires; that was why the
+clerk had sent the maid to the room.
+
+“Then I’m going to dress and go right down and see about it,” Tavia
+said.
+
+“But it’s only six o’clock,” yawned Dorothy. “The maid was right. We
+should go back to bed.”
+
+Her friend scorned the suggestion and she fairly “hopped” into her
+clothes.
+
+“Be sure and powder your nose, dear,” laughed Dorothy. “But I _am_ glad
+for you, Tavia.”
+
+“Bother my nose!” responded her friend, running out of her room and
+into the corridor.
+
+She whisked back again before Dorothy was more than half dressed with
+the precious bag in her hands.
+
+“Oh, it is! it is!” she cried, whirling about Dorothy’s room and her
+own and the bath and anteroom, in a dervish dance of joy. “Doro! Doro!
+I’m saved!”
+
+“I don’t know whether you are saved or not, dear. But you plainly are
+delighted.”
+
+“Every penny safe.”
+
+“Are you sure?”
+
+“Oh, yes. I counted. I had to sign a receipt for the clerk, too. He is
+the _dearest_ man.”
+
+“Well, dear, I hope this will be a lesson to you,” Dorothy said.
+
+“It will be!” declared the excited Tavia. “Do you know what I am going
+to do?”
+
+“Spend your money more recklessly than ever, I suppose,” sighed her
+friend.
+
+“Say! seems to me you’re awfully glum this morning. You’re not nice
+about my good luck—not a bit,” and Tavia stared at her in puzzlement.
+
+“Of course I’m delighted that you should recover your bag,” Dorothy
+hastened to say. “How did it come back?”
+
+“Why, the clerk gave it to me, I tell you.”
+
+“What clerk? The one at the silk counter?”
+
+“Goodness! The hotel clerk downstairs.”
+
+“But how did _he_ come by it?”
+
+Tavia slowly sat down and blinked. “Why—why,” she said, “I didn’t even
+think to ask him.”
+
+“Well, Tavia!” exclaimed Dorothy, rather aghast at this admission of
+her flyaway friend.
+
+“I do seem to have been awfully thoughtless again,” admitted Tavia,
+slowly. “I thanked him—the clerk, I mean! Oh, I did! I could have
+kissed him!”
+
+“Tavia!”
+
+“I could; but I didn’t,” said the wicked Tavia, her eyes sparkling
+once more. “But I never thought to ask how he came by it. Maybe some
+poor person found it and should be rewarded. Should I give a tithe of
+it, Doro, as a reward, as we give a tithe to the church? Let’s see! I
+had just eighty-nine dollars and thirty-seven cents, and an old copper
+penny for a pocket-piece. One-tenth of that would be——”
+
+“Do be sensible!” exclaimed Dorothy, rather tartly for her. “You might
+at least have asked how the bag was sent here—whether by the store
+itself, or by some employee, or brought by some outside person.”
+
+“Goodness! if it were your money would you have been so curious?”
+demanded Tavia. “I don’t believe it. You would have been just as
+excited as I was.”
+
+“Perhaps,” admitted Dorothy, after a moment. “Anyway, I’m glad you have
+it back, dear.”
+
+“And do you know what I am going to do? I am going to take that old
+man’s advice.”
+
+“What old man, Tavia?”
+
+“That Mr. Schuman—the head of the big store. I am going to go out right
+after breakfast and buy me a dog chain and chain that bag to my wrist.”
+
+Dorothy laughed at this—yet she did not laugh happily. There was
+something wrong with her, and as soon as Tavia began to quiet down a
+bit she noticed it again.
+
+“Doro,” she exclaimed, “I do believe something has happened to you!”
+
+“What something?”
+
+“I don’t know. But you are not—not happy. What is it?”
+
+“Hungry,” said Dorothy, shortly. “Do stop primping now and come on down
+to breakfast.”
+
+“Well, you must be savagely hungry then, if it makes you like this,”
+grumbled Tavia. “And it is an hour before our usual breakfast time.”
+
+They went down in the elevator to the lower floor, Tavia carrying the
+precious bag. She would not trust it out of her sight again, she said,
+as long as a penny was left in it.
+
+She attempted to go over to the clerk’s desk at the far side of the
+lobby to ask for the details of the recovery of her bag; but there were
+several men at the desk and Dorothy stopped her.
+
+“Wait until he is more at leisure,” she advised Tavia. “And until there
+are not so many men about.”
+
+“Oh, nonsense!” ejaculated Tavia, but she turned to follow Dorothy.
+Then she added: “Ah, there is one you won’t mind speaking to——”
+
+“Where?” cried Dorothy, stopping instantly.
+
+“Going into the dining-room,” said Tavia.
+
+Dorothy then saw the gray back of Garford Knapp ahead of them. She
+turned swiftly for the exit of the hotel.
+
+“Come!” she said, “let’s get a breath of air before breakfast. It—it
+will give us an appetite!” And she fairly dragged Tavia to the sidewalk.
+
+“Well, I declare to goodness!” volleyed Tavia, staring at her. “And
+just now you were as hungry as a bear. And you still seem to have a
+bear’s nature. How rough! Don’t you want to see that young man?”
+
+“Never!” snapped Dorothy, and started straight along toward the Hudson
+River.
+
+Tavia was for the moment silenced. But after a bit she asked slyly:
+
+“You’re not really going to walk clear home, are you, dear? North
+Birchland is a long, long walk—and the river intervenes.”
+
+Dorothy had to laugh. But her face almost immediately fell into very
+serious lines. Tavia, for once, considered her chum’s feelings. She
+said nothing regarding Garry Knapp.
+
+“Well,” she murmured. “_I_ need no appetite—no more than I have. Aren’t
+you going to eat at all this morning, Dorothy?”
+
+“Here is a restaurant; let us go in,” said her friend promptly.
+
+They did so, and Dorothy lingered over the meal (which was nowhere
+as good as that they would have secured at the Fanuel) until she was
+positive that Mr. Knapp must have finished his own breakfast and left
+the hotel.
+
+In fact, they saw him run out and catch a car in front of the hotel
+entrance while they were still some rods from the door. Dorothy at once
+became brisker of movement, hurrying Tavia along.
+
+“We must really shop to-day,” she said with decision. “Not merely look
+and window-shop.”
+
+“Surely,” agreed Tavia.
+
+“And we’ll not come back to luncheon—it takes too much time,” Dorothy
+went on, as they hurried into the elevator. “Perhaps we can get
+tickets for that nice play Ned and Nat saw when they were down here
+last time. Then, if we do, we will stay uptown for dinner——”
+
+“Mercy! All that time in the same clothes and without the prescribed
+‘relax’?” groaned Tavia. “We’ll look as though we had been ground
+between the upper and the nether millstone.”
+
+“Well——”
+
+They had reached their rooms. Tavia turned upon her and suddenly seized
+Dorothy by both shoulders, looking accusingly into her friend’s eyes.
+
+“I know what you are up to. You are running away from that man.”
+
+“Oh! What——”
+
+“Never mind trying to dodge the issue,” said Tavia, sternly. “That
+Garry Knapp. And it seems he must be a pretty nappy sort, sure enough.
+He probably knew that girl and was ashamed to have us see him speaking
+to one so shabby. Now! what do you care what he does?”
+
+“I don’t,” denied Dorothy, hotly. “I’m only ashamed that we have been
+seen with him. And it is my fault.”
+
+“I’d like to know why?”
+
+“It was unnecessary for us to have become so friendly with him just
+because he did us a favor.”
+
+“Yes—but——”
+
+“It was I. I did it,” said Dorothy, almost in tears. “We should never
+allow ourselves to become acquainted with strangers in any such way.
+Now you see what it means, Tavia. It is not your fault—it is mine. But
+it should teach you a lesson as well as me.”
+
+“Goodness!” said the startled Tavia. “I don’t see that it is anything
+very terrible. The fellow is really nothing to us.”
+
+“But people having seen us with him—and then seeing him with that
+common-acting girl——”
+
+“Pooh! what do we care?” repeated Tavia. “Garry Knapp is nothing to us,
+and never would be.”
+
+Dorothy said not another word, but turned quickly away from her friend.
+She was very quiet while they made ready for their shopping trip, and
+Tavia could not arouse her.
+
+Careless and unobservant as Tavia was, anything seriously the matter
+with her chum always influenced her. She gradually “simmered down”
+herself, and when they started forth from their rooms both girls were
+morose.
+
+As they passed through the lobby a bellhop was called to the desk, and
+then he charged after the two girls.
+
+“Please, Miss! Which is Miss Dale?” he asked, looking at the letter in
+his hand.
+
+Dorothy held out her hand and took it. It was written on the hotel
+stationery, and the handwriting was strange to her. She tore it open
+at once. She read the line or two of the note, and then stopped,
+stunned.
+
+“What is it?” asked Tavia, wonderingly.
+
+Dorothy handed her the note. It was signed “G. Knapp” and read as
+follows:
+
+  “Dear Miss Dale:
+
+ “Did your friend get her bag and money all right?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+GARRY SEES A WALL AHEAD
+
+
+“Why, what under the sun! How did _he_ come to know about it?” demanded
+Tavia. “Goodness!”
+
+“He—he maybe—had something to do with recovering it for you,” Dorothy
+said faintly. Yet in her heart she knew that it was hope that suggested
+the idea, not reason.
+
+“Well, I am going to find out right now,” declared Tavia Travers, and
+she marched back to the clerk’s desk before Dorothy could object, had
+she desired to.
+
+“This note to my friend is from Mr. Knapp, who is stopping here,” Tavia
+said to the young man behind the counter. “Did he have anything to do
+with getting back my bag?”
+
+“I know nothing about your bag, Miss,” said the clerk. “I was not on
+duty, I presume, when it was handed in. You are Miss——”
+
+“Travers.”
+
+The clerk went to the safe and found a memorandum, which he read and
+then returned to the desk.
+
+“Your supposition is correct, Miss Travers. Mr. Knapp handed in the
+handbag and took a receipt for it.”
+
+“When did he do that?” asked Tavia, quickly, almost overpowered with
+amazement.
+
+“Some time during the night. Before I came on duty at seven o’clock.”
+
+“Well! isn’t that the strangest thing?” Tavia said to Dorothy, when she
+rejoined her friend at the hotel entrance after thanking the clerk.
+
+“How ever could he have got it in the night?” murmured Dorothy.
+
+“Say! he’s all right—Garry Knapp is!” Tavia cried, shaking the bag to
+which she now clung so tightly, and almost on the verge of doing a few
+“steps of delight” on the public thoroughfare. “I could hug him!”
+
+“It—it is very strange,” murmured Dorothy, for she was still very much
+disturbed in her mind.
+
+“It’s particularly jolly,” said Tavia. “And I am going to—well,
+thank him, at least,” as she saw her friend start and glance at her
+admonishingly, “just the very first chance I get. But I ought to hug
+him! He deserves _some_ reward. You said yourself that perhaps I should
+reward the finder.”
+
+“Mr. Knapp could not possibly have been the finder. The bag was merely
+returned through him.” Dorothy spoke positively.
+
+“Don’t care. I must be grateful to somebody,” wailed Tavia. “Don’t nip
+my finer feelings in the bud. Your name should be Frost—Mademoiselle
+Jacquesette Frost! You’re always nipping me.”
+
+Dorothy, however, remained grave. She plainly saw that this incident
+foretold complications. She had made up her mind that she and Tavia
+would have nothing more to do with the Westerner, Garry Knapp; and now
+her friend would insist on thanking him—of course, she must if only for
+politeness’ sake—and any further intercourse with Mr. Knapp would make
+the situation all the more difficult.
+
+She wished with all her heart that their shopping was over, and then
+she could insist upon taking the train immediately out of New York,
+even if she had to sink to the abhorred subterfuge of playing ill, and
+so frightening Tavia.
+
+She wished they might move to some other hotel; but if they did that an
+explanation must be made to Aunt Winnie as well as to Tavia. It seemed
+to Dorothy that she blushed all over—fairly _burned_—whenever she
+thought of discussing her feelings regarding Garry Knapp.
+
+Never before in her experience had Dorothy Dale been so quickly and so
+favorably impressed by a man. Tavia had joked about it, but she by no
+means understood how deeply Dorothy felt. And Dorothy would have been
+mortified to the quick had she been obliged to tell even her dearest
+chum the truth.
+
+Dorothy’s home training had been most delicate. Of course, in the
+boarding school she and Tavia had attended there were many sorts
+of girls; but all were from good families, and Mrs. Pangborn, the
+preceptress of Glenwood, had had a strict oversight over her girls’
+moral growth as well as over their education.
+
+Dorothy’s own cousins, Ned and Nat White, though collegians, and of
+what Tavia called “the harum-scarum type” like herself, were clean,
+upright fellows and possessed no low ideas or tastes. It seemed to
+Dorothy for a man to make the acquaintance of a strange girl on the
+street and talk with her as Garry Knapp seemed to have done, savored of
+a very coarse mind, indeed.
+
+And all the more did she criticise his action because he had taken
+advantage of the situation of herself and her friend and “picked
+acquaintance” in somewhat the same fashion with them on their entrance
+into New York.
+
+He was “that kind.” He went about making the acquaintance of every girl
+he saw who would give him a chance to speak to her! That is the way it
+looked to Dorothy in her present mood.
+
+She gave Garry Knapp credit for being a Westerner and being not as
+conservative as Eastern folk. She knew that people in the West were
+freer and more easily to become acquainted with than Eastern people.
+But she had set that girl down as a common flirt, and she believed
+no gentleman would so easily and naturally fall into conversation
+with her as Garry Knapp had, unless he were quite used to making such
+acquaintances.
+
+It shamed Dorothy, too, to think that the young man should go straight
+from her and Tavia to the girl.
+
+That was the thought that made the keenest wound in Dorothy Dale’s mind.
+
+They shopped “furiously,” as Tavia declared, all the morning, only
+resting while they ate a bite of luncheon in one of the big stores, and
+then went at it again immediately afterward.
+
+“The boys talk about ‘bucking the line’ about this time of
+year—football slang, you know,” sighed Tavia; “but believe me! this is
+some ‘bucking.’ I never shopped so fast and furiously in all my life.
+Dorothy, you actually act as though you wanted to get it all over with
+and go home. And we can stay a week if we like. We’re having no fun at
+all.”
+
+Dorothy would not answer. She wished they could go home. It seemed to
+her as though New York City was not big enough in which to hide away
+from Garry Knapp.
+
+They could not secure seats—not those they wanted—for the play Ned and
+Nat had told them to see, for that evening; and Tavia insisted upon
+going back to the hotel.
+
+“I am done up,” she announced. “I am a dish-rag. I am a disgrace to
+look at, and I feel that if I do not follow Lovely Lucy Larriper’s
+advice and relax, I may be injured for life. Come, Dorothy, we must go
+back to our rooms and lie down, or I shall lie right down here in the
+gutter and do my relaxing.”
+
+They returned to the hotel, and Dorothy almost ran through the lobby
+to the elevator, she was so afraid that Garry Knapp would be waiting
+there. She felt that he would be watching for them. The note he had
+written her that morning proved that he was determined to keep up their
+acquaintanceship if she gave him the slightest opening.
+
+“And I’ll never let him—never!” she told herself angrily.
+
+“Goodness! how can you hurry so?” plaintively panted Tavia, as she sank
+into the cushioned seat in the elevator.
+
+All the time they were resting, Dorothy was thinking of Garry. He would
+surely be downstairs at dinner time, waiting his chance to approach
+them. She had a dozen ideas as to how she would treat him—and none of
+them seemed good ideas.
+
+She was tempted to write him a note in answer to the line he had left
+with the clerk for her that morning, warning him never to speak to her
+friend or herself again. But then, how could she do so bold a thing?
+
+Tavia got up at last and began to move about her room. “Aren’t you
+going to get up ever again, Doro?” she asked. “Doesn’t the inner man
+call for sustenance? Or even the outer man? I’m just crazy to see Garry
+Knapp and ask him how he came by my bag.”
+
+“Oh, Tavia! I wish you wouldn’t,” groaned Dorothy.
+
+“Wish I wouldn’t what?” demanded her friend, coming to her open door
+with a hairbrush in her hand and wielding it calmly.
+
+Dorothy “bit off” what she had intended to say. She could not bring
+herself to tell Tavia all that was in her mind. She fell back upon that
+“white fib” that seems first in the feminine mind when trouble portends:
+
+“I’ve _such_ a headache!”
+
+“Poor dear!” cried Tavia. “I should think you had. You ate scarcely any
+luncheon——”
+
+“Oh, don’t mention eating!” begged Dorothy, and she really found she
+did have a slight headache now that she had said so.
+
+“Don’t you want your dinner?” cried Tavia, in horror.
+
+“No, dear. Just let me lie here. You—you go down and eat. Perhaps I’ll
+have something light by and by.”
+
+“That’s what the Esquimau said when he ate the candle,” said Tavia, but
+without smiling. It was a habit with Tavia, this saying something funny
+when she was thinking of something entirely foreign to her remark.
+
+“You’re not going to be sick, are you, Doro?” she finally asked.
+
+“No, indeed, my dear.”
+
+“Well! you’ve acted funny all day.”
+
+“I don’t feel a bit funny,” groaned Dorothy. “Don’t make me talk—now.”
+
+So Tavia, who could be sympathetic when she chose, stole away and
+dressed quietly. She looked in at Dorothy when she was ready to go
+downstairs, and as her chum lay with her eyes closed Tavia went out
+without speaking.
+
+Garry Knapp was fidgeting in the lobby when Tavia stepped out of the
+car. His eye brightened—then clouded again. Tavia noticed it, and her
+conclusion bore out the thought she had evolved about Dorothy upstairs.
+
+“Oh, Mr. Knapp!” she cried, meeting him with both hands outstretched.
+“Tell me! How did you find my bag?”
+
+And Garry Knapp was impolite enough to put her question aside for the
+moment while he asked:
+
+“Where’s Miss Dale?”
+
+Two hours later Tavia returned to her chum. Garry walked out of the
+hotel with his face heavily clouded.
+
+“Just my luck! She’s a regular millionaire. Her folks have got more
+money than I’ll ever even _see_ if I beat out old Methuselah in age!
+And Miss Tavia says Miss Dale will be rich in her own right. Ah, Garry,
+old man! There’s a blank wall ahead of you. You can’t jump it in a
+hurry. You haven’t got the _spring_. And this little mess of money I
+may get for the old ranch won’t put me in Miss Dorothy Dale’s class—not
+by a million miles!”
+
+He walked away from the hotel, chewing on this thought as though it had
+a very, very bitter taste.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AND STILL DOROTHY IS NOT HAPPY
+
+
+“But what did he _say_?” demanded Dorothy, almost wildly, sitting up in
+bed at Tavia’s first announcement. “I want to know what he _said_!”
+
+“We-ell, maybe he didn’t tell the truth,” said Tavia, slowly.
+
+“We’ll find out about that later,” Dorothy declared. “Go on.”
+
+“How?”
+
+“Why, of course we must hunt up these girls and give them something for
+returning your bag.”
+
+“Oh! I s’pose so,” Tavia said. “Though I guess the little one, Number
+Forty-seven, wanted to keep it.”
+
+“Now, tell me _all_” breathed Dorothy, her eyes shining. “All he
+said—every word.”
+
+“Goodness! I guess your headache is better, Doro Dale,” laughed Tavia,
+sitting down on the edge of the bed. Dorothy said not a word, but her
+“listening face” put Tavia on her mettle.
+
+“Well, the very first thing he said,” she told her chum, her eyes
+dancing, “when I ran up to him and thanked him for getting my bag, was:
+
+“‘Where’s Miss Dale?’
+
+“What do you know about _that_?” cried Tavia, in high glee. “You
+have made a deep, wide, long, and high impression—a four-dimension
+impression—on that young man from the ‘wild and woolly.’ Oh yes, you
+have!”
+
+The faint blush that washed up into Dorothy Dale’s face like a gentle
+wave on the sea-strand made her look “ravishing,” so Tavia declared.
+She simply had to stop to hug her friend before she went on. Dorothy
+recovered her serenity almost at once.
+
+“Don’t tease, dear,” she said. “Go on with your story.”
+
+“You see, the little cash-girl—or ‘check’, as they call them—picked
+the bag up off the floor and hid it under her apron. Then she was
+scared—especially when Mr. Schuman chanced to come upon us all as we
+were quarreling. I suppose Mr. Schuman seems like a god to little
+Forty-seven.
+
+“Anyhow,” Tavia pursued, “whether the child meant to steal the bag
+or not at first, she was afraid to say anything about it then. Her
+sister—this girl who came to the hotel—works in the house furnishing
+department. Before night Forty-seven told her sister. She had heard Mr.
+Knapp’s name, and from the shipping clerk the big girl obtained the
+name of the hotel at which Mr. Knapp was staying. Do you see?”
+
+“Yes,” breathed Dorothy. “Go on, dear.”
+
+“Why, the girl just came here and asked for Mr. Knapp and found he was
+out. She didn’t know any better than to linger about outside and wait
+for him to appear—like Mary’s little lamb, you know! Little Forty-seven
+had told her sister what Mr. Knapp looked like, of course.”
+
+“Of course!” cried Dorothy, agreeing again, but in such a tone that
+Tavia frankly stared at her.
+
+“I do wish I knew just what is the matter with you to-day, Doro,” she
+murmured.
+
+“And the rest of it?” demanded Dorothy, her eyes shining and her cheeks
+still pink.
+
+“Why, when little Forty-seven’s sister saw us with Mr. Knapp she jumped
+to the correct conclusion that we were the girls who had lost the
+money, and so she was afraid to speak right out before us——”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Well, Dorothy,” said Tavia, with considerable gravity for her, “I
+guess because of the old and well-established reason.”
+
+“What’s that?”
+
+“Because a man will be kinder to a girl in trouble than other girls
+will—ordinarily, I mean.”
+
+“Oh, Tavia!”
+
+“Suppose it had been that Mrs. Halbridge who had really lost her bag,”
+Tavia went on to say. “If this girl had tried to return it, she and
+little Forty-seven both would have lost their jobs. Perhaps the police
+would have been called in. Do you see? I expect the big girl read
+kindness in Mr. Knapp’s face——”
+
+Dorothy suddenly threw both arms about Tavia, and hugged her tightly.
+“Oh, you _dear_!” she cried; but she would not explain what she meant
+by this sudden burst of affection.
+
+“Go on!” was her repeated demand.
+
+“You are insatiable, my dear,” laughed Tavia. “Well, there isn’t much
+more ‘go on’ to it. The girl spoke to him when he passed her on the
+street and quickly told him all the story. Of course, he promised that
+nothing should happen to either of them. They are honest girls—the
+older one at least. And the temptation came so suddenly to little
+Forty-seven, whose wages are so pitiably small.”
+
+“I know,” said Dorothy, gently. “You remember, we learned something
+about it when little Miette De Pleau told us how she worked as
+cash-girl here years ago.”
+
+“Of course I remember,” Tavia said. “Well, that’s all, I guess. Oh no!
+I asked Mr. Knapp if he didn’t notice the big girl staring at us as we
+got to the hotel door last night. And what do you suppose he said?”
+
+“I don’t know,” and Dorothy was still smiling happily.
+
+“Why, he said he didn’t. ‘You see,’ he added, in that funny way of his,
+‘I expect my eyes were elsewhere’; and he wasn’t complimenting me,
+either,” added Tavia, rolling her big eyes. “Whom do you suppose he
+could have meant he was looking at, Doro?”
+
+Her friend ignored the question, but hopped out of bed.
+
+“What are you going to do?” asked Tavia, in wonder.
+
+“Dress.”
+
+“But it is nine o’clock! Almost bedtime.”
+
+“_Bedtime?_” demanded Dorothy. “And in the city? Why, Tavia! you amaze
+me, child!”
+
+“But you’re not going out?” cried her friend.
+
+“Do you realize I haven’t had a bite of dinner?” demanded the bold
+Dorothy. “I think you are very selfish.”
+
+“Well, anyway,” snapped Tavia, suddenly showing her claws—and who does
+not once in a while?—“_he’s_ gone out for a long walk and he expects to
+finish his business to-morrow and go home.”
+
+“Oh!” gasped Dorothy.
+
+She sat on the edge of her bed with her first stocking in her hand.
+Tavia had gone back into her own room. Had she been present she must
+have noticed all the delight fading out of Dorothy Dale’s countenance.
+Finally, the latter tossed away the stocking, and crept back into bed.
+
+“I—I guess I’m too lazy to dress after all, dear,” she said, in a still
+little voice. “And you are tired, too, Tavia. The telephone has been
+fixed; just call down, will you, and ask them to send me up some tea
+and toast?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THEY SEE GARRY’S BACK
+
+
+The following day Dorothy was her old cheerful self—or so Tavia
+thought. They did not shop with such abandon, but took matters more
+easily. And they returned to the hotel for luncheon and for rest.
+
+“But he isn’t here!” Tavia exclaimed, when they entered the big
+restaurant for the midday meal. “And I remember now he said
+last evening that he would probably be down town almost all day
+to-day—trying to sell that property of his, you know.”
+
+“Who, dear?” asked Dorothy, with a far-away look on her face.
+
+“Peleg Swift!” snapped Tavia. “You know very well of whom I am talking.
+Garry Owen!” and she hummed a few bars of the old, old march.
+
+Garry certainly was not present; but Dorothy still smiled. They went
+out again and purchased a few more things. When they returned late in
+the afternoon the young Westerner was visible in the lobby the moment
+the girls came through the doorway.
+
+But he was busy. He did not even see them. He was talking with two
+men of pronounced New York business type who might have been brokers
+or Wall Street men. All three sat on a lounge near the elevators, and
+Dorothy heard one of the strangers say crisply, as she and Tavia waited
+for a car:
+
+“That’s our top price, I think, Mr. Knapp. And, of course, we cannot
+pay you any money until I have seen the land, save the hundred for the
+option. I shall be out in a fortnight, I believe. It must hang fire
+until then, even at this price.”
+
+“Well, Mr. Stiffbold—it’s a bet!” Garry said, and Dorothy could imagine
+the secret sigh he breathed. Evidently, he was not getting the price
+for the wornout ranch that he had hoped.
+
+The two girls went up in the elevator and later made their dinner
+toilet. To-night Dorothy was the one who took the most pains in her
+primping; but Tavia said never a word. Nevertheless, she “looked
+volumes.”
+
+They were downstairs again not much later than half past six. Not a
+sign of Garry Knapp either in the lobby or in the dining-room. The
+girls ate their dinner slowly and “lived in hopes,” as Tavia expressed
+it.
+
+Both were frankly hoping Garry would appear. Tavia was grateful to him
+for the part he had taken in the recovery of her bag; and, too, he was
+“nice.” Dorothy felt that she had misjudged the young Westerner, and
+she was fired with a desire to be particularly pleasant to him so as to
+salve over her secret compunctions of conscience.
+
+“‘He cometh not, she said,’” Tavia complained. “What’s the matter with
+the boy, anyway? Can he be eating in the cafê with those two men?”
+
+“Oh, Tavia!” suddenly exclaimed Dorothy. “You said he was going home
+to-day.”
+
+“Oh—ah—yes. He did say he expected to get out for the West again some
+time to-day——”
+
+“Maybe he’s go-o-one!” and Dorothy’s phrase was almost a wail.
+
+“Goodness! Never! Without looking us up and saying a word of good-bye?”
+
+Dorothy got up with determination. “I am going to find out,” she said.
+“I feel that I would like to see Mr. Knapp again.”
+
+“Well! if _I_ said a thing like that about a young man——”
+
+However, Tavia let the remark trail off into silence and followed her
+chum. As they came out of the dining-room the broad shoulders and
+broad-brimmed hat of Garry Knapp were going through the street door!
+
+“Oh!” gasped Dorothy.
+
+“He’s going!” added Tavia, stricken quite as motionless.
+
+“Going——”
+
+“Gone!” ended Tavia, sepulchrally. “It’s all off, Dorothy. Garry Knapp,
+of Desert City, has departed.”
+
+“Oh, we must stop him—speak to him——”
+
+Dorothy started for the door and Tavia, nothing loath, followed at a
+sharp pace. Just as they came out into the open street a car stopped
+before the hotel door and Garry Knapp, “bag and baggage” stepped
+aboard. He did not even look back!
+
+As the girls returned to the hotel lobby the two men with whom they
+had seen Garry Knapp earlier in the evening, were passing out. They
+lingered while one of the men lit his cigar, and Dorothy heard the
+second man speaking.
+
+“I could have paid him spot cash for the land right here and been sure
+of a bargain, Lightly. I know just where it is and all about it. But
+it will do no harm to let the thing hang fire till I get out there.
+Perhaps, if I’m not too eager, I can get him to knock off a few dollars
+per acre. The boy wants to sell—that’s sure.”
+
+“Uh-huh!” grunted the one with the cigar. “It’ll make a tidy piece of
+wheat land without doubt, Stiffbold. You go for it!”
+
+They passed out then and the girl who had listened followed her friend
+slowly to the elevator, deep in thought. She said not a word until they
+were upstairs again. Perhaps her heart was really too full just then
+for utterance.
+
+As they entered Dorothy’s room the girls saw that the maid had been in
+during their absence at dinner. There was a long box, unmistakably a
+florist’s box, on the table.
+
+“Oh, see what’s here!” cried Tavia, springing forward.
+
+The card on the box read: “Miss Dale.”
+
+“For you!” cried Tavia. “What meaneth it, fair Lady Dorothy? Hast thou
+made a conquest already? Some sweet swain——”
+
+“I don’t believe you know what a ‘sweet swain’ is,” laughed Dorothy.
+
+Her fingers trembled as she untied the purple cord. Tavia asked, with
+increased curiosity:
+
+“Who can they be from, Doro? Flowers, of course!”
+
+Dorothy said nothing in reply; but in her heart she knew—she knew!
+The cord was untied at last, the tissue paper, all fragrant and dewy,
+lifted.
+
+“Why!” said Tavia, rather in disappointment and doubt. “Not roses—or
+chrysanthemums—or—or——”
+
+“Or anything foolish!” finished Dorothy, firmly.
+
+She lifted from their bed of damp moss a bouquet of the simplest
+old-fashioned flowers; mignonette, and several long-stemmed, dewy
+violets and buttercups, pansies, forget-me-nots——
+
+“He must have been robbing all the old-fashioned gardens around New
+York,” said Tavia. “But that’s a lovely ribbon—and yards of it.”
+
+Dorothy did not speak at first. The cost of the gift meant nothing to
+her. Yet she knew that the monetary value of such a bouquet in New York
+must be far above what was ordinarily paid for roses and the like.
+
+A note was nestling in the stems. She opened it and read:
+
+  “Dear Miss Dale:
+
+ “Was mighty sorry to hear you are still in retirement. Your friend
+ said last evening that you were quite done-up. Now I am forced to
+ leave in a hurry without seeing you. Sent bellhop up to your room and
+ he reports ‘no answer.’
+
+ “But, without seeming too bold, will hope that we shall meet again—and
+ that these few flowers will be a reminder of
+
+  “Faithfully and regretfully yours,
+  “G. KNAPP.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+“HEART DISEASE”
+
+
+After one passes the railroad station at The Beeches, and before
+reaching the town limits of North Birchland, the traveler sees a gray
+road following closely the railway tracks, sometimes divided from them
+by rail-fences, sometimes by a ditch, and sometimes the railway roadbed
+is high on a bank overlooking the highway.
+
+For several miles the road grades downward—not a sharp grade, but a
+steady one—and so does the railroad. At the foot of the slope the
+highway keeps straight on over a bridge that spans the deep and
+boisterous creek; but a fork of the road turns abruptly and crosses the
+railroad at grade.
+
+There is no flagman at this grade crossing, nor is there a drop-gate.
+Just a “Stop, Look, Listen” sign—two words of which are unnecessary, as
+some philosopher has pointed out. There had been some serious accidents
+at this crossing; but thus far the railroad company had found it
+cheaper to pay court damages than to pay a flagman and the upkeep of a
+proper gate on both sides of its right-of-way.
+
+When they came in sight of the down-hill part of the road Dorothy Dale
+and Tavia Travers knew it was time to begin to put on their wraps and
+take down their bags. The North Birchland station would soon be in
+sight.
+
+It was Dorothy who first stood up to reach for her bag. As she did so
+she glanced through the broad window, out upon the highway.
+
+“Oh, Tavia!” she gasped.
+
+“What’s the matter, dear? You don’t see Garry Knapp, do you? Maybe his
+buying those flowers—that ‘parting blessing’—‘busted’ him and he’s got
+to walk home clear to Desert City.”
+
+“Don’t be a goose!” half laughed Dorothy. “Look out. See if you see
+what I see.”
+
+“Why, Doro! it’s Joe and Roger I do believe!”
+
+“I was sure it was,” returned her friend. “What can those boys be doing
+now?”
+
+“Well, what they are doing seems plain enough,” said Tavia. “What they
+are going to do is the moot question, my dear. You never know what a
+boy will do next, or what he did last; you’re only sure of what he is
+doing just now.”
+
+What the young brothers of Dorothy Dale were doing at that moment was
+easily explained. They were riding down the long slope of the gray
+road toward North Birchland, racing with the train Dorothy and Tavia
+were on. The vehicle upon which the boys were riding was a nondescript
+thing composed of a long plank, four wheels, a steering arrangement of
+more or less dependence, and a soap box.
+
+In the soap box was a bag, and unless the girls were greatly mistaken
+Joe and Roger Dale had been nutting over toward The Beeches, and the
+bag was filled with hickory nuts and chestnuts in their shells and
+burrs.
+
+Roger, who was the youngest, and whom Dorothy continued to look upon as
+a baby, occupied the box with the nuts. Joe, who was fifteen, straddled
+the plank with his feet on the rests and steered. The boys’ vehicle was
+going like the wind. It looked as though a small stone in the road,
+or an uncertain jerk by Joe on the steering lines, would throw the
+contraption on which they rode sideways and dump out the boys.
+
+“Enough to give one heart disease,” said Tavia. “I declare! small
+brothers are a nuisance. When I’m at home in Dalton I have to wear
+blinders so as not to see _my_ kid brothers at their antics.”
+
+“If something should happen, Tavia!” murmured Dorothy.
+
+“Something is always happening. But not often is it something bad,”
+said Tavia, coolly. “‘There’s a swate little cherub that sits up
+aloft, and kapes out an eye for poor Jack,’ as the Irish tar says.
+And there is a similar cherub looking out for small boys—or a special
+providence.”
+
+The train was now high on the embankment over the roadway. The two boys
+sliding down the hill looked very small, indeed, below the car windows.
+
+“Suppose a wagon should start up the hill,” murmured Dorothy.
+
+“There’s none in sight. I never saw the road more deserted—oh, Doro!”
+
+Tavia uttered this cry before she thought. She had looked far ahead to
+the foot of the hill and had seen something that her friend had not yet
+observed.
+
+“What is it?” gasped Dorothy, whose gaze was still fixed upon her
+brothers.
+
+“My dear! The bridge!”
+
+The words burst from Tavia involuntarily. She could not keep them in.
+
+At the foot of the hill the road forked as has before been shown. To
+the left it crossed the railroad tracks at grade. Of course, these
+reckless boys had not intended to try for the crossing ahead of the
+train. But the main road, which kept straight on beside the tracks,
+crossed the creek on a wooden bridge. Tavia, looking ahead, saw that
+the bridge boards were up and there was a rough fence built across the
+main road!
+
+“They’ll be killed!” screamed Dorothy Dale, and sank back into her
+chair.
+
+The train was now pitching down the grade. It was still a mile to the
+foot of the slope where railroad and highway were on a level again. The
+boys in their little “scooter” were traveling faster than the train
+itself, for the brakes had been applied when the descent was begun.
+
+The boys and their vehicle, surrounded by a little halo of dust, were
+now far ahead of the chair car in which their sister and Tavia rode.
+The girls, clinging to each other, craned their necks to see ahead.
+There were not many other passengers in the car and nobody chanced to
+notice the horror-stricken girls.
+
+It was a race between the boys and the train, and the boys would never
+be able to halt their vehicle on the level at the bottom of the hill
+before crashing into the fence that guarded the open bridge.
+
+Were the barrier not there, the little cart would dart over the edge
+of the masonry wall of the bridge and all be dashed into the deep and
+rock-strewn bed of the creek.
+
+There was but one escape for the boys in any event. Perhaps their
+vehicle could be guided to the left, into the branch road and so across
+the railroad track. But if Joe undertook that would not the train be
+upon them?
+
+“Heart disease,” indeed! It seemed to Dorothy Dale as though her own
+heart pounded so that she could no longer breathe. Her eyes strained
+to see the imperiled boys down in the road.
+
+The “scooter” ran faster and faster or was the train itself slowing
+down?
+
+“For sure and certain they are beating us!” murmured Tavia.
+
+She could appreciate the sporting chance in the race; but to Dorothy
+there loomed up nothing but the peril facing her brothers.
+
+The railroad tracks pitched rather sharply here. It was quite a descent
+into the valley where North Birchland lay. When the engineers of the
+passenger trains had any time to make up running west they could always
+regain schedule on this slope.
+
+Dorothy knew this. She realized that the engineer, watching the track
+ahead and not the roadway where the boys were, might be tempted to
+release his brakes when half way down the slope and increase his speed.
+
+If he did so and the boys, Joe and Roger, turned to cross the rails,
+the train must crash into the “scooter.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A BOLD THING TO DO!
+
+
+The threatening peril—which looked so sure to Dorothy Dale if to nobody
+else—inspired her to act, not to remain stunned and helpless. She
+jerked her hand from Tavia’s clutch and sprang to her feet. She had
+been reaching for her bag on first observing the boys coasting down
+the long hill beside the railroad tracks; and her umbrella was in the
+rack, too. She seized this. Its handle was a shepherd’s crook. Reaching
+with it, and without a word to Tavia, she hooked the handle into the
+emergency cord that ran overhead the length of the car, and pulled down
+sharply. Instantly there was a shriek from the engine whistle and the
+brakes were sharply applied.
+
+The brake shoes so suddenly applied to the wheels on this downgrade
+did much harm to the wheels themselves. Little cared Dorothy for this
+well-known fact. If every wheel under the train had to go to the repair
+shop she would have made this bold attempt to stop the train or retard
+its speed, so that Joe and Roger could cross the tracks ahead of it.
+
+Glancing through the window she saw the boys’ “scooter” dart swiftly
+and safely into the fork-road and disappear some rods ahead of the
+pilot of the engine. The boys were across before the brakeman and the
+Pullman conductor opened the car door and rushed in.
+
+“Who pulled that emergency cord? Anybody here?” shouted the conductor.
+
+“Oh! don’t tell him!” breathed Tavia.
+
+But her friend, if physically afraid, was never a moral coward. She
+looked straight into the angry conductor’s face and said:
+
+“I did.”
+
+“What for?” he demanded.
+
+“To stop the train. My brothers were in danger——”
+
+“Say! What’s that?” demanded the Pullman conductor of Tavia. “Where are
+her brothers?”
+
+The brakeman, who had long run over this road, pulled at the
+conductor’s sleeve.
+
+“That’s Major Dale’s girl,” he whispered, and Tavia heard if Dorothy
+did not.
+
+“Who’s Major Dale?” asked the conductor, in a low voice, turning aside.
+“Somebody on the road?”
+
+“Owns stock in it all right. And a bigwig around North Birchland. Go
+easy, I say,” advised the brakeman, immediately turning back to the
+door.
+
+The train, meanwhile, had started on again, for undoubtedly the other
+conductor had given the engineer the signal to go ahead. Through the
+window across the car Dorothy could see out upon the road beyond the
+tracks. There was the little “scooter” at a standstill. Joe and Roger
+were standing up and waving their caps at the train.
+
+“They’re safe!” Dorothy cried to Tavia.
+
+“I see they are; but you’re not—yet,” returned her chum.
+
+“Who’s that is safe?” asked the conductor, still in doubt.
+
+“My brothers—there,” answered Dorothy, pointing. “They had to cross in
+front of the train because the bridge is open. They couldn’t stop at
+the bottom of the hill.”
+
+The Pullman conductor understood at last. “But I’ll have to make a
+report of this, Miss Dale,” he said, complainingly.
+
+Dorothy had seated herself and she was very pale. The fright for her at
+least had been serious.
+
+“Make a dozen reports if you like—help yourself,” said Tavia, tartly,
+bending over her friend. “If there is anything to pay send the bill to
+Major Dale.”
+
+The conductor grumbled something and went out, notebook in hand. In
+a few moments the train came to a standstill at the North Birchland
+station. The girls had to bestir themselves to get out in season, and
+that helped rouse Dorothy.
+
+“Those rascals!” said Tavia, once they were on the platform. “Joe and
+Roger should be spanked.”
+
+“I’m afraid Joe is too big for that,” sighed Dorothy. “And who would
+spank them? It is something they didn’t get when they were little——”
+
+“And see the result!”
+
+“Your brothers were whipped sufficiently, I am sure,” Dorothy said,
+smiling at length. “They are not one whit better than Joe and Roger.”
+
+“Dear me! that’s so,” admitted Tavia. “But just the same, I belieev in
+whippings—for boys.”
+
+“And no whippings for girls?”
+
+“I should say not!” cried Tavia. “There never _was_ a girl who deserved
+corporal punishment.”
+
+“Not even Nita Brandt?” suggested Dorothy, naming a girl who had ever
+been a thorn in the flesh for Tavia during their days at Glenwood.
+
+“Well—perhaps _she_. But Nita’s about the only one, I guess.”
+
+The next moment Tavia started to run down the long platform, dropping
+her bag and screaming:
+
+“Jennie Hapgood! Jennie Jane Jemina Jerusha Happiness—_good_! How ever
+came you here?”
+
+Dorothy was excited, too, when she saw the pretty girl whom Tavia
+greeted with such ebullition; but she looked beyond Jennie Hapgood, the
+expected guest from Pennsylvania.
+
+There was the boys’ new car beside the station platform and Ned was
+under the steering-wheel while Nat was just getting out after Jennie.
+Of course, the two girls just back from New York were warmly kissed by
+Jennie. Then Nat came next and before Tavia realized what was being
+done to her, she was soundly kissed, too!
+
+“Bold, bad thing!” she cried, raising a gloved hand toward the laughing
+Nat. But it never reached him. Then Dorothy had to submit—as she always
+did—to the bearlike hugs of both her cousins, for Ned quickly joined
+them on the platform. Tavia escaped Ned—if, indeed, he had intended to
+follow his brother’s example.
+
+“What is the use of having a pretty cousin,” the White boys always
+said, “if we can’t kiss her? Keeps our hands in, you know. And if she
+has pretty friends, why shouldn’t we kiss them, too?”
+
+“Did you boys kiss Jennie when she arrived this morning?” Tavia
+demanded, repairing the ruffled hair that had fallen over her ears.
+
+“Certainly!” declared Nat, boldly. “Both of us.”
+
+“They never!” cried Jennie, turning very red. “You know I wouldn’t let
+these boys kiss me.”
+
+“I bet a boy kissed you the last thing before you started up here from
+home,” teased Nat.
+
+“I _never_ let boys kiss me,” repeated Jennie.
+
+“Oh, no!” drawled Ned, joining in with his brother. “How about Jack?”
+
+“Oh, well, _Jack_!”
+
+“Jack isn’t a boy, I suppose?” hooted Nat. “I guess that girl he’s
+going to marry about Christmas time thinks he’s a pretty nice boy.”
+
+“But he’s only my brother,” announced Jennie Hapgood, tossing her head.
+
+“Is he really?” cried Tavia, clasping her hands eagerly.
+
+“Is he really my brother?” demanded Jennie, in amazement. “Why, you
+_know_ he is, Tavia Travers!”
+
+“Oh, no! I mean are they going to be married at Christmas?”
+
+“Yes. That is the plan now. And you’ve all got to come to Sunnyside to
+the wedding. Nothing less would suit Jack—or father and mother,” Jennie
+said happily. “So prepare accordingly.”
+
+Nat raced with Tavia for the bag she had dropped. He got it and clung
+to it all the way in the car to The Cedars, threatening to open it and
+examine its contents.
+
+“For I know very well that Tavia’s got oodles of new face powder and
+rouge, and a rabbit’s foot to put it on with—or else a kalsomine
+brush,” Nat declared. “Joe and Roger want to paint the old pigeon
+house, anyway, and this stuff Tavia’s got in here will be just the
+thing.”
+
+In fact, the two big fellows were so glad to see their cousin and Tavia
+again that they teased worse than ever. A queer way to show their
+affection, but a boy’s way, after all. And, of course, everybody else
+at the Cedars was delighted to greet Dorothy and Tavia. It was some
+time before the returned travelers could run upstairs to change their
+dresses for dinner. Jennie had gone into her room to change, too, and
+Tavia came to Dorothy’s open door.
+
+“Oh, that letter!” she exclaimed, seeing Dorothy standing very gravely
+with a letter in her hand. “Haven’t you sent it?”
+
+“You see I haven’t,” Dorothy said seriously.
+
+“But why not?”
+
+“It seems such a bold thing to do,” confessed her friend. “We know so
+little about him. And it might encourage him to write in return——”
+
+“Of course it will!” laughed Tavia.
+
+“There! that’s what I mean. It is bold.”
+
+“But, you silly!” cried Tavia. “You only write Mr. Knapp to do him a
+good turn. And he did us a good turn—at least, he did _me_ one that I
+shall never forget.”
+
+“True,” Dorothy said thoughtfully. “And I have only repeated to him in
+this note what I heard that man, Stiffbold, say about the purchase of
+Mr. Knapp’s ranch.”
+
+“Oh, help the poor fellow out. Those men will rob him,” Tavia advised.
+“Why didn’t you send it at once, when you had written it?”
+
+“I—I thought I’d wait and consult Aunt Winnie,” stammered Dorothy.
+
+“Then consult her.”
+
+“But—but _now_ I don’t want to.”
+
+Tavia looked at her with certainty in her own gaze. “I know what is the
+matter with you,” she said.
+
+Dorothy flushed quickly and Tavia shook her head, saying nothing more.
+But when the girls went downstairs to dinner, Tavia saw Dorothy drop
+the stamped letter addressed to “Mr. Garford Knapp, Desert City,” into
+the mail bag in the hall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+UNCERTAINTIES
+
+
+Dorothy had no time before dinner, but after that meal she seized upon
+her brothers, Joe and Roger, and led them aside. The boys thought she
+had something nice for them, brought from New York. They very quickly
+found out their mistake.
+
+“I want to know what you boys mean by taking such risks as you did
+this afternoon?” she demanded, when out of hearing of the rest of the
+family. She would not have her aunt or the major troubled by knowing of
+the escapade.
+
+“You, especially, Joe,” she went on, with an accusing finger raised.
+“You both might have been killed. _Then_ how would you have felt?”
+
+“Er—dead, I guess, Sister,” admitted Roger, for Joe was silent.
+
+“Didn’t you know the road was closed because of repairs on the bridge?”
+she asked the older boy sternly.
+
+“No-o. We forgot. We didn’t go over to the nutting woods that way. Say!
+who told you?” blurted out Joe.
+
+“Who told me what?”
+
+“About our race with the train. Cricky, but it was great!”
+
+“It was fine!” Roger added his testimony with equal enthusiasm.
+
+“I saw you,” said Dorothy, her face paling as she remembered her fright
+in the train. “I—I thought I should faint I was so frightened.”
+
+“Say! isn’t that just like a girl?” grumbled Joe; but he looked at his
+sister with some compunction, for he and Roger almost worshipped her.
+Only, of course, they were boys and the usual boy cannot understand the
+fluttering terror in the usual girl’s heart when danger threatens. Not
+that Dorothy was a weakling in any way; she could be courageous for
+herself. But her fears were always excited when those she loved were in
+peril.
+
+“Why, we were only having fun, Sister,” Roger blurted out. Being
+considerably younger than his brother he was quicker to be moved by
+Dorothy’s expression of feeling.
+
+“Fun!” she gasped.
+
+“Yes,” Joe said sturdily. “It was a great race. And you and Tavia were
+in that train? We didn’t have an idea, did we, Roger?”
+
+“Nop,” said his small brother thoughtlessly. “If we had we wouldn’t
+have raced _that_ train.”
+
+“Now, I want to tell you something!” exclaimed their sister, with
+a sharper note in her voice. “You’re not to race _any_ train!
+Understand, boys? Suppose that engine had struck you as you crossed the
+tracks?”
+
+“Oh, it wouldn’t,” Joe said stoutly. “I know the engineer. He’s a
+friend of mine. He saw I had the ‘right-of-way,’ as they call it. I’d
+beat him down the hill; so he held up the train.”
+
+“Yes—he held up the train,” said Dorothy with a queer little laugh. “He
+put on brakes because I pulled the emergency cord. You boys would never
+have crossed ahead of that train if I hadn’t done so.”
+
+“Oh, Dorothy!” gasped Joe.
+
+“Oh, Sister!” cried Roger.
+
+“Tavia and I almost had heart disease,” the young woman told them
+seriously. “Engineers do not watch boys on country roads when they are
+guiding a great express train. It is a serious matter to control a
+train and to have the destinies of the passengers in one’s hands. The
+engineer is looking ahead—watching the rails and the roadbed. Remember
+that, boys.”
+
+“I’d like to be an engineer!” sighed Roger, his eyes big with longing.
+
+“Pooh!” Joe said. “It’s more fun to drive an automobile—like this new
+one Ned and Nat have. You don’t have to stay on the tracks, you know.”
+
+“Nobody but cautious people can learn to drive automobiles,” said
+Dorothy, seriously.
+
+“I’m big enough,” stated Joe, with conviction.
+
+“You may be. But you’re not careful enough,” his sister told him.
+“Your racing our train to-day showed that. Now, I won’t tell father or
+auntie, for I do not wish to worry them. But you must promise me not
+to ride down that hill in your little wagon any more or enter into any
+such reckless sports.”
+
+“Oh, we won’t, of course, if you say not, Dorothy,” sniffed Joe. “But
+you must remember we’re boys and boys have got to take chances. Even
+father says that.”
+
+“Yes. When you are grown. You may be placed in situations where your
+courage will be tested. But, goodness me!” finished Dorothy Dale.
+“Don’t scare us to death, boys. And now see what I bought you in New
+York.”
+
+However, her lecture made some impression upon the boys’ minds despite
+their excitement over the presents which were now brought to light.
+Full football outfits for both the present was, and Joe and Roger were
+delighted. They wanted to put them on and go out at once with the ball
+to “pass signals,” dark as it had become.
+
+However, they compromised on this at Dorothy’s advice, by taking the
+suits, pads and guards off to their room and trying them on, coming
+downstairs later to “show off” before the folks in the drawing-room.
+
+Major Dale was one of those men who never grow old in their hearts.
+Crippled as he was—both by his wounded leg and by rheumatism—he
+delighted to see the young life about him, and took as much interest in
+the affairs of the young people as ever he had.
+
+Aunt Winnie looked a very interesting invalid, indeed, with her lame
+ankle, and rested on the couch. The big boys and Dorothy and her
+friends always made much of Aunt Winnie in any case; now that she
+was “laid up in drydock,” as Nat expressed it, they were especially
+attentive.
+
+Jennie and Tavia, with the two older boys, spent most of the evening
+hovering about the lady’s couch, or at the piano where they played
+and sang college songs and old Briarwood songs, till eleven o’clock.
+Dorothy sat between her father and Aunt Winnie and talked to them.
+
+“What makes you so sober, Captain?” the major asked during the evening.
+He had always called her “his little captain” and sometimes seemed
+really to forget that she had any other name.
+
+“I’m all right, Major,” she returned brightly. “I have to think,
+sometimes, you know.”
+
+“What is the serious problem now, Dorothy?” asked her aunt, with a
+little laugh. “Did you forget to buy something while you were in New
+York?”
+
+Dorothy dimpled. “Wait till you see all I did buy,” she responded, “and
+you will not ask that question. I have been the most reckless person!”
+
+“Why the serious pucker to your brow, Captain?” went on the major.
+
+“Oh, I have problems. I admit the fact,” Dorothy said, trying to laugh
+off their questioning.
+
+“Out with them,” advised her father. “Here are two old folks who have
+been solving problems all their lives. Maybe we can help.”
+
+Dorothy laughed again. “Try this one,” she said, with her eyes upon the
+quartette “harmonizing” at the piano in dulcet tones, singing “Seeing
+Nellie Ho-o-ome.” “Which of our big boys does Tavia like best?”
+
+“Goodness!” exclaimed her aunt, while the major chuckled mellowly.
+“Don’t you know, really, Dorothy? I was going to ask _you_. I thought,
+of course, Tavia confided everything to you.”
+
+“Sooner or later she may,” the young woman said, still with the
+thoughtful air upon her. “But I am as much in the dark about this query
+as anybody—perhaps as the boys themselves.”
+
+“Humph!” muttered the major. “Which of them likes _her_ the better?”
+
+“And _that_ I’d like to know,” said his sister earnestly. “There is
+another thing, Dorothy: Which of my sons is destined to fall in love
+with this very, very pretty girl you have invited here—Jennie Hapgood,
+I mean?”
+
+“Oh! they’re all doing it, are they?” grunted the major. “How about our
+Dorothy? Where does she come in? No mate for her?”
+
+“I think I shall probably become an old maid,” Dorothy Dale said, but
+with a conscious flush that made her aunt watch her in a puzzled way
+for some time.
+
+But the major put back his head and laughed delightedly. “No more
+chance of your remaining a spinster—when you are really old enough to
+be called one—than there is of my leading troops into battle again,” he
+declared with warmth. “Hey, Sister?”
+
+“Our Dorothy is too attractive I am sure to escape the chance to marry,
+at least,” said Aunt Winnie, still watching her niece with clouded
+gaze. “I wonder whence the right knight will come riding—from north, or
+south, east or west?”
+
+And in spite of herself Dorothy flushed up again at her aunt’s last
+word.
+
+It was a question oft-repeated in Dorothy Dale’s mind during the
+following days, this one regarding the state of mind of her two cousins
+and her two school friends.
+
+It had always seemed to Dorothy, whenever she had thought of it, that
+one of her cousins, either Ned or Nat, must in the end be preferred by
+Tavia. To think of Tavia’s really settling down to caring for any other
+man than Ned or Nat, was quite impossible.
+
+On the other hand, the boys had both shown a great fondness for
+the society of Jennie Hapgood when they were all at her home in
+Pennsylvania such a short time previous; and now that all four were
+together again Dorothy could not guess “which was which” as Tavia
+herself would have said.
+
+The boys did not allow Dorothy to be overlooked in any particular. She
+was not neglected in the least; yet she did, as the days passed, find
+more time to spend with her father and with her Aunt Winnie.
+
+“The little captain is getting more thoughtful. She is steadying down,”
+the major told Mrs. White.
+
+“But I wonder _why_?” was that good woman’s puzzled response.
+
+Dorothy Dale sitting by herself with a book that she was not reading
+or with fancywork on which she only occasionally took stitches, was
+entirely out of her character. She had never been this way before going
+to New York, Mrs. White was sure.
+
+There were several uncertainties upon the girl’s mind. One of them
+almost came to light when, after ten days, her letter addressed to “Mr.
+Garford Knapp, Desert City,” was returned to her by the post-office
+department, as instructed in the upper left-hand corner of the envelope.
+
+Her letter, warning Garry Knapp of the advantage the real estate men
+wished to take of him, would, after all, do him no good. He would never
+know that she had written. Perhaps her path and Garry Knapp’s would
+never cross again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+DOROTHY MAKES A DISCOVERY
+
+
+The boys had a dog—Old Brindle he was called—and he had just enough
+bull in him to make him a faithful friend and a good watchdog. But,
+of course, he was of little use in the woods, and Joe and Roger were
+always begging for a hunting dog.
+
+“We’ve got these now—pump-rifles,” Roger said eagerly to Dorothy, whom
+he thought able to accomplish any wonder she might undertake. “They
+shoot fifty shots. Think of it, Sister! That’s a lot. And father taught
+us how to use ’em long ago, of course. Just think! I could stand right
+up and shoot down fifty people—just like that.”
+
+“Oh, Roger!” gasped Dorothy. “Don’t say such awful things.”
+
+“Oh, I wouldn’t, you know; but I could,” the boy said confidently. “Now
+the law is off rabbits and partridges and quail. Joe and I saw lots of
+’em when we went after those nuts the other day. If we’d had our guns
+along maybe we might have shot some.”
+
+“The poor little birds and the cunning little rabbits,” said Dorothy
+with a sigh.
+
+“Oh! they’re not like our pigeons and our tame rabbits. These are real
+_wild_. If some of ’em weren’t shot they’d breed an’ breed till there
+were so many that maybe it wouldn’t be safe to go out into the woods,”
+declared the small boy, whose imagination never needed spurring.
+
+Joe came up on the porch in time to hear this last. He chuckled, but
+Dorothy was saying to Roger:
+
+“How foolish, dear! Who ever heard of a rabbit being cross?”
+
+“Just the same I guess you’ve heard of being as ‘mad as a March hare,’
+haven’t you?” demanded Joe, his eyes twinkling. “And we _do_ want a
+bird dog, Sis, to jump a rabbit for us, or to flush a flock of quail.”
+
+“Those dear little bobwhites,” Dorothy sighed again. “Why is it that
+boys want always to kill?”
+
+“So’s to eat,” Joe said bluntly. “You know yourself, Dorothy Dale, that
+you like partridge on toast and rabbit stew.”
+
+She laughed at them. “I shall go hungry, then, I’m afraid, as far as
+you boys are concerned.”
+
+“Of course we can’t get any game if we don’t have a dog. Brindle
+couldn’t jump a flea,” growled Joe.
+
+“Say! the big fellows used to have lots more pets than we’ve got,”
+complained Roger, referring to Ned and Nat.
+
+“_They_ had dogs,” added Joe. “A whole raft of ’em.”
+
+“Oh, dear me!” exclaimed Dorothy. “I’ll see what can be done. But
+another dog!”
+
+“We won’t let him bite you, Sister,” proclaimed Roger. “We only want
+him to chase rabbits or to start up the birds so we can shoot ’em.”
+
+Dorothy’s “I’ll see” was, of course, taken by the boys themselves as an
+out-and-out agreement to do as the boys desired. They were convinced
+that if she gave her mind to it their sister could perform almost any
+miracle. At least, she could always bring the rest of the family around
+to her way of thinking.
+
+Ned and Nat had opposed the bringing of another dog upon the place.
+They were fond of old Brindle; but it must be confessed that the
+watchdog was bad tempered where other dogs were concerned.
+
+Brindle seldom went off the place; but if he saw any other dog
+trespassing he was very apt to fly at the uninvited visitor. And once
+the bull’s teeth were clinched in the strange animal’s neck, it took a
+hot iron to make him loose his hold.
+
+There had been several such unfortunate happenings, and Mrs. White had
+paid several owners of dogs damages rather than have trouble with the
+neighbors. She—and even the major—had strong objections to the coming
+of any other dog upon the place as long as Brindle lived.
+
+So the chance for Joe and Roger to have their request granted was small
+indeed. Nevertheless, “hope springs eternal,” especially in the breast
+of a small boy who wants a dog.
+
+“Maybe we can find somebody that’s got a good, trained dog and will
+sell him to us, Roger,” Joe said, as they set forth from the house.
+
+“But I haven’t got much money—only what’s in the bank, and I can’t get
+that,” complained Roger.
+
+“You spend all you get for candy,” scoffed Joe. “Now, _I’ve_ got a
+whole half dollar left of my month’s spending money. But you can’t buy
+much of a dog for fifty cents.”
+
+“Maybe somebody would give us a dog.”
+
+“And folks don’t give away good dogs, either,” grumbled Joe.
+
+“I tell you!” exclaimed Roger, suddenly. “I saw a stray dog yesterday
+going down the lane behind our stables.”
+
+“How do you know it was a stray dog?”
+
+“’Cause it _looked_ so. It was sneaking along at the edge of the
+hedge and it was tired looking. Then, it had a piece of frayed rope
+tied around its neck. Oh, it was a stray dog all right,” declared the
+smaller boy eagerly.
+
+“Where’d it go to?”
+
+“Under Mr. Cummerford’s barn,” said Roger. “I bet we could coax it out,
+if it’s still there.”
+
+“Not likely,” grunted Joe.
+
+Nevertheless, he started off at once in the direction indicated by his
+brother, and the boys were soon at the stable of the neighbor whose
+place adjoined The Cedars on that side.
+
+Oddly enough, the dog was still there. He had crawled out and lay
+in the sun beside the barn. He was emaciated, his eyes were red and
+rolling, and he had a lame front paw. The gray, frayed rope was still
+tied to his neck. He was a regular tramp dog.
+
+But he allowed the boys to come close to him without making any attempt
+to get away. He eyed them closely, but neither growled nor wagged his
+tail. He was a “funny acting” dog, as Roger said.
+
+“I bet he hasn’t had anything to eat for so long and he’s come so far
+that he hasn’t got the spunk to wag his tail,” Joe said, as eager as
+Roger now. “We’ll take him home and feed him.”
+
+“He’s sure a stray dog, isn’t he, Joe?” cried the smaller boy. “I
+haven’t ever seen him before around here, have you?”
+
+“No. And I bet his owner won’t ever come after him,” said Joe, picking
+up the end of the rope. “He’s just the kind of a dog we want, too. You
+see, he’s a bird dog, or something like that. And when he’s fed up and
+rested, I bet he’ll know just how to go after partridges.”
+
+He urged the strange dog to his feet. The beast tottered, and would
+have lain down again. Roger, the tender-hearted, said:
+
+“Oh! he’s so hungry. Bet he hasn’t had a thing to eat for days. Maybe
+we’ll have to carry him.”
+
+“No. He’s too dirty to carry,” Joe said, looking at the mud caked upon
+the long hair of the poor creature and the dust upon him. “We’ll get
+him to the stable and feed him; then we’ll hose him off.”
+
+Pulling at the rope he urged the dog on. The animal staggered at first,
+but finally grew firmer on his legs. But he did not use the injured
+fore paw. He favored that as he hopped along to the White stables.
+Neither the coachman nor the chauffeur were about. There was nobody
+to observe the dog or advise the boys about the beast. Roger ran to
+the kitchen door to beg some scraps for their new possession. The cook
+would always give Roger what he asked for. When he came back Joe got
+a pan of water for the dog; but the creature backed away from it and
+whined—the first sound he had made.
+
+“Say! isn’t that funny?” Joe demanded. “See! he won’t drink. You’d
+think he’d be thirsty.”
+
+“Try him with this meat,” Roger said. “Maybe he’s too hungry to drink
+at first.”
+
+The dog was undoubtedly starving. Yet he turned his head away from the
+broken pieces of food Roger put down before his nose.
+
+Joe had tied the rope to a ring on the side of the stable. The boys
+stepped back to see if the dog would eat or drink if they were not so
+close to him. Then it was that the creature flew into an awful spasm.
+He rose up, his eyes rolling, trembling in every limb, and trying to
+break the rope that fastened him to the barn. Froth flew from his
+clashing jaws. His teeth were terrible fangs. He fell, rolling over,
+snapping at the water-dish. The boys, even Joe, ran screaming from the
+spot.
+
+At the moment Dorothy, Tavia and Jennie came walking down the path
+toward the stables. They heard the boys scream and all three started
+to run. Ned and Nat, nearer the house, saw the girls running and they
+likewise bounded down the sloping lawn.
+
+Around the corner of the stables came Joe and Roger, the former almost
+dragging the smaller boy by the hand. And, almost at the same instant,
+appeared the dog, the broken rope trailing, bounding, snapping, rolling
+over, acting as insanely as ever a dog acted.
+
+“Oh! what’s the matter?” cried Dorothy.
+
+“Keep away from that dog!” shrieked Tavia, stopping short and seizing
+both Dorothy and Jennie. “He’s mad!”
+
+The dog was blindly running, this way and that, the foam dripping from
+his clashing jaws. He was, indeed, a most fearful sight. He had no real
+intention in his savage charges, for a beast so afflicted with rabies
+loses eyesight as well as sense; but suddenly he bounded directly for
+the three girls.
+
+They all shrieked in alarm, even Dorothy. Yet the latter the better
+held her self-possession than the others. She heard Jennie scream: “Oh,
+Ned!” while Tavia cried: “Oh, Nat!”
+
+The young men were at the spot in a moment. Nat had picked up a croquet
+mallet and one good blow laid the poor dog out—harmless forever more.
+
+Tavia had seized the rescuer’s arm, Jennie was clinging to Ned.
+Dorothy, awake at last to the facts of the situation, made a great
+discovery—and almost laughed, serious as the peril had been.
+
+“I believe I know which is which now,” she thought, forgetting her
+alarm.
+
+[Illustration: SUDDENLY HE BOUNDED DIRECTLY FOR THE THREE GIRLS.
+
+  _Dorothy Dale’s Engagement_         _Page 108_
+]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+TAVIA IS DETERMINED
+
+
+“After that scare I’m afraid the boys will have to go without a bird
+dog,” Tavia said that night as she and Dorothy were brushing their hair
+before the latter’s dressing-glass.
+
+Tavia and Jennie and Ned and Nat were almost inseparable during the
+daytime; but when the time came to retire the flyaway girl had to have
+an old-time “confab,” as she expressed it, with her chum.
+
+Dorothy was so bright and so busy all day long that nobody
+discovered—not even the major—that she was rather “out of it.” The two
+couples of young folk sometimes ran away and left Dorothy busy at some
+domestic task in which she claimed to find much more interest than in
+the fun her friends and cousins were having.
+
+“It would have been a terrible thing if the poor dog had bitten one of
+us,” Dorothy replied. “Dr. Agnew, the veterinary, says without doubt it
+was afflicted with rabies.”
+
+“And how scared your Aunt Winnie was!” Then Tavia began to giggle. “She
+will be so afraid of anything that barks now, that she’ll want all the
+trees cut down around the house.”
+
+“That pun is unworthy of you, my dear,” Dorothy said placidly.
+
+“Dear me, Doro Doodlekins!” exclaimed Tavia, suddenly and
+affectionately, coming close to her chum and kissing her warmly. “You
+are such a tabby-cat all of a sudden. Why! _you_ have grown up, while
+the rest of us are only kids.”
+
+“Yes; I am very settled,” observed Dorothy, smiling into the mirror at
+her friend. “A cap for me and knitting very soon, Tavia. Then I shall
+sit in the chimney corner and think——”
+
+“Think about whom, my dear?” Tavia asked saucily. “That Garry Knapp, I
+bet.”
+
+“I wouldn’t _bet_,” sighed Dorothy. “It isn’t ladylike.”
+
+“Oh—de-ah—me!” groaned Tavia. “You are thinking of him just the same.”
+
+“I happened to be just now,” admitted Dorothy, and without blushing
+this time.
+
+“No! were you really?” demanded Tavia, eagerly. “Isn’t it funny he
+doesn’t write?”
+
+“No. Not at all.”
+
+“But you’d think he would write and thank you for your letter if
+nothing more,” urged the argumentative Tavia.
+
+“No,” said Dorothy again.
+
+“Why not?”
+
+“Because Mr. Knapp never got my letter,” Dorothy said, opening her
+bureau drawer and pulling the letter out from under some things laid
+there. “See. It was returned to-day.”
+
+“Oh, Dorothy!” gasped Tavia, both startled and troubled.
+
+“Yes. It—it didn’t reach him somehow,” Dorothy said, and she could not
+keep the trouble entirely out of her voice.
+
+“Oh, my _dear_!” repeated Tavia.
+
+“And I am sorry,” her friend went on to say; “for now he will not know
+about the intentions of those men, Stiffbold and Lightly.”
+
+“But, goodness! it serves him right,” exclaimed Tavia, suddenly. “He
+didn’t give us his right address.”
+
+“He gave us no address,” said Dorothy, sadly.
+
+“Why, yes! he said Desert City——”
+
+“He mentioned that place and said that his land was somewhere near
+there. But he works on a ranch, which, perhaps, is a long way from
+Desert City.”
+
+“That’s so,” grumbled Tavia. “I forgot he’s only a cowboy.”
+
+At this Dorothy flushed a little and Tavia, looking at her sideways and
+eagerly, noted the flush. Her eyes danced for a moment, for the girl
+was naturally chock-full of mischief.
+
+But in a moment the expression of Tavia Travers’ face changed.
+Dorothy was pensively gazing in the glass; she had halted in her hair
+brushing, and Tavia knew that her chum neither saw her own reflection
+nor anything else pictured in the mirror. The mirror of her mind held
+Dorothy’s attention, and Tavia could easily guess the vision there.
+A tall, broad-shouldered, broad-hatted young man with a frank and
+handsome face and a ready smile that dimpled one bronzed cheek ever so
+little and wrinkled the outer corners of his clear, far-seeing eyes.
+
+Garry Knapp!
+
+Tavia for the first time realized that Dorothy had found interest and
+evidently a deep and abiding interest, in the young stranger from
+Desert City. It rather shocked her. Dorothy, of all persons, to become
+so very deeply interested in a man about whom they knew practically
+nothing.
+
+Tavia suddenly realized that she knew more about him than Dorothy did.
+At least, she had been with Garry Knapp more than had her friend. It
+was Tavia who had had the two hours’ tête-à-tête with the Westerner at
+dinner on the evening before Garry Knapp departed so suddenly for the
+West. All that happened and was said at that dinner suddenly unrolled
+like a panorama before Tavia’s memory.
+
+Why! she could picture it all plainly. She had been highly delighted
+herself in the recovery of her bag and in listening to Garry’s story
+of how it had been returned by the cash-girl’s sister. And, of course,
+she had been pleased to be dining alone with a fine looking young man
+in a hotel dining-room. She had rattled on when her turn came to talk,
+just as irresponsibly as usual.
+
+Now, in thinking over the occasion, she realized that the young man
+from the West had been a shrewd questioner. He had got her started upon
+Dorothy Dale, and before they came to the little cups of black coffee
+Tavia had told just about all she knew regarding her chum.
+
+The reader may be sure that all Tavia said was to Dorothy’s glory. She
+had little need to explain to Garry Knapp what a beautiful character
+Dorothy Dale possessed. Tavia had told about Dorothy’s family, her Aunt
+Winnie’s wealth, the fortunes Major Dale now possessed both in the East
+and West, and the fact that when Dorothy came of age, at twenty-one,
+she would be wealthy in her own right. She had said all this to a young
+man who was struggling along as a cowpuncher on a Western ranch, and
+whose patrimony was a piece of rundown land that he could sell but for
+a song, as he admitted himself. “And no chorus to it!” Tavia thought.
+
+“I’m a bonehead!” she suddenly thought fiercely. “Nat would say my
+noodle is solid ivory. I know now what was the matter with Garry Knapp
+that evening. I know why he rushed up to me and asked for Dorothy, and
+was what the novelists call ‘distrait’ during our dinner. Oh, what a
+worm I am! A miserable, squirmy worm! Ugh!” and the conscience-stricken
+girl fairly shuddered at her own reflection in the mirror and turned
+away quickly so that Dorothy should not see her features.
+
+“It’s—it’s the most _wonderful_ thing. And it began right under my
+nose, my poor little ‘re-trousered’ nose, as Joe called it the other
+day, and I didn’t really see it! I thought it was just a fancy on
+Dorothy’s part! And I never thought of Garry Knapp’s side of it at all!
+Oh, my heaven!” groaned Tavia, deep in her own soul. “Why wasn’t I born
+with some good sense instead of good looks? I—I’ve spoiled my chum’s
+life, perhaps. Goodness! it can’t be so bad as that.
+
+“Of course, Garry Knapp is just the sort of fellow who would raise
+a barrier of Dorothy’s riches between them. Goodness me!” added the
+practical Tavia, “I’d like to see any barrier of wealth stop _me_ if I
+wanted a man. I’d shin the wall in a hurry so as to be on the same side
+of it as he was.”
+
+She would have laughed at this fancy had she not taken a look at
+Dorothy’s face again.
+
+“Good-night!” she shouted into her chum’s ear, hugged her tight, kissed
+her loudly, and ran away into her own room. Once there, she cried
+all the time she was disrobing, getting into her lacy nightgown, and
+pulling down the bedclothes.
+
+Then she did not immediately go to bed. Instead, she tiptoed back to
+the connecting door and closed it softly. She turned on the hanging
+electric light over the desk.
+
+“I’ll do it!” she said, with determined mien. “I’ll write to Lance
+Petterby.” And she did so.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE SLIDE ON SNAKE HILL
+
+
+Joe and Roger marched down at an early breakfast hour from the
+upper regions of the big white house, singing energetically if not
+melodiously a pæan of joy:
+
+    “‘The frog he would a-wooing go——
+        Bully for you! Bully for all!
+      The frog he would a-wooing go——
+        Bully for all, we say!’”
+
+The boys’ determination to reach the low register of a bullfrog in that
+“bully for all” line was very, very funny, especially in Roger’s case,
+for his speaking voice was naturally a shrill treble.
+
+Their joy, however, awoke any sleepers there might have been in the
+house, and most of them came to their bedroom doors and peered out.
+
+“What’s the matter with you blamed little rascals?” Ned, in a purple
+bathrobe, demanded.
+
+“Wouldn’t you boys just as lief sing as to make that noise?” Nat, in a
+gray robe, and at his door, questioned.
+
+But he grinned at his small cousins, for it hadn’t been so long ago
+that he was just as much of a boy as they were.
+
+“Hello, kids!” cried Tavia, sticking out a tousled head from her room.
+“Tell us: What’s the good news?”
+
+Jennie Hapgood peered out for an instant, saw Ned and Nat, and darted
+back with an exclamatory “Oh!”
+
+“I—I thought something had happened,” she faintly said, closing her
+door all but a crack.
+
+“Something has,” declared Joe.
+
+“What is it, boys?” asked Dorothy, appearing fully dressed from her
+room. “The ice?”
+
+“What ice?” demanded Tavia. “Has the iceman come so early? Tell him to
+leave a big ten-cent piece.”
+
+“Huh!” grunted Roger, “there’s a whole lot more than a ten-cent piece
+outside, and you’d see it if you’d put up your shade. The whole world’s
+ice-covered.”
+
+“So it is,” Joe agreed.
+
+“There was rain last evening, you know,” Dorothy said, starting down
+the lower flight of stairs briskly. “And then it turned very cold.
+Everything is sheathed in ice out-of-doors. Doesn’t the warm air from
+the registers feel nice? I _do_ love dry heat, even if it is more
+expensive.”
+
+“Bully!” roared Nat, who had darted back to run up the shade at one of
+the windows in his room. “Look out, girls! it’s great.”
+
+Every twig on every bush and tree and every fence rail and post were
+covered with glistening ice. The sun, just rising red and rosy as
+though he had but now come from a vigorous morning bath, threw his rays
+in profusion over this fairy world and made a most spectacular scene
+for the young people to look out upon. In an hour all of them were out
+of doors to enjoy the spectacle in a “close up,” as Tavia called it.
+
+“And we all ought to have spectacles!” she exclaimed a little later.
+“This glare is blinding, and we’ll all have blinky, squinty eyes by
+night.”
+
+“Automobile goggles—for all hands!” exclaimed Nat. “They’re all smoked
+glasses, too. I’ll get ’em,” and he started for the garage.
+
+“But no automobile to-day,” laughed Jennie. “Think of the skidding on
+this sheet of ice.” For the ground was sheathed by Jack Frost, as well
+as the trees and bushes and fences.
+
+Joe and Roger, well wrapped up, were just starting from the back door
+and Dorothy hailed them:
+
+“Where away, my hearties? Ahoy!”
+
+“Aw—we’re just going sliding,” said Roger, stuttering.
+
+“Where?” demanded the determined older sister.
+
+“Snake Hill,” said Joe, shortly. He loved Dorothy; but this having
+girls “butting in” all the time frayed his manly patience.
+
+“Take care and don’t get hurt, boys!” called Tavia, roguishly, knowing
+well that the sisterly advice was on the tip of Dorothy’s tongue and
+that it would infuriate the small boys.
+
+“Aw, you——”
+
+Joe did not get any farther, for Nat in passing gave him a look. But
+he shrugged his shoulders and went on with Roger without replying to
+Tavia’s advice.
+
+“Oh, what fun!” cried Jennie Hapgood, suddenly. “Couldn’t _we_ go
+coasting?”
+
+“Sure we could,” Ned agreed instantly. Lately he seemed to agree with
+anything Jennie said and that without question.
+
+“Tobogganing—oh, my!” cried Tavia, quick to seize upon a new scheme for
+excitement and fun. Then she turned suddenly serious and added: “If
+Dorothy will go. Not otherwise.”
+
+Dorothy laughed at her openly. “Why not, Tavia?” she demanded. “Are
+you afraid to trust the boys unless I’m along? I know they are awful
+cut-ups.”
+
+“I feel that Jennie and I should be more carefully chaperoned,” Tavia
+declared with serious lips but twinkling eyes.
+
+“Oh! _Oh!_ OH!” in crescendo from Nat, returning in time to hear this.
+“Who needs a ‘bag o’ bones’——Excuse me! ‘Chaperon,’ I mean? What’s
+afoot?”
+
+Just then he slipped on the glare ice at the foot of the porch steps
+and went down with a crash.
+
+“You’re not, old man,” cried Ned as the girls squealed. “I hope you
+have your shock-absorbers on. That was a jim-dandy!”
+
+“Did—did it hurt you, Nat?” begged Tavia, with clasped hands.
+
+“Oh-ugh!” grunted Nat, gingerly arising and examining the handful of
+goggles he carried to see if they were all right. “Every bone in my
+body is broken. Gee! that was some smash.”
+
+“Do it again, dear,” Ned teased. “Your mother didn’t happen to see you
+and she’s at the window now.”
+
+“Aw, you go fish!” retorted the younger brother, for his dignity was
+hurt if nothing else. “Wish it had been you.”
+
+“So do I,” sighed Ned. “I’d have done it so much more gracefully. You
+see, practice in the tango and foxtrot, not to mention other and more
+intricate dance steps, _does_ help one. And you never would give proper
+attention to your dancing, Sonny.”
+
+“Here!” threatened Nat. “I’ll dance one of my fists off your ear——”
+
+“I shall have to part you boys,” broke in Dorothy. “Threatening each
+other with corporal punishment—and before the ladies.”
+
+“Why,” declared Ned, hugging his brother in a bearlike hug as Nat
+reached his level on the porch. “He can beat me to death if he likes,
+the dear little thing! Come on, ’Thaniel. What do you say to giving the
+girls a slide?”
+
+“Heh?” ejaculated Nat. “What do you want to let ’em slide for? Got sick
+of ’em so quick? Where are your manners?”
+
+“Oh, Ned!” groaned Tavia. “Don’t you want us hanging around any more?”
+
+“I am surprised at Mr. Edward,” Jennie joined in.
+
+“Gee, Edward,” said Nat, grinning, “but you do put your foot in your
+mouth every time you open it.”
+
+Dorothy laughed at them all, but made no comment. Despite her late
+seriousness she was jolly enough when she was one of the party. And she
+agreed to be one to-day.
+
+It was decided to get out Nat’s old “double-ripper,” see that it was
+all right, and at once start for Snake Hill, where the smaller boys had
+already gone.
+
+“For this sun is going to melt the ice a good deal by noon. Of course,
+it will be only a short cold snap this time of year,” Dorothy said,
+with her usual practical sense.
+
+They were some time in setting out, and it was not because the girls
+“prinked,” as Tavia pointed out.
+
+“I’d have you know we have been waiting five whole minutes,” she
+proclaimed when Ned and Nat drew the long, rusty-ironed, double-ripper
+sled out of the barn. “For once you boys cannot complain.”
+
+“Those kids had been trying to use this big sled, I declare,” Nat said.
+“And I had to find a couple of new bolts. Don’t want to break down on
+the hill and spill you girls.”
+
+“That would be spilling the beans for fair,” Ned put in. “Oh, beg
+pardon! Be-ings, I mean. Get aboard, beautiful beings, and we’ll drag
+you to the foot of the hill.”
+
+They went on down the back road and into the woods with much merriment.
+The foot of Snake Hill was a mile and a half from The Cedars. Part of
+the hill was rough and wild, and there was not a farm upon its side
+anywhere.
+
+“I wonder where the kids are making their slide?” said Tavia, easily.
+
+“That’s why I am glad we came this way,” Dorothy confessed. “They might
+be tempted to slide down on this steep side, instead of going over to
+the Washington Village road. _That’s_ smooth.”
+
+“Trust the boys for finding the most dangerous place,” Jennie Hapgood
+remarked. “I never saw their like.”
+
+“That’s because you only have an older brother,” said Dorothy, wisely.
+“He was past his reckless age while you were still in pinafores and
+pigtails.”
+
+“Reckless age!” scoffed Tavia. “When does a boy or a man ever cease to
+be reckless?”
+
+“Right-oh!” agreed Nat, looking back along the towline of the sled.
+“See how he forever puts himself within the danger zone of pretty
+girls. Gee! but Ned and I are a reckless team! What say, Neddie?”
+
+“I say do your share of the pulling,” returned his brother. “Those
+girls are no feather-weights, and this is up hill.”
+
+“Oh, to be so insulted!” murmured Tavia. “To accuse us of bearing
+extra flesh about with us when we all follow Lovely Lucy Larriper’s
+directions, given in the _Evening Bazoo_. Not a pound of the
+superfluous do we carry.”
+
+“Dorothy’s getting chunky,” announced Nat, wickedly.
+
+“You’re another!” cried Tavia, standing up for her chum. “Her lovely
+curves are to be praised—oh!”
+
+At that moment the young men ran the runners on one side of the sled
+over an ice-covered stump, and the girls all joined in Tavia’s scream.
+If there had not been handholds they would all three have been
+ignominiously dumped off.
+
+“Pardon, ladies! Watch your step!” Ned said. “And don’t get us confused
+with your ‘beauty-talks’ business. Besides, it isn’t really modest. I
+always blush myself when I inadvertently turn over to the woman’s page
+of the evening paper. It is a delicate place for mere man to tread.”
+
+“Hooray!” ejaculated his brother, making a false step himself just
+then. “Wish I had creepers on. _This_ is a mighty delicate place for a
+fellow to tread, too, my boy.”
+
+In fact, they soon had to order the girls off the sled. The way was
+becoming too steep and the side of the hill was just as slick as the
+highway had been.
+
+With much laughter and not a few terrified “squawks,” to quote Tavia,
+the girls scrambled up the slope after the boys and the sled. Suddenly
+piercing screams came from above them.
+
+“Those rascals!” ejaculated Ned.
+
+“Oh! they _are_ sliding on this side,” cried Dorothy. “Stop them, Ned!
+Please, Nat!”
+
+“What do you expect us to do?” demanded the latter. “Run out and catch
+’em with our bare hands?”
+
+They had come to a break in the path now and could see out over the
+sloping pasture in which the boys had been sliding for an hour. Their
+sled had worked a plain path down the hill; but at the foot of it was
+an abrupt drop over the side of a gully. Dorothy Dale—and her cousins,
+too—knew that gully very well. There was a cave in it, and in and about
+that cave they had once had some very exciting adventures.
+
+Joe and Roger had selected the smoothest part of the pasture to coast
+in, it was true; but the party of young folk just arrived could see
+that it was a very dangerous place as well. At the foot of the slide
+was a little bank overhanging the gully. The smaller boys had been
+stopping their sled right on the brink, and with a jolt, for the
+watchers could see Joe’s heelprints in the ground where the ice had
+been broken away.
+
+They could hear the boys screaming out a school song at the top of the
+hill. Ned and Nat roared a command to Joe and Roger to halt in their
+mad career; but the two smaller boys were making so much noise that it
+was evident their cousins’ shout was not heard by them.
+
+They came down, Joe sitting ahead on the sled with his brother hanging
+on behind, the feet of the boy sitting in front thrust out to halt the
+sled. But if the sled should jump over the barrier, the two reckless
+boys would fall twenty feet to the bottom of the gully.
+
+“Stop them, do!” groaned Jennie Hapgood, who was a timid girl.
+
+It was Dorothy who looked again at the little mound on the edge of
+gully’s bank. The frost had got into the earth there, for it had been
+freezing weather for several days before the ice storm of the previous
+night. Now the sun was shining full on the spot, and she could see
+where the boys’ feet, colliding with that lump of earth on the verge of
+the declivity, had knocked off the ice and bared the earth completely.
+There was, too, a long crack along the edge of the slight precipice.
+
+“Oh, boys!” she called to Ned and Nat, who were struggling up the hill
+once more, “stop them, do! You must! That bank is crumbling away. If
+they come smashing down upon it again they may go over the brink, sled
+and all!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE FLY IN THE AMBER
+
+
+“Oh, Dorothy!” cried Tavia.
+
+Jennie, with a shudder, buried her face in her hands.
+
+Joe and Roger Dale were fairly flying down the hill, and would endeavor
+to stop by collision with the same lump of frozen earth that had
+previously been their bulwark.
+
+“See! Ned! Nat!” cried Dorothy again. “We must stop them!”
+
+But how stop the boys already rushing down hill on their coaster? It
+seemed an impossible feat.
+
+The White brothers dropped the towline of the big sled and scrambled
+along the slippery slope toward the edge of the gully.
+
+With a whoop of delight the two smaller boys, on their red coaster,
+whisked past the girls.
+
+“Stop them!” shrieked the three in chorus.
+
+Ned reached the edge of the gully bank first. His weight upon the
+cracking earth sent the slight barrier crashing over the brink. Just as
+they had supposed there was not a possible chance of Joe’s stopping
+the sled when it came down to this perilous spot.
+
+Tavia groaned and wrung her hands. Jennie burst out crying. Dorothy
+knew she could not help, yet she staggered after Ned and Nat, unable to
+remain inactive like the other girls.
+
+Ned recovered himself from the slippery edge of the bank; but by a
+hair’s breadth only was he saved from being thrown to the bottom of the
+gully. He crossed the slide in a bound and whirled swiftly, gesturing
+to his brother to stay back. Nat understood and stopped abruptly.
+
+“You grab Roger—I’ll take Joe!” panted Ned.
+
+Just then the smaller boys on the sled rushed down upon them.
+Fortunately, the steeper part of the hill ended some rods back from the
+gully’s edge. But the momentum the coaster had gained brought it and
+its burden of surprised and yelling boys at a very swift pace, indeed,
+down to the point where Ned and Nat stood bracing themselves upon the
+icy ground.
+
+“Oh, boys!” shrieked Tavia, without understanding what Ned and Nat
+hoped to accomplish. “_Do something!_”
+
+And the very next instant they did!
+
+The coaster came shooting down to the verge of the gully bank. Joe Dale
+saw that the bank had given way and he could not stop the sled. Nor did
+he dare try to swerve it to one side.
+
+Ned and Nat, staring at the imperilled coasters, saw the look of fear
+come into Joe’s face. Ned shouted:
+
+“Let go all holds! We’ll grab you! Quick!”
+
+Joe was a quick-minded boy after all. He was holding the steering
+lines. Roger was clinging to his shoulders. If Joe dropped the lines,
+both boys would be free of the sled.
+
+That is what he did. Ned swooped and grabbed Joe. Nat seized upon the
+shrieking and surprised Roger. The sled darted out from beneath the two
+boys and shot over the verge of the bank, landing below in the gully
+with a crash among the icy branches of a tree.
+
+“Wha—what did you do that for?” Roger demanded of Nat, as the latter
+set him firmly on his feet.
+
+“Just for instance, kid,” growled Nat. “We ought to have let you both
+go.”
+
+“And I guess we would if it hadn’t been for Dorothy,” added Ned, rising
+from where he had fallen with Joe on top of him.
+
+“Cracky!” gasped Joe. “We’d have gone straight over that bank that
+time, wouldn’t we? Gee, Roger! we’d have broken our necks!”
+
+Even Roger was impressed by this stated fact. “Oh, Dorothy!” he cried,
+“isn’t it lucky you happened along, so’s to tell Ned and Nat what to
+do? I wouldn’t care to have a broken neck.”
+
+“You are very right, kid,” growled Nat. “It’s Dorothy ‘as does
+it’—always. She is the observant little lady who puts us wise to every
+danger. ‘Who ran to catch me when I fell?’ My cousin!”
+
+“Hold your horses, son,” advised his brother, with seriousness. “It was
+Dorothy who smelled out the danger all right.”
+
+“I do delight in the metaphors you boys use,” broke in Dorothy. “I
+might be a beagle-hound, according to Ned. ‘Smelled out,’ indeed!”
+
+“Aren’t you horrid?” sighed Jennie, for they were all toiling up the
+hill again.
+
+Ned put the cup of his hand under Jennie’s elbow and helped her over a
+particularly glary spot. “Boys are very good folk,” he said, smiling
+down into her pretty face, “if you take them just right. But they are
+explosive, of course.”
+
+Nat, likewise helping to drag the big sled, was walking beside Tavia.
+Dorothy looked from one couple to the other, smiled, and then found
+that her eyes were misty.
+
+“Why!” she gasped under her breath, “I believe I am getting to be a
+sour old maid. I am jealous!”
+
+She turned her attention to the smaller boys and they all went gaily up
+the hill. Nobody was going to discover that Dorothy Dale felt blue—not
+if she could possibly help it!
+
+Over on the other side of the hill where the smooth road lay the party
+had a wonderfully invigorating coasting time. They all piled upon the
+double-ripper—Joe and Roger, too—and after the first two or three
+slides, the runners became freed of rust and the heavy sled fairly flew.
+
+“Oh! this is great—great!” cried Tavia. “It’s just like flying. I
+always did want to fly up into the blue empyrean——”
+
+They were then resting at the top of the hill. Nat turned over on
+his back upon the sled, struggled with all four limbs, and uttered a
+soul-searching: “Woof! woof! Ow-row-row! Woof!”
+
+“Get up, silly!” ordered Tavia. “Whenever I have any flight of fancy
+_you_ always make it fall flat.”
+
+“And if you tried a literal flight into the empyrean—ugh!—you’d fall
+flat without any help,” declared Nat. “But we don’t want you to fly
+away from us, Tavia. We couldn’t get along without you.”
+
+“‘Thank you, kindly, sir, she said,’” responded his gay little friend.
+
+However, Tavia and Nat could be serious on occasion. This very day
+as the party tramped home to luncheon, dragging the sleds, having
+recovered the one from the gully, they walked apart, and Dorothy noted
+they were preoccupied. But then, so were Ned and Jennie. Dorothy’s eyes
+danced now. She had recovered her poise.
+
+“It’s great fun,” she whispered to her aunt, when they were back in the
+house. “Watching people who are pairing off, I mean. I know ‘which is
+which’ all right now. And I guess you do, too, Aunt Winnie?”
+
+Mrs. White nodded and smiled. There was nothing to fear regarding this
+intimacy between her big sons and Dorothy’s pretty friends. Indeed, she
+could wish for no better thing to happen than that Ned and Nat should
+become interested in Tavia and Jennie.
+
+“But you, my dear?” she asked Dorothy, slyly. “Hadn’t we better be
+finding somebody for you to walk and talk with?”
+
+“I must play chaperon,” declared Dorothy, gaily. “No, no! I am going
+to be an old maid, I tell you, Auntie dear.” And to herself she added:
+“But never a sour, disagreeable, jealous one! Never _that_!”
+
+Not that in secret Dorothy did not have many heavy thoughts when she
+remembered Garry Knapp or anything connected with him.
+
+“We must send those poor girls some Christmas remembrances,” Dorothy
+said to Tavia, and Tavia understood whom she meant without having it
+explained to her.
+
+“Of course we will,” she cried. “You would not let me give Forty-seven
+and her sister as much money as I wanted to for finding my bag.”
+
+“No. I don’t think it does any good to put a premium on honesty,”
+Dorothy said gravely.
+
+“Huh! that’s just what Garry Knapp said,” said Tavia, reflectively.
+
+“But now,” Dorothy hastened to add, “we can send them both at Christmas
+time something really worth while.”
+
+“Something warm to wear,” said Tavia, more than ordinarily thoughtful.
+“They have to go through the cold streets to work in all weathers.”
+
+It seemed odd, but Dorothy noticed that her chum remained rather
+serious all that day. In the evening Nat came in with the mail bag and
+dumped its contents on the hall table. This was just before dinner and
+usually the cry of “Mail!” up the stairway brought most of the family
+into the big entrance hall.
+
+Down tripped Tavia with the other girls; Ned lounged in from the
+library; Joe and Roger appeared, although they seldom had any letters,
+only funny postal cards from their old-time chums at Dalton and from
+local school friends.
+
+Mrs. White took her mail off to her own room. She walked without her
+crutch now, but favored the lame ankle. Joe seized upon his father’s
+mail and ran to find him.
+
+Nat sorted the letters out swiftly. Everybody had a few. Suddenly he
+hesitated as he picked up a rather coarse envelope on which Tavia’s
+name was scrawled. In the upper left-hand corner was written: “L.
+Petterby.”
+
+“Great Peter!” he gasped, shooting a questioning glance at Tavia. “Does
+that cowpuncher write to you still?”
+
+Perhaps there was something like an accusation in Nat’s tone. At least,
+it was not just the tone to take with such a high-spirited person as
+Tavia. Her head came up and her eyes flashed. She reached for the
+letter.
+
+“Isn’t that nice!” she cried. “Another from dear old Lance. He’s _such_
+a desperately determined chap.”
+
+At first the other young folk had not noted Nat’s tone or Tavia’s look.
+But the young man’s next query all understood:
+
+“Still at it, are you, Tavia? Can’t possibly keep from stringing ’em
+along? It’s meat and drink to you, isn’t it?”
+
+“Why, of course,” drawled Tavia, two red spots in her cheeks.
+
+She walked away, slitting Lance Petterby’s envelope as she went. Nat’s
+brow was clouded, and all through dinner he said very little. Tavia
+seemed livelier and more social than ever, but Dorothy apprehended “the
+fly in the amber.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+“DO YOU UNDERSTAND TAVIA?”
+
+
+“You got this old timer running round in circles, Miss Tavia, when you
+ask about a feller named Garford Knapp anywhere in this latitude, and
+working for a feller named Bob. There’s more ‘Bobs’ running ranches out
+here than there is bobwhites down there East where you live. Too bad
+you can’t remember this here Bob’s last name, or his brand.
+
+“Now, come to think, there was a feller named ‘Dimples’ Knapp used
+to be found in Desert City, but not in Hardin. And you ought to see
+Hardin—it’s growing some!”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This was a part of what was in Lance Petterby’s letter. Had Nat White
+been allowed to read it he would have learned something else—something
+that not only would have surprised him and his brother and cousin,
+but would have served to burn away at once the debris of trouble that
+seemed suddenly heaped between Tavia and himself.
+
+It was true that Tavia had kept up her correspondence with the
+good-natured and good-looking cowboy in whom, while she was West, she
+had become interested, and that against the advice of Dorothy Dale. She
+did this for a reason deeper than mere mischief.
+
+Lance Petterby had confided in her more than in any of the other
+Easterners of the party that had come to the big Hardin ranch. Lance
+was in love with a school teacher of the district while the party from
+the East was at Hardin; and now he had been some months married to the
+woman of his choice.
+
+When Tavia read bits of his letters, even to Dorothy, she skipped all
+mention of Lance’s romance and his marriage. This she did, it is true,
+because of a mischievous desire to plague her chum and Ned and Nat. Of
+late, since affairs had become truly serious between Nat and herself,
+she would have at any time explained the joke to Nat had she thought of
+it, or had he asked her about Lance.
+
+The very evening previous to the arrival of this letter from the
+cowpuncher to which Nat had so unwisely objected, Nat and Tavia had
+gone for a walk together in the crisp December moonlight and had talked
+very seriously.
+
+Nat, although as full of fun as Tavia herself, could be grave; and he
+made his intention and his desires very plain to the girl. Tavia would
+not show him all that was in her heart. That was not her way. She was
+always inclined to hide her deeper feelings beneath a light manner and
+light words. But she was brave and she was honest. When he pinned her
+right down to the question, yes or no, Tavia looked courageously into
+Nat’s eyes and said:
+
+“Yes, Nat. _I do._ But somebody besides you must ask me before I will
+agree to—to ‘make you happy’ as you call it.”
+
+“For the good land’s sake!” gasped Nat. “Who’s business is it but ours?
+If you love me as I love you——”
+
+“Yes, I know,” interrupted Tavia, with laughter breaking forth. “‘No
+knife can cut our love in two.’ But, _dear_——”
+
+“Oh, Tavia!”
+
+“Wait, honey,” she whispered, with her face close pressed against his
+shoulder. “No! don’t kiss me now. You’ve kissed me before—in fun. The
+next time you kiss me it must be in solemn earnest.”
+
+“By heaven, girl!” exclaimed Nat, hoarsely. “Do you think I am fooling
+now?”
+
+“No, boy,” she whispered, looking up at him again suddenly. “But
+somebody else must ask me before I have a right to promise what you
+want.”
+
+“Who?” demanded Nat, in alarm.
+
+“You know that I am a poor girl. Not only that, but I do not come from
+the same stock that you do. There is no blue blood in my veins,” and
+she uttered a little laugh that might have sounded bitter had there not
+been the tremor of tears in it.
+
+“What nonsense, Tavia!” the young man cried, shaking her gently by the
+shoulders.
+
+“Oh no, Nat! Wait! I am a poor girl and I come of very, very common
+stock. I don’t mean I am ashamed of my poverty, or of the fact that my
+father and mother both sprang from the laboring class.
+
+“But you might be expected when you marry to take for a wife a girl
+from a family whose forebears were _something_. Mine were not. Why, one
+of my grandfathers was an immigrant and dug ditches——”
+
+“Pshaw! I had a relative who dug a ditch, too. In Revolutionary times——”
+
+“That is it exactly,” Tavia hastened to say. “I know about him. He
+helped dig the breastworks on Breeds Hill and was wounded in the Battle
+of Bunker Hill. I know all about that. Your people were Pilgrim and
+Dutch stock.”
+
+“Immigrants, too,” said Nat, muttering. “And maybe some of them left
+their country across the seas for their country’s good.”
+
+“It doesn’t matter,” said the shrewd Tavia. “Being an immigrant in
+America in sixteen hundred is one thing. Being an immigrant in the
+latter end of the nineteenth century is an entirely different pair of
+boots.”
+
+“Oh, Tavia!”
+
+“No. Your mother has been as kind to me—and for years and years—as
+though I were her niece, too, instead of just one of Dorothy’s friends.
+She may have other plans for her sons, Nat.”
+
+“Nonsense!”
+
+“I will not answer you,” the girl cried, a little wildly now, and began
+to sob. “Oh, Nat! Nat! I have thought of this so much. Your mother must
+ask me, or I can never tell you what I want to tell you!”
+
+Nat respected her desire and did not kiss her although she clung,
+sobbing, to him for some moments. But after she had wiped away her
+tears and had begun to joke again in her usual way, they went back to
+the house.
+
+And Nat White knew he was walking on air! He could not feel the path
+beneath his feet.
+
+He was obliged to go to town early the next morning, and when he
+returned, as we have seen, just before dinner, he brought the mail bag
+up from the North Birchland post-office.
+
+He could not understand Tavia’s attitude regarding Lance Petterby’s
+letter, and he was both hurt and jealous. Actually he was jealous!
+
+“Do you understand Tavia?” he asked his cousin Dorothy, right after
+dinner.
+
+“My dear boy,” Dorothy Dale said, “I never claimed to be a seer. _Who_
+understands Tavia—fully?”
+
+“But you know her better than anybody else.”
+
+“Better than Tavia knows herself, perhaps,” admitted Dorothy.
+
+“Well, see here! I’ve asked her to marry me——”
+
+“Oh, Nat! my dear boy! I am so glad!” Dorothy cried, and she kissed her
+cousin warmly.
+
+“Don’t be so hasty with your congratulations,” growled Nat, still red
+and fuming. “She didn’t tell me ‘yes.’ I don’t know now that I want her
+to. I want to know what she means, getting letters from that fellow out
+West.”
+
+“Oh, Nat!” sighed Dorothy, looking at him levelly. “Are you _sure_ you
+love her?”
+
+He said nothing more, and Dorothy did not add a word. But Tavia waited
+in vain that evening for Mrs. White to come to her and ask the question
+which she had told Nat his mother must ask for him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+CROSS PURPOSES
+
+
+Tavia was as loyal a girl as ever stepped in shoe-leather. That was an
+oft-repeated expression of Major Dale’s. He loved “the flyaway” for
+this very attribute.
+
+Tavia was now attempting to bring joy and happiness for Dorothy out of
+chaos. Therefore, she felt she dared take nobody into her confidence
+regarding Lance Petterby’s letter.
+
+She replied to Lance at once, explaining more fully about Garry Knapp,
+the land he was about to sell, and the fact that Eastern schemers were
+trying to obtain possession of Knapp’s ranch for wheat land and at a
+price far below its real worth.
+
+Satisfaction, Tavia might feel in this attempt to help Dorothy; but
+everything else in the world was colored blue—very blue, indeed!
+
+When one’s ear has become used to the clatter of a noisy little
+windmill, for instance, and the wind suddenly ceases and it remains
+calm, the cessation of the mill’s clatter is almost a shock to the
+nerves.
+
+This was about the way Tavia’s sudden shift of manner struck all those
+observant ones at The Cedars. As the season of joy and gladness and
+good-will approached, Tavia Travers sank lower and lower into a Slough
+of Despond.
+
+Had it not been for Dorothy Dale, the others must have audibly remarked
+Tavia’s lack of sparkle. Though Dorothy did not imagine that Tavia
+was engaged in any attempt to help her, and because of that attempt
+had refused to explain Lance Petterby’s letter to Nat White, yet she
+loyally began to act as a buffer between the others and the contrary
+Tavia. More than once did Dorothy fly to Tavia’s rescue when she seemed
+to be in difficulties.
+
+Tavia had a streak of secrecy in her character that sometimes placed
+her in a bad light when judged by unknowing people. Dorothy, however,
+felt sure that on this present occasion there was no real fault to be
+found with her dear friend.
+
+Nat refused to speak further about his feeling toward Tavia; Dorothy
+knew better than to try to tempt Tavia herself to explain. The
+outstanding difficulty was the letter from the Westerner. Feeling sure,
+as she did, that Tavia liked Nat immensely and really cared nothing for
+any other man, Dorothy refrained from hinting at the difficulty to her
+chum. Let matters take their course. That was the better way, Dorothy
+believed. She felt that Nat’s deeper affections had been moved and
+that only the surface of his pride and jealousy were nicked. On the
+other hand she knew Tavia to be a most loyal soul, and she could not
+imagine that there was really any cause, other than mischief, for Tavia
+to allow that letter to stand between Nat and herself.
+
+To smooth over the rough edges and hide any unpleasantness from the
+observation of the older members of the family, Dorothy became very
+active in the social life of The Cedars again. No longer did she
+refuse to attend the cousins and Jennie and Tavia in any venture. It
+was a quintette of apparently merry young people once more; never a
+quartette. Nor were Nat and Tavia seen alone together during those few
+short weeks preceding Christmas.
+
+Secretly, Dorothy was very unhappy over the misunderstanding between
+her chum and Nat. That it was merely a disagreement and would not cause
+a permanent break between the two was her dear hope. For she wished
+to see them both happy. Although at one time she thought the steadier
+Ned, the older cousin, might be a better mate for her flyaway friend,
+she had come to see it differently of late. If anybody could understand
+and properly appreciate Tavia Travers it was Nathaniel White. His mind,
+too, was quick, his imagination colorful. Dorothy Dale, with growing
+understanding of character and the mental equipment to judge her
+associates better than most girls, or young women, of her age, believed
+in her heart that neither Tavia nor Nat would ever get along with any
+other companion as well as the two could get along together.
+
+The two “wildfires,” as Aunt Winnie sometimes called them, had always
+had occasional bickerings. But a dispute is like a thunderstorm—it
+usually clears the air.
+
+Nor did Dorothy doubt for a moment that her cousin and her friend were
+deeply in love now, the one with the other. That Tavia had turned
+without explanation about Lance Petterby’s letter from Nat and that the
+latter had told Dorothy he was not sure he wished Tavia to answer the
+important question he had put to her, sprang only from pique on Nat’s
+side, and, Dorothy was sure, from something much the same in her chum’s
+heart.
+
+Light-minded and frivolous as Tavia had always appeared, Dorothy knew
+well that the undercurrent of her chum’s feelings was both deep and
+strong. Where she gave affection Tavia herself would have said she
+“loved hard!”
+
+Dorothy had watched, during these past few weeks especially, the
+intimacy grow between her chum and Nat White. They were bound to each
+other, Dorothy believed, by many ties. Disagreements did not count.
+All that was on the surface. Underneath, the tide of their feelings
+intermingled and flowed together. She could not believe that any
+little misunderstanding could permanently divide Tavia and Nat.
+
+But they were at cross purposes—that was plain. Nat was irritated and
+Tavia was proud. Dorothy knew that her chum was just the sort of person
+to be hurt most by being doubted.
+
+Nat should have understood that if Tavia had given him reason to
+believe she cared for him, her nature was so loyal that in no
+particular could she be unfaithful to the trust he placed in her. His
+quick appearance of doubt when he saw the letter from the West had hurt
+Tavia cruelly.
+
+Yet, Dorothy Dale did not try to make peace between the two by going
+to Nat and putting these facts before him in the strong light of good
+sense. She was quite sure that if she did so Nat would come to terms
+and beg Tavia’s pardon. That was Nat’s way. He never took a middle
+course. He must be either at one extreme of the pendulum’s swing or the
+other.
+
+And Dorothy was sure that it would not be well, either for Nat or for
+Tavia, for the former to give in without question and shoulder the
+entire responsibility for this lover’s quarrel. For to Dorothy Dale’s
+mind there was a greater shade of fault upon her chum’s side of the
+controversy than there was on Nat’s. Because of the very fact that all
+her life Tavia had been flirting or making believe to flirt, there was
+some reason for Nat’s show of spleen over the Petterby letter.
+
+Dorothy did not know what had passed between Tavia and Nat the evening
+before the arrival of the letter. She did not know what Tavia had
+demanded of Nat before she would give him the answer he craved.
+
+Nat kept silence. Mrs. White did not come to Tavia and ask the question
+which meant so much to the warm-hearted girl. Tavia suffered in every
+fiber of her being, but would not betray her feelings. And Dorothy
+waited her chance to say something to her chum that might help to clear
+up the unfortunate state of affairs.
+
+So all were at cross purposes, and gradually the good times at The
+Cedars became something of a mockery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WEDDING BELLS IN PROSPECT
+
+
+Four days before Christmas Dorothy Dale, her cousins, and Tavia all
+boarded the train with Jennie Hapgood, bound for the latter’s home in
+Pennsylvania. On Christmas Eve Jennie’s brother Jack was to be married,
+and he had written jointly with the young lady who was to be “Mrs.
+Jack” after that date, that the ceremony could not possibly take place
+unless the North Birchland crowd of young folk crossed the better part
+of two states, to be “in at the finish.”
+
+“Goodness me,” drawled Tavia, when this letter had come from Sunnyside
+Farm. “He talks as though wedded bliss were something like a sentence
+to the penitentiary. How horrid!”
+
+“It is. For a lot of us men,” Nat said, grinning. “No more stag parties
+with the fellows for one thing. Cut out half the time one might spend
+at the club. And then, there is the pocket peril.”
+
+“The—the _what_?” demanded Jennie. “What under the sun is that?”
+
+“A new one on me,” said Ned. “Out with it. ’Thaniel. What is the
+‘pocket peril’?”
+
+“Why, after a fellow is married they tell me that he never knows when
+he puts his hand in his pocket whether he will find money there or not.
+Maybe Friend Wife has beaten him to it.”
+
+“For shame!” cried Dorothy. “You certainly deserve never to know what
+Tavia calls ’wedded bliss.’”
+
+“I have my doubts as to my ever doing so,” muttered Nat, his face
+suddenly expressing gloom; and he marched away.
+
+Jennie and Ned did not observe this. Indeed, it was becoming so with
+them that they saw nobody but each other. Their infatuation was so
+plain that sometimes it was really funny. Yet even Tavia, with her
+sharp tongue, spared the happy couple any gibes. Sometimes when she
+looked at them her eyes were bright with moisture. Dorothy saw this, if
+nobody else did.
+
+However, the trip to western Pennsylvania was very pleasant, indeed.
+Dorothy posed as chaperon, and the boys voted that she made an
+excellent one.
+
+The party got off gaily; but after a while Ned and Jennie slipped away
+to the observation platform, cold as the weather was, and Nat plainly
+felt ill at ease with his cousin and Tavia. He grumbled something
+about Ned having become “an old poke,” and sauntered into another car,
+leaving Tavia alone with Dorothy Dale in their compartment. Almost at
+once Dorothy said to her chum:
+
+“Tavia, dear, are you going to let this thing go on, and become worse
+and worse?”
+
+“What’s that?” demanded Tavia, a little tartly.
+
+“This misunderstanding between you and Nat? Aren’t you risking your own
+happiness as well as his?”
+
+“Dorothy——”
+
+“Don’t be angry, dear,” her chum hastened to say. “Please don’t. I hate
+to see both you and Nat in such a false position.”
+
+“How false?” demanded Tavia.
+
+“Because you are neither of you satisfied with yourselves. You are both
+wrong, perhaps; but I think that under the circumstances you, dear,
+should put forth the first effort for reconciliation.”
+
+“With Nat?” gasped Tavia.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Not to save my life!” cried her friend. “Never!”
+
+“Oh, Tavia!”
+
+“You take his side because of that letter,” Tavia said accusingly.
+“Well, if _that’s_ the idea, here’s another letter from Lance!” and she
+opened her bag and produced an envelope on which appeared the cowboy’s
+scrawling handwriting. Dorothy knew it well.
+
+“Oh, Tavia!”
+
+“Don’t ‘Oh, Tavia’ me!” exclaimed the other girl, her eyes bright with
+anger. “Nobody has a right to choose my correspondents for me.”
+
+“You know that all the matter is with Nat, he is jealous,” Dorothy said
+frankly.
+
+“What right has he to be?” demanded Tavia in a hard voice, but looking
+away quickly.
+
+“Dear,” said Dorothy softly, laying her hand on Tavia’s arm, “he told
+me he—he asked you to marry him.”
+
+“He never!”
+
+“But you knew that was what he meant,” Dorothy said shrewdly.
+
+Tavia was silent, and her friend went on to say:
+
+“You know he thinks the world of you, dear. If he didn’t he would not
+have been angered. And I do think—considering everything—that you ought
+not to continue to let that fellow out West write to you——”
+
+Tavia turned on her with hard, flashing eyes. She held out the letter,
+saying in a voice quite different from her usual tone:
+
+“I want you to read this letter—but only on condition that you say
+nothing to Nat White about it, not a word! Do you understand, Dorothy
+Dale?”
+
+“No,” said Dorothy, wondering. “I do _not_ understand.”
+
+“You understand that I am binding you to secrecy, at least,” Tavia
+continued in the same tone.
+
+“Why—yes—_that_,” admitted her friend.
+
+“Very well, then, read it,” said Tavia and turned to look out of the
+window while Dorothy withdrew the closely written, penciled pages from
+the envelope and unfolded them.
+
+In a moment Dorothy cried aloud:
+
+“Oh, Tavia! you wrote him about Mr. Knapp!”
+
+“Yes,” said Tavia.
+
+“Oh, my dear! is _that_ why he wrote you the other time? Of course! And
+he says he can’t find him. Dimples Knapp he calls him. Oh, my dear!”
+
+“Well,” said Tavia, in the same gruff voice. “Read on.” She did not
+turn from the window.
+
+“Oh, Tavia!” Dorothy said in a moment or two. “Those men are out there
+buying up wheat lands—Stiffbold and Lightly. Lance says he has met
+them.”
+
+“I am afraid your friend, ‘Garry Owen,’ will be beat,” said Tavia,
+shrugging her shoulders. “Do you see what Lance says next?”
+
+“He thinks he may get word of this Knapp he knows in a few days. Thinks
+he may be working for a man named Robert Douglas. Oh, Tavia! Of course
+he is! That is the name of his employer!”
+
+But Tavia displayed very little interest. “I had forgotten,” she said.
+
+“Bob Douglas! Of course you remember! And Lance says he’ll get word to
+him and tip him off, as he calls it, about the land-sharks. Oh, Tavia!”
+
+Her friend still looked out of the window. Dorothy shook her by the
+elbow, staring at the written lines of Lance Petterby’s letter.
+
+“What does this mean?” she demanded. “‘Sue sends her best, and so does
+Ma.’ Who is Sue?”
+
+“Why, that is Mrs. Petterby, the younger,” drawled Tavia, flashing a
+glance at Dorothy.
+
+“Married?” gasped Dorothy.
+
+“According to law,” responded Tavia, solemnly. “And worse. Read on.”
+
+Breathlessly, Dorothy Dale consumed the remainder of the letter. Some
+of it she murmured aloud:
+
+“‘The kid is a wonder. You’d ought to see her. Two weeks old to-day
+and I bet she could sit a bucking pony. You’re elected godmother, Miss
+Tavia, because she is going to be called ‘Octavia Susan Petterby,’
+believe me!”
+
+“Oh, Tavia!” finished Dorothy, crumpling the letter in her hand. “And
+you never told us a word about it. _That’s_ why you wanted to buy a
+silver mug!”
+
+“Yes,” Tavia admitted.
+
+“And they have been married how long?”
+
+“Almost a year. Soon after we came away from Hardin.”
+
+“And you never said a word,” Dorothy said accusingly. “We all
+supposed——”
+
+“That I was flirting with poor old Lance. Yes,” said Tavia, her eyes
+and voice both hard.
+
+“And why shouldn’t we think so?” asked Dorothy, quietly. “You do so
+many queer things. Or you _used_ to.”
+
+“I don’t now,” said her friend, bruskly.
+
+“No. But how were we to know? How was Nat to know?” she added.
+
+Then Tavia turned on her with excitement. “You promised not to tell!”
+she said. “Don’t you _dare_ let Nat White know about this letter!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A GIRL OF TO-DAY
+
+
+“It was the prettiest wedding I ever saw,” Dorothy Dale declared, as
+the party, bound for North Birchland again, climbed aboard the midnight
+train at the station nearest Sunnyside Farm.
+
+“And the bride was too sweet for anything,” added Jennie Hapgood, who
+was returning to The Cedars as agreed, to remain until after New Year’s.
+
+“Jack looked quite as they always do,” said Ned in a hollow voice.
+
+“As who always do?” demanded Tavia.
+
+“The brooms.”
+
+“‘Brooms’!” cried Dorothy. “Grooms, Ned?”
+
+“He’s a ‘new broom’ all right,” chuckled Edward White. “Poor chap! he
+doesn’t know what it means to love, honor, obey, and buy frocks and
+hats for a girl of to-day.”
+
+“Pah!” retorted his brother, “you’d like to be in his shoes, Nedward.”
+
+“Me? I—guess—not!” declared Edward. “I have my own shoes to stand in,
+thank you,” and Ned looked at Jennie Hapgood with a meaning air.
+
+So the party came back to The Cedars in much the same state as it had
+gone to the wedding. Ned and Jennie were so much taken up with each
+other that they were frankly oblivious to the mutual attitude of Nat
+and Tavia. Dorothy Dale was kept busy warding off happenings that might
+attract the particular attention of Major Dale and Aunt Winnie to the
+real situation between the two.
+
+Besides, Dorothy had “troubles of her own,” as the saying goes. She
+felt that she must decide, and neglect the decision no longer, a very,
+very important matter that concerned herself more than it did anybody
+else in the world—a matter that she was selfishly interested in.
+
+Ample time had passed now for Dorothy Dale to consider from all
+standpoints this really wonderful thing that had come into her life
+and had so changed her outlook. On the surface she might seem the same
+Dorothy Dale to her friends and relatives; but secretly the whole world
+was different to her since that shopping trip she and Tavia had taken
+to New York wherein she and her chum had met Garry Knapp.
+
+A thousand times Dorothy had called up the details of every incident
+of the adventure—this greatest of all adventures Dorothy Dale had ever
+entered upon.
+
+She felt that she should never meet again a man like Garry Knapp. None
+of the boys she had known before had ever made much of an impression
+on Dorothy Dale’s well-balanced mind. But from the beginning she had
+looked upon the young Westerner with a new vision. His reflection
+filled the mirror of her thought as splendidly as at first. The
+dimple that showed faintly in one bronzed cheek, his rather large but
+well-formed features, his mop of black hair, his broad shoulders and
+well-set-up body—all these personal attributes belonging to Garry Knapp
+were as clearly fixed in Dorothy’s mind now as at first.
+
+So, too, her memory of all that had happened was clear. Garry’s
+proffered help in the department store when Tavia was in trouble first
+aroused Dorothy to an appreciation of his unstudied kindness. It was
+the most natural thing in the world for him to offer aid when he saw
+anybody in trouble.
+
+Dorothy blushed now whenever she thought of her doubts of Garry
+Knapp when she had seen him so easily fall into conversation with
+the department store salesgirl on the street. Why! that was exactly
+what he would do—especially if the girl asked him for help. She still
+blushed at the remembrance of the jealous feeling that had prompted her
+avoidance of the young man until his action was explained. Her pique
+had shortened her acquaintanceship with Garry Knapp. She might have
+known him far better had it not been for that incident of the shopgirl.
+
+“And my own suspicion was the cause of it. I refused to meet Garry
+Knapp as Tavia did. Why! she knows him better than I do,” Dorothy Dale
+told herself.
+
+It was after her discovery of why Tavia had been writing to Lance
+Petterby and receiving answers from that “happy tho’ married cowboy
+person,” to quote Tavia, that Dorothy so searched her own heart
+regarding Garry Knapp.
+
+“You are a dear, loyal friend, Tavia,” she told her chum. “But—but
+_why_ are you trying so to get in touch with Mr. Knapp?”
+
+“Really want me to tell you?” demanded Tavia.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Truly-rooly—black-and-bluely?”
+
+“Of course, dear.”
+
+“Because I have been a regular ivory-kopf!” cried Tavia. “Forgive my
+hybrid German. Oh, Dorothy! I didn’t want to tell you, for I hoped
+Lance might quickly find your Garry Knapp.”
+
+“_My_ Garry Knapp,” said Dorothy, blushing.
+
+“Yes, my dear. Don’t dodge the fact. We all seem to be suddenly grown
+up. We are shucking our shells of maidenhood like crabs——”
+
+“Tavia! Horrors! Don’t!” begged Dorothy.
+
+“Don’t like my metaphor, dear?” chuckled Tavia. But she was grim again
+in a moment, continuing: “No use dodging the fact, I repeat. You were
+interested in that man from the beginning. Now, weren’t you?”
+
+“Ye—es, Tavia,” admitted her friend.
+
+“And I should have seen that you were. I ought to have known, when you
+were put out with him because of that shopgirl, that for that very
+reason you were more interested in Garry Knapp than in any other fellow
+who ever shined up to you——”
+
+“Tavia! How can you?”
+
+“Huh! Just as e-asy,” responded her friend, with a wicked twinkle in
+her eye and mimicking Garry Knapp’s manner of speaking. “Now, listen!”
+she hurried on. “That night I took dinner with him alone—the evening
+you had the—er—headache and went to bed. ’Member?”
+
+“Oh, yes,” sighed Dorothy, nodding.
+
+“He just pumped me about you,” said Tavia. “And I was just foolish
+enough to tell him all about your money—how rich your folks were and
+all that.”
+
+“Oh!” and Dorothy flushed again.
+
+“You don’t get it—not yet,” said Tavia, wagging her head. “Afterwards
+I remembered how funny he looked when I had told him that you were a
+regular ‘sure-enough’ heiress, and I remembered some things he said,
+too.”
+
+“What do you mean?” asked Dorothy, faintly.
+
+“Why, I scared him away from you,” blurted out Tavia, almost in tears
+when she thought of what she called her “ivory-headedness.” “I know
+that he was just as deeply smitten with you, dear, as—as—well, as ever
+a man could be! But he’s poor—and he’s game. I think that is why he
+went off in such a hurry and without trying _very_ hard to see you
+again.”
+
+“Oh, Tavia! Do you believe that is so?” and the joy in Dorothy’s voice
+could not be mistaken.
+
+“Well!” exclaimed Tavia, “isn’t that pretty bad? You act as though you
+were pleased.”
+
+Dorothy blushed again, but she was brave. She gazed straight into
+Tavia’s eyes as she said:
+
+“I am pleased, dear. I am pleased to learn that possibly it was not his
+lack of interest in poor little me that sent him away from New York so
+hastily—at least, without making a more desperate effort to see me.”
+
+“Oh, Doro!” cried Tavia, suddenly putting both arms around her friend.
+“Do you actually mean it?”
+
+“Mean what?”
+
+“That you l-l-_like_ him so much?”
+
+Dorothy laughed aloud, but nodded emphatically. “I l-l-_like_ him just
+as much as that,” she mocked. “And if it’s only my father’s money in
+the way——”
+
+“And your own. You really will be rich when you are twenty-one,” Tavia
+reminded her. “I tell you, that young man was troubled a heap when
+he learned from me that you were so well off. If you had been a poor
+girl—if you had been _me_, for instance—he would never have left New
+York City without knowing his fate. I could see it in his eyes.”
+
+“Oh, Tavia!” gasped Dorothy, with clasped hands and shining eyes.
+
+“My dear,” said her friend, with serious mouth but dancing orbs. “I
+never would have thought it possible—of _you_. ‘Love like a lightning
+bolt’—just like that. And the cautious Dorothy!” Then she went on:
+“But, Dorothy, how will you ever find him?”
+
+“You have done your best, Tavia,” her friend said, nodding. “I
+suppose I might have tried Lance Petterby, too. But now I shall put
+Aunt Winnie’s lawyers to work out there. If possible, Mr. Knapp must
+be found before those real estate sharks buy his land. But if the
+transaction is completed, we shall have to reach him in some other way.”
+
+“Dorothy! You sound woefully strong-minded. Do you mean to go right
+after the young man—just as though it were leap year?” and Tavia
+giggled.
+
+“I hope,” said Dorothy Dale, girl of to-day that she was, “I have
+too much good sense to lose the chance of showing the man I love
+that he can win me, because of any foolish or old-fashioned ideas of
+conventionalities. If Garry Knapp thinks as much of me as I do of him,
+his lack of an equal fortune sha’n’t stand in the way, either.”
+
+“Oh, Doro! it sounds awful—but bully!” Tavia declared, her eyes round.
+“Do you mean it?”
+
+“Yes,” said Dorothy, courageously.
+
+“But suppose he is one of those stubborn beings you read about—one of
+the men who will not marry a girl with money unless he has a ‘working
+capital’ himself?”
+
+“That shall not stand in our way.”
+
+“What do you mean?” gasped Tavia. “Not that you would give up your
+money for him?”
+
+“If I find I love him enough—yes,” said Dorothy, softly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE BUD UNFOLDS
+
+
+In a certain way it ages a girl to be left motherless as Dorothy Dale
+had been. She had been obliged to “play mother” herself so early that
+her maternal instincts were strongly and early developed.
+
+Until the Dale family had come away from Dalton to live with Aunt
+Winnie at The Cedars, Dorothy had exercised her motherly oversight in
+the little family. Indeed, Roger scarcely knew any other mother than
+Dorothy, and Joe had almost forgotten her who had passed away soon
+after Roger was born.
+
+As for the major, he had soon given all domestic matters over into the
+small but capable hands of “the little captain” while they were still
+struggling in poverty. After coming to The Cedars, Dorothy, of course,
+had been relieved of the close oversight of domestic and family matters
+that had previously been her portion. But its effect upon her character
+was plain to all observing eyes. Nor had her so early developed
+maternal characteristics failed to affect the other members of the
+family.
+
+Now that she was really grown up past the schoolgirl age and of a
+serious and thoughtful demeanor, even Aunt Winnie looked upon her as
+being much older than Tavia—and years older than the boys. That Ned and
+Nat were both several years Dorothy’s senior made no difference.
+
+“Boys are to a degree irresponsible—and always are, no matter how old
+they become,” said Aunt Winnie. “But _Dorothy_——”
+
+Her emphasis was approved by the major. “The little captain is some
+girl,” he said, chuckling. “Beg pardon! woman grown, eh, Sister?”
+
+Nor was his approval merely of Dorothy’s surface qualities. He knew
+that his pretty daughter was a much deeper thinker than most girls
+of her age, and he had seldom interfered in any way with Dorothy’s
+personal decisions on any subject.
+
+“Let her find out for herself. She won’t go far wrong,” had often been
+his remark at first when his sister had worried over Dorothy in her
+school days. And so the girl developed into something that not all
+girls are—an original thinker.
+
+Knowing her as the major did and trusting in her good sense so fully,
+he was less startled, perhaps, than he would otherwise have been when
+Dorothy took him into her confidence regarding Garry Knapp. Tavia had
+refrained from joking about the Westerner from the first. Little
+had been said before the family about their adventures in New York.
+Therefore, the major was not prepared in the least for the introduction
+of the subject.
+
+Perhaps it would not have been introduced in quite the way it was
+had it not grown out of another matter. It came the day after
+Christmas—that day in which everybody is tired and rather depressed
+because of the over-exertion of celebrating the feast of good Kris
+Kringle. Dorothy was busy at the sewing basket beside her father’s
+comfortable chair. She knew that Tavia was writing letters and just at
+this moment Major Dale dropped his paper to peer out of the window.
+
+“There goes Nat—off for a tramp, I’ll be bound. And he’s alone,” the
+major said.
+
+“Yes,” agreed Dorothy without looking up.
+
+“And Ned and that Jennie girl are in the library, and you’re here,”
+pursued the major, with raised eyebrows. “Where is Tavia?”
+
+She told him; but she refrained again from looking up, and he finally
+bent forward in his chair and thrust a forefinger under her chin,
+raising it and making her look at him.
+
+“Say! what is the matter with Tavia and Nat?” he asked.
+
+“Are you sure there is anything the matter, Major?” Dorothy responded.
+
+“Can’t fool me. They’re at outs. And you, Captain? Is that what makes
+you so grave, my dear?”
+
+“No, Daddy,” she said, putting down her work and looking into his
+rugged face this time of her own volition.
+
+“Something personal, my dear?”
+
+“Very personal, Daddy,” calling him by the intimate name the children
+used. “I—I think I—I am in love.”
+
+He neither made a joke of it nor appeared astonished. He just eyed her
+quietly and nodded. The flush mounted into her face and she glowed like
+a red rose. After all, it is not the easiest thing in the world to turn
+the heart out for others to look at, even the dearest of others.
+
+“I think I am in love. And the young man is poor—and—and I am afraid
+our money is going to stand between him and me.”
+
+“My dear Dorothy,” said the major, “are you really in love with
+somebody, or in love with love?”
+
+“I know what you mean,” his daughter said, with a tremulous little
+laugh and shaking her head. “Seeing so many about us falling into
+the toils of Dan Cupid, you think I perhaps imagine I have fixed my
+affections upon some particular object. Is that it, Major?”
+
+He nodded, a quizzical little smile on his lips.
+
+“No” she said. “It isn’t anywhere near as simple as that. I—I do
+love him I believe. He is the only man I have ever really thought twice
+about. He is the center of all my thoughts now, and has been for a long
+time.”
+
+“But—but who is he?” the major gasped.
+
+“Garry Knapp.”
+
+Her father repeated the name slowly and his expression of countenance
+certainly displayed amazement. “Did I ever see the young man?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“Your aunt—one of your cousins’ friends?”
+
+“Dear Daddy,” said Dorothy, frankly and smiling a little. “I have done
+something not at all as you would expect cautious little me to do. I
+have picked a man—and, oh, he is a man, Daddy!—right out of the great
+mob of folks. Nobody introduced us. We just—well, _met_.”
+
+“The young man has been spoken of by Tavia, I believe,” said Major
+Dale, quite cheerfully. “I remember now. Mr. Knapp. You met him at the
+hotel in New York?”
+
+“Before we got to the hotel. In the train I noticed him—vaguely. On the
+platform where we changed cars at that Manhattan Transfer place, I saw
+him better. I—I never was so much interested in a man before.”
+
+Major Dale looked at her rather solemnly for a moment. “Are you sure,
+my dear, it is anything more than fancy?”
+
+“Quite sure.”
+
+“And—and—_he_——”
+
+The man’s voice actually trembled. Dorothy looked at him again, dropped
+the sewing from her lap and suddenly flung her arms about his neck.
+
+“Oh, my dear!” she murmured, her face hidden. “I know he loves me, too.
+I am sure of it! Let me tell you.”
+
+Breathlessly, her voice quavering a little but full of an element
+of happiness that fairly thrilled her listener, she related all the
+incidents—even the petty details—of her acquaintance with Garford
+Knapp, of Desert City. So clear was her picture of the young man that
+the major saw him in his mind’s eye just as Garry appeared to Dorothy
+Dale.
+
+She went over every little thing that had happened in New York
+in connection with the young Westerner. She told of her own mean
+suspicions and how they had risen from a feeling of pique and jealousy
+that never in her life had she experienced before.
+
+“That was a rather small way for me to show real feeling for a person.
+But it caught me unprepared,” said Dorothy, with a full-throated laugh
+although her eyes were full of tears. “I do not believe I am naturally
+of a jealous disposition; and I should never let such a feeling get the
+better of me again. It has cost me too much.”
+
+She went on and told the major of the incidents that followed and how
+Garry Knapp had gone away so hastily without her speaking to him again.
+
+But the major rather lost the thread of her story for a moment. He was
+staring closely at her, shaking his shaggy head slowly.
+
+“My dear! my dear!” he murmured, “you have grown up. The bud
+has unfolded. Our demure little Dorothy is—and with shocking
+abruptness—blown into full womanhood. My dear!” and he put his arms
+about her again more tightly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+DOROTHY DECIDES
+
+
+Joe and Roger Dale did not feel that they were exactly neglected during
+these winter holidays. It is true they found their cousins, the “big
+fellows,” not so much fun as they were wont to be, and even Dorothy
+failed them at times.
+
+But because of these very facts the lads had more freedom of action
+than ever before. They were learning to think for themselves,
+especially Joe. Nor was it always mischief they thought of, though
+frequently managing to get into trouble—for what live and healthy boys
+of their age do not?
+
+Many of their narrow escapes even Dorothy knew nothing about. None of
+the family, for instance, knew about Joe and the lame pigeon until
+the North Birchland Fire Department was on the grounds with all their
+apparatus.
+
+This moving incident (Tavia declared it should have been a movie
+incident) happened between Christmas and the new year. Although there
+had been a good fall of snow before Kris Kringle’s day, it had all gone
+now and the roads were firmly frozen again, so the Fire Department got
+to The Cedars in record time.
+
+To begin with Joe and Roger were breeders of pigeons, as Ned and Nat
+had been several years before. On pleasant days in the winter they let
+their flock into the big flying cage, and occasionally allowed the
+carriers to take a flight in the open.
+
+On one of these occasions when the flock returned there was a stray
+with them. Roger’s sharp eyes spied this bird which alighted on the
+ridgepole of the stable.
+
+“Oh, lookut! lookut!” exclaimed the youngest Dale. “What a pretty one,
+Joe!”
+
+“We’ll coax it down. It’s a stray,” his brother said eagerly, “and all
+strays are fair game.”
+
+“But it’s lame, Joe,” Roger declared. “See! it can scarcely hop. And it
+acts as if all tired out.”
+
+“It’s a carrier, all right,” Joe said. “I bet it’s come a long way.”
+
+The bird, however, would not be coaxed to the ground or into the big
+cage. It really did appear exhausted.
+
+“I bet if I could get up there on the stable roof, I could pick it
+right up in my hand,” cried Joe. “I’m—I’m a-going—to try it!”
+
+“Oh!” murmured Roger, both his eyes and mouth very round.
+
+Joe was no “blowhard,” as the boys say. When he said he’d do a thing he
+did his best to accomplish it. He threw off his thick jacket that would
+have hampered him, and kicked aside his overshoes that made his feet
+clumsy, and started to go aloft in the stable.
+
+“You go outside and watch, Roger,” he commanded. “There’s no skylight
+in this old barn roof—only the cupola, and I can’t get out through
+that.”
+
+“How are you going to do it then?” gasped Roger.
+
+“You’ll see,” his brother said with assurance, and began to climb the
+hay ladder into the top loft of the building.
+
+Roger ran out just in time to see Joe open the small door up in the
+peak of the stable roof. There were water-troughs all around the roof,
+for the cattle were supplied with drinking water from cisterns built
+under the ground.
+
+A leader ran down each corner of the stable, and one of these was
+within reach of Joe Dale’s hands when he swung himself out upon the
+door he had opened.
+
+Nobody, except the boys, were about the stable, and this end of
+the building could not be seen from the house. Joe had once before
+performed a similar trick. He had swung from the door to the
+leader-pipe and swarmed down to the ground.
+
+“Look out you don’t tumble, Joe,” advised the eager Roger. But he had
+no idea that Joe would do so. The elder brother was a hero in the sight
+of the younger lad.
+
+Joe’s skill and strength did not fail him now. He caught the leader,
+then the water-trough itself, and so scrambled upon the roof. But at
+his last kick some fastening holding the leader-pipe gave way and the
+top of it swung out from the corner of the stable.
+
+“Oh, cricky!” yelled Roger. “Lucky you got up there, Joe. That pipe’s
+busted. How’ll you get down?”
+
+“Never mind that,” grunted Joe, somewhat breathless, scrambling up the
+roof to the ridgepole. “We’ll see about that later.”
+
+The boy reached the ridge and straddled it. There he got his breath and
+then hitched along toward the cooing pigeon. It was not frightened by
+him, but it certainly was lame and exhausted. Joe picked it up in his
+hand and snuggled it into the breast of his sweater.
+
+“But how are you ever going to get down, Joe Dale?” shrilled Roger,
+from the ground.
+
+The question was a poser, as Joe very soon found out. That particular
+leader had been the only one on the stable that he could reach with any
+measure of safety; and now it hung out a couple of feet from the side
+of the building and Joe would not have dared trust his weight upon it,
+even could he have reached it.
+
+“What are you going to do?” again wailed the smaller lad.
+
+“Aw, cheese it, Roger! don’t be bawling,” advised Joe from the roof.
+“Go and get a ladder.”
+
+“There isn’t any long enough to reach up there—you know that,” said
+Roger.
+
+Neither he nor Joe observed the fact that, even had there been a
+ladder, the smaller boy could not have raised it into place so that Joe
+could have descended upon it.
+
+None of the men working on the place was at hand. Ned and Nat were
+off on some errand in their car. Secretly, Roger was panic stricken
+and might have run for Dorothy, for she was still his refuge in all
+troubles.
+
+But Joe was older—and thought himself wiser. “We’ve just got to find a
+ladder—_you’ve_ got to find it, Roger. I can’t sit up here a-straddle
+of this old roof all day. It’s co-o-old!”
+
+Roger started off blindly. He could not remember whether any of the
+neighbors possessed long ladders or not. But as he came down to the
+street corner of the White property he saw a red box affixed to a
+telegraph pole on the edge of the sidewalk.
+
+“Oh, bully!” gasped Roger, and immediately scrambled over the fence.
+
+He knew what that red box was for. It had been explained to him, and he
+had longed for a good reason for experimenting with it. You broke the
+little square of glass and pulled down the hook inside—-
+
+That is how Ned and Nat, whizzing homeward in their car, came to join
+the procession of the Fire Department racing out of town toward The
+Cedars.
+
+“Where’s the fire, Cal?” yelled Nat, seeing a man he knew riding on the
+ladder truck.
+
+“Right near your house, Mr. White. At any rate, that was the number
+pulled—that box by the corner of your mother’s place.”
+
+“Did you hear that, Ned?” shouted his brother, and Ned, who was at
+the wheel, “let her out,” breaking every speed law of the country to
+flinders.
+
+The Fire Chief in his red racing car was only a few rods ahead of the
+Whites, therefore, when Ned whirled the automobile into the driveway.
+They saw a small boy, greatly excited, dancing up and down on the
+gravel beside the chief’s car.
+
+“Yep—he’s up on the stable roof, I tell you. We’ve got to use your
+extension ladders to get him down,” Roger was saying eagerly. “I didn’t
+mean for all of the things to come—the engine, and hose cart, and all.
+Just the ladders we wanted,” and Roger seemed amazed that his pulling
+the hook of the fire-alarm box had not explained all this at fire
+headquarters down town.
+
+There was some excitement, as may well be believed in and about The
+Cedars. The Fire Chief was at first enraged; then he, as well as his
+men, laughed. They got Joe, still clinging to the stray pigeon, down
+from the roof, and then the firemen drilled back to town, reporting a
+“false alarm.”
+
+Major Dale, however, sent in a check to the Firemen’s Benefit Fund, and
+Joe and Roger were sent to bed at noon and were obliged to remain there
+until the next morning—a punishment that was likely long to be engraved
+upon their minds.
+
+The incident, however, had broken in upon a very serious conference
+between Dorothy Dale and her father. And nowadays their conferences
+were very likely to be for the discussion of but one subject:
+
+Garry Knapp and his affairs.
+
+Aunt Winnie, too, had been taken into Dorothy Dale’s confidence. “I
+want you both,” the girl said, bravely, “to meet Garry Knapp and decide
+for yourselves if he is not all I say he is. And to do that we must get
+him to come here.”
+
+“How will you accomplish it, Dorothy?” asked her aunt, still more than
+a little confused because of this entirely new departure upon the part
+of her heretofore demure niece.
+
+Dorothy explained. Another—a third—letter had come from Lance Petterby.
+He had identified Garry Knapp as the Dimples Knapp he had previously
+known upon the range. Knapp was about to sell a rundown ranch north of
+Desert City and adjoining the rough end of the great Hardin Estate,
+that now belonged to Major Dale, to some speculators in wheat lands.
+The speculators, Lance said, were “sure enough sharks.”
+
+“First of all have our lawyers out there make Mr. Knapp a much better
+offer for his land—quick, before Stiffbold and Lightly close with him,”
+Dorothy suggested. “Oh! I’ve thought it all out. Those land speculators
+will allow that option they took on Garry’s ranch to lapse. What is a
+hundred dollars to them? Then they will play a waiting game until they
+make him come to new terms—a much lower price even than they offered
+him in New York. He must not sell his land to them, and for a song.”
+
+“And then?” asked the major, his eyes bright with pride in his
+daughter’s forcefulness of character, as well as with amusement.
+
+“Have our lawyers bind the bargain with Mr. Knapp and ask him to come
+East to close the transaction with their principal. That’s _you_,
+Major. Meanwhile, have the lawyers send an expert to Mr. Knapp’s ranch
+to see if it is really promising wheat land if properly developed.”
+
+“And then?” repeated her father.
+
+“If it _is_,” said Dorothy, laughing blithely, “when Garry shows up
+and you and Aunt Winnie approve of him, as I know you both will, offer
+to advance the money necessary to develop the wheat ranch instead of
+buying the land.
+
+“That,” Dorothy Dale said earnestly, “will give him the start in
+business life he needs. I know he has it in him to make good. He can
+expect no fortune from his uncle in Alaska, who is angry with him; he
+will _never_ hear to using any of my money to help bring success; but
+in this way he will have his chance. I believe he will be independent
+in a few years.”
+
+“And, meanwhile, what of you?” cried her aunt.
+
+“I shall be waiting for him,” replied Dorothy with a smile that Tavia,
+had she seen it, would have pronounced “seraphic.”
+
+“Major! did you ever hear of such talk from a girl?” gasped Aunt Winnie.
+
+“No,” said her brother, with immense satisfaction, and thumping
+approval on the floor with his cane. “Because there never was just such
+a girl since the world began as my little captain.
+
+“I want to see this wonderful Garry Knapp—don’t you, Sister? I’m sure
+he must be a perfectly wonderful young man to so stir our Dorothy.”
+
+“No,” Dorothy said slowly shaking her head. “I know he is only
+wonderful in my eyes. But I am quite sure you and Aunt Winnie will
+commend my choice when you have met him—if we can only get him here!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+NAT JUMPS AT A CONCLUSION
+
+
+All this time Tavia and Nat were having anything but a happy life. Nat
+would not have admitted it for the world, but he wished he could leave
+home and never appear at The Cedars again until Tavia had gone.
+
+On her part, Tavia would have returned to Dalton before the new year
+had Dorothy allowed her to have her own way. Dorothy would not hear of
+such a thing.
+
+To make the situation worse for the pair of young people so tragically
+enduring their first vital misunderstanding, Ned and Jennie Hapgood
+were sailing upon a sea of blissful and unruffled happiness. Nat and
+Tavia could not help noting this fact. The feeling of the exalted
+couple for each other was so evident that even the Dale boys discussed
+it—and naturally with deep disgust.
+
+“Gee!” breathed Joe, scandalized. “Old Ned is so mushy over Jennie
+Hapgood that he goes around in a trance. He could tread on his own
+corns and not know it, his head is so far up in the clouds. Gee!”
+
+“_I_ wouldn’t ever get so silly over a girl—not even our Dorothy,”
+Roger declared. “Would you, Joe?”
+
+“Not in a hundred years,” was his brother’s earnest response.
+
+The major admitted with a chuckle that Ned certainly was hard hit.
+The time set for Jennie Hapgood to return to Sunnyside Farm came and
+passed, and still many reasons were found for the prolongation of her
+visit. Ned went off to New York one day by himself and brought home at
+night something that made a prominent bulge in his lower right-hand
+vest pocket.
+
+“Oh, _oh_, OH! Dorothy!” ejaculated Tavia, for the moment coming out of
+her own doldrums. “Do you know what it is? A Tiffany box! Nothing less!”
+
+“Dear old Ned,” said her chum, with a smile.
+
+Ned and Jennie disappeared together right after dinner. Then, an hour
+later, they appeared in the drawing-room where the family was assembled
+and Ned led Jennie forward by her left hand—the fingers prominently
+extended.
+
+“White gold—platinum!” murmured Tavia, standing enthralled as she
+beheld the beautifully set stone.
+
+“Set old Ned back five hundred bucks if it did a cent,” growled Nat,
+under his breath and keeping in the background.
+
+“Oh, Jennie!” cried Dorothy, jumping up.
+
+But Aunt Winnie seemed to be nearest. She reached the happy couple
+before anybody else.
+
+“Ned needn’t tell me,” she said, with a little laugh and a little sob
+and putting both arms about Jennie. “Welcome, my daughter! Very welcome
+to the White family. I have for years tried to divide Dorothy with the
+major; now I am to have at least _one_ daughter of my very own.”
+
+Did she flash a glance at Tavia standing in the background? Tavia
+thought so. The proud and headstrong girl was shot to the quick with
+the arrow of the thought that Mrs. White had been told by Nat of the
+difference between himself and Tavia and that the lady would never come
+to Tavia and ask that question on behalf of her younger son that the
+girl so desired her to ask.
+
+Never before had Tavia realized so keenly the great chasm between
+herself and Jennie Hapgood. Mrs. White welcomed Jennie so warmly, and
+was so glad, because Jennie was of the same level in society as the
+Whites. Both in blood and wealth Jennie was Ned’s equal.
+
+Tavia knew very well that by explaining to Nat about Lance Petterby’s
+letters she could easily bring that young man to his knees. In her
+heart, in the very fiber of the girl’s being, indeed, had grown the
+desire to have Dorothy Dale’s Aunt Winnie tell her that she, too, would
+be welcome in the White family. Now Tavia doubted if Aunt Winnie would
+ever do that.
+
+Jennie was to go home to Sunnyside Farm the next day. This final
+decision had probably spurred Ned to action. Because of certain
+business matters in town which occupied both Ned and Nat at train time
+and the fact that Dorothy was busy with some domestic duty, it was
+Tavia who drove the _Fire Bird_, the Whites’ old car, to the station
+with Jennie Hapgood.
+
+A train from the West had come in a few minutes before the westbound
+one which Jennie was to take was due. Tavia, sitting in the car while
+Jennie ran to get her checks, saw a tall man carrying two heavy
+suitcases and wearing a broad-brimmed hat walking down the platform.
+
+“Why! if that doesn’t look——Surely it can’t be—I—I believe I’ve got ’em
+again!” murmured Tavia Travers.
+
+Then suddenly she shot out from behind the wheel, leaped to the
+platform, and ran straight for the tall figure.
+
+“Garry Knapp!” she exploded.
+
+“Why—why—Miss Travers!” responded the big young man, smiling suddenly
+and that “cute” little dimple just showing in his bronzed cheek. “You
+don’t mean to say you live in this man’s town?”
+
+He looked about the station in a puzzled way, and, having dropped his
+bags to shake hands with her, rubbed the side of his head as though to
+awaken his understanding.
+
+“I don’t understand your being here, Miss Travers,” he murmured.
+
+“Why, _I’m_ visiting here,” she said, blithely. “But _you_——?”
+
+“I—I’m here on business. Or I think I am,” he said soberly. “How’s
+your—Miss Dale! _She_ doesn’t live here, does she?”
+
+“Of course. Didn’t you know?” demanded Tavia, eyeing him curiously.
+
+“No. Who—what’s this Major Dale to her, Miss Travers?” asked the young
+man and his heavy brows met for an instant over his nose.
+
+“Her father, of course, Mr. Knapp. Didn’t you know Dorothy’s father was
+the only Major Dale there _is_, and the nicest man there ever _was_?”
+
+“How should I know?” demanded Garry Knapp, contemplating Tavia with
+continued seriousness. “What is he—a real estate man?”
+
+“Why! didn’t you know?” Tavia asked, thinking quickly. “Didn’t I tell
+you that time that he was a close friend of Colonel Hardin, who owned
+that estate you told me joined your ranch there by Desert City?”
+
+“Uh-huh,” grunted the young man. “Seems to me you _did_ tell me
+something about that. But I—I must have had my mind on something else.”
+
+“On _somebody_ else, you mean,” said Tavia, dimpling suddenly. “Well!
+Colonel Hardin left his place to Major Dale.”
+
+“Oh! that’s why, then. He wants to buy my holdings because his land
+joins mine,” said Garry Knapp, reflectively.
+
+Tavia had her suspicions of the truth well aroused; but all she replied
+was:
+
+“I shouldn’t wonder, Mr. Knapp.”
+
+“I got a good offer—leastways, better than those sharks, Stiffbold and
+Lightly, would make me after they’d seen the ranch—from some lawyers
+out there. They planked down a thousand for an option, and told me to
+come East and close the deal with this Major Dale. And it never entered
+into this stupid head of mine that he was related to—to Miss Dale.”
+
+“Isn’t that funny?” giggled Tavia. Then, as Jennie appeared from the
+baggage room and the westbound train whistled for the station, she
+added: “Just wait for me until I see a friend off on this train, Mr.
+Knapp, and I’ll drive you out.”
+
+“Drive me out where?” asked Garry Knapp.
+
+“To see—er—_Major_ Dale,” she returned, and ran away.
+
+When the train had gone she found the Westerner standing between his
+two heavy bags about where she had left him.
+
+“Those old suitcases look so natural,” she said, laughing at his
+serious face. “Throw them into the tonneau and sit beside me in front.
+I’ll show you some driving.”
+
+“But look here! I can’t do this,” he objected.
+
+“You cannot do what?” demanded Tavia.
+
+“Are _you_ staying with Miss Dale?”
+
+“Of course I am staying with Doro. I don’t know but I am more at home
+at The Cedars than I am at the Travers domicile in Dalton.”
+
+“But wait!” he begged. “There must be a hotel here?”
+
+“In North Birchland? Of course.”
+
+“You’d better take me there, Miss Travers, if you’ll be so kind. I want
+to secure a room.”
+
+“Nothing doing! You’ve got to come out to The Cedars with me,” Tavia
+declared. “Why, Do—I mean, of course, Major Dale would never forgive me
+if I failed to bring you, baggage and all. His friends do not stop at
+the North Birchland House I’d have you know.”
+
+“But, honestly, Miss Travers, I don’t like it. I don’t understand it.
+And Major Dale isn’t my friend.”
+
+“Oh, _isn’t_ he? You just wait and see!” cried Tavia. “I didn’t know
+about your coming East. Of course, if it is business——”
+
+“That is it, exactly,” the young man said, nervously. “I—I couldn’t
+impose upon these people, you know.”
+
+“Say! you want to sell your land, don’t you?” demanded Tavia.
+
+“Ye—es,” admitted Garry Knapp, slowly.
+
+“Well, if a man came out your way to settle a business matter, you
+wouldn’t let him go to a hotel, would you? You’d be angry,” said Tavia,
+sensibly, “if he insisted upon doing such a thing. Major Dale could not
+have been informed when you would arrive, or he would have had somebody
+here at the station to meet you.”
+
+“No. I didn’t tell the lawyers when I’d start,” said Garry.
+
+“Don’t make a bad matter worse then,” laughed Tavia, her eyes twinkling
+as she climbed in and sat back of the wheel. “Hurry up. If you want
+to sell your land you’d better waste no more time getting out to The
+Cedars.”
+
+The Westerner got into the car in evident doubt. He suspected that
+he had been called East for something besides closing a real estate
+transaction. Tavia suspected so, too; and she was vastly amused.
+
+She drove slowly, for Garry began asking her for full particulars about
+Dorothy and the family. Tavia actually did not know anything about the
+proposed purchase of the Knapp ranch by her chum’s father. Dorothy had
+said not a word to her about Garry since their final talk some weeks
+before.
+
+At a place in the woods where there was not a house in sight, Tavia
+even stopped the car the better to give her full attention to Mr. Garry
+Knapp, and to talk him out of certain objections that seemed to trouble
+his mind.
+
+It was just here that Nat White, on a sputtering motorcycle he
+sometimes rode, passed the couple in the automobile. He saw Tavia
+talking earnestly to a fine-looking, broad-shouldered young man wearing
+a hat of Western style. She had an eager hand upon his shoulder and the
+stranger was evidently much interested in what the girl said.
+
+Nat did not even slow down. It is doubtful if Tavia noticed him at all.
+Nat went straight home, changed his clothes, flung a few things into a
+traveling bag, and announced to his mother that he was off for Boston
+to pay some long-promised visits to friends there and in Cambridge.
+
+Nat, with his usual impulsiveness, had jumped at a conclusion which,
+like most snap judgments, was quite incorrect. He rode to the railroad
+station by another way and so did not meet Tavia and Garry Knapp as
+they approached The Cedars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THIN ICE
+
+
+Dorothy spied the Fire Bird just as it turned in at the entrance gate.
+And she identified the person sitting beside her chum, too. Therefore,
+she had a few minutes in which to prepare for her meeting with Garry
+Knapp.
+
+She was on the porch when the car stopped, and her welcome to the young
+Westerner possessed just the degree of cordiality that it should.
+Neither by word nor look did she betray the fact that her heart’s
+action was accelerated, or that she felt a thrill of joy to think that
+the first of her moves in this intricate game had been successful.
+
+“Of course, it would be Tavia’s good fortune to pick you up at the
+station,” she said, while Garry held her hand just a moment longer than
+was really necessary for politeness’ sake. “Had you telegraphed us——”
+
+“I hadn’t a thought that I was going to run up against Miss Travers or
+you, Miss Dale,” he said.
+
+“Oh, then, this is a business visit?” and she laughed. “Entirely? You
+only wish to see Major Dale?”
+
+“Well—now—that’s unfair,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “But I told Miss
+Travers she might drive me to the hotel.”
+
+“Oh, this will be your hotel while you remain, of course. Father would
+not hear of anything else I am sure.”
+
+“I can thank you, then, Miss Dale,” he said quietly and with a sudden
+serious mien, “for the chance to sell my ranch at a better price than
+those sharks were ready to give?”
+
+“No. You may thank Major Dale’s bump of acquisitiveness,” she said,
+laughing at him over her shoulder as she led the way into the house.
+“Having so much land already out there, like other great property
+owners, he is always looking for more.”
+
+If Garry Knapp was not assured that she was entirely frank upon this
+matter, he knew that his welcome was as warm as though he were really
+an old friend. He met Mrs. White almost at once, and Dorothy was
+delighted by her marked approval of him.
+
+Garry Knapp got to the major by slow degrees. Tavia marveled as she
+watched Dorothy Dale’s calm and assured methods. This was the demure,
+cautious girl whom she had always looked upon as being quite helpless
+when it came to managing “affairs” with members of the opposite sex.
+Tavia imagined she was quite able to manage any man—“put him in his
+place,” she termed it—much better than Dorothy Dale. But now!
+
+Dorothy quietly sent Joe and Roger out for Mr. Knapp’s bags and told
+them to take the bags up to an indicated room. She made no fuss about
+it, but took it for granted that Garry Knapp had come for a visit, not
+for a call.
+
+The young man from the West had to sit down and talk with Aunt Winnie.
+That lady proceeded in her good-humored and tactful way to draw him
+out. Aunt Winnie learned more about Garry Knapp in those few minutes
+than even Tavia had learned when she took dinner with the young man.
+And all the time the watchful Dorothy saw Garry Knapp growing in her
+aunt’s estimation.
+
+Ned came in. He had been fussing and fuming because business had kept
+him from personally seeing Jennie Hapgood aboard her train. He welcomed
+this big fellow from the West, perhaps, because he helped take Ned’s
+mind off his own affairs.
+
+“Come on up and dress for dinner,” Ned suggested, having gained Garry
+Knapp’s sole attention. “It’s pretty near time for the big eats, and
+mother is a stickler for the best bib and tucker at the evening meal.”
+
+“Great Scott!” gasped Garry Knapp in a panic. “You don’t mean dinner
+dress? I haven’t had on a swallowtail since I was in college.”
+
+“Tuxedo will do,” Ned said lightly. “If you didn’t bring ’em I’ll lend
+you. I’m about as broad as you, my boy.”
+
+Garry Knapp was three or four years older than Ned, and that “my boy”
+sounded rather funny. However, the Westerner did not smile. He accepted
+the loan of the dinner coat and the vest without comment, but he looked
+very serious while he was dressing.
+
+They went down together to meet the girls in the drawing-room. Dorothy
+Dale and Tavia had dressed especially for the occasion. Tavia flaunted
+her fine feathers frankly; but demure Dorothy’s eyes shone more
+gloriously than her frock. Ned said:
+
+“You look scrumptious, Coz. And, of course, Tavia, you are a vision of
+delight. Where’s Nat?”
+
+“Nat?” questioned Tavia, her countenance falling. “Is—isn’t he
+upstairs?”
+
+“Why, don’t you know?” Dorothy cried. “He’s gone to Boston. Left just
+before you came back from the station, Tavia.”
+
+“Well, of all things!” Ned said. “I’d have gone with him if I’d really
+believed he meant it. Old grouch! He’s been talking of lighting out for
+a week. But I am glad,” he added cordially, looking at Garry Knapp,
+“that I did not go. Then I, too, might have missed meeting Mr. Knapp.”
+
+Now, what was it kept Major Dale away from the dinner table that
+evening? His excuse was that a twinge or two of rheumatism kept him
+from appearing with the family when dinner was called. And yet Dorothy
+did not appear worried by her father’s absence as she ordinarily would
+have been. Tavia was secretly delighted by this added manifestation
+of Dorothy’s finesse. Garry Knapp could not find any excuse for
+withdrawing from the house until he had interviewed the major.
+
+As was usual at The Cedars, the evening meal was a lively and enjoyable
+occasion. Tavia successfully hid her chagrin at Nat’s absence; but Joe
+and Roger were this evening the life of the company.
+
+“The river’s frozen,” sang Roger, “and we’re going skating on it, Joe
+and I. Did you ever go skating, Mr. Knapp?” for Roger believed it only
+common politeness to bring the visitor into the conversation.
+
+“Sure enough,” laughed Garry Knapp. “I used to be some skater, too.”
+
+“You’d better come,” said Roger. “It’s going to be moonlight—Popeye
+Jordan says so, and he knows, for his father lights the street lamps
+and this is one of the nights he doesn’t have to work.”
+
+“I hope Popeye hasn’t made a mistake—or Mr. Jordan, either—in reading
+the almanac,” Dorothy said, when the laugh had subsided.
+
+“You’d better come, too, Dorothy,” said Joe. “The river’s as smooth as
+glass.”
+
+“Let’s all go,” proposed Tavia, glad to be in anything active that
+would occupy her mind and perhaps would push out certain unpleasant
+thoughts that lodged there.
+
+“Mr. Knapp has no skates,” said Dorothy, softly.
+
+“Don’t let that stop you,” the Westerner put in, smiling. “I can go and
+look on.”
+
+“Oh, I guess we can give you a look _in_,” said Ned. “There’s Nat’s
+skates. I think he didn’t take ’em with him.”
+
+“Will they fit Mr. Knapp?” asked Tavia.
+
+“Dead sure that nobody’s got a bigger foot than old Nat,” said his
+brother wickedly. “If Mr. Knapp can get into my coat, he’ll find no
+trouble in getting into Nat’s shoes.”
+
+Ned rather prided himself on his own small and slim foot and often took
+a fling at the size of his brother’s shoes. But now, Nat not being
+present, he hoped to “get a rise” out of Tavia. The girl, however, bit
+her lip and said nothing. She was not even defending Nat these days.
+
+It was concluded that all should go—that is, all the young people then
+present. Nat and Jennie’s absence made what Ned called “a big hole” in
+the company.
+
+“You be good to me, Dot,” he said to his cousin, as they waited in the
+side hall for Tavia to come down. “I’m going to miss Jennie awfully. I
+want to skate with you and tell you all about it.”
+
+“All about what?” demanded his cousin, laughing.
+
+“Why, all about how we came to—to—to find out we cared for each other,”
+Ned whispered, blunderingly enough but very earnest. “You know, Dot,
+it’s just wonderful——”
+
+“You go on, dear,” said Dorothy, poking a gloved forefinger at him.
+“If you two sillies didn’t know you were in love with each other till
+you brought home the ring the other night, why everybody else in the
+neighborhood was aware of the fact æons and æons ago!”
+
+“Huh?” grunted Ned, his eyes blinking in surprise.
+
+“It was the most transparent thing in the world. Everybody around here
+saw how the wind blew.”
+
+“You don’t mean it!” said the really astonished Ned. “Well! and I
+didn’t know it myself till I began to think how bad a time I was going
+to have without Jennie. I wish old Nat would play up to Tavia.”
+
+Dorothy looked at him scornfully. “Well! of all the stupid people who
+ever lived, most men are _it_,” she thought. But what she said aloud
+was:
+
+“I want to skate with Mr. Knapp, Nedward. You know he is our guest. You
+take Tavia.”
+
+“Pshaw!” muttered her cousin as the girl in question appeared and Garry
+Knapp and the boys came in from the porch where the Westerner had been
+trying on Nat’s skating boots. “I can’t talk to the flyaway as I can to
+you. But I don’t blame you for wanting to skate with Knapp. He seems
+like a mighty fine fellow.”
+
+Dorothy was getting the family’s opinion, one by one, of the man Tavia
+wickedly whispered Dorothy had “set her cap” for. The younger boys were
+plainly delighted with Garry Knapp. When the party got to the river
+Joe and Roger would scarcely let the guest and Dorothy get away by
+themselves.
+
+Garry Knapp skated somewhat awkwardly at first, for he had not been
+on the ice for several years. But he was very sure footed and it was
+evident utterly unafraid.
+
+He soon “got the hang of it,” as he said, and was then ready to skate
+away with Dorothy. The Dale boys tried to keep up; but with one of his
+smiles into the girl’s face, Knapp suddenly all but picked her up and
+carried her off at a great pace over the shining, black ice.
+
+“Oh! you take my breath!” she cried half aloud, yet clinging with
+delight to his arm.
+
+“We’ll dodge the little scamps and then get down to _talk_,” he said.
+“I want to know all about it.”
+
+“All about what?” she returned, looking at him with shy eyes and a
+fluttering at her heart that she was glad he could not know about.
+
+“About this game of getting me East again. I can see your fine Italian
+hand in this, Miss Dale. Does your father really need my land?”
+
+He said it bluntly, and although he smiled, Dorothy realized there was
+something quite serious behind his questioning.
+
+“Well, you see, after you had left the hotel in New York, Tavia and I
+overheard those two awful men you agreed to sell to talking about the
+bargain,” she said rather stumblingly, but with earnestness.
+
+“You did!” he exclaimed. “The sharks!”
+
+“That is exactly what they were. They said after Stiffbold got out West
+he would try to beat you down in your price, although at the terms
+agreed upon he knew he was getting a bargain.”
+
+“Oh-ho!” murmured Garry Knapp. “That’s the way of it, eh? They had me
+scared all right. I gave them an option for thirty days for a hundred
+dollars and they let the option run out. I was about to accept a lower
+price when your father’s lawyers came around.”
+
+“You see, Tavia and I were both interested,” Dorothy explained. “And
+Tavia wrote to a friend of ours, Lance Petterby——”
+
+[Illustration: IT SEEMED TO DOROTHY THAT THEY FAIRLY FLEW OVER THE OPEN
+WATER.
+
+  _Dorothy Dale’s Engagement_      _Page 198_
+]
+
+“Ah! that’s why old Lance came riding over to Bob Douglass’ place,
+was it?” murmured Garry.
+
+“Then,” said Dorothy, bravely, “I mentioned the matter to father,
+and he is always willing to buy property adjoining the Hardin place.
+Thinks it is a good investment. He and Aunt Winnie, too, have a high
+opinion of that section of the country. They believe it is _the_ coming
+wheat-growing land of the States.”
+
+Garry’s mind seemed not to be absorbed by this phase of the subject. He
+said abruptly:
+
+“Your folks are mighty rich, Miss Dale, aren’t they?”
+
+Dorothy started at this blunt and unusual question, but, after a
+moment’s hesitation, decided to answer as frankly as the question had
+been put.
+
+“Oh! Aunt Winnie married a wealthy man—yes,” she said. “Professor
+Winthrop White. But we were very poor, indeed, until a few years ago
+when a distant relative left the major some property. Then, of course,
+this Hardin estate is a big thing.”
+
+“Yes,” said Garry, shortly. “And you are going to be wealthy in your
+own right when you are of age. So your little friend told me.”
+
+“Yes,” sighed Dorothy. “Tavia _will_ talk. The same relative who left
+father his first legacy, tied up some thousands for poor little me.”
+
+Immediately Garry Knapp talked of other things. The night was fine and
+the moon, a silver paring, hung low above the hills. The stars were
+so bright that they were reflected in the black ice under the skaters’
+ringing steel.
+
+Garry and Dorothy had shot away from the others and were now well down
+the river toward the milldam. So perfectly had the ice frozen that
+when they turned the blades of the skates left long, soaplike shavings
+behind them.
+
+With clasped hands, they took the stroke together perfectly. Never had
+Dorothy skated with a partner that suited her so well. Nor had she ever
+sped more swiftly over the ice.
+
+Suddenly, she felt Garry’s muscles stiffen and saw his head jerk up as
+he stared ahead.
+
+“What is it?” she murmured, her own eyes so misty that she could not
+see clearly. Then in a moment she uttered a frightened “Oh!”
+
+They had crossed the river, and now, on coming back, there unexpectedly
+appeared a long, open space before them. The water was so still that at
+a distance the treacherous spot looked just like the surrounding ice.
+
+The discovery was made too late for them to stop. Indeed, Garry Knapp
+increased his speed, picked her up in his arms and it seemed to Dorothy
+that they fairly flew over the open water, landing with a resonant ring
+of steel upon the safe ice beyond.
+
+For the moment that she was held tightly in the young man’s arms, she
+clung to him with something besides fear.
+
+“Oh, Garry!” she gasped when he set her down again.
+
+“Some jump, eh?” returned the young man coolly.
+
+They skated on again without another word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+GARRY BALKS
+
+
+The major was ready to see Garry Knapp at nine o’clock the next
+morning. He was suffering one of his engagements with the enemy
+rheumatism, and there really was a strong reason for his having put off
+this interview until the shy Westerner had become somewhat settled at
+The Cedars as a guest.
+
+Dorothy took Garry up to the major’s room after breakfast, and they
+found him well-wrapped in a rug, sitting in his sun parlor which
+overlooked the lawns of The Cedars.
+
+The young man from the West could not help being impressed by the fact
+that he was the guest of a family that was well supplied with this
+world’s goods—one that was used to luxury as well as comfort. Is it
+strange that the most impressive point to him was the fact that he had
+no right to even _think_ of trying to win Dorothy Dale?
+
+When he had awakened that morning and looked over the luxurious
+furnishings of his chamber and the bathroom and dressing room connected
+with it, he had told himself:
+
+“Garford Knapp, you are in wrong! This is no place for a cowpuncher
+from the Western plains. What little tad of money you can sell your
+ranch for won’t put you in any such class as these folk belong to.
+
+“And as for thinking of that girl—Great Scot! I’d make a fine figure
+asking any girl used to such luxury as this to come out and share a
+shack in Desert City or thereabout, while I punched cattle, or went to
+keeping store, or tried to match my wits in real estate with the sharks
+that exploit land out there.
+
+“Forget it, Garford!” he advised himself, grimly. “If you can make an
+honest deal with this old major, make it and then clear out. This is no
+place for you.”
+
+He had, therefore, braced himself for the interview. The major, eyeing
+him keenly as he walked down the long room beside Dorothy, made his
+own judgment—as he always did—instantly. When Dorothy had gone he said
+frankly to the young man:
+
+“Mr. Knapp, I’m glad to see you. I have heard so much about you that I
+feel you and I are already friends.”
+
+“Thank you, sir,” said Garry, quietly, eyeing the major with as much
+interest as the latter eyed him.
+
+“When my daughter was talking one day about you and the land you had
+in the market adjoining the Hardin tract it struck me that perhaps it
+would be a good thing to buy,” went on the major, briskly. “So I set
+our lawyers on your trail.”
+
+“So Miss Dorothy tells me, sir,” the young man said.
+
+“Now, they know all about the offer made you by those sharpers,
+Stiffbold & Lightly. They advised me to risk a thousand dollar option
+on your ranch and I telegraphed them to make you the offer.”
+
+“And you may believe I was struck all of a heap, sir,” said the young
+man, still eyeing the major closely. “I’ll tell you something: You’ve
+got me guessing.”
+
+“How’s that?” asked the amused Major Dale.
+
+“Why, people don’t come around and hand me a thousand dollars every
+day—and just on a gamble.”
+
+“Sure I am gambling?” responded the major.
+
+“I’m not sure of anything,” admitted Garry Knapp. “But it looks like
+that. I accepted the certified check—I have it with me. I don’t know
+but I’d better hand it back to you, Major, for I think you have been
+misinformed about the real value of the ranch. The price per acre your
+lawyers offer is away above the market.”
+
+“Hey!” exclaimed Major Dale. “You call yourself a business man?”
+
+“Not much of one, I suppose,” said Garry. “I’ll sell you my ranch quick
+enough at a fair price. But this looks as if you were doing me a favor.
+I think you have been influenced.”
+
+“Eh?” stammered the astounded old gentleman.
+
+“By your daughter,” said Garry, quietly. “I’m conceited enough to think
+it is because of Miss Dale that you make me the offer you do.”
+
+“Any crime in that?” demanded the major.
+
+“No crime exactly,” rejoined Garry with one of his rare smiles, “unless
+I take advantage of it. But I’m not the sort of fellow, Major Dale, who
+can willingly accept more than I can give value for. Your offer for my
+ranch is beyond reason.”
+
+“Would you have thought so if another man—somebody instead of my
+daughter’s father——” and his eyes twinkled as he said it, “had made you
+the offer?”
+
+Garry Knapp was silent and showed confusion. The major went on with
+some grimness of expression:
+
+“But if your conscience troubles you and you wish to call the deal off,
+now is your chance to return the check.”
+
+Instantly Garry pulled his wallet from his pocket and produced the
+folded green slip, good for a thousand dollars at the Desert City Trust
+Company.
+
+“There you are, sir,” he said quietly, and laid the paper upon the arm
+of the major’s chair.
+
+The old gentleman picked it up, identified it, and slowly tore the
+check into strips, eyeing the young man meanwhile.
+
+“Then,” he said, calmly, “_that_ phase of the matter is closed. But you
+still wish to sell your ranch?”
+
+“I do, Major Dale. But I can’t accept what anybody out there would tell
+you was a price out of all reason.”
+
+“Except my lawyers,” suggested the major.
+
+“Well——”
+
+“Young man, you have done a very foolish thing,” said Major Dale. “A
+ridiculous thing, perhaps. Unless you are shrewder than you seem. My
+lawyers have had your land thoroughly cruised. You have the best wheat
+land, in embryo, anywhere in the Desert City region.”
+
+Garry started and stared at him for a minute without speaking. Then he
+sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+“That may be, sir. Perhaps you _do_ know more about the intrinsic value
+of my ranch than I do myself. But I know it would cost a mint of money
+to develop that old rundown place into wheat soil.”
+
+“Humph! and if you had this—er—_mint_ of money, what would you do?”
+
+“Do? I’d develop it myself!” cried the young man, startled into
+enthusiastic speech. “I know there is a fortune there. _You_ are making
+big profits on the Hardin place already, I understand. Cattle have gone
+out; but wheat has come to stay. Oh, I know all about that! But what’s
+the use?”
+
+“Have you tried to raise money for the development of your land?” asked
+the major quietly.
+
+“I’ve talked to some bankers, yes. Nothing doing. The machinery and
+fertilizer cost at the first would be prohibitive. A couple of crop
+failures would wipe out everything, and the banks don’t want land on
+their hands. As for the money-lenders—well, Major Dale, you can imagine
+what sort of hold _they_ demand when they deal with a person in my
+situation.”
+
+“And you would rather have what seems to you a fair price for your land
+and get it off your hands?”
+
+“I’ll accept a fair price—yes. But I can’t accept any favors,” said the
+young man, his face gloomy enough but as stubborn as ever.
+
+“I see,” said the major. “Then what will you do with the money you get?”
+
+“Try to get into some business that will make me more,” and Garry
+looked up again with a sudden smile.
+
+“Raising wheat does not attract you, then?”
+
+“It’s the biggest prospect in that section. I know it has cattle
+raising and even mining backed clear across the board. But it’s no game
+for a little man with little capital.”
+
+“Then why not get into it?” asked Major Dale, still speaking quietly.
+“You seem enthusiastic. Enthusiasm and youth—why, my boy, they will
+carry a fellow far!”
+
+Garry looked at him in a rather puzzled way. “But don’t I tell you,
+Major Dale, that the banks will not let me have money?”
+
+“I’ll let you have the money—and at a fair interest,” said Major Dale.
+
+Garry smiled slowly and put out his hand. The major quickly took it and
+his countenance began to brighten. But what Garry said caused the old
+gentleman’s expression to become suddenly doleful:
+
+“I can’t accept your offer, sir. I know that it is a favor—a favor that
+is suggested by Miss Dorothy. If it were not for her, you would never
+have thought of sending for me or making either of these more than kind
+propositions you have made.
+
+“I shall have to say no—and thank you.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+SERIOUS THOUGHTS
+
+
+The young people at The Cedars had taken Garry Knapp right into the
+heart of their social life. He knew he was welcome and the hospitality
+shown him was a most delightful experience for the young Westerner.
+
+But “business was business.” He could not see wherein he had any right
+to accept a favor from Major Dale because Dorothy wished her father to
+aid him. That was not Garry’s idea of a manly part—to use the father of
+the girl you love as a staff in getting on in the world.
+
+There was no conceit in Garry’s belief that he had tacit permission,
+was it right to accept it, to try to win Dorothy Dale’s heart and hand.
+He was just as well assured in his soul that Dorothy had been attracted
+to him as he was that she had gained his affection. “Love like a
+lightning bolt,” Tavia had called Dorothy’s interest in Garry Knapp. It
+was literally true in the young man’s case. He had fallen in love with
+Dorothy Dale almost at first sight.
+
+Every time he saw her during that all too brief occasion in New York
+his feeling for the girl had grown. By leaps and bounds it increased
+until, just as Tavia had once said, if Dorothy had been in Tavia’s
+financial situation Garry Knapp would never have left New York without
+first learning whether or not there was any possible chance of his
+winning the girl he knew he loved.
+
+Now it was revealed to him that he had that chance—and bitterly did he
+regret the knowledge. For he gained it at the cost of his peace of mind.
+
+It is one thing to long for the object forbidden us; it is quite
+another thing to know that we may claim that longed-for object if honor
+did not interfere. To Garry Knapp’s mind he could not meet what was
+Dorothy Dale’s perfectly proper advances, and keep his own self-respect.
+
+Were he more sanguine, or a more imaginative young man, he might have
+done so. But Garry Knapp’s head was filled with hard, practical common
+sense. Young men and more often young girls allow themselves to become
+engaged with little thought for the future. Garry was not that kind.
+Suppose Dorothy Dale did accept his attentions and was willing to wait
+for him until he could win out in some line of industrial endeavor that
+would afford the competence that he believed he should possess before
+marrying a girl used to the luxuries Dorothy was used to, Garry Knapp
+felt it would be wrong to accept the sacrifice.
+
+The chances of business life, especially for a young man with the small
+experience and the small capital he would have, were too great. To
+“tie a girl up” under such circumstances was a thing Garry could not
+contemplate and keep his self-respect. He would not, he told himself,
+be led even to admit by word or look that he desired to be Dorothy’s
+suitor.
+
+To hide this desire during the few days he remained at The Cedars was
+the hardest task Garry Knapp had ever undertaken. If Dorothy was demure
+and modest she was likewise determined. Her happiness, she felt, was at
+stake and although she could but admire the attitude Garry held upon
+this momentous question she did not feel that he was right.
+
+“Why, what does it matter about money—mere money?” she said one night
+to Tavia, confessing everything when her chum had crept into her bed
+with her after the lights were out. “I believe I care for money less
+than he does.”
+
+“You bet you do!” ejaculated Tavia, vigorously. “Just at present that
+young cowboy person is caring more for money than Ananias did. Money
+looks bigger to him than anything else in the world. With money he
+could have you, Doro Doodlekins—don’t you see?”
+
+“But he can have me without!” wailed Dorothy, burying her head in the
+pillow.
+
+“Oh, no he can’t,” Tavia said wisely and quietly. “You know he can’t.
+If you could tempt him to throw up his principles in the matter, you
+know very well, Doro, that you would be heartbroken.”
+
+“What?”
+
+“Yes you would. You wouldn’t want a young man dangling after you who
+had thrown aside his self-respect for a girl. Now, would you?” And
+without waiting for an answer she continued: “Not that I approve of his
+foolishness. Some men _are_ that way, however. Thank heaven I am not a
+man.”
+
+“Oh! I’m glad you’re not, either,” confessed Dorothy with her soft lips
+now against Tavia’s cheek.
+
+“Thank you, ma’am. I have often thought I’d like to be of the hemale
+persuasion; but never, no more!” declared Tavia, with vigor. “Suppose
+_I_ should then be afflicted with an ingrowing conscience about taking
+money from the woman I married? Whe-e-e-ew!”
+
+“He wouldn’t have to,” murmured Dorothy, burying her head again and
+speaking in a muffled voice. “I’d give up the money.”
+
+“And if he had any sense or unselfishness at all he wouldn’t let you do
+_that_,” snapped Tavia. “No. You couldn’t get along without much money
+now, Dorothy.”
+
+“Nonsense——”
+
+“It is the truth. I know I should be hopelessly unhappy myself if I had
+to go home and live again just as they do there. I have been spoiled,”
+said Tavia, her voice growing lugubrious. “I want wealth—luxuries—and
+everything good that money buys. Yes, Doro, when it comes _my_ time to
+become engaged, I must get a wealthy man or none at all. I shall be put
+up at auction——”
+
+“Tavia! How you talk! Ridiculous!” exclaimed Dorothy. “You talk like a
+heathen.”
+
+“Am one when it comes to money matters,” groaned the girl. “I have got
+to marry money——”
+
+“If Nat White were as poor as a church mouse, you’d marry him in a
+minute!”
+
+“Oh—er—well,” sighed Tavia, “Nat is not going to ask me, I am afraid.”
+
+“He would in a minute if you’d tell him about those Lance Petterby
+letters.”
+
+“Don’t you dare tell him, Dorothy Dale!” exclaimed Tavia, almost in
+fear. “You must not. Now, promise.”
+
+“I have promised,” her friend said gloomily.
+
+“And see that you stick to it. I know,” said Tavia, “that I could
+bring Nat back to me by explaining. But there should be no need of
+explaining. He should know that—that—oh, well, what’s the use of
+talking! It’s all off!” and Tavia flounced around and buried her nose
+in the pillow.
+
+Dorothy’s wits were at work, however. In the morning she “put a flea
+in Ned’s ear,” as Tavia would have said, and Ned hurried off to the
+telegraph office to send a day letter to his brother. Dorothy did not
+censor that telegraph despatch or this section of it would never have
+gone over the wire:
+
+ “Come back home and take a squint at the cowboy D. has picked out for
+ herself.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+“IT’S ALL OFF!”
+
+
+By this time even Ned, dense as he sometimes showed himself to be, was
+aware of how things stood between the handsome stranger from the West
+and his cousin Dorothy.
+
+Ned’s heart was particularly warm at this juncture. He spent a good two
+hours every forenoon writing a long letter to Jennie.
+
+“What under the sun he finds to write about gets _me_,” declared Tavia.
+“He must indite sonnets to her eyebrows or the like. I never did
+believe that Ned White would fall so low as to be a poet.”
+
+“Love plays funny tricks with us,” sighed Dorothy.
+
+“Huh!” ejaculated Tavia, wide-eyed. “Do you feel like writing poetry
+yourself, Doro Dale? I vum!”
+
+However, to return to Ned, when his letter writing was done he was at
+the beck and call of the girls or was off with Garry Knapp for the
+rest of the day. Toward Garry he showed the same friendliness that
+his mother displayed and the major showed. They all liked the young
+man from Desert City; and they could not help admiring his character,
+although they could not believe him either wise or just to Dorothy.
+
+The situation was delicate in the extreme. As Dorothy and Garry had
+never approached the subject of their secret attachment for each other,
+and now, of course, did not speak of it to the others, not even Ned
+could blunder into any opening wherein he might “out with his opinion”
+to the Westerner.
+
+Garry Knapp showed nothing but the most gentlemanly regard for Dorothy.
+After that first evening on the ice, he did not often allow himself
+to be left alone in her company. He knew very well wherein his own
+weakness lay.
+
+He talked frankly of his future intentions. It had been agreed between
+him and Major Dale that the old Knapp ranch should be turned over to
+the Hardin estate lawyers when Garry went back West at a price per acre
+that was generous, as Garry said, but not so much above the market
+value that he would be “ashamed to look the lawyers in the face when he
+took the money.”
+
+Just what Garry would do with these few thousands he did not know. His
+education had been a classical one. He had taken up nothing special
+save mineralogy, and that only because of Uncle Terry’s lifelong
+interest in “prospects.”
+
+“I boned like a good fellow,” he told Ned, “on that branch just to
+please the old fellow. Of course, I’d tagged along with him on a burro
+on many a prospecting trip when I was a kid, and had learned a lot of
+prospector’s lore from the dear old codger.
+
+“But what the old prospector knows about his business is a good deal
+like what the old-fashioned farmer knows about growing things. He
+does certain things because they bring results, but the old farmer
+doesn’t know why. Just so with the old-time prospector. Uncle Terry’s
+scientific knowledge of minerals wasn’t a spoonful. I showed him things
+that made his eyes bug out—as we say in the West,” and Garry laughed
+reminiscently.
+
+“I shouldn’t have thought he’d ever have quarreled with you,” said Ned,
+having heard this fact from the girls. “You must have been helpful to
+him.”
+
+“That’s the reef we were wrecked on,” said Garry, shaking his head
+rather sadly.
+
+“You don’t mean it! How?” queried Ned.
+
+“Why, I’ll tell you. I don’t talk of it much. Of course, you understand
+Uncle Terry is one of the old timers. He’s lived a rough life and
+associated with rough men for most of it. And his slant on moral
+questions is not—well—er—what yours and mine would be, White.”
+
+“I see,” said Ned, nodding. “You collided on a matter of ethics?”
+
+“As you might say,” admitted Garry. “There are abandoned diggings
+all over the West, especially where gold was found in rich deposits
+that can now be dug over and, by scientific methods, made to yield
+comfortable fortunes.
+
+“Why, in the early rush the metal, silver, was not thought of! The
+miners cursed the black stuff which got in their way and later proved
+to be almost pure silver ore. Other valuable metals were neglected,
+too. The miners could see nothing but yellow. They were gold crazy.”
+
+“I see,” Ned agreed. “It must have been great times out there in those
+early days.”
+
+“Ha!” exclaimed Garry. “For every ounce of gold mined in the old times
+there was a man wasted. The early gold mining cost more in men than a
+war, believe me! However, that isn’t the point, or what I was telling
+you about.
+
+“Some time after I left the university Uncle Terry wanted me to go off
+on a prospecting trip with him and I went—just for the holiday, you
+understand. These last few years he hasn’t made a strike. He has plenty
+of money, anyway; but the wanderlust of the old prospector seizes him
+and he just has to pack up and go.
+
+“We struck Seeper’s Gulch. It was some strike in its day, about thirty
+years ago. The gold hunters dug fortunes out of that gulch, and then
+the Chinese came in and raked over and sifted the refuse. You’d think
+there wasn’t ten cents worth of valuable metal left in that place,
+wouldn’t you?”
+
+Ned nodded, keenly interested in the story.
+
+“Well, that’s what the old man thought. He made all kinds of jokes
+over a squatter’s family that had picketed there and were digging and
+toiling over the played out claims.
+
+“It seemed that they held legal title to a big patch of the gulch.
+Some sharper had sawed off the claim on them for good, hard-earned
+money; and here they were, broke and desperate. Why! there hadn’t been
+any gold mined there for years and years, and their title, although
+perfectly legal, wasn’t worth a cent—or so it seemed.
+
+“Uncle Terry tried to show them that. They were stubborn. They had to
+be, you see,” said Garry, shaking his head. “Every hope they had in the
+world was right in that God-forsaken gulch.
+
+“Well,” he sighed, “I got to mooning around, impatient to be gone, and
+I found something. It was so plain that I wonder I didn’t fall over it
+and break my neck,” and Garry laughed.
+
+“What was it? Not gold?”
+
+“No. Copper. And a good, healthy lead of it. I traced the vein some
+distance before I would believe it myself. And the bulk of it seemed
+to lie right inside the boundaries of that supposedly worthless claim
+those poor people had bought.
+
+“I didn’t dare tell anybody at first. I had to figure out how she could
+be mined (for copper mining isn’t like washing gold dust) and how the
+ore could be taken to the crusher. The old roads were pretty good, I
+found. It wouldn’t be much of a haul from Seeper’s Gulch to town.
+
+“Then I told Uncle Terry—and showed him.”
+
+Ned waited, looking at Garry curiously.
+
+“That—that’s where he and I locked horns,” sighed Garry. “Uncle Terry
+was for offering to buy the claim for a hundred dollars. He had that
+much in his jeans and the squatters were desperate—meat and meal
+all out and not enough gold in the bottom of the pans to color a
+finger-ring.”
+
+He was silent again for a moment, and then continued:
+
+“I couldn’t see it. To take advantage of the ignorance of that poor
+family wasn’t a square deal. Uncle Terry lost his head and then lost
+his temper. To stop him from making any such deal I out with my story
+and showed those folks just where they stood. A little money would
+start ’em, and I lent them that——”
+
+“But your Uncle Terry?” asked Ned, curiously.
+
+“Oh, he went off mad. I saw the squatters started right and then made
+for home. I was some time getting there——”
+
+“You cleaned yourself out helping the owners of the claim?” put in Ned,
+shrewdly.
+
+“Why—yes, I did. But that was nothing. I’d been broke before. I got
+a job here and there to carry me along. But when I reached home
+Uncle Terry had hiked out for Alaska and left a letter with a lawyer
+for me. I was the one bad egg in the family,” and Garry laughed
+rather ruefully, “so he said. He’d rather give his money to build a
+rattlesnake home than to me. So that’s where we stand to-day. And you
+see, White, I did not exactly prepare myself for any profession or any
+business, depending as I was on Uncle Terry’s bounty.”
+
+“Tough luck,” announced Ned White.
+
+“It was very foolish on my part. No man should look forward to
+another’s shoes. If I had gone ahead with the understanding that I
+had my own row to hoe when I got through school, believe me, I should
+have picked my line long before I left the university and prepared
+accordingly.
+
+“I figure that I’m set back several years. With this little bunch of
+money your uncle is going to pay me for my old ranch I have got to get
+into something that will begin to turn me a penny at once. Not so easy
+to do, Mr. White.”
+
+“But what about the folks you steered into the copper mine?” asked Ned.
+
+“Oh, they are making out fairly well. It was no great fortune, but a
+good paying proposition and may keep going for years. Copper is away up
+now, you know. They paid me back the loan long ago. But poor old Uncle
+Terry—well, he is still sore, and I guess he will remain so for the
+remainder of his natural. I’m sorry for him.”
+
+“And not for yourself?” asked Ned, slyly.
+
+“Why, I’d be glad if he’d back me in something. Developing my ranch
+into wheat land, for instance. Money lies that way, I believe. But it
+takes two or three years to get going and lots of money for machinery.
+Can’t raise wheat out there in a small way. It means tractors, and
+gangplows and all such things. Whew! no use thinking of that now,” and
+Garry heaved a final sigh.
+
+He had not asked Ned to keep the tale to himself; therefore, the family
+knew the particulars of Garry Knapp’s trouble with his uncle in a short
+time. It was the one thing needed to make Major Dale, at least, desire
+to keep in touch with the young Westerner.
+
+“I’m not surprised that he looks upon any understanding with Dorothy in
+the way he does,” the major said to Aunt Winnie. “He is a high-minded
+fellow—no doubt of it. And I believe he is no namby-pamby. He will go
+far before he gets through. I’ll prophesy that.”
+
+“But, my dear Major,” said his sister, with a rather tremulous smile,
+“it may be years before such an honorable young man as Garry Knapp
+will acquire a competence sufficient to encourage him to come after our
+Dorothy.”
+
+“Well—er——”
+
+“And they need each other _now_,” went on Mrs. White, with assurance,
+“while they are young and can get the good of youth and of life itself.
+Not after their hearts are starved by long and impatient waiting.”
+
+“Oh, the young idiot!” growled the major, shaking his head.
+
+Aunt Winnie laughed, although there was still a tremor in her voice.
+“You call him high-minded and an idiot——”
+
+“He is both,” growled Major Dale. “Perhaps, to be cynical, one might
+say that in this day and generation the two attributes go together! I—I
+wish I knew the way out.”
+
+“So do I,” sighed Mrs. White. “For Dorothy’s sake,” she added.
+
+“For both their sakes,” said the major. “For, believe me, this young
+man isn’t having a very good time, either.”
+
+Tavia wished she might “cut the Gordian knot,” as she expressed it. Ned
+would have gladly shown Garry a way out of the difficulty. And Dorothy
+Dale could do nothing!
+
+“What helpless folk we girls are, after all,” she confessed to Tavia.
+“I thought I was being so bold, so brave, in getting Garry to come
+East. I believed I had solved the problem through father’s aid. And
+look at it now! No farther toward what I want than before.”
+
+“Garry Knapp is a—a chump!” exclaimed Tavia, with some heat.
+
+“But a very lovable chump,” added Dorothy, smiling patiently. “Oh,
+dear! It must be his decision, not mine, after all. I tell you, even
+the most modern of girls are helpless in the end. The man decides.”
+
+Nat came back to North Birchland in haste. It needed only a word—even
+from his brother—to bring him. Perhaps he would have met Tavia as
+though no misunderstanding had arisen between them had she been willing
+to ignore their difficulty.
+
+But when he kissed Dorothy and his mother, and turned to Tavia, she put
+out her hand and looked Nat sternly in the eye. He knew better than to
+make a joke of his welcome home with her. She had raised the barrier
+herself and she meant to keep it up.
+
+“The next time you kiss me it must be in solemn earnest.”
+
+She had said that to Nat and she proposed to abide by it. The old,
+cordial, happy-go-lucky comradeship could never be renewed. Nat
+realized that suddenly and dropped his head as he went indoors with his
+bag.
+
+He had returned almost too late to meet Garry Knapp after all. The
+Westerner laughingly protested that he had loafed long enough. He had
+to run down to New York for a day or so to attend to some business for
+Bob Douglas and then must start West.
+
+“Come back here before you really start for the ‘wild and woolly,’”
+begged Ned. “We’ll get up a real house party——”
+
+“Tempt me not!” cried Garry, with hand raised. “It is hard enough for
+me to pull my freight now. If I came again I’d only have to—well! it
+would be harder, that’s all,” and his usually hopeful face was overcast.
+
+“Remember you leave friends here, my boy,” said the major, when he saw
+the young man alone the evening before his departure. “You’ll find no
+friends anywhere who will be more interested in your success than these
+at The Cedars.”
+
+“I believe you, Major. I wish I could show my appreciation of your
+kindness in a greater degree by accepting your offer to help me. But I
+can’t do it. It wouldn’t be right.”
+
+“No. From your standpoint, I suppose it wouldn’t,” admitted the major,
+with a sigh. “But at least you’ll correspond——”
+
+“Ned and I are going to write each other frequently—we’ve got quite
+chummy, you know,” and Garry laughed. “You shall all hear of me. And
+thank you a thousand times for your interest Major Dale!”
+
+“But my interest hasn’t accomplished what I wanted it to accomplish,”
+muttered the old gentleman, as Garry turned away.
+
+Dorothy showed a brave face when the time came for Garry’s departure.
+She did not make an occasion for seeing him alone, as she might easily
+have done. Somehow she felt bound in honor—in Garry’s honor—not to
+try to break down his decision. She knew he understood her; and she
+understood Garry. Why make the parting harder by any talk about it?
+
+But Tavia’s observation as Garry was whirled away by Ned in the car for
+the railway station, sounded like a knell in Dorothy Dale’s ears.
+
+“It’s all off!” remarked Tavia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE CASTAWAYS
+
+
+Drifts covered the fences and fitted every evergreen about The Cedars
+with a white cap. The snow had come quite unexpectedly and in the arms
+of a blizzard.
+
+For two days and nights the storm had raged all over the East. Wires
+were down and many railroad trains were blocked. New York City was
+reported snowbound.
+
+“I bet old Garry is holed up in the hotel there all right,” said Ned.
+“He’d never have got away before the storm.”
+
+Dorothy hoped Garry had not started for the West and had become
+snowbound in some train; but she said nothing about it.
+
+It took two full days for the roads to be broken around North
+Birchland. And then, of course, to use an automobile was quite
+impossible.
+
+The Dale boys were naturally delighted, for there was no school for
+several days and snow-caves, snowmen and snow monuments of all kind
+were constructed all over the White lawns.
+
+Nor were Joe and Roger alone in these out-of-door activities. The
+girls, as well as Ned and Nat, lent their assistance, and Tavia proved
+to be a fine snow sculptor.
+
+“Always was. Believe I might learn to work putty and finally become a
+great sculptor,” she declared. “At Glenwood they said I had a talent
+for composition.”
+
+“What kind of figure do you prefer to sculp, Tavia?” asked Ned, with
+curiosity.
+
+“Oh, I think I should just _love_ a job in an ice-cream factory,
+turning out works of art for parties and banquets. Or making little
+figures on New Year’s and birthday cakes. And then—think of all the
+nice ‘eats’!”
+
+“Oh! I’d like to do that,” breathed Roger, with round eyes.
+
+“Now, see,” laughed Dorothy, “you have started Roger, perhaps, in a
+career. He does love ice-cream and cake.”
+
+At least the joke started something else if it did not point Roger on
+the road to fame as an “ice-cream sculptor.” The boy was inordinately
+fond of goodies and Tavia promised him a treat just as soon as ever she
+could get into town.
+
+A few days before Tavia had been the recipient of a sum of money from
+home. When he had any money himself Mr. Travers never forgot his pretty
+daughter’s need. He was doing very well in business now, as well as
+holding a political position that paid a good salary. This money she
+had received was of course burning a hole in Tavia’s pocket. She must
+needs get into town as soon as the roads were passable, to buy goodies
+as her contract with Roger called for.
+
+The horses had not been out of the stable for a week and the coachman
+admitted they needed exercise. So he was to drive Tavia to town
+directly after breakfast. It was washday, however, and something had
+happened to the furnace in the laundry. The coachman was general handy
+man about the White premises, and he was called upon to fix the furnace
+just as Tavia—and the horses—were ready.
+
+“But who’ll drive me?” asked Tavia, looking askance at the spirited
+span that the boy from the stables was holding. “Goodness! aren’t they
+full of ginger?”
+
+“Better wait till afternoon,” advised Dorothy.
+
+“But they are all ready, and so am I. Besides,” said Tavia with a
+glance at Roger’s doleful face, “somebody smells disappointment.”
+
+Roger understood and said, trying to speak gruffly:
+
+“Oh, I don’t mind.”
+
+“No. I see you don’t,” Tavia returned dryly, and just then Nat appeared
+on the porch in bearskin and driving gloves.
+
+“Get in, Tavia, if you want to go. The horses need the work, anyway;
+and the coachman may be all day at that furnace.”
+
+“Oh—I—ah——” began Tavia. Then she closed her lips and marched down the
+steps and got into the cutter. Whatever her feeling about the matter,
+she was not going to attract everybody’s attention by backing out.
+
+Nat tucked the robes around her and got in himself. Then he gathered up
+the reins, the boy sprang out of the way, and they were off.
+
+With the runners of the light sleigh humming at their heels the horses
+gathered speed each moment. Nat hung on to the reins and the roses
+began to blow in Tavia’s cheeks and the fire of excitement burn in her
+eyes.
+
+How she loved to travel fast! And in riding beside Nat the pleasure of
+speed for her was always doubled. Whether it was in the automobile, or
+behind the galloping blacks, as now, to speed along the highways by
+Nat’s side was a delight.
+
+The snow was packed just right for sleighing and the wildly excited
+span tore into town at racing speed. Indeed, so excited were the horses
+that Nat thought it better not to stop anywhere until the creatures had
+got over their first desire to run.
+
+So they swept through the town and out upon the road to The Beeches.
+
+“Don’t mind, do you?” Nat stammered, casting a quick, sidelong glance
+at Tavia.
+
+“Oh, Nat! it’s wonderful!” she gasped, but looked straight ahead.
+
+“Good little sport—the best ever!” groaned Nat; but perhaps she did not
+hear the compliment thus wrested from him.
+
+He turned into the upper road for The Beeches, believing it would be
+more traveled than the other highway. In this, however, he was proved
+mistaken in a very few minutes. The road breakers had not been far on
+this highway, so the blacks were soon floundering through the drifts
+and were rapidly brought down to a sensible pace.
+
+“Say! this is altogether too rough,” Nat declared. “It’s no fun being
+tossed about like beans in a sack. I’d better turn ’em around.”
+
+“You’ll tip us over, Nat,” objected Tavia.
+
+“Likely to,” admitted the young man. “So we’d better both hop out while
+I perform the necessary operation.”
+
+“Maybe they will get away from you,” she cried with some fear. “Be
+careful.”
+
+“Watch your Uncle Nat,” he returned lightly. “I’ll not let them get
+away.”
+
+Tavia was the last person to be cautious; so she hopped out into the
+snow on her side of the sleigh while Nat alighted on the other. A sharp
+pull on the bits and the blacks were plunging in the drift to one side
+of the half beaten track. Tavia stepped well back out of the way.
+
+The horses breasted the deep snow, snorting and tossing their heads.
+Their spirits were not quenched even after this long and hard dash from
+The Cedars.
+
+The sleigh did go over on its side; but Nat righted it quickly. This,
+however, necessitated his letting go of the reins with one hand.
+
+The next moment the sleigh came with a terrific shock into collision
+with an obstruction. It was a log beside the road, completely hidden in
+the snow.
+
+Frightened, the horses plunged and kicked. The doubletree snapped
+and the reins were jerked from Nat’s grasp. The horses leaped ahead,
+squealing and plunging, tearing the harness completely from their
+backs. The sleigh remained wedged behind the log; but the animals were
+freed and tore away along the road, back toward North Birchland.
+
+Tavia had made no outcry; but now, in the midst of the snow cloud that
+had been kicked up, she saw that Nat was floundering in the drift.
+
+“Oh, Nat! are you hurt?” she moaned, and ran to him.
+
+But he was already gingerly getting upon his feet. He had lost his cap,
+and the neck of his coat, where the big collar flared away, was packed
+with snow.
+
+“Badly hurt—in my dignity,” he growled. “Oh gee, Tavia! Come and scoop
+some of this snow out of my neck.”
+
+She giggled at that. She could not help it, for he looked really funny.
+Nevertheless she lent him some practical aid, and after he had shaken
+himself out of the loose snow and found his cap, he could grin himself
+at the situation.
+
+“We’re castaway in the snow, just the same, old girl,” he said.
+“What’ll we do—start back and go through North Birchland, the beheld of
+all beholders, or take the crossroad back to The Cedars—and so save a
+couple of miles?”
+
+“Oh, let’s go home the quickest way,” she said. “I—I don’t want to be
+the laughing stock for the whole town.”
+
+“My fault, Tavia. I’m sorry,” he said ruefully.
+
+“No more your fault than it was mine,” she said loyally.
+
+“Oh, yes it was,” he groaned, looking at her seriously. “And it always
+_is_ my fault.”
+
+“What is always your fault?” she asked him but tremulously and stepping
+back a little.
+
+“Our scraps, Tavia. Our big scrap. I _know_ I ought not to have
+questioned you about that old letter. Oh, hang it, Tavia! don’t you see
+just how sorry and ashamed I am?” he cried boyishly, putting out both
+gloved hands to her.
+
+“I—I know this isn’t just the way to tell you—or the place. But my
+heart just _aches_ because of that scrap, Tavia. I don’t care how many
+letters you have from other people. I know there’s nothing out of the
+way in them. I was just jealous—and—and mean——”
+
+“Anybody tell you why Lance Petterby was writing to me?” put in Tavia
+sternly.
+
+“No. Of course not. _Hang_ Lance Petterby, anyway——”
+
+“Oh, that would be too bad. His wife would feel dreadfully if Lance
+were hung.”
+
+“_What!_”
+
+“I knew you were still jealous of poor Lance,” Tavia shot in, wagging
+her head. “And that word proves it.”
+
+“I don’t care. I said what I meant before I knew he was married. _Is_
+he?” gasped Nat.
+
+“Very much so. They’ve got a baby girl and I’m its godmother. Octavia
+Susan Petterby.”
+
+“Tavia!” Nat whispered still holding out his hands. “Do—do you forgive
+me?”
+
+“Now! is this a time or a place to talk things over?” she demanded
+apparently inclined to keep up the wall. “We are castaway in the snow.
+Bo-o-ooh! we’re likely to freeze here——”
+
+“I don’t care if I do freeze,” he declared recklessly. “You’ve got to
+answer me here and now, Tavia.”
+
+“Have I?” with a toss of her head. “Who are _you_ to command _me_, I’d
+like to know?” Then with sudden seriousness and a flood of crimson in
+her face that fairly glorified Tavia Travers: “How about that request I
+told you your mother must make, Nat? I meant it.”
+
+“See here! See here!” cried the young man, tearing off his gloves and
+dashing them into the snow while he struggled to open his bearskin coat
+and then the coat beneath.
+
+From an inner pocket he drew forth a letter and opened it so she could
+read.
+
+“See!” Nat cried. “It’s from mother. She wrote it to me while I was in
+Boston—before old Ned’s telegram came. See what she says here—second
+paragraph, Tavia.”
+
+The girl read the words with a little intake of her breath:
+
+ “And, my dear boy, I know that you have quarreled in some way and
+ for some reason with our pretty, impetuous Tavia. Do not risk your
+ own happiness and hers, Nathaniel, through any stubbornness. Tavia
+ is worth breaking one’s pride for. She is the girl I hope to see you
+ marry—nobody else in this wide world could so satisfy me as your wife.”
+
+That was as far as Tavia could read, for her eyes were misty. She hung
+her head like a child and whispered, as Nat approached:
+
+“Oh, Nat! Nat! how I doubted her! She is _so_ good!”
+
+He put his arms about her, and she snuggled up against the bearskin
+coat.
+
+“Say! how about _me_?” he demanded huskily. “Now that the Widder White
+has asked you to be her daughter-in-law, don’t I come into the picture
+at all?”
+
+Tavia raised her head, looked at him searchingly, and suddenly laid her
+lips against his eager ones.
+
+“You’re—you’re the _whole_ picture for me, Nat!” she breathed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+SOMETHING AMAZING
+
+
+Now that Garry Knapp had left The Cedars—had passed out of her life
+forever perhaps—Dorothy Dale found herself in a much disturbed state of
+mind. She did not wish to sit and think over her situation. If she did
+she knew she would break down.
+
+She was tempted—oh! sorely tempted—to write Garry Knapp all that was in
+her heart. Her cheeks burned when she thought of doing such a thing;
+yet, after all, she was fighting for happiness and as she saw it
+receding from her she grew desperate.
+
+But Dorothy Dale had gone as far as she could. She had done her best
+to bring the man she loved into line with her own thought. She had the
+satisfaction of believing he felt toward her as she did toward him. But
+there matters stood; she could do no more. She did not let her mind
+dwell upon this state of affairs; she could not and retain that calm
+expected of Dorothy Dale by the rest of the family at The Cedars. It is
+what is expected of us that we accomplish, after all. She had never
+been in the habit of giving away to her feelings, even as a schoolgirl.
+Much more was expected of her now.
+
+The older people about her were, of course, sympathetic. She would have
+been glad to get away from them for that very reason. Whenever Tavia
+looked at her Dorothy saw commiseration in her eyes. So, too, with Aunt
+Winnie and the major. Dorothy turned with relief to her brothers who
+had not much thought for anything but fun and frolic.
+
+Joe and Roger had quite fallen in love with Garry Knapp and talked a
+good deal about him. But their talk was innocent enough and was not
+aimed at her. They had not discovered—as they had regarding Jennie
+Hapgood and Ned—that their big sister was in the toils of this strange
+new disease that seemed to have smitten the young folk at The Cedars.
+
+On this very day that Tavia had elected to go to town and Nat had
+driven her in the cutter, Dorothy put on her wraps for a tramp through
+the snow. As she started toward the back road she saw Joe and Roger
+coming away from the kitchen door, having been whisked out by the cook.
+
+“Take it all and go and don’t youse boys be botherin’ me again
+to-day—and everything behind because of the wash,” cried Mary, as the
+boys departed.
+
+“What have you been bothering Mary for?” asked Dorothy, hailing her
+brothers.
+
+“Suet,” said Joe.
+
+“Oh, do come on, Sister,” cried the eager Roger. “We’re going to feed
+’em.”
+
+“Feed what?” asked Dorothy.
+
+“The bluejays and the clapes and the snow buntings,” Roger declared.
+
+“With suet?”
+
+“That’s for the jays,” explained Joe. “We’ve got plenty of cracked corn
+and oats for the little birds. You see, we tie the chunks of suet up in
+the trees—and you ought to see the bluejays come after it!”
+
+“Do come with us,” begged Roger again, who always found a double
+pleasure in having Dorothy attend them on any venture.
+
+“I don’t know. You boys have grown so you can keep ahead of me,”
+laughed Dorothy. “Where are you going—how far?”
+
+“Up to Snake Hill—there by the gully. Mr. Garry Knapp showed us last
+week,” Joe said. “He says he always feeds the birds in the winter time
+out where he lives.”
+
+Dorothy smiled and nodded. “I should presume he did,” she said. “He is
+that kind—isn’t he, boys?”
+
+“He’s bully,” said Roger, with enthusiasm.
+
+“_What_ kind?” asked Joe, with some caution.
+
+“Just kind,” laughed Dorothy. “Kind to everybody and everything. Birds
+and all,” she said. But to herself she thought: “Kind to everybody but
+poor little me!”
+
+However, she went on with her brothers. They plowed through the drifts
+in the back road, but found the going not as hard as in the woods. The
+tramp to the edge of the gully into which the boys had come so near to
+plunging on their sled weeks before, was quite exhausting.
+
+This distant spot had been selected because of the number of birds
+that always were to be found here, winter or summer. The undergrowth
+was thick and the berries and seeds tempted many of the songsters and
+bright-plumaged birds to remain beyond the usual season for migration.
+
+Then it would be too late for them to fly South had they so desired.
+Now, with the heavy snow heaped upon everything edible, the feathered
+creatures were going to have a time of famine if they were not thought
+of by their human neighbors.
+
+Sparrows and chicadees are friendly little things and will keep close
+to human habitations in winter; but the bluejay, that saucy rascal, is
+always shy. He and his wilder brothers must be fed in the woods.
+
+There were the tracks of the birds—thousands and thousands of tracks
+about the gully. Roger began to throw out the grain, scattering it
+carefully on the snowcrust, while Joe climbed up the first tree with a
+lump of suet tied to a cord.
+
+“I got to tie it high,” he told Dorothy, who asked him, “’cause
+otherwise, Mr. Knapp says, dogs or foxes, or such like, will get it
+instead of the birds.”
+
+“Oh, I see,” Dorothy said. “Look where you step, Roger. See! the gully
+is level full of snow. What a drift!”
+
+This was true. The snow lay in the hollow from twenty to thirty feet in
+depth. None of the Dales could remember seeing so much snow before.
+
+Dorothy held the other pieces of suet for Joe while he climbed the
+second tree. It was during this process that she suddenly missed Roger.
+She could not hear him nor see him.
+
+“Roger!” she called.
+
+“What’s the matter with you?” demanded Joe tartly. “You’re scaring the
+birds.”
+
+“But Roger is scaring _me_,” his sister told him. “Look, Joe, from
+where you are. Can you see him? Is he hiding from us?”
+
+Joe gave a glance around; then he hastened to descend the tree.
+
+“What is it?” asked Dorothy worriedly. “What has happened to him?”
+
+Joe said never a word, but hastened along the bank of the gully. They
+could scarcely distinguish the line of the bank in some places and
+right at the very steepest part was a wallow in the snow. Something
+had sunk down there and the snow had caved in after it!
+
+“Roger!” gasped Dorothy, her heart beating fast and the muscles of her
+throat tightening.
+
+“Oh, cricky!” groaned Joe. “He’s gone down.”
+
+It was the steepest and deepest part of the gully. Not a sound came up
+from the huge drift into which the smaller boy had evidently tumbled—no
+answer to their cries.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dorothy and her brothers had scarcely gone out of sight of the house
+when Major Dale, looking from the broad front window of his room,
+beheld a figure plowing through the heaped up snow and in at the
+gateway of The Cedars. It was not Nat and it was not Ned; at first he
+did not recognize the man approaching the front door at all.
+
+Then he suddenly uttered a shout which brought the housemaid from her
+dusting in the hall.
+
+“Major Dale! what is it, please? Can I do anything for you?” asked the
+girl, her hand upon her heart.
+
+“Great glory! did I scare you, Mina?” he demanded. “Well! I’m pretty
+near scared myself. Leastways, I am amazed. Run down and open the door
+for Mr. Knapp—and bring him right up here.”
+
+“Mr. Knapp!” cried the maid, and was away on swift feet, for Garry had
+endeared himself to the serving people as well as to the family during
+his brief stay at The Cedars.
+
+The young man threw aside his outer clothing in haste and ran upstairs
+to the major’s room. Dorothy’s father had got up in his excitement and
+was waiting for him with eager eyes.
+
+“Garry! Garry Knapp!” he exclaimed. “What has happened? What has
+brought you back here, my dear boy?”
+
+Garry was smiling, but it was a grave smile. Indeed, something dwelt in
+the young man’s eyes that the major had never seen before.
+
+“What is it?” repeated the old gentleman, as he seized Garry’s hand.
+
+“Major, I’ve come to ask a favor,” blurted out the Westerner.
+
+“A favor—and at last?” cried Major Dale. “It is granted.”
+
+“Wait till you hear what it is—all of it. First I want you to call our
+bargain off.”
+
+“What? You don’t want to sell your ranch?” gasped the major.
+
+“No, sir. Things have—well, have changed a bit. My ranch is something
+that I must not sell, for I can see a way now to work it myself.”
+
+“You can, my boy? You can develop it? Then the bargain’s off!” cried
+the major. “I only want to see you successful.”
+
+“Thank you, sir. You are more than kind—kinder than I have any
+reason to expect. And I presume you think me a fellow of fluctuating
+intentions, eh?” and he laughed shortly.
+
+“I am waiting to hear about that, Garry,” said the major, eyeing him
+intently.
+
+With a thrill in his voice that meant joy, yet with eyes that were
+frankly bedimmed with tears, Garry Knapp put a paper into Major Dale’s
+hand, saying:
+
+“Read that, Major,—read that and tell me what you think of it.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+SO IT WAS ALL SETTLED
+
+
+“What’s this—what’s this, my boy?” cried the major hastily adjusting
+his reading glasses. “A telegram? And from the West, eh?”
+
+“A night letter from Bob Douglas. I got it yesterday morning. I’ve been
+all this time getting here, Major. Believe me! the railroads are badly
+blocked.”
+
+Major Dale was reading the telegram. His face flushed and his eyes
+brightened as he read.
+
+“This is authentic, Garry?” he finally asked, with shaking voice.
+
+“Sure. I know Bob Douglas—and Gibson, the lawyer, too. Gibson has been
+in touch with the poor old man all the time. I expect Uncle Terry must
+have left the will and all his papers with Gibson when he hiked out
+for Alaska. Poor, poor old man! He’s gone without my ever having seen
+him again.” Garry’s voice was broken and he turned to look out of the
+window.
+
+“Not your fault, my boy,” said the major, clearing his throat.
+
+“No, sir. But my misfortune. I know now that the old man loved me or
+he would not have made me rich in the end.”
+
+Major Dale was reading the long telegram again. “Your friend, Mr.
+Douglas, repeats a phrase of the will, it is evident,” he said softly.
+“Your uncle says you are to have his money ‘because you are too honest
+to ever make any for yourself.’ Do you believe that, Garry?” and his
+eyes suddenly twinkled.
+
+Garry Knapp blushed and shook his head negatively. “That’s just the old
+man’s caustic wit,” he said. “I’ll make good all right. I’ve got the
+land, and now I’ve got the money to develop it——”
+
+“Major Dale! Where is Miss Dorothy?”
+
+“Gone out for a tramp in the snow. I heard her with the boys,” said the
+major, smiling. “I—I expect, Garry, you wish to tell her the good news?”
+
+“And something else, Major, if you will permit me.”
+
+The old gentleman looked at him searchingly. “I am not altogether sure
+that you deserve to get her, Garry. You are a laggard in love,” he
+said. “But you have my best wishes.”
+
+“You’ll not find me slow that way after _this_!” exclaimed Garry Knapp
+gaily, as he made for the door.
+
+Thus it was that, having traced Dorothy and her brothers from the
+house, the young Westerner came upon the site of the accident to Roger
+just as the girl and Joe discovered the disappearance of the smaller
+boy in the deep drift.
+
+“Run for help, Joe!” Dorothy was crying. “Bring somebody! And ropes!
+No! don’t you dare jump into that drift! Then there will be two of you
+lost. Oh!”
+
+“Hooray!” yelled Joe at that instant. “Here’s Mr. Knapp!”
+
+Dorothy could not understand Garry’s appearance; but she had to believe
+her eyesight. Before the young man, approaching now by great leaps, had
+reached the spot they had explained the trouble to him.
+
+“Don’t be so frightened, Dorothy,” he cried. “The boy won’t smother in
+that snowdrift. He’s probably so scared that——”
+
+Just then a muffled cry came to their ears from below in the drifted
+gulch.
+
+“He isn’t dead then!” declared Joe. “How’re we going to get him out,
+Mr. Knapp?”
+
+“By you and Miss Dorothy standing back out of danger and letting me
+burrow there,” said Garry.
+
+He had already thrown aside his coat. Now he leaped well out from the
+edge of the gully bank, turning in the air so as to face them as he
+plunged, feet first, into the drift.
+
+It was partially hollowed out underneath—and this fact Garry had
+surmised. The wind had blown the snow into the gully, but a hovering
+wreath of the frozen element had tempted Roger upon its surface and
+then treacherously let him down into the heart of it.
+
+Garry plunged through and almost landed upon the frightened boy. He
+groped for him, picked him up in his arms, and the next minute Roger’s
+head and shoulders burst through the snow crust and he was tossed by
+Garry out upon the bank.
+
+“Oh, Garry!” gasped Dorothy, trying to help the man up the bank and out
+of the snow wreath. “What ever should we have done without you?”
+
+“I don’t see what you’re going to do without me, anyway,” laughed the
+young man breathlessly, finally recovering his feet.
+
+“Garry!”
+
+She looked at him almost in fear, gazing into his flushed face. She saw
+that something had happened—something that had changed his attitude
+toward her; but she could not guess what it was.
+
+The boys were laughing, and Joe was beating the snow off the clothing
+of his younger brother. They did not notice their elders for the moment.
+
+“How——Why did you come back, Garry?” the girl asked directly.
+
+“I come back to see if you would let such a blundering fellow as I am
+tell you what is in his heart,” Garry said softly, looking at her with
+serious gaze.
+
+“Garry! What has happened?” she murmured.
+
+He told her quietly, but with a break in his voice that betrayed the
+depth of his feeling for his Uncle Terry. “The poor old boy!” he said.
+“If he had only showed me he loved me so while he lived—and given me a
+chance to show him.”
+
+“It is not your fault,” said Dorothy using the words her father had
+used in commenting upon the matter.
+
+They were standing close together—there in the snow, and his arms were
+about her. Dorothy looked up bravely into his face.
+
+“I—I guess I can’t say it very well, Dorothy. But you know how I
+feel—how much I love you, my dear. I’m going to make good out there on
+the old ranch, and then I want to come back here for you. Will you wait
+for me, Dorothy?”
+
+“I expected to have to wait much longer than that, Garry,” Dorothy
+replied with a tremulous sigh. And then as he drew her still closer she
+hid her face on his bosom.
+
+“Lookut! Lookut!” cried Roger in the background, suddenly observing the
+tableau. “What do you know about Dorothy and Garry Knapp doing it too?”
+
+“Gee!” growled Joe, in disgust. “It must be catching. Tavia and old
+Nat will get it. Come on away, Roger. Huh! they don’t even know we’re
+on earth.”
+
+And it was some time before Dorothy Dale and “that cowboy person” awoke
+to the fact that they were alone and it was a much longer time still
+before they started back for The Cedars, hand in hand.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+THE DOROTHY DALE SERIES
+
+By MARGARET PENROSE
+
+Author of “The Motor Girls Series”
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.
+
+
+[Illustration: Book]
+
+Dorothy Dale is the daughter of an old Civil War veteran who is running
+a weekly newspaper in a small Eastern town. Her sunny disposition, her
+fun-loving ways and her trials and triumphs make clean, interesting and
+fascinating reading. The Dorothy Dale Series is one of the most popular
+series of books for girls ever published.
+
+  DOROTHY DALE: A GIRL OF TO-DAY
+  DOROTHY DALE AT GLENWOOD SCHOOL
+  DOROTHY DALE’S GREAT SECRET
+  DOROTHY DALE AND HER CHUMS
+  DOROTHY DALE’S QUEER HOLIDAYS
+  DOROTHY DALE’S CAMPING DAYS
+  DOROTHY DALE’S SCHOOL RIVALS
+  DOROTHY DALE IN THE CITY
+  DOROTHY DALE’S PROMISE
+  DOROTHY DALE IN THE WEST
+  DOROTHY DALE’S STRANGE DISCOVERY
+  DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT (_New_)
+
+  CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers,      NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES
+
+By MARGARET PENROSE
+
+Author of the highly successful “Dorothy Dale Series”
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.
+
+[Illustration: Book]
+
+Since the enormous success of our “Motor Boys Series,” by Clarence
+Young, we have been asked to get out a similar series for girls. No
+one is better equipped to furnish these tales than Mrs. Penrose, who,
+besides being an able writer, is an expert automobilist.
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS
+        _or A Mystery of the Road_
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON A TOUR
+        _or Keeping a Strange Promise_
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS AT LOOKOUT BEACH
+        _or In Quest of the Runaways_
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS THROUGH NEW ENGLAND
+        _or Held by the Gypsies_
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CEDAR LAKE
+        _or The Hermit of Fern Island_
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON THE COAST
+        _or The Waif from the Sea_
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CRYSTAL BAY
+        _or The Secret of the Red Oar_
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON WATERS BLUE
+        _or The Strange Cruise of the Tartar_
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS AT CAMP SURPRISE
+        _or The Cave in the Mountain_
+
+  THE MOTOR GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS (_New_)
+        _or The Gypsy Girl’s Secret_
+
+  CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers,      NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES
+
+By LESTER CHADWICK
+
+Author of “The College Sports Series”
+
+_12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid._
+
+
+[Illustration: Book]
+
+
+BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS
+
+_or The Rivals of Riverside_
+
+In this volume, the first of the series, Joe is introduced as an
+everyday country boy who loves to play baseball and is particularly
+anxious to make his mark as a pitcher.
+
+
+BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE
+
+_or Pitching for the Blue Banner_
+
+Joe’s great ambition was to go to boarding school and play on the
+school team. He got to boarding school but found it hard to make the
+team.
+
+
+BASEBALL JOE AT YALE
+
+_or Pitching for the College Championship_
+
+From a preparatory school Baseball Joe goes to Yale University. He
+makes the freshman nine and in his second year becomes a varsity
+pitcher and pitches in several big games.
+
+
+BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE
+
+_or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher_
+
+In this volume the scene of action is shifted from Yale college to a
+baseball league of our central states.
+
+
+BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE
+
+_or A Young Pitcher’s Hardest Struggle_
+
+From the Central League Joe is drafted into the St. Louis Nationals. A
+corking baseball story that fans, both young and old, will enjoy.
+
+
+BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS
+
+_or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis_
+
+How Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay in the box
+makes an interesting baseball story.
+
+
+BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES (_New_)
+
+_or Pitching for the Championship_
+
+A story to set the hearts of all baseball fans to thumping wildly.
+The rivalry was of course of the keenest, and what Joe did to win the
+series is told in a manner to thrill the most jaded reader.
+
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+  CUPPLES & LEON CO.      Publishers      New York
+
+
+
+
+THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS SERIES
+
+By BROOKS HENDERLEY
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid._
+
+[Illustration: Book]
+
+_This new series relates the doings of a wide-awake boys’ club of the
+Y.M.C.A., full of good times and everyday, practical Christianity.
+Clean, elevating and full of fun and vigor, books that should be read
+by every boy._
+
+
+THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS OF CLIFFWOOD
+
+_or The Struggle for the Holwell Prize_
+
+Telling how the boys of Cliffwood were a wild set and how, on
+Hallowe’en, they turned the home town topsy-turvy. This led to an
+organization of a boys’ department in the local Y.M.C.A. When the lads
+realized what was being done for them, they joined in the movement with
+vigor and did all they could to help the good cause.
+
+
+THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS ON BASS ISLAND
+
+_or The Mystery of Russabaga Camp_
+
+Summer was at hand, and at a meeting of the boys of the Y.M.C.A.
+of Cliffwood, it was decided that a regular summer camp should be
+instituted. This was located at a beautiful spot on Bass Island, and
+there the lads went boating, swimming, fishing and tramping to their
+heart’s content.
+
+
+THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS AT FOOTBALL (_New_)
+
+_or Lively Doings On and Off the Gridiron_
+
+This volume will add greatly to the deserved success of this
+well-written series. The Y.M.C.A. boys are plucky lads—clean minded and
+as true as steel. They have many ups and downs, but in the end they
+“win out” in the best meaning of that term.
+
+
+_Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+  CUPPLES & LEON CO.      Publishers      New York
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber’s Notes
+
+  pg 10 Changed: Otuside there beside the tracks
+             to: Outside there beside the tracks
+
+  pg 22 Changed: A floorwalked hastened forward.
+             to: A floorwalker hastened forward.
+
+  pg 32 Changed: like the notes of a coloratura sporano
+             to: like the notes of a coloratura soprano
+
+  pg 116 Changed: melodiously a pæn of joy
+              to: melodiously a pæan of joy
+
+  pg 117 Changed: sticking out a touseled head
+              to: sticking out a tousled head
+
+  pg 117 Changed: Jennie Hapgod peered out
+              to: Jennie Hapgood peered out
+
+
+
 *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY DALE'S ENGAGEMENT ***
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-<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY DALE'S ENGAGEMENT ***</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 85%">

-<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover">

-</div>

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-

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-

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-<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="frontis" style="max-width: 40em;">

-  <img class="w100" src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="">

-  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">“NO, DADDY,” SHE SAID, “I—I THINK I—I AM IN LOVE.”</p>

-

-<div>

- <p class="fs80" style="float: left;"><em>Dorothy Dale’s Engagement</em></p>

- <p class="fs80" style="float: right;"><em>Page <a href="#Page_165">165</a></em></p>

-</div>

-<div style="clear:both;"></div>

-

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-</figure>

-</div>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<h1>

-DOROTHY DALE’S<br>

-ENGAGEMENT</h1>

-

-<br>

-<br>

-<p class="center no-indent">

-<span class="fs80">BY</span><br>

-<br>

-MARGARET PENROSE<br>

-<br>

-<span class="fs70">AUTHOR OF “DOROTHY DALE: A GIRL OF TO-DAY,” “DOROTHY<br>

-DALE AT GLENWOOD SCHOOL,” “DOROTHY DALE IN<br>

-THE CITY,” “THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES,” ETC.</span><br>

-<br></p>

-

-<hr class="r5">

-<p class="center no-indent fs90">ILLUSTRATED<br></p>

-<hr class="r5">

-<br>

-

-<p class="center no-indent">

-<span class="fs80">NEW YORK</span><br>

-CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY<br>

-</p>

-</div>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter pageborder">

-<p class="center no-indent fs130 wsp">BOOKS BY MARGARET PENROSE</p>

-

-<hr class="r20">

-

-<p class="center no-indent fs90 wsp"><em>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price, per volume,<br>

-75 cents, postpaid</em></p>

-

-<hr class="r20">

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">THE DOROTHY DALE SERIES</p>

-

-<p class="no-indent">

-DOROTHY DALE: A GIRL OF TO-DAY<br>

-DOROTHY DALE AT GLENWOOD SCHOOL<br>

-DOROTHY DALE’S GREAT SECRET<br>

-DOROTHY DALE AND HER CHUMS<br>

-DOROTHY DALE’S QUEER HOLIDAYS<br>

-DOROTHY DALE’S CAMPING DAYS<br>

-DOROTHY DALE’S SCHOOL RIVALS<br>

-DOROTHY DALE IN THE CITY<br>

-DOROTHY DALE’S PROMISE<br>

-DOROTHY DALE IN THE WEST<br>

-DOROTHY DALE’S STRANGE DISCOVERY<br>

-DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT<br>

-</p>

-

-<hr class="r5">

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES</p>

-

-<p class="no-indent">

-THE MOTOR GIRLS<br>

-THE MOTOR GIRLS ON A TOUR<br>

-THE MOTOR GIRLS AT LOOKOUT BEACH<br>

-THE MOTOR GIRLS THROUGH NEW ENGLAND<br>

-THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CEDAR LAKE<br>

-THE MOTOR GIRLS ON THE COAST<br>

-THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CRYSTAL BAY<br>

-THE MOTOR GIRLS ON WATERS BLUE<br>

-THE MOTOR GIRLS AT CAMP SURPRISE<br>

-THE MOTOR GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS<br>

-</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>Cupples &amp; Leon Co., Publishers, New York</em></p>

-</div>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent">

-<span class="smcap fs80">Copyright, 1917, by</span><br>

-CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY</p>

-

-<hr class="r5">

-

-<p class="center no-indent fs80">DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT<br>

-</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>

-</div>

-

-<table class="autotable">

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr fs60">CHAPTER</td>

-<td class="tdl"></td>

-<td class="tdr fs60">PAGE</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">I.</td>

-<td class="tdl">“<span class="smcap">Alone in a Great City</span>”</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">II.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">G. K. to the Rescue</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">III.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Tavia in the Shade</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">IV.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Something About “G. Knapp”</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">V.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Dorothy Is Disturbed</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">VI.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Something of a Mystery</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">VII.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Garry Sees a Wall Ahead</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">VIII.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">And Still Dorothy Is Not Happy</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">IX.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">They See Garry’s Back</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">X.</td>

-<td class="tdl">“<span class="smcap">Heart Disease</span>”</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XI.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Bold Thing to Do!</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XII.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Uncertainties</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XIII.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Dorothy Makes a Discovery</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XIV.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Tavia Is Determined</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XV.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Slide on Snake Hill</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XVI.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Fly in the Amber</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XVII.</td>

-<td class="tdl">“<span class="smcap">Do You Understand Tavia?</span>”</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XVIII.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Cross Purposes</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XIX.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Wedding Bells in Prospect</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XX.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Girl of To-Day</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XXI.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Bud Unfolds</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XXII.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Dorothy Decides</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XXIII.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Nat Jumps at a Conclusion</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XXIV.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Thin Ice</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XXV.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Garry Balks</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XXVI.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Serious Thoughts</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XXVII.</td>

-<td class="tdl">“<span class="smcap">It’s All Off!</span>”</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XXVIII.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Castaways</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XXIX.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Something Amazing</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XXX.</td>

-<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">So It Was All Settled</span></td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td>

-</tr>

-</table>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent fs150 bold">DOROTHY DALE’S<br>

-ENGAGEMENT</p>

-</div>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I<br>

-<span class="fs80">“ALONE IN A GREAT CITY”</span></h2>

-

-<p>“Now, Tavia!”</p>

-

-<p>“Now, Dorothy!” mocked Octavia Travers,

-making a little face as she did so; but then, Tavia

-Travers could afford to “make faces,” possessing

-as she did such a naturally pretty one.</p>

-

-<p>“We must decide immediately,” her chum, Dorothy

-Dale, said decidedly, “whether to continue

-in the train under the river and so to the main

-station, or to change for the Hudson tube. You

-know, we can walk from the tube station at Twenty-third

-Street to the hotel Aunt Winnie always

-patronizes.”</p>

-

-<p>“With these heavy bags, Doro?”</p>

-

-<p>“Only a block and a half, my dear Tavia. You

-are a strong, healthy girl.”</p>

-

-<p>“But I do so like to have people do things for

-me,” sighed Tavia, clasping her hands. “And

-taxicabs are <em>so</em> nice.”</p>

-

-<p>“And expensive,” rejoined Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Of course. That is what helps to make them

-nice,” declared Tavia. “Doro, I just love to

-throw away money!”</p>

-

-<p>“You only think you do, my dear,” her chum

-said placidly. “Once you had thrown some of

-your own money away—some of that your father

-sent you to spend for your fall and winter outfit—you

-would sing a different tune.”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t believe I would—not if by throwing it

-away I really made a splurge, Doro,” sighed

-Tavia. “I <em>love</em> money.”</p>

-

-<p>“You mean, you love what money enables us to

-have.”</p>

-

-<p>“Yep,” returned the slangy Tavia. “And taxicab

-rides eat up money horribly. We found that

-out, Doro, when we were in New York before,

-that time—before we graduated from dear old

-Glenwood School.”</p>

-

-<p>“But <em>this</em> isn’t getting us anywhere. To return——”</p>

-

-<p>“‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Revenons à nos moutons!</i>’ Sure! I know,”

-gabbled Tavia. “Let us return to our mutton.

-He, he! Have I forgotten my French?”</p>

-

-<p>“I really think you have,” laughed Dorothy

-Dale. “Most of it. And almost everything else

-you learned at dear old Glenwood, Tavia. But,

-quick! Decide, my dear. How shall we enter New

-York City? We are approaching the Manhattan

-Transfer.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Mercy! So quick?”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes. Just like that.”</p>

-

-<p>“I tell you,” whispered Tavia, suddenly becoming

-confidential, her sparkling eyes darting a

-glance ahead. “Let’s leave it to that nice man.”</p>

-

-<p>“Who? What man do you mean, Tavia?” demanded

-Dorothy, her face at once serious. “Do

-try to behave.”</p>

-

-<p>“Am behaving,” declared Tavia, nodding.

-“But I’m a good sport. Let’s leave it to him.”</p>

-

-<p>“Whom do you mean?”</p>

-

-<p>“You know. That nice, Western looking young

-man who opened the window for us that time. He

-is sitting in that chair just yonder. Don’t you

-see?” and she indicated a pair of broad shoulders

-in a gray coat, above which was revealed a

-well-shaped head with a thatch of black hair.</p>

-

-<p>“Do consider!” begged Dorothy, catching Tavia’s

-hand as though she feared her chum was

-about to get up to speak to this stranger. “This

-is a public car. We are observed.”</p>

-

-<p>“Little silly!” said Tavia, smiling upon her

-chum tenderly. “You don’t suppose I would do

-anything so crude—or rude—as to speak to the

-gentleman? ‘Fie! fie! fie for shame! Turn your

-back and tell his name!’ And you don’t know it,

-you know you don’t, Doro.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy broke into smiles again and shook her

-head; her own eyes, too, dancing roguishly.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span></p>

-

-<p>“I only know his initials,” she said.</p>

-

-<p>“What?” gasped Tavia Travers in something

-more than mock horror.</p>

-

-<p>“Yes. They are ‘G. K.’ I saw them on his

-bag. Couldn’t help it,” explained Dorothy, now

-laughing outright. “But decide, dear! Shall we

-change at Manhattan Transfer?”</p>

-

-<p>“If <em>he</em> does—there!” chuckled Tavia. “We’ll

-get out if the nice Western cowboy person does.

-Oh! he’s a whole lot nicer looking than Lance

-Petterby.”</p>

-

-<p>“Dear me, Tavia! Haven’t you forgotten

-Lance yet?”</p>

-

-<p>“Never!” vowed Tavia, tragically. “Not till

-the day of my death—and then some, as Lance

-would himself say.”</p>

-

-<p>“You are incorrigible,” sighed Dorothy.

-Then: “He’s going to get out, Tavia!”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! oh! oh!” crowed her chum, under her

-breath. “You were looking.”</p>

-

-<p>“Goodness me!” returned Dorothy, in some exasperation.

-“Who could miss that hat?”</p>

-

-<p>The young man in question had put on his

-broad-brimmed gray hat. He was just the style

-of man that such a hat became.</p>

-

-<p>The young man lifted down the heavy suitcase

-from the rack—the one on which Dorothy had

-seen the big, black letters, “G. K.” He had a second

-suitcase of the same description under his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span>

-feet. He set both out into the aisle, threw his

-folded light overcoat over his arm, and prepared

-to make for the front door of the car as the train

-began to slow down.</p>

-

-<p>“Come on, now!” cried Tavia, suddenly in a

-great hurry.</p>

-

-<p>But Dorothy had to put on her coat, and to

-make sure that she looked just right in the mirror

-beside her chair. All Tavia had to do was to toss

-her summer fur about her neck and grab up her

-traveling bag.</p>

-

-<p>“We’ll be left!” she cried. “The train doesn’t

-stop here long.”</p>

-

-<p>“You run, then, and tell them to wait,” Dorothy

-said calmly.</p>

-

-<p>They were, however, the last to leave the car—the

-last to leave the train, in fact—at the elevated

-platform which gives a broad view of the New

-Jersey meadows.</p>

-

-<p>“My goodness me!” gasped Tavia, as the

-brakeman helped them to the platform, and waved

-his hand for departure. “My goodness me!

-We’re clear at this end of this awful platform,

-and the tube train stops—and of course starts—at

-the far end. A mile to walk with these bags

-and not a redcap in sight. Oh, yes! there’s one,”

-she added faintly.</p>

-

-<p>“Redcap?” queried Dorothy. “Oh! you mean

-a porter.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Yes,” Tavia said. “Of course you would be

-slow. Everybody’s got a porter but us.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy laughed mellowly. “Who’s fault do

-you intimate it is?” she asked. “We might have

-been the first out of the car.”</p>

-

-<p>“<em>He’s</em> got one,” whispered Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>Oddly enough her chum did not ask “Who?”

-this time. She, too, was looking at the back of the

-well-set-up young man whose initials seemed to

-be G. K. He stood confronting an importunate

-porter, whose smiling face was visible to the girls

-as he said:</p>

-

-<p>“Why, Boss, yo’ can’t possibly kerry dem two

-big bags f’om dis end ob de platfo’m to de odder.”</p>

-

-<p>The porter held out both hands for the big

-suitcases carried by the Western looking young

-man, who really appeared to be physically much

-better able to carry his baggage than the negro.</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t suppose two-bits has anything to do

-with your desire to tote my bag?” suggested the

-white man, and the listening girls knew he must

-be smiling broadly.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, Boss, <em>yo’</em> can’t earn two-bits carryin’

-bags yere; but <em>I</em> kin,” and the negro chuckled delightedly

-as he gained possession of the bags.

-“Come right along, Boss.”</p>

-

-<p>As the porter set off, the young man turned and

-saw Dorothy Dale and Tavia Travers behind

-him. Besides themselves, indeed, this end of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span>

-long cement platform was clear. Other passengers

-from the in-bound train had either gone forward

-or descended into the tunnel under the

-tracks to reach the north-side platform. The only

-porter in sight was the man who had taken G. K.’s

-bags.</p>

-

-<p>The weight of the shiny black bags the girls

-carried was obvious. Indeed, perhaps Tavia sagged

-perceptibly on that side—and intentionally;

-and, of course, her hazel eyes said “Please!” just

-as plain as eyes ever spoke before.</p>

-

-<p>Off came the broad-brimmed hat just for an instant.

-Then he held out both hands.</p>

-

-<p>“Let me help you, ladies,” he said, with the

-pleasantest of smiles. “Seeing that I have obtained

-the services of the only Jasper in sight,

-you’d better let me play porter. Going to take

-this tube train, ladies?”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes, indeed!” cried Tavia, twinkling with

-smiles at once, and first to give him a bag.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy might have hesitated, but the young

-man was insistent and quick. He seized both bags

-as a matter of course, and Dorothy Dale could

-not pull hers away from him.</p>

-

-<p>“You must let us pay your porter, then,” she

-said, in her quietly pleasant way.</p>

-

-<p>“Bless you! we won’t fight over that,” chuckled

-the young man.</p>

-

-<p>He was agreeably talkative, with that wholesome,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span>

-free, yet chivalrous manner which the girls,

-especially the thoughtful Dorothy, had noticed

-as particular attributes of the men they had met

-during their memorable trip to the West, some

-months before.</p>

-

-<p>She noticed, too, that his attentions to Tavia

-and herself were nicely balanced. Of course,

-Tavia, as she always did, began to run on in her

-light-hearted and irresponsible way; but though

-the young man listened to her with a quiet smile,

-he spoke directly to Dorothy quite as often as he

-did to the flyaway girl. He did not seek to take

-advantage of Tavia’s exuberant good spirits as

-so many strangers might have done.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia’s flirtatious ways were a sore trial to her

-more sober chum; but this young man seemed to

-understand Tavia at once.</p>

-

-<p>“Of course, you’re from the West?” Tavia finished

-one “rattlety-bang” series of remarks with

-this direct question.</p>

-

-<p>“Of course I am. Right from the desert—Desert

-City, in fact,” he said, with a quiet smile.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh!” gasped Tavia, turning her big eyes on

-her chum. “Did you hear that, Doro? Desert

-City!”</p>

-

-<p>For the girls, during their visit to the West had,

-as Tavia often claimed in true Western slang,

-helped “put Desert City on the map.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy, however, did not propose to let this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>

-conversation with a strange man become at all

-personal. She ignored her chum’s observation

-and, as the city-bound tube train came sliding in

-beside the platform, she reached for her own bag

-and insisted upon taking it from the Westerner’s

-hand.</p>

-

-<p>“Thank you so much,” she said, with just the

-right degree of firmness as well as of gratitude.</p>

-

-<p>Perforce he had to give up the bag, and Tavia’s,

-too, for there was the red-capped, smiling

-negro expectant of the “two-bits.”</p>

-

-<p>“You are <em>so</em> kind,” breathed Tavia, with one

-of her wonderful “man-killing” glances at the

-considerate G. K., as Dorothy’s cousin, Nat

-White, would have termed her expression of countenance.</p>

-

-<p>G. K. was polite and not brusk; but he was not

-flirtatious. Dorothy entered the Hudson tube

-train with a feeling of considerable satisfaction.

-G. K. did not even enter the car by the same door

-as themselves nor did he take the empty seat opposite

-the girls, as he might have done.</p>

-

-<p>“There! he is one young man who will not flirt

-with you, Tavia,” she said, admonishingly.</p>

-

-<p>“Pooh! I didn’t half try,” declared her chum,

-lightly.</p>

-

-<p>“My dear! you would be tempted, I believe, to

-flirt with a blind man!”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Doro! Never!” Then she dimpled suddenly,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>

-glancing out of the window as the train

-swept on. “<em>There’s</em> a man I didn’t try to flirt

-with.”</p>

-

-<p>“Where?” laughed Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Outside there beside the tracks,” for they had

-not yet reached the Summit Avenue Station, and

-it is beyond that spot that the trains dive into the

-tunnel.</p>

-

-<p>“We passed him too quickly then,” said Dorothy.

-“Lucky man!”</p>

-

-<p>The next moment—or so it seemed—Tavia

-began on another tack:</p>

-

-<p>“To think! In fifteen minutes, Doro my dear,

-we shall be ‘Alone in a Great City.’”</p>

-

-<p>“How alone?” drawled her friend. “Do you

-suppose New York has suddenly been depopulated?”</p>

-

-<p>“But we shall be alone, Doro. What more

-lonesome than a crowd in which you know nobody?”</p>

-

-<p>“How very thoughtful you have become of a

-sudden. I hope you will keep your hand on your

-purse, dear. There will be some people left in

-the great city—and perhaps one may be a pickpocket.”</p>

-

-<p>The electric lights were flashed on, and the

-train soon dived into the great tunnel, “like a

-rabbit into his burrow,” Tavia said. They had to

-disembark at Grove Street to change for an uptown<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>

-train. The tall young Westerner did likewise,

-but he did not accost them.</p>

-

-<p>The Sixth Avenue train soon whisked the girls

-to their destination, and they got out at Twenty-third

-Street. As they climbed the steps to the

-street level, Tavia suddenly uttered a surprised

-cry.</p>

-

-<p>“Look, will you, Doro?” she said. “Right

-ahead!”</p>

-

-<p>“G. K.!” exclaimed her friend, for there was

-the young man mounting the stairs, lugging his

-two heavy suitcases.</p>

-

-<p>“Suppose he goes to the very same hotel?”

-giggled Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Well—maybe that will be nice,” Dorothy said

-composedly. “He looks nice enough for us to

-get acquainted with him—in some perfectly

-proper way, of course.”</p>

-

-<p>“Whew, Doro!” breathed Tavia, her eyes opening

-wide again. “You’re coming on, my dear.”</p>

-

-<p>“I am speaking sensibly. If he is a nice young

-man and perfectly respectable, why shouldn’t he

-find some means of meeting us—if he wants to—and

-we are all at the same hotel?”</p>

-

-<p>“But——”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t believe in flirting,” said Dorothy Dale,

-calmly, yet with a twinkle in her eyes. “But I

-certainly would not fly in the face of Providence—as

-Miss Higley, our old teacher at Glenwood,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span>

-would say—and refuse to meet G. K. He looks

-like a really nice young man.”</p>

-

-<p>“Doro!” gasped Tavia. “You amaze me! I

-shall next expect to see the heavens fall!”</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t be ridiculous,” said her friend, as they

-reached the exit of the tube station and stepped

-out upon the sidewalk.</p>

-

-<p>There was the Westerner already dickering

-with a boy to carry his bags.</p>

-

-<p>“<em>He</em> likes to throw money away, too!” whispered

-Tavia. “I suppose we must be economical

-and carry ours.”</p>

-

-<p>“As there seems to be no other boy in sight—yes,”

-laughed her friend.</p>

-

-<p>“That young man gets the best of us every

-time,” complained Tavia under her breath.</p>

-

-<p>“He is typically Western,” said Dorothy. “He

-is prompt.”</p>

-

-<p>But then, the boy starting off with the heavy

-bags in a little box-wagon he drew, the young man

-whose initials were G. K., turned with a smile to

-the two girls.</p>

-

-<p>“Ladies,” he said, lifting his hat again, “at the

-risk of being considered impertinent, I wish to ask

-you if you are going my way? If so I will help

-you with your bags, having again cinched what

-seems to be the only baggage transportation facilities

-at this station.”</p>

-

-<p>For once Tavia was really speechless. It was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>

-Dorothy who quite coolly asked the young man:</p>

-

-<p>“Which is your direction?”</p>

-

-<p>“To the Fanuel,” he said.</p>

-

-<p>“That is where we are going,” Dorothy admitted,

-giving him her bag again without question.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Tavia, “getting into the picture

-with a bounce,” as she would have expressed

-it. “Aren’t you the <em>handiest</em> young man!”</p>

-

-<p>“Thank you,” he replied, laughing. “That is

-a reputation to make one proud. I never was in

-this man’s town before, but I was recommended

-to the Fanuel by my boss.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh!” Tavia hastened to take the lead in the

-conversation. “We’ve been here before—Doro

-and I. And we always stop at the Fanuel.”</p>

-

-<p>“Now, I look on that as a streak of pure luck,”

-he returned. He looked at Dorothy, however,

-not at Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>The boy with the wagon went on ahead and the

-three voyagers followed, laughing and chatting,

-G. K. swinging the girls’ bags as though they were

-light instead of heavy.</p>

-

-<p>“I want awfully to know his name,” whispered

-Tavia, when they came to the hotel entrance and

-the young man handed over their bags again and

-went to the curb to get his own suitcases from

-the boy.</p>

-

-<p>“Let’s,” added Tavia, “go to the clerk’s desk

-and ask for the rooms your Aunt Winnie wrote<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>

-about. Then I’ll get a chance to see what he

-writes on the book.”</p>

-

-<p>“Nonsense, Tavia!” exclaimed Dorothy.

-“We’ll do nothing of the kind. We must go to

-the ladies’ parlor and send a boy to the clerk, or

-the manager, with our cards. This is a family

-hotel, I know; but the lobby and the office are

-most likely full of men at this time in the day.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, dear! Come on, then, Miss Particular,”

-groaned Tavia. “And we didn’t even bid him

-good-bye at parting.”</p>

-

-<p>“What did you want to do?” laughed Dorothy.

-“Weep on his shoulder and give him some trinket,

-for instance, as a souvenir?”</p>

-

-<p>“Dorothy Dale!” exclaimed her friend. “I believe

-you have something up your sleeve. You

-seem just <em>sure</em> of seeing this nice cowboy person

-again.”</p>

-

-<p>“All men from the West do not punch cattle

-for a living. And it would not be the strangest

-thing in the world if we should meet G. K. again,

-as he is stopping at this hotel.”</p>

-

-<p>However, the girls saw nothing more of the

-smiling and agreeable Westerner that day. Dorothy

-Dale’s aunt had secured by mail two rooms

-and a bath for her niece and Tavia. The girls

-only appeared at dinner, and retired early. Even

-Tavia’s bright eyes could not spy out G. K. while

-they were at dinner.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span></p>

-

-<p>Besides, the girls had many other things to

-think about, and Tavia’s mind could not linger entirely

-upon even as nice a young man as G. K.

-appeared to be.</p>

-

-<p>This was their first visit to New York alone, as

-the more lively girl indicated. Aunt Winnie

-White had sprained her ankle and could not come

-to the city for the usual fall shopping. Dorothy

-was, for the first time, to choose her own fall

-and winter outfit. Tavia had come on from Dalton,

-with the money her father had been able to

-give her for a similar purpose, and the friends

-were to shop together.</p>

-

-<p>They left the hotel early the next morning and

-arrived at the first huge department store on their

-list almost as soon as the store was opened, at nine

-o’clock.</p>

-

-<p>An hour later they were in the silk department,

-pricing goods and “just looking” as Tavia said.

-In her usual thoughtless and incautious way, Tavia

-dropped her handbag upon the counter while she

-used both hands to examine a particular piece of

-goods, calling Dorothy’s attention to it, too.</p>

-

-<p>“No, dear; I do not think it is good enough,

-either for the money or for your purpose,” Dorothy

-said. “The color <em>is</em> lovely; but don’t be guided

-wholly by that.”</p>

-

-<p>“No. I suppose you are right,” sighed Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>She shook her head at the clerk and prepared<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>

-to follow her friend, who had already left the

-counter. Hastily picking up what she supposed

-to be her bag, Tavia ran two or three steps to

-catch up with Dorothy. As she did so a feminine

-shriek behind her startled everybody within hearing.</p>

-

-<p>“That girl—she’s got my bag! Stop her!”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! what is it?” gasped Dorothy, turning.</p>

-

-<p>“Somebody’s stolen something,” stammered

-Tavia, turning around too.</p>

-

-<p>Then she looked at the bag in her hand. Instead

-of her own seal-leather one, it was a much

-more expensive bag, gold mounted and plethoric.</p>

-

-<p>“There she is! She’s got it in her hand!”</p>

-

-<p>A woman dressed in the most extreme fashion

-and most expensively, darted down the aisle upon

-the two girls. She pointed a quivering, accusing

-finger directly at poor Tavia.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II<br>

-<span class="fs80">G. K. TO THE RESCUE</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Dorothy Dale and her friend Tavia Travers

-had often experienced very serious adventures,

-but the shock of this incident perhaps was as great

-and as thrilling as anything that had heretofore

-happened to them.</p>

-

-<p>The series of eleven previous stories about

-Dorothy, Tavia, and their friends began with

-“Dorothy Dale: A Girl of To-day,” some years

-before the date of this present narrative. At that

-time Dorothy was living with her father, Major

-Frank Dale, a Civil War veteran, who owned and

-edited the <em>Bugle</em>, a newspaper published in Dalton,

-a small town in New York State.</p>

-

-<p>Then Major Dale’s livelihood and that of the

-family, consisting of Dorothy and her small brothers,

-Joe and Roger, depended upon the success of

-the <em>Bugle</em>. Taken seriously ill in the midst of a

-lively campaign for temperance and for a general

-reform government in Dalton, it looked as though

-the major would lose his paper and the better element

-in the town lose their fight for prohibition;

-but Dorothy Dale, confident that she could do it,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>

-got out the <em>Bugle</em> and did much, young girl though

-she was, to save the day. In this she was helped

-by Tavia Travers, a girl brought up entirely differently

-from Dorothy, and who possessed exactly

-the opposite characteristics to serve as a foil for

-Dorothy’s own good sense and practical nature.</p>

-

-<p>Major Dale was unexpectedly blessed with a

-considerable legacy which enabled him to sell the

-<em>Bugle</em> and take his children to The Cedars, at

-North Birchland, to live with his widowed sister

-and her two boys, Ned and Nat White, who were

-both older than their cousin Dorothy. In “Dorothy

-Dale at Glenwood School,” is related these

-changes for the better in the fortunes of the Dale

-family, and as well there is narrated the beginning

-of a series of adventures at school and during

-vacation times, in which Dorothy and Tavia are

-the central characters.</p>

-

-<p>Subsequent books are entitled respectively:

-“Dorothy Dale’s Great Secret,” “Dorothy Dale

-and Her Chums,” “Dorothy Dale’s Queer Holidays,”

-“Dorothy Dale’s Camping Days,” “Dorothy

-Dale’s School Rivals,” “Dorothy Dale in the

-City,” and “Dorothy Dale’s Promise,” in which

-story the two friends graduate from Glenwood

-and return to their homes feeling—and looking,

-of course—like real, grown-up young ladies.

-Nevertheless, they are not then through with adventures,

-surprising happenings, and much fun.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span></p>

-

-<p>About the time the girls graduated from school

-an old friend of Major Dale, Colonel Hardin,

-passed away, leaving his large estate in the West

-partly to the major and partly to be administered

-for the local public good. Cattle raising was not

-so generally followed as formerly in that section

-and dry farming was being tried.</p>

-

-<p>Colonel Hardin had foreseen that nothing but

-a system of irrigation would save the poor farmers

-from ruin and on his land was the fountain

-of supply that should water the whole territory

-about Desert City and make it “blossom as the

-rose.” There were mining interests, however, selfishly

-determined to obtain the water rights on the

-Hardin Estate and that by hook or by crook.</p>

-

-<p>Major Dale’s health was not at this time good

-enough for him to look into these matters actively

-or to administer his dead friend’s estate. Therefore,

-it is told in “Dorothy Dale in the West,”

-how Aunt Winnie White, Dorothy’s two cousins,

-Ned and Nat, and herself with Tavia, go far

-from North Birchland and mingle with the miners,

-and other Western characters to be found on and

-about the Hardin property, including a cowboy

-named Lance Petterby, who shows unmistakable

-signs of being devoted to Tavia. Indeed, after

-the party return to the East, Lance writes to

-Tavia and the latter’s apparent predilection for

-the cowboy somewhat troubles Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span></p>

-

-<p>However, after their return to the East the

-chums went for a long visit to the home of a

-school friend, Jennie Hapgood, in Pennsylvania;

-and there Tavia seemed to have secured other—and

-less dangerous—interests. In “Dorothy

-Dale’s Strange Discovery,” the narrative immediately

-preceding this present tale, Dorothy displays

-her characteristic kindliness and acute reasoning

-powers in solving a problem that brings to

-Jennie Hapgood’s father the very best of good

-fortune.</p>

-

-<p>Naturally, the Hapgoods are devoted to Dorothy.

-Besides, Ned and Nat, her cousins, have

-visited Sunnyside and are vastly interested in Jennie.

-The girl chums now in New York City on

-this shopping tour, expect on returning to North

-Birchland to find Jennie Hapgood there for a

-promised visit.</p>

-

-<p>At the moment, however, that we find Dorothy

-and Tavia at the beginning of this chapter, neither

-girl is thinking much about Jennie Hapgood and

-her expected visit, or of anything else of minor

-importance.</p>

-

-<p>The flashily dressed woman who had run after

-Tavia down the aisle, again screamed her accusation

-at the amazed and troubled girl:</p>

-

-<p>“That’s my bag! It’s cram full of money, too.”</p>

-

-<p>There was no great crowd in the store, for New

-York ladies do not as a rule shop much before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>

-luncheon. Nevertheless, besides salespeople, there

-were plenty to hear the woman’s unkind accusation

-and enough curious shoppers to ring in immediately

-the two troubled girls and the angry

-woman.</p>

-

-<p>“Give me it!” exclaimed the latter, and

-snatched the bag out of Tavia’s hand. As this

-was done the catch slipped in some way and the

-handbag burst open.</p>

-

-<p>It was “cram full” of money. Bills of large

-denomination were rolled carelessly into a ball,

-with a handkerchief, a purse for change, several

-keys, and a vanity box. Some of these things

-tumbled out upon the floor and a young boy

-stooped and recovered them for her.</p>

-

-<p>“You’re a bad, bad girl!” declared the angry

-woman. “I hope they send you to jail.”</p>

-

-<p>“Why—why, I didn’t know it was yours,” murmured

-Tavia, quite upset.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! you thought somebody had forgotten it

-and you could get away with it,” declared the

-other, coarsely enough.</p>

-

-<p>“I beg your pardon, Madam,” Dorothy Dale

-here interposed. “It was a mistake on my friend’s

-part. And <em>you</em> are making another mistake, and

-a serious one.”</p>

-

-<p>She spoke in her most dignified tone, and although

-Dorothy was barely in her twentieth year

-she had the manner and stability of one much<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>

-older. She realized that poor Tavia was in danger

-of “going all to pieces” if the strain continued.

-And, too, her own anger at the woman’s harsh

-accusation naturally put the girl on her mettle.</p>

-

-<p>“Who are <em>you</em>, I’d like to know?” snapped the

-woman.</p>

-

-<p>“I am her friend,” said Dorothy Dale, quite

-composedly, “and I know her to be incapable of

-taking your bag save by chance. She laid her own

-down on the counter and took up yours——”</p>

-

-<p>“And where <em>is</em> mine?” suddenly wailed Tavia,

-on the verge of an hysterical outbreak. “My bag!

-My money——”</p>

-

-<p>“Hush!” whispered Dorothy in her friend’s

-pretty ear. “Don’t become a second harridan—like

-this creature.”</p>

-

-<p>The woman had led the way back to the silk

-counter. Tavia began to claw wildly among the

-broken bolts of silk that the clerk had not yet been

-able to return to the shelves. But she stopped at

-Dorothy’s command, and stood, pale and trembling.</p>

-

-<p>A floorwalker hastened forward. He evidently

-knew the noisy woman as a good customer of the

-store.</p>

-

-<p>“Mrs. Halbridge! What is the matter? Nothing

-serious, I hope?”</p>

-

-<p>“It would have been serious all right,” said

-the customer, in her high-pitched voice, “if I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>

-hadn’t just seen that girl by luck. Yes, by luck!

-There she was making for the door with this bag

-of mine—and there’s several hundred dollars in

-it, I’d have you know.”</p>

-

-<p>“I beg of you, Mrs. Halbridge,” said the floorwalker

-in a low tone, “for the sake of the store

-to make no trouble about it here. If you insist

-we will take the girl up to the superintendent’s

-office——”</p>

-

-<p>Here Dorothy, her anger rising interrupted:</p>

-

-<p>“You would better not. Mrs. Winthrop White,

-of North Birchland, is a charge customer of your

-store, and is probably just as well known to the

-heads of the firm as this—this person,” and she

-cast what Tavia—in another mood—would have

-called a “scathing glance” at Mrs. Halbridge.</p>

-

-<p>“I am Mrs. White’s niece and this is my particular

-friend. We are here alone on a shopping

-tour; but if our word is not quite as good as that

-of this—this person, we certainly shall buy elsewhere.”</p>

-

-<p>Tavia, obsessed with a single idea, murmured

-again:</p>

-

-<p>“But I haven’t got my bag! Somebody’s taken

-my bag! And all my money——”</p>

-

-<p>The floorwalker was glancing about, hoping for

-some avenue of escape from the unfortunate predicament,

-when a very tall, white-haired and soldierly

-looking man appeared in the aisle.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Mr. Schuman!” gasped the floorwalker.</p>

-

-<p>The man was one of the chief proprietors of

-the big store. He scowled slightly at the floorwalker

-when he saw the excited crowd, and then

-raised his eyebrows questioningly.</p>

-

-<p>“This is not the place for any lengthy discussion,

-Mr. Mink,” said Mr. Schuman, with just

-the proper touch of admonition in his tone.</p>

-

-<p>“I know! I know, Mr. Schuman!” said the

-floorwalker. “But this difficulty—it came so suddenly—Mrs.

-Halbridge, here, makes the complaint,”

-he finally blurted out, in an attempt to

-shoulder off some of the responsibility for the

-unfortunate situation.</p>

-

-<p>“Mrs. Halbridge?” The old gentleman bowed

-in a most courtly style. “One of our customers,

-I presume, Mr. Mink?”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, yes, indeed, Mr. Schuman,” the floorwalker

-hastened to say. “One of our <em>very</em> good

-customers. And I am so sorry that anything

-should have happened——”</p>

-

-<p>“But what has happened?” asked Mr. Schuman,

-sharply.</p>

-

-<p>“She—she accuses this—it’s all a mistake, I’m

-sure—this young lady of taking her bag,” stuttered

-Mr. Mink, pointing to Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“She ought to be arrested,” muttered the excited

-Mrs. Halbridge.</p>

-

-<p>“What? But this is a matter for the superintendent’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>

-office, Mr. Mink,” returned Mr. Schuman.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh!” stammered the floorwalker. “The bag

-is returned.”</p>

-

-<p>“And now,” put in Dorothy Dale, haughtily,

-and looking straight and unflinchingly into the

-keen eyes of Mr. Schuman, “my friend wishes to

-know what has become of <em>her</em> bag?”</p>

-

-<p>Mr. Schuman looked at the two girls with momentary

-hesitation.</p>

-

-<p>There was something compelling in the ladylike

-look and behaviour of these two girls—and

-especially in Dorothy’s speech. At the moment,

-too, a hand was laid tentatively upon Mr. Schuman’s

-arm.</p>

-

-<p>“Beg pardon, sir,” said the full, resonant voice

-that Dorothy had noted the day before. “I know

-the young ladies—Miss Dale and Miss Travers,

-respectively, Mr. Schuman.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Mr. Knapp—thank you!” said the old

-gentleman, turning to the tall young Westerner

-with whom he had been walking through the store

-at the moment he had spied the crowd. “You are

-a discourager of embarrassment.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! blessed ‘G. K.’!” whispered Tavia,

-weakly clinging to Dorothy’s arm.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III<br>

-<span class="fs80">TAVIA IN THE SHADE</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Mrs. Halbridge was slyly slipping through

-the crowd. She had suddenly lost all interest in

-the punishment of the girl she had accused of

-stealing her bag and her money.</p>

-

-<p>There was something so stern about Mr. Schuman

-that it was not strange that the excitable

-woman should fear further discussion of the matter.

-The old gentleman turned at once to Dorothy

-Dale and Tavia Travers.</p>

-

-<p>“This is an unfortunate and regrettable incident,

-young ladies,” he said suavely. “I assure

-you that such things as this seldom occur under

-our roof.”</p>

-

-<p>“I am confident it is a single occurrence,” Dorothy

-said, with conviction, “or my aunt, Mrs. Winthrop

-White, of North Birchland, would not have

-traded with you for so many years.”</p>

-

-<p>“One of our charge customers, Mr. Schuman,”

-whispered Mr. Mink, deciding it was quite time

-now to come to the assistance of the girls.</p>

-

-<p>“Regrettable! Regrettable!” repeated the old

-gentleman.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span></p>

-

-<p>Here Tavia again entered her wailing protest:</p>

-

-<p>“I did not mean to take her bag from the counter.

-But somebody has taken my bag.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!” exclaimed her friend, now

-startled into noticing what Tavia really said about

-it.</p>

-

-<p>“It’s gone!” wailed Tavia. “And all the money

-father sent me. Oh, dear, Doro Dale! I guess

-I <em>have</em> thrown my money away, and, as you prophesied,

-it isn’t as much fun as I thought it might

-be.”</p>

-

-<p>“My dear young lady,” hastily inquired Mr.

-Schuman, “have you really lost your purse?”</p>

-

-<p>“My bag,” sobbed Tavia. “I laid it down while

-I examined some silk. That clerk saw me,” she

-added, pointing to the man behind the counter.</p>

-

-<p>“It is true, Mr. Schuman,” the silk clerk admitted,

-blushing painfully. “But, of course, I did

-not notice what became of the lady’s bag.”</p>

-

-<p>“Nor did I see the other bag until I found it

-in my hand,” Tavia cried.</p>

-

-<p>The crowd was dissipated by this time, and all

-spoke in low voices. Outside the counter was a

-cash-girl, a big-eyed and big-eared little thing, who

-was evidently listening curiously to the conversation.

-Mr. Mink said sharply to her:</p>

-

-<p>“Number forty-seven! do you know anything

-about this bag business?”</p>

-

-<p>“No—no, sir!” gasped the frightened girl.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Then go on about your business,” the floorwalker

-said, waving her away in his most lordly

-manner.</p>

-

-<p>Meanwhile, Dorothy had obtained a word with

-the young Mr. Knapp who had done her and

-Tavia such a kindness.</p>

-

-<p>“Thank you a thousand times, Mr. Knapp,”

-she whispered, her eyes shining gratefully into his.

-“It might have been awkward for us without you.

-And,” she added, pointedly, “how fortunate you

-knew our names!”</p>

-

-<p>He was smiling broadly, but she saw the color

-rise in his bronzed cheeks at her last remark. She

-liked him all the better for blushing so boyishly.</p>

-

-<p>“Got me there, Miss Dale,” he blurted out. “I

-was curious, and I looked on the hotel register to

-see your names after the clerk brought it back

-from the parlor where he went to greet you yesterday.

-Hope you’ll forgive me for being so—er—rubbery.”</p>

-

-<p>“It proves to be a very fortunate curiosity on

-your part,” she told him, smiling.</p>

-

-<p>“Say!” he whispered, “your friend is all broken

-up over this. Has she lost much?”</p>

-

-<p>“All the money she had to pay for the clothes

-she wished to buy, I’m afraid,” sighed Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Well, let’s get her out of here—go somewhere

-to recuperate. There’s a good hotel across the

-street. I had my breakfast there before I began<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>

-to shop,” and he laughed. “A cup of tea will revive

-her, I’m sure.”</p>

-

-<p>“And you are suffering for a cup, too, I am

-sure,” Dorothy told him, her eyes betraying her

-amusement, at his rather awkward attempt to become

-friendly with Tavia and herself.</p>

-

-<p>But Dorothy approved of this young man.

-Aside from the assistance he had undoubtedly

-rendered her chum and herself, G. Knapp seemed

-to be far above the average young man.</p>

-

-<p>She turned now quickly to Tavia. Mr. Schuman

-was saying very kindly:</p>

-

-<p>“Search shall be made, my dear young lady.

-I am exceedingly sorry that such a thing should

-happen in our store. Of course, somebody picked

-up your bag before you inadvertently took the

-other lady’s. If I had my way I would have it a

-law that every shopper should have her purse riveted

-to her wrist with a chain.”</p>

-

-<p>It was no laughing matter, however, for poor

-Tavia. Her family was not in the easy circumstances

-that Dorothy’s was. Indeed, Mr. Travers

-was only fairly well-to-do, and Tavia’s mother

-was exceedingly extravagant. It was difficult

-sometimes for Tavia to obtain sufficient money

-to get along with.</p>

-

-<p>Besides, she was incautious herself. It was

-natural for her to be wasteful and thoughtless.

-But this was the first time in her experience that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>

-she had either wasted or lost such a sum of

-money.</p>

-

-<p>She wiped her eyes very quickly when Dorothy

-whispered to her that they were going out for a

-cup of tea with Mr. Knapp.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh dear, that perfectly splendid cowboy person!”

-groaned Tavia. “And I am in no mood to

-make an impression. Doro! you’ll have to do it

-all yourself this time. Do keep him in play until

-I recover from, this blow—if I ever do.”</p>

-

-<p>The young man, who led the way to the side

-door of the store which was opposite the hotel

-and restaurant of which he had spoken, heard

-the last few words and turned to ask seriously:</p>

-

-<p>“Surely Miss Travers did not lose <em>all</em> the money

-she had?”</p>

-

-<p>“All I had in the world!” wailed Tavia. “Except

-a lonely little five dollar bill.”</p>

-

-<p>“Where is that?” asked Dorothy, in surprise.</p>

-

-<p>“In the First National Bank,” Tavia said demurely.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, then, <em>that’s</em> safe enough,” said Mr.

-Knapp.</p>

-

-<p>“I didn’t know you had even that much in the

-bank,” remarked Dorothy, doubtfully. “The

-First National?”</p>

-

-<p>“Yep!” declared Tavia promptly, but nudged

-her friend. “Hush!” she hissed.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy did not understand, but she saw there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>

-was something queer about this statement. It was

-news to her that her chum ever thought of putting

-a penny on deposit in any bank. It was not

-like Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“How do you feel now, dear?” she asked the

-unfortunate girl, as they stepped out into the open

-air behind the broad-shouldered young Westerner,

-who held the door open for their passage.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, dear me!” sighed Tavia. “I’m forty degrees

-in the shade—and the temperature is still

-going down. What ever <em>shall</em> I do? I’ll be positively

-naked before Thanksgiving!”</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV<br>

-<span class="fs80">SOMETHING ABOUT “G. KNAPP”</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>But how can three people with all the revivifying

-flow of youth in their veins remain in the

-dumps, to use one of Tavia’s own illuminating expressions.

-Impossible! That tea at the Holyoke

-House, which began so miserably, scaled upward

-like the notes of a coloratura soprano until they

-were all three chatting and laughing like old

-friends. Even Tavia had to forget her miserable

-financial state.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy believed her first impression of G.

-Knapp had not been wrong. Indeed, he improved

-with every moment of increasing familiarity.</p>

-

-<p>In the first place, although his repartee was

-bright enough, and he was very jolly and frank,

-he had eyes and attention for somebody besides

-the chatterbox, Tavia. Perhaps right at first

-Tavia was a little under the mark, her mind naturally

-being upon her troubles; but with a strange

-young man before her the gay and sparkling Tavia

-would soon be inspired.</p>

-

-<p>However, for once she did not absorb all the

-more or less helpless male’s attention. G. Knapp<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>

-insisted upon dividing equally his glances, his

-speeches, and his smiles between the two young

-ladies.</p>

-

-<p>They discovered that his full and proper name

-was Garford Knapp—the first, of course, shortened

-to “Garry.” He was of the West, Western,

-without a doubt. He had secured a degree

-at a Western university, although both before and

-after his scholastic course he had, as Tavia in

-the beginning suggested, been a “cowboy person.”</p>

-

-<p>“And it looks as if I’d be punching cows and

-doing other chores for Bob Douglas, who owns

-the Four-Square ranch, for the rest of my natural,”

-was one thing Garry Knapp told the girls,

-and told them cheerfully. “I did count on falling

-heir to a piece of money when Uncle Terrence

-cashed in. But not—no more!”</p>

-

-<p>“Why is that?” Dorothy asked, seeing that the

-young man was serious despite his somewhat careless

-way of speaking.</p>

-

-<p>“The old codger is just like tinder,” laughed

-Garry. “Lights up if a spark gets to him. And

-I unfortunately and unintentionally applied the

-spark. He’s gone off to Alaska mad as a hatter

-and left me in the lurch. And we were chums

-when I was a kid and until I came back from college.”</p>

-

-<p>“You mean you have quarreled with your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>

-uncle?” Dorothy queried, with some seriousness.</p>

-

-<p>“Not at all, Miss Dale,” he declared, promptly.

-“The old fellow quarreled with me. They say it

-takes two to make a quarrel. That’s not always

-so. One can do it just as <em>e-easy</em>. At least, one

-like Uncle Terrence can. He had red hair when

-he was young, and he has a strong fighting Irish

-strain in him. The row began over nothing and

-ended with his lighting out between evening and

-sunrise and leaving me flat.</p>

-

-<p>“Of course, I broke into a job with Bob Douglas

-right away——”</p>

-

-<p>“Do you mean, Mr. Knapp, that your uncle

-went away and left you without money?” Dorothy

-asked.</p>

-

-<p>“Only what I chanced to have in my pocket,”

-Garry Knapp said cheerfully. “He’d always been

-mighty good to me. Put me through school and

-all that. All I have is a piece of land—and a

-good big piece—outside of Desert City; but it

-isn’t worth much. Cattle raising is petering out

-in that region. Last year the mouth and hoof disease

-just about ruined the man that grazed my

-land. His cattle died like flies.</p>

-

-<p>“Then, the land was badly grazed by sheepmen

-for years. Sheep about poison land for anything

-else to live on,” he added, with a cattleman’s

-usual disgust at the thought of “mutton on

-the hoof.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p>

-

-<p>“One thing I’ve come East for, Miss Dale, is

-to sell that land. Got a sort of tentative offer by

-mail. Bob wanted a lot of stuff for the ranch and

-for his family and couldn’t come himself. So I

-combined his business and mine and hope to make

-a sale of the land my father left me before I go

-back.</p>

-

-<p>“Then, with that nest-egg, I’ll try to break into

-some game that will offer a man-sized profit,” and

-Garry Knapp laughed again in his mellow, whole-souled

-way.</p>

-

-<p>“Isn’t he just a <em>dear</em>?” whispered Tavia as

-Garry turned to speak to the waiter. “Don’t you

-love to hear him talk?”</p>

-

-<p>“And have you never heard from your old

-uncle who went away and left you?” Dorothy

-asked.</p>

-

-<p>“Not a word. He’s too mad to speak, let

-alone write,” and a cloud for a moment crossed

-the open, handsome face of the Westerner. “But

-I know where he is, and every once in a while

-somebody writes me telling me Uncle Terry is all

-right.”</p>

-

-<p>“But, an old man, away up there in

-Alaska——?”</p>

-

-<p>“Bless you, Miss Dale,” chuckled Garry

-Knapp. “That dear old codger has been knocking

-about in rough country all his days. He’s

-always been a miner. Prospected pretty well all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>

-over our West. He’s made, and then bunted

-away, big fortunes sometimes.</p>

-

-<p>“He always has a stake laid down somewhere.

-Never gets real poor, and never went hungry in

-his life—unless he chanced to run out of grub on

-some prospecting tour, or his gun was broken and

-he couldn’t shoot a jackrabbit for a stew.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Uncle Terrence isn’t at all the sort of

-hampered prospector you read about in the books.

-He doesn’t go mooning around, expecting to

-‘strike it rich’ and running the risk of leaving his

-bones in the desert.</p>

-

-<p>“No, Uncle Terry is likely to make another

-fortune before he dies——”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! Then maybe you will be rich!” cried

-Tavia, breaking in.</p>

-

-<p>“No.” Garry shook his head with a quizzical

-smile on his lips and in his eyes. “No. He vowed

-I should never see the color of his money. First,

-he said, he’d leave it to found a home for indignant

-rattlesnakes. And he’d surely have plenty

-of inmates, for rattlers seem always to be indignant,”

-he added with a chuckle.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy wanted awfully to ask him why he

-had quarreled with his uncle—or <em>vice versa</em>; but

-that would have been too personal upon first meeting.

-She liked the young man more and more;

-and in spite of Tavia’s loss they parted at the end

-of the hour in great good spirits.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p>

-

-<p>“I’m going to be just as busy as I can be this

-afternoon,” Garry Knapp announced, as they went

-out. “But I shall get back to the hotel to supper.

-I wasn’t in last night when you ladies were

-down. May I eat at your table?” and his eyes

-squinted up again in that droll way Dorothy had

-come to look for.</p>

-

-<p>“How do you know we ate in the hotel last

-evening?” demanded Tavia, promptly.</p>

-

-<p>“Asked the head waiter,” replied Garry Knapp,

-unabashed.</p>

-

-<p>“If you are so much interested in whether we

-take proper nourishment or not, you had better

-join us at dinner,” Dorothy said, laughing.</p>

-

-<p>“It’s a bet!” declared the young Westerner,

-and lifting his broad-brimmed hat he left the girls

-upon the sidewalk outside the restaurant.</p>

-

-<p>“Isn’t he the very nicest—but, oh, Doro! what

-shall I do?” exclaimed the miserable Tavia. “All

-my money——”</p>

-

-<p>“Let’s go back and see if it’s been found.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, not a chance!” gasped Tavia. “That horrid

-woman——”</p>

-

-<p>“I scarcely believe that we can lay it to Mrs.

-Halbridge’s door in any particular,” said Dorothy,

-gravely. “You should not have left your bag

-on the counter.”</p>

-

-<p>“She laid hers there! And, oh, Doro! it was

-full of money,” sighed her friend.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Probably your bag had been taken before you

-even touched hers.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, dear! why did it have to happen to <em>me</em>—and

-at just this time. When I need things so much.

-Not a thing to wear! And it’s going to be a cold,

-cold winter, too!”</p>

-

-<p>Tavia would joke “if the heavens fell”—that

-was her nature. But that she was seriously embarrassed

-for funds Dorothy Dale knew right

-well.</p>

-

-<p>“If it had only been your bag that was lost,”

-wailed Tavia, “you would telegraph to Aunt Winnie

-and get more money!”</p>

-

-<p>“And I shall do that in this case,” said her

-friend, placidly.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! no you won’t!” cried Tavia, suddenly. “I

-will not take another cent from your Aunt Winnie

-White—who’s the most blessed, generous,

-free, open-handed person who ever——”</p>

-

-<p>“Goodness! no further attributes?” laughed

-Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“No, Doro,” Tavia said, suddenly serious. “I

-have done this thing myself. It is <em>awful</em>. Poor

-old daddy earns his money too hardly for <em>me</em> to

-throw it away. I should know better. I should

-have learned caution and economy by this time

-with you, my dear, as an example ever before me.</p>

-

-<p>“Poor mother wastes money because she

-doesn’t <em>know</em>. I have had every advantage of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>

-bright and shining example,” and she pinched

-Dorothy’s arm as they entered the big store

-again. “If I have lost my money, I’ve lost it, and

-that’s the end of it. No new clothes for little

-Tavia—and serves her right!” she finished, bitterly.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy well knew that this was a tragic happening

-for her friend. Generously she would have

-sent for more money, or divided her own store

-with Tavia. But she knew her chum to be in

-earnest, and she approved.</p>

-

-<p>It was not as though Tavia had nothing to

-wear. She had a full and complete wardrobe, only

-it would be no longer up to date. And she would

-have to curtail much of the fun the girls had

-looked forward to on this, their first trip, unchaperoned,

-to the great city.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V<br>

-<span class="fs80">DOROTHY IS DISTURBED</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Nothing, of course, had been seen or heard

-of Tavia’s bag. Mr. Schuman himself had made

-the investigation, and he came to the girls personally

-to tell them how extremely sorry he was.

-But being sorry did not help.</p>

-

-<p>“I’m done for!” groaned Tavia, as they returned

-to their rooms at the hotel just before

-luncheon. “I can’t even buy a stick of peppermint

-candy to send to the kids at Dalton.”</p>

-

-<p>“How about that five dollars in the bank?”

-asked Dorothy, suddenly remembering Tavia’s

-previous and most surprising statement. “And

-how did you ever come to have a bank account?

-Is it in the First National of Dalton?”</p>

-

-<p>There was a laugh from Tavia, a sudden flash

-of lingerie and the display of a silk stocking.

-Then she held out to her chum a neatly folded

-banknote wrapped in tissue paper.</p>

-<br>

-

-<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p040" style="max-width: 40.75em;">

-  <img class="w100" src="images/p040.jpg" alt="">

-  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">THE TWO GIRLS STEPPED OUT OF THE ELEVATOR AND FOUND

-GARRY KNAPP WAITING FOR THEM.</p>

-

-<div>

- <p class="fs80" style="float: left;"><em>Dorothy Dale’s Engagement</em></p>

- <p class="fs80" style="float: right;"><em>Page <a href="#Page_41">41</a></em></p>

-</div>

-<div style="clear:both;"></div>

-</figcaption>

-</figure>

-<br>

-

-<p>“First National Bank of Womankind,” she

-cried gaily. “I always carry it there in case of

-accident—being run over, robbed, or an earthquake.

-But that five dollars is all I own. Oh,

-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>dear! I wish I had stuffed the whole roll into

-my stocking.”</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t, Tavia! it’s not ladylike.”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t care. Pockets are out of style again,”

-pouted her friend. “And, anyway, you must admit

-that <em>this</em> was a stroke of genius, for I would

-otherwise be without a penny.”</p>

-

-<p>However, Tavia was too kind-hearted, as well

-as light-hearted, to allow her loss to cloud the day

-for Dorothy. She was just as enthusiastic in the

-afternoon in helping her friend select the goods

-she wished to buy as though all the “pretties” were

-for herself.</p>

-

-<p>They came home toward dusk, tired enough,

-and lay down for an hour—“relaxing as per instructions

-of Lovely Lucy Larriper, the afternoon

-newspaper statistician,” Tavia said.</p>

-

-<p>“Why ‘statistician’?” asked Dorothy, wonderingly.</p>

-

-<p>“Why! isn’t she a ‘figger’ expert?” laughed

-Tavia. “Now relax!”</p>

-

-<p>A brisk bath followed and then, at seven, the

-two girls stepped out of the elevator into the

-lobby of the hotel and found Garry Knapp waiting

-for them. He was likewise well tubbed and

-scrubbed, but he did not conform to city custom

-and wear evening dress. Indeed, Dorothy could

-not imagine him in the black and severe habiliments

-of society.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Not that his figure would not carry them

-well,” she thought. “But he would somehow

-seem out of place. Some of his breeziness and—and—yes!—his

-<em>nice</em> kind of ‘freshness’ would be

-gone. That gray business suit becomes him and

-so does his hat.”</p>

-

-<p>But, of course, the hat was not in evidence at

-present. The captain of the waiters had evidently

-expected this party, for he beckoned them to a

-retired table the moment the trio entered the long

-dining-room.</p>

-

-<p>“How cozy!” exclaimed Dorothy. “You must

-have what they call a ‘pull’ with people in authority,

-Mr. Knapp.”</p>

-

-<p>“How’s that?” he asked.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, you can get the best table in the dining-room,

-and this morning you rescued us from

-trouble through your acquaintanceship with Mr.

-Schuman.”</p>

-

-<p>“The influence of the Almighty Dollar,” said

-Garry Knapp, briefly. “This morning I had just

-spent several hundred dollars of Bob Douglass’

-good money in that store. And here at this

-hotel Bob’s name is as good as a gold certificate.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, money! money!” groaned Tavia, “what

-crimes are committed in thy name—and likewise,

-what benefits achieved! I wonder what the person

-who stole it is doing with <em>my</em> money?”</p>

-

-<p>“Perhaps it was somebody who needed it more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>

-than you do,” said Dorothy, rather quizzically.</p>

-

-<p>“Can’t be such a person. And needy people

-seldom find money. Besides, needy folk are always

-honest—in the books. I’m honest myself,

-and heaven knows I’m needy!”</p>

-

-<p>“Was it truly all the money you had with you?”

-asked Garry Knapp, commiseratingly.</p>

-

-<p>“Honest and true, black and blue, lay me down

-and cut me in two!” chanted Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“All but the five dollars in the bank,” Dorothy

-said demurely, but with dancing eyes.</p>

-

-<p>And for once Tavia actually blushed and was

-silenced—for a moment. Garry drawled:</p>

-

-<p>“I wonder who did get your bag, Miss Travers?

-Of course, there are always light-fingered

-people hanging about a store like that.”</p>

-

-<p>“And the money will be put to no good use,”

-declared the loser, dejectedly. “If the person finding

-it would only found a hospital—or something—with

-it, I’d feel a lot better. But I know just

-what will happen.”</p>

-

-<p>“What?” asked Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“The person who took my bag will go and

-blow themselves to a fancy dinner—oh! better

-even than <em>this</em> one. I only hope he or she will eat

-so much that they will be sick——”</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t! don’t!” begged Dorothy, stopping her

-ears. “You are dreadfully mixed in your grammar.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Do you wonder? After having been robbed so

-ruthlessly?”</p>

-

-<p>“But, certainly, dear,” cooed Dorothy, “your

-knowledge of grammar was not in your bag, too?”</p>

-

-<p>Thus they joked over Tavia’s tragedy; but all

-the time Dorothy’s agile mind was working hard

-to scheme out a way to help her chum over this

-very, very hard place.</p>

-

-<p>Just at this time, however, she had to give some

-thought to Garry Knapp. He took out three slips

-of pasteboard toward the end of the very pleasant

-meal and flipped them upon the cloth.</p>

-

-<p>“I took a chance,” he said, in his boyish way.

-“There’s a good show down the street—kill a little

-time. Vaudeville and pictures. Good seats.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, let’s!” cried Tavia, clasping her hands.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy knew that the theatre in question was

-respectable enough, although the entertainment

-was not of the Broadway class. But she knew,

-too, that this young man from the West probably

-could not afford to pay two dollars or more for

-a seat for an evening’s pleasure.</p>

-

-<p>“Of course we’ll be delighted to go. And we’d

-better go at once,” Dorothy said, without hesitation.

-“I’m ready. Are you, Tavia?”</p>

-

-<p>“You dear!” whispered Tavia, squeezing her

-arm as they followed Garry Knapp from the dining-room.

-“I never before knew you to be so

-amenable where a young man was concerned.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Is that so?” drawled Dorothy, but hid her

-face from her friend’s sharp eyes.</p>

-

-<p>It was late, but a fine, bright, dry evening when

-the trio came out of the theatre and walked slowly

-toward their hotel. On the block in the middle

-of which the Fanuel was situated there were but

-few pedestrians. As they approached the main

-entrance to the hotel a girl came slowly toward

-them, peering, it seemed, sharply into their faces.</p>

-

-<p>She was rather shabbily dressed, but was not

-at all an unattractive looking girl. Dorothy noticed

-that her passing glance was for Garry Knapp,

-not for herself or for Tavia. The young man

-had half dropped behind as they approached the

-hotel entrance and was saying:</p>

-

-<p>“I think I’ll take a brisk walk for a bit, having

-seen you ladies home after a very charming evening.

-I feel kind of shut in after that theatre, and

-want to expand my lungs.”</p>

-

-<p>“Good-night, then, Mr. Knapp,” Dorothy said

-lightly. “And thank you for a pleasant evening.”</p>

-

-<p>“Ditto!” Tavia said, hiding a little yawn behind

-her gloved fingers.</p>

-

-<p>The girls stepped toward the open door of the

-hotel. Garry Knapp wheeled and started back

-the way they had come. Tavia clutched her

-chum’s arm with excitement.</p>

-

-<p>“Did you see that girl?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Why—yes,” Dorothy said wonderingly.</p>

-

-<p>“Look back! Quick!”</p>

-

-<p>Impelled by her chum’s tone, Dorothy turned

-and looked up the street. Garry Knapp had overtaken

-the girl. The girl looked sidewise at him—they

-could see her turn her head—and then she

-evidently spoke. Garry dropped into slow step

-with her, and they strolled along, talking eagerly.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, he must know her!” gasped Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Why didn’t he introduce her then?” Dorothy

-said shortly. “It serves me right.”</p>

-

-<p>“What serves you right?”</p>

-

-<p>“For allowing you, as well as myself, to become

-so familiar with a strange man.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh!” murmured Tavia, slowly. “It’s not so

-bad as all <em>that</em>. You’re making a mountain out

-of a molehill.”</p>

-

-<p>But Dorothy would not listen.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI<br>

-<span class="fs80">SOMETHING OF A MYSTERY</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Tavia slept her usually sweet, sound sleep that

-night, despite the strange surroundings of the hotel

-and the happenings of a busy day; but Dorothy

-lay for a long time, unable to close her eyes.</p>

-

-<p>In the morning, however, she was as deep in

-slumber as ever her chum was when a knock came

-on the door of their anteroom. Both girls sat up

-and said in chorus:</p>

-

-<p>“Who’s there?”</p>

-

-<p>“It’s jes’ me, Missy,” said the soft voice of the

-colored maid. “Did one o’ youse young ladies

-lost somethin’?”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, mercy me, yes!” shouted Tavia, jumping

-completely out of her bed and running toward the

-door.</p>

-

-<p>“Nonsense, Tavia!” admonished Dorothy, likewise

-hopping out of bed. “She can’t have found

-your money.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! what is it, please?” asked Tavia, opening

-the door just a trifle.</p>

-

-<p>“Has you lost somethin’?” repeated the colored

-girl.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span></p>

-

-<p>“I lost my handbag in a store yesterday,” said

-Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Das it, Missy,” chuckled the maid. “De clark,

-he axed me to ax yo’ ’bout it. It’s done come

-back.”</p>

-

-<p>“What’s come back?” demanded Dorothy, likewise

-appearing at the door and in the same dishabille

-as her friend.</p>

-

-<p>“De bag. De clark tol’ me to tell yo’ ladies dat

-all de money is safe in it, too. Now yo’ kin go

-back to sleep again. He’s done got de bag in he’s

-safe;” and the girl went away chuckling.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia fell up against the door and stared at

-Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Doro! Can it be?” she panted.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia! What luck!”</p>

-

-<p>“There’s the telephone! I’m going to call up

-the office,” and Tavia darted for the instrument

-on the wall.</p>

-

-<p>But there was something the matter with the

-wires; that was why the clerk had sent the maid

-to the room.</p>

-

-<p>“Then I’m going to dress and go right down

-and see about it,” Tavia said.</p>

-

-<p>“But it’s only six o’clock,” yawned Dorothy.

-“The maid was right. We should go back to

-bed.”</p>

-

-<p>Her friend scorned the suggestion and she

-fairly “hopped” into her clothes.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Be sure and powder your nose, dear,”

-laughed Dorothy. “But I <em>am</em> glad for you,

-Tavia.”</p>

-

-<p>“Bother my nose!” responded her friend, running

-out of her room and into the corridor.</p>

-

-<p>She whisked back again before Dorothy was

-more than half dressed with the precious bag in

-her hands.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, it is! it is!” she cried, whirling about

-Dorothy’s room and her own and the bath and

-anteroom, in a dervish dance of joy. “Doro!

-Doro! I’m saved!”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t know whether you are saved or not,

-dear. But you plainly are delighted.”</p>

-

-<p>“Every penny safe.”</p>

-

-<p>“Are you sure?”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, yes. I counted. I had to sign a receipt

-for the clerk, too. He is the <em>dearest</em> man.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well, dear, I hope this will be a lesson to

-you,” Dorothy said.</p>

-

-<p>“It will be!” declared the excited Tavia. “Do

-you know what I am going to do?”</p>

-

-<p>“Spend your money more recklessly than ever,

-I suppose,” sighed her friend.</p>

-

-<p>“Say! seems to me you’re awfully glum this

-morning. You’re not nice about my good luck—not

-a bit,” and Tavia stared at her in puzzlement.</p>

-

-<p>“Of course I’m delighted that you should recover<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>

-your bag,” Dorothy hastened to say. “How

-did it come back?”</p>

-

-<p>“Why, the clerk gave it to me, I tell you.”</p>

-

-<p>“What clerk? The one at the silk counter?”</p>

-

-<p>“Goodness! The hotel clerk downstairs.”</p>

-

-<p>“But how did <em>he</em> come by it?”</p>

-

-<p>Tavia slowly sat down and blinked. “Why—why,”

-she said, “I didn’t even think to ask him.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well, Tavia!” exclaimed Dorothy, rather

-aghast at this admission of her flyaway friend.</p>

-

-<p>“I do seem to have been awfully thoughtless

-again,” admitted Tavia, slowly. “I thanked him—the

-clerk, I mean! Oh, I did! I could have

-kissed him!”</p>

-

-<p>“Tavia!”</p>

-

-<p>“I could; but I didn’t,” said the wicked Tavia,

-her eyes sparkling once more. “But I never

-thought to ask how he came by it. Maybe some

-poor person found it and should be rewarded.

-Should I give a tithe of it, Doro, as a reward, as

-we give a tithe to the church? Let’s see! I had

-just eighty-nine dollars and thirty-seven cents, and

-an old copper penny for a pocket-piece. One-tenth

-of that would be——”</p>

-

-<p>“Do be sensible!” exclaimed Dorothy, rather

-tartly for her. “You might at least have asked

-how the bag was sent here—whether by the store

-itself, or by some employee, or brought by some

-outside person.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Goodness! if it were your money would you

-have been so curious?” demanded Tavia. “I

-don’t believe it. You would have been just as

-excited as I was.”</p>

-

-<p>“Perhaps,” admitted Dorothy, after a moment.

-“Anyway, I’m glad you have it back,

-dear.”</p>

-

-<p>“And do you know what I am going to do? I

-am going to take that old man’s advice.”</p>

-

-<p>“What old man, Tavia?”</p>

-

-<p>“That Mr. Schuman—the head of the big

-store. I am going to go out right after breakfast

-and buy me a dog chain and chain that bag to my

-wrist.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy laughed at this—yet she did not laugh

-happily. There was something wrong with her,

-and as soon as Tavia began to quiet down a bit

-she noticed it again.</p>

-

-<p>“Doro,” she exclaimed, “I do believe something

-has happened to you!”</p>

-

-<p>“What something?”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t know. But you are not—not happy.

-What is it?”</p>

-

-<p>“Hungry,” said Dorothy, shortly. “Do stop

-primping now and come on down to breakfast.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well, you must be savagely hungry then, if it

-makes you like this,” grumbled Tavia. “And it

-is an hour before our usual breakfast time.”</p>

-

-<p>They went down in the elevator to the lower<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span>

-floor, Tavia carrying the precious bag. She would

-not trust it out of her sight again, she said, as

-long as a penny was left in it.</p>

-

-<p>She attempted to go over to the clerk’s desk at

-the far side of the lobby to ask for the details

-of the recovery of her bag; but there were several

-men at the desk and Dorothy stopped her.</p>

-

-<p>“Wait until he is more at leisure,” she advised

-Tavia. “And until there are not so many men

-about.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, nonsense!” ejaculated Tavia, but she

-turned to follow Dorothy. Then she added:

-“Ah, there is one you won’t mind speaking

-to——”</p>

-

-<p>“Where?” cried Dorothy, stopping instantly.</p>

-

-<p>“Going into the dining-room,” said Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy then saw the gray back of Garford

-Knapp ahead of them. She turned swiftly for the

-exit of the hotel.</p>

-

-<p>“Come!” she said, “let’s get a breath of air before

-breakfast. It—it will give us an appetite!”

-And she fairly dragged Tavia to the sidewalk.</p>

-

-<p>“Well, I declare to goodness!” volleyed Tavia,

-staring at her. “And just now you were as hungry

-as a bear. And you still seem to have a bear’s

-nature. How rough! Don’t you want to see that

-young man?”</p>

-

-<p>“Never!” snapped Dorothy, and started

-straight along toward the Hudson River.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span></p>

-

-<p>Tavia was for the moment silenced. But after

-a bit she asked slyly:</p>

-

-<p>“You’re not really going to walk clear home,

-are you, dear? North Birchland is a long, long

-walk—and the river intervenes.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy had to laugh. But her face almost immediately

-fell into very serious lines. Tavia, for

-once, considered her chum’s feelings. She said

-nothing regarding Garry Knapp.</p>

-

-<p>“Well,” she murmured. “<em>I</em> need no appetite—no

-more than I have. Aren’t you going to eat at

-all this morning, Dorothy?”</p>

-

-<p>“Here is a restaurant; let us go in,” said her

-friend promptly.</p>

-

-<p>They did so, and Dorothy lingered over the

-meal (which was nowhere as good as that they

-would have secured at the Fanuel) until she was

-positive that Mr. Knapp must have finished his

-own breakfast and left the hotel.</p>

-

-<p>In fact, they saw him run out and catch a car

-in front of the hotel entrance while they were still

-some rods from the door. Dorothy at once became

-brisker of movement, hurrying Tavia along.</p>

-

-<p>“We must really shop to-day,” she said with

-decision. “Not merely look and window-shop.”</p>

-

-<p>“Surely,” agreed Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“And we’ll not come back to luncheon—it takes

-too much time,” Dorothy went on, as they hurried

-into the elevator. “Perhaps we can get tickets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>

-for that nice play Ned and Nat saw when they

-were down here last time. Then, if we do, we will

-stay uptown for dinner——”</p>

-

-<p>“Mercy! All that time in the same clothes and

-without the prescribed ‘relax’?” groaned Tavia.

-“We’ll look as though we had been ground between

-the upper and the nether millstone.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well——”</p>

-

-<p>They had reached their rooms. Tavia turned

-upon her and suddenly seized Dorothy by both

-shoulders, looking accusingly into her friend’s

-eyes.</p>

-

-<p>“I know what you are up to. You are running

-away from that man.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! What——”</p>

-

-<p>“Never mind trying to dodge the issue,” said

-Tavia, sternly. “That Garry Knapp. And it

-seems he must be a pretty nappy sort, sure enough.

-He probably knew that girl and was ashamed to

-have us see him speaking to one so shabby. Now!

-what do you care what he does?”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t,” denied Dorothy, hotly. “I’m only

-ashamed that we have been seen with him. And

-it is my fault.”</p>

-

-<p>“I’d like to know why?”</p>

-

-<p>“It was unnecessary for us to have become so

-friendly with him just because he did us a favor.”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes—but——”</p>

-

-<p>“It was I. I did it,” said Dorothy, almost in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>

-tears. “We should never allow ourselves to become

-acquainted with strangers in any such way.

-Now you see what it means, Tavia. It is not your

-fault—it is mine. But it should teach you a lesson

-as well as me.”</p>

-

-<p>“Goodness!” said the startled Tavia. “I don’t

-see that it is anything very terrible. The fellow

-is really nothing to us.”</p>

-

-<p>“But people having seen us with him—and then

-seeing him with that common-acting girl——”</p>

-

-<p>“Pooh! what do we care?” repeated Tavia.

-“Garry Knapp is nothing to us, and never would

-be.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy said not another word, but turned

-quickly away from her friend. She was very

-quiet while they made ready for their shopping

-trip, and Tavia could not arouse her.</p>

-

-<p>Careless and unobservant as Tavia was, anything

-seriously the matter with her chum always

-influenced her. She gradually “simmered down”

-herself, and when they started forth from their

-rooms both girls were morose.</p>

-

-<p>As they passed through the lobby a bellhop was

-called to the desk, and then he charged after the

-two girls.</p>

-

-<p>“Please, Miss! Which is Miss Dale?” he

-asked, looking at the letter in his hand.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy held out her hand and took it. It was

-written on the hotel stationery, and the handwriting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>

-was strange to her. She tore it open at once.

-She read the line or two of the note, and then

-stopped, stunned.</p>

-

-<p>“What is it?” asked Tavia, wonderingly.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy handed her the note. It was signed

-“G. Knapp” and read as follows:</p>

-<br>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p class="no-indent">

-“Dear Miss Dale:<br>

-</p>

-

-<p>“Did your friend get her bag and money all

-right?”</p>

-</div>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII<br>

-<span class="fs80">GARRY SEES A WALL AHEAD</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>“Why, what under the sun! How did <em>he</em> come

-to know about it?” demanded Tavia. “Goodness!”</p>

-

-<p>“He—he maybe—had something to do with

-recovering it for you,” Dorothy said faintly. Yet

-in her heart she knew that it was hope that suggested

-the idea, not reason.</p>

-

-<p>“Well, I am going to find out right now,” declared

-Tavia Travers, and she marched back to

-the clerk’s desk before Dorothy could object,

-had she desired to.</p>

-

-<p>“This note to my friend is from Mr. Knapp,

-who is stopping here,” Tavia said to the young

-man behind the counter. “Did he have anything

-to do with getting back my bag?”</p>

-

-<p>“I know nothing about your bag, Miss,” said

-the clerk. “I was not on duty, I presume, when

-it was handed in. You are Miss——”</p>

-

-<p>“Travers.”</p>

-

-<p>The clerk went to the safe and found a memorandum,

-which he read and then returned to the

-desk.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Your supposition is correct, Miss Travers.

-Mr. Knapp handed in the handbag and took a

-receipt for it.”</p>

-

-<p>“When did he do that?” asked Tavia, quickly,

-almost overpowered with amazement.</p>

-

-<p>“Some time during the night. Before I came

-on duty at seven o’clock.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well! isn’t that the strangest thing?” Tavia

-said to Dorothy, when she rejoined her friend at

-the hotel entrance after thanking the clerk.</p>

-

-<p>“How ever could he have got it in the night?”

-murmured Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Say! he’s all right—Garry Knapp is!” Tavia

-cried, shaking the bag to which she now clung so

-tightly, and almost on the verge of doing a few

-“steps of delight” on the public thoroughfare. “I

-could hug him!”</p>

-

-<p>“It—it is very strange,” murmured Dorothy,

-for she was still very much disturbed in her mind.</p>

-

-<p>“It’s particularly jolly,” said Tavia. “And I

-am going to—well, thank him, at least,” as she

-saw her friend start and glance at her admonishingly,

-“just the very first chance I get. But I

-ought to hug him! He deserves <em>some</em> reward.

-You said yourself that perhaps I should

-reward the finder.”</p>

-

-<p>“Mr. Knapp could not possibly have been the

-finder. The bag was merely returned through

-him.” Dorothy spoke positively.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Don’t care. I must be grateful to somebody,”

-wailed Tavia. “Don’t nip my finer feelings

-in the bud. Your name should be Frost—Mademoiselle

-Jacquesette Frost! You’re always

-nipping me.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy, however, remained grave. She

-plainly saw that this incident foretold complications.

-She had made up her mind that she and

-Tavia would have nothing more to do with the

-Westerner, Garry Knapp; and now her friend

-would insist on thanking him—of course, she must

-if only for politeness’ sake—and any further intercourse

-with Mr. Knapp would make the situation

-all the more difficult.</p>

-

-<p>She wished with all her heart that their shopping

-was over, and then she could insist upon taking

-the train immediately out of New York, even

-if she had to sink to the abhorred subterfuge of

-playing ill, and so frightening Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>She wished they might move to some other

-hotel; but if they did that an explanation must

-be made to Aunt Winnie as well as to Tavia. It

-seemed to Dorothy that she blushed all over—fairly

-<em>burned</em>—whenever she thought of discussing

-her feelings regarding Garry Knapp.</p>

-

-<p>Never before in her experience had Dorothy

-Dale been so quickly and so favorably impressed

-by a man. Tavia had joked about it, but she by

-no means understood how deeply Dorothy felt.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span>

-And Dorothy would have been mortified to the

-quick had she been obliged to tell even her dearest

-chum the truth.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy’s home training had been most delicate.

-Of course, in the boarding school she and

-Tavia had attended there were many sorts of

-girls; but all were from good families, and Mrs.

-Pangborn, the preceptress of Glenwood, had had

-a strict oversight over her girls’ moral growth as

-well as over their education.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy’s own cousins, Ned and Nat White,

-though collegians, and of what Tavia called “the

-harum-scarum type” like herself, were clean, upright

-fellows and possessed no low ideas or tastes.

-It seemed to Dorothy for a man to make the acquaintance

-of a strange girl on the street and talk

-with her as Garry Knapp seemed to have done,

-savored of a very coarse mind, indeed.</p>

-

-<p>And all the more did she criticise his action because

-he had taken advantage of the situation of

-herself and her friend and “picked acquaintance”

-in somewhat the same fashion with them on their

-entrance into New York.</p>

-

-<p>He was “that kind.” He went about making

-the acquaintance of every girl he saw who would

-give him a chance to speak to her! That is the

-way it looked to Dorothy in her present mood.</p>

-

-<p>She gave Garry Knapp credit for being a Westerner

-and being not as conservative as Eastern<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>

-folk. She knew that people in the West were

-freer and more easily to become acquainted with

-than Eastern people. But she had set that girl

-down as a common flirt, and she believed no gentleman

-would so easily and naturally fall into conversation

-with her as Garry Knapp had, unless he

-were quite used to making such acquaintances.</p>

-

-<p>It shamed Dorothy, too, to think that the young

-man should go straight from her and Tavia to the

-girl.</p>

-

-<p>That was the thought that made the keenest

-wound in Dorothy Dale’s mind.</p>

-

-<p>They shopped “furiously,” as Tavia declared,

-all the morning, only resting while they ate a bite

-of luncheon in one of the big stores, and then went

-at it again immediately afterward.</p>

-

-<p>“The boys talk about ‘bucking the line’ about

-this time of year—football slang, you know,”

-sighed Tavia; “but believe me! this is some ‘bucking.’

-I never shopped so fast and furiously in all

-my life. Dorothy, you actually act as though you

-wanted to get it all over with and go home. And

-we can stay a week if we like. We’re having no

-fun at all.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy would not answer. She wished they

-could go home. It seemed to her as though New

-York City was not big enough in which to hide

-away from Garry Knapp.</p>

-

-<p>They could not secure seats—not those they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>

-wanted—for the play Ned and Nat had told them

-to see, for that evening; and Tavia insisted upon

-going back to the hotel.</p>

-

-<p>“I am done up,” she announced. “I am a dish-rag.

-I am a disgrace to look at, and I feel that

-if I do not follow Lovely Lucy Larriper’s advice

-and relax, I may be injured for life. Come, Dorothy,

-we must go back to our rooms and lie down,

-or I shall lie right down here in the gutter and do

-my relaxing.”</p>

-

-<p>They returned to the hotel, and Dorothy almost

-ran through the lobby to the elevator, she

-was so afraid that Garry Knapp would be waiting

-there. She felt that he would be watching for

-them. The note he had written her that morning

-proved that he was determined to keep up

-their acquaintanceship if she gave him the slightest

-opening.</p>

-

-<p>“And I’ll never let him—never!” she told herself

-angrily.</p>

-

-<p>“Goodness! how can you hurry so?” plaintively

-panted Tavia, as she sank into the cushioned seat

-in the elevator.</p>

-

-<p>All the time they were resting, Dorothy was

-thinking of Garry. He would surely be downstairs

-at dinner time, waiting his chance to approach

-them. She had a dozen ideas as to how

-she would treat him—and none of them seemed

-good ideas.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p>

-

-<p>She was tempted to write him a note in answer

-to the line he had left with the clerk for her that

-morning, warning him never to speak to her friend

-or herself again. But then, how could she do so

-bold a thing?</p>

-

-<p>Tavia got up at last and began to move about

-her room. “Aren’t you going to get up ever again,

-Doro?” she asked. “Doesn’t the inner man call

-for sustenance? Or even the outer man? I’m just

-crazy to see Garry Knapp and ask him how he

-came by my bag.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia! I wish you wouldn’t,” groaned

-Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Wish I wouldn’t what?” demanded her friend,

-coming to her open door with a hairbrush in her

-hand and wielding it calmly.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy “bit off” what she had intended to

-say. She could not bring herself to tell Tavia all

-that was in her mind. She fell back upon that

-“white fib” that seems first in the feminine mind

-when trouble portends:</p>

-

-<p>“I’ve <em>such</em> a headache!”</p>

-

-<p>“Poor dear!” cried Tavia. “I should think

-you had. You ate scarcely any luncheon——”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, don’t mention eating!” begged Dorothy,

-and she really found she did have a slight headache

-now that she had said so.</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t you want your dinner?” cried Tavia,

-in horror.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span></p>

-

-<p>“No, dear. Just let me lie here. You—you

-go down and eat. Perhaps I’ll have something

-light by and by.”</p>

-

-<p>“That’s what the Esquimau said when he ate

-the candle,” said Tavia, but without smiling. It

-was a habit with Tavia, this saying something

-funny when she was thinking of something entirely

-foreign to her remark.</p>

-

-<p>“You’re not going to be sick, are you, Doro?”

-she finally asked.</p>

-

-<p>“No, indeed, my dear.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well! you’ve acted funny all day.”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t feel a bit funny,” groaned Dorothy.

-“Don’t make me talk—now.”</p>

-

-<p>So Tavia, who could be sympathetic when she

-chose, stole away and dressed quietly. She looked

-in at Dorothy when she was ready to go downstairs,

-and as her chum lay with her eyes closed

-Tavia went out without speaking.</p>

-

-<p>Garry Knapp was fidgeting in the lobby when

-Tavia stepped out of the car. His eye brightened—then

-clouded again. Tavia noticed it, and her

-conclusion bore out the thought she had evolved

-about Dorothy upstairs.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Mr. Knapp!” she cried, meeting him with

-both hands outstretched. “Tell me! How did you

-find my bag?”</p>

-

-<p>And Garry Knapp was impolite enough to put

-her question aside for the moment while he asked:</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Where’s Miss Dale?”</p>

-

-<p>Two hours later Tavia returned to her chum.

-Garry walked out of the hotel with his face heavily

-clouded.</p>

-

-<p>“Just my luck! She’s a regular millionaire.

-Her folks have got more money than I’ll ever

-even <em>see</em> if I beat out old Methuselah in age! And

-Miss Tavia says Miss Dale will be rich in her own

-right. Ah, Garry, old man! There’s a blank

-wall ahead of you. You can’t jump it in a hurry.

-You haven’t got the <em>spring</em>. And this little mess

-of money I may get for the old ranch won’t put

-me in Miss Dorothy Dale’s class—not by a million

-miles!”</p>

-

-<p>He walked away from the hotel, chewing on this

-thought as though it had a very, very bitter taste.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII<br>

-<span class="fs80">AND STILL DOROTHY IS NOT HAPPY</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>“But what did he <em>say</em>?” demanded Dorothy,

-almost wildly, sitting up in bed at Tavia’s first

-announcement. “I want to know what he <em>said</em>!”</p>

-

-<p>“We-ell, maybe he didn’t tell the truth,” said

-Tavia, slowly.</p>

-

-<p>“We’ll find out about that later,” Dorothy declared.

-“Go on.”</p>

-

-<p>“How?”</p>

-

-<p>“Why, of course we must hunt up these girls

-and give them something for returning your bag.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! I s’pose so,” Tavia said. “Though I

-guess the little one, Number Forty-seven, wanted

-to keep it.”</p>

-

-<p>“Now, tell me <em>all</em>” breathed Dorothy, her eyes

-shining. “All he said—every word.”</p>

-

-<p>“Goodness! I guess your headache is better,

-Doro Dale,” laughed Tavia, sitting down on the

-edge of the bed. Dorothy said not a word, but

-her “listening face” put Tavia on her mettle.</p>

-

-<p>“Well, the very first thing he said,” she told

-her chum, her eyes dancing, “when I ran up to him

-and thanked him for getting my bag, was:</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span></p>

-

-<p>“‘Where’s Miss Dale?’</p>

-

-<p>“What do you know about <em>that</em>?” cried Tavia,

-in high glee. “You have made a deep, wide, long,

-and high impression—a four-dimension impression—on

-that young man from the ‘wild and

-woolly.’ Oh yes, you have!”</p>

-

-<p>The faint blush that washed up into Dorothy

-Dale’s face like a gentle wave on the sea-strand

-made her look “ravishing,” so Tavia declared.

-She simply had to stop to hug her friend before

-she went on. Dorothy recovered her serenity almost

-at once.</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t tease, dear,” she said. “Go on with

-your story.”</p>

-

-<p>“You see, the little cash-girl—or ‘check’, as they

-call them—picked the bag up off the floor and hid

-it under her apron. Then she was scared—especially

-when Mr. Schuman chanced to come upon

-us all as we were quarreling. I suppose Mr. Schuman

-seems like a god to little Forty-seven.</p>

-

-<p>“Anyhow,” Tavia pursued, “whether the child

-meant to steal the bag or not at first, she was

-afraid to say anything about it then. Her sister—this

-girl who came to the hotel—works in the

-house furnishing department. Before night

-Forty-seven told her sister. She had heard Mr.

-Knapp’s name, and from the shipping clerk the

-big girl obtained the name of the hotel at which

-Mr. Knapp was staying. Do you see?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Yes,” breathed Dorothy. “Go on, dear.”</p>

-

-<p>“Why, the girl just came here and asked for

-Mr. Knapp and found he was out. She didn’t

-know any better than to linger about outside and

-wait for him to appear—like Mary’s little lamb,

-you know! Little Forty-seven had told her sister

-what Mr. Knapp looked like, of course.”</p>

-

-<p>“Of course!” cried Dorothy, agreeing again,

-but in such a tone that Tavia frankly stared at

-her.</p>

-

-<p>“I do wish I knew just what is the matter with

-you to-day, Doro,” she murmured.</p>

-

-<p>“And the rest of it?” demanded Dorothy, her

-eyes shining and her cheeks still pink.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, when little Forty-seven’s sister saw us

-with Mr. Knapp she jumped to the correct conclusion

-that we were the girls who had lost the money,

-and so she was afraid to speak right out before

-us——”</p>

-

-<p>“Why?”</p>

-

-<p>“Well, Dorothy,” said Tavia, with considerable

-gravity for her, “I guess because of the old and

-well-established reason.”</p>

-

-<p>“What’s that?”</p>

-

-<p>“Because a man will be kinder to a girl

-in trouble than other girls will—ordinarily, I

-mean.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!”</p>

-

-<p>“Suppose it had been that Mrs. Halbridge who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>

-had really lost her bag,” Tavia went on to say.

-“If this girl had tried to return it, she and little

-Forty-seven both would have lost their jobs. Perhaps

-the police would have been called in. Do you

-see? I expect the big girl read kindness in Mr.

-Knapp’s face——”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy suddenly threw both arms about

-Tavia, and hugged her tightly. “Oh, you <em>dear</em>!”

-she cried; but she would not explain what she

-meant by this sudden burst of affection.</p>

-

-<p>“Go on!” was her repeated demand.</p>

-

-<p>“You are insatiable, my dear,” laughed Tavia.

-“Well, there isn’t much more ‘go on’ to it. The

-girl spoke to him when he passed her on the street

-and quickly told him all the story. Of course, he

-promised that nothing should happen to either of

-them. They are honest girls—the older one at

-least. And the temptation came so suddenly to

-little Forty-seven, whose wages are so pitiably

-small.”</p>

-

-<p>“I know,” said Dorothy, gently. “You remember,

-we learned something about it when little

-Miette De Pleau told us how she worked as cash-girl

-here years ago.”</p>

-

-<p>“Of course I remember,” Tavia said. “Well,

-that’s all, I guess. Oh no! I asked Mr. Knapp

-if he didn’t notice the big girl staring at us as we

-got to the hotel door last night. And what do

-you suppose he said?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span></p>

-

-<p>“I don’t know,” and Dorothy was still smiling

-happily.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, he said he didn’t. ‘You see,’ he added,

-in that funny way of his, ‘I expect my eyes were

-elsewhere’; and he wasn’t complimenting me,

-either,” added Tavia, rolling her big eyes.

-“Whom do you suppose he could have meant he

-was looking at, Doro?”</p>

-

-<p>Her friend ignored the question, but hopped

-out of bed.</p>

-

-<p>“What are you going to do?” asked Tavia, in

-wonder.</p>

-

-<p>“Dress.”</p>

-

-<p>“But it is nine o’clock! Almost bedtime.”</p>

-

-<p>“<em>Bedtime?</em>” demanded Dorothy. “And in the

-city? Why, Tavia! you amaze me, child!”</p>

-

-<p>“But you’re not going out?” cried her friend.</p>

-

-<p>“Do you realize I haven’t had a bite of dinner?”

-demanded the bold Dorothy. “I think you

-are very selfish.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well, anyway,” snapped Tavia, suddenly

-showing her claws—and who does not once in a

-while?—“<em>he’s</em> gone out for a long walk and he expects

-to finish his business to-morrow and go

-home.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh!” gasped Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>She sat on the edge of her bed with her first

-stocking in her hand. Tavia had gone back into

-her own room. Had she been present she must<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span>

-have noticed all the delight fading out of Dorothy

-Dale’s countenance. Finally, the latter tossed

-away the stocking, and crept back into bed.</p>

-

-<p>“I—I guess I’m too lazy to dress after all,

-dear,” she said, in a still little voice. “And you

-are tired, too, Tavia. The telephone has been

-fixed; just call down, will you, and ask them to

-send me up some tea and toast?”</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX<br>

-<span class="fs80">THEY SEE GARRY’S BACK</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>The following day Dorothy was her old

-cheerful self—or so Tavia thought. They did not

-shop with such abandon, but took matters more

-easily. And they returned to the hotel for luncheon

-and for rest.</p>

-

-<p>“But he isn’t here!” Tavia exclaimed, when

-they entered the big restaurant for the midday

-meal. “And I remember now he said last evening

-that he would probably be down town almost all

-day to-day—trying to sell that property of his,

-you know.”</p>

-

-<p>“Who, dear?” asked Dorothy, with a far-away

-look on her face.</p>

-

-<p>“Peleg Swift!” snapped Tavia. “You know

-very well of whom I am talking. Garry Owen!”

-and she hummed a few bars of the old, old march.</p>

-

-<p>Garry certainly was not present; but Dorothy

-still smiled. They went out again and purchased

-a few more things. When they returned late in

-the afternoon the young Westerner was visible in

-the lobby the moment the girls came through the

-doorway.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span></p>

-

-<p>But he was busy. He did not even see them.

-He was talking with two men of pronounced New

-York business type who might have been brokers

-or Wall Street men. All three sat on a lounge

-near the elevators, and Dorothy heard one of the

-strangers say crisply, as she and Tavia waited for

-a car:</p>

-

-<p>“That’s our top price, I think, Mr. Knapp.

-And, of course, we cannot pay you any money

-until I have seen the land, save the hundred for

-the option. I shall be out in a fortnight, I believe.

-It must hang fire until then, even at this

-price.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well, Mr. Stiffbold—it’s a bet!” Garry said,

-and Dorothy could imagine the secret sigh he

-breathed. Evidently, he was not getting the price

-for the wornout ranch that he had hoped.</p>

-

-<p>The two girls went up in the elevator and later

-made their dinner toilet. To-night Dorothy was

-the one who took the most pains in her primping;

-but Tavia said never a word. Nevertheless, she

-“looked volumes.”</p>

-

-<p>They were downstairs again not much later

-than half past six. Not a sign of Garry Knapp

-either in the lobby or in the dining-room. The

-girls ate their dinner slowly and “lived in hopes,”

-as Tavia expressed it.</p>

-

-<p>Both were frankly hoping Garry would appear.

-Tavia was grateful to him for the part he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span>

-had taken in the recovery of her bag; and, too,

-he was “nice.” Dorothy felt that she had misjudged

-the young Westerner, and she was fired

-with a desire to be particularly pleasant to him so

-as to salve over her secret compunctions of conscience.</p>

-

-<p>“‘He cometh not, she said,’” Tavia complained.

-“What’s the matter with the boy, anyway?

-Can he be eating in the cafê with those two

-men?”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!” suddenly exclaimed Dorothy.

-“You said he was going home to-day.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh—ah—yes. He did say he expected to get

-out for the West again some time to-day——”</p>

-

-<p>“Maybe he’s go-o-one!” and Dorothy’s phrase

-was almost a wail.</p>

-

-<p>“Goodness! Never! Without looking us up

-and saying a word of good-bye?”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy got up with determination. “I am going

-to find out,” she said. “I feel that I would

-like to see Mr. Knapp again.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well! if <em>I</em> said a thing like that about a young

-man——”</p>

-

-<p>However, Tavia let the remark trail off into silence

-and followed her chum. As they came out

-of the dining-room the broad shoulders and broad-brimmed

-hat of Garry Knapp were going through

-the street door!</p>

-

-<p>“Oh!” gasped Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span></p>

-

-<p>“He’s going!” added Tavia, stricken quite as

-motionless.</p>

-

-<p>“Going——”</p>

-

-<p>“Gone!” ended Tavia, sepulchrally. “It’s all

-off, Dorothy. Garry Knapp, of Desert City, has

-departed.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, we must stop him—speak to him——”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy started for the door and Tavia, nothing

-loath, followed at a sharp pace. Just as they

-came out into the open street a car stopped before

-the hotel door and Garry Knapp, “bag and

-baggage” stepped aboard. He did not even look

-back!</p>

-

-<p>As the girls returned to the hotel lobby the two

-men with whom they had seen Garry Knapp earlier

-in the evening, were passing out. They lingered

-while one of the men lit his cigar, and Dorothy

-heard the second man speaking.</p>

-

-<p>“I could have paid him spot cash for the land

-right here and been sure of a bargain, Lightly. I

-know just where it is and all about it. But it will

-do no harm to let the thing hang fire till I get out

-there. Perhaps, if I’m not too eager, I can get

-him to knock off a few dollars per acre. The boy

-wants to sell—that’s sure.”</p>

-

-<p>“Uh-huh!” grunted the one with the cigar. “It’ll

-make a tidy piece of wheat land without doubt,

-Stiffbold. You go for it!”</p>

-

-<p>They passed out then and the girl who had listened<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span>

-followed her friend slowly to the elevator,

-deep in thought. She said not a word until they

-were upstairs again. Perhaps her heart was really

-too full just then for utterance.</p>

-

-<p>As they entered Dorothy’s room the girls saw

-that the maid had been in during their absence at

-dinner. There was a long box, unmistakably a

-florist’s box, on the table.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, see what’s here!” cried Tavia, springing

-forward.</p>

-

-<p>The card on the box read: “Miss Dale.”</p>

-

-<p>“For you!” cried Tavia. “What meaneth it,

-fair Lady Dorothy? Hast thou made a conquest

-already? Some sweet swain——”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t believe you know what a ‘sweet swain’

-is,” laughed Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>Her fingers trembled as she untied the purple

-cord. Tavia asked, with increased curiosity:</p>

-

-<p>“Who can they be from, Doro? Flowers, of

-course!”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy said nothing in reply; but in her heart

-she knew—she knew! The cord was untied at

-last, the tissue paper, all fragrant and dewy, lifted.</p>

-

-<p>“Why!” said Tavia, rather in disappointment

-and doubt. “Not roses—or chrysanthemums—or—or——”</p>

-

-<p>“Or anything foolish!” finished Dorothy,

-firmly.</p>

-

-<p>She lifted from their bed of damp moss a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span>

-bouquet of the simplest old-fashioned flowers;

-mignonette, and several long-stemmed, dewy violets

-and buttercups, pansies, forget-me-nots——</p>

-

-<p>“He must have been robbing all the old-fashioned

-gardens around New York,” said Tavia.

-“But that’s a lovely ribbon—and yards of it.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy did not speak at first. The cost of

-the gift meant nothing to her. Yet she knew that

-the monetary value of such a bouquet in New

-York must be far above what was ordinarily paid

-for roses and the like.</p>

-

-<p>A note was nestling in the stems. She opened

-it and read:</p>

-<br>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p class="no-indent">

-“Dear Miss Dale:<br>

-</p>

-

-<p>“Was mighty sorry to hear you are still in retirement.

-Your friend said last evening that you

-were quite done-up. Now I am forced to leave

-in a hurry without seeing you. Sent bellhop up to

-your room and he reports ‘no answer.’</p>

-

-<p>“But, without seeming too bold, will hope that

-we shall meet again—and that these few flowers

-will be a reminder of</p>

-

-<p class="right">

-<span style="padding-right: 2em">“Faithfully and regretfully yours,</span><br>

-“<span class="smcap">G. Knapp</span>.”<br>

-</p>

-</div>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X<br>

-<span class="fs80">“HEART DISEASE”</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>After one passes the railroad station at The

-Beeches, and before reaching the town limits of

-North Birchland, the traveler sees a gray road

-following closely the railway tracks, sometimes divided

-from them by rail-fences, sometimes by a

-ditch, and sometimes the railway roadbed is high

-on a bank overlooking the highway.</p>

-

-<p>For several miles the road grades downward—not

-a sharp grade, but a steady one—and so does

-the railroad. At the foot of the slope the highway

-keeps straight on over a bridge that spans the

-deep and boisterous creek; but a fork of the road

-turns abruptly and crosses the railroad at grade.</p>

-

-<p>There is no flagman at this grade crossing,

-nor is there a drop-gate. Just a “Stop, Look, Listen”

-sign—two words of which are unnecessary, as

-some philosopher has pointed out. There had

-been some serious accidents at this crossing; but

-thus far the railroad company had found it cheaper

-to pay court damages than to pay a flagman and

-the upkeep of a proper gate on both sides of its

-right-of-way.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span></p>

-

-<p>When they came in sight of the down-hill part

-of the road Dorothy Dale and Tavia Travers

-knew it was time to begin to put on their wraps

-and take down their bags. The North Birchland

-station would soon be in sight.</p>

-

-<p>It was Dorothy who first stood up to reach for

-her bag. As she did so she glanced through the

-broad window, out upon the highway.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!” she gasped.</p>

-

-<p>“What’s the matter, dear? You don’t see

-Garry Knapp, do you? Maybe his buying those

-flowers—that ‘parting blessing’—‘busted’ him and

-he’s got to walk home clear to Desert City.”</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t be a goose!” half laughed Dorothy.

-“Look out. See if you see what I see.”</p>

-

-<p>“Why, Doro! it’s Joe and Roger I do believe!”</p>

-

-<p>“I was sure it was,” returned her friend. “What

-can those boys be doing now?”</p>

-

-<p>“Well, what they are doing seems plain

-enough,” said Tavia. “What they are going to

-do is the moot question, my dear. You never

-know what a boy will do next, or what he did last;

-you’re only sure of what he is doing just now.”</p>

-

-<p>What the young brothers of Dorothy Dale were

-doing at that moment was easily explained. They

-were riding down the long slope of the gray road

-toward North Birchland, racing with the train

-Dorothy and Tavia were on. The vehicle upon

-which the boys were riding was a nondescript thing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span>

-composed of a long plank, four wheels, a steering

-arrangement of more or less dependence, and a

-soap box.</p>

-

-<p>In the soap box was a bag, and unless the girls

-were greatly mistaken Joe and Roger Dale had

-been nutting over toward The Beeches, and the

-bag was filled with hickory nuts and chestnuts in

-their shells and burrs.</p>

-

-<p>Roger, who was the youngest, and whom Dorothy

-continued to look upon as a baby, occupied the

-box with the nuts. Joe, who was fifteen, straddled

-the plank with his feet on the rests and steered.

-The boys’ vehicle was going like the wind. It

-looked as though a small stone in the road, or an

-uncertain jerk by Joe on the steering lines, would

-throw the contraption on which they rode sideways

-and dump out the boys.</p>

-

-<p>“Enough to give one heart disease,” said Tavia.

-“I declare! small brothers are a nuisance. When

-I’m at home in Dalton I have to wear blinders so

-as not to see <em>my</em> kid brothers at their antics.”</p>

-

-<p>“If something should happen, Tavia!” murmured

-Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Something is always happening. But not often

-is it something bad,” said Tavia, coolly.

-“‘There’s a swate little cherub that sits up aloft,

-and kapes out an eye for poor Jack,’ as the Irish

-tar says. And there is a similar cherub looking

-out for small boys—or a special providence.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span></p>

-

-<p>The train was now high on the embankment

-over the roadway. The two boys sliding down

-the hill looked very small, indeed, below the car

-windows.</p>

-

-<p>“Suppose a wagon should start up the hill,”

-murmured Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“There’s none in sight. I never saw the road

-more deserted—oh, Doro!”</p>

-

-<p>Tavia uttered this cry before she thought. She

-had looked far ahead to the foot of the hill and

-had seen something that her friend had not yet

-observed.</p>

-

-<p>“What is it?” gasped Dorothy, whose gaze was

-still fixed upon her brothers.</p>

-

-<p>“My dear! The bridge!”</p>

-

-<p>The words burst from Tavia involuntarily.

-She could not keep them in.</p>

-

-<p>At the foot of the hill the road forked as has

-before been shown. To the left it crossed the railroad

-tracks at grade. Of course, these reckless

-boys had not intended to try for the crossing ahead

-of the train. But the main road, which kept

-straight on beside the tracks, crossed the creek

-on a wooden bridge. Tavia, looking ahead, saw

-that the bridge boards were up and there was a

-rough fence built across the main road!</p>

-

-<p>“They’ll be killed!” screamed Dorothy Dale,

-and sank back into her chair.</p>

-

-<p>The train was now pitching down the grade.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span>

-It was still a mile to the foot of the slope where

-railroad and highway were on a level again. The

-boys in their little “scooter” were traveling faster

-than the train itself, for the brakes had been applied

-when the descent was begun.</p>

-

-<p>The boys and their vehicle, surrounded by a

-little halo of dust, were now far ahead of the

-chair car in which their sister and Tavia rode.

-The girls, clinging to each other, craned their

-necks to see ahead. There were not many other

-passengers in the car and nobody chanced to notice

-the horror-stricken girls.</p>

-

-<p>It was a race between the boys and the train,

-and the boys would never be able to halt their

-vehicle on the level at the bottom of the hill before

-crashing into the fence that guarded the open

-bridge.</p>

-

-<p>Were the barrier not there, the little cart would

-dart over the edge of the masonry wall of the

-bridge and all be dashed into the deep and rock-strewn

-bed of the creek.</p>

-

-<p>There was but one escape for the boys in any

-event. Perhaps their vehicle could be guided to

-the left, into the branch road and so across the

-railroad track. But if Joe undertook that would

-not the train be upon them?</p>

-

-<p>“Heart disease,” indeed! It seemed to Dorothy

-Dale as though her own heart pounded so

-that she could no longer breathe. Her eyes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>

-strained to see the imperiled boys down in the

-road.</p>

-

-<p>The “scooter” ran faster and faster or was the

-train itself slowing down?</p>

-

-<p>“For sure and certain they are beating us!”

-murmured Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>She could appreciate the sporting chance in the

-race; but to Dorothy there loomed up nothing but

-the peril facing her brothers.</p>

-

-<p>The railroad tracks pitched rather sharply here.

-It was quite a descent into the valley where North

-Birchland lay. When the engineers of the passenger

-trains had any time to make up running

-west they could always regain schedule on this

-slope.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy knew this. She realized that the engineer,

-watching the track ahead and not the roadway

-where the boys were, might be tempted to

-release his brakes when half way down the slope

-and increase his speed.</p>

-

-<p>If he did so and the boys, Joe and Roger,

-turned to cross the rails, the train must crash into

-the “scooter.”</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI<br>

-<span class="fs80">A BOLD THING TO DO!</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>The threatening peril—which looked so sure

-to Dorothy Dale if to nobody else—inspired her

-to act, not to remain stunned and helpless. She

-jerked her hand from Tavia’s clutch and sprang

-to her feet. She had been reaching for her bag

-on first observing the boys coasting down the long

-hill beside the railroad tracks; and her umbrella

-was in the rack, too. She seized this. Its handle

-was a shepherd’s crook. Reaching with it, and

-without a word to Tavia, she hooked the handle

-into the emergency cord that ran overhead the

-length of the car, and pulled down sharply. Instantly

-there was a shriek from the engine whistle

-and the brakes were sharply applied.</p>

-

-<p>The brake shoes so suddenly applied to the

-wheels on this downgrade did much harm to the

-wheels themselves. Little cared Dorothy for this

-well-known fact. If every wheel under the train

-had to go to the repair shop she would have made

-this bold attempt to stop the train or retard its

-speed, so that Joe and Roger could cross the

-tracks ahead of it.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span></p>

-

-<p>Glancing through the window she saw the boys’

-“scooter” dart swiftly and safely into the fork-road

-and disappear some rods ahead of the pilot

-of the engine. The boys were across before the

-brakeman and the Pullman conductor opened the

-car door and rushed in.</p>

-

-<p>“Who pulled that emergency cord? Anybody

-here?” shouted the conductor.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! don’t tell him!” breathed Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>But her friend, if physically afraid, was never

-a moral coward. She looked straight into the

-angry conductor’s face and said:</p>

-

-<p>“I did.”</p>

-

-<p>“What for?” he demanded.</p>

-

-<p>“To stop the train. My brothers were in danger——”</p>

-

-<p>“Say! What’s that?” demanded the Pullman

-conductor of Tavia. “Where are her brothers?”</p>

-

-<p>The brakeman, who had long run over this road,

-pulled at the conductor’s sleeve.</p>

-

-<p>“That’s Major Dale’s girl,” he whispered, and

-Tavia heard if Dorothy did not.</p>

-

-<p>“Who’s Major Dale?” asked the conductor, in

-a low voice, turning aside. “Somebody on the

-road?”</p>

-

-<p>“Owns stock in it all right. And a bigwig

-around North Birchland. Go easy, I say,” advised

-the brakeman, immediately turning back to

-the door.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span></p>

-

-<p>The train, meanwhile, had started on again,

-for undoubtedly the other conductor had given

-the engineer the signal to go ahead. Through the

-window across the car Dorothy could see out upon

-the road beyond the tracks. There was the little

-“scooter” at a standstill. Joe and Roger were

-standing up and waving their caps at the train.</p>

-

-<p>“They’re safe!” Dorothy cried to Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“I see they are; but you’re not—yet,” returned

-her chum.</p>

-

-<p>“Who’s that is safe?” asked the conductor, still

-in doubt.</p>

-

-<p>“My brothers—there,” answered Dorothy,

-pointing. “They had to cross in front of the train

-because the bridge is open. They couldn’t stop at

-the bottom of the hill.”</p>

-

-<p>The Pullman conductor understood at last.

-“But I’ll have to make a report of this, Miss

-Dale,” he said, complainingly.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy had seated herself and she was very

-pale. The fright for her at least had been serious.</p>

-

-<p>“Make a dozen reports if you like—help yourself,”

-said Tavia, tartly, bending over her friend.

-“If there is anything to pay send the bill to Major

-Dale.”</p>

-

-<p>The conductor grumbled something and went

-out, notebook in hand. In a few moments the

-train came to a standstill at the North Birchland<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span>

-station. The girls had to bestir themselves to get

-out in season, and that helped rouse Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Those rascals!” said Tavia, once they were

-on the platform. “Joe and Roger should be

-spanked.”</p>

-

-<p>“I’m afraid Joe is too big for that,” sighed

-Dorothy. “And who would spank them? It is

-something they didn’t get when they were little——”</p>

-

-<p>“And see the result!”</p>

-

-<p>“Your brothers were whipped sufficiently, I am

-sure,” Dorothy said, smiling at length. “They are

-not one whit better than Joe and Roger.”</p>

-

-<p>“Dear me! that’s so,” admitted Tavia. “But

-just the same, I belieev in whippings—for boys.”</p>

-

-<p>“And no whippings for girls?”</p>

-

-<p>“I should say not!” cried Tavia. “There never

-<em>was</em> a girl who deserved corporal punishment.”</p>

-

-<p>“Not even Nita Brandt?” suggested Dorothy,

-naming a girl who had ever been a thorn in the

-flesh for Tavia during their days at Glenwood.</p>

-

-<p>“Well—perhaps <em>she</em>. But Nita’s about the

-only one, I guess.”</p>

-

-<p>The next moment Tavia started to run down

-the long platform, dropping her bag and screaming:</p>

-

-<p>“Jennie Hapgood! Jennie Jane Jemina Jerusha

-Happiness—<em>good</em>! How ever came you

-here?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span></p>

-

-<p>Dorothy was excited, too, when she saw the

-pretty girl whom Tavia greeted with such ebullition;

-but she looked beyond Jennie Hapgood, the

-expected guest from Pennsylvania.</p>

-

-<p>There was the boys’ new car beside the station

-platform and Ned was under the steering-wheel

-while Nat was just getting out after Jennie. Of

-course, the two girls just back from New York

-were warmly kissed by Jennie. Then Nat came

-next and before Tavia realized what was being

-done to her, she was soundly kissed, too!</p>

-

-<p>“Bold, bad thing!” she cried, raising a gloved

-hand toward the laughing Nat. But it never

-reached him. Then Dorothy had to submit—as

-she always did—to the bearlike hugs of both her

-cousins, for Ned quickly joined them on the platform.

-Tavia escaped Ned—if, indeed, he had intended

-to follow his brother’s example.</p>

-

-<p>“What is the use of having a pretty cousin,”

-the White boys always said, “if we can’t kiss her?

-Keeps our hands in, you know. And if she has

-pretty friends, why shouldn’t we kiss them, too?”</p>

-

-<p>“Did you boys kiss Jennie when she arrived this

-morning?” Tavia demanded, repairing the ruffled

-hair that had fallen over her ears.</p>

-

-<p>“Certainly!” declared Nat, boldly. “Both of

-us.”</p>

-

-<p>“They never!” cried Jennie, turning very red.

-“You know I wouldn’t let these boys kiss me.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span></p>

-

-<p>“I bet a boy kissed you the last thing before

-you started up here from home,” teased Nat.</p>

-

-<p>“I <em>never</em> let boys kiss me,” repeated Jennie.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, no!” drawled Ned, joining in with his

-brother. “How about Jack?”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, well, <em>Jack</em>!”</p>

-

-<p>“Jack isn’t a boy, I suppose?” hooted Nat. “I

-guess that girl he’s going to marry about Christmas

-time thinks he’s a pretty nice boy.”</p>

-

-<p>“But he’s only my brother,” announced Jennie

-Hapgood, tossing her head.</p>

-

-<p>“Is he really?” cried Tavia, clasping her hands

-eagerly.</p>

-

-<p>“Is he really my brother?” demanded Jennie,

-in amazement. “Why, you <em>know</em> he is, Tavia

-Travers!”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, no! I mean are they going to be married

-at Christmas?”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes. That is the plan now. And you’ve all

-got to come to Sunnyside to the wedding. Nothing

-less would suit Jack—or father and mother,”

-Jennie said happily. “So prepare accordingly.”</p>

-

-<p>Nat raced with Tavia for the bag she had

-dropped. He got it and clung to it all the way

-in the car to The Cedars, threatening to open it

-and examine its contents.</p>

-

-<p>“For I know very well that Tavia’s got oodles

-of new face powder and rouge, and a rabbit’s foot

-to put it on with—or else a kalsomine brush,” Nat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span>

-declared. “Joe and Roger want to paint the old

-pigeon house, anyway, and this stuff Tavia’s got

-in here will be just the thing.”</p>

-

-<p>In fact, the two big fellows were so glad to see

-their cousin and Tavia again that they teased

-worse than ever. A queer way to show their affection,

-but a boy’s way, after all. And, of course,

-everybody else at the Cedars was delighted to

-greet Dorothy and Tavia. It was some time before

-the returned travelers could run upstairs to

-change their dresses for dinner. Jennie had gone

-into her room to change, too, and Tavia came to

-Dorothy’s open door.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, that letter!” she exclaimed, seeing Dorothy

-standing very gravely with a letter in her

-hand. “Haven’t you sent it?”</p>

-

-<p>“You see I haven’t,” Dorothy said seriously.</p>

-

-<p>“But why not?”</p>

-

-<p>“It seems such a bold thing to do,” confessed

-her friend. “We know so little about him. And

-it might encourage him to write in return——”</p>

-

-<p>“Of course it will!” laughed Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“There! that’s what I mean. It is bold.”</p>

-

-<p>“But, you silly!” cried Tavia. “You only write

-Mr. Knapp to do him a good turn. And he did

-us a good turn—at least, he did <em>me</em> one that I shall

-never forget.”</p>

-

-<p>“True,” Dorothy said thoughtfully. “And I

-have only repeated to him in this note what I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span>

-heard that man, Stiffbold, say about the purchase

-of Mr. Knapp’s ranch.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, help the poor fellow out. Those men will

-rob him,” Tavia advised. “Why didn’t you send

-it at once, when you had written it?”</p>

-

-<p>“I—I thought I’d wait and consult Aunt Winnie,”

-stammered Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Then consult her.”</p>

-

-<p>“But—but <em>now</em> I don’t want to.”</p>

-

-<p>Tavia looked at her with certainty in her own

-gaze. “I know what is the matter with you,” she

-said.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy flushed quickly and Tavia shook her

-head, saying nothing more. But when the girls

-went downstairs to dinner, Tavia saw Dorothy

-drop the stamped letter addressed to “Mr. Garford

-Knapp, Desert City,” into the mail bag in the

-hall.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII<br>

-<span class="fs80">UNCERTAINTIES</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Dorothy had no time before dinner, but after

-that meal she seized upon her brothers, Joe and

-Roger, and led them aside. The boys thought she

-had something nice for them, brought from New

-York. They very quickly found out their mistake.</p>

-

-<p>“I want to know what you boys mean by taking

-such risks as you did this afternoon?” she demanded,

-when out of hearing of the rest of the

-family. She would not have her aunt or the major

-troubled by knowing of the escapade.</p>

-

-<p>“You, especially, Joe,” she went on, with an accusing

-finger raised. “You both might have been

-killed. <em>Then</em> how would you have felt?”</p>

-

-<p>“Er—dead, I guess, Sister,” admitted Roger,

-for Joe was silent.</p>

-

-<p>“Didn’t you know the road was closed because

-of repairs on the bridge?” she asked the older

-boy sternly.</p>

-

-<p>“No-o. We forgot. We didn’t go over to

-the nutting woods that way. Say! who told you?”

-blurted out Joe.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Who told me what?”</p>

-

-<p>“About our race with the train. Cricky, but

-it was great!”</p>

-

-<p>“It was fine!” Roger added his testimony with

-equal enthusiasm.</p>

-

-<p>“I saw you,” said Dorothy, her face paling as

-she remembered her fright in the train. “I—I

-thought I should faint I was so frightened.”</p>

-

-<p>“Say! isn’t that just like a girl?” grumbled Joe;

-but he looked at his sister with some compunction,

-for he and Roger almost worshipped her.

-Only, of course, they were boys and the usual

-boy cannot understand the fluttering terror in the

-usual girl’s heart when danger threatens. Not

-that Dorothy was a weakling in any way; she could

-be courageous for herself. But her fears were

-always excited when those she loved were in peril.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, we were only having fun, Sister,” Roger

-blurted out. Being considerably younger than his

-brother he was quicker to be moved by Dorothy’s

-expression of feeling.</p>

-

-<p>“Fun!” she gasped.</p>

-

-<p>“Yes,” Joe said sturdily. “It was a great race.

-And you and Tavia were in that train? We

-didn’t have an idea, did we, Roger?”</p>

-

-<p>“Nop,” said his small brother thoughtlessly.

-“If we had we wouldn’t have raced <em>that</em> train.”</p>

-

-<p>“Now, I want to tell you something!” exclaimed

-their sister, with a sharper note in her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span>

-voice. “You’re not to race <em>any</em> train! Understand,

-boys? Suppose that engine had struck you

-as you crossed the tracks?”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, it wouldn’t,” Joe said stoutly. “I know

-the engineer. He’s a friend of mine. He saw

-I had the ‘right-of-way,’ as they call it. I’d beat

-him down the hill; so he held up the train.”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes—he held up the train,” said Dorothy with

-a queer little laugh. “He put on brakes because I

-pulled the emergency cord. You boys would never

-have crossed ahead of that train if I hadn’t done

-so.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Dorothy!” gasped Joe.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Sister!” cried Roger.</p>

-

-<p>“Tavia and I almost had heart disease,” the

-young woman told them seriously. “Engineers

-do not watch boys on country roads when they

-are guiding a great express train. It is a serious

-matter to control a train and to have the destinies

-of the passengers in one’s hands. The engineer is

-looking ahead—watching the rails and the roadbed.

-Remember that, boys.”</p>

-

-<p>“I’d like to be an engineer!” sighed Roger, his

-eyes big with longing.</p>

-

-<p>“Pooh!” Joe said. “It’s more fun to drive an

-automobile—like this new one Ned and Nat have.

-You don’t have to stay on the tracks, you know.”</p>

-

-<p>“Nobody but cautious people can learn to drive

-automobiles,” said Dorothy, seriously.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span></p>

-

-<p>“I’m big enough,” stated Joe, with conviction.</p>

-

-<p>“You may be. But you’re not careful enough,”

-his sister told him. “Your racing our train to-day

-showed that. Now, I won’t tell father or

-auntie, for I do not wish to worry them. But you

-must promise me not to ride down that hill in

-your little wagon any more or enter into any such

-reckless sports.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, we won’t, of course, if you say not, Dorothy,”

-sniffed Joe. “But you must remember we’re

-boys and boys have got to take chances. Even

-father says that.”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes. When you are grown. You may be

-placed in situations where your courage will be

-tested. But, goodness me!” finished Dorothy

-Dale. “Don’t scare us to death, boys. And now

-see what I bought you in New York.”</p>

-

-<p>However, her lecture made some impression

-upon the boys’ minds despite their excitement over

-the presents which were now brought to light.

-Full football outfits for both the present was, and

-Joe and Roger were delighted. They wanted to

-put them on and go out at once with the ball to

-“pass signals,” dark as it had become.</p>

-

-<p>However, they compromised on this at Dorothy’s

-advice, by taking the suits, pads and guards

-off to their room and trying them on, coming downstairs

-later to “show off” before the folks in the

-drawing-room.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span></p>

-

-<p>Major Dale was one of those men who never

-grow old in their hearts. Crippled as he was—both

-by his wounded leg and by rheumatism—he

-delighted to see the young life about him, and

-took as much interest in the affairs of the young

-people as ever he had.</p>

-

-<p>Aunt Winnie looked a very interesting invalid,

-indeed, with her lame ankle, and rested on the

-couch. The big boys and Dorothy and her friends

-always made much of Aunt Winnie in any case;

-now that she was “laid up in drydock,” as Nat expressed

-it, they were especially attentive.</p>

-

-<p>Jennie and Tavia, with the two older boys,

-spent most of the evening hovering about the

-lady’s couch, or at the piano where they played

-and sang college songs and old Briarwood songs,

-till eleven o’clock. Dorothy sat between her

-father and Aunt Winnie and talked to them.</p>

-

-<p>“What makes you so sober, Captain?” the

-major asked during the evening. He had always

-called her “his little captain” and sometimes

-seemed really to forget that she had any other

-name.</p>

-

-<p>“I’m all right, Major,” she returned brightly.

-“I have to think, sometimes, you know.”</p>

-

-<p>“What is the serious problem now, Dorothy?”

-asked her aunt, with a little laugh. “Did you forget

-to buy something while you were in New

-York?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p>

-

-<p>Dorothy dimpled. “Wait till you see all I did

-buy,” she responded, “and you will not ask that

-question. I have been the most reckless person!”</p>

-

-<p>“Why the serious pucker to your brow, Captain?”

-went on the major.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, I have problems. I admit the fact,” Dorothy

-said, trying to laugh off their questioning.</p>

-

-<p>“Out with them,” advised her father. “Here

-are two old folks who have been solving problems

-all their lives. Maybe we can help.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy laughed again. “Try this one,” she

-said, with her eyes upon the quartette “harmonizing”

-at the piano in dulcet tones, singing “Seeing

-Nellie Ho-o-ome.” “Which of our big boys does

-Tavia like best?”</p>

-

-<p>“Goodness!” exclaimed her aunt, while the

-major chuckled mellowly. “Don’t you know,

-really, Dorothy? I was going to ask <em>you</em>. I

-thought, of course, Tavia confided everything to

-you.”</p>

-

-<p>“Sooner or later she may,” the young woman

-said, still with the thoughtful air upon her. “But

-I am as much in the dark about this query as anybody—perhaps

-as the boys themselves.”</p>

-

-<p>“Humph!” muttered the major. “Which of

-them likes <em>her</em> the better?”</p>

-

-<p>“And <em>that</em> I’d like to know,” said his sister

-earnestly. “There is another thing, Dorothy:

-Which of my sons is destined to fall in love with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span>

-this very, very pretty girl you have invited here—Jennie

-Hapgood, I mean?”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! they’re all doing it, are they?” grunted

-the major. “How about our Dorothy? Where

-does she come in? No mate for her?”</p>

-

-<p>“I think I shall probably become an old maid,”

-Dorothy Dale said, but with a conscious flush that

-made her aunt watch her in a puzzled way for

-some time.</p>

-

-<p>But the major put back his head and laughed

-delightedly. “No more chance of your remaining

-a spinster—when you are really old enough

-to be called one—than there is of my leading

-troops into battle again,” he declared with

-warmth. “Hey, Sister?”</p>

-

-<p>“Our Dorothy is too attractive I am sure to

-escape the chance to marry, at least,” said Aunt

-Winnie, still watching her niece with clouded gaze.

-“I wonder whence the right knight will come riding—from

-north, or south, east or west?”</p>

-

-<p>And in spite of herself Dorothy flushed up

-again at her aunt’s last word.</p>

-

-<p>It was a question oft-repeated in Dorothy

-Dale’s mind during the following days, this one

-regarding the state of mind of her two cousins

-and her two school friends.</p>

-

-<p>It had always seemed to Dorothy, whenever

-she had thought of it, that one of her cousins,

-either Ned or Nat, must in the end be preferred<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span>

-by Tavia. To think of Tavia’s really settling

-down to caring for any other man than Ned or

-Nat, was quite impossible.</p>

-

-<p>On the other hand, the boys had both shown a

-great fondness for the society of Jennie Hapgood

-when they were all at her home in Pennsylvania

-such a short time previous; and now that all four

-were together again Dorothy could not guess

-“which was which” as Tavia herself would have

-said.</p>

-

-<p>The boys did not allow Dorothy to be overlooked

-in any particular. She was not neglected

-in the least; yet she did, as the days passed, find

-more time to spend with her father and with her

-Aunt Winnie.</p>

-

-<p>“The little captain is getting more thoughtful.

-She is steadying down,” the major told Mrs.

-White.</p>

-

-<p>“But I wonder <em>why</em>?” was that good woman’s

-puzzled response.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy Dale sitting by herself with a book

-that she was not reading or with fancywork on

-which she only occasionally took stitches, was entirely

-out of her character. She had never been

-this way before going to New York, Mrs. White

-was sure.</p>

-

-<p>There were several uncertainties upon the girl’s

-mind. One of them almost came to light when,

-after ten days, her letter addressed to “Mr. Garford<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span>

-Knapp, Desert City,” was returned to her

-by the post-office department, as instructed in the

-upper left-hand corner of the envelope.</p>

-

-<p>Her letter, warning Garry Knapp of the advantage

-the real estate men wished to take of him,

-would, after all, do him no good. He would

-never know that she had written. Perhaps her

-path and Garry Knapp’s would never cross again.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII<br>

-<span class="fs80">DOROTHY MAKES A DISCOVERY</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>The boys had a dog—Old Brindle he was

-called—and he had just enough bull in him to

-make him a faithful friend and a good watchdog.

-But, of course, he was of little use in the woods,

-and Joe and Roger were always begging for a

-hunting dog.</p>

-

-<p>“We’ve got these now—pump-rifles,” Roger

-said eagerly to Dorothy, whom he thought able

-to accomplish any wonder she might undertake.

-“They shoot fifty shots. Think of it, Sister!

-That’s a lot. And father taught us how to use

-’em long ago, of course. Just think! I could

-stand right up and shoot down fifty people—just

-like that.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Roger!” gasped Dorothy. “Don’t say

-such awful things.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, I wouldn’t, you know; but I could,” the

-boy said confidently. “Now the law is off rabbits

-and partridges and quail. Joe and I saw lots

-of ’em when we went after those nuts the other

-day. If we’d had our guns along maybe we might

-have shot some.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span></p>

-

-<p>“The poor little birds and the cunning little

-rabbits,” said Dorothy with a sigh.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! they’re not like our pigeons and our tame

-rabbits. These are real <em>wild</em>. If some of ’em

-weren’t shot they’d breed an’ breed till there were

-so many that maybe it wouldn’t be safe to go out

-into the woods,” declared the small boy, whose

-imagination never needed spurring.</p>

-

-<p>Joe came up on the porch in time to hear this

-last. He chuckled, but Dorothy was saying to

-Roger:</p>

-

-<p>“How foolish, dear! Who ever heard of a

-rabbit being cross?”</p>

-

-<p>“Just the same I guess you’ve heard of being

-as ‘mad as a March hare,’ haven’t you?” demanded

-Joe, his eyes twinkling. “And we <em>do</em> want

-a bird dog, Sis, to jump a rabbit for us, or to

-flush a flock of quail.”</p>

-

-<p>“Those dear little bobwhites,” Dorothy sighed

-again. “Why is it that boys want always to kill?”</p>

-

-<p>“So’s to eat,” Joe said bluntly. “You know

-yourself, Dorothy Dale, that you like partridge

-on toast and rabbit stew.”</p>

-

-<p>She laughed at them. “I shall go hungry, then,

-I’m afraid, as far as you boys are concerned.”</p>

-

-<p>“Of course we can’t get any game if we don’t

-have a dog. Brindle couldn’t jump a flea,”

-growled Joe.</p>

-

-<p>“Say! the big fellows used to have lots more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>

-pets than we’ve got,” complained Roger, referring

-to Ned and Nat.</p>

-

-<p>“<em>They</em> had dogs,” added Joe. “A whole raft

-of ’em.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, dear me!” exclaimed Dorothy. “I’ll see

-what can be done. But another dog!”</p>

-

-<p>“We won’t let him bite you, Sister,” proclaimed

-Roger. “We only want him to chase rabbits or

-to start up the birds so we can shoot ’em.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy’s “I’ll see” was, of course, taken by

-the boys themselves as an out-and-out agreement

-to do as the boys desired. They were convinced

-that if she gave her mind to it their sister could

-perform almost any miracle. At least, she could

-always bring the rest of the family around to her

-way of thinking.</p>

-

-<p>Ned and Nat had opposed the bringing of another

-dog upon the place. They were fond of

-old Brindle; but it must be confessed that the

-watchdog was bad tempered where other dogs

-were concerned.</p>

-

-<p>Brindle seldom went off the place; but if he

-saw any other dog trespassing he was very apt to

-fly at the uninvited visitor. And once the bull’s

-teeth were clinched in the strange animal’s neck,

-it took a hot iron to make him loose his hold.</p>

-

-<p>There had been several such unfortunate happenings,

-and Mrs. White had paid several owners

-of dogs damages rather than have trouble<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span>

-with the neighbors. She—and even the major—had

-strong objections to the coming of any other

-dog upon the place as long as Brindle lived.</p>

-

-<p>So the chance for Joe and Roger to have their

-request granted was small indeed. Nevertheless,

-“hope springs eternal,” especially in the breast of

-a small boy who wants a dog.</p>

-

-<p>“Maybe we can find somebody that’s got a good,

-trained dog and will sell him to us, Roger,” Joe

-said, as they set forth from the house.</p>

-

-<p>“But I haven’t got much money—only what’s

-in the bank, and I can’t get that,” complained

-Roger.</p>

-

-<p>“You spend all you get for candy,” scoffed Joe.

-“Now, <em>I’ve</em> got a whole half dollar left of my

-month’s spending money. But you can’t buy much

-of a dog for fifty cents.”</p>

-

-<p>“Maybe somebody would give us a dog.”</p>

-

-<p>“And folks don’t give away good dogs, either,”

-grumbled Joe.</p>

-

-<p>“I tell you!” exclaimed Roger, suddenly. “I

-saw a stray dog yesterday going down the lane

-behind our stables.”</p>

-

-<p>“How do you know it was a stray dog?”</p>

-

-<p>“’Cause it <em>looked</em> so. It was sneaking along

-at the edge of the hedge and it was tired looking.

-Then, it had a piece of frayed rope tied around

-its neck. Oh, it was a stray dog all right,” declared

-the smaller boy eagerly.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Where’d it go to?”</p>

-

-<p>“Under Mr. Cummerford’s barn,” said Roger.

-“I bet we could coax it out, if it’s still there.”</p>

-

-<p>“Not likely,” grunted Joe.</p>

-

-<p>Nevertheless, he started off at once in the direction

-indicated by his brother, and the boys were

-soon at the stable of the neighbor whose place adjoined

-The Cedars on that side.</p>

-

-<p>Oddly enough, the dog was still there. He had

-crawled out and lay in the sun beside the barn.

-He was emaciated, his eyes were red and rolling,

-and he had a lame front paw. The gray, frayed

-rope was still tied to his neck. He was a regular

-tramp dog.</p>

-

-<p>But he allowed the boys to come close to him

-without making any attempt to get away. He

-eyed them closely, but neither growled nor wagged

-his tail. He was a “funny acting” dog, as Roger

-said.</p>

-

-<p>“I bet he hasn’t had anything to eat for so long

-and he’s come so far that he hasn’t got the spunk

-to wag his tail,” Joe said, as eager as Roger now.

-“We’ll take him home and feed him.”</p>

-

-<p>“He’s sure a stray dog, isn’t he, Joe?” cried

-the smaller boy. “I haven’t ever seen him before

-around here, have you?”</p>

-

-<p>“No. And I bet his owner won’t ever come

-after him,” said Joe, picking up the end of the

-rope. “He’s just the kind of a dog we want, too.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span>

-You see, he’s a bird dog, or something like that.

-And when he’s fed up and rested, I bet he’ll know

-just how to go after partridges.”</p>

-

-<p>He urged the strange dog to his feet. The

-beast tottered, and would have lain down again.

-Roger, the tender-hearted, said:</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! he’s so hungry. Bet he hasn’t had a

-thing to eat for days. Maybe we’ll have to carry

-him.”</p>

-

-<p>“No. He’s too dirty to carry,” Joe said, looking

-at the mud caked upon the long hair of the

-poor creature and the dust upon him. “We’ll get

-him to the stable and feed him; then we’ll hose

-him off.”</p>

-

-<p>Pulling at the rope he urged the dog on. The

-animal staggered at first, but finally grew firmer

-on his legs. But he did not use the injured fore

-paw. He favored that as he hopped along to the

-White stables. Neither the coachman nor the

-chauffeur were about. There was nobody to observe

-the dog or advise the boys about the beast.

-Roger ran to the kitchen door to beg some scraps

-for their new possession. The cook would always

-give Roger what he asked for. When he

-came back Joe got a pan of water for the dog;

-but the creature backed away from it and whined—the

-first sound he had made.</p>

-

-<p>“Say! isn’t that funny?” Joe demanded. “See!

-he won’t drink. You’d think he’d be thirsty.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Try him with this meat,” Roger said.

-“Maybe he’s too hungry to drink at first.”</p>

-

-<p>The dog was undoubtedly starving. Yet he

-turned his head away from the broken pieces of

-food Roger put down before his nose.</p>

-

-<p>Joe had tied the rope to a ring on the side of

-the stable. The boys stepped back to see if the

-dog would eat or drink if they were not so close

-to him. Then it was that the creature flew into

-an awful spasm. He rose up, his eyes rolling,

-trembling in every limb, and trying to break the

-rope that fastened him to the barn. Froth flew

-from his clashing jaws. His teeth were terrible

-fangs. He fell, rolling over, snapping at the

-water-dish. The boys, even Joe, ran screaming

-from the spot.</p>

-

-<p>At the moment Dorothy, Tavia and Jennie came

-walking down the path toward the stables. They

-heard the boys scream and all three started to

-run. Ned and Nat, nearer the house, saw the

-girls running and they likewise bounded down the

-sloping lawn.</p>

-

-<p>Around the corner of the stables came Joe and

-Roger, the former almost dragging the smaller

-boy by the hand. And, almost at the same instant,

-appeared the dog, the broken rope trailing, bounding,

-snapping, rolling over, acting as insanely as

-ever a dog acted.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! what’s the matter?” cried Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Keep away from that dog!” shrieked Tavia,

-stopping short and seizing both Dorothy and Jennie.

-“He’s mad!”</p>

-

-<p>The dog was blindly running, this way and

-that, the foam dripping from his clashing jaws.

-He was, indeed, a most fearful sight. He had no

-real intention in his savage charges, for a beast

-so afflicted with rabies loses eyesight as well as

-sense; but suddenly he bounded directly for the

-three girls.</p>

-

-<p>They all shrieked in alarm, even Dorothy. Yet

-the latter the better held her self-possession than

-the others. She heard Jennie scream: “Oh, Ned!”

-while Tavia cried: “Oh, Nat!”</p>

-

-<p>The young men were at the spot in a moment.

-Nat had picked up a croquet mallet and one good

-blow laid the poor dog out—harmless forever

-more.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia had seized the rescuer’s arm, Jennie was

-clinging to Ned. Dorothy, awake at last to the

-facts of the situation, made a great discovery—and

-almost laughed, serious as the peril had been.</p>

-

-<p>“I believe I know which is which now,” she

-thought, forgetting her alarm.</p>

-<br>

-

-<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p108" style="max-width: 40.75em;">

-  <img class="w100" src="images/p108.jpg" alt="">

-  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">SUDDENLY HE BOUNDED DIRECTLY FOR THE THREE GIRLS.</p>

-

-<div>

- <p class="fs80" style="float: left;"><em>Dorothy Dale’s Engagement</em></p>

- <p class="fs80" style="float: right;"><em>Page <a href="#Page_108">108</a></em></p>

-</div>

-<div style="clear:both;"></div>

-</figcaption>

-</figure>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span>

-<div class="chapter">

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV<br>

-<span class="fs80">TAVIA IS DETERMINED</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>“After that scare I’m afraid the boys will have

-to go without a bird dog,” Tavia said that night

-as she and Dorothy were brushing their hair before

-the latter’s dressing-glass.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia and Jennie and Ned and Nat were almost

-inseparable during the daytime; but when the

-time came to retire the flyaway girl had to have

-an old-time “confab,” as she expressed it, with

-her chum.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy was so bright and so busy all day long

-that nobody discovered—not even the major—that

-she was rather “out of it.” The two couples

-of young folk sometimes ran away and left Dorothy

-busy at some domestic task in which she

-claimed to find much more interest than in the

-fun her friends and cousins were having.</p>

-

-<p>“It would have been a terrible thing if the poor

-dog had bitten one of us,” Dorothy replied. “Dr.

-Agnew, the veterinary, says without doubt it was

-afflicted with rabies.”</p>

-

-<p>“And how scared your Aunt Winnie was!”

-Then Tavia began to giggle. “She will be so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span>

-afraid of anything that barks now, that she’ll

-want all the trees cut down around the house.”</p>

-

-<p>“That pun is unworthy of you, my dear,” Dorothy

-said placidly.</p>

-

-<p>“Dear me, Doro Doodlekins!” exclaimed

-Tavia, suddenly and affectionately, coming close

-to her chum and kissing her warmly. “You are

-such a tabby-cat all of a sudden. Why! <em>you</em> have

-grown up, while the rest of us are only kids.”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes; I am very settled,” observed Dorothy,

-smiling into the mirror at her friend. “A cap for

-me and knitting very soon, Tavia. Then I shall

-sit in the chimney corner and think——”</p>

-

-<p>“Think about whom, my dear?” Tavia asked

-saucily. “That Garry Knapp, I bet.”</p>

-

-<p>“I wouldn’t <em>bet</em>,” sighed Dorothy. “It isn’t

-ladylike.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh—de-ah—me!” groaned Tavia. “You are

-thinking of him just the same.”</p>

-

-<p>“I happened to be just now,” admitted Dorothy,

-and without blushing this time.</p>

-

-<p>“No! were you really?” demanded Tavia, eagerly.

-“Isn’t it funny he doesn’t write?”</p>

-

-<p>“No. Not at all.”</p>

-

-<p>“But you’d think he would write and thank you

-for your letter if nothing more,” urged the argumentative

-Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“No,” said Dorothy again.</p>

-

-<p>“Why not?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Because Mr. Knapp never got my letter,”

-Dorothy said, opening her bureau drawer and pulling

-the letter out from under some things laid

-there. “See. It was returned to-day.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Dorothy!” gasped Tavia, both startled

-and troubled.</p>

-

-<p>“Yes. It—it didn’t reach him somehow,”

-Dorothy said, and she could not keep the trouble

-entirely out of her voice.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, my <em>dear</em>!” repeated Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“And I am sorry,” her friend went on to say;

-“for now he will not know about the intentions of

-those men, Stiffbold and Lightly.”</p>

-

-<p>“But, goodness! it serves him right,” exclaimed

-Tavia, suddenly. “He didn’t give us his right address.”</p>

-

-<p>“He gave us no address,” said Dorothy, sadly.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, yes! he said Desert City——”</p>

-

-<p>“He mentioned that place and said that his land

-was somewhere near there. But he works on a

-ranch, which, perhaps, is a long way from Desert

-City.”</p>

-

-<p>“That’s so,” grumbled Tavia. “I forgot he’s

-only a cowboy.”</p>

-

-<p>At this Dorothy flushed a little and Tavia,

-looking at her sideways and eagerly, noted the

-flush. Her eyes danced for a moment, for the girl

-was naturally chock-full of mischief.</p>

-

-<p>But in a moment the expression of Tavia Travers’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span>

-face changed. Dorothy was pensively gazing

-in the glass; she had halted in her hair brushing,

-and Tavia knew that her chum neither saw her

-own reflection nor anything else pictured in the

-mirror. The mirror of her mind held Dorothy’s

-attention, and Tavia could easily guess the vision

-there. A tall, broad-shouldered, broad-hatted

-young man with a frank and handsome face and

-a ready smile that dimpled one bronzed cheek ever

-so little and wrinkled the outer corners of his clear,

-far-seeing eyes.</p>

-

-<p>Garry Knapp!</p>

-

-<p>Tavia for the first time realized that Dorothy

-had found interest and evidently a deep and abiding

-interest, in the young stranger from Desert

-City. It rather shocked her. Dorothy, of all

-persons, to become so very deeply interested in a

-man about whom they knew practically nothing.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia suddenly realized that she knew more

-about him than Dorothy did. At least, she had

-been with Garry Knapp more than had her friend.

-It was Tavia who had had the two hours’ tête-à-tête

-with the Westerner at dinner on the evening

-before Garry Knapp departed so suddenly for the

-West. All that happened and was said at that

-dinner suddenly unrolled like a panorama before

-Tavia’s memory.</p>

-

-<p>Why! she could picture it all plainly. She had

-been highly delighted herself in the recovery of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span>

-her bag and in listening to Garry’s story of how

-it had been returned by the cash-girl’s sister. And,

-of course, she had been pleased to be dining alone

-with a fine looking young man in a hotel dining-room.

-She had rattled on when her turn came to

-talk, just as irresponsibly as usual.</p>

-

-<p>Now, in thinking over the occasion, she realized

-that the young man from the West had been

-a shrewd questioner. He had got her started

-upon Dorothy Dale, and before they came to the

-little cups of black coffee Tavia had told just about

-all she knew regarding her chum.</p>

-

-<p>The reader may be sure that all Tavia said was

-to Dorothy’s glory. She had little need to explain

-to Garry Knapp what a beautiful character Dorothy

-Dale possessed. Tavia had told about Dorothy’s

-family, her Aunt Winnie’s wealth, the fortunes

-Major Dale now possessed both in the East

-and West, and the fact that when Dorothy came

-of age, at twenty-one, she would be wealthy in her

-own right. She had said all this to a young man

-who was struggling along as a cowpuncher on a

-Western ranch, and whose patrimony was a piece

-of rundown land that he could sell but for a

-song, as he admitted himself. “And no chorus

-to it!” Tavia thought.</p>

-

-<p>“I’m a bonehead!” she suddenly thought

-fiercely. “Nat would say my noodle is solid ivory.

-I know now what was the matter with Garry<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span>

-Knapp that evening. I know why he rushed up

-to me and asked for Dorothy, and was what the

-novelists call ‘distrait’ during our dinner. Oh,

-what a worm I am! A miserable, squirmy worm!

-Ugh!” and the conscience-stricken girl fairly shuddered

-at her own reflection in the mirror and

-turned away quickly so that Dorothy should not

-see her features.</p>

-

-<p>“It’s—it’s the most <em>wonderful</em> thing. And it

-began right under my nose, my poor little ‘re-trousered’

-nose, as Joe called it the other day, and I

-didn’t really see it! I thought it was just a fancy

-on Dorothy’s part! And I never thought of

-Garry Knapp’s side of it at all! Oh, my heaven!”

-groaned Tavia, deep in her own soul. “Why

-wasn’t I born with some good sense instead of

-good looks? I—I’ve spoiled my chum’s life, perhaps.

-Goodness! it can’t be so bad as that.</p>

-

-<p>“Of course, Garry Knapp is just the sort of

-fellow who would raise a barrier of Dorothy’s

-riches between them. Goodness me!” added the

-practical Tavia, “I’d like to see any barrier of

-wealth stop <em>me</em> if I wanted a man. I’d shin the

-wall in a hurry so as to be on the same side of it

-as he was.”</p>

-

-<p>She would have laughed at this fancy had she

-not taken a look at Dorothy’s face again.</p>

-

-<p>“Good-night!” she shouted into her chum’s ear,

-hugged her tight, kissed her loudly, and ran away<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span>

-into her own room. Once there, she cried all the

-time she was disrobing, getting into her lacy nightgown,

-and pulling down the bedclothes.</p>

-

-<p>Then she did not immediately go to bed. Instead,

-she tiptoed back to the connecting door and

-closed it softly. She turned on the hanging electric

-light over the desk.</p>

-

-<p>“I’ll do it!” she said, with determined mien.

-“I’ll write to Lance Petterby.” And she did so.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV<br>

-<span class="fs80">THE SLIDE ON SNAKE HILL</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Joe and Roger marched down at an early breakfast

-hour from the upper regions of the big white

-house, singing energetically if not melodiously a

-pæan of joy:</p>

-

-<div class="poetry-container">

-<div class="poetry">

-  <div class="stanza">

-    <div class="verse indent0">“‘The frog he would a-wooing go——</div>

-    <div class="verse indent4">Bully for you! Bully for all!</div>

-    <div class="verse indent2">The frog he would a-wooing go——</div>

-    <div class="verse indent4">Bully for all, we say!’”</div>

-  </div>

-</div>

-</div>

-

-<p>The boys’ determination to reach the low register

-of a bullfrog in that “bully for all” line was

-very, very funny, especially in Roger’s case, for

-his speaking voice was naturally a shrill treble.</p>

-

-<p>Their joy, however, awoke any sleepers there

-might have been in the house, and most of them

-came to their bedroom doors and peered out.</p>

-

-<p>“What’s the matter with you blamed little rascals?”

-Ned, in a purple bathrobe, demanded.</p>

-

-<p>“Wouldn’t you boys just as lief sing as to make

-that noise?” Nat, in a gray robe, and at his door,

-questioned.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span></p>

-

-<p>But he grinned at his small cousins, for it hadn’t

-been so long ago that he was just as much of a

-boy as they were.</p>

-

-<p>“Hello, kids!” cried Tavia, sticking out a tousled

-head from her room. “Tell us: What’s the

-good news?”</p>

-

-<p>Jennie Hapgood peered out for an instant, saw

-Ned and Nat, and darted back with an exclamatory

-“Oh!”</p>

-

-<p>“I—I thought something had happened,” she

-faintly said, closing her door all but a crack.</p>

-

-<p>“Something has,” declared Joe.</p>

-

-<p>“What is it, boys?” asked Dorothy, appearing

-fully dressed from her room. “The ice?”</p>

-

-<p>“What ice?” demanded Tavia. “Has the iceman

-come so early? Tell him to leave a big ten-cent

-piece.”</p>

-

-<p>“Huh!” grunted Roger, “there’s a whole lot

-more than a ten-cent piece outside, and you’d see

-it if you’d put up your shade. The whole world’s

-ice-covered.”</p>

-

-<p>“So it is,” Joe agreed.</p>

-

-<p>“There was rain last evening, you know,” Dorothy

-said, starting down the lower flight of stairs

-briskly. “And then it turned very cold. Everything

-is sheathed in ice out-of-doors. Doesn’t the

-warm air from the registers feel nice? I <em>do</em> love

-dry heat, even if it is more expensive.”</p>

-

-<p>“Bully!” roared Nat, who had darted back to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span>

-run up the shade at one of the windows in his

-room. “Look out, girls! it’s great.”</p>

-

-<p>Every twig on every bush and tree and every

-fence rail and post were covered with glistening

-ice. The sun, just rising red and rosy as though

-he had but now come from a vigorous morning

-bath, threw his rays in profusion over this fairy

-world and made a most spectacular scene for the

-young people to look out upon. In an hour all of

-them were out of doors to enjoy the spectacle in

-a “close up,” as Tavia called it.</p>

-

-<p>“And we all ought to have spectacles!” she exclaimed

-a little later. “This glare is blinding, and

-we’ll all have blinky, squinty eyes by night.”</p>

-

-<p>“Automobile goggles—for all hands!” exclaimed

-Nat. “They’re all smoked glasses, too.

-I’ll get ’em,” and he started for the garage.</p>

-

-<p>“But no automobile to-day,” laughed Jennie.

-“Think of the skidding on this sheet of ice.” For

-the ground was sheathed by Jack Frost, as well

-as the trees and bushes and fences.</p>

-

-<p>Joe and Roger, well wrapped up, were just

-starting from the back door and Dorothy hailed

-them:</p>

-

-<p>“Where away, my hearties? Ahoy!”</p>

-

-<p>“Aw—we’re just going sliding,” said Roger,

-stuttering.</p>

-

-<p>“Where?” demanded the determined older sister.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Snake Hill,” said Joe, shortly. He loved

-Dorothy; but this having girls “butting in” all the

-time frayed his manly patience.</p>

-

-<p>“Take care and don’t get hurt, boys!” called

-Tavia, roguishly, knowing well that the sisterly advice

-was on the tip of Dorothy’s tongue and that

-it would infuriate the small boys.</p>

-

-<p>“Aw, you——”</p>

-

-<p>Joe did not get any farther, for Nat in passing

-gave him a look. But he shrugged his shoulders

-and went on with Roger without replying to

-Tavia’s advice.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, what fun!” cried Jennie Hapgood, suddenly.

-“Couldn’t <em>we</em> go coasting?”</p>

-

-<p>“Sure we could,” Ned agreed instantly. Lately

-he seemed to agree with anything Jennie said and

-that without question.</p>

-

-<p>“Tobogganing—oh, my!” cried Tavia, quick

-to seize upon a new scheme for excitement and fun.

-Then she turned suddenly serious and added: “If

-Dorothy will go. Not otherwise.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy laughed at her openly. “Why not,

-Tavia?” she demanded. “Are you afraid to trust

-the boys unless I’m along? I know they are

-awful cut-ups.”</p>

-

-<p>“I feel that Jennie and I should be more carefully

-chaperoned,” Tavia declared with serious

-lips but twinkling eyes.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! <em>Oh!</em> OH!” in crescendo from Nat, returning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span>

-in time to hear this. “Who needs a ‘bag

-o’ bones’——Excuse me! ‘Chaperon,’ I mean?

-What’s afoot?”</p>

-

-<p>Just then he slipped on the glare ice at the foot

-of the porch steps and went down with a crash.</p>

-

-<p>“You’re not, old man,” cried Ned as the girls

-squealed. “I hope you have your shock-absorbers

-on. That was a jim-dandy!”</p>

-

-<p>“Did—did it hurt you, Nat?” begged Tavia,

-with clasped hands.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh-ugh!” grunted Nat, gingerly arising and

-examining the handful of goggles he carried to

-see if they were all right. “Every bone in my

-body is broken. Gee! that was some smash.”</p>

-

-<p>“Do it again, dear,” Ned teased. “Your

-mother didn’t happen to see you and she’s at the

-window now.”</p>

-

-<p>“Aw, you go fish!” retorted the younger

-brother, for his dignity was hurt if nothing else.

-“Wish it had been you.”</p>

-

-<p>“So do I,” sighed Ned. “I’d have done it so

-much more gracefully. You see, practice in the

-tango and foxtrot, not to mention other and more

-intricate dance steps, <em>does</em> help one. And you

-never would give proper attention to your dancing,

-Sonny.”</p>

-

-<p>“Here!” threatened Nat. “I’ll dance one of

-my fists off your ear——”</p>

-

-<p>“I shall have to part you boys,” broke in Dorothy.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span>

-“Threatening each other with corporal punishment—and

-before the ladies.”</p>

-

-<p>“Why,” declared Ned, hugging his brother in

-a bearlike hug as Nat reached his level on the

-porch. “He can beat me to death if he likes, the

-dear little thing! Come on, ’Thaniel. What do

-you say to giving the girls a slide?”</p>

-

-<p>“Heh?” ejaculated Nat. “What do you want

-to let ’em slide for? Got sick of ’em so quick?

-Where are your manners?”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Ned!” groaned Tavia. “Don’t you want

-us hanging around any more?”</p>

-

-<p>“I am surprised at Mr. Edward,” Jennie joined

-in.</p>

-

-<p>“Gee, Edward,” said Nat, grinning, “but you

-do put your foot in your mouth every time you

-open it.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy laughed at them all, but made no comment.

-Despite her late seriousness she was jolly

-enough when she was one of the party. And she

-agreed to be one to-day.</p>

-

-<p>It was decided to get out Nat’s old “double-ripper,”

-see that it was all right, and at once start

-for Snake Hill, where the smaller boys had already

-gone.</p>

-

-<p>“For this sun is going to melt the ice a good

-deal by noon. Of course, it will be only a short

-cold snap this time of year,” Dorothy said, with

-her usual practical sense.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span></p>

-

-<p>They were some time in setting out, and it was

-not because the girls “prinked,” as Tavia pointed

-out.</p>

-

-<p>“I’d have you know we have been waiting five

-whole minutes,” she proclaimed when Ned and

-Nat drew the long, rusty-ironed, double-ripper sled

-out of the barn. “For once you boys cannot complain.”</p>

-

-<p>“Those kids had been trying to use this big sled,

-I declare,” Nat said. “And I had to find a couple

-of new bolts. Don’t want to break down on the

-hill and spill you girls.”</p>

-

-<p>“That would be spilling the beans for fair,”

-Ned put in. “Oh, beg pardon! Be-ings, I mean.

-Get aboard, beautiful beings, and we’ll drag you

-to the foot of the hill.”</p>

-

-<p>They went on down the back road and into the

-woods with much merriment. The foot of Snake

-Hill was a mile and a half from The Cedars.

-Part of the hill was rough and wild, and there

-was not a farm upon its side anywhere.</p>

-

-<p>“I wonder where the kids are making their

-slide?” said Tavia, easily.</p>

-

-<p>“That’s why I am glad we came this way,”

-Dorothy confessed. “They might be tempted to

-slide down on this steep side, instead of going

-over to the Washington Village road. <em>That’s</em>

-smooth.”</p>

-

-<p>“Trust the boys for finding the most dangerous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span>

-place,” Jennie Hapgood remarked. “I never

-saw their like.”</p>

-

-<p>“That’s because you only have an older

-brother,” said Dorothy, wisely. “He was past

-his reckless age while you were still in pinafores

-and pigtails.”</p>

-

-<p>“Reckless age!” scoffed Tavia. “When does

-a boy or a man ever cease to be reckless?”</p>

-

-<p>“Right-oh!” agreed Nat, looking back along the

-towline of the sled. “See how he forever puts

-himself within the danger zone of pretty girls.

-Gee! but Ned and I are a reckless team! What

-say, Neddie?”</p>

-

-<p>“I say do your share of the pulling,” returned

-his brother. “Those girls are no feather-weights,

-and this is up hill.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, to be so insulted!” murmured Tavia.

-“To accuse us of bearing extra flesh about with us

-when we all follow Lovely Lucy Larriper’s directions,

-given in the <cite>Evening Bazoo</cite>. Not a pound

-of the superfluous do we carry.”</p>

-

-<p>“Dorothy’s getting chunky,” announced Nat,

-wickedly.</p>

-

-<p>“You’re another!” cried Tavia, standing up for

-her chum. “Her lovely curves are to be praised—oh!”</p>

-

-<p>At that moment the young men ran the runners

-on one side of the sled over an ice-covered stump,

-and the girls all joined in Tavia’s scream. If there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span>

-had not been handholds they would all three have

-been ignominiously dumped off.</p>

-

-<p>“Pardon, ladies! Watch your step!” Ned said.

-“And don’t get us confused with your ‘beauty-talks’

-business. Besides, it isn’t really modest. I always

-blush myself when I inadvertently turn over

-to the woman’s page of the evening paper. It is

-a delicate place for mere man to tread.”</p>

-

-<p>“Hooray!” ejaculated his brother, making a

-false step himself just then. “Wish I had creepers

-on. <em>This</em> is a mighty delicate place for a fellow

-to tread, too, my boy.”</p>

-

-<p>In fact, they soon had to order the girls off the

-sled. The way was becoming too steep and the

-side of the hill was just as slick as the highway

-had been.</p>

-

-<p>With much laughter and not a few terrified

-“squawks,” to quote Tavia, the girls scrambled

-up the slope after the boys and the sled. Suddenly

-piercing screams came from above them.</p>

-

-<p>“Those rascals!” ejaculated Ned.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! they <em>are</em> sliding on this side,” cried Dorothy.

-“Stop them, Ned! Please, Nat!”</p>

-

-<p>“What do you expect us to do?” demanded the

-latter. “Run out and catch ’em with our bare

-hands?”</p>

-

-<p>They had come to a break in the path now and

-could see out over the sloping pasture in which

-the boys had been sliding for an hour. Their sled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span>

-had worked a plain path down the hill; but at the

-foot of it was an abrupt drop over the side of a

-gully. Dorothy Dale—and her cousins, too—knew

-that gully very well. There was a cave in

-it, and in and about that cave they had once had

-some very exciting adventures.</p>

-

-<p>Joe and Roger had selected the smoothest part

-of the pasture to coast in, it was true; but the

-party of young folk just arrived could see that it

-was a very dangerous place as well. At the foot

-of the slide was a little bank overhanging the

-gully. The smaller boys had been stopping their

-sled right on the brink, and with a jolt, for the

-watchers could see Joe’s heelprints in the ground

-where the ice had been broken away.</p>

-

-<p>They could hear the boys screaming out a school

-song at the top of the hill. Ned and Nat roared

-a command to Joe and Roger to halt in their mad

-career; but the two smaller boys were making so

-much noise that it was evident their cousins’ shout

-was not heard by them.</p>

-

-<p>They came down, Joe sitting ahead on the sled

-with his brother hanging on behind, the feet of the

-boy sitting in front thrust out to halt the sled.

-But if the sled should jump over the barrier, the

-two reckless boys would fall twenty feet to the

-bottom of the gully.</p>

-

-<p>“Stop them, do!” groaned Jennie Hapgood,

-who was a timid girl.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p>

-

-<p>It was Dorothy who looked again at the little

-mound on the edge of gully’s bank. The frost

-had got into the earth there, for it had been freezing

-weather for several days before the ice storm

-of the previous night. Now the sun was shining

-full on the spot, and she could see where the boys’

-feet, colliding with that lump of earth on the verge

-of the declivity, had knocked off the ice and bared

-the earth completely. There was, too, a long

-crack along the edge of the slight precipice.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, boys!” she called to Ned and Nat, who

-were struggling up the hill once more, “stop them,

-do! You must! That bank is crumbling away.

-If they come smashing down upon it again they

-may go over the brink, sled and all!”</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI<br>

-<span class="fs80">THE FLY IN THE AMBER</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>“Oh, Dorothy!” cried Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>Jennie, with a shudder, buried her face in her

-hands.</p>

-

-<p>Joe and Roger Dale were fairly flying down the

-hill, and would endeavor to stop by collision with

-the same lump of frozen earth that had previously

-been their bulwark.</p>

-

-<p>“See! Ned! Nat!” cried Dorothy again. “We

-must stop them!”</p>

-

-<p>But how stop the boys already rushing down

-hill on their coaster? It seemed an impossible

-feat.</p>

-

-<p>The White brothers dropped the towline of the

-big sled and scrambled along the slippery slope

-toward the edge of the gully.</p>

-

-<p>With a whoop of delight the two smaller boys,

-on their red coaster, whisked past the girls.</p>

-

-<p>“Stop them!” shrieked the three in chorus.</p>

-

-<p>Ned reached the edge of the gully bank first.

-His weight upon the cracking earth sent the slight

-barrier crashing over the brink. Just as they had

-supposed there was not a possible chance of Joe’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span>

-stopping the sled when it came down to this perilous

-spot.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia groaned and wrung her hands. Jennie

-burst out crying. Dorothy knew she could not

-help, yet she staggered after Ned and Nat, unable

-to remain inactive like the other girls.</p>

-

-<p>Ned recovered himself from the slippery edge

-of the bank; but by a hair’s breadth only was he

-saved from being thrown to the bottom of the

-gully. He crossed the slide in a bound and

-whirled swiftly, gesturing to his brother to stay

-back. Nat understood and stopped abruptly.</p>

-

-<p>“You grab Roger—I’ll take Joe!” panted Ned.</p>

-

-<p>Just then the smaller boys on the sled rushed

-down upon them. Fortunately, the steeper part

-of the hill ended some rods back from the gully’s

-edge. But the momentum the coaster had gained

-brought it and its burden of surprised and yelling

-boys at a very swift pace, indeed, down to the

-point where Ned and Nat stood bracing themselves

-upon the icy ground.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, boys!” shrieked Tavia, without understanding

-what Ned and Nat hoped to accomplish.

-“<em>Do something!</em>”</p>

-

-<p>And the very next instant they did!</p>

-

-<p>The coaster came shooting down to the verge

-of the gully bank. Joe Dale saw that the bank

-had given way and he could not stop the sled.

-Nor did he dare try to swerve it to one side.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span></p>

-

-<p>Ned and Nat, staring at the imperilled coasters,

-saw the look of fear come into Joe’s face.

-Ned shouted:</p>

-

-<p>“Let go all holds! We’ll grab you! Quick!”</p>

-

-<p>Joe was a quick-minded boy after all. He was

-holding the steering lines. Roger was clinging to

-his shoulders. If Joe dropped the lines, both boys

-would be free of the sled.</p>

-

-<p>That is what he did. Ned swooped and

-grabbed Joe. Nat seized upon the shrieking and

-surprised Roger. The sled darted out from beneath

-the two boys and shot over the verge of the

-bank, landing below in the gully with a crash

-among the icy branches of a tree.</p>

-

-<p>“Wha—what did you do that for?” Roger demanded

-of Nat, as the latter set him firmly on his

-feet.</p>

-

-<p>“Just for instance, kid,” growled Nat. “We

-ought to have let you both go.”</p>

-

-<p>“And I guess we would if it hadn’t been for

-Dorothy,” added Ned, rising from where he had

-fallen with Joe on top of him.</p>

-

-<p>“Cracky!” gasped Joe. “We’d have gone

-straight over that bank that time, wouldn’t we?

-Gee, Roger! we’d have broken our necks!”</p>

-

-<p>Even Roger was impressed by this stated fact.

-“Oh, Dorothy!” he cried, “isn’t it lucky you happened

-along, so’s to tell Ned and Nat what to do?

-I wouldn’t care to have a broken neck.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span></p>

-

-<p>“You are very right, kid,” growled Nat. “It’s

-Dorothy ‘as does it’—always. She is the observant

-little lady who puts us wise to every danger.

-‘Who ran to catch me when I fell?’ My cousin!”</p>

-

-<p>“Hold your horses, son,” advised his brother,

-with seriousness. “It was Dorothy who smelled

-out the danger all right.”</p>

-

-<p>“I do delight in the metaphors you boys use,”

-broke in Dorothy. “I might be a beagle-hound,

-according to Ned. ‘Smelled out,’ indeed!”</p>

-

-<p>“Aren’t you horrid?” sighed Jennie, for they

-were all toiling up the hill again.</p>

-

-<p>Ned put the cup of his hand under Jennie’s

-elbow and helped her over a particularly glary

-spot. “Boys are very good folk,” he said, smiling

-down into her pretty face, “if you take them just

-right. But they are explosive, of course.”</p>

-

-<p>Nat, likewise helping to drag the big sled, was

-walking beside Tavia. Dorothy looked from one

-couple to the other, smiled, and then found that

-her eyes were misty.</p>

-

-<p>“Why!” she gasped under her breath, “I believe

-I am getting to be a sour old maid. I am

-jealous!”</p>

-

-<p>She turned her attention to the smaller boys and

-they all went gaily up the hill. Nobody was going

-to discover that Dorothy Dale felt blue—not if

-she could possibly help it!</p>

-

-<p>Over on the other side of the hill where the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span>

-smooth road lay the party had a wonderfully invigorating

-coasting time. They all piled upon the

-double-ripper—Joe and Roger, too—and after

-the first two or three slides, the runners became

-freed of rust and the heavy sled fairly flew.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! this is great—great!” cried Tavia. “It’s

-just like flying. I always did want to fly up into

-the blue empyrean——”</p>

-

-<p>They were then resting at the top of the hill.

-Nat turned over on his back upon the sled,

-struggled with all four limbs, and uttered a soul-searching:

-“Woof! woof! Ow-row-row! Woof!”</p>

-

-<p>“Get up, silly!” ordered Tavia. “Whenever I

-have any flight of fancy <em>you</em> always make it fall

-flat.”</p>

-

-<p>“And if you tried a literal flight into the empyrean—ugh!—you’d

-fall flat without any help,”

-declared Nat. “But we don’t want you to fly

-away from us, Tavia. We couldn’t get along

-without you.”</p>

-

-<p>“‘Thank you, kindly, sir, she said,’” responded

-his gay little friend.</p>

-

-<p>However, Tavia and Nat could be serious on

-occasion. This very day as the party tramped

-home to luncheon, dragging the sleds, having recovered

-the one from the gully, they walked apart,

-and Dorothy noted they were preoccupied. But

-then, so were Ned and Jennie. Dorothy’s eyes

-danced now. She had recovered her poise.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span></p>

-

-<p>“It’s great fun,” she whispered to her aunt,

-when they were back in the house. “Watching

-people who are pairing off, I mean. I know ‘which

-is which’ all right now. And I guess you do, too,

-Aunt Winnie?”</p>

-

-<p>Mrs. White nodded and smiled. There was

-nothing to fear regarding this intimacy between

-her big sons and Dorothy’s pretty friends. Indeed,

-she could wish for no better thing to happen

-than that Ned and Nat should become interested

-in Tavia and Jennie.</p>

-

-<p>“But you, my dear?” she asked Dorothy, slyly.

-“Hadn’t we better be finding somebody for you

-to walk and talk with?”</p>

-

-<p>“I must play chaperon,” declared Dorothy,

-gaily. “No, no! I am going to be an old maid,

-I tell you, Auntie dear.” And to herself she

-added: “But never a sour, disagreeable, jealous

-one! Never <em>that</em>!”</p>

-

-<p>Not that in secret Dorothy did not have many

-heavy thoughts when she remembered Garry

-Knapp or anything connected with him.</p>

-

-<p>“We must send those poor girls some Christmas

-remembrances,” Dorothy said to Tavia, and

-Tavia understood whom she meant without having

-it explained to her.</p>

-

-<p>“Of course we will,” she cried. “You would

-not let me give Forty-seven and her sister as much

-money as I wanted to for finding my bag.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span></p>

-

-<p>“No. I don’t think it does any good to put a

-premium on honesty,” Dorothy said gravely.</p>

-

-<p>“Huh! that’s just what Garry Knapp said,”

-said Tavia, reflectively.</p>

-

-<p>“But now,” Dorothy hastened to add, “we can

-send them both at Christmas time something really

-worth while.”</p>

-

-<p>“Something warm to wear,” said Tavia, more

-than ordinarily thoughtful. “They have to go

-through the cold streets to work in all weathers.”</p>

-

-<p>It seemed odd, but Dorothy noticed that her

-chum remained rather serious all that day. In

-the evening Nat came in with the mail bag and

-dumped its contents on the hall table. This was

-just before dinner and usually the cry of “Mail!”

-up the stairway brought most of the family into

-the big entrance hall.</p>

-

-<p>Down tripped Tavia with the other girls; Ned

-lounged in from the library; Joe and Roger appeared,

-although they seldom had any letters, only

-funny postal cards from their old-time chums at

-Dalton and from local school friends.</p>

-

-<p>Mrs. White took her mail off to her own room.

-She walked without her crutch now, but favored

-the lame ankle. Joe seized upon his father’s mail

-and ran to find him.</p>

-

-<p>Nat sorted the letters out swiftly. Everybody

-had a few. Suddenly he hesitated as he picked

-up a rather coarse envelope on which Tavia’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span>

-name was scrawled. In the upper left-hand corner

-was written: “L. Petterby.”</p>

-

-<p>“Great Peter!” he gasped, shooting a questioning

-glance at Tavia. “Does that cowpuncher write

-to you still?”</p>

-

-<p>Perhaps there was something like an accusation

-in Nat’s tone. At least, it was not just the

-tone to take with such a high-spirited person as

-Tavia. Her head came up and her eyes flashed.

-She reached for the letter.</p>

-

-<p>“Isn’t that nice!” she cried. “Another from

-dear old Lance. He’s <em>such</em> a desperately determined

-chap.”</p>

-

-<p>At first the other young folk had not noted

-Nat’s tone or Tavia’s look. But the young man’s

-next query all understood:</p>

-

-<p>“Still at it, are you, Tavia? Can’t possibly

-keep from stringing ’em along? It’s meat and

-drink to you, isn’t it?”</p>

-

-<p>“Why, of course,” drawled Tavia, two red

-spots in her cheeks.</p>

-

-<p>She walked away, slitting Lance Petterby’s envelope

-as she went. Nat’s brow was clouded, and

-all through dinner he said very little. Tavia

-seemed livelier and more social than ever, but

-Dorothy apprehended “the fly in the amber.”</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII<br>

-<span class="fs80">“DO YOU UNDERSTAND TAVIA?”</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>“You got this old timer running round in circles,

-Miss Tavia, when you ask about a feller

-named Garford Knapp anywhere in this latitude,

-and working for a feller named Bob. There’s

-more ‘Bobs’ running ranches out here than there

-is bobwhites down there East where you live. Too

-bad you can’t remember this here Bob’s last name,

-or his brand.</p>

-

-<p>“Now, come to think, there was a feller named

-‘Dimples’ Knapp used to be found in Desert City,

-but not in Hardin. And you ought to see Hardin—it’s

-growing some!”</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>This was a part of what was in Lance Petterby’s

-letter. Had Nat White been allowed to read

-it he would have learned something else—something

-that not only would have surprised him and

-his brother and cousin, but would have served to

-burn away at once the debris of trouble that

-seemed suddenly heaped between Tavia and himself.</p>

-

-<p>It was true that Tavia had kept up her correspondence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span>

-with the good-natured and good-looking

-cowboy in whom, while she was West, she had

-become interested, and that against the advice of

-Dorothy Dale. She did this for a reason deeper

-than mere mischief.</p>

-

-<p>Lance Petterby had confided in her more than

-in any of the other Easterners of the party that

-had come to the big Hardin ranch. Lance was in

-love with a school teacher of the district while the

-party from the East was at Hardin; and now he

-had been some months married to the woman of

-his choice.</p>

-

-<p>When Tavia read bits of his letters, even to

-Dorothy, she skipped all mention of Lance’s romance

-and his marriage. This she did, it is true,

-because of a mischievous desire to plague her chum

-and Ned and Nat. Of late, since affairs had become

-truly serious between Nat and herself, she

-would have at any time explained the joke to Nat

-had she thought of it, or had he asked her about

-Lance.</p>

-

-<p>The very evening previous to the arrival of this

-letter from the cowpuncher to which Nat had so

-unwisely objected, Nat and Tavia had gone for

-a walk together in the crisp December moonlight

-and had talked very seriously.</p>

-

-<p>Nat, although as full of fun as Tavia herself,

-could be grave; and he made his intention and his

-desires very plain to the girl. Tavia would not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span>

-show him all that was in her heart. That was not

-her way. She was always inclined to hide her

-deeper feelings beneath a light manner and light

-words. But she was brave and she was honest.

-When he pinned her right down to the question,

-yes or no, Tavia looked courageously into Nat’s

-eyes and said:</p>

-

-<p>“Yes, Nat. <em>I do.</em> But somebody besides you

-must ask me before I will agree to—to ‘make you

-happy’ as you call it.”</p>

-

-<p>“For the good land’s sake!” gasped Nat.

-“Who’s business is it but ours? If you love me

-as I love you——”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes, I know,” interrupted Tavia, with laughter

-breaking forth. “‘No knife can cut our love

-in two.’ But, <em>dear</em>——”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!”</p>

-

-<p>“Wait, honey,” she whispered, with her face

-close pressed against his shoulder. “No! don’t

-kiss me now. You’ve kissed me before—in fun.

-The next time you kiss me it must be in solemn

-earnest.”</p>

-

-<p>“By heaven, girl!” exclaimed Nat, hoarsely.

-“Do you think I am fooling now?”</p>

-

-<p>“No, boy,” she whispered, looking up at him

-again suddenly. “But somebody else must ask

-me before I have a right to promise what you

-want.”</p>

-

-<p>“Who?” demanded Nat, in alarm.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span></p>

-

-<p>“You know that I am a poor girl. Not only

-that, but I do not come from the same stock that

-you do. There is no blue blood in my veins,”

-and she uttered a little laugh that might have

-sounded bitter had there not been the tremor of

-tears in it.</p>

-

-<p>“What nonsense, Tavia!” the young man cried,

-shaking her gently by the shoulders.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh no, Nat! Wait! I am a poor girl and I

-come of very, very common stock. I don’t mean

-I am ashamed of my poverty, or of the fact that

-my father and mother both sprang from the laboring

-class.</p>

-

-<p>“But you might be expected when you marry

-to take for a wife a girl from a family whose

-forebears were <em>something</em>. Mine were not.

-Why, one of my grandfathers was an immigrant

-and dug ditches——”</p>

-

-<p>“Pshaw! I had a relative who dug a ditch, too.

-In Revolutionary times——”</p>

-

-<p>“That is it exactly,” Tavia hastened to say.

-“I know about him. He helped dig the breastworks

-on Breeds Hill and was wounded in the

-Battle of Bunker Hill. I know all about that.

-Your people were Pilgrim and Dutch stock.”</p>

-

-<p>“Immigrants, too,” said Nat, muttering. “And

-maybe some of them left their country across the

-seas for their country’s good.”</p>

-

-<p>“It doesn’t matter,” said the shrewd Tavia.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span>

-“Being an immigrant in America in sixteen hundred

-is one thing. Being an immigrant in the latter

-end of the nineteenth century is an entirely

-different pair of boots.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!”</p>

-

-<p>“No. Your mother has been as kind to me—and

-for years and years—as though I were her

-niece, too, instead of just one of Dorothy’s friends.

-She may have other plans for her sons, Nat.”</p>

-

-<p>“Nonsense!”</p>

-

-<p>“I will not answer you,” the girl cried, a little

-wildly now, and began to sob. “Oh, Nat! Nat!

-I have thought of this so much. Your mother

-must ask me, or I can never tell you what I want

-to tell you!”</p>

-

-<p>Nat respected her desire and did not kiss her

-although she clung, sobbing, to him for some moments.

-But after she had wiped away her tears

-and had begun to joke again in her usual way, they

-went back to the house.</p>

-

-<p>And Nat White knew he was walking on air!

-He could not feel the path beneath his feet.</p>

-

-<p>He was obliged to go to town early the next

-morning, and when he returned, as we have seen,

-just before dinner, he brought the mail bag up

-from the North Birchland post-office.</p>

-

-<p>He could not understand Tavia’s attitude regarding

-Lance Petterby’s letter, and he was both

-hurt and jealous. Actually he was jealous!</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Do you understand Tavia?” he asked his

-cousin Dorothy, right after dinner.</p>

-

-<p>“My dear boy,” Dorothy Dale said, “I never

-claimed to be a seer. <em>Who</em> understands Tavia—fully?”</p>

-

-<p>“But you know her better than anybody else.”</p>

-

-<p>“Better than Tavia knows herself, perhaps,”

-admitted Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Well, see here! I’ve asked her to marry

-me——”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Nat! my dear boy! I am so glad!” Dorothy

-cried, and she kissed her cousin warmly.</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t be so hasty with your congratulations,”

-growled Nat, still red and fuming. “She didn’t

-tell me ‘yes.’ I don’t know now that I want her

-to. I want to know what she means, getting letters

-from that fellow out West.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Nat!” sighed Dorothy, looking at him

-levelly. “Are you <em>sure</em> you love her?”</p>

-

-<p>He said nothing more, and Dorothy did not

-add a word. But Tavia waited in vain that evening

-for Mrs. White to come to her and ask the

-question which she had told Nat his mother must

-ask for him.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII<br>

-<span class="fs80">CROSS PURPOSES</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Tavia was as loyal a girl as ever stepped in

-shoe-leather. That was an oft-repeated expression

-of Major Dale’s. He loved “the flyaway”

-for this very attribute.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia was now attempting to bring joy and

-happiness for Dorothy out of chaos. Therefore,

-she felt she dared take nobody into her confidence

-regarding Lance Petterby’s letter.</p>

-

-<p>She replied to Lance at once, explaining more

-fully about Garry Knapp, the land he was about

-to sell, and the fact that Eastern schemers were

-trying to obtain possession of Knapp’s ranch for

-wheat land and at a price far below its real worth.</p>

-

-<p>Satisfaction, Tavia might feel in this attempt to

-help Dorothy; but everything else in the world

-was colored blue—very blue, indeed!</p>

-

-<p>When one’s ear has become used to the clatter

-of a noisy little windmill, for instance, and the

-wind suddenly ceases and it remains calm, the cessation

-of the mill’s clatter is almost a shock to the

-nerves.</p>

-

-<p>This was about the way Tavia’s sudden shift of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span>

-manner struck all those observant ones at The

-Cedars. As the season of joy and gladness and

-good-will approached, Tavia Travers sank lower

-and lower into a Slough of Despond.</p>

-

-<p>Had it not been for Dorothy Dale, the others

-must have audibly remarked Tavia’s lack of

-sparkle. Though Dorothy did not imagine that

-Tavia was engaged in any attempt to help her,

-and because of that attempt had refused to explain

-Lance Petterby’s letter to Nat White, yet

-she loyally began to act as a buffer between the

-others and the contrary Tavia. More than once

-did Dorothy fly to Tavia’s rescue when she seemed

-to be in difficulties.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia had a streak of secrecy in her character

-that sometimes placed her in a bad light when

-judged by unknowing people. Dorothy, however,

-felt sure that on this present occasion there was

-no real fault to be found with her dear friend.</p>

-

-<p>Nat refused to speak further about his feeling

-toward Tavia; Dorothy knew better than to try

-to tempt Tavia herself to explain. The outstanding

-difficulty was the letter from the Westerner.

-Feeling sure, as she did, that Tavia liked

-Nat immensely and really cared nothing for any

-other man, Dorothy refrained from hinting at the

-difficulty to her chum. Let matters take their

-course. That was the better way, Dorothy believed.

-She felt that Nat’s deeper affections had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span>

-been moved and that only the surface of his pride

-and jealousy were nicked. On the other hand she

-knew Tavia to be a most loyal soul, and she could

-not imagine that there was really any cause, other

-than mischief, for Tavia to allow that letter to

-stand between Nat and herself.</p>

-

-<p>To smooth over the rough edges and hide any

-unpleasantness from the observation of the older

-members of the family, Dorothy became very active

-in the social life of The Cedars again. No

-longer did she refuse to attend the cousins and

-Jennie and Tavia in any venture. It was a quintette

-of apparently merry young people once

-more; never a quartette. Nor were Nat and

-Tavia seen alone together during those few short

-weeks preceding Christmas.</p>

-

-<p>Secretly, Dorothy was very unhappy over the

-misunderstanding between her chum and Nat.

-That it was merely a disagreement and would not

-cause a permanent break between the two was her

-dear hope. For she wished to see them both

-happy. Although at one time she thought the

-steadier Ned, the older cousin, might be a better

-mate for her flyaway friend, she had come to see

-it differently of late. If anybody could understand

-and properly appreciate Tavia Travers it

-was Nathaniel White. His mind, too, was quick,

-his imagination colorful. Dorothy Dale, with

-growing understanding of character and the mental<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span>

-equipment to judge her associates better than

-most girls, or young women, of her age, believed

-in her heart that neither Tavia nor Nat would ever

-get along with any other companion as well as the

-two could get along together.</p>

-

-<p>The two “wildfires,” as Aunt Winnie sometimes

-called them, had always had occasional bickerings.

-But a dispute is like a thunderstorm—it usually

-clears the air.</p>

-

-<p>Nor did Dorothy doubt for a moment that her

-cousin and her friend were deeply in love now, the

-one with the other. That Tavia had turned without

-explanation about Lance Petterby’s letter from

-Nat and that the latter had told Dorothy he was

-not sure he wished Tavia to answer the important

-question he had put to her, sprang only from

-pique on Nat’s side, and, Dorothy was sure, from

-something much the same in her chum’s heart.</p>

-

-<p>Light-minded and frivolous as Tavia had always

-appeared, Dorothy knew well that the undercurrent

-of her chum’s feelings was both deep

-and strong. Where she gave affection Tavia herself

-would have said she “loved hard!”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy had watched, during these past few

-weeks especially, the intimacy grow between her

-chum and Nat White. They were bound to each

-other, Dorothy believed, by many ties. Disagreements

-did not count. All that was on the surface.

-Underneath, the tide of their feelings intermingled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span>

-and flowed together. She could not believe that

-any little misunderstanding could permanently divide

-Tavia and Nat.</p>

-

-<p>But they were at cross purposes—that was

-plain. Nat was irritated and Tavia was proud.

-Dorothy knew that her chum was just the sort of

-person to be hurt most by being doubted.</p>

-

-<p>Nat should have understood that if Tavia had

-given him reason to believe she cared for him, her

-nature was so loyal that in no particular could she

-be unfaithful to the trust he placed in her. His

-quick appearance of doubt when he saw the letter

-from the West had hurt Tavia cruelly.</p>

-

-<p>Yet, Dorothy Dale did not try to make peace

-between the two by going to Nat and putting these

-facts before him in the strong light of good sense.

-She was quite sure that if she did so Nat would

-come to terms and beg Tavia’s pardon. That was

-Nat’s way. He never took a middle course. He

-must be either at one extreme of the pendulum’s

-swing or the other.</p>

-

-<p>And Dorothy was sure that it would not be

-well, either for Nat or for Tavia, for the former

-to give in without question and shoulder the entire

-responsibility for this lover’s quarrel. For

-to Dorothy Dale’s mind there was a greater shade

-of fault upon her chum’s side of the controversy

-than there was on Nat’s. Because of the very

-fact that all her life Tavia had been flirting or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span>

-making believe to flirt, there was some reason for

-Nat’s show of spleen over the Petterby letter.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy did not know what had passed between

-Tavia and Nat the evening before the arrival of

-the letter. She did not know what Tavia had

-demanded of Nat before she would give him the

-answer he craved.</p>

-

-<p>Nat kept silence. Mrs. White did not come to

-Tavia and ask the question which meant so much

-to the warm-hearted girl. Tavia suffered in every

-fiber of her being, but would not betray her feelings.

-And Dorothy waited her chance to say

-something to her chum that might help to clear

-up the unfortunate state of affairs.</p>

-

-<p>So all were at cross purposes, and gradually

-the good times at The Cedars became something

-of a mockery.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX<br>

-<span class="fs80">WEDDING BELLS IN PROSPECT</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Four days before Christmas Dorothy Dale,

-her cousins, and Tavia all boarded the train with

-Jennie Hapgood, bound for the latter’s home in

-Pennsylvania. On Christmas Eve Jennie’s brother

-Jack was to be married, and he had written jointly

-with the young lady who was to be “Mrs. Jack”

-after that date, that the ceremony could not possibly

-take place unless the North Birchland crowd

-of young folk crossed the better part of two

-states, to be “in at the finish.”</p>

-

-<p>“Goodness me,” drawled Tavia, when this letter

-had come from Sunnyside Farm. “He talks

-as though wedded bliss were something like a

-sentence to the penitentiary. How horrid!”</p>

-

-<p>“It is. For a lot of us men,” Nat said, grinning.

-“No more stag parties with the fellows for

-one thing. Cut out half the time one might spend

-at the club. And then, there is the pocket peril.”</p>

-

-<p>“The—the <em>what</em>?” demanded Jennie. “What

-under the sun is that?”</p>

-

-<p>“A new one on me,” said Ned. “Out with it.

-’Thaniel. What is the ‘pocket peril’?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Why, after a fellow is married they tell me

-that he never knows when he puts his hand in his

-pocket whether he will find money there or not.

-Maybe Friend Wife has beaten him to it.”</p>

-

-<p>“For shame!” cried Dorothy. “You certainly

-deserve never to know what Tavia calls ’wedded

-bliss.’”</p>

-

-<p>“I have my doubts as to my ever doing so,”

-muttered Nat, his face suddenly expressing gloom;

-and he marched away.</p>

-

-<p>Jennie and Ned did not observe this. Indeed,

-it was becoming so with them that they saw nobody

-but each other. Their infatuation was so

-plain that sometimes it was really funny. Yet

-even Tavia, with her sharp tongue, spared the

-happy couple any gibes. Sometimes when she

-looked at them her eyes were bright with moisture.

-Dorothy saw this, if nobody else did.</p>

-

-<p>However, the trip to western Pennsylvania was

-very pleasant, indeed. Dorothy posed as chaperon,

-and the boys voted that she made an excellent

-one.</p>

-

-<p>The party got off gaily; but after a while Ned

-and Jennie slipped away to the observation platform,

-cold as the weather was, and Nat plainly

-felt ill at ease with his cousin and Tavia. He

-grumbled something about Ned having become

-“an old poke,” and sauntered into another car,

-leaving Tavia alone with Dorothy Dale in their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span>

-compartment. Almost at once Dorothy said to

-her chum:</p>

-

-<p>“Tavia, dear, are you going to let this thing go

-on, and become worse and worse?”</p>

-

-<p>“What’s that?” demanded Tavia, a little tartly.</p>

-

-<p>“This misunderstanding between you and Nat?

-Aren’t you risking your own happiness as well as

-his?”</p>

-

-<p>“Dorothy——”</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t be angry, dear,” her chum hastened to

-say. “Please don’t. I hate to see both you and

-Nat in such a false position.”</p>

-

-<p>“How false?” demanded Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Because you are neither of you satisfied with

-yourselves. You are both wrong, perhaps; but

-I think that under the circumstances you, dear,

-should put forth the first effort for reconciliation.”</p>

-

-<p>“With Nat?” gasped Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Yes.”</p>

-

-<p>“Not to save my life!” cried her friend.

-“Never!”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!”</p>

-

-<p>“You take his side because of that letter,”

-Tavia said accusingly. “Well, if <em>that’s</em> the idea,

-here’s another letter from Lance!” and she opened

-her bag and produced an envelope on which appeared

-the cowboy’s scrawling handwriting. Dorothy

-knew it well.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Don’t ‘Oh, Tavia’ me!” exclaimed the other

-girl, her eyes bright with anger. “Nobody has

-a right to choose my correspondents for me.”</p>

-

-<p>“You know that all the matter is with Nat, he

-is jealous,” Dorothy said frankly.</p>

-

-<p>“What right has he to be?” demanded Tavia

-in a hard voice, but looking away quickly.</p>

-

-<p>“Dear,” said Dorothy softly, laying her hand

-on Tavia’s arm, “he told me he—he asked you

-to marry him.”</p>

-

-<p>“He never!”</p>

-

-<p>“But you knew that was what he meant,” Dorothy

-said shrewdly.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia was silent, and her friend went on to

-say:</p>

-

-<p>“You know he thinks the world of you, dear.

-If he didn’t he would not have been angered. And

-I do think—considering everything—that you

-ought not to continue to let that fellow out West

-write to you——”</p>

-

-<p>Tavia turned on her with hard, flashing eyes.

-She held out the letter, saying in a voice quite

-different from her usual tone:</p>

-

-<p>“I want you to read this letter—but only on

-condition that you say nothing to Nat White about

-it, not a word! Do you understand, Dorothy

-Dale?”</p>

-

-<p>“No,” said Dorothy, wondering. “I do <em>not</em>

-understand.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span></p>

-

-<p>“You understand that I am binding you to

-secrecy, at least,” Tavia continued in the same

-tone.</p>

-

-<p>“Why—yes—<em>that</em>,” admitted her friend.</p>

-

-<p>“Very well, then, read it,” said Tavia and

-turned to look out of the window while Dorothy

-withdrew the closely written, penciled pages from

-the envelope and unfolded them.</p>

-

-<p>In a moment Dorothy cried aloud:</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia! you wrote him about Mr. Knapp!”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes,” said Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, my dear! is <em>that</em> why he wrote you the

-other time? Of course! And he says he can’t find

-him. Dimples Knapp he calls him. Oh, my

-dear!”</p>

-

-<p>“Well,” said Tavia, in the same gruff voice.

-“Read on.” She did not turn from the window.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!” Dorothy said in a moment or

-two. “Those men are out there buying up wheat

-lands—Stiffbold and Lightly. Lance says he has

-met them.”</p>

-

-<p>“I am afraid your friend, ‘Garry Owen,’ will be

-beat,” said Tavia, shrugging her shoulders. “Do

-you see what Lance says next?”</p>

-

-<p>“He thinks he may get word of this Knapp he

-knows in a few days. Thinks he may be working

-for a man named Robert Douglas. Oh, Tavia!

-Of course he is! That is the name of his employer!”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span></p>

-

-<p>But Tavia displayed very little interest. “I had

-forgotten,” she said.</p>

-

-<p>“Bob Douglas! Of course you remember!

-And Lance says he’ll get word to him and tip

-him off, as he calls it, about the land-sharks. Oh,

-Tavia!”</p>

-

-<p>Her friend still looked out of the window.

-Dorothy shook her by the elbow, staring at the

-written lines of Lance Petterby’s letter.</p>

-

-<p>“What does this mean?” she demanded.

-“‘Sue sends her best, and so does Ma.’ Who is

-Sue?”</p>

-

-<p>“Why, that is Mrs. Petterby, the younger,”

-drawled Tavia, flashing a glance at Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Married?” gasped Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“According to law,” responded Tavia, solemnly.

-“And worse. Read on.”</p>

-

-<p>Breathlessly, Dorothy Dale consumed the remainder

-of the letter. Some of it she murmured

-aloud:</p>

-

-<p>“‘The kid is a wonder. You’d ought to see

-her. Two weeks old to-day and I bet she could

-sit a bucking pony. You’re elected godmother,

-Miss Tavia, because she is going to be called ‘Octavia

-Susan Petterby,’ believe me!”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!” finished Dorothy, crumpling the

-letter in her hand. “And you never told us a word

-about it. <em>That’s</em> why you wanted to buy a silver

-mug!”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Yes,” Tavia admitted.</p>

-

-<p>“And they have been married how long?”</p>

-

-<p>“Almost a year. Soon after we came away

-from Hardin.”</p>

-

-<p>“And you never said a word,” Dorothy said

-accusingly. “We all supposed——”</p>

-

-<p>“That I was flirting with poor old Lance.

-Yes,” said Tavia, her eyes and voice both hard.</p>

-

-<p>“And why shouldn’t we think so?” asked Dorothy,

-quietly. “You do so many queer things. Or

-you <em>used</em> to.”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t now,” said her friend, bruskly.</p>

-

-<p>“No. But how were we to know? How was

-Nat to know?” she added.</p>

-

-<p>Then Tavia turned on her with excitement.

-“You promised not to tell!” she said. “Don’t you

-<em>dare</em> let Nat White know about this letter!”</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX<br>

-<span class="fs80">A GIRL OF TO-DAY</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>“It was the prettiest wedding I ever saw,”

-Dorothy Dale declared, as the party, bound for

-North Birchland again, climbed aboard the midnight

-train at the station nearest Sunnyside Farm.</p>

-

-<p>“And the bride was too sweet for anything,”

-added Jennie Hapgood, who was returning to The

-Cedars as agreed, to remain until after New

-Year’s.</p>

-

-<p>“Jack looked quite as they always do,” said

-Ned in a hollow voice.</p>

-

-<p>“As who always do?” demanded Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“The brooms.”</p>

-

-<p>“‘Brooms’!” cried Dorothy. “Grooms, Ned?”</p>

-

-<p>“He’s a ‘new broom’ all right,” chuckled Edward

-White. “Poor chap! he doesn’t know what

-it means to love, honor, obey, and buy frocks and

-hats for a girl of to-day.”</p>

-

-<p>“Pah!” retorted his brother, “you’d like to be

-in his shoes, Nedward.”</p>

-

-<p>“Me? I—guess—not!” declared Edward.

-“I have my own shoes to stand in, thank you,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span>

-and Ned looked at Jennie Hapgood with a meaning

-air.</p>

-

-<p>So the party came back to The Cedars in much

-the same state as it had gone to the wedding. Ned

-and Jennie were so much taken up with each other

-that they were frankly oblivious to the mutual attitude

-of Nat and Tavia. Dorothy Dale was kept

-busy warding off happenings that might attract the

-particular attention of Major Dale and Aunt Winnie

-to the real situation between the two.</p>

-

-<p>Besides, Dorothy had “troubles of her own,”

-as the saying goes. She felt that she must decide,

-and neglect the decision no longer, a very, very

-important matter that concerned herself more than

-it did anybody else in the world—a matter that

-she was selfishly interested in.</p>

-

-<p>Ample time had passed now for Dorothy Dale

-to consider from all standpoints this really wonderful

-thing that had come into her life and had

-so changed her outlook. On the surface she might

-seem the same Dorothy Dale to her friends and

-relatives; but secretly the whole world was different

-to her since that shopping trip she and Tavia

-had taken to New York wherein she and her

-chum had met Garry Knapp.</p>

-

-<p>A thousand times Dorothy had called up the

-details of every incident of the adventure—this

-greatest of all adventures Dorothy Dale had

-ever entered upon.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span></p>

-

-<p>She felt that she should never meet again a man

-like Garry Knapp. None of the boys she had

-known before had ever made much of an impression

-on Dorothy Dale’s well-balanced mind.

-But from the beginning she had looked upon the

-young Westerner with a new vision. His reflection

-filled the mirror of her thought as splendidly

-as at first. The dimple that showed faintly in one

-bronzed cheek, his rather large but well-formed

-features, his mop of black hair, his broad shoulders

-and well-set-up body—all these personal attributes

-belonging to Garry Knapp were as clearly

-fixed in Dorothy’s mind now as at first.</p>

-

-<p>So, too, her memory of all that had happened

-was clear. Garry’s proffered help in the department

-store when Tavia was in trouble first aroused

-Dorothy to an appreciation of his unstudied kindness.

-It was the most natural thing in the world

-for him to offer aid when he saw anybody in

-trouble.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy blushed now whenever she thought of

-her doubts of Garry Knapp when she had seen

-him so easily fall into conversation with the department

-store salesgirl on the street. Why! that

-was exactly what he would do—especially if the

-girl asked him for help. She still blushed at the

-remembrance of the jealous feeling that had

-prompted her avoidance of the young man until

-his action was explained. Her pique had shortened<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span>

-her acquaintanceship with Garry Knapp.

-She might have known him far better had it not

-been for that incident of the shopgirl.</p>

-

-<p>“And my own suspicion was the cause of it. I

-refused to meet Garry Knapp as Tavia did. Why!

-she knows him better than I do,” Dorothy Dale

-told herself.</p>

-

-<p>It was after her discovery of why Tavia had

-been writing to Lance Petterby and receiving answers

-from that “happy tho’ married cowboy person,”

-to quote Tavia, that Dorothy so searched

-her own heart regarding Garry Knapp.</p>

-

-<p>“You are a dear, loyal friend, Tavia,” she told

-her chum. “But—but <em>why</em> are you trying so to

-get in touch with Mr. Knapp?”</p>

-

-<p>“Really want me to tell you?” demanded Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Yes.”</p>

-

-<p>“Truly-rooly—black-and-bluely?”</p>

-

-<p>“Of course, dear.”</p>

-

-<p>“Because I have been a regular ivory-kopf!”

-cried Tavia. “Forgive my hybrid German. Oh,

-Dorothy! I didn’t want to tell you, for I hoped

-Lance might quickly find your Garry Knapp.”</p>

-

-<p>“<em>My</em> Garry Knapp,” said Dorothy, blushing.</p>

-

-<p>“Yes, my dear. Don’t dodge the fact. We all

-seem to be suddenly grown up. We are shucking

-our shells of maidenhood like crabs——”</p>

-

-<p>“Tavia! Horrors! Don’t!” begged Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t like my metaphor, dear?” chuckled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span>

-Tavia. But she was grim again in a moment, continuing:

-“No use dodging the fact, I repeat. You

-were interested in that man from the beginning.

-Now, weren’t you?”</p>

-

-<p>“Ye—es, Tavia,” admitted her friend.</p>

-

-<p>“And I should have seen that you were. I

-ought to have known, when you were put out with

-him because of that shopgirl, that for that very

-reason you were more interested in Garry Knapp

-than in any other fellow who ever shined up to

-you——”</p>

-

-<p>“Tavia! How can you?”</p>

-

-<p>“Huh! Just as e-asy,” responded her friend,

-with a wicked twinkle in her eye and mimicking

-Garry Knapp’s manner of speaking. “Now, listen!”

-she hurried on. “That night I took dinner

-with him alone—the evening you had the—er—headache

-and went to bed. ’Member?”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, yes,” sighed Dorothy, nodding.</p>

-

-<p>“He just pumped me about you,” said Tavia.

-“And I was just foolish enough to tell him all

-about your money—how rich your folks were and

-all that.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh!” and Dorothy flushed again.</p>

-

-<p>“You don’t get it—not yet,” said Tavia, wagging

-her head. “Afterwards I remembered how

-funny he looked when I had told him that you

-were a regular ‘sure-enough’ heiress, and I remembered

-some things he said, too.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span></p>

-

-<p>“What do you mean?” asked Dorothy, faintly.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, I scared him away from you,” blurted

-out Tavia, almost in tears when she thought of

-what she called her “ivory-headedness.” “I know

-that he was just as deeply smitten with you, dear,

-as—as—well, as ever a man could be! But he’s

-poor—and he’s game. I think that is why he went

-off in such a hurry and without trying <em>very</em> hard

-to see you again.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia! Do you believe that is so?” and

-the joy in Dorothy’s voice could not be mistaken.</p>

-

-<p>“Well!” exclaimed Tavia, “isn’t that pretty

-bad? You act as though you were pleased.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy blushed again, but she was brave. She

-gazed straight into Tavia’s eyes as she said:</p>

-

-<p>“I am pleased, dear. I am pleased to learn that

-possibly it was not his lack of interest in poor

-little me that sent him away from New York so

-hastily—at least, without making a more desperate

-effort to see me.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Doro!” cried Tavia, suddenly putting both

-arms around her friend. “Do you actually mean

-it?”</p>

-

-<p>“Mean what?”</p>

-

-<p>“That you l-l-<em>like</em> him so much?”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy laughed aloud, but nodded emphatically.

-“I l-l-<em>like</em> him just as much as that,” she

-mocked. “And if it’s only my father’s money in

-the way——”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span></p>

-

-<p>“And your own. You really will be rich when

-you are twenty-one,” Tavia reminded her. “I

-tell you, that young man was troubled a heap when

-he learned from me that you were so well off. If

-you had been a poor girl—if you had been <em>me</em>,

-for instance—he would never have left New York

-City without knowing his fate. I could see it in

-his eyes.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Tavia!” gasped Dorothy, with clasped

-hands and shining eyes.</p>

-

-<p>“My dear,” said her friend, with serious mouth

-but dancing orbs. “I never would have thought

-it possible—of <em>you</em>. ‘Love like a lightning bolt’—just

-like that. And the cautious Dorothy!” Then

-she went on: “But, Dorothy, how will you ever

-find him?”</p>

-

-<p>“You have done your best, Tavia,” her friend

-said, nodding. “I suppose I might have tried

-Lance Petterby, too. But now I shall put Aunt

-Winnie’s lawyers to work out there. If possible,

-Mr. Knapp must be found before those real estate

-sharks buy his land. But if the transaction is completed,

-we shall have to reach him in some other

-way.”</p>

-

-<p>“Dorothy! You sound woefully strong-minded.

-Do you mean to go right after the young man—just

-as though it were leap year?” and Tavia giggled.</p>

-

-<p>“I hope,” said Dorothy Dale, girl of to-day that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span>

-she was, “I have too much good sense to lose the

-chance of showing the man I love that he can

-win me, because of any foolish or old-fashioned

-ideas of conventionalities. If Garry Knapp thinks

-as much of me as I do of him, his lack of an equal

-fortune sha’n’t stand in the way, either.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Doro! it sounds awful—but bully!”

-Tavia declared, her eyes round. “Do you mean

-it?”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes,” said Dorothy, courageously.</p>

-

-<p>“But suppose he is one of those stubborn beings

-you read about—one of the men who will not

-marry a girl with money unless he has a ‘working

-capital’ himself?”</p>

-

-<p>“That shall not stand in our way.”</p>

-

-<p>“What do you mean?” gasped Tavia. “Not

-that you would give up your money for him?”</p>

-

-<p>“If I find I love him enough—yes,” said Dorothy,

-softly.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI<br>

-<span class="fs80">THE BUD UNFOLDS</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>In a certain way it ages a girl to be left motherless

-as Dorothy Dale had been. She had been

-obliged to “play mother” herself so early that

-her maternal instincts were strongly and early developed.</p>

-

-<p>Until the Dale family had come away from

-Dalton to live with Aunt Winnie at The Cedars,

-Dorothy had exercised her motherly oversight

-in the little family. Indeed, Roger scarcely knew

-any other mother than Dorothy, and Joe had almost

-forgotten her who had passed away soon

-after Roger was born.</p>

-

-<p>As for the major, he had soon given all domestic

-matters over into the small but capable hands

-of “the little captain” while they were still struggling

-in poverty. After coming to The Cedars,

-Dorothy, of course, had been relieved of the close

-oversight of domestic and family matters that had

-previously been her portion. But its effect upon her

-character was plain to all observing eyes. Nor had

-her so early developed maternal characteristics

-failed to affect the other members of the family.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span></p>

-

-<p>Now that she was really grown up past the

-schoolgirl age and of a serious and thoughtful

-demeanor, even Aunt Winnie looked upon her as

-being much older than Tavia—and years older

-than the boys. That Ned and Nat were both several

-years Dorothy’s senior made no difference.</p>

-

-<p>“Boys are to a degree irresponsible—and always

-are, no matter how old they become,” said

-Aunt Winnie. “But <em>Dorothy</em>——”</p>

-

-<p>Her emphasis was approved by the major.

-“The little captain is some girl,” he said, chuckling.

-“Beg pardon! woman grown, eh, Sister?”</p>

-

-<p>Nor was his approval merely of Dorothy’s surface

-qualities. He knew that his pretty daughter

-was a much deeper thinker than most girls of her

-age, and he had seldom interfered in any way

-with Dorothy’s personal decisions on any subject.</p>

-

-<p>“Let her find out for herself. She won’t go far

-wrong,” had often been his remark at first when

-his sister had worried over Dorothy in her school

-days. And so the girl developed into something

-that not all girls are—an original thinker.</p>

-

-<p>Knowing her as the major did and trusting in

-her good sense so fully, he was less startled, perhaps,

-than he would otherwise have been when

-Dorothy took him into her confidence regarding

-Garry Knapp. Tavia had refrained from joking

-about the Westerner from the first. Little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span>

-had been said before the family about their adventures

-in New York. Therefore, the major was

-not prepared in the least for the introduction of

-the subject.</p>

-

-<p>Perhaps it would not have been introduced in

-quite the way it was had it not grown out of another

-matter. It came the day after Christmas—that

-day in which everybody is tired and rather

-depressed because of the over-exertion of celebrating

-the feast of good Kris Kringle. Dorothy

-was busy at the sewing basket beside her father’s

-comfortable chair. She knew that Tavia was writing

-letters and just at this moment Major Dale

-dropped his paper to peer out of the window.</p>

-

-<p>“There goes Nat—off for a tramp, I’ll be

-bound. And he’s alone,” the major said.</p>

-

-<p>“Yes,” agreed Dorothy without looking up.</p>

-

-<p>“And Ned and that Jennie girl are in the library,

-and you’re here,” pursued the major, with

-raised eyebrows. “Where is Tavia?”</p>

-

-<p>She told him; but she refrained again from

-looking up, and he finally bent forward in his chair

-and thrust a forefinger under her chin, raising it

-and making her look at him.</p>

-

-<p>“Say! what is the matter with Tavia and Nat?”

-he asked.</p>

-

-<p>“Are you sure there is anything the matter,

-Major?” Dorothy responded.</p>

-

-<p>“Can’t fool me. They’re at outs. And you,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>

-Captain? Is that what makes you so grave, my

-dear?”</p>

-

-<p>“No, Daddy,” she said, putting down her work

-and looking into his rugged face this time of her

-own volition.</p>

-

-<p>“Something personal, my dear?”</p>

-

-<p>“Very personal, Daddy,” calling him by the intimate

-name the children used. “I—I think I—I

-am in love.”</p>

-

-<p>He neither made a joke of it nor appeared astonished.

-He just eyed her quietly and nodded.

-The flush mounted into her face and she glowed

-like a red rose. After all, it is not the easiest

-thing in the world to turn the heart out for others

-to look at, even the dearest of others.</p>

-

-<p>“I think I am in love. And the young man is

-poor—and—and I am afraid our money is going

-to stand between him and me.”</p>

-

-<p>“My dear Dorothy,” said the major, “are you

-really in love with somebody, or in love with

-love?”</p>

-

-<p>“I know what you mean,” his daughter said,

-with a tremulous little laugh and shaking her head.

-“Seeing so many about us falling into the toils of

-Dan Cupid, you think I perhaps imagine I have

-fixed my affections upon some particular object.

-Is that it, Major?”</p>

-

-<p>He nodded, a quizzical little smile on his lips.</p>

-

-<p>“No” she said. “It isn’t anywhere near as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span>

-simple as that. I—I do love him I believe. He

-is the only man I have ever really thought twice

-about. He is the center of all my thoughts now,

-and has been for a long time.”</p>

-

-<p>“But—but who is he?” the major gasped.</p>

-

-<p>“Garry Knapp.”</p>

-

-<p>Her father repeated the name slowly and his

-expression of countenance certainly displayed

-amazement. “Did I ever see the young man?”</p>

-

-<p>“No.”</p>

-

-<p>“Your aunt—one of your cousins’ friends?”</p>

-

-<p>“Dear Daddy,” said Dorothy, frankly and smiling

-a little. “I have done something not at all

-as you would expect cautious little me to do. I

-have picked a man—and, oh, he is a man, Daddy!—right

-out of the great mob of folks. Nobody

-introduced us. We just—well, <em>met</em>.”</p>

-

-<p>“The young man has been spoken of by Tavia,

-I believe,” said Major Dale, quite cheerfully. “I

-remember now. Mr. Knapp. You met him at

-the hotel in New York?”</p>

-

-<p>“Before we got to the hotel. In the train I

-noticed him—vaguely. On the platform where

-we changed cars at that Manhattan Transfer

-place, I saw him better. I—I never was so much

-interested in a man before.”</p>

-

-<p>Major Dale looked at her rather solemnly for

-a moment. “Are you sure, my dear, it is anything

-more than fancy?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Quite sure.”</p>

-

-<p>“And—and—<em>he</em>——”</p>

-

-<p>The man’s voice actually trembled. Dorothy

-looked at him again, dropped the sewing from her

-lap and suddenly flung her arms about his neck.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, my dear!” she murmured, her face hidden.

-“I know he loves me, too. I am sure of

-it! Let me tell you.”</p>

-

-<p>Breathlessly, her voice quavering a little but

-full of an element of happiness that fairly thrilled

-her listener, she related all the incidents—even

-the petty details—of her acquaintance with Garford

-Knapp, of Desert City. So clear was her

-picture of the young man that the major saw him

-in his mind’s eye just as Garry appeared to Dorothy

-Dale.</p>

-

-<p>She went over every little thing that had happened

-in New York in connection with the young

-Westerner. She told of her own mean suspicions

-and how they had risen from a feeling of pique

-and jealousy that never in her life had she experienced

-before.</p>

-

-<p>“That was a rather small way for me to show

-real feeling for a person. But it caught me unprepared,”

-said Dorothy, with a full-throated laugh

-although her eyes were full of tears. “I do not

-believe I am naturally of a jealous disposition;

-and I should never let such a feeling get the better

-of me again. It has cost me too much.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span></p>

-

-<p>She went on and told the major of the incidents

-that followed and how Garry Knapp had gone

-away so hastily without her speaking to him again.</p>

-

-<p>But the major rather lost the thread of her

-story for a moment. He was staring closely at

-her, shaking his shaggy head slowly.</p>

-

-<p>“My dear! my dear!” he murmured, “you have

-grown up. The bud has unfolded. Our demure

-little Dorothy is—and with shocking abruptness—blown

-into full womanhood. My dear!” and he

-put his arms about her again more tightly.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII<br>

-<span class="fs80">DOROTHY DECIDES</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Joe and Roger Dale did not feel that they were

-exactly neglected during these winter holidays. It

-is true they found their cousins, the “big fellows,”

-not so much fun as they were wont to be, and even

-Dorothy failed them at times.</p>

-

-<p>But because of these very facts the lads had

-more freedom of action than ever before. They

-were learning to think for themselves, especially

-Joe. Nor was it always mischief they thought of,

-though frequently managing to get into trouble—for

-what live and healthy boys of their age do

-not?</p>

-

-<p>Many of their narrow escapes even Dorothy

-knew nothing about. None of the family, for instance,

-knew about Joe and the lame pigeon until

-the North Birchland Fire Department was on

-the grounds with all their apparatus.</p>

-

-<p>This moving incident (Tavia declared it should

-have been a movie incident) happened between

-Christmas and the new year. Although there had

-been a good fall of snow before Kris Kringle’s

-day, it had all gone now and the roads were firmly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span>

-frozen again, so the Fire Department got to The

-Cedars in record time.</p>

-

-<p>To begin with Joe and Roger were breeders of

-pigeons, as Ned and Nat had been several years

-before. On pleasant days in the winter they let

-their flock into the big flying cage, and occasionally

-allowed the carriers to take a flight in the

-open.</p>

-

-<p>On one of these occasions when the flock returned

-there was a stray with them. Roger’s

-sharp eyes spied this bird which alighted on the

-ridgepole of the stable.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, lookut! lookut!” exclaimed the youngest

-Dale. “What a pretty one, Joe!”</p>

-

-<p>“We’ll coax it down. It’s a stray,” his brother

-said eagerly, “and all strays are fair game.”</p>

-

-<p>“But it’s lame, Joe,” Roger declared. “See!

-it can scarcely hop. And it acts as if all tired

-out.”</p>

-

-<p>“It’s a carrier, all right,” Joe said. “I bet it’s

-come a long way.”</p>

-

-<p>The bird, however, would not be coaxed to the

-ground or into the big cage. It really did appear

-exhausted.</p>

-

-<p>“I bet if I could get up there on the stable roof,

-I could pick it right up in my hand,” cried Joe.

-“I’m—I’m a-going—to try it!”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh!” murmured Roger, both his eyes and

-mouth very round.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p>

-

-<p>Joe was no “blowhard,” as the boys say. When

-he said he’d do a thing he did his best to accomplish

-it. He threw off his thick jacket that would

-have hampered him, and kicked aside his overshoes

-that made his feet clumsy, and started to

-go aloft in the stable.</p>

-

-<p>“You go outside and watch, Roger,” he commanded.

-“There’s no skylight in this old barn

-roof—only the cupola, and I can’t get out through

-that.”</p>

-

-<p>“How are you going to do it then?” gasped

-Roger.</p>

-

-<p>“You’ll see,” his brother said with assurance,

-and began to climb the hay ladder into the top loft

-of the building.</p>

-

-<p>Roger ran out just in time to see Joe open the

-small door up in the peak of the stable roof.

-There were water-troughs all around the roof, for

-the cattle were supplied with drinking water from

-cisterns built under the ground.</p>

-

-<p>A leader ran down each corner of the stable,

-and one of these was within reach of Joe Dale’s

-hands when he swung himself out upon the door

-he had opened.</p>

-

-<p>Nobody, except the boys, were about the stable,

-and this end of the building could not be seen from

-the house. Joe had once before performed a similar

-trick. He had swung from the door to the

-leader-pipe and swarmed down to the ground.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Look out you don’t tumble, Joe,” advised the

-eager Roger. But he had no idea that Joe would

-do so. The elder brother was a hero in the sight

-of the younger lad.</p>

-

-<p>Joe’s skill and strength did not fail him now.

-He caught the leader, then the water-trough itself,

-and so scrambled upon the roof. But at his last

-kick some fastening holding the leader-pipe gave

-way and the top of it swung out from the corner

-of the stable.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, cricky!” yelled Roger. “Lucky you got

-up there, Joe. That pipe’s busted. How’ll you

-get down?”</p>

-

-<p>“Never mind that,” grunted Joe, somewhat

-breathless, scrambling up the roof to the ridgepole.

-“We’ll see about that later.”</p>

-

-<p>The boy reached the ridge and straddled it.

-There he got his breath and then hitched along

-toward the cooing pigeon. It was not frightened

-by him, but it certainly was lame and exhausted.

-Joe picked it up in his hand and snuggled it into

-the breast of his sweater.</p>

-

-<p>“But how are you ever going to get down, Joe

-Dale?” shrilled Roger, from the ground.</p>

-

-<p>The question was a poser, as Joe very soon

-found out. That particular leader had been the

-only one on the stable that he could reach with

-any measure of safety; and now it hung out a

-couple of feet from the side of the building and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span>

-Joe would not have dared trust his weight upon it,

-even could he have reached it.</p>

-

-<p>“What are you going to do?” again wailed the

-smaller lad.</p>

-

-<p>“Aw, cheese it, Roger! don’t be bawling,” advised

-Joe from the roof. “Go and get a ladder.”</p>

-

-<p>“There isn’t any long enough to reach up there—you

-know that,” said Roger.</p>

-

-<p>Neither he nor Joe observed the fact that, even

-had there been a ladder, the smaller boy could

-not have raised it into place so that Joe could

-have descended upon it.</p>

-

-<p>None of the men working on the place was at

-hand. Ned and Nat were off on some errand in

-their car. Secretly, Roger was panic stricken and

-might have run for Dorothy, for she was still his

-refuge in all troubles.</p>

-

-<p>But Joe was older—and thought himself wiser.

-“We’ve just got to find a ladder—<em>you’ve</em> got to

-find it, Roger. I can’t sit up here a-straddle of

-this old roof all day. It’s co-o-old!”</p>

-

-<p>Roger started off blindly. He could not remember

-whether any of the neighbors possessed long

-ladders or not. But as he came down to the street

-corner of the White property he saw a red box

-affixed to a telegraph pole on the edge of the sidewalk.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, bully!” gasped Roger, and immediately

-scrambled over the fence.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span></p>

-

-<p>He knew what that red box was for. It had

-been explained to him, and he had longed for a

-good reason for experimenting with it. You broke

-the little square of glass and pulled down the hook

-inside—-</p>

-

-<p>That is how Ned and Nat, whizzing homeward

-in their car, came to join the procession of the Fire

-Department racing out of town toward The

-Cedars.</p>

-

-<p>“Where’s the fire, Cal?” yelled Nat, seeing a

-man he knew riding on the ladder truck.</p>

-

-<p>“Right near your house, Mr. White. At any

-rate, that was the number pulled—that box by the

-corner of your mother’s place.”</p>

-

-<p>“Did you hear that, Ned?” shouted his brother,

-and Ned, who was at the wheel, “let her out,”

-breaking every speed law of the country to flinders.</p>

-

-<p>The Fire Chief in his red racing car was only a

-few rods ahead of the Whites, therefore, when

-Ned whirled the automobile into the driveway.

-They saw a small boy, greatly excited, dancing up

-and down on the gravel beside the chief’s car.</p>

-

-<p>“Yep—he’s up on the stable roof, I tell you.

-We’ve got to use your extension ladders to get him

-down,” Roger was saying eagerly. “I didn’t mean

-for all of the things to come—the engine, and

-hose cart, and all. Just the ladders we wanted,”

-and Roger seemed amazed that his pulling the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span>

-hook of the fire-alarm box had not explained all

-this at fire headquarters down town.</p>

-

-<p>There was some excitement, as may well be

-believed in and about The Cedars. The Fire

-Chief was at first enraged; then he, as well as his

-men, laughed. They got Joe, still clinging to the

-stray pigeon, down from the roof, and then the

-firemen drilled back to town, reporting a “false

-alarm.”</p>

-

-<p>Major Dale, however, sent in a check to the

-Firemen’s Benefit Fund, and Joe and Roger were

-sent to bed at noon and were obliged to remain

-there until the next morning—a punishment that

-was likely long to be engraved upon their minds.</p>

-

-<p>The incident, however, had broken in upon a

-very serious conference between Dorothy Dale

-and her father. And nowadays their conferences

-were very likely to be for the discussion of but

-one subject:</p>

-

-<p>Garry Knapp and his affairs.</p>

-

-<p>Aunt Winnie, too, had been taken into Dorothy

-Dale’s confidence. “I want you both,” the

-girl said, bravely, “to meet Garry Knapp and decide

-for yourselves if he is not all I say he is. And

-to do that we must get him to come here.”</p>

-

-<p>“How will you accomplish it, Dorothy?” asked

-her aunt, still more than a little confused because

-of this entirely new departure upon the part of

-her heretofore demure niece.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p>

-

-<p>Dorothy explained. Another—a third—letter

-had come from Lance Petterby. He had identified

-Garry Knapp as the Dimples Knapp he had

-previously known upon the range. Knapp was

-about to sell a rundown ranch north of Desert

-City and adjoining the rough end of the great

-Hardin Estate, that now belonged to Major Dale,

-to some speculators in wheat lands. The speculators,

-Lance said, were “sure enough sharks.”</p>

-

-<p>“First of all have our lawyers out there make

-Mr. Knapp a much better offer for his land—quick,

-before Stiffbold and Lightly close with him,”

-Dorothy suggested. “Oh! I’ve thought it all out.

-Those land speculators will allow that option they

-took on Garry’s ranch to lapse. What is a hundred

-dollars to them? Then they will play a

-waiting game until they make him come to new

-terms—a much lower price even than they offered

-him in New York. He must not sell his land to

-them, and for a song.”</p>

-

-<p>“And then?” asked the major, his eyes bright

-with pride in his daughter’s forcefulness of character,

-as well as with amusement.</p>

-

-<p>“Have our lawyers bind the bargain with Mr.

-Knapp and ask him to come East to close the

-transaction with their principal. That’s <em>you</em>,

-Major. Meanwhile, have the lawyers send an

-expert to Mr. Knapp’s ranch to see if it is really

-promising wheat land if properly developed.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span></p>

-

-<p>“And then?” repeated her father.</p>

-

-<p>“If it <em>is</em>,” said Dorothy, laughing blithely,

-“when Garry shows up and you and Aunt Winnie

-approve of him, as I know you both will, offer

-to advance the money necessary to develop the

-wheat ranch instead of buying the land.</p>

-

-<p>“That,” Dorothy Dale said earnestly, “will

-give him the start in business life he needs. I

-know he has it in him to make good. He can expect

-no fortune from his uncle in Alaska, who is

-angry with him; he will <em>never</em> hear to using any

-of my money to help bring success; but in this way

-he will have his chance. I believe he will be independent

-in a few years.”</p>

-

-<p>“And, meanwhile, what of you?” cried her

-aunt.</p>

-

-<p>“I shall be waiting for him,” replied Dorothy

-with a smile that Tavia, had she seen it, would

-have pronounced “seraphic.”</p>

-

-<p>“Major! did you ever hear of such talk from

-a girl?” gasped Aunt Winnie.</p>

-

-<p>“No,” said her brother, with immense satisfaction,

-and thumping approval on the floor with

-his cane. “Because there never was just such a

-girl since the world began as my little captain.</p>

-

-<p>“I want to see this wonderful Garry Knapp—don’t

-you, Sister? I’m sure he must be a perfectly

-wonderful young man to so stir our Dorothy.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span></p>

-

-<p>“No,” Dorothy said slowly shaking her head.

-“I know he is only wonderful in my eyes. But

-I am quite sure you and Aunt Winnie will commend

-my choice when you have met him—if we

-can only get him here!”</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII<br>

-<span class="fs80">NAT JUMPS AT A CONCLUSION</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>All this time Tavia and Nat were having anything

-but a happy life. Nat would not have admitted

-it for the world, but he wished he could

-leave home and never appear at The Cedars again

-until Tavia had gone.</p>

-

-<p>On her part, Tavia would have returned to Dalton

-before the new year had Dorothy allowed her

-to have her own way. Dorothy would not hear

-of such a thing.</p>

-

-<p>To make the situation worse for the pair of

-young people so tragically enduring their first

-vital misunderstanding, Ned and Jennie Hapgood

-were sailing upon a sea of blissful and unruffled

-happiness. Nat and Tavia could not help noting

-this fact. The feeling of the exalted couple for

-each other was so evident that even the Dale boys

-discussed it—and naturally with deep disgust.</p>

-

-<p>“Gee!” breathed Joe, scandalized. “Old Ned

-is so mushy over Jennie Hapgood that he goes

-around in a trance. He could tread on his own

-corns and not know it, his head is so far up in

-the clouds. Gee!”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p>

-

-<p>“<em>I</em> wouldn’t ever get so silly over a girl—not

-even our Dorothy,” Roger declared. “Would

-you, Joe?”</p>

-

-<p>“Not in a hundred years,” was his brother’s

-earnest response.</p>

-

-<p>The major admitted with a chuckle that Ned

-certainly was hard hit. The time set for Jennie

-Hapgood to return to Sunnyside Farm came and

-passed, and still many reasons were found for the

-prolongation of her visit. Ned went off to New

-York one day by himself and brought home at

-night something that made a prominent bulge in

-his lower right-hand vest pocket.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, <em>oh</em>, OH! Dorothy!” ejaculated Tavia, for

-the moment coming out of her own doldrums.

-“Do you know what it is? A Tiffany box! Nothing

-less!”</p>

-

-<p>“Dear old Ned,” said her chum, with a smile.</p>

-

-<p>Ned and Jennie disappeared together right

-after dinner. Then, an hour later, they appeared

-in the drawing-room where the family was assembled

-and Ned led Jennie forward by her left

-hand—the fingers prominently extended.</p>

-

-<p>“White gold—platinum!” murmured Tavia,

-standing enthralled as she beheld the beautifully

-set stone.</p>

-

-<p>“Set old Ned back five hundred bucks if it did

-a cent,” growled Nat, under his breath and keeping

-in the background.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Jennie!” cried Dorothy, jumping up.</p>

-

-<p>But Aunt Winnie seemed to be nearest. She

-reached the happy couple before anybody else.</p>

-

-<p>“Ned needn’t tell me,” she said, with a little

-laugh and a little sob and putting both arms about

-Jennie. “Welcome, my daughter! Very welcome

-to the White family. I have for years tried to

-divide Dorothy with the major; now I am to have

-at least <em>one</em> daughter of my very own.”</p>

-

-<p>Did she flash a glance at Tavia standing in the

-background? Tavia thought so. The proud and

-headstrong girl was shot to the quick with the

-arrow of the thought that Mrs. White had been

-told by Nat of the difference between himself and

-Tavia and that the lady would never come to

-Tavia and ask that question on behalf of her

-younger son that the girl so desired her to ask.</p>

-

-<p>Never before had Tavia realized so keenly the

-great chasm between herself and Jennie Hapgood.

-Mrs. White welcomed Jennie so warmly, and was

-so glad, because Jennie was of the same level in

-society as the Whites. Both in blood and wealth

-Jennie was Ned’s equal.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia knew very well that by explaining to Nat

-about Lance Petterby’s letters she could easily

-bring that young man to his knees. In her heart,

-in the very fiber of the girl’s being, indeed, had

-grown the desire to have Dorothy Dale’s Aunt

-Winnie tell her that she, too, would be welcome in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span>

-the White family. Now Tavia doubted if Aunt

-Winnie would ever do that.</p>

-

-<p>Jennie was to go home to Sunnyside Farm the

-next day. This final decision had probably

-spurred Ned to action. Because of certain business

-matters in town which occupied both Ned

-and Nat at train time and the fact that Dorothy

-was busy with some domestic duty, it was Tavia

-who drove the <em>Fire Bird</em>, the Whites’ old car, to

-the station with Jennie Hapgood.</p>

-

-<p>A train from the West had come in a few minutes

-before the westbound one which Jennie was

-to take was due. Tavia, sitting in the car while

-Jennie ran to get her checks, saw a tall man carrying

-two heavy suitcases and wearing a broad-brimmed

-hat walking down the platform.</p>

-

-<p>“Why! if that doesn’t look——Surely it can’t

-be—I—I believe I’ve got ’em again!” murmured

-Tavia Travers.</p>

-

-<p>Then suddenly she shot out from behind the

-wheel, leaped to the platform, and ran straight for

-the tall figure.</p>

-

-<p>“Garry Knapp!” she exploded.</p>

-

-<p>“Why—why—Miss Travers!” responded the

-big young man, smiling suddenly and that “cute”

-little dimple just showing in his bronzed cheek.

-“You don’t mean to say you live in this man’s

-town?”</p>

-

-<p>He looked about the station in a puzzled way,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span>

-and, having dropped his bags to shake hands with

-her, rubbed the side of his head as though to

-awaken his understanding.</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t understand your being here, Miss

-Travers,” he murmured.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, <em>I’m</em> visiting here,” she said, blithely.

-“But <em>you</em>——?”</p>

-

-<p>“I—I’m here on business. Or I think I am,”

-he said soberly. “How’s your—Miss Dale!

-<em>She</em> doesn’t live here, does she?”</p>

-

-<p>“Of course. Didn’t you know?” demanded

-Tavia, eyeing him curiously.</p>

-

-<p>“No. Who—what’s this Major Dale to her,

-Miss Travers?” asked the young man and his

-heavy brows met for an instant over his nose.</p>

-

-<p>“Her father, of course, Mr. Knapp. Didn’t

-you know Dorothy’s father was the only Major

-Dale there <em>is</em>, and the nicest man there ever <em>was</em>?”</p>

-

-<p>“How should I know?” demanded Garry

-Knapp, contemplating Tavia with continued seriousness.

-“What is he—a real estate man?”</p>

-

-<p>“Why! didn’t you know?” Tavia asked, thinking

-quickly. “Didn’t I tell you that time that he

-was a close friend of Colonel Hardin, who owned

-that estate you told me joined your ranch there

-by Desert City?”</p>

-

-<p>“Uh-huh,” grunted the young man. “Seems to

-me you <em>did</em> tell me something about that. But I—I

-must have had my mind on something else.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span></p>

-

-<p>“On <em>somebody</em> else, you mean,” said Tavia,

-dimpling suddenly. “Well! Colonel Hardin left

-his place to Major Dale.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! that’s why, then. He wants to buy my

-holdings because his land joins mine,” said Garry

-Knapp, reflectively.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia had her suspicions of the truth well

-aroused; but all she replied was:</p>

-

-<p>“I shouldn’t wonder, Mr. Knapp.”</p>

-

-<p>“I got a good offer—leastways, better than

-those sharks, Stiffbold and Lightly, would make

-me after they’d seen the ranch—from some lawyers

-out there. They planked down a thousand

-for an option, and told me to come East and close

-the deal with this Major Dale. And it never

-entered into this stupid head of mine that he was

-related to—to Miss Dale.”</p>

-

-<p>“Isn’t that funny?” giggled Tavia. Then, as

-Jennie appeared from the baggage room and the

-westbound train whistled for the station, she

-added: “Just wait for me until I see a friend off

-on this train, Mr. Knapp, and I’ll drive you out.”</p>

-

-<p>“Drive me out where?” asked Garry Knapp.</p>

-

-<p>“To see—er—<em>Major</em> Dale,” she returned, and

-ran away.</p>

-

-<p>When the train had gone she found the Westerner

-standing between his two heavy bags about

-where she had left him.</p>

-

-<p>“Those old suitcases look so natural,” she said,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span>

-laughing at his serious face. “Throw them into

-the tonneau and sit beside me in front. I’ll show

-you some driving.”</p>

-

-<p>“But look here! I can’t do this,” he objected.</p>

-

-<p>“You cannot do what?” demanded Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Are <em>you</em> staying with Miss Dale?”</p>

-

-<p>“Of course I am staying with Doro. I don’t

-know but I am more at home at The Cedars than

-I am at the Travers domicile in Dalton.”</p>

-

-<p>“But wait!” he begged. “There must be a

-hotel here?”</p>

-

-<p>“In North Birchland? Of course.”</p>

-

-<p>“You’d better take me there, Miss Travers, if

-you’ll be so kind. I want to secure a room.”</p>

-

-<p>“Nothing doing! You’ve got to come out to

-The Cedars with me,” Tavia declared. “Why,

-Do—I mean, of course, Major Dale would never

-forgive me if I failed to bring you, baggage and

-all. His friends do not stop at the North Birchland

-House I’d have you know.”</p>

-

-<p>“But, honestly, Miss Travers, I don’t like it.

-I don’t understand it. And Major Dale isn’t my

-friend.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, <em>isn’t</em> he? You just wait and see!” cried

-Tavia. “I didn’t know about your coming East.

-Of course, if it is business——”</p>

-

-<p>“That is it, exactly,” the young man said, nervously.

-“I—I couldn’t impose upon these people,

-you know.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Say! you want to sell your land, don’t you?”

-demanded Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Ye—es,” admitted Garry Knapp, slowly.</p>

-

-<p>“Well, if a man came out your way to settle

-a business matter, you wouldn’t let him go to a

-hotel, would you? You’d be angry,” said Tavia,

-sensibly, “if he insisted upon doing such a thing.

-Major Dale could not have been informed when

-you would arrive, or he would have had somebody

-here at the station to meet you.”</p>

-

-<p>“No. I didn’t tell the lawyers when I’d start,”

-said Garry.</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t make a bad matter worse then,” laughed

-Tavia, her eyes twinkling as she climbed in and

-sat back of the wheel. “Hurry up. If you want

-to sell your land you’d better waste no more time

-getting out to The Cedars.”</p>

-

-<p>The Westerner got into the car in evident doubt.

-He suspected that he had been called East for

-something besides closing a real estate transaction.

-Tavia suspected so, too; and she was vastly

-amused.</p>

-

-<p>She drove slowly, for Garry began asking her

-for full particulars about Dorothy and the family.

-Tavia actually did not know anything about

-the proposed purchase of the Knapp ranch by her

-chum’s father. Dorothy had said not a word to

-her about Garry since their final talk some weeks

-before.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span></p>

-

-<p>At a place in the woods where there was not a

-house in sight, Tavia even stopped the car the

-better to give her full attention to Mr. Garry

-Knapp, and to talk him out of certain objections

-that seemed to trouble his mind.</p>

-

-<p>It was just here that Nat White, on a sputtering

-motorcycle he sometimes rode, passed the couple

-in the automobile. He saw Tavia talking earnestly

-to a fine-looking, broad-shouldered young

-man wearing a hat of Western style. She had an

-eager hand upon his shoulder and the stranger

-was evidently much interested in what the girl

-said.</p>

-

-<p>Nat did not even slow down. It is doubtful if

-Tavia noticed him at all. Nat went straight home,

-changed his clothes, flung a few things into a traveling

-bag, and announced to his mother that he

-was off for Boston to pay some long-promised visits

-to friends there and in Cambridge.</p>

-

-<p>Nat, with his usual impulsiveness, had jumped

-at a conclusion which, like most snap judgments,

-was quite incorrect. He rode to the railroad

-station by another way and so did not meet Tavia

-and Garry Knapp as they approached The

-Cedars.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV<br>

-<span class="fs80">THIN ICE</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Dorothy spied the Fire Bird just as it turned

-in at the entrance gate. And she identified the

-person sitting beside her chum, too. Therefore,

-she had a few minutes in which to prepare for her

-meeting with Garry Knapp.</p>

-

-<p>She was on the porch when the car stopped, and

-her welcome to the young Westerner possessed

-just the degree of cordiality that it should.

-Neither by word nor look did she betray the fact

-that her heart’s action was accelerated, or that she

-felt a thrill of joy to think that the first of her

-moves in this intricate game had been successful.</p>

-

-<p>“Of course, it would be Tavia’s good fortune

-to pick you up at the station,” she said, while

-Garry held her hand just a moment longer than

-was really necessary for politeness’ sake. “Had

-you telegraphed us——”</p>

-

-<p>“I hadn’t a thought that I was going to run up

-against Miss Travers or you, Miss Dale,” he said.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, then, this is a business visit?” and she

-laughed. “Entirely? You only wish to see Major

-Dale?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Well—now—that’s unfair,” he said, his eyes

-twinkling. “But I told Miss Travers she might

-drive me to the hotel.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, this will be your hotel while you remain, of

-course. Father would not hear of anything else

-I am sure.”</p>

-

-<p>“I can thank you, then, Miss Dale,” he said

-quietly and with a sudden serious mien, “for the

-chance to sell my ranch at a better price than those

-sharks were ready to give?”</p>

-

-<p>“No. You may thank Major Dale’s bump of

-acquisitiveness,” she said, laughing at him over

-her shoulder as she led the way into the house.

-“Having so much land already out there, like

-other great property owners, he is always looking

-for more.”</p>

-

-<p>If Garry Knapp was not assured that she was

-entirely frank upon this matter, he knew that his

-welcome was as warm as though he were really

-an old friend. He met Mrs. White almost at

-once, and Dorothy was delighted by her marked

-approval of him.</p>

-

-<p>Garry Knapp got to the major by slow degrees.

-Tavia marveled as she watched Dorothy Dale’s

-calm and assured methods. This was the demure,

-cautious girl whom she had always looked upon

-as being quite helpless when it came to managing

-“affairs” with members of the opposite sex. Tavia

-imagined she was quite able to manage any man—“put<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span>

-him in his place,” she termed it—much better

-than Dorothy Dale. But now!</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy quietly sent Joe and Roger out for

-Mr. Knapp’s bags and told them to take the bags

-up to an indicated room. She made no fuss about

-it, but took it for granted that Garry Knapp had

-come for a visit, not for a call.</p>

-

-<p>The young man from the West had to sit down

-and talk with Aunt Winnie. That lady proceeded

-in her good-humored and tactful way to draw him

-out. Aunt Winnie learned more about Garry

-Knapp in those few minutes than even Tavia had

-learned when she took dinner with the young man.

-And all the time the watchful Dorothy saw Garry

-Knapp growing in her aunt’s estimation.</p>

-

-<p>Ned came in. He had been fussing and fuming

-because business had kept him from personally

-seeing Jennie Hapgood aboard her train. He

-welcomed this big fellow from the West, perhaps,

-because he helped take Ned’s mind off his

-own affairs.</p>

-

-<p>“Come on up and dress for dinner,” Ned suggested,

-having gained Garry Knapp’s sole attention.

-“It’s pretty near time for the big eats, and

-mother is a stickler for the best bib and tucker at

-the evening meal.”</p>

-

-<p>“Great Scott!” gasped Garry Knapp in a panic.

-“You don’t mean dinner dress? I haven’t had on

-a swallowtail since I was in college.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Tuxedo will do,” Ned said lightly. “If you

-didn’t bring ’em I’ll lend you. I’m about as broad

-as you, my boy.”</p>

-

-<p>Garry Knapp was three or four years older than

-Ned, and that “my boy” sounded rather funny.

-However, the Westerner did not smile. He accepted

-the loan of the dinner coat and the vest

-without comment, but he looked very serious while

-he was dressing.</p>

-

-<p>They went down together to meet the girls in

-the drawing-room. Dorothy Dale and Tavia had

-dressed especially for the occasion. Tavia

-flaunted her fine feathers frankly; but demure

-Dorothy’s eyes shone more gloriously than her

-frock. Ned said:</p>

-

-<p>“You look scrumptious, Coz. And, of course,

-Tavia, you are a vision of delight. Where’s

-Nat?”</p>

-

-<p>“Nat?” questioned Tavia, her countenance falling.

-“Is—isn’t he upstairs?”</p>

-

-<p>“Why, don’t you know?” Dorothy cried. “He’s

-gone to Boston. Left just before you came back

-from the station, Tavia.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well, of all things!” Ned said. “I’d have

-gone with him if I’d really believed he meant it.

-Old grouch! He’s been talking of lighting out

-for a week. But I am glad,” he added cordially,

-looking at Garry Knapp, “that I did not go. Then

-I, too, might have missed meeting Mr. Knapp.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span></p>

-

-<p>Now, what was it kept Major Dale away from

-the dinner table that evening? His excuse was

-that a twinge or two of rheumatism kept him from

-appearing with the family when dinner was called.

-And yet Dorothy did not appear worried by her

-father’s absence as she ordinarily would have

-been. Tavia was secretly delighted by this added

-manifestation of Dorothy’s finesse. Garry Knapp

-could not find any excuse for withdrawing from

-the house until he had interviewed the major.</p>

-

-<p>As was usual at The Cedars, the evening meal

-was a lively and enjoyable occasion. Tavia successfully

-hid her chagrin at Nat’s absence; but

-Joe and Roger were this evening the life of the

-company.</p>

-

-<p>“The river’s frozen,” sang Roger, “and we’re

-going skating on it, Joe and I. Did you ever go

-skating, Mr. Knapp?” for Roger believed it only

-common politeness to bring the visitor into the

-conversation.</p>

-

-<p>“Sure enough,” laughed Garry Knapp. “I

-used to be some skater, too.”</p>

-

-<p>“You’d better come,” said Roger. “It’s going

-to be moonlight—Popeye Jordan says so, and he

-knows, for his father lights the street lamps and

-this is one of the nights he doesn’t have to work.”</p>

-

-<p>“I hope Popeye hasn’t made a mistake—or

-Mr. Jordan, either—in reading the almanac,”

-Dorothy said, when the laugh had subsided.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span></p>

-

-<p>“You’d better come, too, Dorothy,” said Joe.

-“The river’s as smooth as glass.”</p>

-

-<p>“Let’s all go,” proposed Tavia, glad to be in

-anything active that would occupy her mind and

-perhaps would push out certain unpleasant

-thoughts that lodged there.</p>

-

-<p>“Mr. Knapp has no skates,” said Dorothy,

-softly.</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t let that stop you,” the Westerner put

-in, smiling. “I can go and look on.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, I guess we can give you a look <em>in</em>,” said

-Ned. “There’s Nat’s skates. I think he didn’t

-take ’em with him.”</p>

-

-<p>“Will they fit Mr. Knapp?” asked Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Dead sure that nobody’s got a bigger foot

-than old Nat,” said his brother wickedly. “If

-Mr. Knapp can get into my coat, he’ll find no

-trouble in getting into Nat’s shoes.”</p>

-

-<p>Ned rather prided himself on his own small and

-slim foot and often took a fling at the size of his

-brother’s shoes. But now, Nat not being present,

-he hoped to “get a rise” out of Tavia. The girl,

-however, bit her lip and said nothing. She was

-not even defending Nat these days.</p>

-

-<p>It was concluded that all should go—that is, all

-the young people then present. Nat and Jennie’s

-absence made what Ned called “a big hole” in the

-company.</p>

-

-<p>“You be good to me, Dot,” he said to his cousin,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span>

-as they waited in the side hall for Tavia to come

-down. “I’m going to miss Jennie awfully. I want

-to skate with you and tell you all about it.”</p>

-

-<p>“All about what?” demanded his cousin, laughing.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, all about how we came to—to—to find

-out we cared for each other,” Ned whispered,

-blunderingly enough but very earnest. “You

-know, Dot, it’s just wonderful——”</p>

-

-<p>“You go on, dear,” said Dorothy, poking a

-gloved forefinger at him. “If you two sillies didn’t

-know you were in love with each other till you

-brought home the ring the other night, why everybody

-else in the neighborhood was aware of the

-fact æons and æons ago!”</p>

-

-<p>“Huh?” grunted Ned, his eyes blinking in surprise.</p>

-

-<p>“It was the most transparent thing in the world.

-Everybody around here saw how the wind blew.”</p>

-

-<p>“You don’t mean it!” said the really astonished

-Ned. “Well! and I didn’t know it myself till I

-began to think how bad a time I was going to

-have without Jennie. I wish old Nat would play

-up to Tavia.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy looked at him scornfully. “Well! of

-all the stupid people who ever lived, most men are

-<em>it</em>,” she thought. But what she said aloud was:</p>

-

-<p>“I want to skate with Mr. Knapp, Nedward.

-You know he is our guest. You take Tavia.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Pshaw!” muttered her cousin as the girl in

-question appeared and Garry Knapp and the boys

-came in from the porch where the Westerner had

-been trying on Nat’s skating boots. “I can’t talk

-to the flyaway as I can to you. But I don’t blame

-you for wanting to skate with Knapp. He seems

-like a mighty fine fellow.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy was getting the family’s opinion, one

-by one, of the man Tavia wickedly whispered

-Dorothy had “set her cap” for. The younger boys

-were plainly delighted with Garry Knapp. When

-the party got to the river Joe and Roger would

-scarcely let the guest and Dorothy get away by

-themselves.</p>

-

-<p>Garry Knapp skated somewhat awkwardly at

-first, for he had not been on the ice for several

-years. But he was very sure footed and it was evident

-utterly unafraid.</p>

-

-<p>He soon “got the hang of it,” as he said, and

-was then ready to skate away with Dorothy. The

-Dale boys tried to keep up; but with one of his

-smiles into the girl’s face, Knapp suddenly all but

-picked her up and carried her off at a great pace

-over the shining, black ice.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! you take my breath!” she cried half

-aloud, yet clinging with delight to his arm.</p>

-

-<p>“We’ll dodge the little scamps and then get

-down to <em>talk</em>,” he said. “I want to know all about

-it.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span></p>

-

-<p>“All about what?” she returned, looking at him

-with shy eyes and a fluttering at her heart that she

-was glad he could not know about.</p>

-

-<p>“About this game of getting me East again.

-I can see your fine Italian hand in this, Miss Dale.

-Does your father really need my land?”</p>

-

-<p>He said it bluntly, and although he smiled,

-Dorothy realized there was something quite serious

-behind his questioning.</p>

-

-<p>“Well, you see, after you had left the hotel in

-New York, Tavia and I overheard those two

-awful men you agreed to sell to talking about the

-bargain,” she said rather stumblingly, but with

-earnestness.</p>

-

-<p>“You did!” he exclaimed. “The sharks!”</p>

-

-<p>“That is exactly what they were. They said

-after Stiffbold got out West he would try to beat

-you down in your price, although at the terms

-agreed upon he knew he was getting a bargain.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh-ho!” murmured Garry Knapp. “That’s

-the way of it, eh? They had me scared all right.

-I gave them an option for thirty days for a hundred

-dollars and they let the option run out. I

-was about to accept a lower price when your father’s

-lawyers came around.”</p>

-

-<p>“You see, Tavia and I were both interested,”

-Dorothy explained. “And Tavia wrote to a

-friend of ours, Lance Petterby——”</p>

-<br>

-

-<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p196" style="max-width: 40.5625em;">

-  <img class="w100" src="images/p196.jpg" alt="">

-  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">IT SEEMED TO DOROTHY THAT THEY FAIRLY FLEW OVER THE

-OPEN WATER.</p>

-

-<div>

- <p class="fs80" style="float: left;"><em>Dorothy Dale’s Engagement</em></p>

- <p class="fs80" style="float: right;"><em>Page <a href="#Page_198">198</a></em></p>

-</div>

-<div style="clear:both;"></div>

-</figcaption>

-</figure>

-<br>

-

-<p>“Ah! that’s why old Lance came riding over

-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span>to Bob Douglass’ place, was it?” murmured Garry.</p>

-

-<p>“Then,” said Dorothy, bravely, “I mentioned

-the matter to father, and he is always willing to

-buy property adjoining the Hardin place. Thinks

-it is a good investment. He and Aunt Winnie,

-too, have a high opinion of that section of the

-country. They believe it is <em>the</em> coming wheat-growing

-land of the States.”</p>

-

-<p>Garry’s mind seemed not to be absorbed by

-this phase of the subject. He said abruptly:</p>

-

-<p>“Your folks are mighty rich, Miss Dale, aren’t

-they?”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy started at this blunt and unusual question,

-but, after a moment’s hesitation, decided to

-answer as frankly as the question had been put.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! Aunt Winnie married a wealthy man—yes,”

-she said. “Professor Winthrop White. But

-we were very poor, indeed, until a few years ago

-when a distant relative left the major some property.

-Then, of course, this Hardin estate is a

-big thing.”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes,” said Garry, shortly. “And you are

-going to be wealthy in your own right when you

-are of age. So your little friend told me.”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes,” sighed Dorothy. “Tavia <em>will</em> talk. The

-same relative who left father his first legacy, tied

-up some thousands for poor little me.”</p>

-

-<p>Immediately Garry Knapp talked of other

-things. The night was fine and the moon, a silver<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span>

-paring, hung low above the hills. The stars were

-so bright that they were reflected in the black ice

-under the skaters’ ringing steel.</p>

-

-<p>Garry and Dorothy had shot away from the

-others and were now well down the river toward

-the milldam. So perfectly had the ice frozen that

-when they turned the blades of the skates left

-long, soaplike shavings behind them.</p>

-

-<p>With clasped hands, they took the stroke together

-perfectly. Never had Dorothy skated with

-a partner that suited her so well. Nor had she

-ever sped more swiftly over the ice.</p>

-

-<p>Suddenly, she felt Garry’s muscles stiffen and

-saw his head jerk up as he stared ahead.</p>

-

-<p>“What is it?” she murmured, her own eyes so

-misty that she could not see clearly. Then in a

-moment she uttered a frightened “Oh!”</p>

-

-<p>They had crossed the river, and now, on coming

-back, there unexpectedly appeared a long, open

-space before them. The water was so still that

-at a distance the treacherous spot looked just like

-the surrounding ice.</p>

-

-<p>The discovery was made too late for them to

-stop. Indeed, Garry Knapp increased his speed,

-picked her up in his arms and it seemed to Dorothy

-that they fairly flew over the open water,

-landing with a resonant ring of steel upon the

-safe ice beyond.</p>

-

-<p>For the moment that she was held tightly in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span>

-young man’s arms, she clung to him with something

-besides fear.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Garry!” she gasped when he set her down

-again.</p>

-

-<p>“Some jump, eh?” returned the young man

-coolly.</p>

-

-<p>They skated on again without another word.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV<br>

-<span class="fs80">GARRY BALKS</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>The major was ready to see Garry Knapp at

-nine o’clock the next morning. He was suffering

-one of his engagements with the enemy rheumatism,

-and there really was a strong reason for his

-having put off this interview until the shy Westerner

-had become somewhat settled at The Cedars

-as a guest.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy took Garry up to the major’s room

-after breakfast, and they found him well-wrapped

-in a rug, sitting in his sun parlor which overlooked

-the lawns of The Cedars.</p>

-

-<p>The young man from the West could not help

-being impressed by the fact that he was the guest

-of a family that was well supplied with this world’s

-goods—one that was used to luxury as well as

-comfort. Is it strange that the most impressive

-point to him was the fact that he had no right to

-even <em>think</em> of trying to win Dorothy Dale?</p>

-

-<p>When he had awakened that morning and

-looked over the luxurious furnishings of his chamber

-and the bathroom and dressing room connected

-with it, he had told himself:</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Garford Knapp, you are in wrong! This is

-no place for a cowpuncher from the Western

-plains. What little tad of money you can sell

-your ranch for won’t put you in any such class as

-these folk belong to.</p>

-

-<p>“And as for thinking of that girl—Great Scot!

-I’d make a fine figure asking any girl used to such

-luxury as this to come out and share a shack in

-Desert City or thereabout, while I punched cattle,

-or went to keeping store, or tried to match my

-wits in real estate with the sharks that exploit land

-out there.</p>

-

-<p>“Forget it, Garford!” he advised himself,

-grimly. “If you can make an honest deal with

-this old major, make it and then clear out. This

-is no place for you.”</p>

-

-<p>He had, therefore, braced himself for the interview.

-The major, eyeing him keenly as he

-walked down the long room beside Dorothy, made

-his own judgment—as he always did—instantly.

-When Dorothy had gone he said frankly to the

-young man:</p>

-

-<p>“Mr. Knapp, I’m glad to see you. I have heard

-so much about you that I feel you and I are already

-friends.”</p>

-

-<p>“Thank you, sir,” said Garry, quietly, eyeing

-the major with as much interest as the latter eyed

-him.</p>

-

-<p>“When my daughter was talking one day about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span>

-you and the land you had in the market adjoining

-the Hardin tract it struck me that perhaps it

-would be a good thing to buy,” went on the major,

-briskly. “So I set our lawyers on your trail.”</p>

-

-<p>“So Miss Dorothy tells me, sir,” the young man

-said.</p>

-

-<p>“Now, they know all about the offer made you

-by those sharpers, Stiffbold &amp; Lightly. They advised

-me to risk a thousand dollar option on your

-ranch and I telegraphed them to make you the

-offer.”</p>

-

-<p>“And you may believe I was struck all of a

-heap, sir,” said the young man, still eyeing the

-major closely. “I’ll tell you something: You’ve

-got me guessing.”</p>

-

-<p>“How’s that?” asked the amused Major Dale.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, people don’t come around and hand me

-a thousand dollars every day—and just on a gamble.”</p>

-

-<p>“Sure I am gambling?” responded the major.</p>

-

-<p>“I’m not sure of anything,” admitted Garry

-Knapp. “But it looks like that. I accepted the

-certified check—I have it with me. I don’t know

-but I’d better hand it back to you, Major, for I

-think you have been misinformed about the real

-value of the ranch. The price per acre your lawyers

-offer is away above the market.”</p>

-

-<p>“Hey!” exclaimed Major Dale. “You call

-yourself a business man?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Not much of one, I suppose,” said Garry.

-“I’ll sell you my ranch quick enough at a fair

-price. But this looks as if you were doing me a

-favor. I think you have been influenced.”</p>

-

-<p>“Eh?” stammered the astounded old gentleman.</p>

-

-<p>“By your daughter,” said Garry, quietly. “I’m

-conceited enough to think it is because of Miss

-Dale that you make me the offer you do.”</p>

-

-<p>“Any crime in that?” demanded the major.</p>

-

-<p>“No crime exactly,” rejoined Garry with one of

-his rare smiles, “unless I take advantage of it.

-But I’m not the sort of fellow, Major Dale, who

-can willingly accept more than I can give value

-for. Your offer for my ranch is beyond reason.”</p>

-

-<p>“Would you have thought so if another

-man—somebody instead of my daughter’s

-father——” and his eyes twinkled as he said it,

-“had made you the offer?”</p>

-

-<p>Garry Knapp was silent and showed confusion.

-The major went on with some grimness of expression:</p>

-

-<p>“But if your conscience troubles you and you

-wish to call the deal off, now is your chance to return

-the check.”</p>

-

-<p>Instantly Garry pulled his wallet from his

-pocket and produced the folded green slip, good

-for a thousand dollars at the Desert City Trust

-Company.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span></p>

-

-<p>“There you are, sir,” he said quietly, and laid

-the paper upon the arm of the major’s chair.</p>

-

-<p>The old gentleman picked it up, identified it, and

-slowly tore the check into strips, eyeing the young

-man meanwhile.</p>

-

-<p>“Then,” he said, calmly, “<em>that</em> phase of the matter

-is closed. But you still wish to sell your

-ranch?”</p>

-

-<p>“I do, Major Dale. But I can’t accept what

-anybody out there would tell you was a price out

-of all reason.”</p>

-

-<p>“Except my lawyers,” suggested the major.</p>

-

-<p>“Well——”</p>

-

-<p>“Young man, you have done a very foolish

-thing,” said Major Dale. “A ridiculous thing,

-perhaps. Unless you are shrewder than you

-seem. My lawyers have had your land thoroughly

-cruised. You have the best wheat land, in embryo,

-anywhere in the Desert City region.”</p>

-

-<p>Garry started and stared at him for a minute

-without speaking. Then he sighed and shrugged

-his shoulders.</p>

-

-<p>“That may be, sir. Perhaps you <em>do</em> know more

-about the intrinsic value of my ranch than I do

-myself. But I know it would cost a mint of money

-to develop that old rundown place into wheat

-soil.”</p>

-

-<p>“Humph! and if you had this—er—<em>mint</em> of

-money, what would you do?”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Do? I’d develop it myself!” cried the young

-man, startled into enthusiastic speech. “I know

-there is a fortune there. <em>You</em> are making big

-profits on the Hardin place already, I understand.

-Cattle have gone out; but wheat has come to stay.

-Oh, I know all about that! But what’s the use?”</p>

-

-<p>“Have you tried to raise money for the development

-of your land?” asked the major quietly.</p>

-

-<p>“I’ve talked to some bankers, yes. Nothing

-doing. The machinery and fertilizer cost at the

-first would be prohibitive. A couple of crop failures

-would wipe out everything, and the banks

-don’t want land on their hands. As for the money-lenders—well,

-Major Dale, you can imagine what

-sort of hold <em>they</em> demand when they deal with a

-person in my situation.”</p>

-

-<p>“And you would rather have what seems to you

-a fair price for your land and get it off your

-hands?”</p>

-

-<p>“I’ll accept a fair price—yes. But I can’t accept

-any favors,” said the young man, his face

-gloomy enough but as stubborn as ever.</p>

-

-<p>“I see,” said the major. “Then what will you

-do with the money you get?”</p>

-

-<p>“Try to get into some business that will make

-me more,” and Garry looked up again with a

-sudden smile.</p>

-

-<p>“Raising wheat does not attract you, then?”</p>

-

-<p>“It’s the biggest prospect in that section. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span>

-know it has cattle raising and even mining backed

-clear across the board. But it’s no game for a

-little man with little capital.”</p>

-

-<p>“Then why not get into it?” asked Major Dale,

-still speaking quietly. “You seem enthusiastic.

-Enthusiasm and youth—why, my boy, they will

-carry a fellow far!”</p>

-

-<p>Garry looked at him in a rather puzzled way.

-“But don’t I tell you, Major Dale, that the banks

-will not let me have money?”</p>

-

-<p>“I’ll let you have the money—and at a fair interest,”

-said Major Dale.</p>

-

-<p>Garry smiled slowly and put out his hand. The

-major quickly took it and his countenance began

-to brighten. But what Garry said caused the old

-gentleman’s expression to become suddenly doleful:</p>

-

-<p>“I can’t accept your offer, sir. I know that it

-is a favor—a favor that is suggested by Miss

-Dorothy. If it were not for her, you would never

-have thought of sending for me or making either

-of these more than kind propositions you have

-made.</p>

-

-<p>“I shall have to say no—and thank you.”</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI<br>

-<span class="fs80">SERIOUS THOUGHTS</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>The young people at The Cedars had taken

-Garry Knapp right into the heart of their social

-life. He knew he was welcome and the hospitality

-shown him was a most delightful experience for

-the young Westerner.</p>

-

-<p>But “business was business.” He could not see

-wherein he had any right to accept a favor from

-Major Dale because Dorothy wished her father

-to aid him. That was not Garry’s idea of a manly

-part—to use the father of the girl you love as a

-staff in getting on in the world.</p>

-

-<p>There was no conceit in Garry’s belief that he

-had tacit permission, was it right to accept it, to

-try to win Dorothy Dale’s heart and hand. He

-was just as well assured in his soul that Dorothy

-had been attracted to him as he was that she had

-gained his affection. “Love like a lightning bolt,”

-Tavia had called Dorothy’s interest in Garry

-Knapp. It was literally true in the young man’s

-case. He had fallen in love with Dorothy Dale

-almost at first sight.</p>

-

-<p>Every time he saw her during that all too brief<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span>

-occasion in New York his feeling for the girl had

-grown. By leaps and bounds it increased until,

-just as Tavia had once said, if Dorothy had been

-in Tavia’s financial situation Garry Knapp would

-never have left New York without first learning

-whether or not there was any possible chance of

-his winning the girl he knew he loved.</p>

-

-<p>Now it was revealed to him that he had that

-chance—and bitterly did he regret the knowledge.

-For he gained it at the cost of his peace of mind.</p>

-

-<p>It is one thing to long for the object forbidden

-us; it is quite another thing to know that we may

-claim that longed-for object if honor did not interfere.

-To Garry Knapp’s mind he could not

-meet what was Dorothy Dale’s perfectly proper

-advances, and keep his own self-respect.</p>

-

-<p>Were he more sanguine, or a more imaginative

-young man, he might have done so. But Garry

-Knapp’s head was filled with hard, practical common

-sense. Young men and more often young

-girls allow themselves to become engaged with

-little thought for the future. Garry was not that

-kind. Suppose Dorothy Dale did accept his attentions

-and was willing to wait for him until he

-could win out in some line of industrial endeavor

-that would afford the competence that he believed

-he should possess before marrying a girl used to

-the luxuries Dorothy was used to, Garry Knapp

-felt it would be wrong to accept the sacrifice.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span></p>

-

-<p>The chances of business life, especially for a

-young man with the small experience and the small

-capital he would have, were too great. To “tie a

-girl up” under such circumstances was a thing

-Garry could not contemplate and keep his self-respect.

-He would not, he told himself, be led

-even to admit by word or look that he desired to

-be Dorothy’s suitor.</p>

-

-<p>To hide this desire during the few days he remained

-at The Cedars was the hardest task Garry

-Knapp had ever undertaken. If Dorothy was

-demure and modest she was likewise determined.

-Her happiness, she felt, was at stake and although

-she could but admire the attitude Garry held upon

-this momentous question she did not feel that he

-was right.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, what does it matter about money—mere

-money?” she said one night to Tavia, confessing

-everything when her chum had crept into her bed

-with her after the lights were out. “I believe I

-care for money less than he does.”</p>

-

-<p>“You bet you do!” ejaculated Tavia, vigorously.

-“Just at present that young cowboy person

-is caring more for money than Ananias did.

-Money looks bigger to him than anything else in

-the world. With money he could have you, Doro

-Doodlekins—don’t you see?”</p>

-

-<p>“But he can have me without!” wailed Dorothy,

-burying her head in the pillow.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Oh, no he can’t,” Tavia said wisely and quietly.

-“You know he can’t. If you could tempt him to

-throw up his principles in the matter, you know

-very well, Doro, that you would be heartbroken.”</p>

-

-<p>“What?”</p>

-

-<p>“Yes you would. You wouldn’t want a young

-man dangling after you who had thrown aside his

-self-respect for a girl. Now, would you?” And

-without waiting for an answer she continued: “Not

-that I approve of his foolishness. Some men <em>are</em>

-that way, however. Thank heaven I am not a

-man.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! I’m glad you’re not, either,” confessed

-Dorothy with her soft lips now against Tavia’s

-cheek.</p>

-

-<p>“Thank you, ma’am. I have often thought I’d

-like to be of the hemale persuasion; but never, no

-more!” declared Tavia, with vigor. “Suppose <em>I</em>

-should then be afflicted with an ingrowing conscience

-about taking money from the woman I

-married? Whe-e-e-ew!”</p>

-

-<p>“He wouldn’t have to,” murmured Dorothy,

-burying her head again and speaking in a muffled

-voice. “I’d give up the money.”</p>

-

-<p>“And if he had any sense or unselfishness at all

-he wouldn’t let you do <em>that</em>,” snapped Tavia.

-“No. You couldn’t get along without much money

-now, Dorothy.”</p>

-

-<p>“Nonsense——”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span></p>

-

-<p>“It is the truth. I know I should be hopelessly

-unhappy myself if I had to go home and live again

-just as they do there. I have been spoiled,” said

-Tavia, her voice growing lugubrious. “I want

-wealth—luxuries—and everything good that

-money buys. Yes, Doro, when it comes <em>my</em> time

-to become engaged, I must get a wealthy man or

-none at all. I shall be put up at auction——”</p>

-

-<p>“Tavia! How you talk! Ridiculous!” exclaimed

-Dorothy. “You talk like a heathen.”</p>

-

-<p>“Am one when it comes to money matters,”

-groaned the girl. “I have got to marry

-money——”</p>

-

-<p>“If Nat White were as poor as a church mouse,

-you’d marry him in a minute!”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh—er—well,” sighed Tavia, “Nat is not going

-to ask me, I am afraid.”</p>

-

-<p>“He would in a minute if you’d tell him about

-those Lance Petterby letters.”</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t you dare tell him, Dorothy Dale!” exclaimed

-Tavia, almost in fear. “You must not.

-Now, promise.”</p>

-

-<p>“I have promised,” her friend said gloomily.</p>

-

-<p>“And see that you stick to it. I know,” said

-Tavia, “that I could bring Nat back to me by explaining.

-But there should be no need of explaining.

-He should know that—that—oh, well,

-what’s the use of talking! It’s all off!” and Tavia

-flounced around and buried her nose in the pillow.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span></p>

-

-<p>Dorothy’s wits were at work, however. In the

-morning she “put a flea in Ned’s ear,” as Tavia

-would have said, and Ned hurried off to the telegraph

-office to send a day letter to his brother.

-Dorothy did not censor that telegraph despatch

-or this section of it would never have gone over

-the wire:</p>

-<br>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-

-<p>“Come back home and take a squint at the

-cowboy D. has picked out for herself.”</p>

-</div>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII<br>

-<span class="fs80">“IT’S ALL OFF!”</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>By this time even Ned, dense as he sometimes

-showed himself to be, was aware of how things

-stood between the handsome stranger from the

-West and his cousin Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>Ned’s heart was particularly warm at this juncture.

-He spent a good two hours every forenoon

-writing a long letter to Jennie.</p>

-

-<p>“What under the sun he finds to write about

-gets <em>me</em>,” declared Tavia. “He must indite sonnets

-to her eyebrows or the like. I never did believe

-that Ned White would fall so low as to be a

-poet.”</p>

-

-<p>“Love plays funny tricks with us,” sighed Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“Huh!” ejaculated Tavia, wide-eyed. “Do you

-feel like writing poetry yourself, Doro Dale? I

-vum!”</p>

-

-<p>However, to return to Ned, when his letter

-writing was done he was at the beck and call of

-the girls or was off with Garry Knapp for the rest

-of the day. Toward Garry he showed the same

-friendliness that his mother displayed and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span>

-major showed. They all liked the young man

-from Desert City; and they could not help admiring

-his character, although they could not believe

-him either wise or just to Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>The situation was delicate in the extreme. As

-Dorothy and Garry had never approached the subject

-of their secret attachment for each other, and

-now, of course, did not speak of it to the others,

-not even Ned could blunder into any opening

-wherein he might “out with his opinion” to the

-Westerner.</p>

-

-<p>Garry Knapp showed nothing but the most gentlemanly

-regard for Dorothy. After that first

-evening on the ice, he did not often allow himself

-to be left alone in her company. He knew very

-well wherein his own weakness lay.</p>

-

-<p>He talked frankly of his future intentions. It

-had been agreed between him and Major Dale

-that the old Knapp ranch should be turned over to

-the Hardin estate lawyers when Garry went back

-West at a price per acre that was generous, as

-Garry said, but not so much above the market

-value that he would be “ashamed to look the lawyers

-in the face when he took the money.”</p>

-

-<p>Just what Garry would do with these few thousands

-he did not know. His education had been a

-classical one. He had taken up nothing special

-save mineralogy, and that only because of Uncle

-Terry’s lifelong interest in “prospects.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span></p>

-

-<p>“I boned like a good fellow,” he told Ned, “on

-that branch just to please the old fellow. Of

-course, I’d tagged along with him on a burro on

-many a prospecting trip when I was a kid, and had

-learned a lot of prospector’s lore from the dear

-old codger.</p>

-

-<p>“But what the old prospector knows about his

-business is a good deal like what the old-fashioned

-farmer knows about growing things. He does

-certain things because they bring results, but the

-old farmer doesn’t know why. Just so with the

-old-time prospector. Uncle Terry’s scientific

-knowledge of minerals wasn’t a spoonful. I

-showed him things that made his eyes bug out—as

-we say in the West,” and Garry laughed reminiscently.</p>

-

-<p>“I shouldn’t have thought he’d ever have quarreled

-with you,” said Ned, having heard this fact

-from the girls. “You must have been helpful to

-him.”</p>

-

-<p>“That’s the reef we were wrecked on,” said

-Garry, shaking his head rather sadly.</p>

-

-<p>“You don’t mean it! How?” queried Ned.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, I’ll tell you. I don’t talk of it much.

-Of course, you understand Uncle Terry is one of

-the old timers. He’s lived a rough life and associated

-with rough men for most of it. And his

-slant on moral questions is not—well—er—what

-yours and mine would be, White.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span></p>

-

-<p>“I see,” said Ned, nodding. “You collided on

-a matter of ethics?”</p>

-

-<p>“As you might say,” admitted Garry. “There

-are abandoned diggings all over the West, especially

-where gold was found in rich deposits that

-can now be dug over and, by scientific methods,

-made to yield comfortable fortunes.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, in the early rush the metal, silver, was

-not thought of! The miners cursed the black stuff

-which got in their way and later proved to be almost

-pure silver ore. Other valuable metals were

-neglected, too. The miners could see nothing but

-yellow. They were gold crazy.”</p>

-

-<p>“I see,” Ned agreed. “It must have been great

-times out there in those early days.”</p>

-

-<p>“Ha!” exclaimed Garry. “For every ounce of

-gold mined in the old times there was a man

-wasted. The early gold mining cost more in men

-than a war, believe me! However, that isn’t the

-point, or what I was telling you about.</p>

-

-<p>“Some time after I left the university Uncle

-Terry wanted me to go off on a prospecting trip

-with him and I went—just for the holiday, you

-understand. These last few years he hasn’t made

-a strike. He has plenty of money, anyway; but

-the wanderlust of the old prospector seizes him

-and he just has to pack up and go.</p>

-

-<p>“We struck Seeper’s Gulch. It was some strike

-in its day, about thirty years ago. The gold hunters<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span>

-dug fortunes out of that gulch, and then the

-Chinese came in and raked over and sifted the

-refuse. You’d think there wasn’t ten cents worth

-of valuable metal left in that place, wouldn’t

-you?”</p>

-

-<p>Ned nodded, keenly interested in the story.</p>

-

-<p>“Well, that’s what the old man thought. He

-made all kinds of jokes over a squatter’s family

-that had picketed there and were digging and toiling

-over the played out claims.</p>

-

-<p>“It seemed that they held legal title to a big

-patch of the gulch. Some sharper had sawed off

-the claim on them for good, hard-earned money;

-and here they were, broke and desperate. Why!

-there hadn’t been any gold mined there for years

-and years, and their title, although perfectly legal,

-wasn’t worth a cent—or so it seemed.</p>

-

-<p>“Uncle Terry tried to show them that. They

-were stubborn. They had to be, you see,” said

-Garry, shaking his head. “Every hope they had

-in the world was right in that God-forsaken gulch.</p>

-

-<p>“Well,” he sighed, “I got to mooning around,

-impatient to be gone, and I found something. It

-was so plain that I wonder I didn’t fall over it

-and break my neck,” and Garry laughed.</p>

-

-<p>“What was it? Not gold?”</p>

-

-<p>“No. Copper. And a good, healthy lead of

-it. I traced the vein some distance before I would

-believe it myself. And the bulk of it seemed to lie<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span>

-right inside the boundaries of that supposedly

-worthless claim those poor people had bought.</p>

-

-<p>“I didn’t dare tell anybody at first. I had to

-figure out how she could be mined (for copper mining

-isn’t like washing gold dust) and how the ore

-could be taken to the crusher. The old roads were

-pretty good, I found. It wouldn’t be much of a

-haul from Seeper’s Gulch to town.</p>

-

-<p>“Then I told Uncle Terry—and showed him.”</p>

-

-<p>Ned waited, looking at Garry curiously.</p>

-

-<p>“That—that’s where he and I locked horns,”

-sighed Garry. “Uncle Terry was for offering to

-buy the claim for a hundred dollars. He had that

-much in his jeans and the squatters were desperate—meat

-and meal all out and not enough gold in

-the bottom of the pans to color a finger-ring.”</p>

-

-<p>He was silent again for a moment, and then continued:</p>

-

-<p>“I couldn’t see it. To take advantage of the

-ignorance of that poor family wasn’t a square deal.

-Uncle Terry lost his head and then lost his temper.

-To stop him from making any such deal I

-out with my story and showed those folks just

-where they stood. A little money would start ’em,

-and I lent them that——”</p>

-

-<p>“But your Uncle Terry?” asked Ned, curiously.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, he went off mad. I saw the squatters

-started right and then made for home. I was

-some time getting there——”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span></p>

-

-<p>“You cleaned yourself out helping the owners

-of the claim?” put in Ned, shrewdly.</p>

-

-<p>“Why—yes, I did. But that was nothing. I’d

-been broke before. I got a job here and there to

-carry me along. But when I reached home Uncle

-Terry had hiked out for Alaska and left a letter

-with a lawyer for me. I was the one bad egg in

-the family,” and Garry laughed rather ruefully,

-“so he said. He’d rather give his money to build

-a rattlesnake home than to me. So that’s where

-we stand to-day. And you see, White, I did not

-exactly prepare myself for any profession or any

-business, depending as I was on Uncle Terry’s

-bounty.”</p>

-

-<p>“Tough luck,” announced Ned White.</p>

-

-<p>“It was very foolish on my part. No man

-should look forward to another’s shoes. If I had

-gone ahead with the understanding that I had my

-own row to hoe when I got through school, believe

-me, I should have picked my line long before I

-left the university and prepared accordingly.</p>

-

-<p>“I figure that I’m set back several years. With

-this little bunch of money your uncle is going to

-pay me for my old ranch I have got to get into

-something that will begin to turn me a penny at

-once. Not so easy to do, Mr. White.”</p>

-

-<p>“But what about the folks you steered into the

-copper mine?” asked Ned.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, they are making out fairly well. It was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span>

-no great fortune, but a good paying proposition

-and may keep going for years. Copper is away

-up now, you know. They paid me back the loan

-long ago. But poor old Uncle Terry—well, he is

-still sore, and I guess he will remain so for the

-remainder of his natural. I’m sorry for him.”</p>

-

-<p>“And not for yourself?” asked Ned, slyly.</p>

-

-<p>“Why, I’d be glad if he’d back me in something.

-Developing my ranch into wheat land, for instance.

-Money lies that way, I believe. But it

-takes two or three years to get going and lots of

-money for machinery. Can’t raise wheat out there

-in a small way. It means tractors, and gangplows

-and all such things. Whew! no use thinking of

-that now,” and Garry heaved a final sigh.</p>

-

-<p>He had not asked Ned to keep the tale to himself;

-therefore, the family knew the particulars

-of Garry Knapp’s trouble with his uncle in a short

-time. It was the one thing needed to make Major

-Dale, at least, desire to keep in touch with the

-young Westerner.</p>

-

-<p>“I’m not surprised that he looks upon any understanding

-with Dorothy in the way he does,”

-the major said to Aunt Winnie. “He is a high-minded

-fellow—no doubt of it. And I believe he

-is no namby-pamby. He will go far before he gets

-through. I’ll prophesy that.”</p>

-

-<p>“But, my dear Major,” said his sister, with a

-rather tremulous smile, “it may be years before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span>

-such an honorable young man as Garry Knapp will

-acquire a competence sufficient to encourage him

-to come after our Dorothy.”</p>

-

-<p>“Well—er——”</p>

-

-<p>“And they need each other <em>now</em>,” went on

-Mrs. White, with assurance, “while they are young

-and can get the good of youth and of life itself.

-Not after their hearts are starved by long and impatient

-waiting.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, the young idiot!” growled the major,

-shaking his head.</p>

-

-<p>Aunt Winnie laughed, although there was still

-a tremor in her voice. “You call him high-minded

-and an idiot——”</p>

-

-<p>“He is both,” growled Major Dale. “Perhaps,

-to be cynical, one might say that in this day and

-generation the two attributes go together! I—I

-wish I knew the way out.”</p>

-

-<p>“So do I,” sighed Mrs. White. “For Dorothy’s

-sake,” she added.</p>

-

-<p>“For both their sakes,” said the major. “For,

-believe me, this young man isn’t having a very

-good time, either.”</p>

-

-<p>Tavia wished she might “cut the Gordian

-knot,” as she expressed it. Ned would have gladly

-shown Garry a way out of the difficulty. And

-Dorothy Dale could do nothing!</p>

-

-<p>“What helpless folk we girls are, after all,” she

-confessed to Tavia. “I thought I was being so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span>

-bold, so brave, in getting Garry to come East. I

-believed I had solved the problem through father’s

-aid. And look at it now! No farther toward

-what I want than before.”</p>

-

-<p>“Garry Knapp is a—a chump!” exclaimed

-Tavia, with some heat.</p>

-

-<p>“But a very lovable chump,” added Dorothy,

-smiling patiently. “Oh, dear! It must be his decision,

-not mine, after all. I tell you, even the

-most modern of girls are helpless in the end. The

-man decides.”</p>

-

-<p>Nat came back to North Birchland in haste. It

-needed only a word—even from his brother—to

-bring him. Perhaps he would have met Tavia

-as though no misunderstanding had arisen between

-them had she been willing to ignore their difficulty.</p>

-

-<p>But when he kissed Dorothy and his mother,

-and turned to Tavia, she put out her hand and

-looked Nat sternly in the eye. He knew better

-than to make a joke of his welcome home with

-her. She had raised the barrier herself and she

-meant to keep it up.</p>

-

-<p>“The next time you kiss me it must be in solemn

-earnest.”</p>

-

-<p>She had said that to Nat and she proposed to

-abide by it. The old, cordial, happy-go-lucky comradeship

-could never be renewed. Nat realized

-that suddenly and dropped his head as he went

-indoors with his bag.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span></p>

-

-<p>He had returned almost too late to meet Garry

-Knapp after all. The Westerner laughingly protested

-that he had loafed long enough. He had

-to run down to New York for a day or so to attend

-to some business for Bob Douglas and then

-must start West.</p>

-

-<p>“Come back here before you really start for the

-‘wild and woolly,’” begged Ned. “We’ll get up a

-real house party——”</p>

-

-<p>“Tempt me not!” cried Garry, with hand

-raised. “It is hard enough for me to pull my

-freight now. If I came again I’d only have to—well!

-it would be harder, that’s all,” and his

-usually hopeful face was overcast.</p>

-

-<p>“Remember you leave friends here, my boy,”

-said the major, when he saw the young man alone

-the evening before his departure. “You’ll find no

-friends anywhere who will be more interested in

-your success than these at The Cedars.”</p>

-

-<p>“I believe you, Major. I wish I could show my

-appreciation of your kindness in a greater degree

-by accepting your offer to help me. But I can’t

-do it. It wouldn’t be right.”</p>

-

-<p>“No. From your standpoint, I suppose it

-wouldn’t,” admitted the major, with a sigh. “But

-at least you’ll correspond——”</p>

-

-<p>“Ned and I are going to write each other frequently—we’ve

-got quite chummy, you know,”

-and Garry laughed. “You shall all hear of me.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span>

-And thank you a thousand times for your interest

-Major Dale!”</p>

-

-<p>“But my interest hasn’t accomplished what I

-wanted it to accomplish,” muttered the old gentleman,

-as Garry turned away.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy showed a brave face when the time

-came for Garry’s departure. She did not make

-an occasion for seeing him alone, as she might

-easily have done. Somehow she felt bound in

-honor—in Garry’s honor—not to try to break

-down his decision. She knew he understood her;

-and she understood Garry. Why make the

-parting harder by any talk about it?</p>

-

-<p>But Tavia’s observation as Garry was whirled

-away by Ned in the car for the railway station,

-sounded like a knell in Dorothy Dale’s ears.</p>

-

-<p>“It’s all off!” remarked Tavia.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII<br>

-<span class="fs80">THE CASTAWAYS</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Drifts covered the fences and fitted every evergreen

-about The Cedars with a white cap. The

-snow had come quite unexpectedly and in the arms

-of a blizzard.</p>

-

-<p>For two days and nights the storm had raged

-all over the East. Wires were down and many

-railroad trains were blocked. New York City

-was reported snowbound.</p>

-

-<p>“I bet old Garry is holed up in the hotel there

-all right,” said Ned. “He’d never have got away

-before the storm.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy hoped Garry had not started for the

-West and had become snowbound in some train;

-but she said nothing about it.</p>

-

-<p>It took two full days for the roads to be broken

-around North Birchland. And then, of course, to

-use an automobile was quite impossible.</p>

-

-<p>The Dale boys were naturally delighted, for

-there was no school for several days and snow-caves,

-snowmen and snow monuments of all kind

-were constructed all over the White lawns.</p>

-

-<p>Nor were Joe and Roger alone in these out-of-door<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span>

-activities. The girls, as well as Ned and

-Nat, lent their assistance, and Tavia proved to be

-a fine snow sculptor.</p>

-

-<p>“Always was. Believe I might learn to work

-putty and finally become a great sculptor,” she declared.

-“At Glenwood they said I had a talent

-for composition.”</p>

-

-<p>“What kind of figure do you prefer to sculp,

-Tavia?” asked Ned, with curiosity.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, I think I should just <em>love</em> a job in an ice-cream

-factory, turning out works of art for parties

-and banquets. Or making little figures on New

-Year’s and birthday cakes. And then—think of

-all the nice ‘eats’!”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh! I’d like to do that,” breathed Roger, with

-round eyes.</p>

-

-<p>“Now, see,” laughed Dorothy, “you have

-started Roger, perhaps, in a career. He does love

-ice-cream and cake.”</p>

-

-<p>At least the joke started something else if it did

-not point Roger on the road to fame as an “ice-cream

-sculptor.” The boy was inordinately fond

-of goodies and Tavia promised him a treat just

-as soon as ever she could get into town.</p>

-

-<p>A few days before Tavia had been the recipient

-of a sum of money from home. When he had

-any money himself Mr. Travers never forgot his

-pretty daughter’s need. He was doing very well

-in business now, as well as holding a political position<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span>

-that paid a good salary. This money she

-had received was of course burning a hole in

-Tavia’s pocket. She must needs get into town

-as soon as the roads were passable, to buy goodies

-as her contract with Roger called for.</p>

-

-<p>The horses had not been out of the stable for a

-week and the coachman admitted they needed exercise.

-So he was to drive Tavia to town directly

-after breakfast. It was washday, however, and

-something had happened to the furnace in the

-laundry. The coachman was general handy man

-about the White premises, and he was called upon

-to fix the furnace just as Tavia—and the horses—were

-ready.</p>

-

-<p>“But who’ll drive me?” asked Tavia, looking

-askance at the spirited span that the boy from

-the stables was holding. “Goodness! aren’t they

-full of ginger?”</p>

-

-<p>“Better wait till afternoon,” advised Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“But they are all ready, and so am I. Besides,”

-said Tavia with a glance at Roger’s doleful face,

-“somebody smells disappointment.”</p>

-

-<p>Roger understood and said, trying to speak

-gruffly:</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, I don’t mind.”</p>

-

-<p>“No. I see you don’t,” Tavia returned dryly,

-and just then Nat appeared on the porch in bearskin

-and driving gloves.</p>

-

-<p>“Get in, Tavia, if you want to go. The horses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span>

-need the work, anyway; and the coachman may be

-all day at that furnace.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh—I—ah——” began Tavia. Then she

-closed her lips and marched down the steps and

-got into the cutter. Whatever her feeling about

-the matter, she was not going to attract everybody’s

-attention by backing out.</p>

-

-<p>Nat tucked the robes around her and got in

-himself. Then he gathered up the reins, the boy

-sprang out of the way, and they were off.</p>

-

-<p>With the runners of the light sleigh humming

-at their heels the horses gathered speed each moment.

-Nat hung on to the reins and the roses began

-to blow in Tavia’s cheeks and the fire of excitement

-burn in her eyes.</p>

-

-<p>How she loved to travel fast! And in riding

-beside Nat the pleasure of speed for her was

-always doubled. Whether it was in the automobile,

-or behind the galloping blacks, as now, to

-speed along the highways by Nat’s side was a delight.</p>

-

-<p>The snow was packed just right for sleighing

-and the wildly excited span tore into town at racing

-speed. Indeed, so excited were the horses that

-Nat thought it better not to stop anywhere until

-the creatures had got over their first desire to

-run.</p>

-

-<p>So they swept through the town and out upon

-the road to The Beeches.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Don’t mind, do you?” Nat stammered, casting

-a quick, sidelong glance at Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Nat! it’s wonderful!” she gasped, but

-looked straight ahead.</p>

-

-<p>“Good little sport—the best ever!” groaned

-Nat; but perhaps she did not hear the compliment

-thus wrested from him.</p>

-

-<p>He turned into the upper road for The Beeches,

-believing it would be more traveled than the other

-highway. In this, however, he was proved mistaken

-in a very few minutes. The road breakers

-had not been far on this highway, so the blacks

-were soon floundering through the drifts and were

-rapidly brought down to a sensible pace.</p>

-

-<p>“Say! this is altogether too rough,” Nat declared.

-“It’s no fun being tossed about like beans

-in a sack. I’d better turn ’em around.”</p>

-

-<p>“You’ll tip us over, Nat,” objected Tavia.</p>

-

-<p>“Likely to,” admitted the young man. “So

-we’d better both hop out while I perform the

-necessary operation.”</p>

-

-<p>“Maybe they will get away from you,” she

-cried with some fear. “Be careful.”</p>

-

-<p>“Watch your Uncle Nat,” he returned lightly.

-“I’ll not let them get away.”</p>

-

-<p>Tavia was the last person to be cautious; so

-she hopped out into the snow on her side of the

-sleigh while Nat alighted on the other. A sharp

-pull on the bits and the blacks were plunging in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span>

-the drift to one side of the half beaten track.

-Tavia stepped well back out of the way.</p>

-

-<p>The horses breasted the deep snow, snorting

-and tossing their heads. Their spirits were not

-quenched even after this long and hard dash from

-The Cedars.</p>

-

-<p>The sleigh did go over on its side; but Nat

-righted it quickly. This, however, necessitated

-his letting go of the reins with one hand.</p>

-

-<p>The next moment the sleigh came with a terrific

-shock into collision with an obstruction. It was a

-log beside the road, completely hidden in the snow.</p>

-

-<p>Frightened, the horses plunged and kicked.

-The doubletree snapped and the reins were jerked

-from Nat’s grasp. The horses leaped ahead,

-squealing and plunging, tearing the harness completely

-from their backs. The sleigh remained

-wedged behind the log; but the animals were freed

-and tore away along the road, back toward North

-Birchland.</p>

-

-<p>Tavia had made no outcry; but now, in the

-midst of the snow cloud that had been kicked up,

-she saw that Nat was floundering in the drift.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Nat! are you hurt?” she moaned, and ran

-to him.</p>

-

-<p>But he was already gingerly getting upon his

-feet. He had lost his cap, and the neck of his

-coat, where the big collar flared away, was packed

-with snow.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Badly hurt—in my dignity,” he growled. “Oh

-gee, Tavia! Come and scoop some of this snow

-out of my neck.”</p>

-

-<p>She giggled at that. She could not help it, for

-he looked really funny. Nevertheless she lent

-him some practical aid, and after he had shaken

-himself out of the loose snow and found his cap,

-he could grin himself at the situation.</p>

-

-<p>“We’re castaway in the snow, just the same,

-old girl,” he said. “What’ll we do—start back

-and go through North Birchland, the beheld of

-all beholders, or take the crossroad back to The

-Cedars—and so save a couple of miles?”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, let’s go home the quickest way,” she said.

-“I—I don’t want to be the laughing stock for the

-whole town.”</p>

-

-<p>“My fault, Tavia. I’m sorry,” he said ruefully.</p>

-

-<p>“No more your fault than it was mine,” she

-said loyally.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, yes it was,” he groaned, looking at her

-seriously. “And it always <em>is</em> my fault.”</p>

-

-<p>“What is always your fault?” she asked him

-but tremulously and stepping back a little.</p>

-

-<p>“Our scraps, Tavia. Our big scrap. I <em>know</em>

-I ought not to have questioned you about that old

-letter. Oh, hang it, Tavia! don’t you see just how

-sorry and ashamed I am?” he cried boyishly, putting

-out both gloved hands to her.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span></p>

-

-<p>“I—I know this isn’t just the way to tell you—or

-the place. But my heart just <em>aches</em> because of

-that scrap, Tavia. I don’t care how many letters

-you have from other people. I know there’s nothing

-out of the way in them. I was just jealous—and—and

-mean——”</p>

-

-<p>“Anybody tell you why Lance Petterby was

-writing to me?” put in Tavia sternly.</p>

-

-<p>“No. Of course not. <em>Hang</em> Lance Petterby,

-anyway——”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, that would be too bad. His wife would

-feel dreadfully if Lance were hung.”</p>

-

-<p>“<em>What!</em>”</p>

-

-<p>“I knew you were still jealous of poor Lance,”

-Tavia shot in, wagging her head. “And that word

-proves it.”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t care. I said what I meant before I

-knew he was married. <em>Is</em> he?” gasped Nat.</p>

-

-<p>“Very much so. They’ve got a baby girl and

-I’m its godmother. Octavia Susan Petterby.”</p>

-

-<p>“Tavia!” Nat whispered still holding out his

-hands. “Do—do you forgive me?”</p>

-

-<p>“Now! is this a time or a place to talk things

-over?” she demanded apparently inclined to keep

-up the wall. “We are castaway in the snow.

-Bo-o-ooh! we’re likely to freeze here——”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t care if I do freeze,” he declared recklessly.

-“You’ve got to answer me here and now,

-Tavia.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Have I?” with a toss of her head. “Who

-are <em>you</em> to command <em>me</em>, I’d like to know?” Then

-with sudden seriousness and a flood of crimson

-in her face that fairly glorified Tavia Travers:

-“How about that request I told you your mother

-must make, Nat? I meant it.”</p>

-

-<p>“See here! See here!” cried the young man,

-tearing off his gloves and dashing them into the

-snow while he struggled to open his bearskin coat

-and then the coat beneath.</p>

-

-<p>From an inner pocket he drew forth a letter

-and opened it so she could read.</p>

-

-<p>“See!” Nat cried. “It’s from mother. She

-wrote it to me while I was in Boston—before old

-Ned’s telegram came. See what she says here—second

-paragraph, Tavia.”</p>

-

-<p>The girl read the words with a little intake of

-her breath:</p>

-<br>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-

-<p>“And, my dear boy, I know that you have quarreled

-in some way and for some reason with our

-pretty, impetuous Tavia. Do not risk your own

-happiness and hers, Nathaniel, through any stubbornness.

-Tavia is worth breaking one’s pride

-for. She is the girl I hope to see you marry—nobody

-else in this wide world could so satisfy me

-as your wife.”</p>

-</div>

-<br>

-

-<p>That was as far as Tavia could read, for her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span>

-eyes were misty. She hung her head like a child

-and whispered, as Nat approached:</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Nat! Nat! how I doubted her! She is

-<em>so</em> good!”</p>

-

-<p>He put his arms about her, and she snuggled

-up against the bearskin coat.</p>

-

-<p>“Say! how about <em>me</em>?” he demanded huskily.

-“Now that the Widder White has asked you to be

-her daughter-in-law, don’t I come into the picture

-at all?”</p>

-

-<p>Tavia raised her head, looked at him searchingly,

-and suddenly laid her lips against his eager

-ones.</p>

-

-<p>“You’re—you’re the <em>whole</em> picture for me,

-Nat!” she breathed.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX<br>

-<span class="fs80">SOMETHING AMAZING</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Now that Garry Knapp had left The Cedars—had

-passed out of her life forever perhaps—Dorothy

-Dale found herself in a much disturbed

-state of mind. She did not wish to sit and think

-over her situation. If she did she knew she would

-break down.</p>

-

-<p>She was tempted—oh! sorely tempted—to

-write Garry Knapp all that was in her heart. Her

-cheeks burned when she thought of doing such a

-thing; yet, after all, she was fighting for happiness

-and as she saw it receding from her she grew desperate.</p>

-

-<p>But Dorothy Dale had gone as far as she could.

-She had done her best to bring the man she loved

-into line with her own thought. She had the satisfaction

-of believing he felt toward her as she did

-toward him. But there matters stood; she could

-do no more. She did not let her mind dwell upon

-this state of affairs; she could not and retain that

-calm expected of Dorothy Dale by the rest of the

-family at The Cedars. It is what is expected of

-us that we accomplish, after all. She had never<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span>

-been in the habit of giving away to her feelings,

-even as a schoolgirl. Much more was expected of

-her now.</p>

-

-<p>The older people about her were, of course,

-sympathetic. She would have been glad to get

-away from them for that very reason. Whenever

-Tavia looked at her Dorothy saw commiseration

-in her eyes. So, too, with Aunt Winnie

-and the major. Dorothy turned with relief to

-her brothers who had not much thought for anything

-but fun and frolic.</p>

-

-<p>Joe and Roger had quite fallen in love with

-Garry Knapp and talked a good deal about him.

-But their talk was innocent enough and was not

-aimed at her. They had not discovered—as they

-had regarding Jennie Hapgood and Ned—that

-their big sister was in the toils of this strange new

-disease that seemed to have smitten the young folk

-at The Cedars.</p>

-

-<p>On this very day that Tavia had elected to go

-to town and Nat had driven her in the cutter,

-Dorothy put on her wraps for a tramp through

-the snow. As she started toward the back road

-she saw Joe and Roger coming away from the

-kitchen door, having been whisked out by the cook.</p>

-

-<p>“Take it all and go and don’t youse boys be

-botherin’ me again to-day—and everything behind

-because of the wash,” cried Mary, as the boys

-departed.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span></p>

-

-<p>“What have you been bothering Mary for?”

-asked Dorothy, hailing her brothers.</p>

-

-<p>“Suet,” said Joe.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, do come on, Sister,” cried the eager

-Roger. “We’re going to feed ’em.”</p>

-

-<p>“Feed what?” asked Dorothy.</p>

-

-<p>“The bluejays and the clapes and the snow

-buntings,” Roger declared.</p>

-

-<p>“With suet?”</p>

-

-<p>“That’s for the jays,” explained Joe. “We’ve

-got plenty of cracked corn and oats for the little

-birds. You see, we tie the chunks of suet up in

-the trees—and you ought to see the bluejays come

-after it!”</p>

-

-<p>“Do come with us,” begged Roger again, who

-always found a double pleasure in having Dorothy

-attend them on any venture.</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t know. You boys have grown so you

-can keep ahead of me,” laughed Dorothy.

-“Where are you going—how far?”</p>

-

-<p>“Up to Snake Hill—there by the gully. Mr.

-Garry Knapp showed us last week,” Joe said.

-“He says he always feeds the birds in the winter

-time out where he lives.”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy smiled and nodded. “I should presume

-he did,” she said. “He is that kind—isn’t

-he, boys?”</p>

-

-<p>“He’s bully,” said Roger, with enthusiasm.</p>

-

-<p>“<em>What</em> kind?” asked Joe, with some caution.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Just kind,” laughed Dorothy. “Kind to everybody

-and everything. Birds and all,” she said.

-But to herself she thought: “Kind to everybody

-but poor little me!”</p>

-

-<p>However, she went on with her brothers. They

-plowed through the drifts in the back road, but

-found the going not as hard as in the woods. The

-tramp to the edge of the gully into which the boys

-had come so near to plunging on their sled weeks

-before, was quite exhausting.</p>

-

-<p>This distant spot had been selected because of

-the number of birds that always were to be found

-here, winter or summer. The undergrowth was

-thick and the berries and seeds tempted many of

-the songsters and bright-plumaged birds to remain

-beyond the usual season for migration.</p>

-

-<p>Then it would be too late for them to fly South

-had they so desired. Now, with the heavy snow

-heaped upon everything edible, the feathered creatures

-were going to have a time of famine if they

-were not thought of by their human neighbors.</p>

-

-<p>Sparrows and chicadees are friendly little things

-and will keep close to human habitations in winter;

-but the bluejay, that saucy rascal, is always shy.

-He and his wilder brothers must be fed in the

-woods.</p>

-

-<p>There were the tracks of the birds—thousands

-and thousands of tracks about the gully. Roger

-began to throw out the grain, scattering it carefully<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span>

-on the snowcrust, while Joe climbed up the

-first tree with a lump of suet tied to a cord.</p>

-

-<p>“I got to tie it high,” he told Dorothy, who

-asked him, “’cause otherwise, Mr. Knapp says,

-dogs or foxes, or such like, will get it instead of

-the birds.”</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, I see,” Dorothy said. “Look where you

-step, Roger. See! the gully is level full of snow.

-What a drift!”</p>

-

-<p>This was true. The snow lay in the hollow

-from twenty to thirty feet in depth. None of the

-Dales could remember seeing so much snow before.</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy held the other pieces of suet for Joe

-while he climbed the second tree. It was during

-this process that she suddenly missed Roger. She

-could not hear him nor see him.</p>

-

-<p>“Roger!” she called.</p>

-

-<p>“What’s the matter with you?” demanded Joe

-tartly. “You’re scaring the birds.”</p>

-

-<p>“But Roger is scaring <em>me</em>,” his sister told him.

-“Look, Joe, from where you are. Can you see

-him? Is he hiding from us?”</p>

-

-<p>Joe gave a glance around; then he hastened to

-descend the tree.</p>

-

-<p>“What is it?” asked Dorothy worriedly.

-“What has happened to him?”</p>

-

-<p>Joe said never a word, but hastened along the

-bank of the gully. They could scarcely distinguish

-the line of the bank in some places and right at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span>

-the very steepest part was a wallow in the snow.

-Something had sunk down there and the snow had

-caved in after it!</p>

-

-<p>“Roger!” gasped Dorothy, her heart beating

-fast and the muscles of her throat tightening.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, cricky!” groaned Joe. “He’s gone down.”</p>

-

-<p>It was the steepest and deepest part of the gully.

-Not a sound came up from the huge drift into

-which the smaller boy had evidently tumbled—no

-answer to their cries.</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>Dorothy and her brothers had scarcely gone out

-of sight of the house when Major Dale, looking

-from the broad front window of his room, beheld

-a figure plowing through the heaped up snow and

-in at the gateway of The Cedars. It was not Nat

-and it was not Ned; at first he did not recognize

-the man approaching the front door at all.</p>

-

-<p>Then he suddenly uttered a shout which brought

-the housemaid from her dusting in the hall.</p>

-

-<p>“Major Dale! what is it, please? Can I do

-anything for you?” asked the girl, her hand upon

-her heart.</p>

-

-<p>“Great glory! did I scare you, Mina?” he demanded.

-“Well! I’m pretty near scared myself.

-Leastways, I am amazed. Run down and open

-the door for Mr. Knapp—and bring him right up

-here.”</p>

-

-<p>“Mr. Knapp!” cried the maid, and was away<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span>

-on swift feet, for Garry had endeared himself to

-the serving people as well as to the family during

-his brief stay at The Cedars.</p>

-

-<p>The young man threw aside his outer clothing

-in haste and ran upstairs to the major’s room.

-Dorothy’s father had got up in his excitement

-and was waiting for him with eager eyes.</p>

-

-<p>“Garry! Garry Knapp!” he exclaimed. “What

-has happened? What has brought you back here,

-my dear boy?”</p>

-

-<p>Garry was smiling, but it was a grave smile.

-Indeed, something dwelt in the young man’s eyes

-that the major had never seen before.</p>

-

-<p>“What is it?” repeated the old gentleman, as he

-seized Garry’s hand.</p>

-

-<p>“Major, I’ve come to ask a favor,” blurted out

-the Westerner.</p>

-

-<p>“A favor—and at last?” cried Major Dale.

-“It is granted.”</p>

-

-<p>“Wait till you hear what it is—all of it. First

-I want you to call our bargain off.”</p>

-

-<p>“What? You don’t want to sell your ranch?”

-gasped the major.</p>

-

-<p>“No, sir. Things have—well, have changed a

-bit. My ranch is something that I must not sell,

-for I can see a way now to work it myself.”</p>

-

-<p>“You can, my boy? You can develop it? Then

-the bargain’s off!” cried the major. “I only want

-to see you successful.”</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span></p>

-

-<p>“Thank you, sir. You are more than kind—kinder

-than I have any reason to expect. And I

-presume you think me a fellow of fluctuating intentions,

-eh?” and he laughed shortly.</p>

-

-<p>“I am waiting to hear about that, Garry,” said

-the major, eyeing him intently.</p>

-

-<p>With a thrill in his voice that meant joy, yet

-with eyes that were frankly bedimmed with tears,

-Garry Knapp put a paper into Major Dale’s hand,

-saying:</p>

-

-<p>“Read that, Major,—read that and tell me what

-you think of it.”</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX<br>

-<span class="fs80">SO IT WAS ALL SETTLED</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>“What’s this—what’s this, my boy?” cried the

-major hastily adjusting his reading glasses. “A

-telegram? And from the West, eh?”</p>

-

-<p>“A night letter from Bob Douglas. I got it

-yesterday morning. I’ve been all this time getting

-here, Major. Believe me! the railroads are badly

-blocked.”</p>

-

-<p>Major Dale was reading the telegram. His

-face flushed and his eyes brightened as he read.</p>

-

-<p>“This is authentic, Garry?” he finally asked,

-with shaking voice.</p>

-

-<p>“Sure. I know Bob Douglas—and Gibson, the

-lawyer, too. Gibson has been in touch with the poor

-old man all the time. I expect Uncle Terry must

-have left the will and all his papers with Gibson

-when he hiked out for Alaska. Poor, poor old

-man! He’s gone without my ever having seen

-him again.” Garry’s voice was broken and he

-turned to look out of the window.</p>

-

-<p>“Not your fault, my boy,” said the major, clearing

-his throat.</p>

-

-<p>“No, sir. But my misfortune. I know now that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span>

-the old man loved me or he would not have made

-me rich in the end.”</p>

-

-<p>Major Dale was reading the long telegram

-again. “Your friend, Mr. Douglas, repeats a

-phrase of the will, it is evident,” he said softly.

-“Your uncle says you are to have his money ‘because

-you are too honest to ever make any for

-yourself.’ Do you believe that, Garry?” and his

-eyes suddenly twinkled.</p>

-

-<p>Garry Knapp blushed and shook his head negatively.

-“That’s just the old man’s caustic wit,”

-he said. “I’ll make good all right. I’ve got the

-land, and now I’ve got the money to develop

-it——”</p>

-

-<p>“Major Dale! Where is Miss Dorothy?”</p>

-

-<p>“Gone out for a tramp in the snow. I heard

-her with the boys,” said the major, smiling. “I—I

-expect, Garry, you wish to tell her the good

-news?”</p>

-

-<p>“And something else, Major, if you will permit

-me.”</p>

-

-<p>The old gentleman looked at him searchingly.

-“I am not altogether sure that you deserve to get

-her, Garry. You are a laggard in love,” he said.

-“But you have my best wishes.”</p>

-

-<p>“You’ll not find me slow that way after <em>this</em>!”

-exclaimed Garry Knapp gaily, as he made for the

-door.</p>

-

-<p>Thus it was that, having traced Dorothy and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span>

-her brothers from the house, the young Westerner

-came upon the site of the accident to Roger just

-as the girl and Joe discovered the disappearance

-of the smaller boy in the deep drift.</p>

-

-<p>“Run for help, Joe!” Dorothy was crying.

-“Bring somebody! And ropes! No! don’t you

-dare jump into that drift! Then there will be

-two of you lost. Oh!”</p>

-

-<p>“Hooray!” yelled Joe at that instant. “Here’s

-Mr. Knapp!”</p>

-

-<p>Dorothy could not understand Garry’s appearance;

-but she had to believe her eyesight. Before

-the young man, approaching now by great leaps,

-had reached the spot they had explained the

-trouble to him.</p>

-

-<p>“Don’t be so frightened, Dorothy,” he cried.

-“The boy won’t smother in that snowdrift. He’s

-probably so scared that——”</p>

-

-<p>Just then a muffled cry came to their ears from

-below in the drifted gulch.</p>

-

-<p>“He isn’t dead then!” declared Joe. “How’re

-we going to get him out, Mr. Knapp?”</p>

-

-<p>“By you and Miss Dorothy standing back out

-of danger and letting me burrow there,” said

-Garry.</p>

-

-<p>He had already thrown aside his coat. Now

-he leaped well out from the edge of the gully

-bank, turning in the air so as to face them as he

-plunged, feet first, into the drift.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span></p>

-

-<p>It was partially hollowed out underneath—and

-this fact Garry had surmised. The wind had

-blown the snow into the gully, but a hovering

-wreath of the frozen element had tempted Roger

-upon its surface and then treacherously let him

-down into the heart of it.</p>

-

-<p>Garry plunged through and almost landed upon

-the frightened boy. He groped for him, picked

-him up in his arms, and the next minute Roger’s

-head and shoulders burst through the snow crust

-and he was tossed by Garry out upon the bank.</p>

-

-<p>“Oh, Garry!” gasped Dorothy, trying to help

-the man up the bank and out of the snow wreath.

-“What ever should we have done without you?”</p>

-

-<p>“I don’t see what you’re going to do without

-me, anyway,” laughed the young man breathlessly,

-finally recovering his feet.</p>

-

-<p>“Garry!”</p>

-

-<p>She looked at him almost in fear, gazing into

-his flushed face. She saw that something had happened—something

-that had changed his attitude

-toward her; but she could not guess what it was.</p>

-

-<p>The boys were laughing, and Joe was beating

-the snow off the clothing of his younger brother.

-They did not notice their elders for the moment.</p>

-

-<p>“How——Why did you come back, Garry?”

-the girl asked directly.</p>

-

-<p>“I come back to see if you would let such a

-blundering fellow as I am tell you what is in his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span>

-heart,” Garry said softly, looking at her with

-serious gaze.</p>

-

-<p>“Garry! What has happened?” she murmured.</p>

-

-<p>He told her quietly, but with a break in his

-voice that betrayed the depth of his feeling for

-his Uncle Terry. “The poor old boy!” he said.

-“If he had only showed me he loved me so while

-he lived—and given me a chance to show him.”</p>

-

-<p>“It is not your fault,” said Dorothy using the

-words her father had used in commenting upon

-the matter.</p>

-

-<p>They were standing close together—there in the

-snow, and his arms were about her. Dorothy

-looked up bravely into his face.</p>

-

-<p>“I—I guess I can’t say it very well, Dorothy.

-But you know how I feel—how much I love you,

-my dear. I’m going to make good out there on the

-old ranch, and then I want to come back here for

-you. Will you wait for me, Dorothy?”</p>

-

-<p>“I expected to have to wait much longer than

-that, Garry,” Dorothy replied with a tremulous

-sigh. And then as he drew her still closer she

-hid her face on his bosom.</p>

-

-<p>“Lookut! Lookut!” cried Roger in the background,

-suddenly observing the tableau. “What

-do you know about Dorothy and Garry Knapp

-doing it too?”</p>

-

-<p>“Gee!” growled Joe, in disgust. “It must be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span>

-catching. Tavia and old Nat will get it. Come

-on away, Roger. Huh! they don’t even know

-we’re on earth.”</p>

-

-<p>And it was some time before Dorothy Dale and

-“that cowboy person” awoke to the fact that they

-were alone and it was a much longer time still before

-they started back for The Cedars, hand in

-hand.</p>

-<br>

-<br>

-

-<p class="center no-indent">THE END.</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p class="center no-indent fs150"><span class="smcap">The Dorothy Dale Series</span></p>

-</div>

-

-<p class="center no-indent fs90">By MARGARET PENROSE</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent fs70">Author of “The Motor Girls Series”</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent fs90 wsp">12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.</p>

-

-<hr class="full">

-

-<figure class="figleft illowp15" id="ad1" style="max-width: 28.9375em;">

-  <img class="w100" src="images/ad1.jpg" alt="Book">

-</figure>

-

-<p class="fs90">Dorothy Dale is the daughter of an old

-Civil War veteran who is running a weekly

-newspaper in a small Eastern town. Her

-sunny disposition, her fun-loving ways and

-her trials and triumphs make clean, interesting

-and fascinating reading. The Dorothy

-Dale Series is one of the most popular series

-of books for girls ever published.</p>

-

-<p class="no-indent">

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale: a Girl of To-day</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale at Glenwood School</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Great Secret</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale and Her Chums</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Queer Holidays</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Camping Days</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s School Rivals</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale in the City</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Promise</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale in the West</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Strange Discovery</span><br>

-<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Engagement</span> <span class="fs60">(<em>New</em>)</span><br>

-</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p class="center no-indent fs150 wsp"><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls Series</span></p>

-</div>

-

-<p class="center no-indent">By MARGARET PENROSE</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent wsp fs70">Author of the highly successful “Dorothy Dale Series”</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent wsp">12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.</p>

-

-<hr class="full">

-

-<figure class="figleft illowp15" id="ad2" style="max-width: 26.9375em;">

-  <img class="w100" src="images/ad2.jpg" alt="Book">

-</figure>

-

-<p class="fs90">Since the enormous success of our “Motor

-Boys Series,” by Clarence Young, we have

-been asked to get out a similar series for

-girls. No one is better equipped to furnish

-these tales than Mrs. Penrose, who, besides

-being an able writer, is an expert automobilist.</p>

-

-<div style="clear:both;"></div>

-

-<p class="no-indent">

-<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls</span><br>

-<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or A Mystery of the Road</em></span><br>

-<br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls on a Tour</span><br>

-<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or Keeping a Strange Promise</em></span><br>

-<br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach</span><br>

-<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or In Quest of the Runaways</em></span><br>

-<br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls Through New England</span><br>

-<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or Held by the Gypsies</em></span><br>

-<br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake</span><br>

-<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Hermit of Fern Island</em></span><br>

-<br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls on the Coast</span><br>

-<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Waif from the Sea</em></span><br>

-<br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay</span><br>

-<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Secret of the Red Oar</em></span><br>

-<br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls on Waters Blue</span><br>

-<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Strange Cruise of the Tartar</em></span><br>

-<br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls at Camp Surprise</span><br>

-<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Cave in the Mountain</em></span><br>

-<br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls in the Mountains</span> (<em>New</em>)<br>

-<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Gypsy Girl’s Secret</em></span><br>

-</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p class="center no-indent fs150">THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES</p>

-</div>

-

-<hr class="r20">

-<p class="center no-indent wsp">By LESTER CHADWICK</p>

-<hr class="r20">

-

-<p class="center no-indent fs70">Author of “The College Sports Series”</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent wsp bold"><em>12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.</em></p>

-

-<figure class="figleft illowp15" id="ad3" style="max-width: 27.875em;">

-  <img class="w100" src="images/ad3.jpg" alt="Book">

-</figure>

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE OF THE

-SILVER STARS</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>or The Rivals of Riverside</em></p>

-

-<p>In this volume, the first of the series, Joe is

-introduced as an everyday country boy who

-loves to play baseball and is particularly

-anxious to make his mark as a pitcher.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE ON THE

-SCHOOL NINE</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Pitching for the Blue Banner</em></p>

-

-<p>Joe’s great ambition was to go to boarding

-school and play on the school team. He got to boarding school

-but found it hard to make the team.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE AT YALE</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Pitching for the College Championship</em></p>

-

-<p>From a preparatory school Baseball Joe goes to Yale University.

-He makes the freshman nine and in his second year

-becomes a varsity pitcher and pitches in several big games.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher</em></p>

-

-<p>In this volume the scene of action is shifted from Yale college

-to a baseball league of our central states.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>or A Young Pitcher’s Hardest Struggle</em></p>

-

-<p>From the Central League Joe is drafted into the St. Louis

-Nationals. A corking baseball story that fans, both young and

-old, will enjoy.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis</em></p>

-

-<p>How Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay

-in the box makes an interesting baseball story.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES <span class="fs60">(<em>New</em>)</span></p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Pitching for the Championship</em></p>

-

-<p>A story to set the hearts of all baseball fans to thumping wildly.

-The rivalry was of course of the keenest, and what Joe did to win

-the series is told in a manner to thrill the most jaded reader.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</em></p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p class="center no-indent fs150">THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS SERIES</p>

-</div>

-

-<hr class="r20">

-<p class="center no-indent">By BROOKS HENDERLEY</p>

-<hr class="r20">

-

-<p class="center no-indent wsp bold"><em>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.</em></p>

-

-<figure class="figleft illowp15" id="ad4" style="max-width: 31.125em;">

-  <img class="w100" src="images/ad4.jpg" alt="Book">

-</figure>

-

-<p><em>This new series relates the doings of a wide-awake

-boys’ club of the Y.M.C.A., full of

-good times and everyday, practical Christianity.

-Clean, elevating and full of fun and

-vigor, books that should be read by every boy.</em></p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS OF

-CLIFFWOOD</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>or The Struggle for the Holwell Prize</em></p>

-

-<p>Telling how the boys of Cliffwood were a

-wild set and how, on Hallowe’en, they

-turned the home town topsy-turvy. This

-led to an organization of a boys’ department

-in the local Y.M.C.A. When the lads

-realized what was being done for them, they joined in the movement

-with vigor and did all they could to help the good cause.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS ON BASS ISLAND</p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>or The Mystery of Russabaga Camp</em></p>

-

-<p>Summer was at hand, and at a meeting of the boys of the

-Y.M.C.A. of Cliffwood, it was decided that a regular summer

-camp should be instituted. This was located at a beautiful spot

-on Bass Island, and there the lads went boating, swimming,

-fishing and tramping to their heart’s content.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent bold">THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS AT FOOTBALL <span class="fs60">(<em>New</em>)</span></p>

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Lively Doings On and Off the Gridiron</em></p>

-

-<p>This volume will add greatly to the deserved success of this

-well-written series. The Y.M.C.A. boys are plucky lads—clean

-minded and as true as steel. They have many ups and

-downs, but in the end they “win out” in the best meaning

-of that term.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center no-indent"><em>Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</em></p>

-

-<hr class="full">

-<p class="center no-indent bold">

-CUPPLES &amp; LEON CO.<span style="padding-left: 2em"> Publishers</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em">New York</span><br>

-</p>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter transnote">

-<h2 class="nobreak bold" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2>

-

-<ul>

-<li>pg 10 Changed: Otuside there beside the tracks<br>

-<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: Outside there beside the tracks</span></li>

-

-<li>pg 22 Changed: A floorwalked hastened forward.<br>

-<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: A floorwalker hastened forward.</span></li>

-

-<li>pg 32 Changed: like the notes of a coloratura sporano <br>

-<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: like the notes of a coloratura soprano</span></li>

-

-<li>pg 116 Changed: melodiously a pæn of joy<br>

-<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: melodiously a pæan of joy</span></li>

-

-<li>pg 117 Changed: sticking out a touseled head<br>

-<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: sticking out a tousled head</span></li>

-

-<li>pg 117 Changed: Jennie Hapgod peered out<br>

-<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: Jennie Hapgood peered out</span></li>

-</ul>

-</div>

-

-

-<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY DALE'S ENGAGEMENT ***</div>

-</body>

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+      Dorothy Dale’s Engagement | Project Gutenberg
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY DALE'S ENGAGEMENT ***</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 85%">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover">
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="frontis" style="max-width: 40em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">“NO, DADDY,” SHE SAID, “I—I THINK I—I AM IN LOVE.”</p>
+
+<div>
+ <p class="fs80" style="float: left;"><em>Dorothy Dale’s Engagement</em></p>
+ <p class="fs80" style="float: right;"><em>Page <a href="#Page_165">165</a></em></p>
+</div>
+<div style="clear:both;"></div>
+
+</figcaption>
+</figure>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h1>
+DOROTHY DALE’S<br>
+ENGAGEMENT</h1>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="center no-indent">
+<span class="fs80">BY</span><br>
+<br>
+MARGARET PENROSE<br>
+<br>
+<span class="fs70">AUTHOR OF “DOROTHY DALE: A GIRL OF TO-DAY,” “DOROTHY<br>
+DALE AT GLENWOOD SCHOOL,” “DOROTHY DALE IN<br>
+THE CITY,” “THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES,” ETC.</span><br>
+<br></p>
+
+<hr class="r5">
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">ILLUSTRATED<br></p>
+<hr class="r5">
+<br>
+
+<p class="center no-indent">
+<span class="fs80">NEW YORK</span><br>
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter pageborder">
+<p class="center no-indent fs130 wsp">BOOKS BY MARGARET PENROSE</p>
+
+<hr class="r20">
+
+<p class="center no-indent fs90 wsp"><em>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price, per volume,<br>
+75 cents, postpaid</em></p>
+
+<hr class="r20">
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">THE DOROTHY DALE SERIES</p>
+
+<p class="no-indent">
+DOROTHY DALE: A GIRL OF TO-DAY<br>
+DOROTHY DALE AT GLENWOOD SCHOOL<br>
+DOROTHY DALE’S GREAT SECRET<br>
+DOROTHY DALE AND HER CHUMS<br>
+DOROTHY DALE’S QUEER HOLIDAYS<br>
+DOROTHY DALE’S CAMPING DAYS<br>
+DOROTHY DALE’S SCHOOL RIVALS<br>
+DOROTHY DALE IN THE CITY<br>
+DOROTHY DALE’S PROMISE<br>
+DOROTHY DALE IN THE WEST<br>
+DOROTHY DALE’S STRANGE DISCOVERY<br>
+DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT<br>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="r5">
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES</p>
+
+<p class="no-indent">
+THE MOTOR GIRLS<br>
+THE MOTOR GIRLS ON A TOUR<br>
+THE MOTOR GIRLS AT LOOKOUT BEACH<br>
+THE MOTOR GIRLS THROUGH NEW ENGLAND<br>
+THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CEDAR LAKE<br>
+THE MOTOR GIRLS ON THE COAST<br>
+THE MOTOR GIRLS ON CRYSTAL BAY<br>
+THE MOTOR GIRLS ON WATERS BLUE<br>
+THE MOTOR GIRLS AT CAMP SURPRISE<br>
+THE MOTOR GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>Cupples &amp; Leon Co., Publishers, New York</em></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent">
+<span class="smcap fs80">Copyright, 1917, by</span><br>
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY</p>
+
+<hr class="r5">
+
+<p class="center no-indent fs80">DOROTHY DALE’S ENGAGEMENT<br>
+</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr fs60">CHAPTER</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdr fs60">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">I.</td>
+<td class="tdl">“<span class="smcap">Alone in a Great City</span>”</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">II.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">G. K. to the Rescue</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">III.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Tavia in the Shade</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Something About “G. Knapp”</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">V.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Dorothy Is Disturbed</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Something of a Mystery</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Garry Sees a Wall Ahead</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">And Still Dorothy Is Not Happy</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">They See Garry’s Back</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">X.</td>
+<td class="tdl">“<span class="smcap">Heart Disease</span>”</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Bold Thing to Do!</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Uncertainties</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Dorothy Makes a Discovery</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Tavia Is Determined</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Slide on Snake Hill</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Fly in the Amber</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVII.</td>
+<td class="tdl">“<span class="smcap">Do You Understand Tavia?</span>”</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Cross Purposes</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Wedding Bells in Prospect</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Girl of To-Day</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Bud Unfolds</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Dorothy Decides</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Nat Jumps at a Conclusion</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXIV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Thin Ice</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Garry Balks</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXVI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Serious Thoughts</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXVII.</td>
+<td class="tdl">“<span class="smcap">It’s All Off!</span>”</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXVIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Castaways</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXIX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Something Amazing</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XXX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">So It Was All Settled</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent fs150 bold">DOROTHY DALE’S<br>
+ENGAGEMENT</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I<br>
+<span class="fs80">“ALONE IN A GREAT CITY”</span></h2>
+
+<p>“Now, Tavia!”</p>
+
+<p>“Now, Dorothy!” mocked Octavia Travers,
+making a little face as she did so; but then, Tavia
+Travers could afford to “make faces,” possessing
+as she did such a naturally pretty one.</p>
+
+<p>“We must decide immediately,” her chum, Dorothy
+Dale, said decidedly, “whether to continue
+in the train under the river and so to the main
+station, or to change for the Hudson tube. You
+know, we can walk from the tube station at Twenty-third
+Street to the hotel Aunt Winnie always
+patronizes.”</p>
+
+<p>“With these heavy bags, Doro?”</p>
+
+<p>“Only a block and a half, my dear Tavia. You
+are a strong, healthy girl.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I do so like to have people do things for
+me,” sighed Tavia, clasping her hands. “And
+taxicabs are <em>so</em> nice.”</p>
+
+<p>“And expensive,” rejoined Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Of course. That is what helps to make them
+nice,” declared Tavia. “Doro, I just love to
+throw away money!”</p>
+
+<p>“You only think you do, my dear,” her chum
+said placidly. “Once you had thrown some of
+your own money away—some of that your father
+sent you to spend for your fall and winter outfit—you
+would sing a different tune.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t believe I would—not if by throwing it
+away I really made a splurge, Doro,” sighed
+Tavia. “I <em>love</em> money.”</p>
+
+<p>“You mean, you love what money enables us to
+have.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yep,” returned the slangy Tavia. “And taxicab
+rides eat up money horribly. We found that
+out, Doro, when we were in New York before,
+that time—before we graduated from dear old
+Glenwood School.”</p>
+
+<p>“But <em>this</em> isn’t getting us anywhere. To return——”</p>
+
+<p>“‘<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Revenons à nos moutons!</i>’ Sure! I know,”
+gabbled Tavia. “Let us return to our mutton.
+He, he! Have I forgotten my French?”</p>
+
+<p>“I really think you have,” laughed Dorothy
+Dale. “Most of it. And almost everything else
+you learned at dear old Glenwood, Tavia. But,
+quick! Decide, my dear. How shall we enter New
+York City? We are approaching the Manhattan
+Transfer.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Mercy! So quick?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Just like that.”</p>
+
+<p>“I tell you,” whispered Tavia, suddenly becoming
+confidential, her sparkling eyes darting a
+glance ahead. “Let’s leave it to that nice man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Who? What man do you mean, Tavia?” demanded
+Dorothy, her face at once serious. “Do
+try to behave.”</p>
+
+<p>“Am behaving,” declared Tavia, nodding.
+“But I’m a good sport. Let’s leave it to him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Whom do you mean?”</p>
+
+<p>“You know. That nice, Western looking young
+man who opened the window for us that time. He
+is sitting in that chair just yonder. Don’t you
+see?” and she indicated a pair of broad shoulders
+in a gray coat, above which was revealed a
+well-shaped head with a thatch of black hair.</p>
+
+<p>“Do consider!” begged Dorothy, catching Tavia’s
+hand as though she feared her chum was
+about to get up to speak to this stranger. “This
+is a public car. We are observed.”</p>
+
+<p>“Little silly!” said Tavia, smiling upon her
+chum tenderly. “You don’t suppose I would do
+anything so crude—or rude—as to speak to the
+gentleman? ‘Fie! fie! fie for shame! Turn your
+back and tell his name!’ And you don’t know it,
+you know you don’t, Doro.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy broke into smiles again and shook her
+head; her own eyes, too, dancing roguishly.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span></p>
+
+<p>“I only know his initials,” she said.</p>
+
+<p>“What?” gasped Tavia Travers in something
+more than mock horror.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. They are ‘G. K.’ I saw them on his
+bag. Couldn’t help it,” explained Dorothy, now
+laughing outright. “But decide, dear! Shall we
+change at Manhattan Transfer?”</p>
+
+<p>“If <em>he</em> does—there!” chuckled Tavia. “We’ll
+get out if the nice Western cowboy person does.
+Oh! he’s a whole lot nicer looking than Lance
+Petterby.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, Tavia! Haven’t you forgotten
+Lance yet?”</p>
+
+<p>“Never!” vowed Tavia, tragically. “Not till
+the day of my death—and then some, as Lance
+would himself say.”</p>
+
+<p>“You are incorrigible,” sighed Dorothy.
+Then: “He’s going to get out, Tavia!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! oh! oh!” crowed her chum, under her
+breath. “You were looking.”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me!” returned Dorothy, in some exasperation.
+“Who could miss that hat?”</p>
+
+<p>The young man in question had put on his
+broad-brimmed gray hat. He was just the style
+of man that such a hat became.</p>
+
+<p>The young man lifted down the heavy suitcase
+from the rack—the one on which Dorothy had
+seen the big, black letters, “G. K.” He had a second
+suitcase of the same description under his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span>
+feet. He set both out into the aisle, threw his
+folded light overcoat over his arm, and prepared
+to make for the front door of the car as the train
+began to slow down.</p>
+
+<p>“Come on, now!” cried Tavia, suddenly in a
+great hurry.</p>
+
+<p>But Dorothy had to put on her coat, and to
+make sure that she looked just right in the mirror
+beside her chair. All Tavia had to do was to toss
+her summer fur about her neck and grab up her
+traveling bag.</p>
+
+<p>“We’ll be left!” she cried. “The train doesn’t
+stop here long.”</p>
+
+<p>“You run, then, and tell them to wait,” Dorothy
+said calmly.</p>
+
+<p>They were, however, the last to leave the car—the
+last to leave the train, in fact—at the elevated
+platform which gives a broad view of the New
+Jersey meadows.</p>
+
+<p>“My goodness me!” gasped Tavia, as the
+brakeman helped them to the platform, and waved
+his hand for departure. “My goodness me!
+We’re clear at this end of this awful platform,
+and the tube train stops—and of course starts—at
+the far end. A mile to walk with these bags
+and not a redcap in sight. Oh, yes! there’s one,”
+she added faintly.</p>
+
+<p>“Redcap?” queried Dorothy. “Oh! you mean
+a porter.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” Tavia said. “Of course you would be
+slow. Everybody’s got a porter but us.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy laughed mellowly. “Who’s fault do
+you intimate it is?” she asked. “We might have
+been the first out of the car.”</p>
+
+<p>“<em>He’s</em> got one,” whispered Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough her chum did not ask “Who?”
+this time. She, too, was looking at the back of the
+well-set-up young man whose initials seemed to
+be G. K. He stood confronting an importunate
+porter, whose smiling face was visible to the girls
+as he said:</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Boss, yo’ can’t possibly kerry dem two
+big bags f’om dis end ob de platfo’m to de odder.”</p>
+
+<p>The porter held out both hands for the big
+suitcases carried by the Western looking young
+man, who really appeared to be physically much
+better able to carry his baggage than the negro.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t suppose two-bits has anything to do
+with your desire to tote my bag?” suggested the
+white man, and the listening girls knew he must
+be smiling broadly.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Boss, <em>yo’</em> can’t earn two-bits carryin’
+bags yere; but <em>I</em> kin,” and the negro chuckled delightedly
+as he gained possession of the bags.
+“Come right along, Boss.”</p>
+
+<p>As the porter set off, the young man turned and
+saw Dorothy Dale and Tavia Travers behind
+him. Besides themselves, indeed, this end of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span>
+long cement platform was clear. Other passengers
+from the in-bound train had either gone forward
+or descended into the tunnel under the
+tracks to reach the north-side platform. The only
+porter in sight was the man who had taken G. K.’s
+bags.</p>
+
+<p>The weight of the shiny black bags the girls
+carried was obvious. Indeed, perhaps Tavia sagged
+perceptibly on that side—and intentionally;
+and, of course, her hazel eyes said “Please!” just
+as plain as eyes ever spoke before.</p>
+
+<p>Off came the broad-brimmed hat just for an instant.
+Then he held out both hands.</p>
+
+<p>“Let me help you, ladies,” he said, with the
+pleasantest of smiles. “Seeing that I have obtained
+the services of the only Jasper in sight,
+you’d better let me play porter. Going to take
+this tube train, ladies?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, indeed!” cried Tavia, twinkling with
+smiles at once, and first to give him a bag.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy might have hesitated, but the young
+man was insistent and quick. He seized both bags
+as a matter of course, and Dorothy Dale could
+not pull hers away from him.</p>
+
+<p>“You must let us pay your porter, then,” she
+said, in her quietly pleasant way.</p>
+
+<p>“Bless you! we won’t fight over that,” chuckled
+the young man.</p>
+
+<p>He was agreeably talkative, with that wholesome,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span>
+free, yet chivalrous manner which the girls,
+especially the thoughtful Dorothy, had noticed
+as particular attributes of the men they had met
+during their memorable trip to the West, some
+months before.</p>
+
+<p>She noticed, too, that his attentions to Tavia
+and herself were nicely balanced. Of course,
+Tavia, as she always did, began to run on in her
+light-hearted and irresponsible way; but though
+the young man listened to her with a quiet smile,
+he spoke directly to Dorothy quite as often as he
+did to the flyaway girl. He did not seek to take
+advantage of Tavia’s exuberant good spirits as
+so many strangers might have done.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia’s flirtatious ways were a sore trial to her
+more sober chum; but this young man seemed to
+understand Tavia at once.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, you’re from the West?” Tavia finished
+one “rattlety-bang” series of remarks with
+this direct question.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I am. Right from the desert—Desert
+City, in fact,” he said, with a quiet smile.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” gasped Tavia, turning her big eyes on
+her chum. “Did you hear that, Doro? Desert
+City!”</p>
+
+<p>For the girls, during their visit to the West had,
+as Tavia often claimed in true Western slang,
+helped “put Desert City on the map.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy, however, did not propose to let this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>
+conversation with a strange man become at all
+personal. She ignored her chum’s observation
+and, as the city-bound tube train came sliding in
+beside the platform, she reached for her own bag
+and insisted upon taking it from the Westerner’s
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you so much,” she said, with just the
+right degree of firmness as well as of gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>Perforce he had to give up the bag, and Tavia’s,
+too, for there was the red-capped, smiling
+negro expectant of the “two-bits.”</p>
+
+<p>“You are <em>so</em> kind,” breathed Tavia, with one
+of her wonderful “man-killing” glances at the
+considerate G. K., as Dorothy’s cousin, Nat
+White, would have termed her expression of countenance.</p>
+
+<p>G. K. was polite and not brusk; but he was not
+flirtatious. Dorothy entered the Hudson tube
+train with a feeling of considerable satisfaction.
+G. K. did not even enter the car by the same door
+as themselves nor did he take the empty seat opposite
+the girls, as he might have done.</p>
+
+<p>“There! he is one young man who will not flirt
+with you, Tavia,” she said, admonishingly.</p>
+
+<p>“Pooh! I didn’t half try,” declared her chum,
+lightly.</p>
+
+<p>“My dear! you would be tempted, I believe, to
+flirt with a blind man!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Doro! Never!” Then she dimpled suddenly,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>
+glancing out of the window as the train
+swept on. “<em>There’s</em> a man I didn’t try to flirt
+with.”</p>
+
+<p>“Where?” laughed Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Outside there beside the tracks,” for they had
+not yet reached the Summit Avenue Station, and
+it is beyond that spot that the trains dive into the
+tunnel.</p>
+
+<p>“We passed him too quickly then,” said Dorothy.
+“Lucky man!”</p>
+
+<p>The next moment—or so it seemed—Tavia
+began on another tack:</p>
+
+<p>“To think! In fifteen minutes, Doro my dear,
+we shall be ‘Alone in a Great City.’”</p>
+
+<p>“How alone?” drawled her friend. “Do you
+suppose New York has suddenly been depopulated?”</p>
+
+<p>“But we shall be alone, Doro. What more
+lonesome than a crowd in which you know nobody?”</p>
+
+<p>“How very thoughtful you have become of a
+sudden. I hope you will keep your hand on your
+purse, dear. There will be some people left in
+the great city—and perhaps one may be a pickpocket.”</p>
+
+<p>The electric lights were flashed on, and the
+train soon dived into the great tunnel, “like a
+rabbit into his burrow,” Tavia said. They had to
+disembark at Grove Street to change for an uptown<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>
+train. The tall young Westerner did likewise,
+but he did not accost them.</p>
+
+<p>The Sixth Avenue train soon whisked the girls
+to their destination, and they got out at Twenty-third
+Street. As they climbed the steps to the
+street level, Tavia suddenly uttered a surprised
+cry.</p>
+
+<p>“Look, will you, Doro?” she said. “Right
+ahead!”</p>
+
+<p>“G. K.!” exclaimed her friend, for there was
+the young man mounting the stairs, lugging his
+two heavy suitcases.</p>
+
+<p>“Suppose he goes to the very same hotel?”
+giggled Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Well—maybe that will be nice,” Dorothy said
+composedly. “He looks nice enough for us to
+get acquainted with him—in some perfectly
+proper way, of course.”</p>
+
+<p>“Whew, Doro!” breathed Tavia, her eyes opening
+wide again. “You’re coming on, my dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am speaking sensibly. If he is a nice young
+man and perfectly respectable, why shouldn’t he
+find some means of meeting us—if he wants to—and
+we are all at the same hotel?”</p>
+
+<p>“But——”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t believe in flirting,” said Dorothy Dale,
+calmly, yet with a twinkle in her eyes. “But I
+certainly would not fly in the face of Providence—as
+Miss Higley, our old teacher at Glenwood,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span>
+would say—and refuse to meet G. K. He looks
+like a really nice young man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Doro!” gasped Tavia. “You amaze me! I
+shall next expect to see the heavens fall!”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be ridiculous,” said her friend, as they
+reached the exit of the tube station and stepped
+out upon the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>There was the Westerner already dickering
+with a boy to carry his bags.</p>
+
+<p>“<em>He</em> likes to throw money away, too!” whispered
+Tavia. “I suppose we must be economical
+and carry ours.”</p>
+
+<p>“As there seems to be no other boy in sight—yes,”
+laughed her friend.</p>
+
+<p>“That young man gets the best of us every
+time,” complained Tavia under her breath.</p>
+
+<p>“He is typically Western,” said Dorothy. “He
+is prompt.”</p>
+
+<p>But then, the boy starting off with the heavy
+bags in a little box-wagon he drew, the young man
+whose initials were G. K., turned with a smile to
+the two girls.</p>
+
+<p>“Ladies,” he said, lifting his hat again, “at the
+risk of being considered impertinent, I wish to ask
+you if you are going my way? If so I will help
+you with your bags, having again cinched what
+seems to be the only baggage transportation facilities
+at this station.”</p>
+
+<p>For once Tavia was really speechless. It was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>
+Dorothy who quite coolly asked the young man:</p>
+
+<p>“Which is your direction?”</p>
+
+<p>“To the Fanuel,” he said.</p>
+
+<p>“That is where we are going,” Dorothy admitted,
+giving him her bag again without question.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Tavia, “getting into the picture
+with a bounce,” as she would have expressed
+it. “Aren’t you the <em>handiest</em> young man!”</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you,” he replied, laughing. “That is
+a reputation to make one proud. I never was in
+this man’s town before, but I was recommended
+to the Fanuel by my boss.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” Tavia hastened to take the lead in the
+conversation. “We’ve been here before—Doro
+and I. And we always stop at the Fanuel.”</p>
+
+<p>“Now, I look on that as a streak of pure luck,”
+he returned. He looked at Dorothy, however,
+not at Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>The boy with the wagon went on ahead and the
+three voyagers followed, laughing and chatting,
+G. K. swinging the girls’ bags as though they were
+light instead of heavy.</p>
+
+<p>“I want awfully to know his name,” whispered
+Tavia, when they came to the hotel entrance and
+the young man handed over their bags again and
+went to the curb to get his own suitcases from
+the boy.</p>
+
+<p>“Let’s,” added Tavia, “go to the clerk’s desk
+and ask for the rooms your Aunt Winnie wrote<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>
+about. Then I’ll get a chance to see what he
+writes on the book.”</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense, Tavia!” exclaimed Dorothy.
+“We’ll do nothing of the kind. We must go to
+the ladies’ parlor and send a boy to the clerk, or
+the manager, with our cards. This is a family
+hotel, I know; but the lobby and the office are
+most likely full of men at this time in the day.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear! Come on, then, Miss Particular,”
+groaned Tavia. “And we didn’t even bid him
+good-bye at parting.”</p>
+
+<p>“What did you want to do?” laughed Dorothy.
+“Weep on his shoulder and give him some trinket,
+for instance, as a souvenir?”</p>
+
+<p>“Dorothy Dale!” exclaimed her friend. “I believe
+you have something up your sleeve. You
+seem just <em>sure</em> of seeing this nice cowboy person
+again.”</p>
+
+<p>“All men from the West do not punch cattle
+for a living. And it would not be the strangest
+thing in the world if we should meet G. K. again,
+as he is stopping at this hotel.”</p>
+
+<p>However, the girls saw nothing more of the
+smiling and agreeable Westerner that day. Dorothy
+Dale’s aunt had secured by mail two rooms
+and a bath for her niece and Tavia. The girls
+only appeared at dinner, and retired early. Even
+Tavia’s bright eyes could not spy out G. K. while
+they were at dinner.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span></p>
+
+<p>Besides, the girls had many other things to
+think about, and Tavia’s mind could not linger entirely
+upon even as nice a young man as G. K.
+appeared to be.</p>
+
+<p>This was their first visit to New York alone, as
+the more lively girl indicated. Aunt Winnie
+White had sprained her ankle and could not come
+to the city for the usual fall shopping. Dorothy
+was, for the first time, to choose her own fall
+and winter outfit. Tavia had come on from Dalton,
+with the money her father had been able to
+give her for a similar purpose, and the friends
+were to shop together.</p>
+
+<p>They left the hotel early the next morning and
+arrived at the first huge department store on their
+list almost as soon as the store was opened, at nine
+o’clock.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later they were in the silk department,
+pricing goods and “just looking” as Tavia said.
+In her usual thoughtless and incautious way, Tavia
+dropped her handbag upon the counter while she
+used both hands to examine a particular piece of
+goods, calling Dorothy’s attention to it, too.</p>
+
+<p>“No, dear; I do not think it is good enough,
+either for the money or for your purpose,” Dorothy
+said. “The color <em>is</em> lovely; but don’t be guided
+wholly by that.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. I suppose you are right,” sighed Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head at the clerk and prepared<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>
+to follow her friend, who had already left the
+counter. Hastily picking up what she supposed
+to be her bag, Tavia ran two or three steps to
+catch up with Dorothy. As she did so a feminine
+shriek behind her startled everybody within hearing.</p>
+
+<p>“That girl—she’s got my bag! Stop her!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! what is it?” gasped Dorothy, turning.</p>
+
+<p>“Somebody’s stolen something,” stammered
+Tavia, turning around too.</p>
+
+<p>Then she looked at the bag in her hand. Instead
+of her own seal-leather one, it was a much
+more expensive bag, gold mounted and plethoric.</p>
+
+<p>“There she is! She’s got it in her hand!”</p>
+
+<p>A woman dressed in the most extreme fashion
+and most expensively, darted down the aisle upon
+the two girls. She pointed a quivering, accusing
+finger directly at poor Tavia.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II<br>
+<span class="fs80">G. K. TO THE RESCUE</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dorothy Dale and her friend Tavia Travers
+had often experienced very serious adventures,
+but the shock of this incident perhaps was as great
+and as thrilling as anything that had heretofore
+happened to them.</p>
+
+<p>The series of eleven previous stories about
+Dorothy, Tavia, and their friends began with
+“Dorothy Dale: A Girl of To-day,” some years
+before the date of this present narrative. At that
+time Dorothy was living with her father, Major
+Frank Dale, a Civil War veteran, who owned and
+edited the <em>Bugle</em>, a newspaper published in Dalton,
+a small town in New York State.</p>
+
+<p>Then Major Dale’s livelihood and that of the
+family, consisting of Dorothy and her small brothers,
+Joe and Roger, depended upon the success of
+the <em>Bugle</em>. Taken seriously ill in the midst of a
+lively campaign for temperance and for a general
+reform government in Dalton, it looked as though
+the major would lose his paper and the better element
+in the town lose their fight for prohibition;
+but Dorothy Dale, confident that she could do it,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>
+got out the <em>Bugle</em> and did much, young girl though
+she was, to save the day. In this she was helped
+by Tavia Travers, a girl brought up entirely differently
+from Dorothy, and who possessed exactly
+the opposite characteristics to serve as a foil for
+Dorothy’s own good sense and practical nature.</p>
+
+<p>Major Dale was unexpectedly blessed with a
+considerable legacy which enabled him to sell the
+<em>Bugle</em> and take his children to The Cedars, at
+North Birchland, to live with his widowed sister
+and her two boys, Ned and Nat White, who were
+both older than their cousin Dorothy. In “Dorothy
+Dale at Glenwood School,” is related these
+changes for the better in the fortunes of the Dale
+family, and as well there is narrated the beginning
+of a series of adventures at school and during
+vacation times, in which Dorothy and Tavia are
+the central characters.</p>
+
+<p>Subsequent books are entitled respectively:
+“Dorothy Dale’s Great Secret,” “Dorothy Dale
+and Her Chums,” “Dorothy Dale’s Queer Holidays,”
+“Dorothy Dale’s Camping Days,” “Dorothy
+Dale’s School Rivals,” “Dorothy Dale in the
+City,” and “Dorothy Dale’s Promise,” in which
+story the two friends graduate from Glenwood
+and return to their homes feeling—and looking,
+of course—like real, grown-up young ladies.
+Nevertheless, they are not then through with adventures,
+surprising happenings, and much fun.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span></p>
+
+<p>About the time the girls graduated from school
+an old friend of Major Dale, Colonel Hardin,
+passed away, leaving his large estate in the West
+partly to the major and partly to be administered
+for the local public good. Cattle raising was not
+so generally followed as formerly in that section
+and dry farming was being tried.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Hardin had foreseen that nothing but
+a system of irrigation would save the poor farmers
+from ruin and on his land was the fountain
+of supply that should water the whole territory
+about Desert City and make it “blossom as the
+rose.” There were mining interests, however, selfishly
+determined to obtain the water rights on the
+Hardin Estate and that by hook or by crook.</p>
+
+<p>Major Dale’s health was not at this time good
+enough for him to look into these matters actively
+or to administer his dead friend’s estate. Therefore,
+it is told in “Dorothy Dale in the West,”
+how Aunt Winnie White, Dorothy’s two cousins,
+Ned and Nat, and herself with Tavia, go far
+from North Birchland and mingle with the miners,
+and other Western characters to be found on and
+about the Hardin property, including a cowboy
+named Lance Petterby, who shows unmistakable
+signs of being devoted to Tavia. Indeed, after
+the party return to the East, Lance writes to
+Tavia and the latter’s apparent predilection for
+the cowboy somewhat troubles Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span></p>
+
+<p>However, after their return to the East the
+chums went for a long visit to the home of a
+school friend, Jennie Hapgood, in Pennsylvania;
+and there Tavia seemed to have secured other—and
+less dangerous—interests. In “Dorothy
+Dale’s Strange Discovery,” the narrative immediately
+preceding this present tale, Dorothy displays
+her characteristic kindliness and acute reasoning
+powers in solving a problem that brings to
+Jennie Hapgood’s father the very best of good
+fortune.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, the Hapgoods are devoted to Dorothy.
+Besides, Ned and Nat, her cousins, have
+visited Sunnyside and are vastly interested in Jennie.
+The girl chums now in New York City on
+this shopping tour, expect on returning to North
+Birchland to find Jennie Hapgood there for a
+promised visit.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment, however, that we find Dorothy
+and Tavia at the beginning of this chapter, neither
+girl is thinking much about Jennie Hapgood and
+her expected visit, or of anything else of minor
+importance.</p>
+
+<p>The flashily dressed woman who had run after
+Tavia down the aisle, again screamed her accusation
+at the amazed and troubled girl:</p>
+
+<p>“That’s my bag! It’s cram full of money, too.”</p>
+
+<p>There was no great crowd in the store, for New
+York ladies do not as a rule shop much before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>
+luncheon. Nevertheless, besides salespeople, there
+were plenty to hear the woman’s unkind accusation
+and enough curious shoppers to ring in immediately
+the two troubled girls and the angry
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>“Give me it!” exclaimed the latter, and
+snatched the bag out of Tavia’s hand. As this
+was done the catch slipped in some way and the
+handbag burst open.</p>
+
+<p>It was “cram full” of money. Bills of large
+denomination were rolled carelessly into a ball,
+with a handkerchief, a purse for change, several
+keys, and a vanity box. Some of these things
+tumbled out upon the floor and a young boy
+stooped and recovered them for her.</p>
+
+<p>“You’re a bad, bad girl!” declared the angry
+woman. “I hope they send you to jail.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why—why, I didn’t know it was yours,” murmured
+Tavia, quite upset.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! you thought somebody had forgotten it
+and you could get away with it,” declared the
+other, coarsely enough.</p>
+
+<p>“I beg your pardon, Madam,” Dorothy Dale
+here interposed. “It was a mistake on my friend’s
+part. And <em>you</em> are making another mistake, and
+a serious one.”</p>
+
+<p>She spoke in her most dignified tone, and although
+Dorothy was barely in her twentieth year
+she had the manner and stability of one much<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>
+older. She realized that poor Tavia was in danger
+of “going all to pieces” if the strain continued.
+And, too, her own anger at the woman’s harsh
+accusation naturally put the girl on her mettle.</p>
+
+<p>“Who are <em>you</em>, I’d like to know?” snapped the
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>“I am her friend,” said Dorothy Dale, quite
+composedly, “and I know her to be incapable of
+taking your bag save by chance. She laid her own
+down on the counter and took up yours——”</p>
+
+<p>“And where <em>is</em> mine?” suddenly wailed Tavia,
+on the verge of an hysterical outbreak. “My bag!
+My money——”</p>
+
+<p>“Hush!” whispered Dorothy in her friend’s
+pretty ear. “Don’t become a second harridan—like
+this creature.”</p>
+
+<p>The woman had led the way back to the silk
+counter. Tavia began to claw wildly among the
+broken bolts of silk that the clerk had not yet been
+able to return to the shelves. But she stopped at
+Dorothy’s command, and stood, pale and trembling.</p>
+
+<p>A floorwalker hastened forward. He evidently
+knew the noisy woman as a good customer of the
+store.</p>
+
+<p>“Mrs. Halbridge! What is the matter? Nothing
+serious, I hope?”</p>
+
+<p>“It would have been serious all right,” said
+the customer, in her high-pitched voice, “if I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>
+hadn’t just seen that girl by luck. Yes, by luck!
+There she was making for the door with this bag
+of mine—and there’s several hundred dollars in
+it, I’d have you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“I beg of you, Mrs. Halbridge,” said the floorwalker
+in a low tone, “for the sake of the store
+to make no trouble about it here. If you insist
+we will take the girl up to the superintendent’s
+office——”</p>
+
+<p>Here Dorothy, her anger rising interrupted:</p>
+
+<p>“You would better not. Mrs. Winthrop White,
+of North Birchland, is a charge customer of your
+store, and is probably just as well known to the
+heads of the firm as this—this person,” and she
+cast what Tavia—in another mood—would have
+called a “scathing glance” at Mrs. Halbridge.</p>
+
+<p>“I am Mrs. White’s niece and this is my particular
+friend. We are here alone on a shopping
+tour; but if our word is not quite as good as that
+of this—this person, we certainly shall buy elsewhere.”</p>
+
+<p>Tavia, obsessed with a single idea, murmured
+again:</p>
+
+<p>“But I haven’t got my bag! Somebody’s taken
+my bag! And all my money——”</p>
+
+<p>The floorwalker was glancing about, hoping for
+some avenue of escape from the unfortunate predicament,
+when a very tall, white-haired and soldierly
+looking man appeared in the aisle.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Schuman!” gasped the floorwalker.</p>
+
+<p>The man was one of the chief proprietors of
+the big store. He scowled slightly at the floorwalker
+when he saw the excited crowd, and then
+raised his eyebrows questioningly.</p>
+
+<p>“This is not the place for any lengthy discussion,
+Mr. Mink,” said Mr. Schuman, with just
+the proper touch of admonition in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>“I know! I know, Mr. Schuman!” said the
+floorwalker. “But this difficulty—it came so suddenly—Mrs.
+Halbridge, here, makes the complaint,”
+he finally blurted out, in an attempt to
+shoulder off some of the responsibility for the
+unfortunate situation.</p>
+
+<p>“Mrs. Halbridge?” The old gentleman bowed
+in a most courtly style. “One of our customers,
+I presume, Mr. Mink?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes, indeed, Mr. Schuman,” the floorwalker
+hastened to say. “One of our <em>very</em> good
+customers. And I am so sorry that anything
+should have happened——”</p>
+
+<p>“But what has happened?” asked Mr. Schuman,
+sharply.</p>
+
+<p>“She—she accuses this—it’s all a mistake, I’m
+sure—this young lady of taking her bag,” stuttered
+Mr. Mink, pointing to Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“She ought to be arrested,” muttered the excited
+Mrs. Halbridge.</p>
+
+<p>“What? But this is a matter for the superintendent’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>
+office, Mr. Mink,” returned Mr. Schuman.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” stammered the floorwalker. “The bag
+is returned.”</p>
+
+<p>“And now,” put in Dorothy Dale, haughtily,
+and looking straight and unflinchingly into the
+keen eyes of Mr. Schuman, “my friend wishes to
+know what has become of <em>her</em> bag?”</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Schuman looked at the two girls with momentary
+hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>There was something compelling in the ladylike
+look and behaviour of these two girls—and
+especially in Dorothy’s speech. At the moment,
+too, a hand was laid tentatively upon Mr. Schuman’s
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>“Beg pardon, sir,” said the full, resonant voice
+that Dorothy had noted the day before. “I know
+the young ladies—Miss Dale and Miss Travers,
+respectively, Mr. Schuman.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Mr. Knapp—thank you!” said the old
+gentleman, turning to the tall young Westerner
+with whom he had been walking through the store
+at the moment he had spied the crowd. “You are
+a discourager of embarrassment.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! blessed ‘G. K.’!” whispered Tavia,
+weakly clinging to Dorothy’s arm.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III<br>
+<span class="fs80">TAVIA IN THE SHADE</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Halbridge was slyly slipping through
+the crowd. She had suddenly lost all interest in
+the punishment of the girl she had accused of
+stealing her bag and her money.</p>
+
+<p>There was something so stern about Mr. Schuman
+that it was not strange that the excitable
+woman should fear further discussion of the matter.
+The old gentleman turned at once to Dorothy
+Dale and Tavia Travers.</p>
+
+<p>“This is an unfortunate and regrettable incident,
+young ladies,” he said suavely. “I assure
+you that such things as this seldom occur under
+our roof.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am confident it is a single occurrence,” Dorothy
+said, with conviction, “or my aunt, Mrs. Winthrop
+White, of North Birchland, would not have
+traded with you for so many years.”</p>
+
+<p>“One of our charge customers, Mr. Schuman,”
+whispered Mr. Mink, deciding it was quite time
+now to come to the assistance of the girls.</p>
+
+<p>“Regrettable! Regrettable!” repeated the old
+gentleman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span></p>
+
+<p>Here Tavia again entered her wailing protest:</p>
+
+<p>“I did not mean to take her bag from the counter.
+But somebody has taken my bag.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!” exclaimed her friend, now
+startled into noticing what Tavia really said about
+it.</p>
+
+<p>“It’s gone!” wailed Tavia. “And all the money
+father sent me. Oh, dear, Doro Dale! I guess
+I <em>have</em> thrown my money away, and, as you prophesied,
+it isn’t as much fun as I thought it might
+be.”</p>
+
+<p>“My dear young lady,” hastily inquired Mr.
+Schuman, “have you really lost your purse?”</p>
+
+<p>“My bag,” sobbed Tavia. “I laid it down while
+I examined some silk. That clerk saw me,” she
+added, pointing to the man behind the counter.</p>
+
+<p>“It is true, Mr. Schuman,” the silk clerk admitted,
+blushing painfully. “But, of course, I did
+not notice what became of the lady’s bag.”</p>
+
+<p>“Nor did I see the other bag until I found it
+in my hand,” Tavia cried.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd was dissipated by this time, and all
+spoke in low voices. Outside the counter was a
+cash-girl, a big-eyed and big-eared little thing, who
+was evidently listening curiously to the conversation.
+Mr. Mink said sharply to her:</p>
+
+<p>“Number forty-seven! do you know anything
+about this bag business?”</p>
+
+<p>“No—no, sir!” gasped the frightened girl.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Then go on about your business,” the floorwalker
+said, waving her away in his most lordly
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Dorothy had obtained a word with
+the young Mr. Knapp who had done her and
+Tavia such a kindness.</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you a thousand times, Mr. Knapp,”
+she whispered, her eyes shining gratefully into his.
+“It might have been awkward for us without you.
+And,” she added, pointedly, “how fortunate you
+knew our names!”</p>
+
+<p>He was smiling broadly, but she saw the color
+rise in his bronzed cheeks at her last remark. She
+liked him all the better for blushing so boyishly.</p>
+
+<p>“Got me there, Miss Dale,” he blurted out. “I
+was curious, and I looked on the hotel register to
+see your names after the clerk brought it back
+from the parlor where he went to greet you yesterday.
+Hope you’ll forgive me for being so—er—rubbery.”</p>
+
+<p>“It proves to be a very fortunate curiosity on
+your part,” she told him, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>“Say!” he whispered, “your friend is all broken
+up over this. Has she lost much?”</p>
+
+<p>“All the money she had to pay for the clothes
+she wished to buy, I’m afraid,” sighed Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, let’s get her out of here—go somewhere
+to recuperate. There’s a good hotel across the
+street. I had my breakfast there before I began<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>
+to shop,” and he laughed. “A cup of tea will revive
+her, I’m sure.”</p>
+
+<p>“And you are suffering for a cup, too, I am
+sure,” Dorothy told him, her eyes betraying her
+amusement, at his rather awkward attempt to become
+friendly with Tavia and herself.</p>
+
+<p>But Dorothy approved of this young man.
+Aside from the assistance he had undoubtedly
+rendered her chum and herself, G. Knapp seemed
+to be far above the average young man.</p>
+
+<p>She turned now quickly to Tavia. Mr. Schuman
+was saying very kindly:</p>
+
+<p>“Search shall be made, my dear young lady.
+I am exceedingly sorry that such a thing should
+happen in our store. Of course, somebody picked
+up your bag before you inadvertently took the
+other lady’s. If I had my way I would have it a
+law that every shopper should have her purse riveted
+to her wrist with a chain.”</p>
+
+<p>It was no laughing matter, however, for poor
+Tavia. Her family was not in the easy circumstances
+that Dorothy’s was. Indeed, Mr. Travers
+was only fairly well-to-do, and Tavia’s mother
+was exceedingly extravagant. It was difficult
+sometimes for Tavia to obtain sufficient money
+to get along with.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, she was incautious herself. It was
+natural for her to be wasteful and thoughtless.
+But this was the first time in her experience that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>
+she had either wasted or lost such a sum of
+money.</p>
+
+<p>She wiped her eyes very quickly when Dorothy
+whispered to her that they were going out for a
+cup of tea with Mr. Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh dear, that perfectly splendid cowboy person!”
+groaned Tavia. “And I am in no mood to
+make an impression. Doro! you’ll have to do it
+all yourself this time. Do keep him in play until
+I recover from, this blow—if I ever do.”</p>
+
+<p>The young man, who led the way to the side
+door of the store which was opposite the hotel
+and restaurant of which he had spoken, heard
+the last few words and turned to ask seriously:</p>
+
+<p>“Surely Miss Travers did not lose <em>all</em> the money
+she had?”</p>
+
+<p>“All I had in the world!” wailed Tavia. “Except
+a lonely little five dollar bill.”</p>
+
+<p>“Where is that?” asked Dorothy, in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>“In the First National Bank,” Tavia said demurely.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, then, <em>that’s</em> safe enough,” said Mr.
+Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>“I didn’t know you had even that much in the
+bank,” remarked Dorothy, doubtfully. “The
+First National?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yep!” declared Tavia promptly, but nudged
+her friend. “Hush!” she hissed.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy did not understand, but she saw there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>
+was something queer about this statement. It was
+news to her that her chum ever thought of putting
+a penny on deposit in any bank. It was not
+like Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“How do you feel now, dear?” she asked the
+unfortunate girl, as they stepped out into the open
+air behind the broad-shouldered young Westerner,
+who held the door open for their passage.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear me!” sighed Tavia. “I’m forty degrees
+in the shade—and the temperature is still
+going down. What ever <em>shall</em> I do? I’ll be positively
+naked before Thanksgiving!”</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV<br>
+<span class="fs80">SOMETHING ABOUT “G. KNAPP”</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>But how can three people with all the revivifying
+flow of youth in their veins remain in the
+dumps, to use one of Tavia’s own illuminating expressions.
+Impossible! That tea at the Holyoke
+House, which began so miserably, scaled upward
+like the notes of a coloratura soprano until they
+were all three chatting and laughing like old
+friends. Even Tavia had to forget her miserable
+financial state.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy believed her first impression of G.
+Knapp had not been wrong. Indeed, he improved
+with every moment of increasing familiarity.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, although his repartee was
+bright enough, and he was very jolly and frank,
+he had eyes and attention for somebody besides
+the chatterbox, Tavia. Perhaps right at first
+Tavia was a little under the mark, her mind naturally
+being upon her troubles; but with a strange
+young man before her the gay and sparkling Tavia
+would soon be inspired.</p>
+
+<p>However, for once she did not absorb all the
+more or less helpless male’s attention. G. Knapp<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>
+insisted upon dividing equally his glances, his
+speeches, and his smiles between the two young
+ladies.</p>
+
+<p>They discovered that his full and proper name
+was Garford Knapp—the first, of course, shortened
+to “Garry.” He was of the West, Western,
+without a doubt. He had secured a degree
+at a Western university, although both before and
+after his scholastic course he had, as Tavia in
+the beginning suggested, been a “cowboy person.”</p>
+
+<p>“And it looks as if I’d be punching cows and
+doing other chores for Bob Douglas, who owns
+the Four-Square ranch, for the rest of my natural,”
+was one thing Garry Knapp told the girls,
+and told them cheerfully. “I did count on falling
+heir to a piece of money when Uncle Terrence
+cashed in. But not—no more!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why is that?” Dorothy asked, seeing that the
+young man was serious despite his somewhat careless
+way of speaking.</p>
+
+<p>“The old codger is just like tinder,” laughed
+Garry. “Lights up if a spark gets to him. And
+I unfortunately and unintentionally applied the
+spark. He’s gone off to Alaska mad as a hatter
+and left me in the lurch. And we were chums
+when I was a kid and until I came back from college.”</p>
+
+<p>“You mean you have quarreled with your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>
+uncle?” Dorothy queried, with some seriousness.</p>
+
+<p>“Not at all, Miss Dale,” he declared, promptly.
+“The old fellow quarreled with me. They say it
+takes two to make a quarrel. That’s not always
+so. One can do it just as <em>e-easy</em>. At least, one
+like Uncle Terrence can. He had red hair when
+he was young, and he has a strong fighting Irish
+strain in him. The row began over nothing and
+ended with his lighting out between evening and
+sunrise and leaving me flat.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, I broke into a job with Bob Douglas
+right away——”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you mean, Mr. Knapp, that your uncle
+went away and left you without money?” Dorothy
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>“Only what I chanced to have in my pocket,”
+Garry Knapp said cheerfully. “He’d always been
+mighty good to me. Put me through school and
+all that. All I have is a piece of land—and a
+good big piece—outside of Desert City; but it
+isn’t worth much. Cattle raising is petering out
+in that region. Last year the mouth and hoof disease
+just about ruined the man that grazed my
+land. His cattle died like flies.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, the land was badly grazed by sheepmen
+for years. Sheep about poison land for anything
+else to live on,” he added, with a cattleman’s
+usual disgust at the thought of “mutton on
+the hoof.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p>
+
+<p>“One thing I’ve come East for, Miss Dale, is
+to sell that land. Got a sort of tentative offer by
+mail. Bob wanted a lot of stuff for the ranch and
+for his family and couldn’t come himself. So I
+combined his business and mine and hope to make
+a sale of the land my father left me before I go
+back.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, with that nest-egg, I’ll try to break into
+some game that will offer a man-sized profit,” and
+Garry Knapp laughed again in his mellow, whole-souled
+way.</p>
+
+<p>“Isn’t he just a <em>dear</em>?” whispered Tavia as
+Garry turned to speak to the waiter. “Don’t you
+love to hear him talk?”</p>
+
+<p>“And have you never heard from your old
+uncle who went away and left you?” Dorothy
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>“Not a word. He’s too mad to speak, let
+alone write,” and a cloud for a moment crossed
+the open, handsome face of the Westerner. “But
+I know where he is, and every once in a while
+somebody writes me telling me Uncle Terry is all
+right.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, an old man, away up there in
+Alaska——?”</p>
+
+<p>“Bless you, Miss Dale,” chuckled Garry
+Knapp. “That dear old codger has been knocking
+about in rough country all his days. He’s
+always been a miner. Prospected pretty well all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>
+over our West. He’s made, and then bunted
+away, big fortunes sometimes.</p>
+
+<p>“He always has a stake laid down somewhere.
+Never gets real poor, and never went hungry in
+his life—unless he chanced to run out of grub on
+some prospecting tour, or his gun was broken and
+he couldn’t shoot a jackrabbit for a stew.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Uncle Terrence isn’t at all the sort of
+hampered prospector you read about in the books.
+He doesn’t go mooning around, expecting to
+‘strike it rich’ and running the risk of leaving his
+bones in the desert.</p>
+
+<p>“No, Uncle Terry is likely to make another
+fortune before he dies——”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! Then maybe you will be rich!” cried
+Tavia, breaking in.</p>
+
+<p>“No.” Garry shook his head with a quizzical
+smile on his lips and in his eyes. “No. He vowed
+I should never see the color of his money. First,
+he said, he’d leave it to found a home for indignant
+rattlesnakes. And he’d surely have plenty
+of inmates, for rattlers seem always to be indignant,”
+he added with a chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy wanted awfully to ask him why he
+had quarreled with his uncle—or <em>vice versa</em>; but
+that would have been too personal upon first meeting.
+She liked the young man more and more;
+and in spite of Tavia’s loss they parted at the end
+of the hour in great good spirits.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p>
+
+<p>“I’m going to be just as busy as I can be this
+afternoon,” Garry Knapp announced, as they went
+out. “But I shall get back to the hotel to supper.
+I wasn’t in last night when you ladies were
+down. May I eat at your table?” and his eyes
+squinted up again in that droll way Dorothy had
+come to look for.</p>
+
+<p>“How do you know we ate in the hotel last
+evening?” demanded Tavia, promptly.</p>
+
+<p>“Asked the head waiter,” replied Garry Knapp,
+unabashed.</p>
+
+<p>“If you are so much interested in whether we
+take proper nourishment or not, you had better
+join us at dinner,” Dorothy said, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>“It’s a bet!” declared the young Westerner,
+and lifting his broad-brimmed hat he left the girls
+upon the sidewalk outside the restaurant.</p>
+
+<p>“Isn’t he the very nicest—but, oh, Doro! what
+shall I do?” exclaimed the miserable Tavia. “All
+my money——”</p>
+
+<p>“Let’s go back and see if it’s been found.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, not a chance!” gasped Tavia. “That horrid
+woman——”</p>
+
+<p>“I scarcely believe that we can lay it to Mrs.
+Halbridge’s door in any particular,” said Dorothy,
+gravely. “You should not have left your bag
+on the counter.”</p>
+
+<p>“She laid hers there! And, oh, Doro! it was
+full of money,” sighed her friend.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Probably your bag had been taken before you
+even touched hers.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear! why did it have to happen to <em>me</em>—and
+at just this time. When I need things so much.
+Not a thing to wear! And it’s going to be a cold,
+cold winter, too!”</p>
+
+<p>Tavia would joke “if the heavens fell”—that
+was her nature. But that she was seriously embarrassed
+for funds Dorothy Dale knew right
+well.</p>
+
+<p>“If it had only been your bag that was lost,”
+wailed Tavia, “you would telegraph to Aunt Winnie
+and get more money!”</p>
+
+<p>“And I shall do that in this case,” said her
+friend, placidly.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! no you won’t!” cried Tavia, suddenly. “I
+will not take another cent from your Aunt Winnie
+White—who’s the most blessed, generous,
+free, open-handed person who ever——”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness! no further attributes?” laughed
+Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“No, Doro,” Tavia said, suddenly serious. “I
+have done this thing myself. It is <em>awful</em>. Poor
+old daddy earns his money too hardly for <em>me</em> to
+throw it away. I should know better. I should
+have learned caution and economy by this time
+with you, my dear, as an example ever before me.</p>
+
+<p>“Poor mother wastes money because she
+doesn’t <em>know</em>. I have had every advantage of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>
+bright and shining example,” and she pinched
+Dorothy’s arm as they entered the big store
+again. “If I have lost my money, I’ve lost it, and
+that’s the end of it. No new clothes for little
+Tavia—and serves her right!” she finished, bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy well knew that this was a tragic happening
+for her friend. Generously she would have
+sent for more money, or divided her own store
+with Tavia. But she knew her chum to be in
+earnest, and she approved.</p>
+
+<p>It was not as though Tavia had nothing to
+wear. She had a full and complete wardrobe, only
+it would be no longer up to date. And she would
+have to curtail much of the fun the girls had
+looked forward to on this, their first trip, unchaperoned,
+to the great city.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V<br>
+<span class="fs80">DOROTHY IS DISTURBED</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Nothing, of course, had been seen or heard
+of Tavia’s bag. Mr. Schuman himself had made
+the investigation, and he came to the girls personally
+to tell them how extremely sorry he was.
+But being sorry did not help.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m done for!” groaned Tavia, as they returned
+to their rooms at the hotel just before
+luncheon. “I can’t even buy a stick of peppermint
+candy to send to the kids at Dalton.”</p>
+
+<p>“How about that five dollars in the bank?”
+asked Dorothy, suddenly remembering Tavia’s
+previous and most surprising statement. “And
+how did you ever come to have a bank account?
+Is it in the First National of Dalton?”</p>
+
+<p>There was a laugh from Tavia, a sudden flash
+of lingerie and the display of a silk stocking.
+Then she held out to her chum a neatly folded
+banknote wrapped in tissue paper.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p040" style="max-width: 40.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p040.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">THE TWO GIRLS STEPPED OUT OF THE ELEVATOR AND FOUND
+GARRY KNAPP WAITING FOR THEM.</p>
+
+<div>
+ <p class="fs80" style="float: left;"><em>Dorothy Dale’s Engagement</em></p>
+ <p class="fs80" style="float: right;"><em>Page <a href="#Page_41">41</a></em></p>
+</div>
+<div style="clear:both;"></div>
+</figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>“First National Bank of Womankind,” she
+cried gaily. “I always carry it there in case of
+accident—being run over, robbed, or an earthquake.
+But that five dollars is all I own. Oh,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>dear! I wish I had stuffed the whole roll into
+my stocking.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t, Tavia! it’s not ladylike.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t care. Pockets are out of style again,”
+pouted her friend. “And, anyway, you must admit
+that <em>this</em> was a stroke of genius, for I would
+otherwise be without a penny.”</p>
+
+<p>However, Tavia was too kind-hearted, as well
+as light-hearted, to allow her loss to cloud the day
+for Dorothy. She was just as enthusiastic in the
+afternoon in helping her friend select the goods
+she wished to buy as though all the “pretties” were
+for herself.</p>
+
+<p>They came home toward dusk, tired enough,
+and lay down for an hour—“relaxing as per instructions
+of Lovely Lucy Larriper, the afternoon
+newspaper statistician,” Tavia said.</p>
+
+<p>“Why ‘statistician’?” asked Dorothy, wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>“Why! isn’t she a ‘figger’ expert?” laughed
+Tavia. “Now relax!”</p>
+
+<p>A brisk bath followed and then, at seven, the
+two girls stepped out of the elevator into the
+lobby of the hotel and found Garry Knapp waiting
+for them. He was likewise well tubbed and
+scrubbed, but he did not conform to city custom
+and wear evening dress. Indeed, Dorothy could
+not imagine him in the black and severe habiliments
+of society.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Not that his figure would not carry them
+well,” she thought. “But he would somehow
+seem out of place. Some of his breeziness and—and—yes!—his
+<em>nice</em> kind of ‘freshness’ would be
+gone. That gray business suit becomes him and
+so does his hat.”</p>
+
+<p>But, of course, the hat was not in evidence at
+present. The captain of the waiters had evidently
+expected this party, for he beckoned them to a
+retired table the moment the trio entered the long
+dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>“How cozy!” exclaimed Dorothy. “You must
+have what they call a ‘pull’ with people in authority,
+Mr. Knapp.”</p>
+
+<p>“How’s that?” he asked.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, you can get the best table in the dining-room,
+and this morning you rescued us from
+trouble through your acquaintanceship with Mr.
+Schuman.”</p>
+
+<p>“The influence of the Almighty Dollar,” said
+Garry Knapp, briefly. “This morning I had just
+spent several hundred dollars of Bob Douglass’
+good money in that store. And here at this
+hotel Bob’s name is as good as a gold certificate.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, money! money!” groaned Tavia, “what
+crimes are committed in thy name—and likewise,
+what benefits achieved! I wonder what the person
+who stole it is doing with <em>my</em> money?”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps it was somebody who needed it more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>
+than you do,” said Dorothy, rather quizzically.</p>
+
+<p>“Can’t be such a person. And needy people
+seldom find money. Besides, needy folk are always
+honest—in the books. I’m honest myself,
+and heaven knows I’m needy!”</p>
+
+<p>“Was it truly all the money you had with you?”
+asked Garry Knapp, commiseratingly.</p>
+
+<p>“Honest and true, black and blue, lay me down
+and cut me in two!” chanted Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“All but the five dollars in the bank,” Dorothy
+said demurely, but with dancing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>And for once Tavia actually blushed and was
+silenced—for a moment. Garry drawled:</p>
+
+<p>“I wonder who did get your bag, Miss Travers?
+Of course, there are always light-fingered
+people hanging about a store like that.”</p>
+
+<p>“And the money will be put to no good use,”
+declared the loser, dejectedly. “If the person finding
+it would only found a hospital—or something—with
+it, I’d feel a lot better. But I know just
+what will happen.”</p>
+
+<p>“What?” asked Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“The person who took my bag will go and
+blow themselves to a fancy dinner—oh! better
+even than <em>this</em> one. I only hope he or she will eat
+so much that they will be sick——”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t! don’t!” begged Dorothy, stopping her
+ears. “You are dreadfully mixed in your grammar.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Do you wonder? After having been robbed so
+ruthlessly?”</p>
+
+<p>“But, certainly, dear,” cooed Dorothy, “your
+knowledge of grammar was not in your bag, too?”</p>
+
+<p>Thus they joked over Tavia’s tragedy; but all
+the time Dorothy’s agile mind was working hard
+to scheme out a way to help her chum over this
+very, very hard place.</p>
+
+<p>Just at this time, however, she had to give some
+thought to Garry Knapp. He took out three slips
+of pasteboard toward the end of the very pleasant
+meal and flipped them upon the cloth.</p>
+
+<p>“I took a chance,” he said, in his boyish way.
+“There’s a good show down the street—kill a little
+time. Vaudeville and pictures. Good seats.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, let’s!” cried Tavia, clasping her hands.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy knew that the theatre in question was
+respectable enough, although the entertainment
+was not of the Broadway class. But she knew,
+too, that this young man from the West probably
+could not afford to pay two dollars or more for
+a seat for an evening’s pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course we’ll be delighted to go. And we’d
+better go at once,” Dorothy said, without hesitation.
+“I’m ready. Are you, Tavia?”</p>
+
+<p>“You dear!” whispered Tavia, squeezing her
+arm as they followed Garry Knapp from the dining-room.
+“I never before knew you to be so
+amenable where a young man was concerned.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Is that so?” drawled Dorothy, but hid her
+face from her friend’s sharp eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was late, but a fine, bright, dry evening when
+the trio came out of the theatre and walked slowly
+toward their hotel. On the block in the middle
+of which the Fanuel was situated there were but
+few pedestrians. As they approached the main
+entrance to the hotel a girl came slowly toward
+them, peering, it seemed, sharply into their faces.</p>
+
+<p>She was rather shabbily dressed, but was not
+at all an unattractive looking girl. Dorothy noticed
+that her passing glance was for Garry Knapp,
+not for herself or for Tavia. The young man
+had half dropped behind as they approached the
+hotel entrance and was saying:</p>
+
+<p>“I think I’ll take a brisk walk for a bit, having
+seen you ladies home after a very charming evening.
+I feel kind of shut in after that theatre, and
+want to expand my lungs.”</p>
+
+<p>“Good-night, then, Mr. Knapp,” Dorothy said
+lightly. “And thank you for a pleasant evening.”</p>
+
+<p>“Ditto!” Tavia said, hiding a little yawn behind
+her gloved fingers.</p>
+
+<p>The girls stepped toward the open door of the
+hotel. Garry Knapp wheeled and started back
+the way they had come. Tavia clutched her
+chum’s arm with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>“Did you see that girl?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Why—yes,” Dorothy said wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>“Look back! Quick!”</p>
+
+<p>Impelled by her chum’s tone, Dorothy turned
+and looked up the street. Garry Knapp had overtaken
+the girl. The girl looked sidewise at him—they
+could see her turn her head—and then she
+evidently spoke. Garry dropped into slow step
+with her, and they strolled along, talking eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, he must know her!” gasped Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Why didn’t he introduce her then?” Dorothy
+said shortly. “It serves me right.”</p>
+
+<p>“What serves you right?”</p>
+
+<p>“For allowing you, as well as myself, to become
+so familiar with a strange man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” murmured Tavia, slowly. “It’s not so
+bad as all <em>that</em>. You’re making a mountain out
+of a molehill.”</p>
+
+<p>But Dorothy would not listen.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI<br>
+<span class="fs80">SOMETHING OF A MYSTERY</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tavia slept her usually sweet, sound sleep that
+night, despite the strange surroundings of the hotel
+and the happenings of a busy day; but Dorothy
+lay for a long time, unable to close her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning, however, she was as deep in
+slumber as ever her chum was when a knock came
+on the door of their anteroom. Both girls sat up
+and said in chorus:</p>
+
+<p>“Who’s there?”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s jes’ me, Missy,” said the soft voice of the
+colored maid. “Did one o’ youse young ladies
+lost somethin’?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, mercy me, yes!” shouted Tavia, jumping
+completely out of her bed and running toward the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense, Tavia!” admonished Dorothy, likewise
+hopping out of bed. “She can’t have found
+your money.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! what is it, please?” asked Tavia, opening
+the door just a trifle.</p>
+
+<p>“Has you lost somethin’?” repeated the colored
+girl.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span></p>
+
+<p>“I lost my handbag in a store yesterday,” said
+Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Das it, Missy,” chuckled the maid. “De clark,
+he axed me to ax yo’ ’bout it. It’s done come
+back.”</p>
+
+<p>“What’s come back?” demanded Dorothy, likewise
+appearing at the door and in the same dishabille
+as her friend.</p>
+
+<p>“De bag. De clark tol’ me to tell yo’ ladies dat
+all de money is safe in it, too. Now yo’ kin go
+back to sleep again. He’s done got de bag in he’s
+safe;” and the girl went away chuckling.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia fell up against the door and stared at
+Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Doro! Can it be?” she panted.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia! What luck!”</p>
+
+<p>“There’s the telephone! I’m going to call up
+the office,” and Tavia darted for the instrument
+on the wall.</p>
+
+<p>But there was something the matter with the
+wires; that was why the clerk had sent the maid
+to the room.</p>
+
+<p>“Then I’m going to dress and go right down
+and see about it,” Tavia said.</p>
+
+<p>“But it’s only six o’clock,” yawned Dorothy.
+“The maid was right. We should go back to
+bed.”</p>
+
+<p>Her friend scorned the suggestion and she
+fairly “hopped” into her clothes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Be sure and powder your nose, dear,”
+laughed Dorothy. “But I <em>am</em> glad for you,
+Tavia.”</p>
+
+<p>“Bother my nose!” responded her friend, running
+out of her room and into the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>She whisked back again before Dorothy was
+more than half dressed with the precious bag in
+her hands.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it is! it is!” she cried, whirling about
+Dorothy’s room and her own and the bath and
+anteroom, in a dervish dance of joy. “Doro!
+Doro! I’m saved!”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know whether you are saved or not,
+dear. But you plainly are delighted.”</p>
+
+<p>“Every penny safe.”</p>
+
+<p>“Are you sure?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes. I counted. I had to sign a receipt
+for the clerk, too. He is the <em>dearest</em> man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, dear, I hope this will be a lesson to
+you,” Dorothy said.</p>
+
+<p>“It will be!” declared the excited Tavia. “Do
+you know what I am going to do?”</p>
+
+<p>“Spend your money more recklessly than ever,
+I suppose,” sighed her friend.</p>
+
+<p>“Say! seems to me you’re awfully glum this
+morning. You’re not nice about my good luck—not
+a bit,” and Tavia stared at her in puzzlement.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I’m delighted that you should recover<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>
+your bag,” Dorothy hastened to say. “How
+did it come back?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, the clerk gave it to me, I tell you.”</p>
+
+<p>“What clerk? The one at the silk counter?”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness! The hotel clerk downstairs.”</p>
+
+<p>“But how did <em>he</em> come by it?”</p>
+
+<p>Tavia slowly sat down and blinked. “Why—why,”
+she said, “I didn’t even think to ask him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, Tavia!” exclaimed Dorothy, rather
+aghast at this admission of her flyaway friend.</p>
+
+<p>“I do seem to have been awfully thoughtless
+again,” admitted Tavia, slowly. “I thanked him—the
+clerk, I mean! Oh, I did! I could have
+kissed him!”</p>
+
+<p>“Tavia!”</p>
+
+<p>“I could; but I didn’t,” said the wicked Tavia,
+her eyes sparkling once more. “But I never
+thought to ask how he came by it. Maybe some
+poor person found it and should be rewarded.
+Should I give a tithe of it, Doro, as a reward, as
+we give a tithe to the church? Let’s see! I had
+just eighty-nine dollars and thirty-seven cents, and
+an old copper penny for a pocket-piece. One-tenth
+of that would be——”</p>
+
+<p>“Do be sensible!” exclaimed Dorothy, rather
+tartly for her. “You might at least have asked
+how the bag was sent here—whether by the store
+itself, or by some employee, or brought by some
+outside person.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Goodness! if it were your money would you
+have been so curious?” demanded Tavia. “I
+don’t believe it. You would have been just as
+excited as I was.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps,” admitted Dorothy, after a moment.
+“Anyway, I’m glad you have it back,
+dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“And do you know what I am going to do? I
+am going to take that old man’s advice.”</p>
+
+<p>“What old man, Tavia?”</p>
+
+<p>“That Mr. Schuman—the head of the big
+store. I am going to go out right after breakfast
+and buy me a dog chain and chain that bag to my
+wrist.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy laughed at this—yet she did not laugh
+happily. There was something wrong with her,
+and as soon as Tavia began to quiet down a bit
+she noticed it again.</p>
+
+<p>“Doro,” she exclaimed, “I do believe something
+has happened to you!”</p>
+
+<p>“What something?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know. But you are not—not happy.
+What is it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Hungry,” said Dorothy, shortly. “Do stop
+primping now and come on down to breakfast.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, you must be savagely hungry then, if it
+makes you like this,” grumbled Tavia. “And it
+is an hour before our usual breakfast time.”</p>
+
+<p>They went down in the elevator to the lower<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span>
+floor, Tavia carrying the precious bag. She would
+not trust it out of her sight again, she said, as
+long as a penny was left in it.</p>
+
+<p>She attempted to go over to the clerk’s desk at
+the far side of the lobby to ask for the details
+of the recovery of her bag; but there were several
+men at the desk and Dorothy stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>“Wait until he is more at leisure,” she advised
+Tavia. “And until there are not so many men
+about.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, nonsense!” ejaculated Tavia, but she
+turned to follow Dorothy. Then she added:
+“Ah, there is one you won’t mind speaking
+to——”</p>
+
+<p>“Where?” cried Dorothy, stopping instantly.</p>
+
+<p>“Going into the dining-room,” said Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy then saw the gray back of Garford
+Knapp ahead of them. She turned swiftly for the
+exit of the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>“Come!” she said, “let’s get a breath of air before
+breakfast. It—it will give us an appetite!”
+And she fairly dragged Tavia to the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I declare to goodness!” volleyed Tavia,
+staring at her. “And just now you were as hungry
+as a bear. And you still seem to have a bear’s
+nature. How rough! Don’t you want to see that
+young man?”</p>
+
+<p>“Never!” snapped Dorothy, and started
+straight along toward the Hudson River.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span></p>
+
+<p>Tavia was for the moment silenced. But after
+a bit she asked slyly:</p>
+
+<p>“You’re not really going to walk clear home,
+are you, dear? North Birchland is a long, long
+walk—and the river intervenes.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy had to laugh. But her face almost immediately
+fell into very serious lines. Tavia, for
+once, considered her chum’s feelings. She said
+nothing regarding Garry Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” she murmured. “<em>I</em> need no appetite—no
+more than I have. Aren’t you going to eat at
+all this morning, Dorothy?”</p>
+
+<p>“Here is a restaurant; let us go in,” said her
+friend promptly.</p>
+
+<p>They did so, and Dorothy lingered over the
+meal (which was nowhere as good as that they
+would have secured at the Fanuel) until she was
+positive that Mr. Knapp must have finished his
+own breakfast and left the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, they saw him run out and catch a car
+in front of the hotel entrance while they were still
+some rods from the door. Dorothy at once became
+brisker of movement, hurrying Tavia along.</p>
+
+<p>“We must really shop to-day,” she said with
+decision. “Not merely look and window-shop.”</p>
+
+<p>“Surely,” agreed Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“And we’ll not come back to luncheon—it takes
+too much time,” Dorothy went on, as they hurried
+into the elevator. “Perhaps we can get tickets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>
+for that nice play Ned and Nat saw when they
+were down here last time. Then, if we do, we will
+stay uptown for dinner——”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy! All that time in the same clothes and
+without the prescribed ‘relax’?” groaned Tavia.
+“We’ll look as though we had been ground between
+the upper and the nether millstone.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well——”</p>
+
+<p>They had reached their rooms. Tavia turned
+upon her and suddenly seized Dorothy by both
+shoulders, looking accusingly into her friend’s
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>“I know what you are up to. You are running
+away from that man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! What——”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind trying to dodge the issue,” said
+Tavia, sternly. “That Garry Knapp. And it
+seems he must be a pretty nappy sort, sure enough.
+He probably knew that girl and was ashamed to
+have us see him speaking to one so shabby. Now!
+what do you care what he does?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t,” denied Dorothy, hotly. “I’m only
+ashamed that we have been seen with him. And
+it is my fault.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’d like to know why?”</p>
+
+<p>“It was unnecessary for us to have become so
+friendly with him just because he did us a favor.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes—but——”</p>
+
+<p>“It was I. I did it,” said Dorothy, almost in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>
+tears. “We should never allow ourselves to become
+acquainted with strangers in any such way.
+Now you see what it means, Tavia. It is not your
+fault—it is mine. But it should teach you a lesson
+as well as me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness!” said the startled Tavia. “I don’t
+see that it is anything very terrible. The fellow
+is really nothing to us.”</p>
+
+<p>“But people having seen us with him—and then
+seeing him with that common-acting girl——”</p>
+
+<p>“Pooh! what do we care?” repeated Tavia.
+“Garry Knapp is nothing to us, and never would
+be.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy said not another word, but turned
+quickly away from her friend. She was very
+quiet while they made ready for their shopping
+trip, and Tavia could not arouse her.</p>
+
+<p>Careless and unobservant as Tavia was, anything
+seriously the matter with her chum always
+influenced her. She gradually “simmered down”
+herself, and when they started forth from their
+rooms both girls were morose.</p>
+
+<p>As they passed through the lobby a bellhop was
+called to the desk, and then he charged after the
+two girls.</p>
+
+<p>“Please, Miss! Which is Miss Dale?” he
+asked, looking at the letter in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy held out her hand and took it. It was
+written on the hotel stationery, and the handwriting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>
+was strange to her. She tore it open at once.
+She read the line or two of the note, and then
+stopped, stunned.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it?” asked Tavia, wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy handed her the note. It was signed
+“G. Knapp” and read as follows:</p>
+<br>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent">
+“Dear Miss Dale:<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>“Did your friend get her bag and money all
+right?”</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII<br>
+<span class="fs80">GARRY SEES A WALL AHEAD</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>“Why, what under the sun! How did <em>he</em> come
+to know about it?” demanded Tavia. “Goodness!”</p>
+
+<p>“He—he maybe—had something to do with
+recovering it for you,” Dorothy said faintly. Yet
+in her heart she knew that it was hope that suggested
+the idea, not reason.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I am going to find out right now,” declared
+Tavia Travers, and she marched back to
+the clerk’s desk before Dorothy could object,
+had she desired to.</p>
+
+<p>“This note to my friend is from Mr. Knapp,
+who is stopping here,” Tavia said to the young
+man behind the counter. “Did he have anything
+to do with getting back my bag?”</p>
+
+<p>“I know nothing about your bag, Miss,” said
+the clerk. “I was not on duty, I presume, when
+it was handed in. You are Miss——”</p>
+
+<p>“Travers.”</p>
+
+<p>The clerk went to the safe and found a memorandum,
+which he read and then returned to the
+desk.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Your supposition is correct, Miss Travers.
+Mr. Knapp handed in the handbag and took a
+receipt for it.”</p>
+
+<p>“When did he do that?” asked Tavia, quickly,
+almost overpowered with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>“Some time during the night. Before I came
+on duty at seven o’clock.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well! isn’t that the strangest thing?” Tavia
+said to Dorothy, when she rejoined her friend at
+the hotel entrance after thanking the clerk.</p>
+
+<p>“How ever could he have got it in the night?”
+murmured Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Say! he’s all right—Garry Knapp is!” Tavia
+cried, shaking the bag to which she now clung so
+tightly, and almost on the verge of doing a few
+“steps of delight” on the public thoroughfare. “I
+could hug him!”</p>
+
+<p>“It—it is very strange,” murmured Dorothy,
+for she was still very much disturbed in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>“It’s particularly jolly,” said Tavia. “And I
+am going to—well, thank him, at least,” as she
+saw her friend start and glance at her admonishingly,
+“just the very first chance I get. But I
+ought to hug him! He deserves <em>some</em> reward.
+You said yourself that perhaps I should
+reward the finder.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Knapp could not possibly have been the
+finder. The bag was merely returned through
+him.” Dorothy spoke positively.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Don’t care. I must be grateful to somebody,”
+wailed Tavia. “Don’t nip my finer feelings
+in the bud. Your name should be Frost—Mademoiselle
+Jacquesette Frost! You’re always
+nipping me.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy, however, remained grave. She
+plainly saw that this incident foretold complications.
+She had made up her mind that she and
+Tavia would have nothing more to do with the
+Westerner, Garry Knapp; and now her friend
+would insist on thanking him—of course, she must
+if only for politeness’ sake—and any further intercourse
+with Mr. Knapp would make the situation
+all the more difficult.</p>
+
+<p>She wished with all her heart that their shopping
+was over, and then she could insist upon taking
+the train immediately out of New York, even
+if she had to sink to the abhorred subterfuge of
+playing ill, and so frightening Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>She wished they might move to some other
+hotel; but if they did that an explanation must
+be made to Aunt Winnie as well as to Tavia. It
+seemed to Dorothy that she blushed all over—fairly
+<em>burned</em>—whenever she thought of discussing
+her feelings regarding Garry Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>Never before in her experience had Dorothy
+Dale been so quickly and so favorably impressed
+by a man. Tavia had joked about it, but she by
+no means understood how deeply Dorothy felt.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span>
+And Dorothy would have been mortified to the
+quick had she been obliged to tell even her dearest
+chum the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy’s home training had been most delicate.
+Of course, in the boarding school she and
+Tavia had attended there were many sorts of
+girls; but all were from good families, and Mrs.
+Pangborn, the preceptress of Glenwood, had had
+a strict oversight over her girls’ moral growth as
+well as over their education.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy’s own cousins, Ned and Nat White,
+though collegians, and of what Tavia called “the
+harum-scarum type” like herself, were clean, upright
+fellows and possessed no low ideas or tastes.
+It seemed to Dorothy for a man to make the acquaintance
+of a strange girl on the street and talk
+with her as Garry Knapp seemed to have done,
+savored of a very coarse mind, indeed.</p>
+
+<p>And all the more did she criticise his action because
+he had taken advantage of the situation of
+herself and her friend and “picked acquaintance”
+in somewhat the same fashion with them on their
+entrance into New York.</p>
+
+<p>He was “that kind.” He went about making
+the acquaintance of every girl he saw who would
+give him a chance to speak to her! That is the
+way it looked to Dorothy in her present mood.</p>
+
+<p>She gave Garry Knapp credit for being a Westerner
+and being not as conservative as Eastern<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>
+folk. She knew that people in the West were
+freer and more easily to become acquainted with
+than Eastern people. But she had set that girl
+down as a common flirt, and she believed no gentleman
+would so easily and naturally fall into conversation
+with her as Garry Knapp had, unless he
+were quite used to making such acquaintances.</p>
+
+<p>It shamed Dorothy, too, to think that the young
+man should go straight from her and Tavia to the
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>That was the thought that made the keenest
+wound in Dorothy Dale’s mind.</p>
+
+<p>They shopped “furiously,” as Tavia declared,
+all the morning, only resting while they ate a bite
+of luncheon in one of the big stores, and then went
+at it again immediately afterward.</p>
+
+<p>“The boys talk about ‘bucking the line’ about
+this time of year—football slang, you know,”
+sighed Tavia; “but believe me! this is some ‘bucking.’
+I never shopped so fast and furiously in all
+my life. Dorothy, you actually act as though you
+wanted to get it all over with and go home. And
+we can stay a week if we like. We’re having no
+fun at all.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy would not answer. She wished they
+could go home. It seemed to her as though New
+York City was not big enough in which to hide
+away from Garry Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>They could not secure seats—not those they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>
+wanted—for the play Ned and Nat had told them
+to see, for that evening; and Tavia insisted upon
+going back to the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>“I am done up,” she announced. “I am a dish-rag.
+I am a disgrace to look at, and I feel that
+if I do not follow Lovely Lucy Larriper’s advice
+and relax, I may be injured for life. Come, Dorothy,
+we must go back to our rooms and lie down,
+or I shall lie right down here in the gutter and do
+my relaxing.”</p>
+
+<p>They returned to the hotel, and Dorothy almost
+ran through the lobby to the elevator, she
+was so afraid that Garry Knapp would be waiting
+there. She felt that he would be watching for
+them. The note he had written her that morning
+proved that he was determined to keep up
+their acquaintanceship if she gave him the slightest
+opening.</p>
+
+<p>“And I’ll never let him—never!” she told herself
+angrily.</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness! how can you hurry so?” plaintively
+panted Tavia, as she sank into the cushioned seat
+in the elevator.</p>
+
+<p>All the time they were resting, Dorothy was
+thinking of Garry. He would surely be downstairs
+at dinner time, waiting his chance to approach
+them. She had a dozen ideas as to how
+she would treat him—and none of them seemed
+good ideas.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p>
+
+<p>She was tempted to write him a note in answer
+to the line he had left with the clerk for her that
+morning, warning him never to speak to her friend
+or herself again. But then, how could she do so
+bold a thing?</p>
+
+<p>Tavia got up at last and began to move about
+her room. “Aren’t you going to get up ever again,
+Doro?” she asked. “Doesn’t the inner man call
+for sustenance? Or even the outer man? I’m just
+crazy to see Garry Knapp and ask him how he
+came by my bag.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia! I wish you wouldn’t,” groaned
+Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Wish I wouldn’t what?” demanded her friend,
+coming to her open door with a hairbrush in her
+hand and wielding it calmly.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy “bit off” what she had intended to
+say. She could not bring herself to tell Tavia all
+that was in her mind. She fell back upon that
+“white fib” that seems first in the feminine mind
+when trouble portends:</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve <em>such</em> a headache!”</p>
+
+<p>“Poor dear!” cried Tavia. “I should think
+you had. You ate scarcely any luncheon——”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, don’t mention eating!” begged Dorothy,
+and she really found she did have a slight headache
+now that she had said so.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t you want your dinner?” cried Tavia,
+in horror.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span></p>
+
+<p>“No, dear. Just let me lie here. You—you
+go down and eat. Perhaps I’ll have something
+light by and by.”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s what the Esquimau said when he ate
+the candle,” said Tavia, but without smiling. It
+was a habit with Tavia, this saying something
+funny when she was thinking of something entirely
+foreign to her remark.</p>
+
+<p>“You’re not going to be sick, are you, Doro?”
+she finally asked.</p>
+
+<p>“No, indeed, my dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well! you’ve acted funny all day.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t feel a bit funny,” groaned Dorothy.
+“Don’t make me talk—now.”</p>
+
+<p>So Tavia, who could be sympathetic when she
+chose, stole away and dressed quietly. She looked
+in at Dorothy when she was ready to go downstairs,
+and as her chum lay with her eyes closed
+Tavia went out without speaking.</p>
+
+<p>Garry Knapp was fidgeting in the lobby when
+Tavia stepped out of the car. His eye brightened—then
+clouded again. Tavia noticed it, and her
+conclusion bore out the thought she had evolved
+about Dorothy upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Mr. Knapp!” she cried, meeting him with
+both hands outstretched. “Tell me! How did you
+find my bag?”</p>
+
+<p>And Garry Knapp was impolite enough to put
+her question aside for the moment while he asked:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Where’s Miss Dale?”</p>
+
+<p>Two hours later Tavia returned to her chum.
+Garry walked out of the hotel with his face heavily
+clouded.</p>
+
+<p>“Just my luck! She’s a regular millionaire.
+Her folks have got more money than I’ll ever
+even <em>see</em> if I beat out old Methuselah in age! And
+Miss Tavia says Miss Dale will be rich in her own
+right. Ah, Garry, old man! There’s a blank
+wall ahead of you. You can’t jump it in a hurry.
+You haven’t got the <em>spring</em>. And this little mess
+of money I may get for the old ranch won’t put
+me in Miss Dorothy Dale’s class—not by a million
+miles!”</p>
+
+<p>He walked away from the hotel, chewing on this
+thought as though it had a very, very bitter taste.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII<br>
+<span class="fs80">AND STILL DOROTHY IS NOT HAPPY</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>“But what did he <em>say</em>?” demanded Dorothy,
+almost wildly, sitting up in bed at Tavia’s first
+announcement. “I want to know what he <em>said</em>!”</p>
+
+<p>“We-ell, maybe he didn’t tell the truth,” said
+Tavia, slowly.</p>
+
+<p>“We’ll find out about that later,” Dorothy declared.
+“Go on.”</p>
+
+<p>“How?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, of course we must hunt up these girls
+and give them something for returning your bag.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! I s’pose so,” Tavia said. “Though I
+guess the little one, Number Forty-seven, wanted
+to keep it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Now, tell me <em>all</em>” breathed Dorothy, her eyes
+shining. “All he said—every word.”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness! I guess your headache is better,
+Doro Dale,” laughed Tavia, sitting down on the
+edge of the bed. Dorothy said not a word, but
+her “listening face” put Tavia on her mettle.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, the very first thing he said,” she told
+her chum, her eyes dancing, “when I ran up to him
+and thanked him for getting my bag, was:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span></p>
+
+<p>“‘Where’s Miss Dale?’</p>
+
+<p>“What do you know about <em>that</em>?” cried Tavia,
+in high glee. “You have made a deep, wide, long,
+and high impression—a four-dimension impression—on
+that young man from the ‘wild and
+woolly.’ Oh yes, you have!”</p>
+
+<p>The faint blush that washed up into Dorothy
+Dale’s face like a gentle wave on the sea-strand
+made her look “ravishing,” so Tavia declared.
+She simply had to stop to hug her friend before
+she went on. Dorothy recovered her serenity almost
+at once.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t tease, dear,” she said. “Go on with
+your story.”</p>
+
+<p>“You see, the little cash-girl—or ‘check’, as they
+call them—picked the bag up off the floor and hid
+it under her apron. Then she was scared—especially
+when Mr. Schuman chanced to come upon
+us all as we were quarreling. I suppose Mr. Schuman
+seems like a god to little Forty-seven.</p>
+
+<p>“Anyhow,” Tavia pursued, “whether the child
+meant to steal the bag or not at first, she was
+afraid to say anything about it then. Her sister—this
+girl who came to the hotel—works in the
+house furnishing department. Before night
+Forty-seven told her sister. She had heard Mr.
+Knapp’s name, and from the shipping clerk the
+big girl obtained the name of the hotel at which
+Mr. Knapp was staying. Do you see?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” breathed Dorothy. “Go on, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, the girl just came here and asked for
+Mr. Knapp and found he was out. She didn’t
+know any better than to linger about outside and
+wait for him to appear—like Mary’s little lamb,
+you know! Little Forty-seven had told her sister
+what Mr. Knapp looked like, of course.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course!” cried Dorothy, agreeing again,
+but in such a tone that Tavia frankly stared at
+her.</p>
+
+<p>“I do wish I knew just what is the matter with
+you to-day, Doro,” she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>“And the rest of it?” demanded Dorothy, her
+eyes shining and her cheeks still pink.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, when little Forty-seven’s sister saw us
+with Mr. Knapp she jumped to the correct conclusion
+that we were the girls who had lost the money,
+and so she was afraid to speak right out before
+us——”</p>
+
+<p>“Why?”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, Dorothy,” said Tavia, with considerable
+gravity for her, “I guess because of the old and
+well-established reason.”</p>
+
+<p>“What’s that?”</p>
+
+<p>“Because a man will be kinder to a girl
+in trouble than other girls will—ordinarily, I
+mean.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!”</p>
+
+<p>“Suppose it had been that Mrs. Halbridge who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>
+had really lost her bag,” Tavia went on to say.
+“If this girl had tried to return it, she and little
+Forty-seven both would have lost their jobs. Perhaps
+the police would have been called in. Do you
+see? I expect the big girl read kindness in Mr.
+Knapp’s face——”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy suddenly threw both arms about
+Tavia, and hugged her tightly. “Oh, you <em>dear</em>!”
+she cried; but she would not explain what she
+meant by this sudden burst of affection.</p>
+
+<p>“Go on!” was her repeated demand.</p>
+
+<p>“You are insatiable, my dear,” laughed Tavia.
+“Well, there isn’t much more ‘go on’ to it. The
+girl spoke to him when he passed her on the street
+and quickly told him all the story. Of course, he
+promised that nothing should happen to either of
+them. They are honest girls—the older one at
+least. And the temptation came so suddenly to
+little Forty-seven, whose wages are so pitiably
+small.”</p>
+
+<p>“I know,” said Dorothy, gently. “You remember,
+we learned something about it when little
+Miette De Pleau told us how she worked as cash-girl
+here years ago.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I remember,” Tavia said. “Well,
+that’s all, I guess. Oh no! I asked Mr. Knapp
+if he didn’t notice the big girl staring at us as we
+got to the hotel door last night. And what do
+you suppose he said?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span></p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know,” and Dorothy was still smiling
+happily.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, he said he didn’t. ‘You see,’ he added,
+in that funny way of his, ‘I expect my eyes were
+elsewhere’; and he wasn’t complimenting me,
+either,” added Tavia, rolling her big eyes.
+“Whom do you suppose he could have meant he
+was looking at, Doro?”</p>
+
+<p>Her friend ignored the question, but hopped
+out of bed.</p>
+
+<p>“What are you going to do?” asked Tavia, in
+wonder.</p>
+
+<p>“Dress.”</p>
+
+<p>“But it is nine o’clock! Almost bedtime.”</p>
+
+<p>“<em>Bedtime?</em>” demanded Dorothy. “And in the
+city? Why, Tavia! you amaze me, child!”</p>
+
+<p>“But you’re not going out?” cried her friend.</p>
+
+<p>“Do you realize I haven’t had a bite of dinner?”
+demanded the bold Dorothy. “I think you
+are very selfish.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, anyway,” snapped Tavia, suddenly
+showing her claws—and who does not once in a
+while?—“<em>he’s</em> gone out for a long walk and he expects
+to finish his business to-morrow and go
+home.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” gasped Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>She sat on the edge of her bed with her first
+stocking in her hand. Tavia had gone back into
+her own room. Had she been present she must<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span>
+have noticed all the delight fading out of Dorothy
+Dale’s countenance. Finally, the latter tossed
+away the stocking, and crept back into bed.</p>
+
+<p>“I—I guess I’m too lazy to dress after all,
+dear,” she said, in a still little voice. “And you
+are tired, too, Tavia. The telephone has been
+fixed; just call down, will you, and ask them to
+send me up some tea and toast?”</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX<br>
+<span class="fs80">THEY SEE GARRY’S BACK</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following day Dorothy was her old
+cheerful self—or so Tavia thought. They did not
+shop with such abandon, but took matters more
+easily. And they returned to the hotel for luncheon
+and for rest.</p>
+
+<p>“But he isn’t here!” Tavia exclaimed, when
+they entered the big restaurant for the midday
+meal. “And I remember now he said last evening
+that he would probably be down town almost all
+day to-day—trying to sell that property of his,
+you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Who, dear?” asked Dorothy, with a far-away
+look on her face.</p>
+
+<p>“Peleg Swift!” snapped Tavia. “You know
+very well of whom I am talking. Garry Owen!”
+and she hummed a few bars of the old, old march.</p>
+
+<p>Garry certainly was not present; but Dorothy
+still smiled. They went out again and purchased
+a few more things. When they returned late in
+the afternoon the young Westerner was visible in
+the lobby the moment the girls came through the
+doorway.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span></p>
+
+<p>But he was busy. He did not even see them.
+He was talking with two men of pronounced New
+York business type who might have been brokers
+or Wall Street men. All three sat on a lounge
+near the elevators, and Dorothy heard one of the
+strangers say crisply, as she and Tavia waited for
+a car:</p>
+
+<p>“That’s our top price, I think, Mr. Knapp.
+And, of course, we cannot pay you any money
+until I have seen the land, save the hundred for
+the option. I shall be out in a fortnight, I believe.
+It must hang fire until then, even at this
+price.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, Mr. Stiffbold—it’s a bet!” Garry said,
+and Dorothy could imagine the secret sigh he
+breathed. Evidently, he was not getting the price
+for the wornout ranch that he had hoped.</p>
+
+<p>The two girls went up in the elevator and later
+made their dinner toilet. To-night Dorothy was
+the one who took the most pains in her primping;
+but Tavia said never a word. Nevertheless, she
+“looked volumes.”</p>
+
+<p>They were downstairs again not much later
+than half past six. Not a sign of Garry Knapp
+either in the lobby or in the dining-room. The
+girls ate their dinner slowly and “lived in hopes,”
+as Tavia expressed it.</p>
+
+<p>Both were frankly hoping Garry would appear.
+Tavia was grateful to him for the part he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span>
+had taken in the recovery of her bag; and, too,
+he was “nice.” Dorothy felt that she had misjudged
+the young Westerner, and she was fired
+with a desire to be particularly pleasant to him so
+as to salve over her secret compunctions of conscience.</p>
+
+<p>“‘He cometh not, she said,’” Tavia complained.
+“What’s the matter with the boy, anyway?
+Can he be eating in the cafê with those two
+men?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!” suddenly exclaimed Dorothy.
+“You said he was going home to-day.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—ah—yes. He did say he expected to get
+out for the West again some time to-day——”</p>
+
+<p>“Maybe he’s go-o-one!” and Dorothy’s phrase
+was almost a wail.</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness! Never! Without looking us up
+and saying a word of good-bye?”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy got up with determination. “I am going
+to find out,” she said. “I feel that I would
+like to see Mr. Knapp again.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well! if <em>I</em> said a thing like that about a young
+man——”</p>
+
+<p>However, Tavia let the remark trail off into silence
+and followed her chum. As they came out
+of the dining-room the broad shoulders and broad-brimmed
+hat of Garry Knapp were going through
+the street door!</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” gasped Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span></p>
+
+<p>“He’s going!” added Tavia, stricken quite as
+motionless.</p>
+
+<p>“Going——”</p>
+
+<p>“Gone!” ended Tavia, sepulchrally. “It’s all
+off, Dorothy. Garry Knapp, of Desert City, has
+departed.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, we must stop him—speak to him——”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy started for the door and Tavia, nothing
+loath, followed at a sharp pace. Just as they
+came out into the open street a car stopped before
+the hotel door and Garry Knapp, “bag and
+baggage” stepped aboard. He did not even look
+back!</p>
+
+<p>As the girls returned to the hotel lobby the two
+men with whom they had seen Garry Knapp earlier
+in the evening, were passing out. They lingered
+while one of the men lit his cigar, and Dorothy
+heard the second man speaking.</p>
+
+<p>“I could have paid him spot cash for the land
+right here and been sure of a bargain, Lightly. I
+know just where it is and all about it. But it will
+do no harm to let the thing hang fire till I get out
+there. Perhaps, if I’m not too eager, I can get
+him to knock off a few dollars per acre. The boy
+wants to sell—that’s sure.”</p>
+
+<p>“Uh-huh!” grunted the one with the cigar. “It’ll
+make a tidy piece of wheat land without doubt,
+Stiffbold. You go for it!”</p>
+
+<p>They passed out then and the girl who had listened<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span>
+followed her friend slowly to the elevator,
+deep in thought. She said not a word until they
+were upstairs again. Perhaps her heart was really
+too full just then for utterance.</p>
+
+<p>As they entered Dorothy’s room the girls saw
+that the maid had been in during their absence at
+dinner. There was a long box, unmistakably a
+florist’s box, on the table.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, see what’s here!” cried Tavia, springing
+forward.</p>
+
+<p>The card on the box read: “Miss Dale.”</p>
+
+<p>“For you!” cried Tavia. “What meaneth it,
+fair Lady Dorothy? Hast thou made a conquest
+already? Some sweet swain——”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t believe you know what a ‘sweet swain’
+is,” laughed Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>Her fingers trembled as she untied the purple
+cord. Tavia asked, with increased curiosity:</p>
+
+<p>“Who can they be from, Doro? Flowers, of
+course!”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy said nothing in reply; but in her heart
+she knew—she knew! The cord was untied at
+last, the tissue paper, all fragrant and dewy, lifted.</p>
+
+<p>“Why!” said Tavia, rather in disappointment
+and doubt. “Not roses—or chrysanthemums—or—or——”</p>
+
+<p>“Or anything foolish!” finished Dorothy,
+firmly.</p>
+
+<p>She lifted from their bed of damp moss a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span>
+bouquet of the simplest old-fashioned flowers;
+mignonette, and several long-stemmed, dewy violets
+and buttercups, pansies, forget-me-nots——</p>
+
+<p>“He must have been robbing all the old-fashioned
+gardens around New York,” said Tavia.
+“But that’s a lovely ribbon—and yards of it.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy did not speak at first. The cost of
+the gift meant nothing to her. Yet she knew that
+the monetary value of such a bouquet in New
+York must be far above what was ordinarily paid
+for roses and the like.</p>
+
+<p>A note was nestling in the stems. She opened
+it and read:</p>
+<br>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent">
+“Dear Miss Dale:<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>“Was mighty sorry to hear you are still in retirement.
+Your friend said last evening that you
+were quite done-up. Now I am forced to leave
+in a hurry without seeing you. Sent bellhop up to
+your room and he reports ‘no answer.’</p>
+
+<p>“But, without seeming too bold, will hope that
+we shall meet again—and that these few flowers
+will be a reminder of</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span style="padding-right: 2em">“Faithfully and regretfully yours,</span><br>
+“<span class="smcap">G. Knapp</span>.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X<br>
+<span class="fs80">“HEART DISEASE”</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>After one passes the railroad station at The
+Beeches, and before reaching the town limits of
+North Birchland, the traveler sees a gray road
+following closely the railway tracks, sometimes divided
+from them by rail-fences, sometimes by a
+ditch, and sometimes the railway roadbed is high
+on a bank overlooking the highway.</p>
+
+<p>For several miles the road grades downward—not
+a sharp grade, but a steady one—and so does
+the railroad. At the foot of the slope the highway
+keeps straight on over a bridge that spans the
+deep and boisterous creek; but a fork of the road
+turns abruptly and crosses the railroad at grade.</p>
+
+<p>There is no flagman at this grade crossing,
+nor is there a drop-gate. Just a “Stop, Look, Listen”
+sign—two words of which are unnecessary, as
+some philosopher has pointed out. There had
+been some serious accidents at this crossing; but
+thus far the railroad company had found it cheaper
+to pay court damages than to pay a flagman and
+the upkeep of a proper gate on both sides of its
+right-of-way.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span></p>
+
+<p>When they came in sight of the down-hill part
+of the road Dorothy Dale and Tavia Travers
+knew it was time to begin to put on their wraps
+and take down their bags. The North Birchland
+station would soon be in sight.</p>
+
+<p>It was Dorothy who first stood up to reach for
+her bag. As she did so she glanced through the
+broad window, out upon the highway.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!” she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>“What’s the matter, dear? You don’t see
+Garry Knapp, do you? Maybe his buying those
+flowers—that ‘parting blessing’—‘busted’ him and
+he’s got to walk home clear to Desert City.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be a goose!” half laughed Dorothy.
+“Look out. See if you see what I see.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Doro! it’s Joe and Roger I do believe!”</p>
+
+<p>“I was sure it was,” returned her friend. “What
+can those boys be doing now?”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, what they are doing seems plain
+enough,” said Tavia. “What they are going to
+do is the moot question, my dear. You never
+know what a boy will do next, or what he did last;
+you’re only sure of what he is doing just now.”</p>
+
+<p>What the young brothers of Dorothy Dale were
+doing at that moment was easily explained. They
+were riding down the long slope of the gray road
+toward North Birchland, racing with the train
+Dorothy and Tavia were on. The vehicle upon
+which the boys were riding was a nondescript thing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span>
+composed of a long plank, four wheels, a steering
+arrangement of more or less dependence, and a
+soap box.</p>
+
+<p>In the soap box was a bag, and unless the girls
+were greatly mistaken Joe and Roger Dale had
+been nutting over toward The Beeches, and the
+bag was filled with hickory nuts and chestnuts in
+their shells and burrs.</p>
+
+<p>Roger, who was the youngest, and whom Dorothy
+continued to look upon as a baby, occupied the
+box with the nuts. Joe, who was fifteen, straddled
+the plank with his feet on the rests and steered.
+The boys’ vehicle was going like the wind. It
+looked as though a small stone in the road, or an
+uncertain jerk by Joe on the steering lines, would
+throw the contraption on which they rode sideways
+and dump out the boys.</p>
+
+<p>“Enough to give one heart disease,” said Tavia.
+“I declare! small brothers are a nuisance. When
+I’m at home in Dalton I have to wear blinders so
+as not to see <em>my</em> kid brothers at their antics.”</p>
+
+<p>“If something should happen, Tavia!” murmured
+Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Something is always happening. But not often
+is it something bad,” said Tavia, coolly.
+“‘There’s a swate little cherub that sits up aloft,
+and kapes out an eye for poor Jack,’ as the Irish
+tar says. And there is a similar cherub looking
+out for small boys—or a special providence.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span></p>
+
+<p>The train was now high on the embankment
+over the roadway. The two boys sliding down
+the hill looked very small, indeed, below the car
+windows.</p>
+
+<p>“Suppose a wagon should start up the hill,”
+murmured Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“There’s none in sight. I never saw the road
+more deserted—oh, Doro!”</p>
+
+<p>Tavia uttered this cry before she thought. She
+had looked far ahead to the foot of the hill and
+had seen something that her friend had not yet
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it?” gasped Dorothy, whose gaze was
+still fixed upon her brothers.</p>
+
+<p>“My dear! The bridge!”</p>
+
+<p>The words burst from Tavia involuntarily.
+She could not keep them in.</p>
+
+<p>At the foot of the hill the road forked as has
+before been shown. To the left it crossed the railroad
+tracks at grade. Of course, these reckless
+boys had not intended to try for the crossing ahead
+of the train. But the main road, which kept
+straight on beside the tracks, crossed the creek
+on a wooden bridge. Tavia, looking ahead, saw
+that the bridge boards were up and there was a
+rough fence built across the main road!</p>
+
+<p>“They’ll be killed!” screamed Dorothy Dale,
+and sank back into her chair.</p>
+
+<p>The train was now pitching down the grade.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span>
+It was still a mile to the foot of the slope where
+railroad and highway were on a level again. The
+boys in their little “scooter” were traveling faster
+than the train itself, for the brakes had been applied
+when the descent was begun.</p>
+
+<p>The boys and their vehicle, surrounded by a
+little halo of dust, were now far ahead of the
+chair car in which their sister and Tavia rode.
+The girls, clinging to each other, craned their
+necks to see ahead. There were not many other
+passengers in the car and nobody chanced to notice
+the horror-stricken girls.</p>
+
+<p>It was a race between the boys and the train,
+and the boys would never be able to halt their
+vehicle on the level at the bottom of the hill before
+crashing into the fence that guarded the open
+bridge.</p>
+
+<p>Were the barrier not there, the little cart would
+dart over the edge of the masonry wall of the
+bridge and all be dashed into the deep and rock-strewn
+bed of the creek.</p>
+
+<p>There was but one escape for the boys in any
+event. Perhaps their vehicle could be guided to
+the left, into the branch road and so across the
+railroad track. But if Joe undertook that would
+not the train be upon them?</p>
+
+<p>“Heart disease,” indeed! It seemed to Dorothy
+Dale as though her own heart pounded so
+that she could no longer breathe. Her eyes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>
+strained to see the imperiled boys down in the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>The “scooter” ran faster and faster or was the
+train itself slowing down?</p>
+
+<p>“For sure and certain they are beating us!”
+murmured Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>She could appreciate the sporting chance in the
+race; but to Dorothy there loomed up nothing but
+the peril facing her brothers.</p>
+
+<p>The railroad tracks pitched rather sharply here.
+It was quite a descent into the valley where North
+Birchland lay. When the engineers of the passenger
+trains had any time to make up running
+west they could always regain schedule on this
+slope.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy knew this. She realized that the engineer,
+watching the track ahead and not the roadway
+where the boys were, might be tempted to
+release his brakes when half way down the slope
+and increase his speed.</p>
+
+<p>If he did so and the boys, Joe and Roger,
+turned to cross the rails, the train must crash into
+the “scooter.”</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI<br>
+<span class="fs80">A BOLD THING TO DO!</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The threatening peril—which looked so sure
+to Dorothy Dale if to nobody else—inspired her
+to act, not to remain stunned and helpless. She
+jerked her hand from Tavia’s clutch and sprang
+to her feet. She had been reaching for her bag
+on first observing the boys coasting down the long
+hill beside the railroad tracks; and her umbrella
+was in the rack, too. She seized this. Its handle
+was a shepherd’s crook. Reaching with it, and
+without a word to Tavia, she hooked the handle
+into the emergency cord that ran overhead the
+length of the car, and pulled down sharply. Instantly
+there was a shriek from the engine whistle
+and the brakes were sharply applied.</p>
+
+<p>The brake shoes so suddenly applied to the
+wheels on this downgrade did much harm to the
+wheels themselves. Little cared Dorothy for this
+well-known fact. If every wheel under the train
+had to go to the repair shop she would have made
+this bold attempt to stop the train or retard its
+speed, so that Joe and Roger could cross the
+tracks ahead of it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span></p>
+
+<p>Glancing through the window she saw the boys’
+“scooter” dart swiftly and safely into the fork-road
+and disappear some rods ahead of the pilot
+of the engine. The boys were across before the
+brakeman and the Pullman conductor opened the
+car door and rushed in.</p>
+
+<p>“Who pulled that emergency cord? Anybody
+here?” shouted the conductor.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! don’t tell him!” breathed Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>But her friend, if physically afraid, was never
+a moral coward. She looked straight into the
+angry conductor’s face and said:</p>
+
+<p>“I did.”</p>
+
+<p>“What for?” he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>“To stop the train. My brothers were in danger——”</p>
+
+<p>“Say! What’s that?” demanded the Pullman
+conductor of Tavia. “Where are her brothers?”</p>
+
+<p>The brakeman, who had long run over this road,
+pulled at the conductor’s sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>“That’s Major Dale’s girl,” he whispered, and
+Tavia heard if Dorothy did not.</p>
+
+<p>“Who’s Major Dale?” asked the conductor, in
+a low voice, turning aside. “Somebody on the
+road?”</p>
+
+<p>“Owns stock in it all right. And a bigwig
+around North Birchland. Go easy, I say,” advised
+the brakeman, immediately turning back to
+the door.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span></p>
+
+<p>The train, meanwhile, had started on again,
+for undoubtedly the other conductor had given
+the engineer the signal to go ahead. Through the
+window across the car Dorothy could see out upon
+the road beyond the tracks. There was the little
+“scooter” at a standstill. Joe and Roger were
+standing up and waving their caps at the train.</p>
+
+<p>“They’re safe!” Dorothy cried to Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“I see they are; but you’re not—yet,” returned
+her chum.</p>
+
+<p>“Who’s that is safe?” asked the conductor, still
+in doubt.</p>
+
+<p>“My brothers—there,” answered Dorothy,
+pointing. “They had to cross in front of the train
+because the bridge is open. They couldn’t stop at
+the bottom of the hill.”</p>
+
+<p>The Pullman conductor understood at last.
+“But I’ll have to make a report of this, Miss
+Dale,” he said, complainingly.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy had seated herself and she was very
+pale. The fright for her at least had been serious.</p>
+
+<p>“Make a dozen reports if you like—help yourself,”
+said Tavia, tartly, bending over her friend.
+“If there is anything to pay send the bill to Major
+Dale.”</p>
+
+<p>The conductor grumbled something and went
+out, notebook in hand. In a few moments the
+train came to a standstill at the North Birchland<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span>
+station. The girls had to bestir themselves to get
+out in season, and that helped rouse Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Those rascals!” said Tavia, once they were
+on the platform. “Joe and Roger should be
+spanked.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m afraid Joe is too big for that,” sighed
+Dorothy. “And who would spank them? It is
+something they didn’t get when they were little——”</p>
+
+<p>“And see the result!”</p>
+
+<p>“Your brothers were whipped sufficiently, I am
+sure,” Dorothy said, smiling at length. “They are
+not one whit better than Joe and Roger.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me! that’s so,” admitted Tavia. “But
+just the same, I belieev in whippings—for boys.”</p>
+
+<p>“And no whippings for girls?”</p>
+
+<p>“I should say not!” cried Tavia. “There never
+<em>was</em> a girl who deserved corporal punishment.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not even Nita Brandt?” suggested Dorothy,
+naming a girl who had ever been a thorn in the
+flesh for Tavia during their days at Glenwood.</p>
+
+<p>“Well—perhaps <em>she</em>. But Nita’s about the
+only one, I guess.”</p>
+
+<p>The next moment Tavia started to run down
+the long platform, dropping her bag and screaming:</p>
+
+<p>“Jennie Hapgood! Jennie Jane Jemina Jerusha
+Happiness—<em>good</em>! How ever came you
+here?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span></p>
+
+<p>Dorothy was excited, too, when she saw the
+pretty girl whom Tavia greeted with such ebullition;
+but she looked beyond Jennie Hapgood, the
+expected guest from Pennsylvania.</p>
+
+<p>There was the boys’ new car beside the station
+platform and Ned was under the steering-wheel
+while Nat was just getting out after Jennie. Of
+course, the two girls just back from New York
+were warmly kissed by Jennie. Then Nat came
+next and before Tavia realized what was being
+done to her, she was soundly kissed, too!</p>
+
+<p>“Bold, bad thing!” she cried, raising a gloved
+hand toward the laughing Nat. But it never
+reached him. Then Dorothy had to submit—as
+she always did—to the bearlike hugs of both her
+cousins, for Ned quickly joined them on the platform.
+Tavia escaped Ned—if, indeed, he had intended
+to follow his brother’s example.</p>
+
+<p>“What is the use of having a pretty cousin,”
+the White boys always said, “if we can’t kiss her?
+Keeps our hands in, you know. And if she has
+pretty friends, why shouldn’t we kiss them, too?”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you boys kiss Jennie when she arrived this
+morning?” Tavia demanded, repairing the ruffled
+hair that had fallen over her ears.</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly!” declared Nat, boldly. “Both of
+us.”</p>
+
+<p>“They never!” cried Jennie, turning very red.
+“You know I wouldn’t let these boys kiss me.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span></p>
+
+<p>“I bet a boy kissed you the last thing before
+you started up here from home,” teased Nat.</p>
+
+<p>“I <em>never</em> let boys kiss me,” repeated Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, no!” drawled Ned, joining in with his
+brother. “How about Jack?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, well, <em>Jack</em>!”</p>
+
+<p>“Jack isn’t a boy, I suppose?” hooted Nat. “I
+guess that girl he’s going to marry about Christmas
+time thinks he’s a pretty nice boy.”</p>
+
+<p>“But he’s only my brother,” announced Jennie
+Hapgood, tossing her head.</p>
+
+<p>“Is he really?” cried Tavia, clasping her hands
+eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>“Is he really my brother?” demanded Jennie,
+in amazement. “Why, you <em>know</em> he is, Tavia
+Travers!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, no! I mean are they going to be married
+at Christmas?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. That is the plan now. And you’ve all
+got to come to Sunnyside to the wedding. Nothing
+less would suit Jack—or father and mother,”
+Jennie said happily. “So prepare accordingly.”</p>
+
+<p>Nat raced with Tavia for the bag she had
+dropped. He got it and clung to it all the way
+in the car to The Cedars, threatening to open it
+and examine its contents.</p>
+
+<p>“For I know very well that Tavia’s got oodles
+of new face powder and rouge, and a rabbit’s foot
+to put it on with—or else a kalsomine brush,” Nat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span>
+declared. “Joe and Roger want to paint the old
+pigeon house, anyway, and this stuff Tavia’s got
+in here will be just the thing.”</p>
+
+<p>In fact, the two big fellows were so glad to see
+their cousin and Tavia again that they teased
+worse than ever. A queer way to show their affection,
+but a boy’s way, after all. And, of course,
+everybody else at the Cedars was delighted to
+greet Dorothy and Tavia. It was some time before
+the returned travelers could run upstairs to
+change their dresses for dinner. Jennie had gone
+into her room to change, too, and Tavia came to
+Dorothy’s open door.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, that letter!” she exclaimed, seeing Dorothy
+standing very gravely with a letter in her
+hand. “Haven’t you sent it?”</p>
+
+<p>“You see I haven’t,” Dorothy said seriously.</p>
+
+<p>“But why not?”</p>
+
+<p>“It seems such a bold thing to do,” confessed
+her friend. “We know so little about him. And
+it might encourage him to write in return——”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course it will!” laughed Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“There! that’s what I mean. It is bold.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, you silly!” cried Tavia. “You only write
+Mr. Knapp to do him a good turn. And he did
+us a good turn—at least, he did <em>me</em> one that I shall
+never forget.”</p>
+
+<p>“True,” Dorothy said thoughtfully. “And I
+have only repeated to him in this note what I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span>
+heard that man, Stiffbold, say about the purchase
+of Mr. Knapp’s ranch.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, help the poor fellow out. Those men will
+rob him,” Tavia advised. “Why didn’t you send
+it at once, when you had written it?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I thought I’d wait and consult Aunt Winnie,”
+stammered Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Then consult her.”</p>
+
+<p>“But—but <em>now</em> I don’t want to.”</p>
+
+<p>Tavia looked at her with certainty in her own
+gaze. “I know what is the matter with you,” she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy flushed quickly and Tavia shook her
+head, saying nothing more. But when the girls
+went downstairs to dinner, Tavia saw Dorothy
+drop the stamped letter addressed to “Mr. Garford
+Knapp, Desert City,” into the mail bag in the
+hall.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII<br>
+<span class="fs80">UNCERTAINTIES</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dorothy had no time before dinner, but after
+that meal she seized upon her brothers, Joe and
+Roger, and led them aside. The boys thought she
+had something nice for them, brought from New
+York. They very quickly found out their mistake.</p>
+
+<p>“I want to know what you boys mean by taking
+such risks as you did this afternoon?” she demanded,
+when out of hearing of the rest of the
+family. She would not have her aunt or the major
+troubled by knowing of the escapade.</p>
+
+<p>“You, especially, Joe,” she went on, with an accusing
+finger raised. “You both might have been
+killed. <em>Then</em> how would you have felt?”</p>
+
+<p>“Er—dead, I guess, Sister,” admitted Roger,
+for Joe was silent.</p>
+
+<p>“Didn’t you know the road was closed because
+of repairs on the bridge?” she asked the older
+boy sternly.</p>
+
+<p>“No-o. We forgot. We didn’t go over to
+the nutting woods that way. Say! who told you?”
+blurted out Joe.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Who told me what?”</p>
+
+<p>“About our race with the train. Cricky, but
+it was great!”</p>
+
+<p>“It was fine!” Roger added his testimony with
+equal enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>“I saw you,” said Dorothy, her face paling as
+she remembered her fright in the train. “I—I
+thought I should faint I was so frightened.”</p>
+
+<p>“Say! isn’t that just like a girl?” grumbled Joe;
+but he looked at his sister with some compunction,
+for he and Roger almost worshipped her.
+Only, of course, they were boys and the usual
+boy cannot understand the fluttering terror in the
+usual girl’s heart when danger threatens. Not
+that Dorothy was a weakling in any way; she could
+be courageous for herself. But her fears were
+always excited when those she loved were in peril.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, we were only having fun, Sister,” Roger
+blurted out. Being considerably younger than his
+brother he was quicker to be moved by Dorothy’s
+expression of feeling.</p>
+
+<p>“Fun!” she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” Joe said sturdily. “It was a great race.
+And you and Tavia were in that train? We
+didn’t have an idea, did we, Roger?”</p>
+
+<p>“Nop,” said his small brother thoughtlessly.
+“If we had we wouldn’t have raced <em>that</em> train.”</p>
+
+<p>“Now, I want to tell you something!” exclaimed
+their sister, with a sharper note in her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span>
+voice. “You’re not to race <em>any</em> train! Understand,
+boys? Suppose that engine had struck you
+as you crossed the tracks?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it wouldn’t,” Joe said stoutly. “I know
+the engineer. He’s a friend of mine. He saw
+I had the ‘right-of-way,’ as they call it. I’d beat
+him down the hill; so he held up the train.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes—he held up the train,” said Dorothy with
+a queer little laugh. “He put on brakes because I
+pulled the emergency cord. You boys would never
+have crossed ahead of that train if I hadn’t done
+so.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Dorothy!” gasped Joe.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Sister!” cried Roger.</p>
+
+<p>“Tavia and I almost had heart disease,” the
+young woman told them seriously. “Engineers
+do not watch boys on country roads when they
+are guiding a great express train. It is a serious
+matter to control a train and to have the destinies
+of the passengers in one’s hands. The engineer is
+looking ahead—watching the rails and the roadbed.
+Remember that, boys.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’d like to be an engineer!” sighed Roger, his
+eyes big with longing.</p>
+
+<p>“Pooh!” Joe said. “It’s more fun to drive an
+automobile—like this new one Ned and Nat have.
+You don’t have to stay on the tracks, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Nobody but cautious people can learn to drive
+automobiles,” said Dorothy, seriously.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span></p>
+
+<p>“I’m big enough,” stated Joe, with conviction.</p>
+
+<p>“You may be. But you’re not careful enough,”
+his sister told him. “Your racing our train to-day
+showed that. Now, I won’t tell father or
+auntie, for I do not wish to worry them. But you
+must promise me not to ride down that hill in
+your little wagon any more or enter into any such
+reckless sports.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, we won’t, of course, if you say not, Dorothy,”
+sniffed Joe. “But you must remember we’re
+boys and boys have got to take chances. Even
+father says that.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. When you are grown. You may be
+placed in situations where your courage will be
+tested. But, goodness me!” finished Dorothy
+Dale. “Don’t scare us to death, boys. And now
+see what I bought you in New York.”</p>
+
+<p>However, her lecture made some impression
+upon the boys’ minds despite their excitement over
+the presents which were now brought to light.
+Full football outfits for both the present was, and
+Joe and Roger were delighted. They wanted to
+put them on and go out at once with the ball to
+“pass signals,” dark as it had become.</p>
+
+<p>However, they compromised on this at Dorothy’s
+advice, by taking the suits, pads and guards
+off to their room and trying them on, coming downstairs
+later to “show off” before the folks in the
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span></p>
+
+<p>Major Dale was one of those men who never
+grow old in their hearts. Crippled as he was—both
+by his wounded leg and by rheumatism—he
+delighted to see the young life about him, and
+took as much interest in the affairs of the young
+people as ever he had.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Winnie looked a very interesting invalid,
+indeed, with her lame ankle, and rested on the
+couch. The big boys and Dorothy and her friends
+always made much of Aunt Winnie in any case;
+now that she was “laid up in drydock,” as Nat expressed
+it, they were especially attentive.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie and Tavia, with the two older boys,
+spent most of the evening hovering about the
+lady’s couch, or at the piano where they played
+and sang college songs and old Briarwood songs,
+till eleven o’clock. Dorothy sat between her
+father and Aunt Winnie and talked to them.</p>
+
+<p>“What makes you so sober, Captain?” the
+major asked during the evening. He had always
+called her “his little captain” and sometimes
+seemed really to forget that she had any other
+name.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m all right, Major,” she returned brightly.
+“I have to think, sometimes, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“What is the serious problem now, Dorothy?”
+asked her aunt, with a little laugh. “Did you forget
+to buy something while you were in New
+York?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p>
+
+<p>Dorothy dimpled. “Wait till you see all I did
+buy,” she responded, “and you will not ask that
+question. I have been the most reckless person!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why the serious pucker to your brow, Captain?”
+went on the major.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I have problems. I admit the fact,” Dorothy
+said, trying to laugh off their questioning.</p>
+
+<p>“Out with them,” advised her father. “Here
+are two old folks who have been solving problems
+all their lives. Maybe we can help.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy laughed again. “Try this one,” she
+said, with her eyes upon the quartette “harmonizing”
+at the piano in dulcet tones, singing “Seeing
+Nellie Ho-o-ome.” “Which of our big boys does
+Tavia like best?”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness!” exclaimed her aunt, while the
+major chuckled mellowly. “Don’t you know,
+really, Dorothy? I was going to ask <em>you</em>. I
+thought, of course, Tavia confided everything to
+you.”</p>
+
+<p>“Sooner or later she may,” the young woman
+said, still with the thoughtful air upon her. “But
+I am as much in the dark about this query as anybody—perhaps
+as the boys themselves.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph!” muttered the major. “Which of
+them likes <em>her</em> the better?”</p>
+
+<p>“And <em>that</em> I’d like to know,” said his sister
+earnestly. “There is another thing, Dorothy:
+Which of my sons is destined to fall in love with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span>
+this very, very pretty girl you have invited here—Jennie
+Hapgood, I mean?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! they’re all doing it, are they?” grunted
+the major. “How about our Dorothy? Where
+does she come in? No mate for her?”</p>
+
+<p>“I think I shall probably become an old maid,”
+Dorothy Dale said, but with a conscious flush that
+made her aunt watch her in a puzzled way for
+some time.</p>
+
+<p>But the major put back his head and laughed
+delightedly. “No more chance of your remaining
+a spinster—when you are really old enough
+to be called one—than there is of my leading
+troops into battle again,” he declared with
+warmth. “Hey, Sister?”</p>
+
+<p>“Our Dorothy is too attractive I am sure to
+escape the chance to marry, at least,” said Aunt
+Winnie, still watching her niece with clouded gaze.
+“I wonder whence the right knight will come riding—from
+north, or south, east or west?”</p>
+
+<p>And in spite of herself Dorothy flushed up
+again at her aunt’s last word.</p>
+
+<p>It was a question oft-repeated in Dorothy
+Dale’s mind during the following days, this one
+regarding the state of mind of her two cousins
+and her two school friends.</p>
+
+<p>It had always seemed to Dorothy, whenever
+she had thought of it, that one of her cousins,
+either Ned or Nat, must in the end be preferred<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span>
+by Tavia. To think of Tavia’s really settling
+down to caring for any other man than Ned or
+Nat, was quite impossible.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the boys had both shown a
+great fondness for the society of Jennie Hapgood
+when they were all at her home in Pennsylvania
+such a short time previous; and now that all four
+were together again Dorothy could not guess
+“which was which” as Tavia herself would have
+said.</p>
+
+<p>The boys did not allow Dorothy to be overlooked
+in any particular. She was not neglected
+in the least; yet she did, as the days passed, find
+more time to spend with her father and with her
+Aunt Winnie.</p>
+
+<p>“The little captain is getting more thoughtful.
+She is steadying down,” the major told Mrs.
+White.</p>
+
+<p>“But I wonder <em>why</em>?” was that good woman’s
+puzzled response.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy Dale sitting by herself with a book
+that she was not reading or with fancywork on
+which she only occasionally took stitches, was entirely
+out of her character. She had never been
+this way before going to New York, Mrs. White
+was sure.</p>
+
+<p>There were several uncertainties upon the girl’s
+mind. One of them almost came to light when,
+after ten days, her letter addressed to “Mr. Garford<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span>
+Knapp, Desert City,” was returned to her
+by the post-office department, as instructed in the
+upper left-hand corner of the envelope.</p>
+
+<p>Her letter, warning Garry Knapp of the advantage
+the real estate men wished to take of him,
+would, after all, do him no good. He would
+never know that she had written. Perhaps her
+path and Garry Knapp’s would never cross again.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII<br>
+<span class="fs80">DOROTHY MAKES A DISCOVERY</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The boys had a dog—Old Brindle he was
+called—and he had just enough bull in him to
+make him a faithful friend and a good watchdog.
+But, of course, he was of little use in the woods,
+and Joe and Roger were always begging for a
+hunting dog.</p>
+
+<p>“We’ve got these now—pump-rifles,” Roger
+said eagerly to Dorothy, whom he thought able
+to accomplish any wonder she might undertake.
+“They shoot fifty shots. Think of it, Sister!
+That’s a lot. And father taught us how to use
+’em long ago, of course. Just think! I could
+stand right up and shoot down fifty people—just
+like that.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Roger!” gasped Dorothy. “Don’t say
+such awful things.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I wouldn’t, you know; but I could,” the
+boy said confidently. “Now the law is off rabbits
+and partridges and quail. Joe and I saw lots
+of ’em when we went after those nuts the other
+day. If we’d had our guns along maybe we might
+have shot some.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span></p>
+
+<p>“The poor little birds and the cunning little
+rabbits,” said Dorothy with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! they’re not like our pigeons and our tame
+rabbits. These are real <em>wild</em>. If some of ’em
+weren’t shot they’d breed an’ breed till there were
+so many that maybe it wouldn’t be safe to go out
+into the woods,” declared the small boy, whose
+imagination never needed spurring.</p>
+
+<p>Joe came up on the porch in time to hear this
+last. He chuckled, but Dorothy was saying to
+Roger:</p>
+
+<p>“How foolish, dear! Who ever heard of a
+rabbit being cross?”</p>
+
+<p>“Just the same I guess you’ve heard of being
+as ‘mad as a March hare,’ haven’t you?” demanded
+Joe, his eyes twinkling. “And we <em>do</em> want
+a bird dog, Sis, to jump a rabbit for us, or to
+flush a flock of quail.”</p>
+
+<p>“Those dear little bobwhites,” Dorothy sighed
+again. “Why is it that boys want always to kill?”</p>
+
+<p>“So’s to eat,” Joe said bluntly. “You know
+yourself, Dorothy Dale, that you like partridge
+on toast and rabbit stew.”</p>
+
+<p>She laughed at them. “I shall go hungry, then,
+I’m afraid, as far as you boys are concerned.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course we can’t get any game if we don’t
+have a dog. Brindle couldn’t jump a flea,”
+growled Joe.</p>
+
+<p>“Say! the big fellows used to have lots more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>
+pets than we’ve got,” complained Roger, referring
+to Ned and Nat.</p>
+
+<p>“<em>They</em> had dogs,” added Joe. “A whole raft
+of ’em.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, dear me!” exclaimed Dorothy. “I’ll see
+what can be done. But another dog!”</p>
+
+<p>“We won’t let him bite you, Sister,” proclaimed
+Roger. “We only want him to chase rabbits or
+to start up the birds so we can shoot ’em.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy’s “I’ll see” was, of course, taken by
+the boys themselves as an out-and-out agreement
+to do as the boys desired. They were convinced
+that if she gave her mind to it their sister could
+perform almost any miracle. At least, she could
+always bring the rest of the family around to her
+way of thinking.</p>
+
+<p>Ned and Nat had opposed the bringing of another
+dog upon the place. They were fond of
+old Brindle; but it must be confessed that the
+watchdog was bad tempered where other dogs
+were concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Brindle seldom went off the place; but if he
+saw any other dog trespassing he was very apt to
+fly at the uninvited visitor. And once the bull’s
+teeth were clinched in the strange animal’s neck,
+it took a hot iron to make him loose his hold.</p>
+
+<p>There had been several such unfortunate happenings,
+and Mrs. White had paid several owners
+of dogs damages rather than have trouble<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span>
+with the neighbors. She—and even the major—had
+strong objections to the coming of any other
+dog upon the place as long as Brindle lived.</p>
+
+<p>So the chance for Joe and Roger to have their
+request granted was small indeed. Nevertheless,
+“hope springs eternal,” especially in the breast of
+a small boy who wants a dog.</p>
+
+<p>“Maybe we can find somebody that’s got a good,
+trained dog and will sell him to us, Roger,” Joe
+said, as they set forth from the house.</p>
+
+<p>“But I haven’t got much money—only what’s
+in the bank, and I can’t get that,” complained
+Roger.</p>
+
+<p>“You spend all you get for candy,” scoffed Joe.
+“Now, <em>I’ve</em> got a whole half dollar left of my
+month’s spending money. But you can’t buy much
+of a dog for fifty cents.”</p>
+
+<p>“Maybe somebody would give us a dog.”</p>
+
+<p>“And folks don’t give away good dogs, either,”
+grumbled Joe.</p>
+
+<p>“I tell you!” exclaimed Roger, suddenly. “I
+saw a stray dog yesterday going down the lane
+behind our stables.”</p>
+
+<p>“How do you know it was a stray dog?”</p>
+
+<p>“’Cause it <em>looked</em> so. It was sneaking along
+at the edge of the hedge and it was tired looking.
+Then, it had a piece of frayed rope tied around
+its neck. Oh, it was a stray dog all right,” declared
+the smaller boy eagerly.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Where’d it go to?”</p>
+
+<p>“Under Mr. Cummerford’s barn,” said Roger.
+“I bet we could coax it out, if it’s still there.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not likely,” grunted Joe.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, he started off at once in the direction
+indicated by his brother, and the boys were
+soon at the stable of the neighbor whose place adjoined
+The Cedars on that side.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, the dog was still there. He had
+crawled out and lay in the sun beside the barn.
+He was emaciated, his eyes were red and rolling,
+and he had a lame front paw. The gray, frayed
+rope was still tied to his neck. He was a regular
+tramp dog.</p>
+
+<p>But he allowed the boys to come close to him
+without making any attempt to get away. He
+eyed them closely, but neither growled nor wagged
+his tail. He was a “funny acting” dog, as Roger
+said.</p>
+
+<p>“I bet he hasn’t had anything to eat for so long
+and he’s come so far that he hasn’t got the spunk
+to wag his tail,” Joe said, as eager as Roger now.
+“We’ll take him home and feed him.”</p>
+
+<p>“He’s sure a stray dog, isn’t he, Joe?” cried
+the smaller boy. “I haven’t ever seen him before
+around here, have you?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. And I bet his owner won’t ever come
+after him,” said Joe, picking up the end of the
+rope. “He’s just the kind of a dog we want, too.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span>
+You see, he’s a bird dog, or something like that.
+And when he’s fed up and rested, I bet he’ll know
+just how to go after partridges.”</p>
+
+<p>He urged the strange dog to his feet. The
+beast tottered, and would have lain down again.
+Roger, the tender-hearted, said:</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! he’s so hungry. Bet he hasn’t had a
+thing to eat for days. Maybe we’ll have to carry
+him.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. He’s too dirty to carry,” Joe said, looking
+at the mud caked upon the long hair of the
+poor creature and the dust upon him. “We’ll get
+him to the stable and feed him; then we’ll hose
+him off.”</p>
+
+<p>Pulling at the rope he urged the dog on. The
+animal staggered at first, but finally grew firmer
+on his legs. But he did not use the injured fore
+paw. He favored that as he hopped along to the
+White stables. Neither the coachman nor the
+chauffeur were about. There was nobody to observe
+the dog or advise the boys about the beast.
+Roger ran to the kitchen door to beg some scraps
+for their new possession. The cook would always
+give Roger what he asked for. When he
+came back Joe got a pan of water for the dog;
+but the creature backed away from it and whined—the
+first sound he had made.</p>
+
+<p>“Say! isn’t that funny?” Joe demanded. “See!
+he won’t drink. You’d think he’d be thirsty.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Try him with this meat,” Roger said.
+“Maybe he’s too hungry to drink at first.”</p>
+
+<p>The dog was undoubtedly starving. Yet he
+turned his head away from the broken pieces of
+food Roger put down before his nose.</p>
+
+<p>Joe had tied the rope to a ring on the side of
+the stable. The boys stepped back to see if the
+dog would eat or drink if they were not so close
+to him. Then it was that the creature flew into
+an awful spasm. He rose up, his eyes rolling,
+trembling in every limb, and trying to break the
+rope that fastened him to the barn. Froth flew
+from his clashing jaws. His teeth were terrible
+fangs. He fell, rolling over, snapping at the
+water-dish. The boys, even Joe, ran screaming
+from the spot.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment Dorothy, Tavia and Jennie came
+walking down the path toward the stables. They
+heard the boys scream and all three started to
+run. Ned and Nat, nearer the house, saw the
+girls running and they likewise bounded down the
+sloping lawn.</p>
+
+<p>Around the corner of the stables came Joe and
+Roger, the former almost dragging the smaller
+boy by the hand. And, almost at the same instant,
+appeared the dog, the broken rope trailing, bounding,
+snapping, rolling over, acting as insanely as
+ever a dog acted.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! what’s the matter?” cried Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Keep away from that dog!” shrieked Tavia,
+stopping short and seizing both Dorothy and Jennie.
+“He’s mad!”</p>
+
+<p>The dog was blindly running, this way and
+that, the foam dripping from his clashing jaws.
+He was, indeed, a most fearful sight. He had no
+real intention in his savage charges, for a beast
+so afflicted with rabies loses eyesight as well as
+sense; but suddenly he bounded directly for the
+three girls.</p>
+
+<p>They all shrieked in alarm, even Dorothy. Yet
+the latter the better held her self-possession than
+the others. She heard Jennie scream: “Oh, Ned!”
+while Tavia cried: “Oh, Nat!”</p>
+
+<p>The young men were at the spot in a moment.
+Nat had picked up a croquet mallet and one good
+blow laid the poor dog out—harmless forever
+more.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia had seized the rescuer’s arm, Jennie was
+clinging to Ned. Dorothy, awake at last to the
+facts of the situation, made a great discovery—and
+almost laughed, serious as the peril had been.</p>
+
+<p>“I believe I know which is which now,” she
+thought, forgetting her alarm.</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p108" style="max-width: 40.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p108.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">SUDDENLY HE BOUNDED DIRECTLY FOR THE THREE GIRLS.</p>
+
+<div>
+ <p class="fs80" style="float: left;"><em>Dorothy Dale’s Engagement</em></p>
+ <p class="fs80" style="float: right;"><em>Page <a href="#Page_108">108</a></em></p>
+</div>
+<div style="clear:both;"></div>
+</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span>
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV<br>
+<span class="fs80">TAVIA IS DETERMINED</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>“After that scare I’m afraid the boys will have
+to go without a bird dog,” Tavia said that night
+as she and Dorothy were brushing their hair before
+the latter’s dressing-glass.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia and Jennie and Ned and Nat were almost
+inseparable during the daytime; but when the
+time came to retire the flyaway girl had to have
+an old-time “confab,” as she expressed it, with
+her chum.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy was so bright and so busy all day long
+that nobody discovered—not even the major—that
+she was rather “out of it.” The two couples
+of young folk sometimes ran away and left Dorothy
+busy at some domestic task in which she
+claimed to find much more interest than in the
+fun her friends and cousins were having.</p>
+
+<p>“It would have been a terrible thing if the poor
+dog had bitten one of us,” Dorothy replied. “Dr.
+Agnew, the veterinary, says without doubt it was
+afflicted with rabies.”</p>
+
+<p>“And how scared your Aunt Winnie was!”
+Then Tavia began to giggle. “She will be so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span>
+afraid of anything that barks now, that she’ll
+want all the trees cut down around the house.”</p>
+
+<p>“That pun is unworthy of you, my dear,” Dorothy
+said placidly.</p>
+
+<p>“Dear me, Doro Doodlekins!” exclaimed
+Tavia, suddenly and affectionately, coming close
+to her chum and kissing her warmly. “You are
+such a tabby-cat all of a sudden. Why! <em>you</em> have
+grown up, while the rest of us are only kids.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes; I am very settled,” observed Dorothy,
+smiling into the mirror at her friend. “A cap for
+me and knitting very soon, Tavia. Then I shall
+sit in the chimney corner and think——”</p>
+
+<p>“Think about whom, my dear?” Tavia asked
+saucily. “That Garry Knapp, I bet.”</p>
+
+<p>“I wouldn’t <em>bet</em>,” sighed Dorothy. “It isn’t
+ladylike.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—de-ah—me!” groaned Tavia. “You are
+thinking of him just the same.”</p>
+
+<p>“I happened to be just now,” admitted Dorothy,
+and without blushing this time.</p>
+
+<p>“No! were you really?” demanded Tavia, eagerly.
+“Isn’t it funny he doesn’t write?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. Not at all.”</p>
+
+<p>“But you’d think he would write and thank you
+for your letter if nothing more,” urged the argumentative
+Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said Dorothy again.</p>
+
+<p>“Why not?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Because Mr. Knapp never got my letter,”
+Dorothy said, opening her bureau drawer and pulling
+the letter out from under some things laid
+there. “See. It was returned to-day.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Dorothy!” gasped Tavia, both startled
+and troubled.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. It—it didn’t reach him somehow,”
+Dorothy said, and she could not keep the trouble
+entirely out of her voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my <em>dear</em>!” repeated Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“And I am sorry,” her friend went on to say;
+“for now he will not know about the intentions of
+those men, Stiffbold and Lightly.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, goodness! it serves him right,” exclaimed
+Tavia, suddenly. “He didn’t give us his right address.”</p>
+
+<p>“He gave us no address,” said Dorothy, sadly.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes! he said Desert City——”</p>
+
+<p>“He mentioned that place and said that his land
+was somewhere near there. But he works on a
+ranch, which, perhaps, is a long way from Desert
+City.”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s so,” grumbled Tavia. “I forgot he’s
+only a cowboy.”</p>
+
+<p>At this Dorothy flushed a little and Tavia,
+looking at her sideways and eagerly, noted the
+flush. Her eyes danced for a moment, for the girl
+was naturally chock-full of mischief.</p>
+
+<p>But in a moment the expression of Tavia Travers’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span>
+face changed. Dorothy was pensively gazing
+in the glass; she had halted in her hair brushing,
+and Tavia knew that her chum neither saw her
+own reflection nor anything else pictured in the
+mirror. The mirror of her mind held Dorothy’s
+attention, and Tavia could easily guess the vision
+there. A tall, broad-shouldered, broad-hatted
+young man with a frank and handsome face and
+a ready smile that dimpled one bronzed cheek ever
+so little and wrinkled the outer corners of his clear,
+far-seeing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Garry Knapp!</p>
+
+<p>Tavia for the first time realized that Dorothy
+had found interest and evidently a deep and abiding
+interest, in the young stranger from Desert
+City. It rather shocked her. Dorothy, of all
+persons, to become so very deeply interested in a
+man about whom they knew practically nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia suddenly realized that she knew more
+about him than Dorothy did. At least, she had
+been with Garry Knapp more than had her friend.
+It was Tavia who had had the two hours’ tête-à-tête
+with the Westerner at dinner on the evening
+before Garry Knapp departed so suddenly for the
+West. All that happened and was said at that
+dinner suddenly unrolled like a panorama before
+Tavia’s memory.</p>
+
+<p>Why! she could picture it all plainly. She had
+been highly delighted herself in the recovery of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span>
+her bag and in listening to Garry’s story of how
+it had been returned by the cash-girl’s sister. And,
+of course, she had been pleased to be dining alone
+with a fine looking young man in a hotel dining-room.
+She had rattled on when her turn came to
+talk, just as irresponsibly as usual.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in thinking over the occasion, she realized
+that the young man from the West had been
+a shrewd questioner. He had got her started
+upon Dorothy Dale, and before they came to the
+little cups of black coffee Tavia had told just about
+all she knew regarding her chum.</p>
+
+<p>The reader may be sure that all Tavia said was
+to Dorothy’s glory. She had little need to explain
+to Garry Knapp what a beautiful character Dorothy
+Dale possessed. Tavia had told about Dorothy’s
+family, her Aunt Winnie’s wealth, the fortunes
+Major Dale now possessed both in the East
+and West, and the fact that when Dorothy came
+of age, at twenty-one, she would be wealthy in her
+own right. She had said all this to a young man
+who was struggling along as a cowpuncher on a
+Western ranch, and whose patrimony was a piece
+of rundown land that he could sell but for a
+song, as he admitted himself. “And no chorus
+to it!” Tavia thought.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m a bonehead!” she suddenly thought
+fiercely. “Nat would say my noodle is solid ivory.
+I know now what was the matter with Garry<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span>
+Knapp that evening. I know why he rushed up
+to me and asked for Dorothy, and was what the
+novelists call ‘distrait’ during our dinner. Oh,
+what a worm I am! A miserable, squirmy worm!
+Ugh!” and the conscience-stricken girl fairly shuddered
+at her own reflection in the mirror and
+turned away quickly so that Dorothy should not
+see her features.</p>
+
+<p>“It’s—it’s the most <em>wonderful</em> thing. And it
+began right under my nose, my poor little ‘re-trousered’
+nose, as Joe called it the other day, and I
+didn’t really see it! I thought it was just a fancy
+on Dorothy’s part! And I never thought of
+Garry Knapp’s side of it at all! Oh, my heaven!”
+groaned Tavia, deep in her own soul. “Why
+wasn’t I born with some good sense instead of
+good looks? I—I’ve spoiled my chum’s life, perhaps.
+Goodness! it can’t be so bad as that.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, Garry Knapp is just the sort of
+fellow who would raise a barrier of Dorothy’s
+riches between them. Goodness me!” added the
+practical Tavia, “I’d like to see any barrier of
+wealth stop <em>me</em> if I wanted a man. I’d shin the
+wall in a hurry so as to be on the same side of it
+as he was.”</p>
+
+<p>She would have laughed at this fancy had she
+not taken a look at Dorothy’s face again.</p>
+
+<p>“Good-night!” she shouted into her chum’s ear,
+hugged her tight, kissed her loudly, and ran away<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span>
+into her own room. Once there, she cried all the
+time she was disrobing, getting into her lacy nightgown,
+and pulling down the bedclothes.</p>
+
+<p>Then she did not immediately go to bed. Instead,
+she tiptoed back to the connecting door and
+closed it softly. She turned on the hanging electric
+light over the desk.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll do it!” she said, with determined mien.
+“I’ll write to Lance Petterby.” And she did so.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV<br>
+<span class="fs80">THE SLIDE ON SNAKE HILL</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Joe and Roger marched down at an early breakfast
+hour from the upper regions of the big white
+house, singing energetically if not melodiously a
+pæan of joy:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“‘The frog he would a-wooing go——</div>
+    <div class="verse indent4">Bully for you! Bully for all!</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">The frog he would a-wooing go——</div>
+    <div class="verse indent4">Bully for all, we say!’”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>The boys’ determination to reach the low register
+of a bullfrog in that “bully for all” line was
+very, very funny, especially in Roger’s case, for
+his speaking voice was naturally a shrill treble.</p>
+
+<p>Their joy, however, awoke any sleepers there
+might have been in the house, and most of them
+came to their bedroom doors and peered out.</p>
+
+<p>“What’s the matter with you blamed little rascals?”
+Ned, in a purple bathrobe, demanded.</p>
+
+<p>“Wouldn’t you boys just as lief sing as to make
+that noise?” Nat, in a gray robe, and at his door,
+questioned.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span></p>
+
+<p>But he grinned at his small cousins, for it hadn’t
+been so long ago that he was just as much of a
+boy as they were.</p>
+
+<p>“Hello, kids!” cried Tavia, sticking out a tousled
+head from her room. “Tell us: What’s the
+good news?”</p>
+
+<p>Jennie Hapgood peered out for an instant, saw
+Ned and Nat, and darted back with an exclamatory
+“Oh!”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I thought something had happened,” she
+faintly said, closing her door all but a crack.</p>
+
+<p>“Something has,” declared Joe.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it, boys?” asked Dorothy, appearing
+fully dressed from her room. “The ice?”</p>
+
+<p>“What ice?” demanded Tavia. “Has the iceman
+come so early? Tell him to leave a big ten-cent
+piece.”</p>
+
+<p>“Huh!” grunted Roger, “there’s a whole lot
+more than a ten-cent piece outside, and you’d see
+it if you’d put up your shade. The whole world’s
+ice-covered.”</p>
+
+<p>“So it is,” Joe agreed.</p>
+
+<p>“There was rain last evening, you know,” Dorothy
+said, starting down the lower flight of stairs
+briskly. “And then it turned very cold. Everything
+is sheathed in ice out-of-doors. Doesn’t the
+warm air from the registers feel nice? I <em>do</em> love
+dry heat, even if it is more expensive.”</p>
+
+<p>“Bully!” roared Nat, who had darted back to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span>
+run up the shade at one of the windows in his
+room. “Look out, girls! it’s great.”</p>
+
+<p>Every twig on every bush and tree and every
+fence rail and post were covered with glistening
+ice. The sun, just rising red and rosy as though
+he had but now come from a vigorous morning
+bath, threw his rays in profusion over this fairy
+world and made a most spectacular scene for the
+young people to look out upon. In an hour all of
+them were out of doors to enjoy the spectacle in
+a “close up,” as Tavia called it.</p>
+
+<p>“And we all ought to have spectacles!” she exclaimed
+a little later. “This glare is blinding, and
+we’ll all have blinky, squinty eyes by night.”</p>
+
+<p>“Automobile goggles—for all hands!” exclaimed
+Nat. “They’re all smoked glasses, too.
+I’ll get ’em,” and he started for the garage.</p>
+
+<p>“But no automobile to-day,” laughed Jennie.
+“Think of the skidding on this sheet of ice.” For
+the ground was sheathed by Jack Frost, as well
+as the trees and bushes and fences.</p>
+
+<p>Joe and Roger, well wrapped up, were just
+starting from the back door and Dorothy hailed
+them:</p>
+
+<p>“Where away, my hearties? Ahoy!”</p>
+
+<p>“Aw—we’re just going sliding,” said Roger,
+stuttering.</p>
+
+<p>“Where?” demanded the determined older sister.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Snake Hill,” said Joe, shortly. He loved
+Dorothy; but this having girls “butting in” all the
+time frayed his manly patience.</p>
+
+<p>“Take care and don’t get hurt, boys!” called
+Tavia, roguishly, knowing well that the sisterly advice
+was on the tip of Dorothy’s tongue and that
+it would infuriate the small boys.</p>
+
+<p>“Aw, you——”</p>
+
+<p>Joe did not get any farther, for Nat in passing
+gave him a look. But he shrugged his shoulders
+and went on with Roger without replying to
+Tavia’s advice.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, what fun!” cried Jennie Hapgood, suddenly.
+“Couldn’t <em>we</em> go coasting?”</p>
+
+<p>“Sure we could,” Ned agreed instantly. Lately
+he seemed to agree with anything Jennie said and
+that without question.</p>
+
+<p>“Tobogganing—oh, my!” cried Tavia, quick
+to seize upon a new scheme for excitement and fun.
+Then she turned suddenly serious and added: “If
+Dorothy will go. Not otherwise.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy laughed at her openly. “Why not,
+Tavia?” she demanded. “Are you afraid to trust
+the boys unless I’m along? I know they are
+awful cut-ups.”</p>
+
+<p>“I feel that Jennie and I should be more carefully
+chaperoned,” Tavia declared with serious
+lips but twinkling eyes.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! <em>Oh!</em> OH!” in crescendo from Nat, returning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span>
+in time to hear this. “Who needs a ‘bag
+o’ bones’——Excuse me! ‘Chaperon,’ I mean?
+What’s afoot?”</p>
+
+<p>Just then he slipped on the glare ice at the foot
+of the porch steps and went down with a crash.</p>
+
+<p>“You’re not, old man,” cried Ned as the girls
+squealed. “I hope you have your shock-absorbers
+on. That was a jim-dandy!”</p>
+
+<p>“Did—did it hurt you, Nat?” begged Tavia,
+with clasped hands.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh-ugh!” grunted Nat, gingerly arising and
+examining the handful of goggles he carried to
+see if they were all right. “Every bone in my
+body is broken. Gee! that was some smash.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do it again, dear,” Ned teased. “Your
+mother didn’t happen to see you and she’s at the
+window now.”</p>
+
+<p>“Aw, you go fish!” retorted the younger
+brother, for his dignity was hurt if nothing else.
+“Wish it had been you.”</p>
+
+<p>“So do I,” sighed Ned. “I’d have done it so
+much more gracefully. You see, practice in the
+tango and foxtrot, not to mention other and more
+intricate dance steps, <em>does</em> help one. And you
+never would give proper attention to your dancing,
+Sonny.”</p>
+
+<p>“Here!” threatened Nat. “I’ll dance one of
+my fists off your ear——”</p>
+
+<p>“I shall have to part you boys,” broke in Dorothy.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span>
+“Threatening each other with corporal punishment—and
+before the ladies.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why,” declared Ned, hugging his brother in
+a bearlike hug as Nat reached his level on the
+porch. “He can beat me to death if he likes, the
+dear little thing! Come on, ’Thaniel. What do
+you say to giving the girls a slide?”</p>
+
+<p>“Heh?” ejaculated Nat. “What do you want
+to let ’em slide for? Got sick of ’em so quick?
+Where are your manners?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Ned!” groaned Tavia. “Don’t you want
+us hanging around any more?”</p>
+
+<p>“I am surprised at Mr. Edward,” Jennie joined
+in.</p>
+
+<p>“Gee, Edward,” said Nat, grinning, “but you
+do put your foot in your mouth every time you
+open it.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy laughed at them all, but made no comment.
+Despite her late seriousness she was jolly
+enough when she was one of the party. And she
+agreed to be one to-day.</p>
+
+<p>It was decided to get out Nat’s old “double-ripper,”
+see that it was all right, and at once start
+for Snake Hill, where the smaller boys had already
+gone.</p>
+
+<p>“For this sun is going to melt the ice a good
+deal by noon. Of course, it will be only a short
+cold snap this time of year,” Dorothy said, with
+her usual practical sense.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span></p>
+
+<p>They were some time in setting out, and it was
+not because the girls “prinked,” as Tavia pointed
+out.</p>
+
+<p>“I’d have you know we have been waiting five
+whole minutes,” she proclaimed when Ned and
+Nat drew the long, rusty-ironed, double-ripper sled
+out of the barn. “For once you boys cannot complain.”</p>
+
+<p>“Those kids had been trying to use this big sled,
+I declare,” Nat said. “And I had to find a couple
+of new bolts. Don’t want to break down on the
+hill and spill you girls.”</p>
+
+<p>“That would be spilling the beans for fair,”
+Ned put in. “Oh, beg pardon! Be-ings, I mean.
+Get aboard, beautiful beings, and we’ll drag you
+to the foot of the hill.”</p>
+
+<p>They went on down the back road and into the
+woods with much merriment. The foot of Snake
+Hill was a mile and a half from The Cedars.
+Part of the hill was rough and wild, and there
+was not a farm upon its side anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>“I wonder where the kids are making their
+slide?” said Tavia, easily.</p>
+
+<p>“That’s why I am glad we came this way,”
+Dorothy confessed. “They might be tempted to
+slide down on this steep side, instead of going
+over to the Washington Village road. <em>That’s</em>
+smooth.”</p>
+
+<p>“Trust the boys for finding the most dangerous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span>
+place,” Jennie Hapgood remarked. “I never
+saw their like.”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s because you only have an older
+brother,” said Dorothy, wisely. “He was past
+his reckless age while you were still in pinafores
+and pigtails.”</p>
+
+<p>“Reckless age!” scoffed Tavia. “When does
+a boy or a man ever cease to be reckless?”</p>
+
+<p>“Right-oh!” agreed Nat, looking back along the
+towline of the sled. “See how he forever puts
+himself within the danger zone of pretty girls.
+Gee! but Ned and I are a reckless team! What
+say, Neddie?”</p>
+
+<p>“I say do your share of the pulling,” returned
+his brother. “Those girls are no feather-weights,
+and this is up hill.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, to be so insulted!” murmured Tavia.
+“To accuse us of bearing extra flesh about with us
+when we all follow Lovely Lucy Larriper’s directions,
+given in the <cite>Evening Bazoo</cite>. Not a pound
+of the superfluous do we carry.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dorothy’s getting chunky,” announced Nat,
+wickedly.</p>
+
+<p>“You’re another!” cried Tavia, standing up for
+her chum. “Her lovely curves are to be praised—oh!”</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the young men ran the runners
+on one side of the sled over an ice-covered stump,
+and the girls all joined in Tavia’s scream. If there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span>
+had not been handholds they would all three have
+been ignominiously dumped off.</p>
+
+<p>“Pardon, ladies! Watch your step!” Ned said.
+“And don’t get us confused with your ‘beauty-talks’
+business. Besides, it isn’t really modest. I always
+blush myself when I inadvertently turn over
+to the woman’s page of the evening paper. It is
+a delicate place for mere man to tread.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hooray!” ejaculated his brother, making a
+false step himself just then. “Wish I had creepers
+on. <em>This</em> is a mighty delicate place for a fellow
+to tread, too, my boy.”</p>
+
+<p>In fact, they soon had to order the girls off the
+sled. The way was becoming too steep and the
+side of the hill was just as slick as the highway
+had been.</p>
+
+<p>With much laughter and not a few terrified
+“squawks,” to quote Tavia, the girls scrambled
+up the slope after the boys and the sled. Suddenly
+piercing screams came from above them.</p>
+
+<p>“Those rascals!” ejaculated Ned.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! they <em>are</em> sliding on this side,” cried Dorothy.
+“Stop them, Ned! Please, Nat!”</p>
+
+<p>“What do you expect us to do?” demanded the
+latter. “Run out and catch ’em with our bare
+hands?”</p>
+
+<p>They had come to a break in the path now and
+could see out over the sloping pasture in which
+the boys had been sliding for an hour. Their sled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span>
+had worked a plain path down the hill; but at the
+foot of it was an abrupt drop over the side of a
+gully. Dorothy Dale—and her cousins, too—knew
+that gully very well. There was a cave in
+it, and in and about that cave they had once had
+some very exciting adventures.</p>
+
+<p>Joe and Roger had selected the smoothest part
+of the pasture to coast in, it was true; but the
+party of young folk just arrived could see that it
+was a very dangerous place as well. At the foot
+of the slide was a little bank overhanging the
+gully. The smaller boys had been stopping their
+sled right on the brink, and with a jolt, for the
+watchers could see Joe’s heelprints in the ground
+where the ice had been broken away.</p>
+
+<p>They could hear the boys screaming out a school
+song at the top of the hill. Ned and Nat roared
+a command to Joe and Roger to halt in their mad
+career; but the two smaller boys were making so
+much noise that it was evident their cousins’ shout
+was not heard by them.</p>
+
+<p>They came down, Joe sitting ahead on the sled
+with his brother hanging on behind, the feet of the
+boy sitting in front thrust out to halt the sled.
+But if the sled should jump over the barrier, the
+two reckless boys would fall twenty feet to the
+bottom of the gully.</p>
+
+<p>“Stop them, do!” groaned Jennie Hapgood,
+who was a timid girl.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was Dorothy who looked again at the little
+mound on the edge of gully’s bank. The frost
+had got into the earth there, for it had been freezing
+weather for several days before the ice storm
+of the previous night. Now the sun was shining
+full on the spot, and she could see where the boys’
+feet, colliding with that lump of earth on the verge
+of the declivity, had knocked off the ice and bared
+the earth completely. There was, too, a long
+crack along the edge of the slight precipice.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, boys!” she called to Ned and Nat, who
+were struggling up the hill once more, “stop them,
+do! You must! That bank is crumbling away.
+If they come smashing down upon it again they
+may go over the brink, sled and all!”</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI<br>
+<span class="fs80">THE FLY IN THE AMBER</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>“Oh, Dorothy!” cried Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie, with a shudder, buried her face in her
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>Joe and Roger Dale were fairly flying down the
+hill, and would endeavor to stop by collision with
+the same lump of frozen earth that had previously
+been their bulwark.</p>
+
+<p>“See! Ned! Nat!” cried Dorothy again. “We
+must stop them!”</p>
+
+<p>But how stop the boys already rushing down
+hill on their coaster? It seemed an impossible
+feat.</p>
+
+<p>The White brothers dropped the towline of the
+big sled and scrambled along the slippery slope
+toward the edge of the gully.</p>
+
+<p>With a whoop of delight the two smaller boys,
+on their red coaster, whisked past the girls.</p>
+
+<p>“Stop them!” shrieked the three in chorus.</p>
+
+<p>Ned reached the edge of the gully bank first.
+His weight upon the cracking earth sent the slight
+barrier crashing over the brink. Just as they had
+supposed there was not a possible chance of Joe’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span>
+stopping the sled when it came down to this perilous
+spot.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia groaned and wrung her hands. Jennie
+burst out crying. Dorothy knew she could not
+help, yet she staggered after Ned and Nat, unable
+to remain inactive like the other girls.</p>
+
+<p>Ned recovered himself from the slippery edge
+of the bank; but by a hair’s breadth only was he
+saved from being thrown to the bottom of the
+gully. He crossed the slide in a bound and
+whirled swiftly, gesturing to his brother to stay
+back. Nat understood and stopped abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>“You grab Roger—I’ll take Joe!” panted Ned.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the smaller boys on the sled rushed
+down upon them. Fortunately, the steeper part
+of the hill ended some rods back from the gully’s
+edge. But the momentum the coaster had gained
+brought it and its burden of surprised and yelling
+boys at a very swift pace, indeed, down to the
+point where Ned and Nat stood bracing themselves
+upon the icy ground.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, boys!” shrieked Tavia, without understanding
+what Ned and Nat hoped to accomplish.
+“<em>Do something!</em>”</p>
+
+<p>And the very next instant they did!</p>
+
+<p>The coaster came shooting down to the verge
+of the gully bank. Joe Dale saw that the bank
+had given way and he could not stop the sled.
+Nor did he dare try to swerve it to one side.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span></p>
+
+<p>Ned and Nat, staring at the imperilled coasters,
+saw the look of fear come into Joe’s face.
+Ned shouted:</p>
+
+<p>“Let go all holds! We’ll grab you! Quick!”</p>
+
+<p>Joe was a quick-minded boy after all. He was
+holding the steering lines. Roger was clinging to
+his shoulders. If Joe dropped the lines, both boys
+would be free of the sled.</p>
+
+<p>That is what he did. Ned swooped and
+grabbed Joe. Nat seized upon the shrieking and
+surprised Roger. The sled darted out from beneath
+the two boys and shot over the verge of the
+bank, landing below in the gully with a crash
+among the icy branches of a tree.</p>
+
+<p>“Wha—what did you do that for?” Roger demanded
+of Nat, as the latter set him firmly on his
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>“Just for instance, kid,” growled Nat. “We
+ought to have let you both go.”</p>
+
+<p>“And I guess we would if it hadn’t been for
+Dorothy,” added Ned, rising from where he had
+fallen with Joe on top of him.</p>
+
+<p>“Cracky!” gasped Joe. “We’d have gone
+straight over that bank that time, wouldn’t we?
+Gee, Roger! we’d have broken our necks!”</p>
+
+<p>Even Roger was impressed by this stated fact.
+“Oh, Dorothy!” he cried, “isn’t it lucky you happened
+along, so’s to tell Ned and Nat what to do?
+I wouldn’t care to have a broken neck.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span></p>
+
+<p>“You are very right, kid,” growled Nat. “It’s
+Dorothy ‘as does it’—always. She is the observant
+little lady who puts us wise to every danger.
+‘Who ran to catch me when I fell?’ My cousin!”</p>
+
+<p>“Hold your horses, son,” advised his brother,
+with seriousness. “It was Dorothy who smelled
+out the danger all right.”</p>
+
+<p>“I do delight in the metaphors you boys use,”
+broke in Dorothy. “I might be a beagle-hound,
+according to Ned. ‘Smelled out,’ indeed!”</p>
+
+<p>“Aren’t you horrid?” sighed Jennie, for they
+were all toiling up the hill again.</p>
+
+<p>Ned put the cup of his hand under Jennie’s
+elbow and helped her over a particularly glary
+spot. “Boys are very good folk,” he said, smiling
+down into her pretty face, “if you take them just
+right. But they are explosive, of course.”</p>
+
+<p>Nat, likewise helping to drag the big sled, was
+walking beside Tavia. Dorothy looked from one
+couple to the other, smiled, and then found that
+her eyes were misty.</p>
+
+<p>“Why!” she gasped under her breath, “I believe
+I am getting to be a sour old maid. I am
+jealous!”</p>
+
+<p>She turned her attention to the smaller boys and
+they all went gaily up the hill. Nobody was going
+to discover that Dorothy Dale felt blue—not if
+she could possibly help it!</p>
+
+<p>Over on the other side of the hill where the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span>
+smooth road lay the party had a wonderfully invigorating
+coasting time. They all piled upon the
+double-ripper—Joe and Roger, too—and after
+the first two or three slides, the runners became
+freed of rust and the heavy sled fairly flew.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! this is great—great!” cried Tavia. “It’s
+just like flying. I always did want to fly up into
+the blue empyrean——”</p>
+
+<p>They were then resting at the top of the hill.
+Nat turned over on his back upon the sled,
+struggled with all four limbs, and uttered a soul-searching:
+“Woof! woof! Ow-row-row! Woof!”</p>
+
+<p>“Get up, silly!” ordered Tavia. “Whenever I
+have any flight of fancy <em>you</em> always make it fall
+flat.”</p>
+
+<p>“And if you tried a literal flight into the empyrean—ugh!—you’d
+fall flat without any help,”
+declared Nat. “But we don’t want you to fly
+away from us, Tavia. We couldn’t get along
+without you.”</p>
+
+<p>“‘Thank you, kindly, sir, she said,’” responded
+his gay little friend.</p>
+
+<p>However, Tavia and Nat could be serious on
+occasion. This very day as the party tramped
+home to luncheon, dragging the sleds, having recovered
+the one from the gully, they walked apart,
+and Dorothy noted they were preoccupied. But
+then, so were Ned and Jennie. Dorothy’s eyes
+danced now. She had recovered her poise.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span></p>
+
+<p>“It’s great fun,” she whispered to her aunt,
+when they were back in the house. “Watching
+people who are pairing off, I mean. I know ‘which
+is which’ all right now. And I guess you do, too,
+Aunt Winnie?”</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. White nodded and smiled. There was
+nothing to fear regarding this intimacy between
+her big sons and Dorothy’s pretty friends. Indeed,
+she could wish for no better thing to happen
+than that Ned and Nat should become interested
+in Tavia and Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>“But you, my dear?” she asked Dorothy, slyly.
+“Hadn’t we better be finding somebody for you
+to walk and talk with?”</p>
+
+<p>“I must play chaperon,” declared Dorothy,
+gaily. “No, no! I am going to be an old maid,
+I tell you, Auntie dear.” And to herself she
+added: “But never a sour, disagreeable, jealous
+one! Never <em>that</em>!”</p>
+
+<p>Not that in secret Dorothy did not have many
+heavy thoughts when she remembered Garry
+Knapp or anything connected with him.</p>
+
+<p>“We must send those poor girls some Christmas
+remembrances,” Dorothy said to Tavia, and
+Tavia understood whom she meant without having
+it explained to her.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course we will,” she cried. “You would
+not let me give Forty-seven and her sister as much
+money as I wanted to for finding my bag.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span></p>
+
+<p>“No. I don’t think it does any good to put a
+premium on honesty,” Dorothy said gravely.</p>
+
+<p>“Huh! that’s just what Garry Knapp said,”
+said Tavia, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>“But now,” Dorothy hastened to add, “we can
+send them both at Christmas time something really
+worth while.”</p>
+
+<p>“Something warm to wear,” said Tavia, more
+than ordinarily thoughtful. “They have to go
+through the cold streets to work in all weathers.”</p>
+
+<p>It seemed odd, but Dorothy noticed that her
+chum remained rather serious all that day. In
+the evening Nat came in with the mail bag and
+dumped its contents on the hall table. This was
+just before dinner and usually the cry of “Mail!”
+up the stairway brought most of the family into
+the big entrance hall.</p>
+
+<p>Down tripped Tavia with the other girls; Ned
+lounged in from the library; Joe and Roger appeared,
+although they seldom had any letters, only
+funny postal cards from their old-time chums at
+Dalton and from local school friends.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. White took her mail off to her own room.
+She walked without her crutch now, but favored
+the lame ankle. Joe seized upon his father’s mail
+and ran to find him.</p>
+
+<p>Nat sorted the letters out swiftly. Everybody
+had a few. Suddenly he hesitated as he picked
+up a rather coarse envelope on which Tavia’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span>
+name was scrawled. In the upper left-hand corner
+was written: “L. Petterby.”</p>
+
+<p>“Great Peter!” he gasped, shooting a questioning
+glance at Tavia. “Does that cowpuncher write
+to you still?”</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps there was something like an accusation
+in Nat’s tone. At least, it was not just the
+tone to take with such a high-spirited person as
+Tavia. Her head came up and her eyes flashed.
+She reached for the letter.</p>
+
+<p>“Isn’t that nice!” she cried. “Another from
+dear old Lance. He’s <em>such</em> a desperately determined
+chap.”</p>
+
+<p>At first the other young folk had not noted
+Nat’s tone or Tavia’s look. But the young man’s
+next query all understood:</p>
+
+<p>“Still at it, are you, Tavia? Can’t possibly
+keep from stringing ’em along? It’s meat and
+drink to you, isn’t it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, of course,” drawled Tavia, two red
+spots in her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>She walked away, slitting Lance Petterby’s envelope
+as she went. Nat’s brow was clouded, and
+all through dinner he said very little. Tavia
+seemed livelier and more social than ever, but
+Dorothy apprehended “the fly in the amber.”</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII<br>
+<span class="fs80">“DO YOU UNDERSTAND TAVIA?”</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>“You got this old timer running round in circles,
+Miss Tavia, when you ask about a feller
+named Garford Knapp anywhere in this latitude,
+and working for a feller named Bob. There’s
+more ‘Bobs’ running ranches out here than there
+is bobwhites down there East where you live. Too
+bad you can’t remember this here Bob’s last name,
+or his brand.</p>
+
+<p>“Now, come to think, there was a feller named
+‘Dimples’ Knapp used to be found in Desert City,
+but not in Hardin. And you ought to see Hardin—it’s
+growing some!”</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>This was a part of what was in Lance Petterby’s
+letter. Had Nat White been allowed to read
+it he would have learned something else—something
+that not only would have surprised him and
+his brother and cousin, but would have served to
+burn away at once the debris of trouble that
+seemed suddenly heaped between Tavia and himself.</p>
+
+<p>It was true that Tavia had kept up her correspondence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span>
+with the good-natured and good-looking
+cowboy in whom, while she was West, she had
+become interested, and that against the advice of
+Dorothy Dale. She did this for a reason deeper
+than mere mischief.</p>
+
+<p>Lance Petterby had confided in her more than
+in any of the other Easterners of the party that
+had come to the big Hardin ranch. Lance was in
+love with a school teacher of the district while the
+party from the East was at Hardin; and now he
+had been some months married to the woman of
+his choice.</p>
+
+<p>When Tavia read bits of his letters, even to
+Dorothy, she skipped all mention of Lance’s romance
+and his marriage. This she did, it is true,
+because of a mischievous desire to plague her chum
+and Ned and Nat. Of late, since affairs had become
+truly serious between Nat and herself, she
+would have at any time explained the joke to Nat
+had she thought of it, or had he asked her about
+Lance.</p>
+
+<p>The very evening previous to the arrival of this
+letter from the cowpuncher to which Nat had so
+unwisely objected, Nat and Tavia had gone for
+a walk together in the crisp December moonlight
+and had talked very seriously.</p>
+
+<p>Nat, although as full of fun as Tavia herself,
+could be grave; and he made his intention and his
+desires very plain to the girl. Tavia would not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span>
+show him all that was in her heart. That was not
+her way. She was always inclined to hide her
+deeper feelings beneath a light manner and light
+words. But she was brave and she was honest.
+When he pinned her right down to the question,
+yes or no, Tavia looked courageously into Nat’s
+eyes and said:</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, Nat. <em>I do.</em> But somebody besides you
+must ask me before I will agree to—to ‘make you
+happy’ as you call it.”</p>
+
+<p>“For the good land’s sake!” gasped Nat.
+“Who’s business is it but ours? If you love me
+as I love you——”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I know,” interrupted Tavia, with laughter
+breaking forth. “‘No knife can cut our love
+in two.’ But, <em>dear</em>——”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!”</p>
+
+<p>“Wait, honey,” she whispered, with her face
+close pressed against his shoulder. “No! don’t
+kiss me now. You’ve kissed me before—in fun.
+The next time you kiss me it must be in solemn
+earnest.”</p>
+
+<p>“By heaven, girl!” exclaimed Nat, hoarsely.
+“Do you think I am fooling now?”</p>
+
+<p>“No, boy,” she whispered, looking up at him
+again suddenly. “But somebody else must ask
+me before I have a right to promise what you
+want.”</p>
+
+<p>“Who?” demanded Nat, in alarm.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span></p>
+
+<p>“You know that I am a poor girl. Not only
+that, but I do not come from the same stock that
+you do. There is no blue blood in my veins,”
+and she uttered a little laugh that might have
+sounded bitter had there not been the tremor of
+tears in it.</p>
+
+<p>“What nonsense, Tavia!” the young man cried,
+shaking her gently by the shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh no, Nat! Wait! I am a poor girl and I
+come of very, very common stock. I don’t mean
+I am ashamed of my poverty, or of the fact that
+my father and mother both sprang from the laboring
+class.</p>
+
+<p>“But you might be expected when you marry
+to take for a wife a girl from a family whose
+forebears were <em>something</em>. Mine were not.
+Why, one of my grandfathers was an immigrant
+and dug ditches——”</p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw! I had a relative who dug a ditch, too.
+In Revolutionary times——”</p>
+
+<p>“That is it exactly,” Tavia hastened to say.
+“I know about him. He helped dig the breastworks
+on Breeds Hill and was wounded in the
+Battle of Bunker Hill. I know all about that.
+Your people were Pilgrim and Dutch stock.”</p>
+
+<p>“Immigrants, too,” said Nat, muttering. “And
+maybe some of them left their country across the
+seas for their country’s good.”</p>
+
+<p>“It doesn’t matter,” said the shrewd Tavia.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span>
+“Being an immigrant in America in sixteen hundred
+is one thing. Being an immigrant in the latter
+end of the nineteenth century is an entirely
+different pair of boots.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!”</p>
+
+<p>“No. Your mother has been as kind to me—and
+for years and years—as though I were her
+niece, too, instead of just one of Dorothy’s friends.
+She may have other plans for her sons, Nat.”</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense!”</p>
+
+<p>“I will not answer you,” the girl cried, a little
+wildly now, and began to sob. “Oh, Nat! Nat!
+I have thought of this so much. Your mother
+must ask me, or I can never tell you what I want
+to tell you!”</p>
+
+<p>Nat respected her desire and did not kiss her
+although she clung, sobbing, to him for some moments.
+But after she had wiped away her tears
+and had begun to joke again in her usual way, they
+went back to the house.</p>
+
+<p>And Nat White knew he was walking on air!
+He could not feel the path beneath his feet.</p>
+
+<p>He was obliged to go to town early the next
+morning, and when he returned, as we have seen,
+just before dinner, he brought the mail bag up
+from the North Birchland post-office.</p>
+
+<p>He could not understand Tavia’s attitude regarding
+Lance Petterby’s letter, and he was both
+hurt and jealous. Actually he was jealous!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Do you understand Tavia?” he asked his
+cousin Dorothy, right after dinner.</p>
+
+<p>“My dear boy,” Dorothy Dale said, “I never
+claimed to be a seer. <em>Who</em> understands Tavia—fully?”</p>
+
+<p>“But you know her better than anybody else.”</p>
+
+<p>“Better than Tavia knows herself, perhaps,”
+admitted Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, see here! I’ve asked her to marry
+me——”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Nat! my dear boy! I am so glad!” Dorothy
+cried, and she kissed her cousin warmly.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be so hasty with your congratulations,”
+growled Nat, still red and fuming. “She didn’t
+tell me ‘yes.’ I don’t know now that I want her
+to. I want to know what she means, getting letters
+from that fellow out West.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Nat!” sighed Dorothy, looking at him
+levelly. “Are you <em>sure</em> you love her?”</p>
+
+<p>He said nothing more, and Dorothy did not
+add a word. But Tavia waited in vain that evening
+for Mrs. White to come to her and ask the
+question which she had told Nat his mother must
+ask for him.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII<br>
+<span class="fs80">CROSS PURPOSES</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tavia was as loyal a girl as ever stepped in
+shoe-leather. That was an oft-repeated expression
+of Major Dale’s. He loved “the flyaway”
+for this very attribute.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia was now attempting to bring joy and
+happiness for Dorothy out of chaos. Therefore,
+she felt she dared take nobody into her confidence
+regarding Lance Petterby’s letter.</p>
+
+<p>She replied to Lance at once, explaining more
+fully about Garry Knapp, the land he was about
+to sell, and the fact that Eastern schemers were
+trying to obtain possession of Knapp’s ranch for
+wheat land and at a price far below its real worth.</p>
+
+<p>Satisfaction, Tavia might feel in this attempt to
+help Dorothy; but everything else in the world
+was colored blue—very blue, indeed!</p>
+
+<p>When one’s ear has become used to the clatter
+of a noisy little windmill, for instance, and the
+wind suddenly ceases and it remains calm, the cessation
+of the mill’s clatter is almost a shock to the
+nerves.</p>
+
+<p>This was about the way Tavia’s sudden shift of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span>
+manner struck all those observant ones at The
+Cedars. As the season of joy and gladness and
+good-will approached, Tavia Travers sank lower
+and lower into a Slough of Despond.</p>
+
+<p>Had it not been for Dorothy Dale, the others
+must have audibly remarked Tavia’s lack of
+sparkle. Though Dorothy did not imagine that
+Tavia was engaged in any attempt to help her,
+and because of that attempt had refused to explain
+Lance Petterby’s letter to Nat White, yet
+she loyally began to act as a buffer between the
+others and the contrary Tavia. More than once
+did Dorothy fly to Tavia’s rescue when she seemed
+to be in difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia had a streak of secrecy in her character
+that sometimes placed her in a bad light when
+judged by unknowing people. Dorothy, however,
+felt sure that on this present occasion there was
+no real fault to be found with her dear friend.</p>
+
+<p>Nat refused to speak further about his feeling
+toward Tavia; Dorothy knew better than to try
+to tempt Tavia herself to explain. The outstanding
+difficulty was the letter from the Westerner.
+Feeling sure, as she did, that Tavia liked
+Nat immensely and really cared nothing for any
+other man, Dorothy refrained from hinting at the
+difficulty to her chum. Let matters take their
+course. That was the better way, Dorothy believed.
+She felt that Nat’s deeper affections had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span>
+been moved and that only the surface of his pride
+and jealousy were nicked. On the other hand she
+knew Tavia to be a most loyal soul, and she could
+not imagine that there was really any cause, other
+than mischief, for Tavia to allow that letter to
+stand between Nat and herself.</p>
+
+<p>To smooth over the rough edges and hide any
+unpleasantness from the observation of the older
+members of the family, Dorothy became very active
+in the social life of The Cedars again. No
+longer did she refuse to attend the cousins and
+Jennie and Tavia in any venture. It was a quintette
+of apparently merry young people once
+more; never a quartette. Nor were Nat and
+Tavia seen alone together during those few short
+weeks preceding Christmas.</p>
+
+<p>Secretly, Dorothy was very unhappy over the
+misunderstanding between her chum and Nat.
+That it was merely a disagreement and would not
+cause a permanent break between the two was her
+dear hope. For she wished to see them both
+happy. Although at one time she thought the
+steadier Ned, the older cousin, might be a better
+mate for her flyaway friend, she had come to see
+it differently of late. If anybody could understand
+and properly appreciate Tavia Travers it
+was Nathaniel White. His mind, too, was quick,
+his imagination colorful. Dorothy Dale, with
+growing understanding of character and the mental<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span>
+equipment to judge her associates better than
+most girls, or young women, of her age, believed
+in her heart that neither Tavia nor Nat would ever
+get along with any other companion as well as the
+two could get along together.</p>
+
+<p>The two “wildfires,” as Aunt Winnie sometimes
+called them, had always had occasional bickerings.
+But a dispute is like a thunderstorm—it usually
+clears the air.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did Dorothy doubt for a moment that her
+cousin and her friend were deeply in love now, the
+one with the other. That Tavia had turned without
+explanation about Lance Petterby’s letter from
+Nat and that the latter had told Dorothy he was
+not sure he wished Tavia to answer the important
+question he had put to her, sprang only from
+pique on Nat’s side, and, Dorothy was sure, from
+something much the same in her chum’s heart.</p>
+
+<p>Light-minded and frivolous as Tavia had always
+appeared, Dorothy knew well that the undercurrent
+of her chum’s feelings was both deep
+and strong. Where she gave affection Tavia herself
+would have said she “loved hard!”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy had watched, during these past few
+weeks especially, the intimacy grow between her
+chum and Nat White. They were bound to each
+other, Dorothy believed, by many ties. Disagreements
+did not count. All that was on the surface.
+Underneath, the tide of their feelings intermingled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span>
+and flowed together. She could not believe that
+any little misunderstanding could permanently divide
+Tavia and Nat.</p>
+
+<p>But they were at cross purposes—that was
+plain. Nat was irritated and Tavia was proud.
+Dorothy knew that her chum was just the sort of
+person to be hurt most by being doubted.</p>
+
+<p>Nat should have understood that if Tavia had
+given him reason to believe she cared for him, her
+nature was so loyal that in no particular could she
+be unfaithful to the trust he placed in her. His
+quick appearance of doubt when he saw the letter
+from the West had hurt Tavia cruelly.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, Dorothy Dale did not try to make peace
+between the two by going to Nat and putting these
+facts before him in the strong light of good sense.
+She was quite sure that if she did so Nat would
+come to terms and beg Tavia’s pardon. That was
+Nat’s way. He never took a middle course. He
+must be either at one extreme of the pendulum’s
+swing or the other.</p>
+
+<p>And Dorothy was sure that it would not be
+well, either for Nat or for Tavia, for the former
+to give in without question and shoulder the entire
+responsibility for this lover’s quarrel. For
+to Dorothy Dale’s mind there was a greater shade
+of fault upon her chum’s side of the controversy
+than there was on Nat’s. Because of the very
+fact that all her life Tavia had been flirting or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span>
+making believe to flirt, there was some reason for
+Nat’s show of spleen over the Petterby letter.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy did not know what had passed between
+Tavia and Nat the evening before the arrival of
+the letter. She did not know what Tavia had
+demanded of Nat before she would give him the
+answer he craved.</p>
+
+<p>Nat kept silence. Mrs. White did not come to
+Tavia and ask the question which meant so much
+to the warm-hearted girl. Tavia suffered in every
+fiber of her being, but would not betray her feelings.
+And Dorothy waited her chance to say
+something to her chum that might help to clear
+up the unfortunate state of affairs.</p>
+
+<p>So all were at cross purposes, and gradually
+the good times at The Cedars became something
+of a mockery.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX<br>
+<span class="fs80">WEDDING BELLS IN PROSPECT</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Four days before Christmas Dorothy Dale,
+her cousins, and Tavia all boarded the train with
+Jennie Hapgood, bound for the latter’s home in
+Pennsylvania. On Christmas Eve Jennie’s brother
+Jack was to be married, and he had written jointly
+with the young lady who was to be “Mrs. Jack”
+after that date, that the ceremony could not possibly
+take place unless the North Birchland crowd
+of young folk crossed the better part of two
+states, to be “in at the finish.”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness me,” drawled Tavia, when this letter
+had come from Sunnyside Farm. “He talks
+as though wedded bliss were something like a
+sentence to the penitentiary. How horrid!”</p>
+
+<p>“It is. For a lot of us men,” Nat said, grinning.
+“No more stag parties with the fellows for
+one thing. Cut out half the time one might spend
+at the club. And then, there is the pocket peril.”</p>
+
+<p>“The—the <em>what</em>?” demanded Jennie. “What
+under the sun is that?”</p>
+
+<p>“A new one on me,” said Ned. “Out with it.
+’Thaniel. What is the ‘pocket peril’?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Why, after a fellow is married they tell me
+that he never knows when he puts his hand in his
+pocket whether he will find money there or not.
+Maybe Friend Wife has beaten him to it.”</p>
+
+<p>“For shame!” cried Dorothy. “You certainly
+deserve never to know what Tavia calls ’wedded
+bliss.’”</p>
+
+<p>“I have my doubts as to my ever doing so,”
+muttered Nat, his face suddenly expressing gloom;
+and he marched away.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie and Ned did not observe this. Indeed,
+it was becoming so with them that they saw nobody
+but each other. Their infatuation was so
+plain that sometimes it was really funny. Yet
+even Tavia, with her sharp tongue, spared the
+happy couple any gibes. Sometimes when she
+looked at them her eyes were bright with moisture.
+Dorothy saw this, if nobody else did.</p>
+
+<p>However, the trip to western Pennsylvania was
+very pleasant, indeed. Dorothy posed as chaperon,
+and the boys voted that she made an excellent
+one.</p>
+
+<p>The party got off gaily; but after a while Ned
+and Jennie slipped away to the observation platform,
+cold as the weather was, and Nat plainly
+felt ill at ease with his cousin and Tavia. He
+grumbled something about Ned having become
+“an old poke,” and sauntered into another car,
+leaving Tavia alone with Dorothy Dale in their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span>
+compartment. Almost at once Dorothy said to
+her chum:</p>
+
+<p>“Tavia, dear, are you going to let this thing go
+on, and become worse and worse?”</p>
+
+<p>“What’s that?” demanded Tavia, a little tartly.</p>
+
+<p>“This misunderstanding between you and Nat?
+Aren’t you risking your own happiness as well as
+his?”</p>
+
+<p>“Dorothy——”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be angry, dear,” her chum hastened to
+say. “Please don’t. I hate to see both you and
+Nat in such a false position.”</p>
+
+<p>“How false?” demanded Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Because you are neither of you satisfied with
+yourselves. You are both wrong, perhaps; but
+I think that under the circumstances you, dear,
+should put forth the first effort for reconciliation.”</p>
+
+<p>“With Nat?” gasped Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not to save my life!” cried her friend.
+“Never!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!”</p>
+
+<p>“You take his side because of that letter,”
+Tavia said accusingly. “Well, if <em>that’s</em> the idea,
+here’s another letter from Lance!” and she opened
+her bag and produced an envelope on which appeared
+the cowboy’s scrawling handwriting. Dorothy
+knew it well.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Don’t ‘Oh, Tavia’ me!” exclaimed the other
+girl, her eyes bright with anger. “Nobody has
+a right to choose my correspondents for me.”</p>
+
+<p>“You know that all the matter is with Nat, he
+is jealous,” Dorothy said frankly.</p>
+
+<p>“What right has he to be?” demanded Tavia
+in a hard voice, but looking away quickly.</p>
+
+<p>“Dear,” said Dorothy softly, laying her hand
+on Tavia’s arm, “he told me he—he asked you
+to marry him.”</p>
+
+<p>“He never!”</p>
+
+<p>“But you knew that was what he meant,” Dorothy
+said shrewdly.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia was silent, and her friend went on to
+say:</p>
+
+<p>“You know he thinks the world of you, dear.
+If he didn’t he would not have been angered. And
+I do think—considering everything—that you
+ought not to continue to let that fellow out West
+write to you——”</p>
+
+<p>Tavia turned on her with hard, flashing eyes.
+She held out the letter, saying in a voice quite
+different from her usual tone:</p>
+
+<p>“I want you to read this letter—but only on
+condition that you say nothing to Nat White about
+it, not a word! Do you understand, Dorothy
+Dale?”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said Dorothy, wondering. “I do <em>not</em>
+understand.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span></p>
+
+<p>“You understand that I am binding you to
+secrecy, at least,” Tavia continued in the same
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>“Why—yes—<em>that</em>,” admitted her friend.</p>
+
+<p>“Very well, then, read it,” said Tavia and
+turned to look out of the window while Dorothy
+withdrew the closely written, penciled pages from
+the envelope and unfolded them.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment Dorothy cried aloud:</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia! you wrote him about Mr. Knapp!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my dear! is <em>that</em> why he wrote you the
+other time? Of course! And he says he can’t find
+him. Dimples Knapp he calls him. Oh, my
+dear!”</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” said Tavia, in the same gruff voice.
+“Read on.” She did not turn from the window.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!” Dorothy said in a moment or
+two. “Those men are out there buying up wheat
+lands—Stiffbold and Lightly. Lance says he has
+met them.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am afraid your friend, ‘Garry Owen,’ will be
+beat,” said Tavia, shrugging her shoulders. “Do
+you see what Lance says next?”</p>
+
+<p>“He thinks he may get word of this Knapp he
+knows in a few days. Thinks he may be working
+for a man named Robert Douglas. Oh, Tavia!
+Of course he is! That is the name of his employer!”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span></p>
+
+<p>But Tavia displayed very little interest. “I had
+forgotten,” she said.</p>
+
+<p>“Bob Douglas! Of course you remember!
+And Lance says he’ll get word to him and tip
+him off, as he calls it, about the land-sharks. Oh,
+Tavia!”</p>
+
+<p>Her friend still looked out of the window.
+Dorothy shook her by the elbow, staring at the
+written lines of Lance Petterby’s letter.</p>
+
+<p>“What does this mean?” she demanded.
+“‘Sue sends her best, and so does Ma.’ Who is
+Sue?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, that is Mrs. Petterby, the younger,”
+drawled Tavia, flashing a glance at Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Married?” gasped Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“According to law,” responded Tavia, solemnly.
+“And worse. Read on.”</p>
+
+<p>Breathlessly, Dorothy Dale consumed the remainder
+of the letter. Some of it she murmured
+aloud:</p>
+
+<p>“‘The kid is a wonder. You’d ought to see
+her. Two weeks old to-day and I bet she could
+sit a bucking pony. You’re elected godmother,
+Miss Tavia, because she is going to be called ‘Octavia
+Susan Petterby,’ believe me!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!” finished Dorothy, crumpling the
+letter in her hand. “And you never told us a word
+about it. <em>That’s</em> why you wanted to buy a silver
+mug!”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” Tavia admitted.</p>
+
+<p>“And they have been married how long?”</p>
+
+<p>“Almost a year. Soon after we came away
+from Hardin.”</p>
+
+<p>“And you never said a word,” Dorothy said
+accusingly. “We all supposed——”</p>
+
+<p>“That I was flirting with poor old Lance.
+Yes,” said Tavia, her eyes and voice both hard.</p>
+
+<p>“And why shouldn’t we think so?” asked Dorothy,
+quietly. “You do so many queer things. Or
+you <em>used</em> to.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t now,” said her friend, bruskly.</p>
+
+<p>“No. But how were we to know? How was
+Nat to know?” she added.</p>
+
+<p>Then Tavia turned on her with excitement.
+“You promised not to tell!” she said. “Don’t you
+<em>dare</em> let Nat White know about this letter!”</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX<br>
+<span class="fs80">A GIRL OF TO-DAY</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>“It was the prettiest wedding I ever saw,”
+Dorothy Dale declared, as the party, bound for
+North Birchland again, climbed aboard the midnight
+train at the station nearest Sunnyside Farm.</p>
+
+<p>“And the bride was too sweet for anything,”
+added Jennie Hapgood, who was returning to The
+Cedars as agreed, to remain until after New
+Year’s.</p>
+
+<p>“Jack looked quite as they always do,” said
+Ned in a hollow voice.</p>
+
+<p>“As who always do?” demanded Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“The brooms.”</p>
+
+<p>“‘Brooms’!” cried Dorothy. “Grooms, Ned?”</p>
+
+<p>“He’s a ‘new broom’ all right,” chuckled Edward
+White. “Poor chap! he doesn’t know what
+it means to love, honor, obey, and buy frocks and
+hats for a girl of to-day.”</p>
+
+<p>“Pah!” retorted his brother, “you’d like to be
+in his shoes, Nedward.”</p>
+
+<p>“Me? I—guess—not!” declared Edward.
+“I have my own shoes to stand in, thank you,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span>
+and Ned looked at Jennie Hapgood with a meaning
+air.</p>
+
+<p>So the party came back to The Cedars in much
+the same state as it had gone to the wedding. Ned
+and Jennie were so much taken up with each other
+that they were frankly oblivious to the mutual attitude
+of Nat and Tavia. Dorothy Dale was kept
+busy warding off happenings that might attract the
+particular attention of Major Dale and Aunt Winnie
+to the real situation between the two.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, Dorothy had “troubles of her own,”
+as the saying goes. She felt that she must decide,
+and neglect the decision no longer, a very, very
+important matter that concerned herself more than
+it did anybody else in the world—a matter that
+she was selfishly interested in.</p>
+
+<p>Ample time had passed now for Dorothy Dale
+to consider from all standpoints this really wonderful
+thing that had come into her life and had
+so changed her outlook. On the surface she might
+seem the same Dorothy Dale to her friends and
+relatives; but secretly the whole world was different
+to her since that shopping trip she and Tavia
+had taken to New York wherein she and her
+chum had met Garry Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>A thousand times Dorothy had called up the
+details of every incident of the adventure—this
+greatest of all adventures Dorothy Dale had
+ever entered upon.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span></p>
+
+<p>She felt that she should never meet again a man
+like Garry Knapp. None of the boys she had
+known before had ever made much of an impression
+on Dorothy Dale’s well-balanced mind.
+But from the beginning she had looked upon the
+young Westerner with a new vision. His reflection
+filled the mirror of her thought as splendidly
+as at first. The dimple that showed faintly in one
+bronzed cheek, his rather large but well-formed
+features, his mop of black hair, his broad shoulders
+and well-set-up body—all these personal attributes
+belonging to Garry Knapp were as clearly
+fixed in Dorothy’s mind now as at first.</p>
+
+<p>So, too, her memory of all that had happened
+was clear. Garry’s proffered help in the department
+store when Tavia was in trouble first aroused
+Dorothy to an appreciation of his unstudied kindness.
+It was the most natural thing in the world
+for him to offer aid when he saw anybody in
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy blushed now whenever she thought of
+her doubts of Garry Knapp when she had seen
+him so easily fall into conversation with the department
+store salesgirl on the street. Why! that
+was exactly what he would do—especially if the
+girl asked him for help. She still blushed at the
+remembrance of the jealous feeling that had
+prompted her avoidance of the young man until
+his action was explained. Her pique had shortened<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span>
+her acquaintanceship with Garry Knapp.
+She might have known him far better had it not
+been for that incident of the shopgirl.</p>
+
+<p>“And my own suspicion was the cause of it. I
+refused to meet Garry Knapp as Tavia did. Why!
+she knows him better than I do,” Dorothy Dale
+told herself.</p>
+
+<p>It was after her discovery of why Tavia had
+been writing to Lance Petterby and receiving answers
+from that “happy tho’ married cowboy person,”
+to quote Tavia, that Dorothy so searched
+her own heart regarding Garry Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>“You are a dear, loyal friend, Tavia,” she told
+her chum. “But—but <em>why</em> are you trying so to
+get in touch with Mr. Knapp?”</p>
+
+<p>“Really want me to tell you?” demanded Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Truly-rooly—black-and-bluely?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, dear.”</p>
+
+<p>“Because I have been a regular ivory-kopf!”
+cried Tavia. “Forgive my hybrid German. Oh,
+Dorothy! I didn’t want to tell you, for I hoped
+Lance might quickly find your Garry Knapp.”</p>
+
+<p>“<em>My</em> Garry Knapp,” said Dorothy, blushing.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, my dear. Don’t dodge the fact. We all
+seem to be suddenly grown up. We are shucking
+our shells of maidenhood like crabs——”</p>
+
+<p>“Tavia! Horrors! Don’t!” begged Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t like my metaphor, dear?” chuckled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span>
+Tavia. But she was grim again in a moment, continuing:
+“No use dodging the fact, I repeat. You
+were interested in that man from the beginning.
+Now, weren’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Ye—es, Tavia,” admitted her friend.</p>
+
+<p>“And I should have seen that you were. I
+ought to have known, when you were put out with
+him because of that shopgirl, that for that very
+reason you were more interested in Garry Knapp
+than in any other fellow who ever shined up to
+you——”</p>
+
+<p>“Tavia! How can you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Huh! Just as e-asy,” responded her friend,
+with a wicked twinkle in her eye and mimicking
+Garry Knapp’s manner of speaking. “Now, listen!”
+she hurried on. “That night I took dinner
+with him alone—the evening you had the—er—headache
+and went to bed. ’Member?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes,” sighed Dorothy, nodding.</p>
+
+<p>“He just pumped me about you,” said Tavia.
+“And I was just foolish enough to tell him all
+about your money—how rich your folks were and
+all that.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” and Dorothy flushed again.</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t get it—not yet,” said Tavia, wagging
+her head. “Afterwards I remembered how
+funny he looked when I had told him that you
+were a regular ‘sure-enough’ heiress, and I remembered
+some things he said, too.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span></p>
+
+<p>“What do you mean?” asked Dorothy, faintly.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I scared him away from you,” blurted
+out Tavia, almost in tears when she thought of
+what she called her “ivory-headedness.” “I know
+that he was just as deeply smitten with you, dear,
+as—as—well, as ever a man could be! But he’s
+poor—and he’s game. I think that is why he went
+off in such a hurry and without trying <em>very</em> hard
+to see you again.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia! Do you believe that is so?” and
+the joy in Dorothy’s voice could not be mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>“Well!” exclaimed Tavia, “isn’t that pretty
+bad? You act as though you were pleased.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy blushed again, but she was brave. She
+gazed straight into Tavia’s eyes as she said:</p>
+
+<p>“I am pleased, dear. I am pleased to learn that
+possibly it was not his lack of interest in poor
+little me that sent him away from New York so
+hastily—at least, without making a more desperate
+effort to see me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Doro!” cried Tavia, suddenly putting both
+arms around her friend. “Do you actually mean
+it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Mean what?”</p>
+
+<p>“That you l-l-<em>like</em> him so much?”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy laughed aloud, but nodded emphatically.
+“I l-l-<em>like</em> him just as much as that,” she
+mocked. “And if it’s only my father’s money in
+the way——”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span></p>
+
+<p>“And your own. You really will be rich when
+you are twenty-one,” Tavia reminded her. “I
+tell you, that young man was troubled a heap when
+he learned from me that you were so well off. If
+you had been a poor girl—if you had been <em>me</em>,
+for instance—he would never have left New York
+City without knowing his fate. I could see it in
+his eyes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Tavia!” gasped Dorothy, with clasped
+hands and shining eyes.</p>
+
+<p>“My dear,” said her friend, with serious mouth
+but dancing orbs. “I never would have thought
+it possible—of <em>you</em>. ‘Love like a lightning bolt’—just
+like that. And the cautious Dorothy!” Then
+she went on: “But, Dorothy, how will you ever
+find him?”</p>
+
+<p>“You have done your best, Tavia,” her friend
+said, nodding. “I suppose I might have tried
+Lance Petterby, too. But now I shall put Aunt
+Winnie’s lawyers to work out there. If possible,
+Mr. Knapp must be found before those real estate
+sharks buy his land. But if the transaction is completed,
+we shall have to reach him in some other
+way.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dorothy! You sound woefully strong-minded.
+Do you mean to go right after the young man—just
+as though it were leap year?” and Tavia giggled.</p>
+
+<p>“I hope,” said Dorothy Dale, girl of to-day that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span>
+she was, “I have too much good sense to lose the
+chance of showing the man I love that he can
+win me, because of any foolish or old-fashioned
+ideas of conventionalities. If Garry Knapp thinks
+as much of me as I do of him, his lack of an equal
+fortune sha’n’t stand in the way, either.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Doro! it sounds awful—but bully!”
+Tavia declared, her eyes round. “Do you mean
+it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said Dorothy, courageously.</p>
+
+<p>“But suppose he is one of those stubborn beings
+you read about—one of the men who will not
+marry a girl with money unless he has a ‘working
+capital’ himself?”</p>
+
+<p>“That shall not stand in our way.”</p>
+
+<p>“What do you mean?” gasped Tavia. “Not
+that you would give up your money for him?”</p>
+
+<p>“If I find I love him enough—yes,” said Dorothy,
+softly.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI<br>
+<span class="fs80">THE BUD UNFOLDS</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>In a certain way it ages a girl to be left motherless
+as Dorothy Dale had been. She had been
+obliged to “play mother” herself so early that
+her maternal instincts were strongly and early developed.</p>
+
+<p>Until the Dale family had come away from
+Dalton to live with Aunt Winnie at The Cedars,
+Dorothy had exercised her motherly oversight
+in the little family. Indeed, Roger scarcely knew
+any other mother than Dorothy, and Joe had almost
+forgotten her who had passed away soon
+after Roger was born.</p>
+
+<p>As for the major, he had soon given all domestic
+matters over into the small but capable hands
+of “the little captain” while they were still struggling
+in poverty. After coming to The Cedars,
+Dorothy, of course, had been relieved of the close
+oversight of domestic and family matters that had
+previously been her portion. But its effect upon her
+character was plain to all observing eyes. Nor had
+her so early developed maternal characteristics
+failed to affect the other members of the family.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span></p>
+
+<p>Now that she was really grown up past the
+schoolgirl age and of a serious and thoughtful
+demeanor, even Aunt Winnie looked upon her as
+being much older than Tavia—and years older
+than the boys. That Ned and Nat were both several
+years Dorothy’s senior made no difference.</p>
+
+<p>“Boys are to a degree irresponsible—and always
+are, no matter how old they become,” said
+Aunt Winnie. “But <em>Dorothy</em>——”</p>
+
+<p>Her emphasis was approved by the major.
+“The little captain is some girl,” he said, chuckling.
+“Beg pardon! woman grown, eh, Sister?”</p>
+
+<p>Nor was his approval merely of Dorothy’s surface
+qualities. He knew that his pretty daughter
+was a much deeper thinker than most girls of her
+age, and he had seldom interfered in any way
+with Dorothy’s personal decisions on any subject.</p>
+
+<p>“Let her find out for herself. She won’t go far
+wrong,” had often been his remark at first when
+his sister had worried over Dorothy in her school
+days. And so the girl developed into something
+that not all girls are—an original thinker.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing her as the major did and trusting in
+her good sense so fully, he was less startled, perhaps,
+than he would otherwise have been when
+Dorothy took him into her confidence regarding
+Garry Knapp. Tavia had refrained from joking
+about the Westerner from the first. Little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span>
+had been said before the family about their adventures
+in New York. Therefore, the major was
+not prepared in the least for the introduction of
+the subject.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it would not have been introduced in
+quite the way it was had it not grown out of another
+matter. It came the day after Christmas—that
+day in which everybody is tired and rather
+depressed because of the over-exertion of celebrating
+the feast of good Kris Kringle. Dorothy
+was busy at the sewing basket beside her father’s
+comfortable chair. She knew that Tavia was writing
+letters and just at this moment Major Dale
+dropped his paper to peer out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>“There goes Nat—off for a tramp, I’ll be
+bound. And he’s alone,” the major said.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” agreed Dorothy without looking up.</p>
+
+<p>“And Ned and that Jennie girl are in the library,
+and you’re here,” pursued the major, with
+raised eyebrows. “Where is Tavia?”</p>
+
+<p>She told him; but she refrained again from
+looking up, and he finally bent forward in his chair
+and thrust a forefinger under her chin, raising it
+and making her look at him.</p>
+
+<p>“Say! what is the matter with Tavia and Nat?”
+he asked.</p>
+
+<p>“Are you sure there is anything the matter,
+Major?” Dorothy responded.</p>
+
+<p>“Can’t fool me. They’re at outs. And you,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>
+Captain? Is that what makes you so grave, my
+dear?”</p>
+
+<p>“No, Daddy,” she said, putting down her work
+and looking into his rugged face this time of her
+own volition.</p>
+
+<p>“Something personal, my dear?”</p>
+
+<p>“Very personal, Daddy,” calling him by the intimate
+name the children used. “I—I think I—I
+am in love.”</p>
+
+<p>He neither made a joke of it nor appeared astonished.
+He just eyed her quietly and nodded.
+The flush mounted into her face and she glowed
+like a red rose. After all, it is not the easiest
+thing in the world to turn the heart out for others
+to look at, even the dearest of others.</p>
+
+<p>“I think I am in love. And the young man is
+poor—and—and I am afraid our money is going
+to stand between him and me.”</p>
+
+<p>“My dear Dorothy,” said the major, “are you
+really in love with somebody, or in love with
+love?”</p>
+
+<p>“I know what you mean,” his daughter said,
+with a tremulous little laugh and shaking her head.
+“Seeing so many about us falling into the toils of
+Dan Cupid, you think I perhaps imagine I have
+fixed my affections upon some particular object.
+Is that it, Major?”</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, a quizzical little smile on his lips.</p>
+
+<p>“No” she said. “It isn’t anywhere near as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span>
+simple as that. I—I do love him I believe. He
+is the only man I have ever really thought twice
+about. He is the center of all my thoughts now,
+and has been for a long time.”</p>
+
+<p>“But—but who is he?” the major gasped.</p>
+
+<p>“Garry Knapp.”</p>
+
+<p>Her father repeated the name slowly and his
+expression of countenance certainly displayed
+amazement. “Did I ever see the young man?”</p>
+
+<p>“No.”</p>
+
+<p>“Your aunt—one of your cousins’ friends?”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear Daddy,” said Dorothy, frankly and smiling
+a little. “I have done something not at all
+as you would expect cautious little me to do. I
+have picked a man—and, oh, he is a man, Daddy!—right
+out of the great mob of folks. Nobody
+introduced us. We just—well, <em>met</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>“The young man has been spoken of by Tavia,
+I believe,” said Major Dale, quite cheerfully. “I
+remember now. Mr. Knapp. You met him at
+the hotel in New York?”</p>
+
+<p>“Before we got to the hotel. In the train I
+noticed him—vaguely. On the platform where
+we changed cars at that Manhattan Transfer
+place, I saw him better. I—I never was so much
+interested in a man before.”</p>
+
+<p>Major Dale looked at her rather solemnly for
+a moment. “Are you sure, my dear, it is anything
+more than fancy?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Quite sure.”</p>
+
+<p>“And—and—<em>he</em>——”</p>
+
+<p>The man’s voice actually trembled. Dorothy
+looked at him again, dropped the sewing from her
+lap and suddenly flung her arms about his neck.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, my dear!” she murmured, her face hidden.
+“I know he loves me, too. I am sure of
+it! Let me tell you.”</p>
+
+<p>Breathlessly, her voice quavering a little but
+full of an element of happiness that fairly thrilled
+her listener, she related all the incidents—even
+the petty details—of her acquaintance with Garford
+Knapp, of Desert City. So clear was her
+picture of the young man that the major saw him
+in his mind’s eye just as Garry appeared to Dorothy
+Dale.</p>
+
+<p>She went over every little thing that had happened
+in New York in connection with the young
+Westerner. She told of her own mean suspicions
+and how they had risen from a feeling of pique
+and jealousy that never in her life had she experienced
+before.</p>
+
+<p>“That was a rather small way for me to show
+real feeling for a person. But it caught me unprepared,”
+said Dorothy, with a full-throated laugh
+although her eyes were full of tears. “I do not
+believe I am naturally of a jealous disposition;
+and I should never let such a feeling get the better
+of me again. It has cost me too much.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span></p>
+
+<p>She went on and told the major of the incidents
+that followed and how Garry Knapp had gone
+away so hastily without her speaking to him again.</p>
+
+<p>But the major rather lost the thread of her
+story for a moment. He was staring closely at
+her, shaking his shaggy head slowly.</p>
+
+<p>“My dear! my dear!” he murmured, “you have
+grown up. The bud has unfolded. Our demure
+little Dorothy is—and with shocking abruptness—blown
+into full womanhood. My dear!” and he
+put his arms about her again more tightly.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII<br>
+<span class="fs80">DOROTHY DECIDES</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Joe and Roger Dale did not feel that they were
+exactly neglected during these winter holidays. It
+is true they found their cousins, the “big fellows,”
+not so much fun as they were wont to be, and even
+Dorothy failed them at times.</p>
+
+<p>But because of these very facts the lads had
+more freedom of action than ever before. They
+were learning to think for themselves, especially
+Joe. Nor was it always mischief they thought of,
+though frequently managing to get into trouble—for
+what live and healthy boys of their age do
+not?</p>
+
+<p>Many of their narrow escapes even Dorothy
+knew nothing about. None of the family, for instance,
+knew about Joe and the lame pigeon until
+the North Birchland Fire Department was on
+the grounds with all their apparatus.</p>
+
+<p>This moving incident (Tavia declared it should
+have been a movie incident) happened between
+Christmas and the new year. Although there had
+been a good fall of snow before Kris Kringle’s
+day, it had all gone now and the roads were firmly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span>
+frozen again, so the Fire Department got to The
+Cedars in record time.</p>
+
+<p>To begin with Joe and Roger were breeders of
+pigeons, as Ned and Nat had been several years
+before. On pleasant days in the winter they let
+their flock into the big flying cage, and occasionally
+allowed the carriers to take a flight in the
+open.</p>
+
+<p>On one of these occasions when the flock returned
+there was a stray with them. Roger’s
+sharp eyes spied this bird which alighted on the
+ridgepole of the stable.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, lookut! lookut!” exclaimed the youngest
+Dale. “What a pretty one, Joe!”</p>
+
+<p>“We’ll coax it down. It’s a stray,” his brother
+said eagerly, “and all strays are fair game.”</p>
+
+<p>“But it’s lame, Joe,” Roger declared. “See!
+it can scarcely hop. And it acts as if all tired
+out.”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s a carrier, all right,” Joe said. “I bet it’s
+come a long way.”</p>
+
+<p>The bird, however, would not be coaxed to the
+ground or into the big cage. It really did appear
+exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>“I bet if I could get up there on the stable roof,
+I could pick it right up in my hand,” cried Joe.
+“I’m—I’m a-going—to try it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” murmured Roger, both his eyes and
+mouth very round.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p>
+
+<p>Joe was no “blowhard,” as the boys say. When
+he said he’d do a thing he did his best to accomplish
+it. He threw off his thick jacket that would
+have hampered him, and kicked aside his overshoes
+that made his feet clumsy, and started to
+go aloft in the stable.</p>
+
+<p>“You go outside and watch, Roger,” he commanded.
+“There’s no skylight in this old barn
+roof—only the cupola, and I can’t get out through
+that.”</p>
+
+<p>“How are you going to do it then?” gasped
+Roger.</p>
+
+<p>“You’ll see,” his brother said with assurance,
+and began to climb the hay ladder into the top loft
+of the building.</p>
+
+<p>Roger ran out just in time to see Joe open the
+small door up in the peak of the stable roof.
+There were water-troughs all around the roof, for
+the cattle were supplied with drinking water from
+cisterns built under the ground.</p>
+
+<p>A leader ran down each corner of the stable,
+and one of these was within reach of Joe Dale’s
+hands when he swung himself out upon the door
+he had opened.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody, except the boys, were about the stable,
+and this end of the building could not be seen from
+the house. Joe had once before performed a similar
+trick. He had swung from the door to the
+leader-pipe and swarmed down to the ground.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Look out you don’t tumble, Joe,” advised the
+eager Roger. But he had no idea that Joe would
+do so. The elder brother was a hero in the sight
+of the younger lad.</p>
+
+<p>Joe’s skill and strength did not fail him now.
+He caught the leader, then the water-trough itself,
+and so scrambled upon the roof. But at his last
+kick some fastening holding the leader-pipe gave
+way and the top of it swung out from the corner
+of the stable.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, cricky!” yelled Roger. “Lucky you got
+up there, Joe. That pipe’s busted. How’ll you
+get down?”</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind that,” grunted Joe, somewhat
+breathless, scrambling up the roof to the ridgepole.
+“We’ll see about that later.”</p>
+
+<p>The boy reached the ridge and straddled it.
+There he got his breath and then hitched along
+toward the cooing pigeon. It was not frightened
+by him, but it certainly was lame and exhausted.
+Joe picked it up in his hand and snuggled it into
+the breast of his sweater.</p>
+
+<p>“But how are you ever going to get down, Joe
+Dale?” shrilled Roger, from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The question was a poser, as Joe very soon
+found out. That particular leader had been the
+only one on the stable that he could reach with
+any measure of safety; and now it hung out a
+couple of feet from the side of the building and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span>
+Joe would not have dared trust his weight upon it,
+even could he have reached it.</p>
+
+<p>“What are you going to do?” again wailed the
+smaller lad.</p>
+
+<p>“Aw, cheese it, Roger! don’t be bawling,” advised
+Joe from the roof. “Go and get a ladder.”</p>
+
+<p>“There isn’t any long enough to reach up there—you
+know that,” said Roger.</p>
+
+<p>Neither he nor Joe observed the fact that, even
+had there been a ladder, the smaller boy could
+not have raised it into place so that Joe could
+have descended upon it.</p>
+
+<p>None of the men working on the place was at
+hand. Ned and Nat were off on some errand in
+their car. Secretly, Roger was panic stricken and
+might have run for Dorothy, for she was still his
+refuge in all troubles.</p>
+
+<p>But Joe was older—and thought himself wiser.
+“We’ve just got to find a ladder—<em>you’ve</em> got to
+find it, Roger. I can’t sit up here a-straddle of
+this old roof all day. It’s co-o-old!”</p>
+
+<p>Roger started off blindly. He could not remember
+whether any of the neighbors possessed long
+ladders or not. But as he came down to the street
+corner of the White property he saw a red box
+affixed to a telegraph pole on the edge of the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, bully!” gasped Roger, and immediately
+scrambled over the fence.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span></p>
+
+<p>He knew what that red box was for. It had
+been explained to him, and he had longed for a
+good reason for experimenting with it. You broke
+the little square of glass and pulled down the hook
+inside—-</p>
+
+<p>That is how Ned and Nat, whizzing homeward
+in their car, came to join the procession of the Fire
+Department racing out of town toward The
+Cedars.</p>
+
+<p>“Where’s the fire, Cal?” yelled Nat, seeing a
+man he knew riding on the ladder truck.</p>
+
+<p>“Right near your house, Mr. White. At any
+rate, that was the number pulled—that box by the
+corner of your mother’s place.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you hear that, Ned?” shouted his brother,
+and Ned, who was at the wheel, “let her out,”
+breaking every speed law of the country to flinders.</p>
+
+<p>The Fire Chief in his red racing car was only a
+few rods ahead of the Whites, therefore, when
+Ned whirled the automobile into the driveway.
+They saw a small boy, greatly excited, dancing up
+and down on the gravel beside the chief’s car.</p>
+
+<p>“Yep—he’s up on the stable roof, I tell you.
+We’ve got to use your extension ladders to get him
+down,” Roger was saying eagerly. “I didn’t mean
+for all of the things to come—the engine, and
+hose cart, and all. Just the ladders we wanted,”
+and Roger seemed amazed that his pulling the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span>
+hook of the fire-alarm box had not explained all
+this at fire headquarters down town.</p>
+
+<p>There was some excitement, as may well be
+believed in and about The Cedars. The Fire
+Chief was at first enraged; then he, as well as his
+men, laughed. They got Joe, still clinging to the
+stray pigeon, down from the roof, and then the
+firemen drilled back to town, reporting a “false
+alarm.”</p>
+
+<p>Major Dale, however, sent in a check to the
+Firemen’s Benefit Fund, and Joe and Roger were
+sent to bed at noon and were obliged to remain
+there until the next morning—a punishment that
+was likely long to be engraved upon their minds.</p>
+
+<p>The incident, however, had broken in upon a
+very serious conference between Dorothy Dale
+and her father. And nowadays their conferences
+were very likely to be for the discussion of but
+one subject:</p>
+
+<p>Garry Knapp and his affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Winnie, too, had been taken into Dorothy
+Dale’s confidence. “I want you both,” the
+girl said, bravely, “to meet Garry Knapp and decide
+for yourselves if he is not all I say he is. And
+to do that we must get him to come here.”</p>
+
+<p>“How will you accomplish it, Dorothy?” asked
+her aunt, still more than a little confused because
+of this entirely new departure upon the part of
+her heretofore demure niece.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p>
+
+<p>Dorothy explained. Another—a third—letter
+had come from Lance Petterby. He had identified
+Garry Knapp as the Dimples Knapp he had
+previously known upon the range. Knapp was
+about to sell a rundown ranch north of Desert
+City and adjoining the rough end of the great
+Hardin Estate, that now belonged to Major Dale,
+to some speculators in wheat lands. The speculators,
+Lance said, were “sure enough sharks.”</p>
+
+<p>“First of all have our lawyers out there make
+Mr. Knapp a much better offer for his land—quick,
+before Stiffbold and Lightly close with him,”
+Dorothy suggested. “Oh! I’ve thought it all out.
+Those land speculators will allow that option they
+took on Garry’s ranch to lapse. What is a hundred
+dollars to them? Then they will play a
+waiting game until they make him come to new
+terms—a much lower price even than they offered
+him in New York. He must not sell his land to
+them, and for a song.”</p>
+
+<p>“And then?” asked the major, his eyes bright
+with pride in his daughter’s forcefulness of character,
+as well as with amusement.</p>
+
+<p>“Have our lawyers bind the bargain with Mr.
+Knapp and ask him to come East to close the
+transaction with their principal. That’s <em>you</em>,
+Major. Meanwhile, have the lawyers send an
+expert to Mr. Knapp’s ranch to see if it is really
+promising wheat land if properly developed.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span></p>
+
+<p>“And then?” repeated her father.</p>
+
+<p>“If it <em>is</em>,” said Dorothy, laughing blithely,
+“when Garry shows up and you and Aunt Winnie
+approve of him, as I know you both will, offer
+to advance the money necessary to develop the
+wheat ranch instead of buying the land.</p>
+
+<p>“That,” Dorothy Dale said earnestly, “will
+give him the start in business life he needs. I
+know he has it in him to make good. He can expect
+no fortune from his uncle in Alaska, who is
+angry with him; he will <em>never</em> hear to using any
+of my money to help bring success; but in this way
+he will have his chance. I believe he will be independent
+in a few years.”</p>
+
+<p>“And, meanwhile, what of you?” cried her
+aunt.</p>
+
+<p>“I shall be waiting for him,” replied Dorothy
+with a smile that Tavia, had she seen it, would
+have pronounced “seraphic.”</p>
+
+<p>“Major! did you ever hear of such talk from
+a girl?” gasped Aunt Winnie.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said her brother, with immense satisfaction,
+and thumping approval on the floor with
+his cane. “Because there never was just such a
+girl since the world began as my little captain.</p>
+
+<p>“I want to see this wonderful Garry Knapp—don’t
+you, Sister? I’m sure he must be a perfectly
+wonderful young man to so stir our Dorothy.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span></p>
+
+<p>“No,” Dorothy said slowly shaking her head.
+“I know he is only wonderful in my eyes. But
+I am quite sure you and Aunt Winnie will commend
+my choice when you have met him—if we
+can only get him here!”</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII<br>
+<span class="fs80">NAT JUMPS AT A CONCLUSION</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>All this time Tavia and Nat were having anything
+but a happy life. Nat would not have admitted
+it for the world, but he wished he could
+leave home and never appear at The Cedars again
+until Tavia had gone.</p>
+
+<p>On her part, Tavia would have returned to Dalton
+before the new year had Dorothy allowed her
+to have her own way. Dorothy would not hear
+of such a thing.</p>
+
+<p>To make the situation worse for the pair of
+young people so tragically enduring their first
+vital misunderstanding, Ned and Jennie Hapgood
+were sailing upon a sea of blissful and unruffled
+happiness. Nat and Tavia could not help noting
+this fact. The feeling of the exalted couple for
+each other was so evident that even the Dale boys
+discussed it—and naturally with deep disgust.</p>
+
+<p>“Gee!” breathed Joe, scandalized. “Old Ned
+is so mushy over Jennie Hapgood that he goes
+around in a trance. He could tread on his own
+corns and not know it, his head is so far up in
+the clouds. Gee!”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p>
+
+<p>“<em>I</em> wouldn’t ever get so silly over a girl—not
+even our Dorothy,” Roger declared. “Would
+you, Joe?”</p>
+
+<p>“Not in a hundred years,” was his brother’s
+earnest response.</p>
+
+<p>The major admitted with a chuckle that Ned
+certainly was hard hit. The time set for Jennie
+Hapgood to return to Sunnyside Farm came and
+passed, and still many reasons were found for the
+prolongation of her visit. Ned went off to New
+York one day by himself and brought home at
+night something that made a prominent bulge in
+his lower right-hand vest pocket.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, <em>oh</em>, OH! Dorothy!” ejaculated Tavia, for
+the moment coming out of her own doldrums.
+“Do you know what it is? A Tiffany box! Nothing
+less!”</p>
+
+<p>“Dear old Ned,” said her chum, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>Ned and Jennie disappeared together right
+after dinner. Then, an hour later, they appeared
+in the drawing-room where the family was assembled
+and Ned led Jennie forward by her left
+hand—the fingers prominently extended.</p>
+
+<p>“White gold—platinum!” murmured Tavia,
+standing enthralled as she beheld the beautifully
+set stone.</p>
+
+<p>“Set old Ned back five hundred bucks if it did
+a cent,” growled Nat, under his breath and keeping
+in the background.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Jennie!” cried Dorothy, jumping up.</p>
+
+<p>But Aunt Winnie seemed to be nearest. She
+reached the happy couple before anybody else.</p>
+
+<p>“Ned needn’t tell me,” she said, with a little
+laugh and a little sob and putting both arms about
+Jennie. “Welcome, my daughter! Very welcome
+to the White family. I have for years tried to
+divide Dorothy with the major; now I am to have
+at least <em>one</em> daughter of my very own.”</p>
+
+<p>Did she flash a glance at Tavia standing in the
+background? Tavia thought so. The proud and
+headstrong girl was shot to the quick with the
+arrow of the thought that Mrs. White had been
+told by Nat of the difference between himself and
+Tavia and that the lady would never come to
+Tavia and ask that question on behalf of her
+younger son that the girl so desired her to ask.</p>
+
+<p>Never before had Tavia realized so keenly the
+great chasm between herself and Jennie Hapgood.
+Mrs. White welcomed Jennie so warmly, and was
+so glad, because Jennie was of the same level in
+society as the Whites. Both in blood and wealth
+Jennie was Ned’s equal.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia knew very well that by explaining to Nat
+about Lance Petterby’s letters she could easily
+bring that young man to his knees. In her heart,
+in the very fiber of the girl’s being, indeed, had
+grown the desire to have Dorothy Dale’s Aunt
+Winnie tell her that she, too, would be welcome in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span>
+the White family. Now Tavia doubted if Aunt
+Winnie would ever do that.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie was to go home to Sunnyside Farm the
+next day. This final decision had probably
+spurred Ned to action. Because of certain business
+matters in town which occupied both Ned
+and Nat at train time and the fact that Dorothy
+was busy with some domestic duty, it was Tavia
+who drove the <em>Fire Bird</em>, the Whites’ old car, to
+the station with Jennie Hapgood.</p>
+
+<p>A train from the West had come in a few minutes
+before the westbound one which Jennie was
+to take was due. Tavia, sitting in the car while
+Jennie ran to get her checks, saw a tall man carrying
+two heavy suitcases and wearing a broad-brimmed
+hat walking down the platform.</p>
+
+<p>“Why! if that doesn’t look——Surely it can’t
+be—I—I believe I’ve got ’em again!” murmured
+Tavia Travers.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly she shot out from behind the
+wheel, leaped to the platform, and ran straight for
+the tall figure.</p>
+
+<p>“Garry Knapp!” she exploded.</p>
+
+<p>“Why—why—Miss Travers!” responded the
+big young man, smiling suddenly and that “cute”
+little dimple just showing in his bronzed cheek.
+“You don’t mean to say you live in this man’s
+town?”</p>
+
+<p>He looked about the station in a puzzled way,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span>
+and, having dropped his bags to shake hands with
+her, rubbed the side of his head as though to
+awaken his understanding.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t understand your being here, Miss
+Travers,” he murmured.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, <em>I’m</em> visiting here,” she said, blithely.
+“But <em>you</em>——?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—I’m here on business. Or I think I am,”
+he said soberly. “How’s your—Miss Dale!
+<em>She</em> doesn’t live here, does she?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course. Didn’t you know?” demanded
+Tavia, eyeing him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>“No. Who—what’s this Major Dale to her,
+Miss Travers?” asked the young man and his
+heavy brows met for an instant over his nose.</p>
+
+<p>“Her father, of course, Mr. Knapp. Didn’t
+you know Dorothy’s father was the only Major
+Dale there <em>is</em>, and the nicest man there ever <em>was</em>?”</p>
+
+<p>“How should I know?” demanded Garry
+Knapp, contemplating Tavia with continued seriousness.
+“What is he—a real estate man?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why! didn’t you know?” Tavia asked, thinking
+quickly. “Didn’t I tell you that time that he
+was a close friend of Colonel Hardin, who owned
+that estate you told me joined your ranch there
+by Desert City?”</p>
+
+<p>“Uh-huh,” grunted the young man. “Seems to
+me you <em>did</em> tell me something about that. But I—I
+must have had my mind on something else.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span></p>
+
+<p>“On <em>somebody</em> else, you mean,” said Tavia,
+dimpling suddenly. “Well! Colonel Hardin left
+his place to Major Dale.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! that’s why, then. He wants to buy my
+holdings because his land joins mine,” said Garry
+Knapp, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia had her suspicions of the truth well
+aroused; but all she replied was:</p>
+
+<p>“I shouldn’t wonder, Mr. Knapp.”</p>
+
+<p>“I got a good offer—leastways, better than
+those sharks, Stiffbold and Lightly, would make
+me after they’d seen the ranch—from some lawyers
+out there. They planked down a thousand
+for an option, and told me to come East and close
+the deal with this Major Dale. And it never
+entered into this stupid head of mine that he was
+related to—to Miss Dale.”</p>
+
+<p>“Isn’t that funny?” giggled Tavia. Then, as
+Jennie appeared from the baggage room and the
+westbound train whistled for the station, she
+added: “Just wait for me until I see a friend off
+on this train, Mr. Knapp, and I’ll drive you out.”</p>
+
+<p>“Drive me out where?” asked Garry Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>“To see—er—<em>Major</em> Dale,” she returned, and
+ran away.</p>
+
+<p>When the train had gone she found the Westerner
+standing between his two heavy bags about
+where she had left him.</p>
+
+<p>“Those old suitcases look so natural,” she said,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span>
+laughing at his serious face. “Throw them into
+the tonneau and sit beside me in front. I’ll show
+you some driving.”</p>
+
+<p>“But look here! I can’t do this,” he objected.</p>
+
+<p>“You cannot do what?” demanded Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Are <em>you</em> staying with Miss Dale?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I am staying with Doro. I don’t
+know but I am more at home at The Cedars than
+I am at the Travers domicile in Dalton.”</p>
+
+<p>“But wait!” he begged. “There must be a
+hotel here?”</p>
+
+<p>“In North Birchland? Of course.”</p>
+
+<p>“You’d better take me there, Miss Travers, if
+you’ll be so kind. I want to secure a room.”</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing doing! You’ve got to come out to
+The Cedars with me,” Tavia declared. “Why,
+Do—I mean, of course, Major Dale would never
+forgive me if I failed to bring you, baggage and
+all. His friends do not stop at the North Birchland
+House I’d have you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, honestly, Miss Travers, I don’t like it.
+I don’t understand it. And Major Dale isn’t my
+friend.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, <em>isn’t</em> he? You just wait and see!” cried
+Tavia. “I didn’t know about your coming East.
+Of course, if it is business——”</p>
+
+<p>“That is it, exactly,” the young man said, nervously.
+“I—I couldn’t impose upon these people,
+you know.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Say! you want to sell your land, don’t you?”
+demanded Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Ye—es,” admitted Garry Knapp, slowly.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, if a man came out your way to settle
+a business matter, you wouldn’t let him go to a
+hotel, would you? You’d be angry,” said Tavia,
+sensibly, “if he insisted upon doing such a thing.
+Major Dale could not have been informed when
+you would arrive, or he would have had somebody
+here at the station to meet you.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. I didn’t tell the lawyers when I’d start,”
+said Garry.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t make a bad matter worse then,” laughed
+Tavia, her eyes twinkling as she climbed in and
+sat back of the wheel. “Hurry up. If you want
+to sell your land you’d better waste no more time
+getting out to The Cedars.”</p>
+
+<p>The Westerner got into the car in evident doubt.
+He suspected that he had been called East for
+something besides closing a real estate transaction.
+Tavia suspected so, too; and she was vastly
+amused.</p>
+
+<p>She drove slowly, for Garry began asking her
+for full particulars about Dorothy and the family.
+Tavia actually did not know anything about
+the proposed purchase of the Knapp ranch by her
+chum’s father. Dorothy had said not a word to
+her about Garry since their final talk some weeks
+before.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span></p>
+
+<p>At a place in the woods where there was not a
+house in sight, Tavia even stopped the car the
+better to give her full attention to Mr. Garry
+Knapp, and to talk him out of certain objections
+that seemed to trouble his mind.</p>
+
+<p>It was just here that Nat White, on a sputtering
+motorcycle he sometimes rode, passed the couple
+in the automobile. He saw Tavia talking earnestly
+to a fine-looking, broad-shouldered young
+man wearing a hat of Western style. She had an
+eager hand upon his shoulder and the stranger
+was evidently much interested in what the girl
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Nat did not even slow down. It is doubtful if
+Tavia noticed him at all. Nat went straight home,
+changed his clothes, flung a few things into a traveling
+bag, and announced to his mother that he
+was off for Boston to pay some long-promised visits
+to friends there and in Cambridge.</p>
+
+<p>Nat, with his usual impulsiveness, had jumped
+at a conclusion which, like most snap judgments,
+was quite incorrect. He rode to the railroad
+station by another way and so did not meet Tavia
+and Garry Knapp as they approached The
+Cedars.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV<br>
+<span class="fs80">THIN ICE</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dorothy spied the Fire Bird just as it turned
+in at the entrance gate. And she identified the
+person sitting beside her chum, too. Therefore,
+she had a few minutes in which to prepare for her
+meeting with Garry Knapp.</p>
+
+<p>She was on the porch when the car stopped, and
+her welcome to the young Westerner possessed
+just the degree of cordiality that it should.
+Neither by word nor look did she betray the fact
+that her heart’s action was accelerated, or that she
+felt a thrill of joy to think that the first of her
+moves in this intricate game had been successful.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, it would be Tavia’s good fortune
+to pick you up at the station,” she said, while
+Garry held her hand just a moment longer than
+was really necessary for politeness’ sake. “Had
+you telegraphed us——”</p>
+
+<p>“I hadn’t a thought that I was going to run up
+against Miss Travers or you, Miss Dale,” he said.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, then, this is a business visit?” and she
+laughed. “Entirely? You only wish to see Major
+Dale?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Well—now—that’s unfair,” he said, his eyes
+twinkling. “But I told Miss Travers she might
+drive me to the hotel.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, this will be your hotel while you remain, of
+course. Father would not hear of anything else
+I am sure.”</p>
+
+<p>“I can thank you, then, Miss Dale,” he said
+quietly and with a sudden serious mien, “for the
+chance to sell my ranch at a better price than those
+sharks were ready to give?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. You may thank Major Dale’s bump of
+acquisitiveness,” she said, laughing at him over
+her shoulder as she led the way into the house.
+“Having so much land already out there, like
+other great property owners, he is always looking
+for more.”</p>
+
+<p>If Garry Knapp was not assured that she was
+entirely frank upon this matter, he knew that his
+welcome was as warm as though he were really
+an old friend. He met Mrs. White almost at
+once, and Dorothy was delighted by her marked
+approval of him.</p>
+
+<p>Garry Knapp got to the major by slow degrees.
+Tavia marveled as she watched Dorothy Dale’s
+calm and assured methods. This was the demure,
+cautious girl whom she had always looked upon
+as being quite helpless when it came to managing
+“affairs” with members of the opposite sex. Tavia
+imagined she was quite able to manage any man—“put<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span>
+him in his place,” she termed it—much better
+than Dorothy Dale. But now!</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy quietly sent Joe and Roger out for
+Mr. Knapp’s bags and told them to take the bags
+up to an indicated room. She made no fuss about
+it, but took it for granted that Garry Knapp had
+come for a visit, not for a call.</p>
+
+<p>The young man from the West had to sit down
+and talk with Aunt Winnie. That lady proceeded
+in her good-humored and tactful way to draw him
+out. Aunt Winnie learned more about Garry
+Knapp in those few minutes than even Tavia had
+learned when she took dinner with the young man.
+And all the time the watchful Dorothy saw Garry
+Knapp growing in her aunt’s estimation.</p>
+
+<p>Ned came in. He had been fussing and fuming
+because business had kept him from personally
+seeing Jennie Hapgood aboard her train. He
+welcomed this big fellow from the West, perhaps,
+because he helped take Ned’s mind off his
+own affairs.</p>
+
+<p>“Come on up and dress for dinner,” Ned suggested,
+having gained Garry Knapp’s sole attention.
+“It’s pretty near time for the big eats, and
+mother is a stickler for the best bib and tucker at
+the evening meal.”</p>
+
+<p>“Great Scott!” gasped Garry Knapp in a panic.
+“You don’t mean dinner dress? I haven’t had on
+a swallowtail since I was in college.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Tuxedo will do,” Ned said lightly. “If you
+didn’t bring ’em I’ll lend you. I’m about as broad
+as you, my boy.”</p>
+
+<p>Garry Knapp was three or four years older than
+Ned, and that “my boy” sounded rather funny.
+However, the Westerner did not smile. He accepted
+the loan of the dinner coat and the vest
+without comment, but he looked very serious while
+he was dressing.</p>
+
+<p>They went down together to meet the girls in
+the drawing-room. Dorothy Dale and Tavia had
+dressed especially for the occasion. Tavia
+flaunted her fine feathers frankly; but demure
+Dorothy’s eyes shone more gloriously than her
+frock. Ned said:</p>
+
+<p>“You look scrumptious, Coz. And, of course,
+Tavia, you are a vision of delight. Where’s
+Nat?”</p>
+
+<p>“Nat?” questioned Tavia, her countenance falling.
+“Is—isn’t he upstairs?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, don’t you know?” Dorothy cried. “He’s
+gone to Boston. Left just before you came back
+from the station, Tavia.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, of all things!” Ned said. “I’d have
+gone with him if I’d really believed he meant it.
+Old grouch! He’s been talking of lighting out
+for a week. But I am glad,” he added cordially,
+looking at Garry Knapp, “that I did not go. Then
+I, too, might have missed meeting Mr. Knapp.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span></p>
+
+<p>Now, what was it kept Major Dale away from
+the dinner table that evening? His excuse was
+that a twinge or two of rheumatism kept him from
+appearing with the family when dinner was called.
+And yet Dorothy did not appear worried by her
+father’s absence as she ordinarily would have
+been. Tavia was secretly delighted by this added
+manifestation of Dorothy’s finesse. Garry Knapp
+could not find any excuse for withdrawing from
+the house until he had interviewed the major.</p>
+
+<p>As was usual at The Cedars, the evening meal
+was a lively and enjoyable occasion. Tavia successfully
+hid her chagrin at Nat’s absence; but
+Joe and Roger were this evening the life of the
+company.</p>
+
+<p>“The river’s frozen,” sang Roger, “and we’re
+going skating on it, Joe and I. Did you ever go
+skating, Mr. Knapp?” for Roger believed it only
+common politeness to bring the visitor into the
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>“Sure enough,” laughed Garry Knapp. “I
+used to be some skater, too.”</p>
+
+<p>“You’d better come,” said Roger. “It’s going
+to be moonlight—Popeye Jordan says so, and he
+knows, for his father lights the street lamps and
+this is one of the nights he doesn’t have to work.”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope Popeye hasn’t made a mistake—or
+Mr. Jordan, either—in reading the almanac,”
+Dorothy said, when the laugh had subsided.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span></p>
+
+<p>“You’d better come, too, Dorothy,” said Joe.
+“The river’s as smooth as glass.”</p>
+
+<p>“Let’s all go,” proposed Tavia, glad to be in
+anything active that would occupy her mind and
+perhaps would push out certain unpleasant
+thoughts that lodged there.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Knapp has no skates,” said Dorothy,
+softly.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t let that stop you,” the Westerner put
+in, smiling. “I can go and look on.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I guess we can give you a look <em>in</em>,” said
+Ned. “There’s Nat’s skates. I think he didn’t
+take ’em with him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Will they fit Mr. Knapp?” asked Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Dead sure that nobody’s got a bigger foot
+than old Nat,” said his brother wickedly. “If
+Mr. Knapp can get into my coat, he’ll find no
+trouble in getting into Nat’s shoes.”</p>
+
+<p>Ned rather prided himself on his own small and
+slim foot and often took a fling at the size of his
+brother’s shoes. But now, Nat not being present,
+he hoped to “get a rise” out of Tavia. The girl,
+however, bit her lip and said nothing. She was
+not even defending Nat these days.</p>
+
+<p>It was concluded that all should go—that is, all
+the young people then present. Nat and Jennie’s
+absence made what Ned called “a big hole” in the
+company.</p>
+
+<p>“You be good to me, Dot,” he said to his cousin,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span>
+as they waited in the side hall for Tavia to come
+down. “I’m going to miss Jennie awfully. I want
+to skate with you and tell you all about it.”</p>
+
+<p>“All about what?” demanded his cousin, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, all about how we came to—to—to find
+out we cared for each other,” Ned whispered,
+blunderingly enough but very earnest. “You
+know, Dot, it’s just wonderful——”</p>
+
+<p>“You go on, dear,” said Dorothy, poking a
+gloved forefinger at him. “If you two sillies didn’t
+know you were in love with each other till you
+brought home the ring the other night, why everybody
+else in the neighborhood was aware of the
+fact æons and æons ago!”</p>
+
+<p>“Huh?” grunted Ned, his eyes blinking in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>“It was the most transparent thing in the world.
+Everybody around here saw how the wind blew.”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t mean it!” said the really astonished
+Ned. “Well! and I didn’t know it myself till I
+began to think how bad a time I was going to
+have without Jennie. I wish old Nat would play
+up to Tavia.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy looked at him scornfully. “Well! of
+all the stupid people who ever lived, most men are
+<em>it</em>,” she thought. But what she said aloud was:</p>
+
+<p>“I want to skate with Mr. Knapp, Nedward.
+You know he is our guest. You take Tavia.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Pshaw!” muttered her cousin as the girl in
+question appeared and Garry Knapp and the boys
+came in from the porch where the Westerner had
+been trying on Nat’s skating boots. “I can’t talk
+to the flyaway as I can to you. But I don’t blame
+you for wanting to skate with Knapp. He seems
+like a mighty fine fellow.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy was getting the family’s opinion, one
+by one, of the man Tavia wickedly whispered
+Dorothy had “set her cap” for. The younger boys
+were plainly delighted with Garry Knapp. When
+the party got to the river Joe and Roger would
+scarcely let the guest and Dorothy get away by
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Garry Knapp skated somewhat awkwardly at
+first, for he had not been on the ice for several
+years. But he was very sure footed and it was evident
+utterly unafraid.</p>
+
+<p>He soon “got the hang of it,” as he said, and
+was then ready to skate away with Dorothy. The
+Dale boys tried to keep up; but with one of his
+smiles into the girl’s face, Knapp suddenly all but
+picked her up and carried her off at a great pace
+over the shining, black ice.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! you take my breath!” she cried half
+aloud, yet clinging with delight to his arm.</p>
+
+<p>“We’ll dodge the little scamps and then get
+down to <em>talk</em>,” he said. “I want to know all about
+it.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span></p>
+
+<p>“All about what?” she returned, looking at him
+with shy eyes and a fluttering at her heart that she
+was glad he could not know about.</p>
+
+<p>“About this game of getting me East again.
+I can see your fine Italian hand in this, Miss Dale.
+Does your father really need my land?”</p>
+
+<p>He said it bluntly, and although he smiled,
+Dorothy realized there was something quite serious
+behind his questioning.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, you see, after you had left the hotel in
+New York, Tavia and I overheard those two
+awful men you agreed to sell to talking about the
+bargain,” she said rather stumblingly, but with
+earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>“You did!” he exclaimed. “The sharks!”</p>
+
+<p>“That is exactly what they were. They said
+after Stiffbold got out West he would try to beat
+you down in your price, although at the terms
+agreed upon he knew he was getting a bargain.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh-ho!” murmured Garry Knapp. “That’s
+the way of it, eh? They had me scared all right.
+I gave them an option for thirty days for a hundred
+dollars and they let the option run out. I
+was about to accept a lower price when your father’s
+lawyers came around.”</p>
+
+<p>“You see, Tavia and I were both interested,”
+Dorothy explained. “And Tavia wrote to a
+friend of ours, Lance Petterby——”</p>
+<br>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p196" style="max-width: 40.5625em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p196.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center no-indent">IT SEEMED TO DOROTHY THAT THEY FAIRLY FLEW OVER THE
+OPEN WATER.</p>
+
+<div>
+ <p class="fs80" style="float: left;"><em>Dorothy Dale’s Engagement</em></p>
+ <p class="fs80" style="float: right;"><em>Page <a href="#Page_198">198</a></em></p>
+</div>
+<div style="clear:both;"></div>
+</figcaption>
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p>“Ah! that’s why old Lance came riding over
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span>to Bob Douglass’ place, was it?” murmured Garry.</p>
+
+<p>“Then,” said Dorothy, bravely, “I mentioned
+the matter to father, and he is always willing to
+buy property adjoining the Hardin place. Thinks
+it is a good investment. He and Aunt Winnie,
+too, have a high opinion of that section of the
+country. They believe it is <em>the</em> coming wheat-growing
+land of the States.”</p>
+
+<p>Garry’s mind seemed not to be absorbed by
+this phase of the subject. He said abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>“Your folks are mighty rich, Miss Dale, aren’t
+they?”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy started at this blunt and unusual question,
+but, after a moment’s hesitation, decided to
+answer as frankly as the question had been put.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! Aunt Winnie married a wealthy man—yes,”
+she said. “Professor Winthrop White. But
+we were very poor, indeed, until a few years ago
+when a distant relative left the major some property.
+Then, of course, this Hardin estate is a
+big thing.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said Garry, shortly. “And you are
+going to be wealthy in your own right when you
+are of age. So your little friend told me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” sighed Dorothy. “Tavia <em>will</em> talk. The
+same relative who left father his first legacy, tied
+up some thousands for poor little me.”</p>
+
+<p>Immediately Garry Knapp talked of other
+things. The night was fine and the moon, a silver<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span>
+paring, hung low above the hills. The stars were
+so bright that they were reflected in the black ice
+under the skaters’ ringing steel.</p>
+
+<p>Garry and Dorothy had shot away from the
+others and were now well down the river toward
+the milldam. So perfectly had the ice frozen that
+when they turned the blades of the skates left
+long, soaplike shavings behind them.</p>
+
+<p>With clasped hands, they took the stroke together
+perfectly. Never had Dorothy skated with
+a partner that suited her so well. Nor had she
+ever sped more swiftly over the ice.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, she felt Garry’s muscles stiffen and
+saw his head jerk up as he stared ahead.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it?” she murmured, her own eyes so
+misty that she could not see clearly. Then in a
+moment she uttered a frightened “Oh!”</p>
+
+<p>They had crossed the river, and now, on coming
+back, there unexpectedly appeared a long, open
+space before them. The water was so still that
+at a distance the treacherous spot looked just like
+the surrounding ice.</p>
+
+<p>The discovery was made too late for them to
+stop. Indeed, Garry Knapp increased his speed,
+picked her up in his arms and it seemed to Dorothy
+that they fairly flew over the open water,
+landing with a resonant ring of steel upon the
+safe ice beyond.</p>
+
+<p>For the moment that she was held tightly in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span>
+young man’s arms, she clung to him with something
+besides fear.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Garry!” she gasped when he set her down
+again.</p>
+
+<p>“Some jump, eh?” returned the young man
+coolly.</p>
+
+<p>They skated on again without another word.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV<br>
+<span class="fs80">GARRY BALKS</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The major was ready to see Garry Knapp at
+nine o’clock the next morning. He was suffering
+one of his engagements with the enemy rheumatism,
+and there really was a strong reason for his
+having put off this interview until the shy Westerner
+had become somewhat settled at The Cedars
+as a guest.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy took Garry up to the major’s room
+after breakfast, and they found him well-wrapped
+in a rug, sitting in his sun parlor which overlooked
+the lawns of The Cedars.</p>
+
+<p>The young man from the West could not help
+being impressed by the fact that he was the guest
+of a family that was well supplied with this world’s
+goods—one that was used to luxury as well as
+comfort. Is it strange that the most impressive
+point to him was the fact that he had no right to
+even <em>think</em> of trying to win Dorothy Dale?</p>
+
+<p>When he had awakened that morning and
+looked over the luxurious furnishings of his chamber
+and the bathroom and dressing room connected
+with it, he had told himself:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Garford Knapp, you are in wrong! This is
+no place for a cowpuncher from the Western
+plains. What little tad of money you can sell
+your ranch for won’t put you in any such class as
+these folk belong to.</p>
+
+<p>“And as for thinking of that girl—Great Scot!
+I’d make a fine figure asking any girl used to such
+luxury as this to come out and share a shack in
+Desert City or thereabout, while I punched cattle,
+or went to keeping store, or tried to match my
+wits in real estate with the sharks that exploit land
+out there.</p>
+
+<p>“Forget it, Garford!” he advised himself,
+grimly. “If you can make an honest deal with
+this old major, make it and then clear out. This
+is no place for you.”</p>
+
+<p>He had, therefore, braced himself for the interview.
+The major, eyeing him keenly as he
+walked down the long room beside Dorothy, made
+his own judgment—as he always did—instantly.
+When Dorothy had gone he said frankly to the
+young man:</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Knapp, I’m glad to see you. I have heard
+so much about you that I feel you and I are already
+friends.”</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you, sir,” said Garry, quietly, eyeing
+the major with as much interest as the latter eyed
+him.</p>
+
+<p>“When my daughter was talking one day about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span>
+you and the land you had in the market adjoining
+the Hardin tract it struck me that perhaps it
+would be a good thing to buy,” went on the major,
+briskly. “So I set our lawyers on your trail.”</p>
+
+<p>“So Miss Dorothy tells me, sir,” the young man
+said.</p>
+
+<p>“Now, they know all about the offer made you
+by those sharpers, Stiffbold &amp; Lightly. They advised
+me to risk a thousand dollar option on your
+ranch and I telegraphed them to make you the
+offer.”</p>
+
+<p>“And you may believe I was struck all of a
+heap, sir,” said the young man, still eyeing the
+major closely. “I’ll tell you something: You’ve
+got me guessing.”</p>
+
+<p>“How’s that?” asked the amused Major Dale.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, people don’t come around and hand me
+a thousand dollars every day—and just on a gamble.”</p>
+
+<p>“Sure I am gambling?” responded the major.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m not sure of anything,” admitted Garry
+Knapp. “But it looks like that. I accepted the
+certified check—I have it with me. I don’t know
+but I’d better hand it back to you, Major, for I
+think you have been misinformed about the real
+value of the ranch. The price per acre your lawyers
+offer is away above the market.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hey!” exclaimed Major Dale. “You call
+yourself a business man?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Not much of one, I suppose,” said Garry.
+“I’ll sell you my ranch quick enough at a fair
+price. But this looks as if you were doing me a
+favor. I think you have been influenced.”</p>
+
+<p>“Eh?” stammered the astounded old gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>“By your daughter,” said Garry, quietly. “I’m
+conceited enough to think it is because of Miss
+Dale that you make me the offer you do.”</p>
+
+<p>“Any crime in that?” demanded the major.</p>
+
+<p>“No crime exactly,” rejoined Garry with one of
+his rare smiles, “unless I take advantage of it.
+But I’m not the sort of fellow, Major Dale, who
+can willingly accept more than I can give value
+for. Your offer for my ranch is beyond reason.”</p>
+
+<p>“Would you have thought so if another
+man—somebody instead of my daughter’s
+father——” and his eyes twinkled as he said it,
+“had made you the offer?”</p>
+
+<p>Garry Knapp was silent and showed confusion.
+The major went on with some grimness of expression:</p>
+
+<p>“But if your conscience troubles you and you
+wish to call the deal off, now is your chance to return
+the check.”</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Garry pulled his wallet from his
+pocket and produced the folded green slip, good
+for a thousand dollars at the Desert City Trust
+Company.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span></p>
+
+<p>“There you are, sir,” he said quietly, and laid
+the paper upon the arm of the major’s chair.</p>
+
+<p>The old gentleman picked it up, identified it, and
+slowly tore the check into strips, eyeing the young
+man meanwhile.</p>
+
+<p>“Then,” he said, calmly, “<em>that</em> phase of the matter
+is closed. But you still wish to sell your
+ranch?”</p>
+
+<p>“I do, Major Dale. But I can’t accept what
+anybody out there would tell you was a price out
+of all reason.”</p>
+
+<p>“Except my lawyers,” suggested the major.</p>
+
+<p>“Well——”</p>
+
+<p>“Young man, you have done a very foolish
+thing,” said Major Dale. “A ridiculous thing,
+perhaps. Unless you are shrewder than you
+seem. My lawyers have had your land thoroughly
+cruised. You have the best wheat land, in embryo,
+anywhere in the Desert City region.”</p>
+
+<p>Garry started and stared at him for a minute
+without speaking. Then he sighed and shrugged
+his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>“That may be, sir. Perhaps you <em>do</em> know more
+about the intrinsic value of my ranch than I do
+myself. But I know it would cost a mint of money
+to develop that old rundown place into wheat
+soil.”</p>
+
+<p>“Humph! and if you had this—er—<em>mint</em> of
+money, what would you do?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Do? I’d develop it myself!” cried the young
+man, startled into enthusiastic speech. “I know
+there is a fortune there. <em>You</em> are making big
+profits on the Hardin place already, I understand.
+Cattle have gone out; but wheat has come to stay.
+Oh, I know all about that! But what’s the use?”</p>
+
+<p>“Have you tried to raise money for the development
+of your land?” asked the major quietly.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve talked to some bankers, yes. Nothing
+doing. The machinery and fertilizer cost at the
+first would be prohibitive. A couple of crop failures
+would wipe out everything, and the banks
+don’t want land on their hands. As for the money-lenders—well,
+Major Dale, you can imagine what
+sort of hold <em>they</em> demand when they deal with a
+person in my situation.”</p>
+
+<p>“And you would rather have what seems to you
+a fair price for your land and get it off your
+hands?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll accept a fair price—yes. But I can’t accept
+any favors,” said the young man, his face
+gloomy enough but as stubborn as ever.</p>
+
+<p>“I see,” said the major. “Then what will you
+do with the money you get?”</p>
+
+<p>“Try to get into some business that will make
+me more,” and Garry looked up again with a
+sudden smile.</p>
+
+<p>“Raising wheat does not attract you, then?”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s the biggest prospect in that section. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span>
+know it has cattle raising and even mining backed
+clear across the board. But it’s no game for a
+little man with little capital.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then why not get into it?” asked Major Dale,
+still speaking quietly. “You seem enthusiastic.
+Enthusiasm and youth—why, my boy, they will
+carry a fellow far!”</p>
+
+<p>Garry looked at him in a rather puzzled way.
+“But don’t I tell you, Major Dale, that the banks
+will not let me have money?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll let you have the money—and at a fair interest,”
+said Major Dale.</p>
+
+<p>Garry smiled slowly and put out his hand. The
+major quickly took it and his countenance began
+to brighten. But what Garry said caused the old
+gentleman’s expression to become suddenly doleful:</p>
+
+<p>“I can’t accept your offer, sir. I know that it
+is a favor—a favor that is suggested by Miss
+Dorothy. If it were not for her, you would never
+have thought of sending for me or making either
+of these more than kind propositions you have
+made.</p>
+
+<p>“I shall have to say no—and thank you.”</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI<br>
+<span class="fs80">SERIOUS THOUGHTS</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The young people at The Cedars had taken
+Garry Knapp right into the heart of their social
+life. He knew he was welcome and the hospitality
+shown him was a most delightful experience for
+the young Westerner.</p>
+
+<p>But “business was business.” He could not see
+wherein he had any right to accept a favor from
+Major Dale because Dorothy wished her father
+to aid him. That was not Garry’s idea of a manly
+part—to use the father of the girl you love as a
+staff in getting on in the world.</p>
+
+<p>There was no conceit in Garry’s belief that he
+had tacit permission, was it right to accept it, to
+try to win Dorothy Dale’s heart and hand. He
+was just as well assured in his soul that Dorothy
+had been attracted to him as he was that she had
+gained his affection. “Love like a lightning bolt,”
+Tavia had called Dorothy’s interest in Garry
+Knapp. It was literally true in the young man’s
+case. He had fallen in love with Dorothy Dale
+almost at first sight.</p>
+
+<p>Every time he saw her during that all too brief<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span>
+occasion in New York his feeling for the girl had
+grown. By leaps and bounds it increased until,
+just as Tavia had once said, if Dorothy had been
+in Tavia’s financial situation Garry Knapp would
+never have left New York without first learning
+whether or not there was any possible chance of
+his winning the girl he knew he loved.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was revealed to him that he had that
+chance—and bitterly did he regret the knowledge.
+For he gained it at the cost of his peace of mind.</p>
+
+<p>It is one thing to long for the object forbidden
+us; it is quite another thing to know that we may
+claim that longed-for object if honor did not interfere.
+To Garry Knapp’s mind he could not
+meet what was Dorothy Dale’s perfectly proper
+advances, and keep his own self-respect.</p>
+
+<p>Were he more sanguine, or a more imaginative
+young man, he might have done so. But Garry
+Knapp’s head was filled with hard, practical common
+sense. Young men and more often young
+girls allow themselves to become engaged with
+little thought for the future. Garry was not that
+kind. Suppose Dorothy Dale did accept his attentions
+and was willing to wait for him until he
+could win out in some line of industrial endeavor
+that would afford the competence that he believed
+he should possess before marrying a girl used to
+the luxuries Dorothy was used to, Garry Knapp
+felt it would be wrong to accept the sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span></p>
+
+<p>The chances of business life, especially for a
+young man with the small experience and the small
+capital he would have, were too great. To “tie a
+girl up” under such circumstances was a thing
+Garry could not contemplate and keep his self-respect.
+He would not, he told himself, be led
+even to admit by word or look that he desired to
+be Dorothy’s suitor.</p>
+
+<p>To hide this desire during the few days he remained
+at The Cedars was the hardest task Garry
+Knapp had ever undertaken. If Dorothy was
+demure and modest she was likewise determined.
+Her happiness, she felt, was at stake and although
+she could but admire the attitude Garry held upon
+this momentous question she did not feel that he
+was right.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, what does it matter about money—mere
+money?” she said one night to Tavia, confessing
+everything when her chum had crept into her bed
+with her after the lights were out. “I believe I
+care for money less than he does.”</p>
+
+<p>“You bet you do!” ejaculated Tavia, vigorously.
+“Just at present that young cowboy person
+is caring more for money than Ananias did.
+Money looks bigger to him than anything else in
+the world. With money he could have you, Doro
+Doodlekins—don’t you see?”</p>
+
+<p>“But he can have me without!” wailed Dorothy,
+burying her head in the pillow.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Oh, no he can’t,” Tavia said wisely and quietly.
+“You know he can’t. If you could tempt him to
+throw up his principles in the matter, you know
+very well, Doro, that you would be heartbroken.”</p>
+
+<p>“What?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes you would. You wouldn’t want a young
+man dangling after you who had thrown aside his
+self-respect for a girl. Now, would you?” And
+without waiting for an answer she continued: “Not
+that I approve of his foolishness. Some men <em>are</em>
+that way, however. Thank heaven I am not a
+man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! I’m glad you’re not, either,” confessed
+Dorothy with her soft lips now against Tavia’s
+cheek.</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you, ma’am. I have often thought I’d
+like to be of the hemale persuasion; but never, no
+more!” declared Tavia, with vigor. “Suppose <em>I</em>
+should then be afflicted with an ingrowing conscience
+about taking money from the woman I
+married? Whe-e-e-ew!”</p>
+
+<p>“He wouldn’t have to,” murmured Dorothy,
+burying her head again and speaking in a muffled
+voice. “I’d give up the money.”</p>
+
+<p>“And if he had any sense or unselfishness at all
+he wouldn’t let you do <em>that</em>,” snapped Tavia.
+“No. You couldn’t get along without much money
+now, Dorothy.”</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense——”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span></p>
+
+<p>“It is the truth. I know I should be hopelessly
+unhappy myself if I had to go home and live again
+just as they do there. I have been spoiled,” said
+Tavia, her voice growing lugubrious. “I want
+wealth—luxuries—and everything good that
+money buys. Yes, Doro, when it comes <em>my</em> time
+to become engaged, I must get a wealthy man or
+none at all. I shall be put up at auction——”</p>
+
+<p>“Tavia! How you talk! Ridiculous!” exclaimed
+Dorothy. “You talk like a heathen.”</p>
+
+<p>“Am one when it comes to money matters,”
+groaned the girl. “I have got to marry
+money——”</p>
+
+<p>“If Nat White were as poor as a church mouse,
+you’d marry him in a minute!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—er—well,” sighed Tavia, “Nat is not going
+to ask me, I am afraid.”</p>
+
+<p>“He would in a minute if you’d tell him about
+those Lance Petterby letters.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t you dare tell him, Dorothy Dale!” exclaimed
+Tavia, almost in fear. “You must not.
+Now, promise.”</p>
+
+<p>“I have promised,” her friend said gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>“And see that you stick to it. I know,” said
+Tavia, “that I could bring Nat back to me by explaining.
+But there should be no need of explaining.
+He should know that—that—oh, well,
+what’s the use of talking! It’s all off!” and Tavia
+flounced around and buried her nose in the pillow.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span></p>
+
+<p>Dorothy’s wits were at work, however. In the
+morning she “put a flea in Ned’s ear,” as Tavia
+would have said, and Ned hurried off to the telegraph
+office to send a day letter to his brother.
+Dorothy did not censor that telegraph despatch
+or this section of it would never have gone over
+the wire:</p>
+<br>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“Come back home and take a squint at the
+cowboy D. has picked out for herself.”</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII<br>
+<span class="fs80">“IT’S ALL OFF!”</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>By this time even Ned, dense as he sometimes
+showed himself to be, was aware of how things
+stood between the handsome stranger from the
+West and his cousin Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>Ned’s heart was particularly warm at this juncture.
+He spent a good two hours every forenoon
+writing a long letter to Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>“What under the sun he finds to write about
+gets <em>me</em>,” declared Tavia. “He must indite sonnets
+to her eyebrows or the like. I never did believe
+that Ned White would fall so low as to be a
+poet.”</p>
+
+<p>“Love plays funny tricks with us,” sighed Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“Huh!” ejaculated Tavia, wide-eyed. “Do you
+feel like writing poetry yourself, Doro Dale? I
+vum!”</p>
+
+<p>However, to return to Ned, when his letter
+writing was done he was at the beck and call of
+the girls or was off with Garry Knapp for the rest
+of the day. Toward Garry he showed the same
+friendliness that his mother displayed and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span>
+major showed. They all liked the young man
+from Desert City; and they could not help admiring
+his character, although they could not believe
+him either wise or just to Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>The situation was delicate in the extreme. As
+Dorothy and Garry had never approached the subject
+of their secret attachment for each other, and
+now, of course, did not speak of it to the others,
+not even Ned could blunder into any opening
+wherein he might “out with his opinion” to the
+Westerner.</p>
+
+<p>Garry Knapp showed nothing but the most gentlemanly
+regard for Dorothy. After that first
+evening on the ice, he did not often allow himself
+to be left alone in her company. He knew very
+well wherein his own weakness lay.</p>
+
+<p>He talked frankly of his future intentions. It
+had been agreed between him and Major Dale
+that the old Knapp ranch should be turned over to
+the Hardin estate lawyers when Garry went back
+West at a price per acre that was generous, as
+Garry said, but not so much above the market
+value that he would be “ashamed to look the lawyers
+in the face when he took the money.”</p>
+
+<p>Just what Garry would do with these few thousands
+he did not know. His education had been a
+classical one. He had taken up nothing special
+save mineralogy, and that only because of Uncle
+Terry’s lifelong interest in “prospects.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span></p>
+
+<p>“I boned like a good fellow,” he told Ned, “on
+that branch just to please the old fellow. Of
+course, I’d tagged along with him on a burro on
+many a prospecting trip when I was a kid, and had
+learned a lot of prospector’s lore from the dear
+old codger.</p>
+
+<p>“But what the old prospector knows about his
+business is a good deal like what the old-fashioned
+farmer knows about growing things. He does
+certain things because they bring results, but the
+old farmer doesn’t know why. Just so with the
+old-time prospector. Uncle Terry’s scientific
+knowledge of minerals wasn’t a spoonful. I
+showed him things that made his eyes bug out—as
+we say in the West,” and Garry laughed reminiscently.</p>
+
+<p>“I shouldn’t have thought he’d ever have quarreled
+with you,” said Ned, having heard this fact
+from the girls. “You must have been helpful to
+him.”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s the reef we were wrecked on,” said
+Garry, shaking his head rather sadly.</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t mean it! How?” queried Ned.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I’ll tell you. I don’t talk of it much.
+Of course, you understand Uncle Terry is one of
+the old timers. He’s lived a rough life and associated
+with rough men for most of it. And his
+slant on moral questions is not—well—er—what
+yours and mine would be, White.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span></p>
+
+<p>“I see,” said Ned, nodding. “You collided on
+a matter of ethics?”</p>
+
+<p>“As you might say,” admitted Garry. “There
+are abandoned diggings all over the West, especially
+where gold was found in rich deposits that
+can now be dug over and, by scientific methods,
+made to yield comfortable fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, in the early rush the metal, silver, was
+not thought of! The miners cursed the black stuff
+which got in their way and later proved to be almost
+pure silver ore. Other valuable metals were
+neglected, too. The miners could see nothing but
+yellow. They were gold crazy.”</p>
+
+<p>“I see,” Ned agreed. “It must have been great
+times out there in those early days.”</p>
+
+<p>“Ha!” exclaimed Garry. “For every ounce of
+gold mined in the old times there was a man
+wasted. The early gold mining cost more in men
+than a war, believe me! However, that isn’t the
+point, or what I was telling you about.</p>
+
+<p>“Some time after I left the university Uncle
+Terry wanted me to go off on a prospecting trip
+with him and I went—just for the holiday, you
+understand. These last few years he hasn’t made
+a strike. He has plenty of money, anyway; but
+the wanderlust of the old prospector seizes him
+and he just has to pack up and go.</p>
+
+<p>“We struck Seeper’s Gulch. It was some strike
+in its day, about thirty years ago. The gold hunters<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span>
+dug fortunes out of that gulch, and then the
+Chinese came in and raked over and sifted the
+refuse. You’d think there wasn’t ten cents worth
+of valuable metal left in that place, wouldn’t
+you?”</p>
+
+<p>Ned nodded, keenly interested in the story.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, that’s what the old man thought. He
+made all kinds of jokes over a squatter’s family
+that had picketed there and were digging and toiling
+over the played out claims.</p>
+
+<p>“It seemed that they held legal title to a big
+patch of the gulch. Some sharper had sawed off
+the claim on them for good, hard-earned money;
+and here they were, broke and desperate. Why!
+there hadn’t been any gold mined there for years
+and years, and their title, although perfectly legal,
+wasn’t worth a cent—or so it seemed.</p>
+
+<p>“Uncle Terry tried to show them that. They
+were stubborn. They had to be, you see,” said
+Garry, shaking his head. “Every hope they had
+in the world was right in that God-forsaken gulch.</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” he sighed, “I got to mooning around,
+impatient to be gone, and I found something. It
+was so plain that I wonder I didn’t fall over it
+and break my neck,” and Garry laughed.</p>
+
+<p>“What was it? Not gold?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. Copper. And a good, healthy lead of
+it. I traced the vein some distance before I would
+believe it myself. And the bulk of it seemed to lie<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span>
+right inside the boundaries of that supposedly
+worthless claim those poor people had bought.</p>
+
+<p>“I didn’t dare tell anybody at first. I had to
+figure out how she could be mined (for copper mining
+isn’t like washing gold dust) and how the ore
+could be taken to the crusher. The old roads were
+pretty good, I found. It wouldn’t be much of a
+haul from Seeper’s Gulch to town.</p>
+
+<p>“Then I told Uncle Terry—and showed him.”</p>
+
+<p>Ned waited, looking at Garry curiously.</p>
+
+<p>“That—that’s where he and I locked horns,”
+sighed Garry. “Uncle Terry was for offering to
+buy the claim for a hundred dollars. He had that
+much in his jeans and the squatters were desperate—meat
+and meal all out and not enough gold in
+the bottom of the pans to color a finger-ring.”</p>
+
+<p>He was silent again for a moment, and then continued:</p>
+
+<p>“I couldn’t see it. To take advantage of the
+ignorance of that poor family wasn’t a square deal.
+Uncle Terry lost his head and then lost his temper.
+To stop him from making any such deal I
+out with my story and showed those folks just
+where they stood. A little money would start ’em,
+and I lent them that——”</p>
+
+<p>“But your Uncle Terry?” asked Ned, curiously.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, he went off mad. I saw the squatters
+started right and then made for home. I was
+some time getting there——”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span></p>
+
+<p>“You cleaned yourself out helping the owners
+of the claim?” put in Ned, shrewdly.</p>
+
+<p>“Why—yes, I did. But that was nothing. I’d
+been broke before. I got a job here and there to
+carry me along. But when I reached home Uncle
+Terry had hiked out for Alaska and left a letter
+with a lawyer for me. I was the one bad egg in
+the family,” and Garry laughed rather ruefully,
+“so he said. He’d rather give his money to build
+a rattlesnake home than to me. So that’s where
+we stand to-day. And you see, White, I did not
+exactly prepare myself for any profession or any
+business, depending as I was on Uncle Terry’s
+bounty.”</p>
+
+<p>“Tough luck,” announced Ned White.</p>
+
+<p>“It was very foolish on my part. No man
+should look forward to another’s shoes. If I had
+gone ahead with the understanding that I had my
+own row to hoe when I got through school, believe
+me, I should have picked my line long before I
+left the university and prepared accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>“I figure that I’m set back several years. With
+this little bunch of money your uncle is going to
+pay me for my old ranch I have got to get into
+something that will begin to turn me a penny at
+once. Not so easy to do, Mr. White.”</p>
+
+<p>“But what about the folks you steered into the
+copper mine?” asked Ned.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, they are making out fairly well. It was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span>
+no great fortune, but a good paying proposition
+and may keep going for years. Copper is away
+up now, you know. They paid me back the loan
+long ago. But poor old Uncle Terry—well, he is
+still sore, and I guess he will remain so for the
+remainder of his natural. I’m sorry for him.”</p>
+
+<p>“And not for yourself?” asked Ned, slyly.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, I’d be glad if he’d back me in something.
+Developing my ranch into wheat land, for instance.
+Money lies that way, I believe. But it
+takes two or three years to get going and lots of
+money for machinery. Can’t raise wheat out there
+in a small way. It means tractors, and gangplows
+and all such things. Whew! no use thinking of
+that now,” and Garry heaved a final sigh.</p>
+
+<p>He had not asked Ned to keep the tale to himself;
+therefore, the family knew the particulars
+of Garry Knapp’s trouble with his uncle in a short
+time. It was the one thing needed to make Major
+Dale, at least, desire to keep in touch with the
+young Westerner.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m not surprised that he looks upon any understanding
+with Dorothy in the way he does,”
+the major said to Aunt Winnie. “He is a high-minded
+fellow—no doubt of it. And I believe he
+is no namby-pamby. He will go far before he gets
+through. I’ll prophesy that.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, my dear Major,” said his sister, with a
+rather tremulous smile, “it may be years before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span>
+such an honorable young man as Garry Knapp will
+acquire a competence sufficient to encourage him
+to come after our Dorothy.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well—er——”</p>
+
+<p>“And they need each other <em>now</em>,” went on
+Mrs. White, with assurance, “while they are young
+and can get the good of youth and of life itself.
+Not after their hearts are starved by long and impatient
+waiting.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, the young idiot!” growled the major,
+shaking his head.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Winnie laughed, although there was still
+a tremor in her voice. “You call him high-minded
+and an idiot——”</p>
+
+<p>“He is both,” growled Major Dale. “Perhaps,
+to be cynical, one might say that in this day and
+generation the two attributes go together! I—I
+wish I knew the way out.”</p>
+
+<p>“So do I,” sighed Mrs. White. “For Dorothy’s
+sake,” she added.</p>
+
+<p>“For both their sakes,” said the major. “For,
+believe me, this young man isn’t having a very
+good time, either.”</p>
+
+<p>Tavia wished she might “cut the Gordian
+knot,” as she expressed it. Ned would have gladly
+shown Garry a way out of the difficulty. And
+Dorothy Dale could do nothing!</p>
+
+<p>“What helpless folk we girls are, after all,” she
+confessed to Tavia. “I thought I was being so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span>
+bold, so brave, in getting Garry to come East. I
+believed I had solved the problem through father’s
+aid. And look at it now! No farther toward
+what I want than before.”</p>
+
+<p>“Garry Knapp is a—a chump!” exclaimed
+Tavia, with some heat.</p>
+
+<p>“But a very lovable chump,” added Dorothy,
+smiling patiently. “Oh, dear! It must be his decision,
+not mine, after all. I tell you, even the
+most modern of girls are helpless in the end. The
+man decides.”</p>
+
+<p>Nat came back to North Birchland in haste. It
+needed only a word—even from his brother—to
+bring him. Perhaps he would have met Tavia
+as though no misunderstanding had arisen between
+them had she been willing to ignore their difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>But when he kissed Dorothy and his mother,
+and turned to Tavia, she put out her hand and
+looked Nat sternly in the eye. He knew better
+than to make a joke of his welcome home with
+her. She had raised the barrier herself and she
+meant to keep it up.</p>
+
+<p>“The next time you kiss me it must be in solemn
+earnest.”</p>
+
+<p>She had said that to Nat and she proposed to
+abide by it. The old, cordial, happy-go-lucky comradeship
+could never be renewed. Nat realized
+that suddenly and dropped his head as he went
+indoors with his bag.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span></p>
+
+<p>He had returned almost too late to meet Garry
+Knapp after all. The Westerner laughingly protested
+that he had loafed long enough. He had
+to run down to New York for a day or so to attend
+to some business for Bob Douglas and then
+must start West.</p>
+
+<p>“Come back here before you really start for the
+‘wild and woolly,’” begged Ned. “We’ll get up a
+real house party——”</p>
+
+<p>“Tempt me not!” cried Garry, with hand
+raised. “It is hard enough for me to pull my
+freight now. If I came again I’d only have to—well!
+it would be harder, that’s all,” and his
+usually hopeful face was overcast.</p>
+
+<p>“Remember you leave friends here, my boy,”
+said the major, when he saw the young man alone
+the evening before his departure. “You’ll find no
+friends anywhere who will be more interested in
+your success than these at The Cedars.”</p>
+
+<p>“I believe you, Major. I wish I could show my
+appreciation of your kindness in a greater degree
+by accepting your offer to help me. But I can’t
+do it. It wouldn’t be right.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. From your standpoint, I suppose it
+wouldn’t,” admitted the major, with a sigh. “But
+at least you’ll correspond——”</p>
+
+<p>“Ned and I are going to write each other frequently—we’ve
+got quite chummy, you know,”
+and Garry laughed. “You shall all hear of me.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span>
+And thank you a thousand times for your interest
+Major Dale!”</p>
+
+<p>“But my interest hasn’t accomplished what I
+wanted it to accomplish,” muttered the old gentleman,
+as Garry turned away.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy showed a brave face when the time
+came for Garry’s departure. She did not make
+an occasion for seeing him alone, as she might
+easily have done. Somehow she felt bound in
+honor—in Garry’s honor—not to try to break
+down his decision. She knew he understood her;
+and she understood Garry. Why make the
+parting harder by any talk about it?</p>
+
+<p>But Tavia’s observation as Garry was whirled
+away by Ned in the car for the railway station,
+sounded like a knell in Dorothy Dale’s ears.</p>
+
+<p>“It’s all off!” remarked Tavia.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII<br>
+<span class="fs80">THE CASTAWAYS</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Drifts covered the fences and fitted every evergreen
+about The Cedars with a white cap. The
+snow had come quite unexpectedly and in the arms
+of a blizzard.</p>
+
+<p>For two days and nights the storm had raged
+all over the East. Wires were down and many
+railroad trains were blocked. New York City
+was reported snowbound.</p>
+
+<p>“I bet old Garry is holed up in the hotel there
+all right,” said Ned. “He’d never have got away
+before the storm.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy hoped Garry had not started for the
+West and had become snowbound in some train;
+but she said nothing about it.</p>
+
+<p>It took two full days for the roads to be broken
+around North Birchland. And then, of course, to
+use an automobile was quite impossible.</p>
+
+<p>The Dale boys were naturally delighted, for
+there was no school for several days and snow-caves,
+snowmen and snow monuments of all kind
+were constructed all over the White lawns.</p>
+
+<p>Nor were Joe and Roger alone in these out-of-door<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span>
+activities. The girls, as well as Ned and
+Nat, lent their assistance, and Tavia proved to be
+a fine snow sculptor.</p>
+
+<p>“Always was. Believe I might learn to work
+putty and finally become a great sculptor,” she declared.
+“At Glenwood they said I had a talent
+for composition.”</p>
+
+<p>“What kind of figure do you prefer to sculp,
+Tavia?” asked Ned, with curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I think I should just <em>love</em> a job in an ice-cream
+factory, turning out works of art for parties
+and banquets. Or making little figures on New
+Year’s and birthday cakes. And then—think of
+all the nice ‘eats’!”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! I’d like to do that,” breathed Roger, with
+round eyes.</p>
+
+<p>“Now, see,” laughed Dorothy, “you have
+started Roger, perhaps, in a career. He does love
+ice-cream and cake.”</p>
+
+<p>At least the joke started something else if it did
+not point Roger on the road to fame as an “ice-cream
+sculptor.” The boy was inordinately fond
+of goodies and Tavia promised him a treat just
+as soon as ever she could get into town.</p>
+
+<p>A few days before Tavia had been the recipient
+of a sum of money from home. When he had
+any money himself Mr. Travers never forgot his
+pretty daughter’s need. He was doing very well
+in business now, as well as holding a political position<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span>
+that paid a good salary. This money she
+had received was of course burning a hole in
+Tavia’s pocket. She must needs get into town
+as soon as the roads were passable, to buy goodies
+as her contract with Roger called for.</p>
+
+<p>The horses had not been out of the stable for a
+week and the coachman admitted they needed exercise.
+So he was to drive Tavia to town directly
+after breakfast. It was washday, however, and
+something had happened to the furnace in the
+laundry. The coachman was general handy man
+about the White premises, and he was called upon
+to fix the furnace just as Tavia—and the horses—were
+ready.</p>
+
+<p>“But who’ll drive me?” asked Tavia, looking
+askance at the spirited span that the boy from
+the stables was holding. “Goodness! aren’t they
+full of ginger?”</p>
+
+<p>“Better wait till afternoon,” advised Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“But they are all ready, and so am I. Besides,”
+said Tavia with a glance at Roger’s doleful face,
+“somebody smells disappointment.”</p>
+
+<p>Roger understood and said, trying to speak
+gruffly:</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I don’t mind.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. I see you don’t,” Tavia returned dryly,
+and just then Nat appeared on the porch in bearskin
+and driving gloves.</p>
+
+<p>“Get in, Tavia, if you want to go. The horses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span>
+need the work, anyway; and the coachman may be
+all day at that furnace.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—I—ah——” began Tavia. Then she
+closed her lips and marched down the steps and
+got into the cutter. Whatever her feeling about
+the matter, she was not going to attract everybody’s
+attention by backing out.</p>
+
+<p>Nat tucked the robes around her and got in
+himself. Then he gathered up the reins, the boy
+sprang out of the way, and they were off.</p>
+
+<p>With the runners of the light sleigh humming
+at their heels the horses gathered speed each moment.
+Nat hung on to the reins and the roses began
+to blow in Tavia’s cheeks and the fire of excitement
+burn in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>How she loved to travel fast! And in riding
+beside Nat the pleasure of speed for her was
+always doubled. Whether it was in the automobile,
+or behind the galloping blacks, as now, to
+speed along the highways by Nat’s side was a delight.</p>
+
+<p>The snow was packed just right for sleighing
+and the wildly excited span tore into town at racing
+speed. Indeed, so excited were the horses that
+Nat thought it better not to stop anywhere until
+the creatures had got over their first desire to
+run.</p>
+
+<p>So they swept through the town and out upon
+the road to The Beeches.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Don’t mind, do you?” Nat stammered, casting
+a quick, sidelong glance at Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Nat! it’s wonderful!” she gasped, but
+looked straight ahead.</p>
+
+<p>“Good little sport—the best ever!” groaned
+Nat; but perhaps she did not hear the compliment
+thus wrested from him.</p>
+
+<p>He turned into the upper road for The Beeches,
+believing it would be more traveled than the other
+highway. In this, however, he was proved mistaken
+in a very few minutes. The road breakers
+had not been far on this highway, so the blacks
+were soon floundering through the drifts and were
+rapidly brought down to a sensible pace.</p>
+
+<p>“Say! this is altogether too rough,” Nat declared.
+“It’s no fun being tossed about like beans
+in a sack. I’d better turn ’em around.”</p>
+
+<p>“You’ll tip us over, Nat,” objected Tavia.</p>
+
+<p>“Likely to,” admitted the young man. “So
+we’d better both hop out while I perform the
+necessary operation.”</p>
+
+<p>“Maybe they will get away from you,” she
+cried with some fear. “Be careful.”</p>
+
+<p>“Watch your Uncle Nat,” he returned lightly.
+“I’ll not let them get away.”</p>
+
+<p>Tavia was the last person to be cautious; so
+she hopped out into the snow on her side of the
+sleigh while Nat alighted on the other. A sharp
+pull on the bits and the blacks were plunging in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span>
+the drift to one side of the half beaten track.
+Tavia stepped well back out of the way.</p>
+
+<p>The horses breasted the deep snow, snorting
+and tossing their heads. Their spirits were not
+quenched even after this long and hard dash from
+The Cedars.</p>
+
+<p>The sleigh did go over on its side; but Nat
+righted it quickly. This, however, necessitated
+his letting go of the reins with one hand.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment the sleigh came with a terrific
+shock into collision with an obstruction. It was a
+log beside the road, completely hidden in the snow.</p>
+
+<p>Frightened, the horses plunged and kicked.
+The doubletree snapped and the reins were jerked
+from Nat’s grasp. The horses leaped ahead,
+squealing and plunging, tearing the harness completely
+from their backs. The sleigh remained
+wedged behind the log; but the animals were freed
+and tore away along the road, back toward North
+Birchland.</p>
+
+<p>Tavia had made no outcry; but now, in the
+midst of the snow cloud that had been kicked up,
+she saw that Nat was floundering in the drift.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Nat! are you hurt?” she moaned, and ran
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>But he was already gingerly getting upon his
+feet. He had lost his cap, and the neck of his
+coat, where the big collar flared away, was packed
+with snow.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Badly hurt—in my dignity,” he growled. “Oh
+gee, Tavia! Come and scoop some of this snow
+out of my neck.”</p>
+
+<p>She giggled at that. She could not help it, for
+he looked really funny. Nevertheless she lent
+him some practical aid, and after he had shaken
+himself out of the loose snow and found his cap,
+he could grin himself at the situation.</p>
+
+<p>“We’re castaway in the snow, just the same,
+old girl,” he said. “What’ll we do—start back
+and go through North Birchland, the beheld of
+all beholders, or take the crossroad back to The
+Cedars—and so save a couple of miles?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, let’s go home the quickest way,” she said.
+“I—I don’t want to be the laughing stock for the
+whole town.”</p>
+
+<p>“My fault, Tavia. I’m sorry,” he said ruefully.</p>
+
+<p>“No more your fault than it was mine,” she
+said loyally.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes it was,” he groaned, looking at her
+seriously. “And it always <em>is</em> my fault.”</p>
+
+<p>“What is always your fault?” she asked him
+but tremulously and stepping back a little.</p>
+
+<p>“Our scraps, Tavia. Our big scrap. I <em>know</em>
+I ought not to have questioned you about that old
+letter. Oh, hang it, Tavia! don’t you see just how
+sorry and ashamed I am?” he cried boyishly, putting
+out both gloved hands to her.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span></p>
+
+<p>“I—I know this isn’t just the way to tell you—or
+the place. But my heart just <em>aches</em> because of
+that scrap, Tavia. I don’t care how many letters
+you have from other people. I know there’s nothing
+out of the way in them. I was just jealous—and—and
+mean——”</p>
+
+<p>“Anybody tell you why Lance Petterby was
+writing to me?” put in Tavia sternly.</p>
+
+<p>“No. Of course not. <em>Hang</em> Lance Petterby,
+anyway——”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, that would be too bad. His wife would
+feel dreadfully if Lance were hung.”</p>
+
+<p>“<em>What!</em>”</p>
+
+<p>“I knew you were still jealous of poor Lance,”
+Tavia shot in, wagging her head. “And that word
+proves it.”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t care. I said what I meant before I
+knew he was married. <em>Is</em> he?” gasped Nat.</p>
+
+<p>“Very much so. They’ve got a baby girl and
+I’m its godmother. Octavia Susan Petterby.”</p>
+
+<p>“Tavia!” Nat whispered still holding out his
+hands. “Do—do you forgive me?”</p>
+
+<p>“Now! is this a time or a place to talk things
+over?” she demanded apparently inclined to keep
+up the wall. “We are castaway in the snow.
+Bo-o-ooh! we’re likely to freeze here——”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t care if I do freeze,” he declared recklessly.
+“You’ve got to answer me here and now,
+Tavia.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Have I?” with a toss of her head. “Who
+are <em>you</em> to command <em>me</em>, I’d like to know?” Then
+with sudden seriousness and a flood of crimson
+in her face that fairly glorified Tavia Travers:
+“How about that request I told you your mother
+must make, Nat? I meant it.”</p>
+
+<p>“See here! See here!” cried the young man,
+tearing off his gloves and dashing them into the
+snow while he struggled to open his bearskin coat
+and then the coat beneath.</p>
+
+<p>From an inner pocket he drew forth a letter
+and opened it so she could read.</p>
+
+<p>“See!” Nat cried. “It’s from mother. She
+wrote it to me while I was in Boston—before old
+Ned’s telegram came. See what she says here—second
+paragraph, Tavia.”</p>
+
+<p>The girl read the words with a little intake of
+her breath:</p>
+<br>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“And, my dear boy, I know that you have quarreled
+in some way and for some reason with our
+pretty, impetuous Tavia. Do not risk your own
+happiness and hers, Nathaniel, through any stubbornness.
+Tavia is worth breaking one’s pride
+for. She is the girl I hope to see you marry—nobody
+else in this wide world could so satisfy me
+as your wife.”</p>
+</div>
+<br>
+
+<p>That was as far as Tavia could read, for her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span>
+eyes were misty. She hung her head like a child
+and whispered, as Nat approached:</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Nat! Nat! how I doubted her! She is
+<em>so</em> good!”</p>
+
+<p>He put his arms about her, and she snuggled
+up against the bearskin coat.</p>
+
+<p>“Say! how about <em>me</em>?” he demanded huskily.
+“Now that the Widder White has asked you to be
+her daughter-in-law, don’t I come into the picture
+at all?”</p>
+
+<p>Tavia raised her head, looked at him searchingly,
+and suddenly laid her lips against his eager
+ones.</p>
+
+<p>“You’re—you’re the <em>whole</em> picture for me,
+Nat!” she breathed.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX<br>
+<span class="fs80">SOMETHING AMAZING</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now that Garry Knapp had left The Cedars—had
+passed out of her life forever perhaps—Dorothy
+Dale found herself in a much disturbed
+state of mind. She did not wish to sit and think
+over her situation. If she did she knew she would
+break down.</p>
+
+<p>She was tempted—oh! sorely tempted—to
+write Garry Knapp all that was in her heart. Her
+cheeks burned when she thought of doing such a
+thing; yet, after all, she was fighting for happiness
+and as she saw it receding from her she grew desperate.</p>
+
+<p>But Dorothy Dale had gone as far as she could.
+She had done her best to bring the man she loved
+into line with her own thought. She had the satisfaction
+of believing he felt toward her as she did
+toward him. But there matters stood; she could
+do no more. She did not let her mind dwell upon
+this state of affairs; she could not and retain that
+calm expected of Dorothy Dale by the rest of the
+family at The Cedars. It is what is expected of
+us that we accomplish, after all. She had never<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span>
+been in the habit of giving away to her feelings,
+even as a schoolgirl. Much more was expected of
+her now.</p>
+
+<p>The older people about her were, of course,
+sympathetic. She would have been glad to get
+away from them for that very reason. Whenever
+Tavia looked at her Dorothy saw commiseration
+in her eyes. So, too, with Aunt Winnie
+and the major. Dorothy turned with relief to
+her brothers who had not much thought for anything
+but fun and frolic.</p>
+
+<p>Joe and Roger had quite fallen in love with
+Garry Knapp and talked a good deal about him.
+But their talk was innocent enough and was not
+aimed at her. They had not discovered—as they
+had regarding Jennie Hapgood and Ned—that
+their big sister was in the toils of this strange new
+disease that seemed to have smitten the young folk
+at The Cedars.</p>
+
+<p>On this very day that Tavia had elected to go
+to town and Nat had driven her in the cutter,
+Dorothy put on her wraps for a tramp through
+the snow. As she started toward the back road
+she saw Joe and Roger coming away from the
+kitchen door, having been whisked out by the cook.</p>
+
+<p>“Take it all and go and don’t youse boys be
+botherin’ me again to-day—and everything behind
+because of the wash,” cried Mary, as the boys
+departed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span></p>
+
+<p>“What have you been bothering Mary for?”
+asked Dorothy, hailing her brothers.</p>
+
+<p>“Suet,” said Joe.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, do come on, Sister,” cried the eager
+Roger. “We’re going to feed ’em.”</p>
+
+<p>“Feed what?” asked Dorothy.</p>
+
+<p>“The bluejays and the clapes and the snow
+buntings,” Roger declared.</p>
+
+<p>“With suet?”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s for the jays,” explained Joe. “We’ve
+got plenty of cracked corn and oats for the little
+birds. You see, we tie the chunks of suet up in
+the trees—and you ought to see the bluejays come
+after it!”</p>
+
+<p>“Do come with us,” begged Roger again, who
+always found a double pleasure in having Dorothy
+attend them on any venture.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know. You boys have grown so you
+can keep ahead of me,” laughed Dorothy.
+“Where are you going—how far?”</p>
+
+<p>“Up to Snake Hill—there by the gully. Mr.
+Garry Knapp showed us last week,” Joe said.
+“He says he always feeds the birds in the winter
+time out where he lives.”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy smiled and nodded. “I should presume
+he did,” she said. “He is that kind—isn’t
+he, boys?”</p>
+
+<p>“He’s bully,” said Roger, with enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>“<em>What</em> kind?” asked Joe, with some caution.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Just kind,” laughed Dorothy. “Kind to everybody
+and everything. Birds and all,” she said.
+But to herself she thought: “Kind to everybody
+but poor little me!”</p>
+
+<p>However, she went on with her brothers. They
+plowed through the drifts in the back road, but
+found the going not as hard as in the woods. The
+tramp to the edge of the gully into which the boys
+had come so near to plunging on their sled weeks
+before, was quite exhausting.</p>
+
+<p>This distant spot had been selected because of
+the number of birds that always were to be found
+here, winter or summer. The undergrowth was
+thick and the berries and seeds tempted many of
+the songsters and bright-plumaged birds to remain
+beyond the usual season for migration.</p>
+
+<p>Then it would be too late for them to fly South
+had they so desired. Now, with the heavy snow
+heaped upon everything edible, the feathered creatures
+were going to have a time of famine if they
+were not thought of by their human neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>Sparrows and chicadees are friendly little things
+and will keep close to human habitations in winter;
+but the bluejay, that saucy rascal, is always shy.
+He and his wilder brothers must be fed in the
+woods.</p>
+
+<p>There were the tracks of the birds—thousands
+and thousands of tracks about the gully. Roger
+began to throw out the grain, scattering it carefully<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span>
+on the snowcrust, while Joe climbed up the
+first tree with a lump of suet tied to a cord.</p>
+
+<p>“I got to tie it high,” he told Dorothy, who
+asked him, “’cause otherwise, Mr. Knapp says,
+dogs or foxes, or such like, will get it instead of
+the birds.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I see,” Dorothy said. “Look where you
+step, Roger. See! the gully is level full of snow.
+What a drift!”</p>
+
+<p>This was true. The snow lay in the hollow
+from twenty to thirty feet in depth. None of the
+Dales could remember seeing so much snow before.</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy held the other pieces of suet for Joe
+while he climbed the second tree. It was during
+this process that she suddenly missed Roger. She
+could not hear him nor see him.</p>
+
+<p>“Roger!” she called.</p>
+
+<p>“What’s the matter with you?” demanded Joe
+tartly. “You’re scaring the birds.”</p>
+
+<p>“But Roger is scaring <em>me</em>,” his sister told him.
+“Look, Joe, from where you are. Can you see
+him? Is he hiding from us?”</p>
+
+<p>Joe gave a glance around; then he hastened to
+descend the tree.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it?” asked Dorothy worriedly.
+“What has happened to him?”</p>
+
+<p>Joe said never a word, but hastened along the
+bank of the gully. They could scarcely distinguish
+the line of the bank in some places and right at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span>
+the very steepest part was a wallow in the snow.
+Something had sunk down there and the snow had
+caved in after it!</p>
+
+<p>“Roger!” gasped Dorothy, her heart beating
+fast and the muscles of her throat tightening.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, cricky!” groaned Joe. “He’s gone down.”</p>
+
+<p>It was the steepest and deepest part of the gully.
+Not a sound came up from the huge drift into
+which the smaller boy had evidently tumbled—no
+answer to their cries.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Dorothy and her brothers had scarcely gone out
+of sight of the house when Major Dale, looking
+from the broad front window of his room, beheld
+a figure plowing through the heaped up snow and
+in at the gateway of The Cedars. It was not Nat
+and it was not Ned; at first he did not recognize
+the man approaching the front door at all.</p>
+
+<p>Then he suddenly uttered a shout which brought
+the housemaid from her dusting in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>“Major Dale! what is it, please? Can I do
+anything for you?” asked the girl, her hand upon
+her heart.</p>
+
+<p>“Great glory! did I scare you, Mina?” he demanded.
+“Well! I’m pretty near scared myself.
+Leastways, I am amazed. Run down and open
+the door for Mr. Knapp—and bring him right up
+here.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Knapp!” cried the maid, and was away<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span>
+on swift feet, for Garry had endeared himself to
+the serving people as well as to the family during
+his brief stay at The Cedars.</p>
+
+<p>The young man threw aside his outer clothing
+in haste and ran upstairs to the major’s room.
+Dorothy’s father had got up in his excitement
+and was waiting for him with eager eyes.</p>
+
+<p>“Garry! Garry Knapp!” he exclaimed. “What
+has happened? What has brought you back here,
+my dear boy?”</p>
+
+<p>Garry was smiling, but it was a grave smile.
+Indeed, something dwelt in the young man’s eyes
+that the major had never seen before.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it?” repeated the old gentleman, as he
+seized Garry’s hand.</p>
+
+<p>“Major, I’ve come to ask a favor,” blurted out
+the Westerner.</p>
+
+<p>“A favor—and at last?” cried Major Dale.
+“It is granted.”</p>
+
+<p>“Wait till you hear what it is—all of it. First
+I want you to call our bargain off.”</p>
+
+<p>“What? You don’t want to sell your ranch?”
+gasped the major.</p>
+
+<p>“No, sir. Things have—well, have changed a
+bit. My ranch is something that I must not sell,
+for I can see a way now to work it myself.”</p>
+
+<p>“You can, my boy? You can develop it? Then
+the bargain’s off!” cried the major. “I only want
+to see you successful.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Thank you, sir. You are more than kind—kinder
+than I have any reason to expect. And I
+presume you think me a fellow of fluctuating intentions,
+eh?” and he laughed shortly.</p>
+
+<p>“I am waiting to hear about that, Garry,” said
+the major, eyeing him intently.</p>
+
+<p>With a thrill in his voice that meant joy, yet
+with eyes that were frankly bedimmed with tears,
+Garry Knapp put a paper into Major Dale’s hand,
+saying:</p>
+
+<p>“Read that, Major,—read that and tell me what
+you think of it.”</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX<br>
+<span class="fs80">SO IT WAS ALL SETTLED</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>“What’s this—what’s this, my boy?” cried the
+major hastily adjusting his reading glasses. “A
+telegram? And from the West, eh?”</p>
+
+<p>“A night letter from Bob Douglas. I got it
+yesterday morning. I’ve been all this time getting
+here, Major. Believe me! the railroads are badly
+blocked.”</p>
+
+<p>Major Dale was reading the telegram. His
+face flushed and his eyes brightened as he read.</p>
+
+<p>“This is authentic, Garry?” he finally asked,
+with shaking voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Sure. I know Bob Douglas—and Gibson, the
+lawyer, too. Gibson has been in touch with the poor
+old man all the time. I expect Uncle Terry must
+have left the will and all his papers with Gibson
+when he hiked out for Alaska. Poor, poor old
+man! He’s gone without my ever having seen
+him again.” Garry’s voice was broken and he
+turned to look out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>“Not your fault, my boy,” said the major, clearing
+his throat.</p>
+
+<p>“No, sir. But my misfortune. I know now that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span>
+the old man loved me or he would not have made
+me rich in the end.”</p>
+
+<p>Major Dale was reading the long telegram
+again. “Your friend, Mr. Douglas, repeats a
+phrase of the will, it is evident,” he said softly.
+“Your uncle says you are to have his money ‘because
+you are too honest to ever make any for
+yourself.’ Do you believe that, Garry?” and his
+eyes suddenly twinkled.</p>
+
+<p>Garry Knapp blushed and shook his head negatively.
+“That’s just the old man’s caustic wit,”
+he said. “I’ll make good all right. I’ve got the
+land, and now I’ve got the money to develop
+it——”</p>
+
+<p>“Major Dale! Where is Miss Dorothy?”</p>
+
+<p>“Gone out for a tramp in the snow. I heard
+her with the boys,” said the major, smiling. “I—I
+expect, Garry, you wish to tell her the good
+news?”</p>
+
+<p>“And something else, Major, if you will permit
+me.”</p>
+
+<p>The old gentleman looked at him searchingly.
+“I am not altogether sure that you deserve to get
+her, Garry. You are a laggard in love,” he said.
+“But you have my best wishes.”</p>
+
+<p>“You’ll not find me slow that way after <em>this</em>!”
+exclaimed Garry Knapp gaily, as he made for the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it was that, having traced Dorothy and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span>
+her brothers from the house, the young Westerner
+came upon the site of the accident to Roger just
+as the girl and Joe discovered the disappearance
+of the smaller boy in the deep drift.</p>
+
+<p>“Run for help, Joe!” Dorothy was crying.
+“Bring somebody! And ropes! No! don’t you
+dare jump into that drift! Then there will be
+two of you lost. Oh!”</p>
+
+<p>“Hooray!” yelled Joe at that instant. “Here’s
+Mr. Knapp!”</p>
+
+<p>Dorothy could not understand Garry’s appearance;
+but she had to believe her eyesight. Before
+the young man, approaching now by great leaps,
+had reached the spot they had explained the
+trouble to him.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be so frightened, Dorothy,” he cried.
+“The boy won’t smother in that snowdrift. He’s
+probably so scared that——”</p>
+
+<p>Just then a muffled cry came to their ears from
+below in the drifted gulch.</p>
+
+<p>“He isn’t dead then!” declared Joe. “How’re
+we going to get him out, Mr. Knapp?”</p>
+
+<p>“By you and Miss Dorothy standing back out
+of danger and letting me burrow there,” said
+Garry.</p>
+
+<p>He had already thrown aside his coat. Now
+he leaped well out from the edge of the gully
+bank, turning in the air so as to face them as he
+plunged, feet first, into the drift.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was partially hollowed out underneath—and
+this fact Garry had surmised. The wind had
+blown the snow into the gully, but a hovering
+wreath of the frozen element had tempted Roger
+upon its surface and then treacherously let him
+down into the heart of it.</p>
+
+<p>Garry plunged through and almost landed upon
+the frightened boy. He groped for him, picked
+him up in his arms, and the next minute Roger’s
+head and shoulders burst through the snow crust
+and he was tossed by Garry out upon the bank.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Garry!” gasped Dorothy, trying to help
+the man up the bank and out of the snow wreath.
+“What ever should we have done without you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see what you’re going to do without
+me, anyway,” laughed the young man breathlessly,
+finally recovering his feet.</p>
+
+<p>“Garry!”</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him almost in fear, gazing into
+his flushed face. She saw that something had happened—something
+that had changed his attitude
+toward her; but she could not guess what it was.</p>
+
+<p>The boys were laughing, and Joe was beating
+the snow off the clothing of his younger brother.
+They did not notice their elders for the moment.</p>
+
+<p>“How——Why did you come back, Garry?”
+the girl asked directly.</p>
+
+<p>“I come back to see if you would let such a
+blundering fellow as I am tell you what is in his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span>
+heart,” Garry said softly, looking at her with
+serious gaze.</p>
+
+<p>“Garry! What has happened?” she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>He told her quietly, but with a break in his
+voice that betrayed the depth of his feeling for
+his Uncle Terry. “The poor old boy!” he said.
+“If he had only showed me he loved me so while
+he lived—and given me a chance to show him.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is not your fault,” said Dorothy using the
+words her father had used in commenting upon
+the matter.</p>
+
+<p>They were standing close together—there in the
+snow, and his arms were about her. Dorothy
+looked up bravely into his face.</p>
+
+<p>“I—I guess I can’t say it very well, Dorothy.
+But you know how I feel—how much I love you,
+my dear. I’m going to make good out there on the
+old ranch, and then I want to come back here for
+you. Will you wait for me, Dorothy?”</p>
+
+<p>“I expected to have to wait much longer than
+that, Garry,” Dorothy replied with a tremulous
+sigh. And then as he drew her still closer she
+hid her face on his bosom.</p>
+
+<p>“Lookut! Lookut!” cried Roger in the background,
+suddenly observing the tableau. “What
+do you know about Dorothy and Garry Knapp
+doing it too?”</p>
+
+<p>“Gee!” growled Joe, in disgust. “It must be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span>
+catching. Tavia and old Nat will get it. Come
+on away, Roger. Huh! they don’t even know
+we’re on earth.”</p>
+
+<p>And it was some time before Dorothy Dale and
+“that cowboy person” awoke to the fact that they
+were alone and it was a much longer time still before
+they started back for The Cedars, hand in
+hand.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center no-indent">THE END.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center no-indent fs150"><span class="smcap">The Dorothy Dale Series</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center no-indent fs90">By MARGARET PENROSE</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent fs70">Author of “The Motor Girls Series”</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent fs90 wsp">12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<figure class="figleft illowp15" id="ad1" style="max-width: 28.9375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/ad1.jpg" alt="Book">
+</figure>
+
+<p class="fs90">Dorothy Dale is the daughter of an old
+Civil War veteran who is running a weekly
+newspaper in a small Eastern town. Her
+sunny disposition, her fun-loving ways and
+her trials and triumphs make clean, interesting
+and fascinating reading. The Dorothy
+Dale Series is one of the most popular series
+of books for girls ever published.</p>
+
+<p class="no-indent">
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale: a Girl of To-day</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale at Glenwood School</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Great Secret</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale and Her Chums</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Queer Holidays</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Camping Days</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s School Rivals</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale in the City</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Promise</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale in the West</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Strange Discovery</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale’s Engagement</span> <span class="fs60">(<em>New</em>)</span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center no-indent fs150 wsp"><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls Series</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center no-indent">By MARGARET PENROSE</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent wsp fs70">Author of the highly successful “Dorothy Dale Series”</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent wsp">12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<figure class="figleft illowp15" id="ad2" style="max-width: 26.9375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/ad2.jpg" alt="Book">
+</figure>
+
+<p class="fs90">Since the enormous success of our “Motor
+Boys Series,” by Clarence Young, we have
+been asked to get out a similar series for
+girls. No one is better equipped to furnish
+these tales than Mrs. Penrose, who, besides
+being an able writer, is an expert automobilist.</p>
+
+<div style="clear:both;"></div>
+
+<p class="no-indent">
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls</span><br>
+<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or A Mystery of the Road</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls on a Tour</span><br>
+<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or Keeping a Strange Promise</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach</span><br>
+<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or In Quest of the Runaways</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls Through New England</span><br>
+<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or Held by the Gypsies</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake</span><br>
+<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Hermit of Fern Island</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls on the Coast</span><br>
+<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Waif from the Sea</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay</span><br>
+<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Secret of the Red Oar</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls on Waters Blue</span><br>
+<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Strange Cruise of the Tartar</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls at Camp Surprise</span><br>
+<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Cave in the Mountain</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;" class="smcap">The Motor Girls in the Mountains</span> (<em>New</em>)<br>
+<span class="fs80" style="margin-left: 8em;"><em>or The Gypsy Girl’s Secret</em></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center no-indent fs150">THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="r20">
+<p class="center no-indent wsp">By LESTER CHADWICK</p>
+<hr class="r20">
+
+<p class="center no-indent fs70">Author of “The College Sports Series”</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent wsp bold"><em>12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.</em></p>
+
+<figure class="figleft illowp15" id="ad3" style="max-width: 27.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/ad3.jpg" alt="Book">
+</figure>
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE OF THE
+SILVER STARS</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>or The Rivals of Riverside</em></p>
+
+<p>In this volume, the first of the series, Joe is
+introduced as an everyday country boy who
+loves to play baseball and is particularly
+anxious to make his mark as a pitcher.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE ON THE
+SCHOOL NINE</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Pitching for the Blue Banner</em></p>
+
+<p>Joe’s great ambition was to go to boarding
+school and play on the school team. He got to boarding school
+but found it hard to make the team.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE AT YALE</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Pitching for the College Championship</em></p>
+
+<p>From a preparatory school Baseball Joe goes to Yale University.
+He makes the freshman nine and in his second year
+becomes a varsity pitcher and pitches in several big games.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher</em></p>
+
+<p>In this volume the scene of action is shifted from Yale college
+to a baseball league of our central states.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>or A Young Pitcher’s Hardest Struggle</em></p>
+
+<p>From the Central League Joe is drafted into the St. Louis
+Nationals. A corking baseball story that fans, both young and
+old, will enjoy.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis</em></p>
+
+<p>How Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay
+in the box makes an interesting baseball story.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES <span class="fs60">(<em>New</em>)</span></p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Pitching for the Championship</em></p>
+
+<p>A story to set the hearts of all baseball fans to thumping wildly.
+The rivalry was of course of the keenest, and what Joe did to win
+the series is told in a manner to thrill the most jaded reader.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</em></p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center no-indent fs150">THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS SERIES</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="r20">
+<p class="center no-indent">By BROOKS HENDERLEY</p>
+<hr class="r20">
+
+<p class="center no-indent wsp bold"><em>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.</em></p>
+
+<figure class="figleft illowp15" id="ad4" style="max-width: 31.125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/ad4.jpg" alt="Book">
+</figure>
+
+<p><em>This new series relates the doings of a wide-awake
+boys’ club of the Y.M.C.A., full of
+good times and everyday, practical Christianity.
+Clean, elevating and full of fun and
+vigor, books that should be read by every boy.</em></p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS OF
+CLIFFWOOD</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>or The Struggle for the Holwell Prize</em></p>
+
+<p>Telling how the boys of Cliffwood were a
+wild set and how, on Hallowe’en, they
+turned the home town topsy-turvy. This
+led to an organization of a boys’ department
+in the local Y.M.C.A. When the lads
+realized what was being done for them, they joined in the movement
+with vigor and did all they could to help the good cause.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS ON BASS ISLAND</p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>or The Mystery of Russabaga Camp</em></p>
+
+<p>Summer was at hand, and at a meeting of the boys of the
+Y.M.C.A. of Cliffwood, it was decided that a regular summer
+camp should be instituted. This was located at a beautiful spot
+on Bass Island, and there the lads went boating, swimming,
+fishing and tramping to their heart’s content.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent bold">THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS AT FOOTBALL <span class="fs60">(<em>New</em>)</span></p>
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>or Lively Doings On and Off the Gridiron</em></p>
+
+<p>This volume will add greatly to the deserved success of this
+well-written series. The Y.M.C.A. boys are plucky lads—clean
+minded and as true as steel. They have many ups and
+downs, but in the end they “win out” in the best meaning
+of that term.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center no-indent"><em>Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</em></p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+<p class="center no-indent bold">
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON CO.<span style="padding-left: 2em"> Publishers</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em">New York</span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter transnote">
+<h2 class="nobreak bold" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
+
+<ul>
+<li>pg 10 Changed: Otuside there beside the tracks<br>
+<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: Outside there beside the tracks</span></li>
+
+<li>pg 22 Changed: A floorwalked hastened forward.<br>
+<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: A floorwalker hastened forward.</span></li>
+
+<li>pg 32 Changed: like the notes of a coloratura sporano <br>
+<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: like the notes of a coloratura soprano</span></li>
+
+<li>pg 116 Changed: melodiously a pæn of joy<br>
+<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: melodiously a pæan of joy</span></li>
+
+<li>pg 117 Changed: sticking out a touseled head<br>
+<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: sticking out a tousled head</span></li>
+
+<li>pg 117 Changed: Jennie Hapgod peered out<br>
+<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: Jennie Hapgood peered out</span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOROTHY DALE'S ENGAGEMENT ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>