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.”