etty said.

Then she skipped nimbly upstairs, two steps at a time, and went into a
room on the second floor, a room furnished something after the fashion
of a library in which her father sat in a big leather chair chewing on
an unlighted cigar.

Betty perched on the arm of his chair and ran her fingers through a
patch on top of his head where the hair was growing a bit thin.

"Daddy," she asked, "did you mean that about going smash?"

"Possibility," he grunted.

"Are you really going to sell this house and live at Cradle Bay?"

"Sure. You sorry?"

"About the house? Oh, no. It's only a place for mamma to make a splash,
as Norman said. If you hibernate at the cottage I'll come and keep house
for you."

Gower considered this.

"You ought to stay with your mother," he said finally. "She'll be able
to give you a lot I wouldn't make an effort to provide. You don't know
what it means really to work. You'd find it pretty slow at Squitty."

"Maybe," Betty said. "But we managed very well last winter, just you and
me. If there is going to be a break-up of the family I shall stay with
you. I'm a daddy's girl."

Gower drew her face down and kissed it.

"You are that," he said huskily. "You're all Gower. There's real stuff
in you. You're free of that damned wishy-washy Morton blood. She made a
poodle dog of Norman, but she couldn't spoil you. We'll manage, eh,
Betty?"

"Of course," Betty returned. "But I don't know that Norman is such a
hopeless case. Didn't he rather take your breath away with his
declaration of independence?"

"It takes more than a declaration to win independence," Gower answered
grimly. "Wait till the going gets hard. However, I'll say there's a
chance for Norman. Now, you run along, Betty. I've got some figuring to
do."

CHAPTER XVII

Business as Usual

Late in March Jack MacRae came down to Vancouver and quartered himself
at the Granada again. He liked the quiet luxury of that great hostelry.
It was a trifle expensive, but he was not inclined to worry about
expense. At home, or aboard his carriers in the season, living was a
negligible item. He found a good deal of pleasure in swinging from one
extreme to the other. Besides, a man stalking big game does not arm
himself with a broomstick.

He had not come to town solely for his pleasure, although he was not
disposed to shy from any diversion that offered. He had business in
hand, business of prime importance since it involved spen