For one awful moment Nathalie stood silent staring at her brother in dumb despair. Then she turned and with a blur in her eyes and a tightening of her throat, blindly groped for the stairway. But no! Dick`s hand shot out he caught the hurrying figure in his grasp and the next moment Nathalie was sobbing on his breast.

"That`s all right, little sis," exclaimed the boy with a break in his voice, as he pressed the brown head closer. Then he cried, in an attempt at jocularity, "Just get it all out of your system every, last drop of that salted brine Blue Robin and then we`ll talk business."