So he did not try to tell her what he meant. He withdrew into his shell.
And when Betty Gower seated herself on a rock and evinced an inclination
to quiz him about things he did not care to be quizzed about, he lifted
his cap, bade her a courteous good-by, and walked back toward the Cove.




CHAPTER V

From the Bottom Up


MacRae did nothing but mark time until he found himself a plain
citizen once more. He could have remained in the service for months
without risk and with much profit to himself. But the fighting was over.
The Germans were whipped. That had been the goal. Having reached it,
MacRae, like thousands of other young men, had no desire to loaf in a
uniform subject to military orders while the politicians wrangled.

But even when he found himself a civilian again, master of his
individual fortunes, he was still a trifle at a loss. He had no definite
plan. He was rather at sea, because all the things he had planned on
doing when he came home had gone by the board. So many things which had
seemed good and desirable had been contingent upon his father. Every
plan he had ever made for the future had included old Donald MacRae and
those wide acres across the end of Squitty. He had been deprived of
both, left without a ready mark to shoot at. The flood of war had
carried him far. The ebb of it had set him back on his native