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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13982-0.txt b/13982-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90c1824 --- /dev/null +++ b/13982-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9191 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13982 *** + + + + +CAP'N ABE, STOREKEEPER + +A Story of Cape Cod + +by + +JAMES A. COOPER + +1917 + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. A CHOICE + II. CAP'N ABE + III. IN CAP'N ABE'S LIVING-ROOM + IV. THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS + V. WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NIGHT + VI. BOARDED BY PIRATES + VII. UNDER FIKE + VIII. SOMETHING ABOUT SALT WATER TAFFY + IX. SUSPICION HOVERS + X. WHAT LOUISE THINKS + XI. THE LEADING MAN + XII. THE DESCENT OF AUNT EUPHEMIA + XIII. WASHY GALLUP'S CURIOSITY + XIV. A CHOICE OF CHAPERONS + XV. THE UNEXPECTED + XVI. A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS + XVII. THE ODDS AGAINST HIM + XVIII. SOMETHING BREAKS + XIX. MUCH ADO + XX. THE SUN WORSHIPERS + XXI. DISCOVERIES + XXII. SHOCKING NEWS + XXIII. BETWEEN THE FIRES + XXIV. GRAY DAYS + XXV. AUNT EUPHEMIA MAKES A POINT + XXVI. AT LAST + XXVII. SARGASSO + XXVIII. STORM CLOUDS THREATEN + XXIX. THE SCAR + XXX. WHEN THE STRONG TIDES LIFT + XXXI. AN ANCHOR TO THE SOUL + XXXII. ON THE ROLL OF HONOR + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A CHOICE + +"Of course, my dear, there is nobody but your Aunt Euphemia for you to go +to!" + +"Oh, daddy-professor! Nobody? Can we rake or scrape up no other +relative on either side of the family who will take in poor little me for +the summer? You will be home in the fall, of course." + +"That is the supposition," Professor Grayling replied, his lips pursed +reflectively. "No. Dear me! there seems nobody." + +"But Aunt Euphemia!" + +"I know, Lou, I know. She expects you, however. She writes----" + +"Yes. She has it all planned," sighed Louise Grayling dejectedly. +"Every move at home or abroad Aunt Euphemia has mapped out for me. When +I am with her I am a mere automaton--only unlike a real marionette I can +feel when she pulls the strings!" + +The professor shook his head. "There's--there's only your poor mother's +half-brother down on the Cape." + +"What half-brother?" demanded Louise with a quick smile that matched the +professor's quizzical one. + +"Why----Well, your mother, Lou, had an older half-brother, a Mr. Silt. +He keeps a store at Cardhaven. You know, I met your mother down that way +when I was hunting seaweed for the Smithsonian Institution. Your +grandmother was a Bellows and her folks lived on the Cape, too. Her +family has died out and your grandfather was dead before I married your +mother. The half-brother, this Mr. Silt--Captain Abram Silt--is the only +individual of that branch of the family left alive, I believe." + +"Goodness!" gasped the girl. "What a family tree!" + +Again the professor smiled whimsically. "Only a few of the branches. +But they all reach back to the first navigators of the world." + +"The first navigators?" + +"I do not mean to the Phoenicians," her father said. "I mean that the +world never saw braver nor more worthy sailors than those who called the +wind-swept hamlets of Cape Cod their home ports. The Silts were all +master-mariners. This Captain Abe is a bachelor, I believe. You could +not very well go there." + +Louise sighed. "No; I couldn't go there--I suppose. I couldn't go +there----" Her voice wandered off into silence. Then suddenly, almost +explosively, it came back with the question: "Why couldn't I?" + +"My dear Lou! What would your aunt say?" gasped the professor. + +He was a tall, rather soldierly looking man--the result of military +training in his youth--with a shock of perfectly white hair and a +sweeping mustache that contrasted clearly with his pink, always cleanly +shaven cheeks and chin. Without impressing the observer with his +muscular power. Professor Grayling was a better man on a long hike and +possessed more reserve strength than many more beefy athletes. + +His daughter had inherited his springy carriage and even the clean +pinkness of his complexion--always looking as though she were fresh from +her shower. But there was nothing mannish about Lou Grayling--nothing at +all, though she had other attributes of body and mind for which to thank +her father. + +They were the best of chums. No father and daughter could have trod the +odd corners of the world these two had visited without becoming so +closely attached to each other that their processes of thought, as well +as their opinions in most matters, were almost in perfect harmony. +Although Mrs. Euphemia Conroth was the professor's own sister he could +appreciate Lou's attitude in this emergency. While the girl was growing +up there had been times when it was considered best--usually because of +her studies--for Lou to live with Aunt Euphemia. Indeed, that good lady +believed it almost a sin that a young girl should attend the professor on +any of his trips into "the wilds," as she expressed it. Aunt Euphemia +ignored the fact that nowadays the railroad and telegraph are in Thibet +and that turbines ply the headwaters of the Amazon. + +Mrs. Conroth dwelt in Poughkeepsie--that half-way stop between New York +and Albany; and she was as exclusive and opinionated a lady as might be +found in that city of aristocracy and learning. + +The college in the shadow of which Aunt Euphemia's dwelling basked, was +that which had led the professor's daughter under the lady's sway. +Although the girls with whom Lou associated within the college walls were +up-to-the-minute--if not a little ahead of it--she found her aunt, like +many of those barnacles clinging to the outer reefs of learning in +college towns, was really a fossil. If one desires to meet the +ultraconservative in thought and social life let me commend him to this +stratum of humanity within stone's throw of a college. These barnacles +like Aunt Euphemia are wedded to a manner of thought, gained from their +own school experiences, that went out of fashion inside the colleges +thirty years ago. + +Originally, in Lou Grayling's case, when she first lived with Aunt +Euphemia and was a day pupil at an exclusive preparatory school, it had +been drilled into her by the lady that "children should be seen but not +heard!" Later, although she acknowledged the fact that young girls were +now taught many things that in Aunt Euphemia's maidenhood were scarcely +whispered within hearing of "the young person," the lady was quite +shocked to hear such subjects discussed in the drawing-room, with her +niece as one of the discussers. + +The structure of man and the lower animals, down to the number of their +ribs, seemed no proper topic for light talk at an evening party. It made +Aunt Euphemia gasp. Anatomy was Lou's hobby. She was an excellent and +practical taxidermist, thanks to her father. And she had learned to name +the bones of the human frame along with her multiplication table. + +However, there was little about Louise Grayling to commend her among, for +instance, the erudite of Boston. She was sweet and wholesome, as has +been indicated. She had all the common sense that a pretty girl should +have--and no more. + +For she was pretty and, as well, owned that charm of intelligence without +which a woman is a mere doll. Her father often reflected that the man +who married Lou would be playing in great luck. He would get a _mate_. + +So far as Professor Grayling knew, however (and he was as keenly +observant of his daughter and her development as he was of scientific +matters), there was as yet no such man in sight. Lou had escaped the +usual boy-and-girl entanglements which fret the lives of many young folk, +because of her association with her father in his journeys about the +world. Being a perfectly normal, well-balanced girl, black boys, brown +boys, yellow boys, or all the hues and shades of boys to be met with in +those odd corners of the earth where the white man is at a premium, did +not interest Lou Grayling in the least. + +Without being ultraconservative like Aunt Euphemia, she was the sort of +girl whom one might reckon on doing the sensible--perhaps the +obvious--thing in almost any emergency. Therefore, after that single +almost awed exclamation from the professor--his sole homage to Mrs. +Grundy--he added: + +"My dear, do as you like. You are old enough and wise enough to choose +for yourself--your aunt's opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. Only, +if you don't mind----" + +"What is it, daddy-prof?" she asked him with a smile, yet still +reflective. + +"Why, if you don't mind," repeated the professor, "I'd rather you didn't +inform me where you decide to spend your summer until I am off. I--I +don't mind knowing after I am at sea--and your aunt cannot get at me." + +She laughed at him gaily. "You take it for granted that I am going to +Cape Cod," she cried accusingly. + +"No--o. But I know how sorely I should be tempted myself, realizing your +aunt's trying disposition." + +"Perhaps this--this half-uncle may be quite as trying." + +"Impossible!" was the father's rather emphatic reply. + +"What?" she cried. "Traitor to the family fame?" + +"You do not know Cape Cod folk. I do," he told her rather seriously. +"Some of them are quaint and peculiar. I suppose there are just as many +down there with traits of extreme Yankee frugality as elsewhere in New +England. But your mother's people, as I knew them, were the very salt of +the earth. Our wanderings were all that kept you from knowing the old +folk before they passed away." + +"You tempt me," was all Louise said. Then the conversation lapsed. + +It was the day following that the professor was to go to Boston +preparatory to sailing. At the moment of departure his daughter, +smiling, tucked a sealed note into his pocket. + +"Don't open it, daddy-prof, till you are out of sight of Cohasset Rocks," +she said. "Then you will not know where I am going to spend the time of +your absence until it is too late--either to oppose or to advise." + +"You can't worry me," he told her, with admiration in his glance. "I've +every confidence in you, my dear. Have a good time if you can." + +She watched him down the long platform between the trains. When she saw +him assisted into the Pullman by the porter she turned with a little +sigh, and walked up the rise toward Forty-second Street. She could +almost wish she were going with him, although seaweed and mollusk +gathering was a messy business, and the vessel he sailed in was an +ancient converted coaster with few comforts for womenkind. Louise +Grayling had been hobbled by city life for nearly a year now and she +began to crave new scenes. + +There were some last things to do at the furnished apartment they were +giving up. Some trunks were to go to the storehouse. Her own baggage +was to be tagged and sent to the Fall River boat. + +For, spurred by curiosity as well as urged by a desire to escape Aunt +Euphemia for a season, Louise was bent upon a visit to Cape Cod. At +least, she would learn what manner of person her only other living +relative was--her mother's half-brother, Captain Abram Silt. + +In the train the next day, which wandered like an erratic caterpillar +along the backbone of the Cape, she began to wonder if, after all, she +was displaying that judgment which daddy-professor praised so highly. It +was too early in the season for the "millionaire's special" to be +scheduled, in which those wealthy summer folk who have "discovered" the +Cape travel to and from Boston. Lou was on a local from Fall River that +stopped at every pair of bars and even hesitated at the pigpens along the +right of way. + +Getting aboard and getting off again at the innumerable little stations, +were people whose like she had never before seen. And their speech, +plentifully sprinkled with colloquialisms of a salt flavor, amused her, +and sometimes puzzled her. Some of the men who rode short distances in +the car wore fishermen's boots and jerseys. They called the conductor +"skipper," and hailed each other in familiar idioms. + +The women were not uncomely, nor did they dress in outlandish manner. +Great is the sway of the modern Catalogue House! But their speech was +blunt and the three topics of conversation most popular were the fish +harvest, clamming, and summer boarders. + +"Land sakes! is that you, Em'line Scudder? What sent you cruisin' in +these waters? I thought you never got away from the Haven." + +"Good-day, Mrs. Eldredge. You're fairin' well? I just _had_ to come +over to Littlebridge for some fixin's. My boarders will be 'long and I +got to freshen the house up a little." + +"You goin' to have the same folks you had last year, Em'line?" + +"Oh, yes. They're real nice---for city people. I tell Barzillai----" + +"How is Barzillai?" + +"Middlin'. His leg ain't never been just right since he was helpin' ice +the _Tryout_, come two summers ago. You know, one o' them big cakes from +the ice fact'ry fell on him. . . . I tell Barzillai the city folks are a +godsend to us Cape Codders in summer time, now that sea-goin' don't seem +so pop'lar with the men as it useter be." + +"I dunno. Some of these city folks don't seem to be sent by the Lord, +but by the other feller!" was the grim rejoinder. "I had tryin' times +with my crowd last summer; and the children with 'em was a +visitation--like the plagues of Egypt!" + +Louise was an amused yet observant listener. She began thus early to +gain what these good people themselves would call a "slant" upon their +characters and their outlook on life. + +Aside from her interest in her fellow-travelers, there were other things +to engage the girl's attention. New places always appealed to her more +than unfamiliar human beings; perhaps because she had seen so many of the +latter in all quarters of the globe and found so little variety in their +characters. There were good people and bad people everywhere, Louise had +found. Greedy, generous, morose, and laughing; faithful and treacherous, +the quick and the stupid; those likable at first meeting as well as those +utterly impossible. Of whatever nation and color they might be, she had +learned that under their skins they were all just human beings. + +But Nature--ah! she was ever changing. This girl who had seen so much of +the world had never seen anything quite like the bits of scene she +observed from the narrow window of the car. Not beautiful, perhaps, but +suggestive and provocative of genre pictures which would remain in her +memory long afterward. There were woods and fields, cranberry bogs and +sand dunes, between the hamlets; and always through the open window the +salt tang of the air delighted her. She was almost prepared to say she +was glad she had ventured when she left the train at Paulmouth and saw +her trunks put off upon the platform. + +A teetering stage, with a rack behind for light baggage, drawn by a pair +of lean horses, waited beside the station. The stage had been freshened +for the season with a thin coat of yellow paint. The word "_Cardhaven_" +was painted in bright blue letters on the doors of this ancient coach. + +"No, ma'am! I can't possibly take your trunks," the driver said, +politely explanatory. "Ye see, miss, I carry the mail this trip an' the +parcel-post traffic is right heavy, as ye might say. . . . Belay that, +Jerry!" he observed to the nigh horse that was stamping because of the +pest of flies. "We'll cast off in a minute and get under way. . . . No, +miss, I can't take 'em; but Perry Baker'll likely go over to the Haven +to-night and he'll fetch 'em for ye. I got all the cargo I can load." + +Soon the horses shacked out of town. The sandy road wandered through the +pine woods where the hot June sunshine extracted the scent of balsam +until its strength was almost overpowering. Louise, alone in the +interior of the old coach, found herself pitching and tossing about as +though in a heavy sea. + +"It is fortunate I am a good sailor," she told herself, somewhat ruefully. + +The driver was a large man in a yellow linen duster. He was not +especially communicative--save to his horses. He told them frankly what +he thought of them on several occasions! But "city folks" were evidently +no novelty for him. As he put Louise and her baggage into the vehicle he +had asked: + +"Who you cal'latin' to stop with, miss?" + +"I am going to Mr. Abram Silt's," Louise had told him. + +"Oh! Cap'n Abe. Down on the Shell Road. I can't take ye that +fur--ain't allowed to drive beyond the tavern. But 'tain't noways a fur +walk from there." + +He expressed no curiosity about her, or her business with the Shell Road +storekeeper. That surprised Louise a little. She had presumed all these +people would display Yankee curiosity. + +It was not a long journey by stage, for which she was thankful. The +noonday sun was hot and the interior of the turnout soon began to take on +the semblance of a bake-oven. They came out at last on a wind-swept +terrace and she gained her first unobstructed view of the ocean. + +She had always loved the sea--its wideness, its mystery, its ever +changing face. She watched the sweep of a gull following the crested +windrow of the breakers on a near-by reef, busy with his fishing. All +manner of craft etched their spars and canvas on the horizon, only bluer +than the sea itself. Inshore was a fleet of small fry--catboats, sloops, +dories under sail, and a smart smack or two going around to Provincetown +with cargoes from the fish pounds. + +"I shall like it," she murmured after a deeper breath. + +They came to the outlying dwellings of Cardhaven; then to the head of +Main Street that descended gently to the wharves and beaches of the inner +harbor. Halfway down the hill, just beyond the First Church and the +post-office, was the rambling, galleried old structure across the face of +which, and high under its eaves, was painted the name "_Cardhaven Inn_." +A pungent, fishy smell swept up the street with the hot breeze. The tide +was out and the flats were bare. + +The coach stopped before the post-office, and Louise got out briskly with +her bag. The driver, backing down from his seat, said to her: + +"If ye wait till I git out the mail I'll drive ye inter the tavern yard +in style. I bait the horses there." + +"Oh, I'll walk," she told him brightly. "I can get dinner there, I +suppose?" + +"Warn't they expectin' you at Cap'n Abe's?" the stage driver asked. "I +want to know! Oh, yes. You can buy your dinner at the tavern. But +'tain't a long walk to Cap'n Abe's. Not fur beyond the Mariner's Chapel." + +Louise thanked him. A young man was coming down the steps of the +post-office. He was a more than ordinarily good-looking young fellow, +deeply tanned, with a rather humorous twist to his shaven lips, and with +steady blue eyes. He was dressed in quite common clothing: the jersey, +high boots, and sou'wester of a fisherman. + +He looked at Louise, but not offensively. He did not remove his hat as +he spoke. + +"I heard Noah say you wished to go to Cap'n Abe's store," he observed +with neither an assumption of familiarity nor any bucolic embarrassment. +"I am bound that way myself." + +"Thank you!" she said with just enough dignity to warn him to keep his +distance if he chanced to be contemplating anything familiar. "But I +shall dine at the hotel first." + +A brighter color flooded into his cheeks and Louise felt that she might +have been too sharp with him. She mended this by adding: + +"You may tell me how to get to the Shell Road and Mr. Silt's, if you will +be so kind." + +He smiled at that. Really, he was an awfully nice-looking youth! She +had no idea that these longshore fishermen would be so gentlemanly and so +good looking. + +"Oh, you can't miss it. Take the first left-hand street, and keep on it. +Cap'n Abe's store is the only one beyond the Mariner's Chapel." + +"Thank you," she said again and mounted the broad steps of the Inn. The +young fellow hesitated as though he were inclined to enter too. But when +Louise reached the piazza and glanced quickly down at him, he was moving +on. + +The cool interior of a broad hall with a stairway mounting out of it and +a screened dining-room at one side, welcomed the girl. A bustling young +woman in checked gingham, which fitted her as though it were a mold for +her rather plump figure, met the visitor. + +"How-do!" she said briskly. "Goin' to stop?" + +"Only for dinner," Louise said, smiling--and when she smiled her gray +eyes made friends. + +"Almost over. But I'll run an' tell the cook to dish you up something +hot. Come right this way an' wash. I'll fix you a table where it's +cool. This is 'bout the first hot day we've had." + +She showed the visitor into the dressing-room and then bustled away. +Later she hovered about the table where Louise ate, the other boarders +having departed. + +"My name's Gusty Durgin," she volunteered. "I reckon you're one o' them +movin' picture actresses they say are goin' to work down to The Beaches +this summer." + +"What makes you think so?" asked Louise, somewhat amused. + +"Why--you kinder look it. I should say you had 'screen charm.' Oh! I +been readin' up about you folks for a long time back. I subscribed to +_The Fillum Universe_ that tells all about you. I'd like to try actin' +before the cam'ra myself. But I cal'late I ain't got much 'screen +charm,'" the waitress added seriously. "I'm too fat. And I wouldn't do +none of them comedy pictures where the fat woman always gets the worst of +it. But you must take lovely photographs." + +"I'm not sure that I do," laughed Louise. + +"Land sakes! Course you do. Them big eyes o' yourn must just look +fetchin' in a picture. I don't believe I've ever seen you in a movie, +have I, Miss------?" + +"Grayling." + +"'Grayling'! Ain't that pretty?" Gusty Durgin gave an envious sigh. "Is +it your honest to goodness, or just your fillum name?" + +"My 'honest to goodness,'" the visitor confessed, bubbling with laughter. + +"Land sakes! I should have to change mine all right. The kids at school +useter call me 'Dusty Gudgeon.' Course, my right name's Augusta; but +nobody ever remembers down here on the Cape to call anybody by such a +long name. Useter be a boy in our school who was named 'Christopher +Columbus George Washington Marquis de Lafayette Gallup.' His mother +named him that. But everybody called him 'Lafe'--after Lafayette, ye see. + +"Land sakes! I should just have to change my name if I acted in the +pictures. Your complexion's real, too, ain't it?" pursued this waitress +with histrionic ambitions. "Real pretty, too, if 'tis high colored. I +expect you have to make up for the pictures, just the same." + +"I suppose I should. I believe it is always necessary to accentuate the +lights and shadows for the camera." + +"'Accentuate'--yep. That's a good word. I'll remember that," said +Gusty. "You goin' to stay down to The Beaches long---and will you like +it?" + +"The Beaches?" + +"That's where you'll work. At the Bozewell house. Swell bungalow. All +the big bugs live along The Beaches." + +"I am not sure just how long I shall stay," confessed Louise Grayling; +"but I know I am going to like it." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CAP'N ABE + +"I see by the _Globe_ paper," Cap'n Abe observed, pushing up from his +bewhiskered visage the silver-bowed spectacles he really did not need, +"that them fellers saved from the wreck of the _Gilbert Gaunt_ cal'late +they went through something of an adventure." + +"And they did," rejoined Cap'n Joab Beecher, "if they seen ha'f what they +tell about." + +"I dunno," the storekeeper went on reflectively, staring at a huge +fishfly booming against one of the dusty window panes. "I dunno. Cap'n +Am'zon was tellin' me once't about what he and two others went through +with after the _Posy Lass,_ out o' Bangor, was smashed up in a big blow +off Hat'ras. What them fellers in the _Globe_ paper tell about ain't a +patch on what Cap'n Am'zon suffered." + +There was an uncertain, troubled movement among Cap'n Abe's hearers. +Even the fishfly stopped droning. Cap'n Beecher looked longingly through +the doorway from which the sea could be observed as well as a strip of +that natural breakwater called "The Neck," a barrier between the tumbling +Atlantic and the quiet bay around which the main village of Cardhaven was +set. + +All the idlers in the store on this June afternoon were not natives. +There were several young fellows from The Beaches--on the Shell Road to +which Cap'n Abe's store was a fixture. In sight of The Beaches the +wealthy summer residents had built their homes--dwellings ranging in +architectural design from the mushroom-roofed bungalow to a villa in the +style of the Italian Renaissance. + +The villa in question had been built by I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy +King, and Lawford Tapp, only son of the house, was one of the audience in +Cap'n Abe's store. + +"Cap'n Amazon said," boomed the storekeeper a good deal like the +fishfly--"Cap'n Amazon said the _Posy Lass_ was loaded with lumber and +her cargo's 'bout all that kep' her afloat as fur as Hat'ras. Then the +smashin' big seas that come aboard settled her right down like a wounded +duck. + +"The deck load went o' course; and about ev'rything else was cleaned off +the decks that warn't bolted to 'em. The seas rose up and picked off the +men, one after t'other, like a person'd clean off a beach plum bush." + +"I shouldn't wonder," spoke up Cap'n Beecher, "if we seen some weather +'fore morning." + +He was squinting through the doorway at an azure and almost speckless +sky. There was an uneasy shuffling of boots. One of the boys from The +Beaches giggled. Cap'n Abe--and the fishfly--boomed on together, the +storekeeper evidently visualizing the scene he narrated and not the +half-lighted and goods-crowded shop. At its best it was never well +illumined. Had the window panes been washed there was little chance of +the sunshine penetrating far save by the wide open door. On either hand +as one entered were the rows of hanging oilskins, storm boots, +miscellaneous clothing and ship chandlery that made up only a part of +Cap'n Abe's stock. + +There were blue flannel shirts dangling on wooden hangers to show all +their breadth of shoulder and the array of smoked-pearl buttons. Brown +and blue dungaree overalls were likewise displayed--grimly, like men +hanging in chains. At the end of one row of these quite ordinary +habiliments was one dress shirt with pleated bosom and cuffs as stiff as +a board. Lawford Tapp sometimes speculated on that shirt--how it chanced +to be in Cap'n Abe's stock and why it had hung there until the flies had +taken title to it! + +Centrally located was the stove, its four heavily rusted legs set in a +shallow box which was sometimes filled with fresh sawdust. The +stovepipe, guyed by wires to the ceiling, ran back to the chimney behind +Cap'n Abe. + +He stood at the one space that was kept cleared on his counter, hairy +fists on the brown, hacked plank--the notches of the yard-stick and +fathom-stick cut with a jackknife on its edge--his pale eyes sparkling as +he talked. + +"There she wallered," went on the narrator of maritime disaster, "her +cargo held together by rotting sheathing and straining ribs. She was +wrung by the seas like a dishrag in a woman's hands. She no longer +mounted the waves; she bored through 'em. 'Twas a serious time--to hear +Cap'n Am'zon tell it." + +"I guess it must ha' been, Abe," Milt Baker put in hastily. "Gimme a +piece o' that Brown Mule chewin' tobacker." + +"I'll _sell_ it to ye, Milt," the storekeeper said gently, with his hand +on the slide of the cigar and tobacco showcase. + +"That's what I mean," rejoined Milt boldly, fishing in his pocket for the +required nickel. + +"For fourteen days while the _Posy Lass_ was drivin' off shore before an +easterly gale, Cap'n Am'zon an' two others, lashed to the stump o' the +fo'mast, _ex_-isted in a smother of foam an' spume, with the waves +picklin' 'em ev'ry few minutes. And five raw potaters was all they had +to eat in all that endurin' time!" + +"Five potatoes?" Lawford Tapp cried. "For three men? And for fourteen +days? Good-_night_!" + +Cap'n Abe stared at him for a moment, his eyes holding sparks of +indignation. "Young man," he said tartly, "you should hear Cap'n Am'zon +himself tell it. You wouldn't cast no doubts upon his statement." + +Cap'n Joab snorted and turned his back again. Young Tapp felt somewhat +abashed. + +"Yes, sir!" proceeded Cap'n Abe who seldom lost the thread of one of his +stories, "they was lashed to that stump of a mast and they lived on them +potaters--scraping 'em fine with their sheath-knives, and husbandin' 'em +like they was jewels. One of 'em went mad." + +"One o' the potaters?" gasped Amiel Perdue. + +"_Who_ went crazy--your brother, Cap'n Abe?" Milt asked cheerfully. He +had squandered a nickel in trying to head off the flow of the +storekeeper's story, and felt that he was entitled to something besides +the Brown Mule. + +Cap'n Abe kept to his course apparently unruffled: "Cap'n Am'zon an' the +other feller lashed the poor chap--han's _an_' feet--and so kep' him from +goin' overboard. But mebbe 'twarn't a marciful act after all. When they +was rescued from the _Posy Lass_, her decks awash and her slowly breakin' +up, there warn't nothing could be done for the feller that had lost his +mind. He was put straightaway into a crazy-house when they got to port. + +"Now, them fellers saved from the _Gilbert Gaunt_ didn't go through +nothin' like that, it stands to reason. Cap'n Am'zon----" + +Lawford Tapp was gazing out of the door beside Cap'n Joab, whose deeply +tanned, whisker-fringed countenance wore an expression of disgust. + +"I declare! I'd love to see this wonderful brother of his. He must have +Baron Munchausen lashed to the post," the young man whispered. + +"Never heard tell of that Munchausen feller," Cap'n Joab reflected. +"Reckon he didn't sail from any of the Cape ports. But you let Abe tell +it, Cap'n Am'zon Silt is the greatest navigator an' has the +rip-snortin'est adventoors of airy deep-bottom sailor that ever chawed +salt hoss." + +"Did you ever see him?" Lawford asked. + +"See who?" + +"Cap'n Amazon?" + +"No. I didn't never see him. But I've heard Cap'n Abe talk about +him--standin' off an' on as ye might say--for twenty year and more." + +"Odd you never met him, isn't it?" + +"No. I never happened on Cap'n Am'zon when I was sea-farin'. And he +ain't never been to Cardhaven to my knowledge." + +"Never been here?" murmured Lawford Tapp more than a little surprised. +"Wasn't he born and brought up here?" + +"No. Neither was Cap'n Abe. The Silts flourish, as ye might say--or, +useter 'fore the fam'ly sort o' petered out--down New Bedford way. Cap'n +Abe come here twenty-odd year back and opened this store. He's as salt +as though he'd been a haddocker since he was weaned. But he's always +stuck mighty close inshore. Nobody ever seen him in a boat--'ceptin' out +in a dory fishin' for tomcod in the bay, and on a mighty ca'm day at +that." + +"How does it come that he is called captain, then?" Lawford asked, +impressed by Cap'n Beecher's scorn of the storekeeper. + +The captain reflected, his jaws working spasmodically. "It's easy 'nough +to pick up skipper's title longshore. 'Most ev'ry man owns some kind of +a boat; and o' course a man's cap'n of his own craft--or 'doughter be. +But I reckon Abe Silt aimed his title honest 'nough." + +"How?" urged Lawford. + +"When Abe fust come here to Cardhaven there was still two-three wrecking +comp'nies left on the Cape. Why, 'tain't been ten years since the +Paulmouth Comp'ny wrecked the _Mary Benson_ that went onto Sanders Reef +all standin'. They made a good speck out o' the job, too. + +"Wal, Abe bought into one o' the comp'nies--was the heaviest stockholder, +in fac', so nat'rally was cap'n. He never headed no crew--not as I ever +heard on. But the title kinder stuck; and I don't dispute Abe likes it." + +"But about his brother--this Captain Amazon?" The line of Cap'n Joab +Beecher's jaw, clean shaven above his whisker, looked very grim indeed, +and he wagged his head slowly. "I don't know what to make of all this +talk o' Cap'n Abe's," was his enigmatical reply. + +Lawford turned to gaze curiously at the storekeeper. He certainly looked +to be of a salt flavor, did Cap'n Abe Silt, though so many of his years +had been spent behind the counter of this gloomy and cluttered shop. He +was not a large man, nor commanding to look upon. His eyes were too mild +for that--save when, perhaps, he grew excited in relating one of his +interminable stories about Cap'n Amazon. + +Cap'n Amazon Silt, it seemed, had been everything on sea and land that a +mariner could be. No romance of the sea, or sea-going, was too +remarkable to be capped by a tale of one of Cap'n Amazon's experiences. +Some of these stories of wild and remarkable happenings, the storekeeper +had told over and over again until they were threadbare. + +Cap'n Abe's brown, gray-streaked beard swept the breast of his blue +jersey. He was seldom seen without a tarpaulin on his head, and this had +made his crown as bare and polished as a shark's tooth. Under the bulk +of his jersey he might have been either thin or deep-chested, for the +observer could not easily judge. And nobody ever saw the storekeeper's +sleeves rolled up or the throat-latch of his shirt open. + +Despite the fact that he held a thriving trade in his store on the Shell +Road (especially during the summer season) Cap'n Abe lived emphatically a +lonely life. Twenty years' residence meant little to Cardhaven folk. +Cap'n Abe was still an outsider to people who were so closely married and +intermarried that every human being within five miles of the Haven (not +counting the aristocrats of The Beaches) could honestly call each of the +others cousin in some degree. + +The house and store was set on a lonely stretch of road. It was +unlighted at night, for the last street lamp had been fixed by the town +fathers at the Mariner's Chapel, as though they said to all mundane +illumination as did King Canute to the sea, "Thus far shalt thou come and +no farther." + +Betty Gallup came cross lots each day to "rid up" Mr. Silt's living-room, +which was behind the store, the chambers being overhead. She was gone +home long before he put out the store lights and turned out the last +lingering idler, for Cap'n Abe preferred to cook for himself. He +declared the Widow Gallup did not know how to make a decent chowder, +anyway; and as for lobscouse, or the proper frying of a mess of +"blood-ends," she was all at sea. He intimated that there were digestive +reasons for her husband's death at the early age of sixty-eight. + +Milt Baker had successfully introduced another topic of conversation, far +removed it would seem from any adventurous happening connected with Cap'n +Amazon Silt's career. + +"I hear tell," said Milt, chewing Brown Mule with gusto, "that them folks +cavortin' down on The Beaches for a week past is movin' picture actors. +That so, Lawford?" + +"There's a camera man and a director, and several handy men arrived," the +son of the Salt Water Taffy King replied. "They are going to use +Bozewell's house for some pictures. The Bozewells are in Europe." + +"But ain't none of the actorines come?" demanded Milt, who was a sad +dog--let him tell it! He had been motorman on a street car in Providence +for a couple of winters before he married Mandy Card, and now tried to +keep green his reputation for sophistication. + +"I believe not," Lawford answered, with reflection. "I presume the +company will come later. The director is taking what he calls 'stills' +of the several localities they propose using when the films are really +made." + +"One of 'em told me," chuckled Amiel Perdue, "that they was hopin' for a +storm, so's to get a real wreck in the picture." + +"Hoh!" snorted Cap'n Joab. "Fine time o' year to be lookin' for a +no'theaster on the Cape." + +"And do they reckon a craft'll drift right in here if there is a storm +an' wrack herself to please 'em?" piped up Washy Gallup--no relation to +Betty save through interminable cross-currents of Card and Baker blood. + +"Sometimes them fillum fellers buy a boat an' wreck it a-purpose. Look +what they did to the old _Morning Star_," Milt said. "I read once of a +comp'ny putting two locomotives on one track an' running 'em full-tilt +together so's to get a picture of the smashup." + +"Crazy critters!" muttered Cap'n Joab. + +"But wait till ye see the fillum actresses," Milt chuckled. "Tell ye +what, boys, some of 'em 'll make ye open your eyes!" + +"Ye better go easy. Milt, 'bout battin' your eyes," advised Amiel +Perdue. "Mandy ain't lost her eyesight none either." + +Washy's thin whine broke through the guffaw: "I seen a picture at +Paulmouth once't about a feller and a girl lost in the woods o' Borneo. +It was a stirrin' picture. They was chased by headhunters, and one o' +these here big man-apes tackled 'em--what d'ye call that critter now? +Suthin' like ringin' a bell." + +"Orang-outang," suggested Lawford. + +"That's it. Sounds jest like the Baptist Meetin' House bell. It's +cracked." + +"Them orang-outangs don't sound like no bell--not when they holler," put +in Cap'n Abe, leaning on his counter and staring at the tireless fishfly +again. "Cap'n Am'zon Silt, when he was ashore once't in Borneo, met one +o' them critters." + +"Gosh all fishhooks!" ejaculated Milt. "Ain't there no place on this +green airth that brother o' yourn ain't been, Cap'n Abe?" + +"He ain't never been in jail, Milt," said the storekeeper mildly, and the +assembly broke into an appreciative chuckle. It was well known that on +the last Fourth of July Milt Baker had been shut into the calaboose at +Paulmouth to sober up. + +"As I was sayin'," pursued Cap'n Abe reflectively, "Cap'n Amazon went up +country with a Dutchman--a trader, I b'lieve he said the man was--and +they got into a part where the orang-outangs was plentiful." + +"Jest as thick as sandpipers along The Beaches, I shouldn't wonder," put +in Cap'n Joab, at last tempted beyond his strength. + +"No; nor like mackerel when ye get a full seine-haul," responded the +storekeeper, unruffled, "but thicker'n you'd want sand fleas to be if the +fleas measured up to the size of orang-outangs." + +Lawford Tapp burst into open laughter. "They can't catch you, can they, +Cap'n Abe?" he said. "If that brother of yours has gone through one-half +the perils by land and sea I've heard you tell about, he's beat out most +sailors from old Noah down to Admiral Dewey." + +Cap'n Abe's brows came together in pronounced disapproval. "Young man," +he said, "if Cap'n Am'zon was here now ye wouldn't darst cast any +aspersions on his word. He ain't the man to stand for't." + +"Well, I'd like to see Cap'n Amazon," Lawford said lightly, "if only for +the sake of asking him a question or two." + +"You'll likely get your wish," returned the storekeeper tartly. + +"What d'ye mean?" drawled Milt Baker, who always bobbed up serenely. "Ye +don't say Cap'n Am'zon's likely to show up here at Cardhaven after all +these years?" + +There was barely a second's hesitation on Mr. Silt's part. Then he said: +"That's exactly what I mean. I got a--ahem!--a letter from Cap'n Am'zon +only lately." + +"And he's comin' to see ye?" gasped Cap'n Joab, turning from the door to +stare like the others at the storekeeper. + +"Yes," the latter confessed. "And he's likely to stay quite a spell when +he does come. Says suthin' 'bout settlin' down. He's gettin' along in +years like the rest of us. Mebbe I'll let him keep store for me this +summer whilst I take a vacation," added Cap'n Abe more briskly, "like I +been wantin' to do for a long spell back." + +"You took a vacation of a week or more about--was it ten year ago?" +demanded Cap'n Joab. "I looked after the place for ye then." + +"Ahem! I mean a real vacation," Cap'n Abe declared, still staring at the +fishfly now feebly butting its head against the pane. "That week was +when I went to the--'hem--buryin' of my a'nt, Joab. I'll go this time +mebbe for two-three months. Take a v'y'ge somewhere, I've always wanted +to." + +"Land sakes!" exploded Cap'n Joab. "I know ye been talkin' 'bout +cruisin' around--to see your folks, or the like--for the longest spell. +But I didn't s'pose ye re'lly meant it. And your brother comin', too! +Well!" + +"If he can tell of his adventures as well as you relate them," laughed +Lawford, "Cap'n Amazon should be an addition to the Cardhaven social +whirl." + +"You take my advice, young man," Cap'n Abe said, with sternness, "and +belay that sort o' talk afore Cap'n Am'zon when he does come. He's lived +a rough sort o' life. He's nobody's tame cat. Doubt his word and he's +jest as like as not to take ye by the scruff of the neck and duck ye in +the water butt." + +There was a general laugh. Almost always the storekeeper managed to turn +the tables in some way upon any doubting Thomas that drifted into his +shop. Because of his ability in this particular he had managed to hold +his audience all these years. + +Lawford could think of no reply with which to turn the laugh. His wit +was not of a nimble order. He turned to the door again and suddenly a +low ejaculation parted his lips. + +"There's that girl again!" + +Milt Baker screwed his neck around for a look. "See who's come!" he +cackled. "I bet it's one o' them moving picture actresses." + +Lawford cast on the ribald Milt a somewhat angry glance. Yet he did not +speak again for a moment. + +"Tidy craft," grunted Cap'n Joab, eying the young woman who was +approaching the store along the white road. + +"I saw her get out of Noah's ark when he landed at the post-office this +noon," Lawford explained to Cap'n Joab. "She looks like a nice girl." + +"Trim as a yacht," declared the old man admiringly. + +She was plainly city bred--and city gowned--and she carried her light +traveling bag by a strap over her shoulder. Her trim shoes were dusty +from her walk and her face was pink under her wide hat brim. + +Lawford stepped out upon the porch. His gaze was glued again to this +vision of young womanhood; but as he stood at one side she did not appear +to see him as she mounted the steps. + +The heir of the Salt Water Taffy King was twenty-four, his rather +desultory college course behind him; and he thought his experience with +girls had been wide. But he had never seen one just like Louise +Grayling. He was secretly telling himself this as she made her entrance +into Cap'n Abe's store. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +IN CAP'N ABE'S LIVING-ROOM + +Louise came into the store smiling and the dusty, musty old place seemed +actually to brighten in the sunshine of her presence. Her big gray eyes +(they were almost blue when their owner was in an introspective mood) now +sparkled as her glance swept Cap'n Abe's stock-in-trade--the shelves of +fly-specked canned goods and cereal packages, with soap, and starch, and +half a hundred other kitchen goods beyond; the bolts of calico, gingham, +"turkey red," and mill-ends; the piles of visored caps and boxes of +sunbonnets on the counter: the ship-lanterns, coils of rope, boathooks, +tholepins hanging in wreaths; bailers, clam hoes, buckets, and the +thousand and one articles which made the store on the Shell Road a museum +that later was sure to engage the interest of the girl. + +Now, however, the clutter of the shop gained but fleeting notice from +Louise. Her gaze almost immediately fastened upon the figure of the +bewhiskered old man, with spectacles and sou'wester both pushed back on +his bald crown, who mildly looked upon her--his smile somehow impressing +Louise Grayling as almost childish, it was so kindly. + +Cap'n Joab had dodged through the door after Lawford Tapp. The other +boys from The Beaches followed their leader. Old Washy Gallup and Amiel +Perdue suddenly remembered that it was almost chore time as this radiant +young woman said: + +"I wish to see Mr. Abram Silt--Captain Silt. Is he here?" + +"I'm him, miss," Cap'n Abe returned politely. + +Milt Baker surely would have remained of all the crowd of idlers, gaping +oilily at the visitor across the top of the rusty stove, had not a shrill +feminine voice been heard outside the store, + +"Is Milt Baker there? Ain't none o' you men seen him? Land sakes! he's +as hard to hold as the greased pig on Fourth o' July--an' jest 'bout as +useful." + +"Milt," said Cap'n Abe suggestively, "I b'lieve I hear Mandy callin' you." + +"I'm a-comin'!--I'm a-comin', Mandy!" gurgled Milt, cognizant of the +girl's gay countenance turned upon him. + +"What did you want, miss?" asked Cap'n Abe, as the recreant husband of +the militant Mandy stumbled over his own feet getting out of the store. + +Louise bubbled over with laughter; she could not help it. Cap'n Abe's +bearded countenance broke slowly into an appreciative grin. + +"Yes," he said, "she does have him on a leadin' string. I do admit +Mandy's a card." + +The girl, quick-witted as she was bright looking, got his point almost at +once. "You mean she was a Card before she married him?" + +"And she's a Card yet," Cap'n Abe said, nodding. "Guess you know a thing +or two, yourself. What can I do for you?" + +"You can say: 'Good-evening, Niece Louise,'" laughed the girl, coming +closer to the counter upon which the storekeeper still leaned. + +"Land sakes!" + +"My mother was a Card. That is how I came to see your joke, Uncle Abram." + +"Land sakes!" + +"Don't you believe me?" + +"I--I ain't got but one niece in the world," mumbled Cap'n Abe. +"An'--an' I never expected to see _her_." + +"Louise Grayling, daughter of Professor Ernest Grayling and Miriam +Card--your half-sister's child. See here--and here." She snapped open +her bag, resting it on the counter, and produced an old-fashioned +photograph of her mother, a letter, yellowed by time, that Cap'n Abe had +written Professor Grayling long before, and her own accident policy +identification card which she always carried. + +Cap'n Abe stretched forth a hairy hand, and it closed on Lou's as a +sunfish absorbs its prey. The girl's hand to her wrist was completely +lost in the grip; but despite its firmness Cap'n Abe's handclasp was by +no means painful. He released her and, leaning back, smiled benignly. + +"Land sakes!" he said again. "I'm glad to see little Mirry's girl. An' +you do favor her a mite. But I guess you take mostly after the +Graylings." + +"People say I am like my father." + +"An' a mighty nice lookin' man--an' a pleasant--as I remember him," Cap'n +Abe declared. + +"Come right in here, into my sittin'-room, Niece Louise, an' lemme take a +look at you. Land sakes!" + +He lifted the flap in the counter to let her through. The doorway beyond +gave entrance to a wide hall, or "entry," between the store and the +living-room. The kitchen was in a lean-to at the back. The table in the +big room was already spread with a clean red-and-white checked tablecloth +and set with heavy chinaware for a meal. A huge caster graced the center +of the table, containing glass receptacles for salt, red and black +pepper, catsup, vinegar, and oil. Knives, forks, and spoons for two--all +of utilitarian style--were arranged with mathematical precision beside +each plate. + +In one window hung a pot with "creeping Jew" and inchplant, the tendrils +at least a yard long. In the other window was a blowzy-looking canary in +a cage. A corpulent tortoise-shell cat occupied the turkey-red cushion +in one generous rocking chair, There was a couch with a faded patchwork +coverlet, several other chairs, and in a glass-fronted case standing on +the mantlepiece a model of a brigantine in full sail, at least two feet +tall. + +"Sit down," said Cap'n Abe heartily. "Drop your dunnage right down +there," as Louise slipped the strap of her bag from her shoulder. "Take +that big rocker. Scat, you, Diddimus! and let the young lady have your +place." + +"Oh, don't bother him, Uncle Abram. What a beauty he is," Louise said, +as the tortoise-shell--without otherwise moving--opened one great, yellow +eye. + +"He's a lazy good-for-nothing," Cap'n Abe said mildly. "Friends with all +the mice on the place, I swan! But sometimes he's the only human critter +I have to talk to. 'Cept Jerry." + +"Jerry?" + +"The bird," explained Cap'n Abe, easing himself comfortably into a chair, +his guest being seated, and resting his palms on his knees as he gazed at +her out of his pale blue eyes. "He's a lot of comfort--Jerry. An' he +useter be a great singer. Kinder gittin' old, now, like the rest of us. + +"Does seem too bad," went on Cap'n Abe reflectively, "how a bird like him +has got to live in a cage all his endurin' days. Jerry's a +prisoner--like I been. _I_ ain't never had the freedom I wanted, +Miss------? + +"Louise, please. Uncle Abram. Lou Grayling," the girl begged, but +smiling. + +"Then just you call me Cap'n Abe. I'm sort o' useter that," the +storekeeper said. + +"Of course I will. But why haven't you been free?" she asked, reverting +to his previous topic. "Seems to me--down here on the Cape where the sea +breezes blow, and everything is open----" + +"Yes, 'twould seem so," Cap'n Abe said, but he said it with hesitation. +"I been some hampered all my life, as ye might say. 'Tis something that +was bred in me. But as for Jerry------ + +"Jerry was give to me by a lady when he was a young bird. After a while +I got thinkin' a heap about him bein' caged, and one sunshiny day--it was +a marker for days down here on the Cape, an' we have lots on 'em! One +sunshiny day I opened his door and opened the window, and I says: 'Scoot! +The hull world's yourn!'" + +"And didn't he go?" asked the girl, watching the rapt face of the old man. + +"Did he go? Right out through that window with a song that'd break your +heart to hear, 'twas so sweet. He pitched on the old apple tree +yonder--the August sweet'nin'--and I thought he'd bust his throat +a-tellin' of how glad he was to be free out there in God's sunshine an' +open air." + +"He came back, I see," said Louise thoughtfully. + +"That's just it!" cried Cap'n Abe, shaking his head till the tarpaulin +fell off and he forgot to pick it up. "That's just it. He come back of +his own self. I didn't try to ketch him. When it grew on toward sundown +an' the air got kinder chill, I didn't hear Jerry singin' no more. I'd +seen him, off'n on, flittin' 'bout the yard all day. When I come in here +to light the hangin'-lamp cal'latin' to make supper, I looked over there +at the window. I'd shut it. There was Jerry on the window sill, humped +all up like an old woman with the tisic." + +"The poor thing!" was Lou's sympathetic cry. + +"Yes," said Cap'n Abe, nodding. "He warn't no more fit to be let loose +than nothin' 'tall. And I wonder if _I_ be," added the storekeeper. +"I've been caged quite a spell how. + +"But now tell me, Niece Louise," he added with latent curiosity, "how did +you find your way here?" + +"Father says--'Daddy-professor,' you know is what I call him. He says if +we had not always been traveling when I was not at school, I should have +known you long ago. He thinks very highly of my mother's people." + +"I wanter know!" + +"He says you are the 'salt of the earth'--that is his very expression." + +"Yes. We're pretty average salt, I guess," admitted Cap'n Abe. "I never +seen your father but once or twice. You see, Louise, your mother was a +lot younger'n me an' Am'zon." + +"Who?" + +"Cap'n Am'zon. Oh! _I_ ain't the only uncle you got," he said, watching +her narrowly. "Cap'n Am'zon Silt----" + +"Have I another relative? How jolly!" exclaimed Louise, clasping her +hands. + +"Ye-as. Ain't it? Jest," Cap'n Abe said. "Ahem! your father never +spoke of Cap'n Am'zon?". + +"I don't believe daddy-prof even knew there was such a person." + +"Mebbe not. Mebbe not," Cap'n Abe agreed hastily. "And not to be +wondered at. You see, Am'zon went to sea when he was only jest a boy." + +"Did he?" + +"Yep. Ran away from home--like most boys done in them days, for their +mothers warn't partial to the sea--and shipped aboard the whaler _South +Sea Belle_. He tied his socks an' shirt an' a book o' navigation he +owned, up in a handkerchief, and slipped out over the shed roof one +night, and away he went." Cap'n Abe told the girl this with that +far-away look on his face that usually heralded one of his tales about +Cap'n Amazon. + +"I can remember it clear 'nough. He walked all the way to New Bedford. +We lived at Rocky Head over against Bayport. Twas quite a step to +Bedford. The _South Sea Belle_ was havin' hard time makin' up her crew. +She warn't a new ship. Am'zon was twelve year old an' looked fifteen. +An' he was fifteen 'fore he got back from that v'y'ge. Mebbe I'll tell +ye 'bout it some time--or Cap'n Am'zon will. He's been a deep-bottom +sailor from that day to this." + +"And where is he now?" asked Louise. + +"Why--mebbe!--he's on his way here. I shouldn't wonder. He might step +in at that door any minute," and Cap'n Abe's finger indicated the store +door. + +There was the sound of a footstep entering the store as he spoke. The +storekeeper arose. "I'll jest see who 'tis," he said. + +While he was absent Louise laid aside her hat and made a closer +inspection of the room and its furniture. Everything was homely but +comfortable. There was a display of marine art upon the walls. All the +ships were drawn exactly, with the stays, spars, and all rigging in +place, line for line. They all sailed, too, through very blue seas, the +crest of each wave being white with foam. + +Flanking the model of the brigantine on the mantle were two fancy shell +pieces--works of art appreciated nowhere but on the coast. The designs +were ornate; but what they could possibly represent Louise was unable to +guess. + +She tried to interest the canary by whistling to him and sticking her +pink finger between the wires of his cage. He was ruffled and dull-eyed +like all old birds of his kind, and paid her slight attention. When she +turned to Diddimus she had better success. He rolled on his side, stuck +all his claws out and drew them in again luxuriously, purring meanwhile +like a miniature sawmill. + +When Cap'n Abe came back the girl asked: + +"Wasn't your customer a young man I saw on the porch as I came in?" + +"Yep. Lawford Tapp. Said he forgot some matches and a length o' +ropeyarn. I reckon you went to that young man's head. And his top +hamper ain't none too secure, Niece Louise." + +"Oh, did I?" laughed the girl, understanding perfectly. "How nice." + +"Nice? That's how ye take it. Lawford Tapp ain't a fav'rite o' mine." + +"But he seemed very accommodating to-day when I asked him how to reach +your store." + +"So you met him up town?" + +"Yes, Uncle Abe." + +"He's perlite enough," scolded the storekeeper. "But I don't jest fancy +the cut of his jib. Wanted to know if you was goin' to stop here." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Louise. "That is what I want to know myself. Am I?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS + +Cap'n Abe reached for his spectacles and pulled them down upon his nose +to look at his guest through the lenses. Not that they aided his sight +in the least; but the act helped to cover the fact that he was startled. + +"Stop here?" he repeated. "Where's your father? Ain't he with you up +to the Inn?" + +"No, Cap'n Abe. He is in Boston to-day. But he will sail to-morrow +for a summer cruise with a party for scientific research. I am all +alone. So I came down here to Cape Cod." + +Louise said it directly and as simply as the storekeeper himself might +have spoken. Yet it seemed really difficult for Cap'n Abe to get her +meaning into his head. + +"You mean you was intendin' to cast anchor here--with _me_?" + +"If it is agreeable. Of course I'll pay my board if you'll let me. +You have a room to spare, haven't you?" + +"Land sakes, yes!" + +"And I am not afraid to use my hands. I might even be of some slight +use," and she smiled at him till his own slow smile responded, troubled +and amazed though he evidently was by her determination. "I've roughed +it a good deal with daddy-prof. I can cook--some things. And I can do +housework----" + +"Bet Gallup does that," interposed Cap'n Abe, finally getting his +bearings. "Hi-mighty, ye did take me aback all standin', Niece Louise! +Ye did, for a fac'. But why not? Land sakes, there's room enough, +an' to spare! Ye don't hafter put them pretty han's to housework. +Betty Gallup'll do all that. An' you don't have to pay no board money. +As for cookin'----That remin's me. I'd better git to work on our +supper. We'll be sharp for it 'fore long." + +"And--and I may stay?" asked Louise, with some little embarrassment +now. "You are sure it won't inconvenience you?" + +"Bless you, no! I cal'late it's more likely to inconvenience _you_," +and Cap'n Abe chuckled mellowly. "I don't know what sort o' 'roughin' +it' you've done with your pa; but if there's anything much rougher than +an ol' man's housekeepin' down here on the Cape, it must be pretty +average rough!" + +She laughed gayly. "You can't scare me!" + +"Ain't a-tryin' to," he responded, eying her admiringly. "You're an +able seaman, I don't dispute. An' we'll git along fine. Hi-mighty! +there's Am'zon!" + +Louise actually turned around this time to look at the door, expecting +to see the mariner in question enter. Then she said, half doubtfully: + +"Do you suppose your brother will object if he does come, Cap'n Abe?" + +"Land sakes, no!" the storekeeper quickly assured her. "'Tain't that. +But I cal'lated 'bout soon's Am'zon anchored here I'd cast off moorin's +myself." + +"Go away?" Louise demanded. + +"Yes. Like poor old Jerry, mebbe," said Cap'n Abe, looking at the +caged bird. "Mebbe I'll be glad to come back again--and in a hurry. +But while Cap'n Am'zon is here I can take a vacation that I've long +hankered for, Niece Louise. I--I got my plans all made." + +"Don't for one moment think of changing them on my account," Louise +said briskly. "I shall like Uncle Amazon immensely if he's anything +like you, Cap'n Abe." + +"He--he ain't so _much_ like me," confessed the storekeeper. "Not in +looks he ain't. But hi-mighty! I know he'll be as pleased as Punch to +see ye." + +"Are you sure of that?" + +"Wait till you see how he takes to ye," declared her reassuring uncle. +"Now, lemme git my apern on and set to work on supper." + +"Can't I help, Cap'n Abe?" + +"In them things?" the storekeeper objected. + +"Well--I'll have plenty of house dresses when my trunks come. I left +my checks at the station for a man named Perry Baker. They said he'd +bring them over to-night." + +"He will," Cap'n Abe assured her. But he stopped a moment, stock-still +in the middle of the room, and stared at her unseeingly. Evidently his +mind was fixed upon an idea suddenly suggested by her speech. "He +will," he repeated. Then: + +"I'll get the fat kettle over an' the fry-cage ready. Amiel brought me +a likely cod. 'Tain't been out o' the water two hours." + +"I love fish," confessed Louise, following him to the kitchen door. + +"Lucky you do, if you're going to stay a spell on Cape Cod. For that's +what you'll eat mornin', noon, and night. Fish and clams, an' mebbe a +pot o' baked beans on a Saturday, or a chicken for Sunday's dinner. I +don't git much time to cook fancy." + +"But can't this woman who comes to do the work cook for you?" + +"She can't cook for me," snorted Cap'n Abe. "I respect my stomach too +much to eat after Bet Gallup. She's as good a man afore the mast as +airy feller in Cardhaven. An' that's where she'd oughter be. But +never let her in the galley." + +"Oh, well," Louise said cheerfully. "I'm a dab at camp cooking myself, +as I told you. Uncle Amazon and I will make out--if he comes." + +"Oh! Ah! 'Hem!" said Cap'n Abe, clearing his throat. He stooped to +pick up a dropped potlid and came up very red in the face. "You +needn't borrow any trouble on that score, Cap'n Am'zon's as good a cook +as I be." + +Only twice did Cap'n Abe make forced trips into the shop. The supper +hour of Cardhaven was well established and the thoughtful housewives +did not seek to make purchases while the fat was hot in Cap'n Abe's +skillet. One of these untimely customers was a wandering child with a +penny. "I might have waited on him, Cap'n Abe," Louise declared. + +"Land sakes! so you might," the storekeeper agreed. "Though if he'd +seen you behind my counter I reckon that young 'un of 'Liathel +Grummet's would have been struck dumber than nature made him in the +fust place." + +The other customer was a gangling, half-grown youth after a ball of +seine twine and the girl heard him say in a shocked whisper to Cap'n +Abe: + +"Say! is it true there's one o' them movin' picture actresses goin' to +stop here with you, Cap'n Abe? Ma heard so." + +"You tell your ma," Cap'n Abe said sternly, "that if she keeps on +stretchin' her ears that a-way, she'll hear the kambuoy over Bartell +Shoals in a dead calm!" + +Cap'n Abe's bald poll began to shine with minute beads of perspiration. +He looked over the bib of his voluminous apron like a bewhiskered gnome +very busy at some mysterious task. Louise noticed that his movements +about the kitchen were remarkably deft. + +"All hands called!" he called out at length. "I'm about to dish up." + +"Shall I put on another plate, Cap'n Abe? You expected somebody else +to supper?" + +"Nope. All set. I'm always ready for a messmate; but 'tain't often +one boards me 'cept Cap'n Joab now and then. His woman likes to git +him out from under foot. You see, when a woman's been useter seein' +her husband only 'twixt v'y'ges for forty year, I 'spect 'tis something +of a cross to have him litterin' up the house ev'ry day," he confessed. +"But as I can't leave the shop myself to go visitin' much in return, +Joab acks offish. We Silts was always bred to be hospitable. Poor or +rich, we could share what we had with another. So I keep an extry +plate on the table. + +"I've had occasion," pursued the philosophical storekeeper, drawing up +his own chair across the table from the girl, "to be at some folks' +houses at meal time and had 'em ask me to set up and have a bite. But +it never looked to me as if they meant it 'nless there was already an +extry plate there. + +"Just like having a spare bedroom. If you can say: 'Stay all night, we +got a room for ye,' then that's what I call hospitality. I wouldn't +live in a house that warn't big enough to have at least one spare room." + +"I believe I must be very welcome here, Cap'n Abe," Louise said, +smiling at the kindly old man. + +"Land sakes, I sh'd hope ye felt so!" ejaculated Cap'n Abe. "Now, if +you don't mind, Niece Louise." He dropped his head suddenly and closed +his eyes in reverence. "For what we are about to partake of, Lord, +make us duly thankful. Amen!" His countenance became animated again. +"Try them biscuit. I made 'em this morning 'twixt Marcy Coe selectin' +that piece of gingham for a new dress and John Peckham buying cordage +for his smack. But they warmed up right nice in the oven." + +Meanwhile he heaped her plate with codfish and fried potatoes cooked to +a delicate brown. There was good butter, fat doughnuts, and beach-plum +preserve. It was a homely meal but Louise ate it graciously. Already +the air of Cardhaven had sharpened her appetite. + +"Lend me your apron," insisted the girl when they had finished, "and I +will wash these dishes." + +"I us'ally let them go till Betty Gallup comes in the morning," the +storekeeper said rather ruefully. "It don't look right to me that you +should mess with these greasy dishes jest as we get under way, as ye +might say." + +"You must not make company of me, Cap'n Abe," Louise declared. "There, +I hear a customer in the store," and she gave him a little pat on the +shoulder as he delivered the huge apron into her hand. + +"I dunno," he said, smiling upon her quizzically, "as I shall really +want to cast off if Cap'n Am'zon _does_ come. Seems to me 'twould be +hi-mighty nice to have a girl like you around the place, Louise." + +"Then don't go," she said, briskly beginning to clear off. "_I_ +sha'n't mind having two of you for me to boss. Two captains! Think of +it." + +"Yes. I know. But I got all my plans laid," he murmured, and then +went slowly into the store. + +There seemed to be some briskness in the after-supper trade, and Louise +suspected that it was founded upon the news of her arrival at Cap'n +Abe's store. Several of his rather tart rejoinders reached her ears as +she went from kitchen to livingroom and back again. Finally removing +the apron, her task done, she seated herself with Diddimus in her lap +within the radiance of the lamp and within hearing of all that was said +in the store. + +"No. I dunno's I ever did tell ye quite all my business, Joab. Some +things I missed, includin' the list of my relations." + +"Yes, I hear tell most of these movin' picture actresses are pretty, +Miz' Peckham. They pick 'em for that puppose, I shouldn't wonder. I +didn't ask her what part she was goin' to play--_if_ any." + +"Land sakes, Mandy, she's just got here! I ain't no idee how long +she'll stay. If you think there's any danger of Milt not tendin' to +his clammin' proper whilst she's here you'd better send him on a cruise +with Cap'n Durgin. The _Tryout_ sails for the Banks to-morrow, I +understand." + +"No, Washy. That was my A'nt Matildy I went away to help bury ten +years ago. She's still dead--an' this ain't her daughter. This is my +ha'f sister's child, she that was Miriam Card. She got married to a +scientific chap that works for the government, I guess when you write +to Washington for your garden seeds next spring, you better ask about +him, if ye want to know more'n _I_ can tell ye." + +"You got it right for once't, Joab. I do expect Cap'n Am'zon. Mebbe +to-night. He may come over from the depot with Perry Baker--I can't +tell. What'll I do with the girl? Land sakes! ain't Cap'n Am'zon just +as much her uncle as _I_ be? Some o' you fellers better stow your +jaw-tackle if Cap'n Am'zon does heave to here. For he ain't no tame +cat, like I told you." + +"You back again, Lawford Tapp? Hi-mighty! what you forgot this time? +Fishhooks? Goin' fishin', be you? Wal, in my 'pinion you're throwin' +your hook into unproductive waters around here, as ye might say. Even +chummin' won't sarve ye. _Good_-night!" + +After getting rid of this importunate customer, Cap'n Abe closed his +door and put out his store lights--an hour earlier than usual--and came +back to sit down with Louise. His visage was red and determination sat +on his brow. + +"I snum!" he emphatically observed. "Cardhaven folks seem bit with +some kind o' bug. Talk 'bout curiosity! 'Hem! I dunno what Cap'n +Am'zon'll think of 'em." + +"_I_ think they are funny," Louise retorted, her laughter bubbling up +again. + +"Likely it looks so to you," said Cap'n Abe. "They're pretty average +funny I do guess to a stranger, as ye might say. But after you've +summered 'em and wintered 'em for twenty-odd years like I have, land +sakes! the humor's worn hi-mighty thin!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NIGHT + +Cap'n Abe produced a pipe. He looked at his niece tentatively. +"Do--do you mind tobacker smoke?" + +"Daddy-prof is an inveterate," she laughed. + +"Huh? An--an invet'rate _what_?" + +"Smoker. I don't begrudge a man smoking tobacco as long as we women +have our tea. A nerve tonic in both cases." + +"I dunno for sure that I've got any nerves," Cap'n Abe said, the +corners of his eyes wrinkling. "Mebbe I was behind the door when they +was given out. But a pipeful o' tobacker this time o' the evening +_does_ seem sort o' satisfyin'. That, and knittin'." + +Having filled his pipe and lit it, he puffed a few times to get it well +alight and then reached for a covered basket that Louise had noticed on +a small stand under Jerry's cage. He drew from this a half-fashioned +gray stocking that was evidently intended for his own foot and the +needles began to click in his strong, capable hands. + +"Supprise you some, does it, Louise?" Cap'n Abe said. "Cap'n Am'zon +taught me. Most old whalers knit. That, an' doin' scrimshaw work, was +'bout all that kep' 'em from losing their minds on them long v'y'ges +into the Pacific. An' I've seen the time myself when I was hi-mighty +glad I'd l'arned to count stitches. + +"Land sakes! Some o' them whalin' v'y'ges lasted three-four years. +Cap'n Am'zon was in the old bark _Neptune's Daughter_ when she was +caught in the ice and drifted pretty average close't to the south pole. + +"You know," said Cap'n Abe reflectively, "the Antarctic regions ain't +like the Arctic. 'Cause why? There ain't no folks there. Cap'n +Am'zon says there ain't 'nough land at the south pole to make Marm +Scudder's garden--and they say she didn't need more'n what her +patchwork quilt would cover. Where there's land there's folks. And if +there was land in the Antarctic there'd be Eskimos like there is up +North. + +"'Hem! Well, that wasn't what I begun on, was it? This knitting. +Cap'n Am'zon says that many's the time he's thanked his stars he knowed +how to knit." + +"I shall be glad to meet him," said Louise. + +"If he comes," Cap'n Abe rejoined, "an' I go away as I planned to, +'twon't make a mite o' difference to you, Niece Louise. You feel right +at home here--and so'll Cap'n Am'zon, though he ain't never been to +Cardhaven yet. He'll be a lot better company for you than I'd be." + +"Oh, Cap'n Abe, I can scarcely believe that!" cried the girl. + +"You don't know Cap'n Am'zon," the storekeeper said. "I tell ye fair: +he's ev'rything that I ain't! As a boy--'hem!--Am'zon was always +leadin' an' me follerin'. I kinder took after my mother, I guess. +She was your grandmother. Your grandfather was a Card--and a nice man +he was. + +"Our father--me an' Am'zon's--was Cap'n Joshua Silt of the schooner +_Bravo_. Hi-mighty trim and taut craft she was, from all accounts. +I--I warn't born when he died," added Cap'n Abe, hesitatingly. + +"You were a posthumous child!" said Louise. + +"Er--I guess so. Kinder 'pindlin', too. Yes! yes! Cap'n Am'zon's +ahead o' me--in ev'ry way. When father died 'twas pretty average hard +on mother," Cap'n Abe pursued. "We was llvin' at Rocky Head, I guess I +told you b'fore?" + +"Yes," Louise said, interested. + +"The _Bravo_ was makin' reg'lar trips from Newport to Bangor, Maine. +Short-coastin' v'y'ges paid well in them days. There come a big storm +in the spring--onexpected. Mother'd got a letter from Cap'n +Josh--father he'd put out o' Newport with a sartain tide. He warn't +jest a fair-weather skipper. Cap'n Am'zon gits his pluck an' darin' +from Cap'n Josh. + +"Well, mother knowed he must be out o' sight of Fort Adams and the +Dumplin's when the storm burst, and that he'd take the inside passage, +the wind bein' what it was. She watched from Rocky Head and she seen +what she knowed to be the _Bravo_ heave in sight. + +"There warn't no foolin' her," pursued Cap'n Abe, whose pipe had gone +out but whose knitting needles twinkled the faster. "No. She knowed +the schooner far's she could glim her. She watched the Bravo caught in +the cross-current when the gale dropped sudden, and tryin' to claw off +shore. + +"But no use! She was doomed! There warn't no help for the schooner. +She went right on to Toll o' Death Reef and busted up in an hour. Not +a body ever was beached, for the current, tide, _an_' gale was all off +shore. And it happened in plain sight of our windows. + +"Two months later," Cap'n Abe said reflectively, "I come into the +world. Objectin', of course, like all babies. Funny thing that. We +all come into it makin' all kinds of a hullabaloo against anchorin' +here; and we most of us kick just as hard against slippin' our moorin's +to get out of it. + +"Land sakes!" he exclaimed in conclusion. "There ye be. I guess my +mother hated the sea 'bout as much as any longshore woman ever did. +And there's a slew of 'em detest it worse'n cats. Why, ye couldn't +hire some o' these Cape Cod females to get into a boat. Their men for +generations was drowned and more'n forty per cent. of the stones in +the churchyards along the coast, sacred to the mem'ry of the men of the +fam'lies, have on 'em: '_Lost at sea_.' + +"Can't blame the women. Old Ella Coffin that lives on Narrer P'int +over yonder ain't been to the main but once't in fifteen years. That +was when an off-shore gale blew all the water out o' the breach 'twixt +the p'int and the mainland. + +"Ye see," said Cap'n Abe, smiling again, "Narrer P'int is re'lly an +island, even at low water. But _then_ a hoss an' buggy can splatter +across't the breach. But it makes Marm Coffin seasick even to ride +through water in a buggy. Marked, she is, as you might say. + +"Well, now, Louise, child," the storekeeper added, "I'm a-gassin' 'bout +things that don't much int'rest you, I cal'late. I'll light a lamp an' +show you up to your room. When Perry Baker comes by and by, I'll help +him in with your trunks. You needn't worry about 'em." + +It had been foggy on the Sound the night before and Louise had not +slept until the boat had rounded Point Judith. So she was not averse +to retiring at this comparatively early hour. + +Cap'n Abe led her upstairs to a cool, clean, and comfortable chamber. +The old four-posted, corded bedstead stood in the middle of the room, +covered with a blue-and-white coverlet, with sheets and pillow cases as +white as foam. It could not be doubted that Cap'n Abe had carried out +his idea of hospitality. The spare room was always ready for the +possible guest. + +"Good-night, uncle," she said, smiling at him as he handed her the +lamp. "I believe I am going to have a delightful time here." + +"Of course you be! Of course!" he exclaimed. "An' if I ain't here, +Cap'n Am'zon will show you a better time than I could. Good-night. +Sleep well, Louise." + +He kissed her on the forehead. But she, impulsively, pressed her fresh +lips to the storekeeper's weather-beaten cheek. Before she closed the +door of the bedroom she heard him clumping downstairs in his heavy +boots. + +After that he must have removed his footgear for, although she heard +doors open and close, she could not distinguish his steps. + +"I'm glad I came!" she told herself with enthusiasm as she prepared to +retire. "What a delightful old place it is! And Uncle Abram--why, +he's a _dear_! Daddy-prof was not half enthusiastic enough about the +Cape Cod folk. It has been a distinct loss to me that I was never here +before." + +She laid out her toilet requisites upon the painted pine bureau and +hung her negligee over the back of a chair. As she retied the ribbon +in one of the sleeves of her nightgown she thought: + +"And that Tapp boy came back a second time! Some fisherman's son, I +suppose. But exceedingly nice looking!" + +A little later the feather bed had taken her into its arms and she +almost instantly fell asleep. Occasionally through the night she was +roused by unfamiliar sounds. There was a fog coming in from the sea +and the siren at the lighthouse on the Neck began to bellow like a +bereft cow. + +There were movements downstairs. Once she heard a wagon stop, and +voices. Then the bumping of heavy boxes on the side porch. Her +trunks. Voices below in the living-room--gruff, yet subdued. Creaking +footsteps on the stair; then Louise realized that they were carrying +something heavy down and out to the waiting wagon. She was just +dropping to sleep when the wagon was driven away. + +There came a heavy summons on her door while it was still dark. But a +glance at her watch assured Lou Grayling that it was the fog that made +the light so dim. + +"Yes, Cap'n Abe?" she called cheerfully, for even early rising could +not quench her good spirits. + +"'Tain't time to get up yet, Niece Louise," he told her behind the thin +panel of the door. "Don't disturb yourself. Cap'n Amazon's come an' +I'm off." + +"You're what?" gasped the girl sitting up in her nest of feathers. + +"I'm a-goin' to Boston. Jest got time to ketch the clam-train at the +depot. Don't you bother; Cap'n Am'zon's here and he'll take care of +you till I get back. Betty Gallup'll be here by six or a little after +to do the work. You can have her stop at night, if you want to." + +"But, Uncle----" + +"Must hurry, Louise," hastily said Cap'n Abe as he heard the bedcords +creak and the patter of the girl's feet on the matting. "Cap'n Am'zon +knows of a craft that'll sail to-day from Boston and I must jine her +crew. Good-bye!" + +He was gone. Louise, throwing on the negligee, hurried to the screened +window. The fog had breathed upon the wires and clouded them. She +heard the door open below, a step on the porch, and then a muffled: + +"Bye, Am'zon. Don't take no wooden money. I'm off." + +A shrouded figure passed up the road and was quickly hidden by the fog. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BOARDED BY PIRATES + +Louise could not go back to sleep. She drew the ruffles of the +negligee about her throat and removed the sliding screen the better to +see into the outer world. + +There was a movement in the fog, for the rising breeze ruffled, it. +Full daybreak would bring its entire dissipation. Already the mist +held a luster heralding the sun. The "hush-hush" of the surf along The +Beaches was more insistent now than at any time since Louise had come +to Cap'n Abe's store, while the moan of the breakers on the outer reefs +was like the deep notes of a distant organ. + +A cock crew, and at his signal outdoor life seemed to awaken. Other +chanticleers sounded their alarms; a colt whistled in a paddock and his +mother neighed softly from her stall; a cow lowed; then, sweet and +clear as a mountain stream, broke forth the whistle of a wild bird in +the marsh. This matin of the feathered songster rose higher and higher +till he reached the very top note of his scale and then fell again, by +cadences, until it mingled with the less compelling calls of other +birds. + +There was a warm pinkness spreading through the fog in one direction, +and Louise knew it must be the reflection of the light upon the eastern +horizon. The sun would soon begin a new day's journey. + +The fog was fast thinning, for across the road she could see a spiral +of blue smoke, mounting through it from the chimney of a neighbor. The +kitchen fire there had just been lighted. + +Below, and from the living-rooms behind the store, the girl heard some +faint noises as though the early morning tasks of getting in wood and +filling the coal scuttle were under way. Uncle Amazon must be "takin' +holt" just as Cap'n Abe said he would. + +Louise was curious to see the returned mariner; but it was too early to +go down yet. She might really have another nap before she dressed, she +thought, yawning behind a pink palm. + +There was a step in the store. Her room overlooked by two windows the +roof of the front porch and she could hear what went on below plainly. +The step was lighter than Cap'n Abe's. The bolts of the two-leaved +door rattled and it was set wide; she heard the iron wedges kicked +under each to hold it open. Then a smell of pipe smoke was wafted to +her nostrils. + +A footstep on the Shell Road announced the approach of somebody from +The Beaches. Louise yawned again and was on the point of creeping into +bed once more when she descried the figure coming through the fog. She +saw only the boots and legs of the person at first; but the fog was +fast separating into wreaths which the rising breeze hurried away, and +the girl at the window soon saw the full figure of the approaching +man--and recognized him. + +At almost the same moment Lawford Tapp raised his eyes and saw her; and +his heart immediately beat the call to arms. Louise Grayling's morning +face, framed by the sash and sill of her bedroom window, was quite the +sweetest picture he had ever seen. + +It was only for a moment he saw her, her bare and rounded forearm on +the sill, the frilly negligee so loosened that he could see the column +of her throat. Her gray eyes looked straight into his--then she was +gone. + +"Actress, or not," muttered the son of the Salt Water Taffy King, +"there's nothing artificial about her. And she's Cap'n Abe's niece. +Well!" + +He saw the figure on the porch, smoking, and hailed it: + +"Hey, Cap'n Abe! Those fishhooks you sold me last evening aren't what +I wanted--and there's the _Merry Andrew_ waiting out there for me now. +I want----" + +The figure in the armchair turned its head. It was not Cap'n Abe at +all! + +"Mornin', young feller," said the stranger cordially. "You'll have to +explain a leetle about them hooks. I ain't had a chance to overhaul +much of Abe's cargo yet. I don't even know where he stows his small +tackle. Do you?" + +Fully a minute did Lawford Tapp keep him waiting for an answer while he +stared at the stranger. He was not a big man, but he somehow gave the +impression of muscular power. He was dressed in shabby +clothing--shirt, dungaree trousers, and canvas shoes such as sailors +work and go aloft in. The pipe he smoked was Cap'n Abe's--Lawford +recognized it. + +There was not, however, another thing about this man to remind one of +the old storekeeper. This stranger was burned to a rich mahogany hue. +Not alone his shaven face, but his bared forearms and his chest where +the shirt was left unbuttoned seemed stained by the tropical sun. +Under jet-black brows the eyes that gazed upon Lawford Tapp seemed dark. + +His sweeping mustache was black; and such hair as was visible showed +none of the iron gray of advancing age in it. He wore gold rings in +his ears and to cap his piratical-looking figure was a red bandana worn +turbanwise upon his head. + +"What's the matter with you, young feller? Cat got your tongue?" +demanded the stranger. + +"Well, of all things!" finally gasped Lawford. "I thought you were +Cap'n Abe. But you're not. You must be Cap'n Amazon Silt." + +"That's who I be," agreed the other. + +"His brother!" + +"Ain't much like Abe, eh?" and Cap'n Amazon smiled widely. + +"Only your voice. That is a little like Cap'n Abe's. Well, I +declare!" repeated Lawford, coming deliberately up the steps. + +Cap'n Amazon rose briskly and led the way into the store. The fog was +clearing with swiftness and a ray of sunlight slanted through a dusty +window with sufficient strength to illumine the shelves behind the +counter. + +"Those boxes yonder are where Cap'n Abe keeps his fishhooks. But isn't +he here?" + +"He's off," Cap'n Amazon replied. "Up anchor'd and sailed 'bout soon's +I come. Been ready to go quite a spell, I shouldn't wonder. Had his +chest all packed and sent it to the depot by a wagon. Walked over +himself airly to ketch the train. These the hooks, son?" + +"But where's he _gone_?" + +"On a v'y'ge," replied Cap'n Amazon. "Why shouldn't he? Seems he's +been lashed here, tight and fast, for c'nsider'ble of a spell. He and +this store of hisn was nigh 'bout spliced. I don't see how he _has_ +weathered it so long." + +"Gone away!" murmured Lawford. + +Cap'n Amazon eyed him with a tilt to his head and possibly a twinkle of +amusement in his eye. "Young man, what's your name?" he asked bluntly. +Lawford told him. "Wal, it strikes me," Cap'n Amazon said, "that your +tops'ls air slattin' a good deal. You ain't on the wind." + +"I am upset, I declare!" + +"Sure you got the right hooks this time?" + +"Yes. I believe so." + +"Then if your _Merry Andrew_--what is she, cat-rigged or----" + +"Sloop." + +"Then if your _Merry Andrew_ sloop's a-waiting for you, _that's_ the +way out," said Cap'n Amazon coolly, pointing with his pipestem to the +door. "Come again--when you want to buy anything in Abe's stock. Good +day!" + +Lawford halted a moment at the door to look back at the bizarre figure +behind the counter, leaning on the scarred brown plank just as Cap'n +Abe so often did. The amazing difference between the storekeeper's +well remembered appearance and that of his substitute grew more +startling. + +As Cap'n Amazon stood there half stooping, leaning on his hairy fists, +the picture rose in Lawford Tapp's mind of a pirate, cutlass in teeth +and his sash full of pistols, swarming over the rail of a doomed ship. +The young man had it in his mind to ask a question about that +wonderfully pretty girl above. But, somehow, Cap'n Amazon did not +appear to be the sort of person to whom one could put even a mildly +impudent question. + +The young man walked slowly down the road toward the shore where his +boat was beached. He had no idea that a pair of gray eyes watched him +from that window where he had glimpsed the vision of girlish beauty +only a few minutes before. + +The neighborhood was stirring now and Louise had not gone back to bed. +Instead, she dressed as simply as she could until it would be possible +to get at her trunks. + +While thus engaged she observed the neighborhood as well as she could +see it from the windows of her chamber. Down the Shell Road, in the +direction of the sea, there were but two or three houses--small +dwellings in wind-swept yards where beach grass was about all the +verdure that would grow. + +Across the road from the store, however, and as far as she could see +toward Cardhaven, were better homes, some standing in the midst of +tilled fields and orchards. Sandy lanes led to these homesteads from +the highway. She could see the blunt spire of the Mariner's Chapel. +Yet Cap'n Abe's house and store stood quite alone, for none of the +other dwellings were close to the road. + +She set her chamber door ajar and suddenly heard the clash of voices. +The one that seemed nearest to the stair was gruff, but feminine. + +"That must be Betty Gallup," thought Louise. "It is nearly six. I'll +go down and interview the lady who Cap'n Abe said ought to sail before +the mast." + +The foot of the stairway was in the back entry which itself opened upon +the rear porch. As she came lightly down the stairs Louise saw a +squat, square figure standing in the open doorway. It was topped by a +man's felt hat and was dressed in a loose, shapeless coat and a scant +skirt down to the tops of a pair of men's shoes. + +Over the shoulder of this queer looking person--of whose sex it was +hard to be sure--Louise could see an open letter that was evidently +being perused not for the first time. + +The hands that held the letter were red and hard and blunt-fingered, +but not large. They did not look feminine, however; not in the least. + +The light tap of the girl's heels as she stepped on the bare floor at +the foot of the stairway aroused this person, who turned, revealing a +rather grim, weather-beaten face, lit by little sharp brown eyes that +proceeded to stare at Louise Grayling with frank curiosity. + +"Humph!" ejaculated the woman. + +Oh, it was a woman, Louise could now see, although Betty Gallup boasted +a pronounced mustache and a voice both deep and hoarse, while she +looked every inch the able seaman she was. + +"Humph!" she exclaimed again. "You don't look much like a pirate, +that's one comfort!" + +Louise burst into gay laughter--she could not help it. + +"I see by this letter Cap'n Abe left for me that you're his niece--his +ha'f sister's child--name, Louise Grayling; and that you've come to +stay a spell." + +"Yes," the girl rejoined, still dimpling. "And I know you must be Mrs. +Gallup!" + +"Bet Gallup. Yep. Ain't much chance of mistaking me," the woman said, +still staring at Louise. "Humph! you're pretty 'nough not to need +m'lasses to ketch flies. Why didn't Cap'n Abe stay to home when you +come visiting him?" + +"Why, he had his plans all laid to go away, if Uncle Amazon came." + +"Ya-as. That's so. You are _his_ niece, too, I s'pose." + +"Whose niece? Uncle Amazon's? I suppose I am," Louise gayly replied, +"though when I came I had no idea there was a second uncle down here on +the Cape." + +"What's that?" demanded Betty Gallup, her speech crackling like a rifle +shot. + +"I had not heard before of Cap'n Amazon," the girl explained. "You +see, for several reasons, I have known very little about my mother's +kinfolk. She died when I was a baby. We have traveled a good deal, +father and I." + +"I see. I been told you worked for them movin' pictures. Mandy Card +was over to my house last night. Well! what do you think of your +Uncle Am'zon?" + +"I can express no opinion until I have met him," Louise returned, again +dimpling. + +"Haven't ye seen him?" gasped Betty in astonishment. + +"Not yet." + +"Ye didn't see him when he came last night?" + +"I was in bed." + +"Then how--how d'ye know Cap'n Abe's gone? Or that this man is Am'zon +Silt? Nobody ever seen this critter 'round Cardhaven before," Betty +Gallup declared with strong conviction. + +"Oh, no; Uncle Amazon has never been here to visit Cap'n Abe before. +Cap'n Abe told me all about it," the girl explained, fearing that +scandal was to take root here and now if she did not discourage it. +"Of course Uncle Abe went away. He came to my door and bade me +good-bye." + +Louise was puzzled. She saw an expression in Betty Gallup's face that +she could not interpret. + +"Ye heard Cap'n Abe _say_ he was goin'," muttered Betty. "_His_ voice +sounds mighty like Cap'n Abe's. But mebbe Abe Silt didn't go after +all--not rightly." + +"What _do_ you mean, Mrs. Gallup?" demanded Louise in bewilderment. + +"Well, if you ask me, I should say we'd been boarded by pirates. Go +take a look at that Uncle Am'zon of yourn. He's in the store." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +UNDER FIRE + +"Uncle Amazon?" burst out Louise. "A pirate?" + +"That's what he looks like," repeated Betty Gallup, nodding her head on +which the man's hat still perched. "I never saw the beat! Why, that +man give me the shock of my life when I came in here just now!" + +"What _do_ you mean?" the amazed girl asked, + +"Why, as I come in--I was a lettle early, knowin' you was here--I heard +as I s'posed Cap'n Abe in the sittin'-room. I saw this letter, sealed +and directed to me, on the dresser there. 'Humph!' says I, 'Who's +writin' billy-doos to _me_, I'd admire to know?' And I up and opened +it and see it's in Cap'n Abe's hand. Just then I heard him behind +me----" + +"Heard _who_? Not Cap'n Abe?" + +"No, no! This other feller--this Cap'n Am'zon Silt, as he calls +himself. But I _thought_ 'twas Cap'n Abe's step I heard. He says: +'Oh! you've found the letter?' I declare I thought 'twas your uncle's +voice!" + +"But it was my uncle's voice, of course," Louise reminded her, much +amused, "Cap'n Amazon Silt is my uncle, too." + +"Humph! I s'pose so. Looks to be. If 'tis him. Anyhow," pursued the +jerkily speaking Betty Gallup, "I turned 'round when he spoke spectin' +to see Cap'n Abe--for I hadn't read this letter then--_and there he +warn't_! Instead--of all the lookin' critters! There! you go take a +peek at him and see what you think yourself. I'll put the breakfast on +the table. He's made coffee and the mush is in the double-biler and +the biscuits in the oven are just browning. I reckon he's as handy +'round the kitchen as Cap'n Abe is. Lots of these old sailors be." + +"Fancy! an uncle who is a pirate!" giggled Louise and she ran through +the living-room and the dividing hall to the door of the store. First +she saw Cap'n Amazon from the rear. The red bandana swathing his bead, +below which was a lank fringe of black hair, was the only bizarre thing +she noticed about her new-found relative. He seemed to have very quick +hearing for almost instantly he swung smartly around to face her. + +"Oh!" was expelled from the girl's lips, for she was as startled as +Lawford Tapp and Betty Gallup had been. + +Compared with the mild-appearing, heavily whiskered Cap'n Abe, this +brother of the storekeeper was in looks what Betty had pronounced him. +His dark complexion, the long mustache, as black and glossy as a crow's +wing, the gold rings in his ears, with the red handkerchief to top it +all, made Cap'n Amazon Silt as romantic a figure as ever peered out of +a Blackbeard or a Henry Morgan legend. + +There were intricate traceries on his forearms in red and blue ink; +beneath the open collar of his shirt the girl gained a glimpse of other +tattooing. There was a faint scar traced along his right jaw, almost +from ear to chin, which added a certain grimness to his expression. + +Yet his was not at all a sinister face. His eyes twinkled at her +kindly--almost like Cap'n Abe's eyes--and the huge mustache lifted in a +smile. + +"Ahoy!" he cried jovially. "So this is my niece, Louise, is it? Well, +to be sure! Abe didn't overpraise you. You _be_ a pretty tidy craft." + +The girl dimpled, coming forward to give him her hand. As on the day +before, her hand was lost in a warm, firm clasp, while her uncle +continued to look her over with approval. + +"Yes, sir!" he ejaculated. "You look to me like one o' the tidiest +craft I ever clapped eyes on. I don't scarcely see how Abe could go +away and leave you. Dunno's he's got an eye for a pretty woman like +me. Bless you! I been a slave to the women all my life." + +"Yet never married, Uncle Amazon?" she cried roguishly. + +"Tell you how 'twas," he whispered hoarsely, his hand beside his mouth. +"I never could decide betwixt and between 'em. No, sir! They are all +so desir'ble that I couldn't make up my mind. So I stayed single." + +"Perhaps you showed wisdom, Uncle Amazon," laughed the girl. +"Still--when you grow old----" + +"Oh! there's plenty of sailors' snug harbors," he hastened to say. +"And time enough to worry about that when I _be_ old." + +"I thought----Why! you look younger than Cap'n Abe," she said. + +"Ain't it a fact? He's let himself run to seed and get old lookin'. +That's from stayin' ashore all his life. It's the feel of a heavin' +deck under his feet that keeps the spring in a man's wishbone. Yes, +sir! Abe's all right--good man and all that--but he's no sailor," +Cap'n Amazon added, shaking his head. + +"Now, here!" he went on briskly, "we ought to have breakfast, hadn't +we? I left that woman Abe has pokin' around here, to dish up; and it's +'most six bells. Feel kind of peckish myself, Louise." + +"I'll run to see if the biscuits are done," said the girl; and she +hurried to the kitchen ahead of him. Betty Gallup was waiting for her. + +"What d'ye think of him?" she whispered anxiously. + +"Why, he's splendid!" the girl replied scarcely stifling her laughter. +"He's a _character_!" + +"Humph! Mebbe. But even if he is your uncle, I got to say right now +he ain't a man I'd trust. Nothin' a-tall like Cap'n Abe!" + +"I think he seems a great deal like Uncle Abram." + +"Humph! How long you knowed Abram Silt? Come here yesterday for the +fust time. Lemme tell you, Miss Grayling, we've knowed Cap'n Abe +around here for twenty year and more. Course, he ain't Cardhaven born; +but we know him. He's as diff'rent from this pirate that calls himself +Cap'n Am'zon Silt as chalk is from cheese." + +The mush was on the table, Louise called Cap'n Amazon from the store. +They sat down to the table just as she had sat opposite to Cap'n Abe +the evening before. She thought, for a moment, that Cap'n Amazon was +going to ask a blessing as her other uncle had. But no, he began +spooning the mush into a rather capacious mouth. + +Into the room from the rear strolled Diddimus, the tortoise-shell cat. +Louise tried to attract his attention; but she was comparatively a +stranger to turn. The cat went around to the chair where Cap'n Abe +always sat. He leaped into Cap'n Amazon's lap. + +"Well, I never!" said Cap'n Amazon. "Seems quite to home, doesn't he?" + +Diddimus, preparing to "make his bed," looked up with topaz eyes into +the face of the captain. Louise could see the cat actually stiffen +with surprise. Then, with a "p-sst-maow!" he leaped down and ran out +of the room at high speed. + +"What--what do you think of that?" gasped Cap'n Amazon. "The cat's +gone crazy!" + +The girl was in a gale of laughter. "Of course he hasn't," she said. +"He thought you were Cap'n Abe--till he looked into your face. You +can't blame the cat, Uncle Amazon." + +Cap'n Amazon smote his knee a resounding smack of appreciation. "You +got your bearin's correct, Louise, I do believe. I must have surprised +the critter. And Abe set store by him, I've no doubt." + +"Diddimus will get over it," said the amused Louise. + +"There's that bird," Cap'n Amazon said suddenly, looking around at the +cage hanging in the sunlit window. "What's Abe call him?" + +"Jerry." + +"And he told me to be hi-mighty tender with that canary. Wouldn't +trust nobody else, he said, to feed and water him." He rose from the +table, leaving his breakfast. "I wonder what Jerry thinks of me?" + +He whistled to the bird and thrust a big forefinger between the wires +of the cage. Immediately, with an answering chirp, the canary hopped +along his perch with a queer sidewise motion and, reaching the finger, +sprang upon it with a little flutter of its wings. + +"There!" cried Cap'n Amazon, with boyish relief. "_He_ takes to me all +right." + +"That don't show nothin'," said Betty Gallup from the doorway. She had +removed her hat and coat and was revealed now as a woman approaching +seventy, her iron-gray hair twisted into a "bob" so that it could be +completely hidden when she had the hat on her head. "That don't show +nothin'," she repeated grimly. + +Cap'n Amazon jerked his head around to look at her, demanding: "Why +don't it, I want to know?" + +"'Cause the bird's pretty near stone-blind." + +"Blind!" gasped Louise, pity in her tone. + +"It can't be," murmured the captain, hastily facing the window again. + +"I found that out a year an' more ago," Betty announced. "Didn't want +to tell Cap'n Abe--he was that foolish about the old bird. Jerry's +used to Cap'n Abe chirping to him and putting his finger 'twixt the +slats of the cage for him to perch on. He just thinks you're Cap'n +Abe." + +She clumped out into the kitchen again in her heavy shoes. Cap'n +Amazon came slowly back to his chair. "Blind!" he repeated. "I want +to know! Both his deadlights out. Too bad! Too bad!" + +He did not seem to care for any more breakfast. + +Footsteps in the store soon brought the substitute shopkeeper to his +feet again. + +"I s'pose that's somebody come aboard for a yard o' tape, or the +seizings of a pair of shoes," he growled. "I'd ought to hauled in the +gang-plank when we set down." + +He disappeared into the store and almost at once a shrill feminine +voice greeted him as "Cap'n Abe." Vastly abused, Louise arose and +softly followed to the store. + +"Give me coupla dozen clothespins and a big darnin' needle, Cap'n Abe. +I got my wash ready to hang out and found them pesky young 'uns of Myra +Stout's had got holt o' my pin bag and fouled the pins all up usin' 'em +for markers in their garden. I want--land sakes! Who--what---- +_Where's_ Cap'n Abe?" + +"He ain't here just now," Cap'n Amazon replied. "I'm his brother. +You'll have to pick out the needle you want. I can find and count the +clothespins, I guess. Two dozen, you say?" + +"Land sakes! Cap'n Abe gone away? Don't seem possible." + +"There's a hull lot of seemin' impossible things in this world that +come to pass just the same," the substitute storekeeper made answer, +with some tartness. "Here's the needle drawer. Find what you want, +ma'am." + +Louise was frankly spying. She saw that the customer was a lanky young +woman in a sunbonnet. When she dropped the bonnet back upon her narrow +shoulders with an impatient jerk, the better to see the needles, it was +revealed that her thin, light hair was drawn so tightly back from her +face that it actually seemed to make her pop-eyed. + +She had a rather pretty pink and white complexion, and aside from the +defect of hairdressing might have been attractive. She possessed a +thin and aquiline nose, however, the nostrils fairly quivering with +eagerness and curiosity. + +"Land sakes!" she was saying. "I know Cap'n Abe's been talkin' of +goin' away--the longest spell! But so suddent--'twixt night and +mornin' as ye might say------" + +"Exactly," said Cap'n Amazon dryly, and went on counting the pins from +the box into a paper sack. + +"What 'bout the girl that's come here? That movie actress?" asked the +young woman with added sharpness in her tone. "What you going to do +with _her_?" + +Cap'n Amazon came back to the counter and even his momentary silence +was impressive. He favored the customer with a long stare. + +"Course, 'tain't none o' my business. I was just askin'----" + +"You made an int'restin' discovery, then, ma'am," he said. "It _ain't_ +any of your business. Me and my niece'll get along pretty average +well, I shouldn't wonder. Anything else, ma'am? I see the needle's +two cents and the pins two cents a dozen. Six cents in all." + +"Well, I run a book with Cap'n Abe. I ain't got no money with me," +said the young woman defiantly. + +"Le's see; what did you say your name was?" and Cap'n Amazon drew from +the cash drawer a long and evidently fully annotated list of customers' +names, prepared by Cap'n Abe. + +"I'm Mandy Baker--she 'twas Mandy Card." + +"Yes. I find you here all right. Your bill o' ladin' seems good. +Good-mornin', ma'am. Call again." + +Mandy Baker looked as though she desired to continue the conversation. +But there was that in Cap'n Amazon's businesslike manner and speech +that impressed Mrs. Baker--as it had Lawford Tapp--that here was a very +different person from the easy-going, benign Cap'n Abe. Mandy sniffed, +jerked her sunbonnet forward, and departed with her purchases. + +Cap'n Amazon's quick eye caught sight of Louise's amused face in the +doorway. + +"Kind of a sharp craft that," he observed, watching' Mandy cross the +road. "Reminds me some o' one o' them Block Island double-enders they +built purpose for sword-fishing. When you strike on to a sword-fish +you are likely to want to back water 'bout as often as shove ahead. I +cal'late this here Mandy Baker is some spry in her maneuvers. And I +bet she's got one o' the laziest husbands in this whole town. 'Most +always happens that way," concluded the captain, who seemed quite as +homely philosophical and observant as his brother. + +As a stone thrown into a quiet pool drives circling ripples farther and +farther away from the point of contact, so the news of Cap'n Abe's +secret departure and the appearance of the strange brother in his +place, spread through the neighborhood. + +The coming of Louise to the store on the Shell Road had also set the +tongues to clacking. Mandy Baker, who took her husband's rating in +women's eyes at his own valuation, was up in arms. A pretty girl, and +an actress at that!--for until recent years that was a word to be only +whispered in polite society on the Cape--was considered by such as +Mandy to be under suspicion right from the start. + +The mystery of Cap'n Amazon, however, quite overtopped the gossip about +Louise. Idlers who seldom dropped into the store before afternoon came +on this day much earlier to have a look at Cap'n Amazon Silt. Women +left their housework at "slack ends" to run over to the store for +something considered suddenly essential to their work. Some of the +clam-diggers lost a tide to obtain an early glimpse of Cap'n Amazon. +Even the children came and peered in at the store door to see that +strange, red-kerchief-topped figure behind Cap'n Abe's counter. + +Cap'n Joab Beecher was one of the earliest arrivals. Cap'n Joab had +been as close to Cap'n Abe as anybody in Cardhaven. There had been +some little friction between him and the storekeeper on the previous +evening. Cap'n Joab felt almost as though Cap'n Abe's sudden departure +was a thrust at him. + +But when he introduced himself to Cap'n Amazon the latter seized the +caller's hand in a seaman's grip, and said heartily: "I want to know +Cap'n Joab Beecher, of the old _Sally Noble_. I knowed the bark well, +though I never happened to clap eyes on _you_, sir. Abe give me a +letter for you. Here 'tis. Said you was a good feller and might help +wise me to things in the store here till I'd l'arned her riggin' and +how to sail her proper." + +Cap'n Joab was frankly pleased by this. He spelled out the note Cap'n +Abe had addressed to him slowly, being without his reading glasses, and +then said: + +"I'm yours to command, Cap'n Silt. Land sakes! I s'pose your brother +had a puffict right to go away. He'd talked about goin' enough. +Where's he gone?" + +"On a v'y'ge," said Cap'n Amazon. + +"No! Gone to sea?" + +"Yes. Sailing to-day--out o' Boston." + +"I want to know! Abe Silt gone to sea! Wouldn't never believed it. +Always 'peared to be afraid of gettin' his paws wet--same's a cat," +ruminated Cap'n Joab. "What craft's he sailin' in?" + +The Boston morning paper lay before Cap'n Amazon, opened at the page +containing the shipping news. His glance dropped to the sailing +notices and with scarcely a moment's hesitancy he said: + +"_Curlew_, Ripley, master, out o' Boston. I knowed of her--knowed +Cap'n Ripley," and he pointed to the very first line of the sailing +list. "If Abe got there in time he like enough j'ined her crew." + +"Shipped before the mast?" exploded Cap'n Joab. + +"Well," Cap'n Amazon returned sensibly, "if you were skipper about +where would you expect a lubber like Abe Silt to fit into your crew?" + +"I swanny, that's so!" agreed Cap'n Joab. "But it's goin' to be hard +lines for a man of his years--and no experience." + +Cap'n Amazon sniffed. "I guess he'll get along," he said, seemingly +less disturbed by his brother's plight than other people. "Three +months of summer sailin' won't do him no harm." + +That he was under fire he evidently felt, and resented it. His +brother's old neighbors and friends desired to know altogether too much +about his business and that of Cap'n Abe. He told Louise before night: + +"I tell you what, Abe's got the best of it! If I'd knowed I was goin' +to be picked to pieces by a lot of busybodies the way I be, I'd never +agreed to stay by the ship till Abe got back. No, sir! These folks +around here are the beatenest I ever see." + +Yet Louise noticed that he seemed able to hold his own with the curious +ones. His tongue was quite as nimble as Cap'n Abe's had been. On the +day of her arrival, Lou Grayling had believed she would be amused at +Cardhaven. Ere the second twenty-four hours of her stay were rounded +out, she knew she would be. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SOMETHING ABOUT SALT WATER TAFFY + +During the day Cap'n Amazon and Amiel Perdue carried Louise's trunks +upstairs and into the storeroom, handy to her own chamber. It seems +Cap'n Amazon had not brought his own sea chest; only a "dunnage bag," +as he called it. + +"But there's plenty of Abe's duds about," he said; "and we're about of +a size." + +When Louise went to unpack her trunks she found a number of things in +the storeroom more interesting even than her own pretty summer frocks. +There were shells, corals, sea-ivory--curios, such as are collected by +seamen the world over. Cap'n Abe was an indefatigable gatherer of such +wares. There was a green sea chest standing with its lid wide open, +tarred rope handles on its ends, that may have been around the world a +score of times. It was half filled with old books. + +All the dusty, musty volumes in the chest seemed to deal with the sea +and sea-going. Many of them, long since out of print and forgotten, +recounted strange and almost unbelievable romances of nautical +life--stories of wrecks, fires, battles with savages and pirates, +discoveries of lone islands and marvelous explorations in lands which, +since the date of publication, have become semi-civilized or altogether +so. + +Here were narratives of men who had sailed around the world in tiny +craft like Captain Slocum; stories of seamen who had become chiefs of +cannibal tribes, like the famous Larry O'Brien; several supposedly +veracious narratives of the survivors of the Bounty; stories of Arctic +and Antarctic discovery and privation. There were also several +scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings of nautical wonders--many of +these clipped from New Bedford and Newport papers which at one time +were particularly rich in whalers' yarns. + +Interested in skimming these wonderful stories, Lou Grayling spent most +of the afternoon. Here was a fund of entertainment for rainy days--or +wakeful nights, if she chanced to suffer such. She carried one of the +scrapbooks into her bedroom that it might be under her hand if she +desired such amusement. + +In arranging her possessions in closet and bureau, she found no time on +this first day at Cap'n Abe's store to stroll even as far as The +Beaches; but the next morning she got up betimes, as soon as Cap'n +Amazon himself was astir, dressed, and ran down and out of the open +back door while her uncle was sweeping the store. + +The sun was but then opening a red eye above the horizon. The ocean, +away out to this line demarcating sea and sky, was perfectly flat. +Unlike the previous dawn, this was as clear as a bell's note. + +Louise had been wise enough to wear high shoes, so the sands above +high-water mark did not bother her. The waves lapped in softly, +spreading over the dimpling gray beach, their voice reduced to a +whispering murmur. + +Along the crescent of the sands, above on the bluffs, were set the +homes of the summer residents--those whom Gusty Durgin, the waitress at +the hotel, termed "the big bugs." On the farthest point visible in +this direction was a sprawling, ornate villa with private dock and +boathouses, and a small breakwater behind which floated a fleet of +small craft. Louise heard the "put-put-a-put" of a motor and descried +a swift craft coming from this anchorage. + +She saw, by sweeping it with her glance, that not a soul but herself +was on the shore--neither in the direction of the summer colony nor on +the other hand where the beach curved sharply out to the lighthouse at +the end of the Neck. The motor boat was fast approaching the spot +where Louise stood. + +It being the single moving object on the scene, save the gulls, she +began to watch it. There was but one person in the motor boat. He was +hatless and was dressed in soiled flannels. It was the young man, +Lawford Tapp, of whom Cap'n Abe did not altogether approve. + +"He must work for those people over there," Louise Grayling thought. +"He is nice looking." + +It could not be possible that Lawford Tapp had descried and recognized +the figure of the girl from the Tapp anchorage! + +He no longer wore his hip boots. After shutting off his engine, he +guided the sharp prow of the launch right up into the sand and leaped +into shallow water, bringing ashore the bight of the painter to throw +over a stub sunk above high-water mark. + +"Good-morning! What do you think of it?" he asked Louise, with a +cordial smile that belonged to him. + +"It is lovely!" she said. "Really wonderful! I suppose you have lived +here so long it does not appeal to you as strongly as to the +new-beholder?" + +"I don't know about that. It's the finest place in the world; I think. +There's no prettier shore along the Atlantic coast than The Beaches." + +"Perhaps you are right. I do not know much about the New England +coast," she confessed. "And that--where the spray dashes up so high, +even on this calm morning?" + +"Gull Rocks. The danger spot of all danger spots along the outer line +of the Cape. In rough weather all one can see out there is a cauldron +of foam." + +Before she could express herself again the purr of a swiftly moving +motor car attracted her attention, and she turned to see a low gray +roadster coming toward them from the north. The Shell Road, before +reaching the shore, swerved northward and ran along the bluffs on which +the bungalows and summer cottages were built. These dwellings faced +the smooth white road, the sea being behind them. + +As Louise looked the car slowed down and stopped, the engine still +throbbing. A girl was at the wheel. She was perhaps fifteen, without +a hat and with two plaits of yellow hair lying over her slim shoulders. + +"Hey, Ford!" she shouted to the young man, "haven't you been up to +Cap'n Abe's yet? Daddy's down at the dock now and he's in a tearing +hurry." + +She gazed upon Lou Grayling frankly but made no sign of greeting. She +did not wait, indeed, for a reply from the young man but threw in the +clutch and the car shot away. + +"I've got to go up to the store," he said. "L'Enfant Terrible is +evidently going to Paulmouth to meet the early train. Must be somebody +coming." + +Louise looked at him quickly, her expression one of perplexity. She +supposed this child in the car was the daughter of Lawford's employer. +But whoever before heard a fisherman speak just as he did? Had Cap'n +Abe been at home she certainly would have tapped that fount of local +knowledge for information regarding Lawford. He did not look so much +the fisherman type without his jersey and high boots. + +"How do you like the old fellow up at the store?" Lawford asked, as +they strolled along together. "Isn't he a curious old bird?" + +"You mean my Uncle Amazon?" + +"Goodness! He _is_ your uncle, too, isn't he?" and a flush of +embarrassment came into his bronzed cheek. "I had forgotten he was +Cap'n Abe's brother. He is so different!" + +"Isn't he?" responded Louise demurely. "He doesn't look anything like +Uncle Abram, at least." + +"I should say not!" ejaculated Lawford. "Do you know, he's an +awfully--er--romantic looking old fellow. Looks just as though he had +stepped out of an old print" + +"The frontispiece of a book about buccaneers, for instance?" she +suggested gleefully. + +"Well," and he smiled down upon her from his superior height, "I wasn't +sure you would see it that way." + +"Do you know," she told him, still laughing, "that Betty Gallup calls +him nothing but 'that old pirate.' She has taken a decided dislike to +him and I have to keep smoothing her ruffled feathers. And, really, +Cap'n Amazon is the nicest man." + +"I bet he's seen some rough times," Lawford rejoined with vigor. "We +used to think Cap'n Abe told some stretchers about his brother; but +Cap'n Amazon looks as though he had been through all that Cap'n Abe +ever told about--and more." + +"Oh, he's not so very terrible, I assure you," Louise said, much amused. + +"Did you notice the scar along his jaw? Looks like a cutlass stroke to +me. I'd like to know how he came by it. It must have been some fight!" + +"You will make him out a much more terrible character than he can +possibly be." + +"Never mind. If he's anything at all like Cap'n Abe, we'll get it all +out of him. I bet he can tell us some hair-raisers." + +"I tell you he's a nice old man, and I won't have you talk so about +him," Louise declared. "We must change the subject." + +"We'll talk about _you_," said Lawford quickly. "I'm awfully curious. +When does your--er--work begin down here?" + +"My work?" Then she understood him and dimpled. "Oh, just now is my +playtime." + +"Making pictures must be interesting." + +"I presume it looks so to the outsider," she admitted. It amused her +immensely that he should think her a motion picture actress. + +"Your coming here and Cap'n Amazon exchanging jobs with his brother +have caused more excitement than Cardhaven and the vicinity have seen +in a decade. Or at least since _I_ have lived here." + +"Oh! Then are you not native to the soil?" + +"No, not exactly," he replied. And then after a moment he added: "It's +a great old place, even in winter." + +"Not dull at all?" + +"Never dull," he reassured her. "Too much going on, on sea and shore, +to ever be dull. Not for me, at least. I love it." + +They reached the store. Louise bade the young man good-morning and +went around to the back door to greet Betty. + +Lawford made his purchases in rather serious mood and returned to his +motor boat. His mind was fixed upon the way Louise Grayling had looked +as he stepped ashore and greeted her. + +He had been close enough to her now, and for time enough as well, to be +sure that there was nothing artificial about this girl. She was as +natural as a flower--and just as sweet! There was a softness to her +cheek and to the curve of her neck like rich velvet. Her eyes were +mild yet sparkling when she became at all animated. And that demure +smile! And her dimples! + +When a young man gets to making an accounting of a girl's charms in +this way, he is far gone indeed. Lawford Tapp was very seriously +smitten. + +He saw his youngest sister, Cicely, whom the family always called +L'Enfant Terrible, speeding back to the villa in the automobile. She +had not gone as far as Paulmouth, after all, and she reached home long +before he docked the launch. Lawford did not pay much attention to +what went on in the big villa. His mother and sisters lived a social +life of their own. He merely slept there, spending most of his days on +the water. + +The Salt Water Taffy King was not at the private dock when Lawford +arrived. Mr. Israel Tapp was an irritable and impatient man. He "flew +off the handle" at the slightest provocation. Many times a day he lost +his temper and, as Lawford phlegmatically expressed it, "blew up." + +These exhibitions meant nothing particularly to Mr. Tapp. They were +escape-valves for a nervous irritability that had grown during his +years of idleness. Born of a poor Cape family, but with a dislike for +fish-seines and lobster-pots, he had turned his attention from the +first to the summer visitors, even in his youth beginning to flock to +the old-fashioned ports of the Cape. Catering to their wants was a +gold mine but little worked at that time. + +He began to sell candy at one of the more popular resorts. Then he +began to make candy. His Salt Water Taffy became locally famous. He +learned that a good many of the wealthier people who visited the Cape +in summer played all the year around. They went to Atlantic City or to +the Florida beaches in the winter. + +So Israel Tapp branched out and established salt water taffy kitchens +all up and down the coast. "I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King" became +a catch-word. It was then but a step to incorporating a company and +establishing huge candy factories. I. Tapp went on by leaps and +bounds. While yet a comparatively young man he found himself a +multi-millionaire. Even a rather expensive family could not spend his +income fast enough. + +He built the ornate villa at The Beaches and, like Lawford, preferred +to live there rather than elsewhere. His wife and the older girls +insisted upon having a town house in Boston and in traveling at certain +times to more or less exclusive resorts and to Europe. Their one +ambition was to get into that exclusive social set in which they felt +their money should rightfully place them. But a house on the Back Bay +does not always assure one's entrance to the circles of the "gilded +codfish." + +Mr. Tapp went down to the dock again after a time. Lawford had the +_Merry Andrew_ all ready to set out on the proposed fishing trip. The +sloop was a pretty craft, clinker built, and about the fastest sailing +boat within miles of Cardhaven. Lawford was proud of her. + +"So you're back at last, are you?" snapped the Salt Water Taffy King. + +He was a portly little man with a red face and a bald brow. His very +strut pronounced him a self-made man. He glared at his son, whose cool +nonchalance he often declared was impudence. + +"I've been waiting some time for you, dad. Hop aboard," Lawford calmly +said. + +"You took your time in getting back here," responded his father, by no +means mollified. "And you knew I was waiting. But you had to stand +and talk to a girl over there. Cicely says it is that picture actress +who is staying at Cap'n Abe's. Is that so?" + +"I presume Cicely is right," his son answered. "There is no other here +at present to my knowledge." + +"Of all things!" ejaculated Mr. Tapp. "You are always making some kind +of a fool of yourself, Lawford. Don't, for pity's sake, be _that_ kind +of a fool." + +"What do you mean, dad?" and now the young man's eyes flashed. It was +seldom that Lawford turned upon his father in anger. + +"You know very well what I mean. Keep away from such women. Don't get +messed up with actor people. I won't have it, I tell you! I am +determined that at least _one_ rich man's son shall not be the victim +of the wiles of any of these stage women." + +The flush remained in Lawford's cheek. It hurt him to hear his father +speak so in referring to Louise Grayling. He, too, possessed some of +the insular prejudice of his kind against those who win their +livelihood in the glare of the theatrical spotlight. This gentle, +well-bred, delightful girl staying at Cap'n Abe's store was a +revelation to him. He held his tongue, however, and held his temper in +check as well. + +"I don't see," stormed I. Tapp, "why you can't take up with a nice girl +and marry. Why, at your age I was married and we had Marian!" + +"Don't you think that should discourage me, dad?" Lawford put in. +"Marian is nobody to brag of, I should say." + +"Hah!" ejaculated his father. "She's a fool, too. But there are nice +girls. I was talking to your mother about your case last night. Of +course, I don't want you to say anything to her about what I'm going to +tell you now. She's got the silliest notions," pursued Mr. Tapp who +labored under the belief that all the wisdom of the ages had lodged +under his own hat. "Expects her daughters to marry dukes and you to +catch a princess or the like." + +"There are no such fish in these waters," laughed Lawford. "At least, +none has so much as nibbled at my hook." + +"And no nice girl will nibble at it if you don't come ashore once in a +while and get into something besides fisherman's duds." + +"Now, dad, clothes do not make the man." + +"Who told you such a fool thing as that? Some fool philosopher with +only one shirt to his back said it. Bill Johnson proved how wrong that +was to my satisfaction years and years ago. Good old Bill! I wanted +to branch out. We had just that one little candy factory and I worked +in it myself every day. + +"I got the idea," continued I. Tapp, launched on a favorite subject +now, "that my balance sheet and outlook for trade might impress the +bank people. I wanted to build a bigger factory. So I took off my +apron one day and walked over to the bank. I saw the president. He +looked like a fashion plate himself and he swung a pair of dinky +glasses on a cord as he listened to me and looked me over. Then he +turned me down--flat! + +"I told Bill about it. Bill was kind of tied up just then himself. +That was before he made his big strike. But he was a different fellow +from me. Bill always looked like ready money. + +"'Isra,' he says to me, 'I'll tell you how to get that money from the +bank.' + +"'It can't be done, Bill,' I told him. 'The president of the bank +showed me that my business was too weak to stand such spread-eagling. + +"'Nonsense!' says Bill. 'It isn't your business, it's your nerve that +you've got to hire money on--and your clothes. You do what I tell you. +Come to my tailor's in the morning.' + +"Well, to cut a long story short, I did it. I rigged up to beat that +bank president himself. When he saw me in about two hundred dollars' +worth of good clothes he considered the case again and recommended the +loan to his board. 'You put your facts much more lucidly to-day, Mr. +Tapp,' is the way he expressed himself. But take it from me, Lawford, +it was my clothes that made the impression. + +"So!" ruminated Mr. Tapp, "that is one thing Bill Johnson did for me. +And later, as you know, he came into the candy business with me and his +money helped make I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King. Lawford, Bill is +like a brother to me. His girl, Dorothy, is one of the nicest girls +who ever stepped in a slipper." + +"Dorothy Johnson is a really sweet girl, dad," Lawford agreed. "I like +her." + +"There!" ejaculated I. Tapp. "You let that liking become something +stronger. Dorothy's just the girl for you to marry." + +"_What_?" gasped the skipper of the _Merry Andrew_, almost losing his +grip on the steering wheel. + +"You get my meaning," said his father, scowling. "I've always meant +you should marry Bill's daughter. I had your mother write her last +night inviting her down here. Of course, your mother and the girls +think Bill Johnson's folks are too plain. But I'm boss once in a while +in my own house." + +"And you call mother a matchmaker!" + +"I know what I want and I'm going to get it," said I. Tapp doggedly. +"Dorothy is the girl for you. Don't you get entangled with anybody +else. Not a penny of my money will you ever handle if you don't do as +I say, young man!" + +"You needn't holler till you're hit, dad," Lawford said, trying to +speak carelessly. + +"Oh! _I_ sha'n't holler," snarled the Taffy King. "I warn you. One +such play as that and I'm through with you. I'm willing to support an +idle, ne'er-do-well; but he sha'n't saddle himself with one of those +theatrical creatures and bring scandal upon the family. Do you know +what I was doing when I was your age? I had a booth at 'Gansett, two +at Newport, a big one at Atlantic City, and was beginning to branch +out. I worked like a dog, too." + +"That's why I think I don't have to work, dad," said Lawford coolly. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SUSPICION HOVERS + +Betty Gallup, clothed as usual in her man's hat and worn pea-coat, but +likewise on this occasion with mystery, seized Louise by the hand the +instant she appeared and drew her into the kitchen, shutting the door +between that and the living-room. + +"What is the matter?" the girl asked. "Have you broken something--or +is the canary dead?" + +"Sh!" warned Betty, her little brown eyes blinking rapidly. "I heard +something last night." + +"I didn't. I slept like a baby. The night before I heard that old +foghorn----" + +"I mean," interrupted Betty, "something was told me." + +"Well, go on." Louise made up her mind that she could not stem the +tide of talk. + +"About your uncle, Cap'n Abe. He--he never was seen to take that train +to Boston. I got it straight, or pretty average straight. Mandy Baker +told me, and Peke Card's wife, Mary Lizbeth, told her, who got it right +from Lute Craven who works in the post-office uptown, and Lute got it +from Noah Coffin. You know, he't drives the ark you come over in from +Paulmouth. Well! Noah was at Paulmouth depot as he always is of +course when the clam train stops at five-thutty-five. He says he +didn't see Cap'n Abe nor nobody that looked like him board that train +yest'day mornin'." + +"Why, Betty!" Louise could only gasp. This house-that-Jack-built +narrative quite took her breath away. + +"Besides," went on Betty; "there's more to it. Cap'n Abe's chest was +took back to the depot by Perry Baker when he brought your trunks over, +sure 'nough. And Perry Baker says he shipped that chest to Boston for +your uncle, marked to be called for. It went by express." + +"But--but what of it?" asked the puzzled girl. + +"Humph! Stands to reason," declared Mrs. Gallup, "that Cap'n Abe +wouldn't have done no such foolish thing as that. It costs money to +ship a heavy sea chest by express. He could have took it on his ticket +as baggage, free gratis, for nothin'!" + +"I really don't see," Louise now said rather severely, "that these +facts you state--if they are facts--are any of our business, Betty. +Uncle Abram might have taken the train at some other station. He was +not sure, perhaps, whether he would join the ship Cap'n Amazon +recommended, so why should he not send his chest by express?" + +"Cap'n Am'zon! Humph!" sniffed Betty. "Nobody knows whether that's +his name or not. _He_ comes here without a smitch of clo'es, as near +as I can find out." + +Louise was amused; yet she was somewhat vexed as well. The curiosity, +as well as the animosity, displayed by Betty and others of the +neighbors began to appall her. If Cape Cod folk were, as her +daddy-professor had declared, "the salt of the earth," some of the salt +seemed to have lost its savor. + +"We were talking about Cap'n Abe," said Louise severely. "Just as he +had his own good reasons for going away when and how he did, he +probably had his reasons for taking nobody into his confidence. This +Perry Baker, the expressman, must know that Cap'n Abe sent the trunk +from the house, here." + +"Humph! Yes! Nobody's denyin' that." + +"Then Cap'n Abe must have known exactly what he wished to do. Cap'n +Amazon surely had nothing to do with the chest, with how his brother +took the train, or with _where_ he took it. Really, Betty, what do you +suspect Cap'n Amazon has done?" + +"I don't know what he's done," snapped Betty. "But I wouldn't put +nothin' past him, from his looks. The old pirate!" + +"You will make me feel very bad if you continue to talk this way about +my Uncle Amazon," said the girl, far from feeling amused now. "It is +not right. I hope you will not continue to repeat such things. If you +do you will some time be sorry for it, Betty." + +"Humph!" sniffed the woman. "Mebbe I will. But I'm warnin' you, Miss +Grayling." + +"Warning me of what?" + +"Of that man. That old sinner! I never see a wickeder looking feller +in my life--and I've sailed with my father and my husband to 'most +ev'ry quarter of the globe. He may be twin brother to the Angel +Gabriel; but if he is, his looks belie it!" + +There was nothing in all this of enough consequence to disturb the +girl, only in so far as she was vexed to find the neighbors so gossipy +and unkind. She gazed thoughtfully upon Cap'n Amazon as he sat across +from her at the breakfast table, and wondered how anybody could see in +his bronzed face anything sinister. + +That he was rather ridiculously gotten up, it was true. Those gold +earrings! But then, she had seen several of the older men about the +store wearing rings in their ears. If he did not always have that +bright-colored kerchief on his head! But then, he might wear that +because he was susceptible to neuralgia and did not wish to wear a hat +all the time as seemed to have been Cap'n Abe's custom. + +When he smiled at her and his eyes crinkled at the corners, he was as +kindly of expression, she thought, as Cap'n Abe himself. And he was a +much better looking man than the brother who had gone away. + +"Cap'n Amazon," she said to him, "I believe you must be just full of +stories of adventure and wonderful happenings by sea and land. Uncle +Abram said you had been everywhere." + +Cap'n Amazon seemed to take a long breath, then cleared his throat, and +said: + +"I've been pretty nigh everywhere. Seen some funny corners of the +world, too, Louise." + +"You must tell me about your adventures," she said. "Your brother told +me that you ran away to sea when you were only twelve years old and +sailed on a long whaling voyage." + +"Yep. _South Sea Belle_. Some old hooker, she was," said Cap'n Amazon +briskly. "We was out three year and come home with our hold bustin' +with ile, plenty of baleen, some sperm, and a lump of ambergris as big +as a nail keg--or pretty nigh." + +Right then and there he launched into relating how the wondrous find of +ambergris came to be made, neglecting his breakfast to do so. He told +it so vividly that Louise was enthralled. The picture of the whaling +bark beating up to the dead and festering leviathan lying on the +surface of the ocean to which the exploding gases of decomposition had +brought the hulk, lived in her mind for days. The mate of the _South +Sea Belle_, believing the creature had died of the disease supposedly +caused by the growth of the ambergris in its intestines, had insisted +upon boarding the carcass. Driving away the clamorous and ravenous sea +fowl, he had dug down with his blubber-spade into the vitals of the +whale and recovered the gray, spongy, ill-smelling mass which was worth +so great a sum to the perfumer. + +"'Twas a big haul--one o' the biggest lumps o' ambergris ever brought +into the port of New Bedford," concluded Cap'n Amazon. "Helped make +the owners rich, and the Old Man, too. Course, I got my sheer; but a +boy's sheer on a whaler them days wouldn't buy him no house and lot. +So I went to sea again." + +"You must have been at sea almost all your life, Cap'n Amazon." + +"Pretty nigh. I ain't never lazed around on shore when there was a +berth in a seaworthy craft to be had for the askin'. I let Abe do +that," he added, in what Louise thought was a rather scornful tone. + +"Why, I don't believe Uncle Abram has a lazy bone in his body! See the +nice business he has built up here. And he told me he owned shares in +several vessels and other property." + +"That's true," Cap'n Amazon agreed promptly. "And a tidy sum in the +Paulmouth National Bank. I got a letter to the bank folks he left to +introduce me, if I needed cash. Yes, Abe's done well enough that way. +But he's the first Silt, I swanny! that ever stayed ashore." + +"And now you are going to remain ashore yourself," she said, laughing. + +"I'm going to try it, Louise. I've done my sheer of roaming about. +Mebbe I'll settle down here for good." + +"With Cap'n Abe? Won't that be fine?" + +"Yep. With Abe," he muttered and remained silent for the rest of the +meal. + +On Saturday the store trade was expected to be larger than usual. +Louise told Cap'n Amazon she would gladly help wait on the customers; +but he would not listen to that for a moment. + +"I'm not goin' to have you out there in that store for these folks to +look over and pick to pieces, my girl," he said decidedly. "You stay +aft and I'll 'tend to things for'ard and handle this crew. Besides, +there's that half-grown lout, Amiel Perdue. Abe said he sometimes +helped around. He knows the ship, alow and aloft, and how the stores +is stowed." + +The morning was still young when Betty came downstairs in hot rage and +attacked Cap'n Amazon. It seemed she had gone up to give the chambers +their usual weekly cleaning, and had found the room in which the +captain slept locked against her. It was Cap'n Abe's room and it +seemed it was Cap'n Abe's custom--as it was Cap'n Amazon's--to make his +own bed and keep his room tidy during the week. But Betty had always +given it a thorough cleaning and changed the bed linen on Saturdays. + +"What's that room locked for? I want to know what you mean?" the woman +demanded of Cap'n Amazon. "Think I'm goin' to work in a house where +doors is locked against me? I'm as honest as any Silt that ever +hobbled on two laigs. Nex' thing, I cal'late, you'll be lockin' the +coal shed and countin' the sticks in the woodpile." + +She had much more to say--and said it. It seemed to make her feel +better to do so. Cap'n Amazon looked coolly at her, but did not offer +to take the key out of his trousers' pocket. + +"What d'ye mean?" repeated Betty, breathless. + +"I mean to keep my cabin locked," he told her in a perfectly passive +voice, but in a manner that halted her suddenly, angry as she was. "I +don't want no woman messin' with my berth nor with my duds. That +door's no more locked against you than it is against my niece. You do +the rest of your work and don't you worry your soul 'bout my cabin." + +Louise, who was an observant spectator of this contest, expected at +first that Betty would not stand the indignity--that she would resign +from her situation on the spot. + +But that hard, compelling stare of Cap'n Amazon seemed to tame her. +And Betty Gallup was a person not easily tamed. She spluttered a +little more, then returned to her work. Though she was sullen all day, +she did not offer to reopen the discussion. + +"What a master he must have been on his own quarter-deck," Louise +thought. "And he must have seen rough times, as that Lawford Tapp +suggested. My! he's not much like Cap'n Abe, after all." + +But with her, Cap'n Amazon was as gentle as her own father. He stood +on his dignity with the customers who came to the store, and with +Betty; but he was most kindly toward Louise in every look and word. + +That under his self-contained and stern exterior dwelt a very tender +heart, the girl was sure. For the absent Cap'n Abe he appeared to feel +a strong man's good-natured scorn for a weak one; but Louise saw him +stand often before Jerry's cage, chirping to the bird and playing with +him. And at such times there was moisture in Cap'n Amazon's eye. + +"Blind's a bat! Poor little critter!" he would murmur. "All the +sunshine does is to warm him; he can't see it no more. Out-o'-doors +ain't nothin' to him now." + +Nor would he allow anybody but himself to attend to the needs of poor +little Jerry. He had promised Abe, he said. He kept that promise +faithfully. + +Diddimus, the cat, was entirely another problem. At first, whenever he +saw Cap'n Amazon approach, he howled and fled. Then, gradually, an +unholy curiosity seemed to enthrall the big tortoise-shell. He would +peer around corners at Cap'n Amazon, stare at him with wide yellow eyes +through open doorways, leap upon the window sill and glower at the +substitute storekeeper--in every way showing his overweening interest +in the man. But he absolutely would not go within arm's reach of him. + +"I always did say a cat's a plumb fool," declared Cap'n Amazon. +"They'll desert ship as soon as wink. Treacherous critters, the hull +tribe. Why, when I was up country in Cuba once, I stopped at a man's +hacienda and he had a tame wildcat--had had it from a kitten. Brought +it up on a bottle himself. + +"He thought a heap of that critter, and when he laid in his hammock +under the trees--an' that was most of the time, for them Caribs are as +lazy as the feller under the tree that wished for the cherries to fall +in his mouth!--Yes, sir! when he laid in his hammock that yaller-eyed +demon would lay in it, too, and purr like an ordinary cat. + +"But a day come when the man fell asleep and had a nightmare or +something, and kicked out, cracking that cat on the snout with his +heel. Next breath the cat had a chunk out o' his calf and if I hadn't +been there with a gun he'd pretty near have eat the feller!" + +The personal touch always entered into Cap'n Amazon's stories. He had +always been on me spot when the thing in point happened--and usually he +was the heroic and central figure. No foolish modesty stayed his +tongue when it came to recounting adventures. + +He had all his wits, as well as all his wit, about him, had Cap'n +Amazon. This was shown by an occurrence that very Saturday afternoon. + +Milt Baker, like the other neighbors, was becoming familiar, if not +friendly, with the substitute storekeeper and, leaning on the showcase. +Milt said: + +"Leave me have a piece of Brown Mule, Cap'n Am'zon. I'm all out o' +chewin'. Put it on the book and Mandy'll pay for it." + +"Avast there!" Cap'n Amazon returned. "Seems to me I got something in +the bill o' ladin' 'bout that," and he drew forth the long memorandum +Cap'n Abe had made to guide his substitute's treatment of certain +customers. "No," the substitute storekeeper said, shaking his head +negatively. "Can't do it." + +"Why not, I want to know?" blustered Milt. "I guess my credit's good." +He already had the Brown Mule in his hand. + +"Your wife's credit seems to be good," Cap'n Amazon returned firmly. +"But here's what I find here: 'Don't trust Milt Baker for Brown Mule +'cause Mandy makes him pay cash for his tobacker and rum. We don't +sell no rum.' That's enough, young man." + +Milt might have tried to argue the case with Cap'n Abe; but not with +Cap'n Amazon. There was something in the steady look of the latter +that caused the shiftless clam digger to dig down into his pocket for +the nickel, pay it over, and walk grumblingly out of the store. + +"Does beat all what a fool a woman will be," commented Cap'n Amazon, +rather enigmatically; only Louise, who heard him, realized fully what +his thought was. Jealous and hard-working Mandy Baker had chosen for +herself a handicap in the marriage game. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHAT LOUISE THINKS + +Sunday morning such a hush pervaded the store on the Shell Road, and +brooded over its surroundings, as Lou Grayling had seldom experienced +save in the depths of the wilderness. + +She beheld a breeze-swept sea from her window with no fishing boats +going out. There was nobody on the clam flats, although the tide was +just right at dawn. The surfman from the patrol station beyond The +Beaches paced to the end of his beat dressed in his best, like a man +merely taking a Sunday morning stroll. + +The people she saw seemed to be changed out of their everyday selves. +Not only were they in Sabbath garb, but they had on their Sabbath +manner. Even to Milt Baker, the men were cleanly shaven and wore fresh +cotton shirts of their wives' laundering. + +Cap'n Amazon appeared from his "cabin" when the first church bells +began to ring, arrayed in a much wrinkled but very good suit of "go +ashore" clothes of blue, which were possibly those he had worn when he +arrived at the store on the Shell Road. He wore a hard, glazed hat of +an old-fashioned naval shape and, instead of the usual red bandana, he +wore a black silk handkerchief tied about his head. + +Just why he always kept his crown thus swathed, Louise was very +desirous of knowing. Yet she did not feel like asking him such a very +personal question. Had it been Cap'n Abe she would not for a moment +have hesitated. Louise had heard of men being scalped by savages and +she was almost tempted to believe that this had happened to Cap'n +Amazon in one of his wild encounters. + +"We'll go to the First Church, Niece Louise," he said firmly. "Abe +always did. These small-fry craft, like the Mariner's Chapel, are all +right, I don't dispute; but they are lacking in ballast. It's in my +mind to attend the church that's the most like a well-founded, deep-sea +craft." + +Louise was more impressed than amused by this philosophy. The captain +seemed to have put on his "Sunday face" like everybody else. As they +came out of the yard old Washington Gallup hobbled by, but instead of +stopping to chatter inconsequently, for he was an inveterate gossip, he +saluted the captain respectfully and hobbled on. + +Indeed, the captain was a figure on this day to command profound +respect. It is no trick at all for a big man to look dignified and +impressive; but Cap'n Amazon was not a big man. However, in his blue +pilot-cloth suit, cut severely plain, and with his hard black hat on +his head he made a veritable picture of what a master-mariner should be. + +On his quarter-deck, in fair or foul weather, Louise was sure that he +had never lacked the respect of his crew or their confidence. He was +distinctly a man to command--a leader and director by nature. He was, +indeed, different from the seemingly easy-going, gentle-spoken Cap'n +Abe, the storekeeper. + +They had scarcely started up the Shell Road when the whir of a +fast-running automobile sounded behind them and the mellow hoot of a +horn. Louise turned to see a great touring car take the curve from the +direction of The Beaches and glide swiftly toward them. Lawford Tapp +was guiding the car. + +"Then he's a chauffeur as well as fisherman and boatman," she thought. + +She could not see how he was dressed under the coat he wore; but he +touched his cap to her and Cap'n Amazon as he drove by. + +Beside Lawford on the driving seat was a plump little man who seemed to +be violently quarreling with the chauffeur. In the tonneau was a +matronly woman and three girls including "L'Enfant Terrible," all, +Louise thought, rather overdressed. + +"Those folks, so I'm told," said Cap'n Amazon placidly, "come from that +big house on the p'int--as far as you can see from our windows. More +money than good sense, I guess. Though the man, he comes of good old +Cape stock. But I guess that blood can de-te-ri-orate, as the feller +said. Ain't much of it left in the young folks, pretty likely. They +just laze around and play all the time. If 'All work and no play makes +Jack a dull boy,' you can take it from me, Niece Louise, that all play +and no work makes Jill a pretty average useless girl. Yes, sir!" + +To the First Church it was quite a walk, up Main Street beyond the Inn +and the post-office. There was some little bustle on Main Street at +church-going time for some of the vacation visitors--those of more +modest pretensions than the occupants of the cottages at The +Beaches--had already arrived. + +At the head of the church aisle Cap'n Amazon spoke apologetically to +the usher: + +"Young man, my brother, Mr. Abram Silt, hires a pew here; but I don't +rightly know its bearings. Would you mind showin' me and my niece the +course?" + +They were accommodated. After service several shook hands with them; +but Louise noticed that many cast curious glances at the black silk +handkerchief on Cap'n Amazon's head and did not come near. Despite his +dignity and the reverence of his bearing, he did look peculiar with +that 'kerchief swathing his crown. + +Gusty Durgin, the waitress at the Cardhaven Inn, claimed +acquaintanceship after church with Louise. + +"There's goin' to be more of your crowd come to-morrow, Miss Grayling," +she said. "Some of 'em's goin' to stop with us at the Inn. How you +makin' out down there to Cap'n Abe's? Land sakes! _that_ ain't Cap'n +Abe!" + +"It is his brother, Cap'n Amazon Silt," explained Louise. + +"I want to know! He looks amazin' funny, don't he? Not much like +Cap'n Abe. You see, my folks live down the Shell Road. My ma married +again. D'rius Vleet. Nice man, but a Dutchman. I don't take up much +with these furiners. + +"Now! what was I sayin'? Oh! The boss tells me there's a Mr. Judson +Bane of your crowd goin' to stop with us. Sent a telegraph dispatch +for a room to be saved for him. With bath! Land sakes! ain't the +whole ocean big enough for him to take a bath in? We ain't got nothing +like that. And two ladies--I forget their names. You know Mr. Bane?". + +"I have met him--once," confessed Louise. + +"Some swell he is, I bet," Gusty declared. "I'm goin' to speak to him. +Mebbe he can get me into the company. I ain't so _aw_-ful fat. I seen +a picture over to Paulmouth last night where there was a girl bigger'n +I am, and she took a re'l sad part. + +"She cried re'l tears. _I_ can do that. All I got to do is to think +of something re'l mis'rable--like the time our old brahma hen, Beauty, +got bit by Esek Coe's dog, and ma had to saw her up. Then the tears'll +squeeze right out, _just as ea'sy_!" + +Louise thought laughter would overcome her "just as easy" despite the +day and place. She knew a hearty burst of laughter in the church +edifice would amaze and shock the lingering congregation. + +Seeing that Cap'n Amazon was busy with some men he had met, the girl +walked out to the little vestibule of the church. Here a number of +women and men were discussing various matters--the sermon, the weather, +clamming, boating, and the colony at The Beaches. Two women stood +apart from the others and presently Louise was attracted to them by the +sound of Lawford Tapp's name. + +"I dunno who he is exactly, bein' somethin' o' a stranger here," one of +the women said. "But I was told he was some poor relation who allers +lived among the fisher folk. But he does seem to know how to run thet +autermobile, don't he?" + +"I should say!" returned the other woman. "An' he's well spoken, +too--from what I heard him say down to the store." + +"Yes, I know that too. Well, I hope he buys the outfit--Jimmy wants to +sell it bad enough--an' needs the money, believe me!" And thereupon +the two women took their departure. + +The conversation hung in Louisa's mind and she looked exceedingly +thoughtful when Cap'n Amazon broke away from those with whom he had +been talking and joined her. + +"Nice man, that Reverend Jimson, I guess," the captain said, as they +wended their way homeward; "but he's got as many ways of holdin' a +feller as an octopus. And lemme tell you, that's a plenty! Arms seem +to grow on devilfish 'while you wait' as the feller said. + +"I sha'n't ever forget the time I was a boy in the old _Mary Bedloe_ +brig, out o' Boston, loaded with sundries for Jamaica, to bring back +molasses--and something a leetle mite stronger. That's 'bout as near +as I ever got to having traffic with liquor--and 'twas an unlucky +v'y'ge all the way through. + +"Before we ever got the rum aboard," pursued Cap'n Amazon, "on our way +down there, our water went bad. Yes, sir! Water does get stringy +sometimes on long v'y'ges. It useter on whalin' cruises--get all +stringy and bad; but after she'd worked clear she'd be fit to drink +again. + +"But this time in the _Mary Bedloe_ it was something mysterious +happened to the drinking water. Made the hull crew sick. Cap'n Jim +Braman was master. He was a good navigator, but an awful profane man. +Swore without no reason to it. + +"Well----Where was I? Oh, yes! We had light airs in the Caribbean for +once, and didn't make no more headway in a day than a brick barge goin' +upstream. We come to an island--something more than a key--and Cap'n +Braman ordered a boat's crew ashore for water. I was in the second's +boat so I went. We found good water easy and the second officer, who +was a nice young chap, let us scour around on our own hook for fruit +and such, after we'd filled the barrels. + +"I was all for shellfish them days, and I see some big mussels attached +to the rocks, it bein' low water. Some o' them mussels, when ye gut +'em same as ye would deep-sea clams, make the nicest fry you ever +tasted. + +"Wal," said Cap'n Amazon, walking sedately home from church with his +amused niece on his arm, "I wanted a few of them mussels. There was a +mud bottom and so the water was black. Just as I reached for the first +mussel I felt something creeping around my left leg. I thought it was +eel-grass; then I thought it was an eel. + +"Next thing I knowed it took holt like a leech in half a dozen places. +I jumped; but I didn't jump far. There was two o' the things had me, +and that left leg o' mine was fast as a duck's foot in the mud!" + +"Oh, Uncle Amazon!" gasped Louise. + +"Yep. A third arm whipped out o' the water had helt me round the waist +tighter'n any girl of my acquaintance ever lashed her best feller. +Land sakes, that devilfish certainly give me a hi-mighty hug! + +"But I had what they call down in the Spanish speakin' islands a +machette--a big knife for cuttin' your way through the jungle. I +hauled that out o' the waistband of my pants and I began slicing at +them snake-like arms of the critter and yelling like all get-out. + +"More scare't than hurt, I reckon. I was a young feller, as I tell +you, and hadn't seen so much of the world as I have since," continued +Cap'n Amazon. "But the arms seemed fairly to grow on that devilfish. +I wasn't hacked loose when the second officer come runnin' with his +gun. I dragged the critter nearer inshore and he got a look at it. +Both barrels went into that devilfish, and that was more than it could +stomach; so it let go," finished the captain. + +"Mercy! what an experience," commented Louise, wondering rather vaguely +why the minister of the First Church had reminded her uncle of this +octopus. + +"Yes. 'Twas _some_," agreed Cap'n Amazon. "But let's step along a +little livelier, Niece Louise. I'm goin' to give you a re'l +fisherman's chowder for dinner, an' I want to git the pork and onions +over. I like my onions well browned before I slice in the potaters." + +Cap'n Amazon insisted on doing most of the cooking, just as Cap'n Abe +had. Louise had baked some very delicate pop-overs for breakfast that +morning and the captain ate his share with appreciation. + +"Pretty average nice, I call 'em, for soft-fodder," he observed. "But, +land sakes! give me something hearty and kind of solid for reg'lar +eating. Ordinary man would starve pretty handy, I guess, on breadstuff +like this." + +The chowder was both as hearty and as appetizing as one could desire. +Nor would the captain allow Louise to wash the dishes afterward. + +"No, girl. I'll clean up this mess. You go out and see how fur you +can walk on that hard beach now it's slack tide. You ain't been up +there to Tapp P'int yit and seen that big house that belongs to the +candy king. Neither have I, of course," he added; "but they been +tellin' me about it in the store." + +Louise accepted the suggestion and started to walk up the beach; but +she did not get far. There was a private dock running out beyond +low-water mark just below the very first bungalow. She saw several men +coming down the steps from the top of the bluff to the shore and the +bathhouses; a big camera was set up on the sands. This must be +Bozewell's bungalow, she decided; the one engaged by the moving picture +people. + +If Judson Bane was to be leading man of the company the picture was +very likely to be an important production; for Bane would not leave the +legitimate stage for any small salary. Seeing no women in the party +and that the men were heading up the beach, Louise went no farther in +that direction, and instead walked out upon the private dock to its end. + +It was not until then that she saw, shooting inshore, the swift launch +in which Lawford Tapp had come over in the morning previous. The wind +being off the land she had not heard its exhaust. In three minutes the +launch glided in beside the dock where she stood. + +"Come for a sail, Miss Grayling?" he asked her, with his very widest +smile. "I'll take you out around Gull Rocks." + +"Oh! I am not sure----" + +"Surely you're not down here to work on Sunday?" and he glanced at the +actors. + +She laughed. "Oh, no, Mr. Tapp. I do not work on Sundays. Uncle +Amazon would not even let me wash the dishes." + +"I should think not," murmured Lawford with an appreciative glance at +her ungloved hands. "He's a pretty decent old fellow, I guess. Will +you come aboard? She's perfectly safe, Miss Grayling." + +If he had invited her to enter the big touring car he had driven that +morning, to go for a "joy ride," Louise Grayling would certainly have +refused. To go on a pleasure trip at the invitation of a chauffeur in +his employer's car was quite out of consideration. + +But this was somehow different, or so it seemed. She hesitated not +because of who or what he was (or what she believed him to be), but +because she had seen something in his manner and expression of +countenance that warned her he was a young man not to be lightly +encouraged. + +In that moment of reflection Louise Grayling, asked herself if she felt +that he possessed a more interesting personality than almost any man +she had ever met socially before. She did so consider him, she told +herself, and so--she stepped aboard the launch. + +She did not need his hand to help her to the seat beside him. She was +boatwise. He pushed off, starting his engine; and they were soon +chug-chugging out upon the limitless sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LEADING MAN + +"I saw you with Cap'n Amazon going to church this morning," Lawford +said. "To the First Church, I presume?" + +"And you?" + +"Oh, I drove the folks over to Paulmouth. There is an Episcopal Church +there and the girls think it's more fashionable. You don't see many +soft-collared shirts among the Paulmouth Episcopalians." + +There spoke the "native," Louise thought; and she smiled. + +"It scarcely matters, I fancy, which denomination one attends. It is +the spirit in which we worship that counts." + +He gazed upon her seriously. "You're a thoughtful girl, I guess. I +should not have looked for that--in your business." + +"In my business? Oh!" + +"We outsiders have an idea that people in the theatrical line are a +peculiar class unto themselves," Lawford went on. + +"But I----" On the point of telling him of his mistake she hesitated. +He was unobservant of her amusement and went on with seriousness: + +"I guess I'm pretty green after all. I don't know much about the +world--your world, at least. I love the sea, and sailing, and all the +seashore has to offer. Sometimes I'm out here alone all day long." + +"But what is it doing for you?" she asked him rather sharply. "Surely +there can be very little in it, when all's said and done. A man with +your intelligence--you have evidently had a good education." + +"I suppose I don't properly appreciate that," he admitted. + +"And to really waste your time like this--loafing longshore, and +sailing boats, and--and driving an automobile. Why! you are a regular +beach comber, Mr. Tapp. It's not much of an outlook for a man I should +think." + +She suddenly stopped, realizing that she was showing more interest than +the occasion called for. Lawford was watching her with smoldering eyes. + +"Don't you think it is a nice way to live?" he asked. "The sea is +really wonderful. I have learned more about sea and shore already than +you can find in all the books. Do you know where the gulls nest, and +how they hatch their young? Did you ever watch a starfish feeding? Do +you know what part of the shellfish is the scallop of commerce? Do you +know that every seventh wave is almost sure to be larger than its +fellows? Do you----" + +"Oh, it may be very delightful," Louise interrupted this flow of badly +catalogued information to say. He expressed exactly her own desires. +Nothing could be pleasanter than spending the time, day after day, +learning things "at first hand" about nature. For her father--and of +course for her--to do this was quite proper, Louise thought. But not +for this young fisherman, who should be making his way in the world. +"Where is it getting you?" she demanded. + +"Getting me?" + +"Yes," she declared with vigor, yet coloring a little. "A man should +work." + +"But I'm not idle." + +"He should work to get ahead--to save--to make something of himself--to +establish himself in life--to have a home." + +He smiled then and likewise colored. "I--I------A man can't do that +alone. Especially the home-making part." + +"You don't suppose any of these girls about here--the nice girls, I +mean--want a man who is not a home provider?" + +He laughed outright then. "Some of them get that kind, I fear, Miss +Grayling. Mandy Card, for instance." + +"Are you planning to be another Milt Baker?" she responded with scorn. + +"Oh, now, you're hard on a fellow," he complained. "I'm always busy. +And, fixed as I am, I don't see why I should grub and moil at +unpleasant things." + +Louise shrugged her shoulders and made a gesture of finality. "You are +impossible, I fear," she said and put aside--not without a secret +pang--her interest in Lawford Tapp, an interest which had been +developing since she first met the young man. + +He allowed the subject to lapse and began telling her about the ledges +on which the rock cod and tautog schooled; where bluefish might be +caught on the line, and snappers in the channels going into the Haven. + +"Good sport. I must take you out in the _Merry Andrew_," he said. +"She's a peach of a sailer--and my very own." + +"Oh! do you own the sloop, Mr. Tapp?" + +"I guess I do! And no money could buy her," he cried with boyish +enthusiasm. "She's the best lap-streak boat anywhere along the Cape. +And _sail_!" + +"I love sailing," she confessed, with brightening visage. + +"Say! You just set the day--so it won't conflict with your work--and +I'll take you out," he declared eagerly, + +"But won't it conflict with your duties?" + +"Humph!" he returned. "I thought your idea was that I didn't have any +duties. However," and he smiled again, "you need not worry about that. +When you want to go I will arrange everything so that I'll have a free +day." + +"But not alone, Mr. Tapp?" + +"No," he agreed gravely. "I suppose that wouldn't do. But we can +rake up a chaperon somewhere." + +"Oh, yes!" and Louise dimpled again. "We'll take Betty Gallup along. +She's an able seaman, too." + +"I _bet_ she is!" ejaculated Lawford with emphasis. + +He handled the boat with excellent judgment, and his confidence caused +Louise to see no peril when they ran almost on the edge of the +maelstrom over Gull Rocks. "I know this coast by heart," he said. "I +believe there's not one of them sailing out of the Haven who is a +better pilot than I am. At least, I've learned _that_ outside of +textbooks," and he smiled at her. + +Louise wondered how good an education this scion of a Cape Cod family +really had secured. The longer she was in his company the more she was +amazed by his language and manners. She noted, too, that he was much +better dressed to-day. His flannels were not new; indeed they were +rather shabby. But the garments' original cost must have been +prohibitive for a young man in his supposed position. Very likely, +however, they had been given him, second-hand, by some member of the +family for which he worked. + +The more she saw of him, and the more she thought about it, the greater +was Louise's disappointment in Lawford Tapp. She was not exactly sorry +she had come out with him in the motor boat; but her feeling toward him +was distinctly different when she landed, from that which had been +roused in her first acquaintance. + +It was true he was not an idle young man--not exactly. But he betrayed +an ability and a training that should already have raised him above his +present situation in the social scale, as Louise understood it. She +was disappointed, and although she bade Lawford Tapp good-bye +pleasantly she was secretly unhappy. + +The next morning she chanced to need several little things that were +not to be found in Cap'n Abe's store and she went uptown in quest of +them. At midday she was still thus engaged, so she went to the Inn for +lunch. + +Gusty Durgin spied her as she entered and found a small table for +Louise where she would be alone. A fat woman whom Gusty mentioned as +"the boss's sister, Sara Ann Whipple," helped wait upon the guests. +Several of the business men of the town, as well as the guests of the +Inn, took their dinners there. + +To one man, sitting alone at a table not far distant, Louise saw that +Gusty was particularly attentive. He was typically a city man; one +could not for a moment mistake him for a product of the Cape. + +He was either a young-old or an old-young looking man, his hair graying +at the temples, but very luxuriant and worn rather long. A bright +complexion and beautifully kept teeth and hands marked him as one more +than usually careful of his personal appearance. Indeed, his character +seemed to border on that of the exquisite. + +His countenance was without doubt attractive, for it was intelligent +and expressed a quiet humor that seemed to have much kindliness mixed +with it. His treatment of the unsophisticated Gusty, who hovered about +him with open admiration, held just that quality of good-natured +tolerance which did not offend the waitress but that showed discerning +persons that he considered her only in the light of an artless child. + +"D'you know who that is?" Gusty whispered to Louise when she found time +to do so. The plump girl was vastly excited; her hands shook as she +set down the dishes. "That's Mr. Judson Bane." + +"Yes. I chanced to meet Mr. Bane once, as I told you," smiled Louise, +keeping up the illusion of her own connection with the fringe of the +theatrical world. + +"And Miss Louder and Miss Noyes have come. My, you ought to see +_them_!" said the emphatic waitress. "They've got one o' them +flivvers. Some gen'leman friend of Miss Noyes' lent it to 'em. +They're out now hunting what they call a garridge for it. That's a +fancy name for a barn, I guess. And dressed!" gasped Gusty finally. +"They're dressed to kill!" + +"We shall have lively times around Cardhaven now, sha'n't we?" Louise +commented demurely. + +"We almost always do in summer," Gusty agreed with a sigh. "Last +summer an Italian lost his trick bear in the pine woods 'twixt here and +Paulmouth and the young 'uns didn't darest to go out of the houses for +a week. Poor critter! When they got him he was fair foundered eating +green cranberries in the bogs." + +"Something doing," no matter what, was Gusty's idea of life as it +should be. Louise finished her meal and went out of the dining-room. +In the hall her mesh bag caught in the latch of the screen door and +dropped to the floor. Somebody was right at hand to pick it up for her. + +"Allow me." said a deep and cultivated voice. "Extremely annoying." + +It was Mr. Bane, hat in hand. He restored the bag, and as Louise +quietly thanked him they walked out of the Inn together. Louise was +returning to Cap'n Abe's store, and she turned in that direction before +she saw that Mr. Bane was bound down the hill, too. + +"I fancy we are fellow-outcasts," he said. "You, too, are a visitor to +this delightfully quaint place?" + +"Yes, Mr. Bane," she returned frankly. "Though I can claim +relationship to some of these Cardhaven folk. My mother came from the +Cape." + +"Indeed? It is not such a far cry to Broadway from any point of the +compass, after all, is it?" and he smiled engagingly down at her. + +"You evidently do not remember me, Mr. Bane?" she said, returning his +smile. "Aboard the Anders Liner, coming up from Jamaica, two years ago +this last winter? Professor Ernest Grayling is my father." + +"Indeed!" he exclaimed. "You are Miss Grayling? I remember you and +your father clearly. Fancy meeting you here!" and Mr. Bane insisted on +taking her hand. "And how is the professor? No need to ask after your +health, Miss Grayling." + +As they walked on together Louise took more careful note of the actor. +He had the full habit of a well-fed man, but was not gross. He was +athletic, indeed, and his head was poised splendidly on broad +shoulders. Louise saw that his face was massaged until it was as pink +and soft as a baby's, without a line of close shaving to be detected. +The network of fine wrinkles at the outer corners of his eyes was +scarcely distinguishable. That there was a faint dust of powder upon +his face she noted, too. + +Judson Bane was far, however, from giving the impression of effeminacy. +Quite the contrary. He looked able to do heroic things in real life as +well as in the drama. And as their walk and conversation developed, +Louise Grayling found the actor to be an interesting person. + +He spoke well and without bombast upon any subject she ventured on. +His vocabulary was good and his speaking voice one of the most pleasing +she had ever heard. + +So interested was Louise in what Mr. Bane said that she scarcely +noticed Lawford Tapp who passed and bowed to her, only inclining her +head in return. Therefore she did not catch the expression on +Lawford's face. + +"A fine-looking young fisherman," observed Mr. Bane patronizingly. + +"Yes. Some of them are good-looking and more intelligent than you +would believe," Louise rejoined carelessly. She had put Lawford Tapp +aside as inconsequential. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE DESCENT OF AUNT EUPHEMIA + +It was mid forenoon the following day, and quite a week after Louise +Grayling's arrival at Cap'n Abe's store on the Shell Road, that the +stage was set for a most surprising climax. + +The spirit of gloom still hovered over Betty Gallup in the rear +premises where she was sweeping and dusting and scrubbing. Her idea of +cleanliness indoors was about the same as that of a smart skipper of an +old-time clipper ship. + +"If that woman ain't holystonin' the deck ev'ry day she thinks we're +wadin' in dirt, boot-laig high," growled Cap'n Amazon. + +"Cleanliness is next to godliness!" quoted Louise, who was in the store +at the moment. + +"Land sakes!" ejaculated the captain. "It's next door to a lot of +other things, seems like, too. I shouldn't say that Bet Gallup was +spillin' over with piety." + +Louise, laughing softly, went to the door. There was a cloud of dust +up the road and ahead of it came a small automobile. Cap'n Amazon was +singing, in a rather cracked voice: + + "'_The Boundin' Biller, Captain Hanks, + She was hove flat down on the Western Banks_;------" + +With a saucy blast of its horn the automobile flashed past the store. +There were two young women in it, one driving. Louise felt sure they +were Miss Louder and Miss Noyes, mentioned by Gusty Durgin the day +before, and their frocks and hats were all that their names suggested. + +"Them contraptions," Cap'n Amazon broke off in his ditty to say, "go +past so swift that you can't tell rightly whether they got anybody to +the helm or not. Land sakes, here comes another! They're getting as +common as sandfleas on Horseneck Bar, and Washy Gallup says that's +a-plenty." + +He did not need to come to the door to make this discovery of the +approach of the second machine. There sounded another blast from an +auto horn and a considerable racket of clashing gears. + +"Land sakes!" Cap'n Amazon added. "Is it going to heave to here?" + +Louise had already entered the living-room, bound for her chamber to +see if, by chance, Betty had finished dusting there. She did not hear +the second automobile stop nor the cheerful voice of its gawky driver +as he said to his fare: + +"This is the place, ma'am. This is Cap'n Abe's." + +His was the only car in public service at the Paulmouth railroad +station and Willy Peebles seldom had a fare to Cardhaven. Noah +Coffin's ark was good enough for most Cardhaven folk if they did not +own equipages of their own. + +When Willy reached around and snapped open the door of the covered car +a lady stepped out and, like a Newfoundland after a plunge into the +sea, shook herself. The car was a cramped vehicle and the ride had +been dusty. Her clothing was plentifully powdered; but her face was +not. That was heated, perspiring, and expressed a mixture of +indignation and disapproval. + +"Are you sure this is the place, young man?" she demanded. + +"This is Cap'n Abe Silt's," repeated Willy. + +"Why--it doesn't look------" + +"Want your suitcase, ma'am?" asked Willy. + +"Wait. I am not sure. I--I must see if I----. I may not stay. +Wait," she repeated, still staring about the neighborhood. + +As a usual thing, she was not a person given to uncertainty, in either +manner or speech. Her somewhat haughty glance, her high-arched nose, +her thin lips, all showed decision and a scorn of other people's +opinions and wishes. But at this moment she was plainly nonplused. + +"There--there doesn't seem to be anybody about," she faltered. + +"Oh, go right into the store, ma'am. Cap'n Abe's somewheres around. +He always is." + +Thus encouraged by the driver the woman stalked up the store steps. +She was not a ponderous woman, but she was tall and carried +considerable flesh. She could carry this well, however, and did. Her +traveling dress and hat were just fashionable enough to be in the mode, +but in no extreme. This well-bred, haughty, but perspiring woman +approached the entrance to Cap'n Abe's store in a spirit of frank +disapproval. + +On the threshold she halted with an audible gasp, indicating amazement. +Her glance swept the interior of the store with its strange +conglomeration of goods for sale--on the shelves the rows of glowingly +labeled canned goods, the blue papers of macaroni, the little green +cartons of fishhooks; the clothing hanging in groves, the rows and rows +of red mittens; tiers of kegs of red lead, barrels of flour, boxes of +hardtack; hanks of tarred ground-line, coils of several sizes of +cordage, with a small kedge anchor here and there. It was not so much +a store as it was a warehouse displaying many articles the names and +uses for which the lady did not even know. + +The wondrous array of goods in Cap'n Abe's store did not so much +startle the visitor, as the figure that rose from behind the counter, +where he was stooping at some task. + +She might be excused her sudden cry, for Cap'n Amazon was an apparition +to shock any nervous person. The bandana he wore seemed, if possible, +redder than usual this morning; his earrings glistened; his long +mustache seemed blacker and glossier than ever. As he leaned +characteristically upon the counter, his sleeves rolled to his elbows, +the throat-latch of his shirt open, he did not give one impression of a +peaceful storekeeper, to say the least. + +"Mornin', ma'am," said Cap'n Amazon, not at all embarrassed. "What can +I do for you, ma'am?" + +"You--you are not Captain Silt?" the visitor almost whispered in her +agitation. + +"Yes, ma'am; I am." + +"Captain Abram Silt?" + +"No, ma'am; I ain't. I'm Cap'n Am'zon, his brother. What can I do for +you?" he repeated. The explanation of his identity may have been +becoming tedious; at least, Cap'n Amazon gave it grimly. + +"Is--is my niece, Louise Grayling, here?" queried the lady, her voice +actually trembling, her gaze glued to the figure behind the counter. + +"'Hem!" said the captain, clearing his throat. "Who did you say you +was, ma'am?" + +"I did not say," the visitor answered stiffly enough now. "I asked you +a question." + +"Likely--likely," agreed Cap'n Amazon. "But you intimated that you was +the a'nt of a party by the name of Grayling. I happen to be her uncle +myself. Her mother was my ha'f-sister. I don't remember--jest _who'd_ +you say you was, ma'am?" + +"I am her father's own sister," cried the lady in desperation. + +"Oh, yes! I see!" murmured Cap'n Amazon. "Then you must be her A'nt +'Phemie. I've heard Louise speak of you. Tubbesure!" + +"I am Mrs. Conroth," said Mrs. Euphemia Conroth haughtily. + +"Happy to make your acquaintance," said Cap'n Amazon, bobbing his head +and putting forth his big hand. Mrs. Conroth scorned the hand, raised +her lorgnette and stared at the old mariner as though he were some +curious specimen from the sea that she had never observed before. +Cap'n Amazon smiled whimsically and looked down at his stained and +toil-worn palm. + +"I see you're nigh-sighted, ma'am. Some of us git that way as we grow +older. I never have been bothered with short eyesight myself." + +"I wish to see my niece at once," Mrs. Conroth said, flushing a little +at his suggestion of her advancing years. + +"Come right in," he said, lifting the flap in the counter. + +Mrs. Conroth glared around the store through her glass. "Cannot Louise +come here?" She asked helplessly. + +"We live back o' the shop--and overhead," explained Cap'n Amazon. +"Come right in, I'll have Betty Gallup call Louise." + +Bristling her indignation like a porcupine its quills, the majestic +woman followed the spry figure of the captain. Her first glance over +the old-fashioned, homelike room elicited a pronounced sniff. + +"Catarrh, ma'am?" suggested the perfectly composed Cap'n Amazon. "This +strong salt air ought to do it a world of good. I've known a sea +v'y'ge to cure the hardest cases. They tell me lots of 'em come down +here to the Cape afflicted that way and go home cured." + +Mrs. Conroth stared with growing comprehension at Cap'n Amazon. It +began to percolate into her brain that possibly this strange-looking +seaman possessed qualities of apprehension for which she had not given +him credit. + +"Sit down, ma'am," said Cap'n Amazon hospitably. "Abe ain't here, but +I cal'late he'd want me to do the honors, and assure you that you are +welcome. He always figgers on having a spare berth for anybody that +boards us, as well as a seat at the table. + +"Betty," he added, turning to the amazed Mrs. Gallup, just then +appearing at the living-room door, "tell Louise her A'nt 'Phemie is +here, will you?" + +"Say Mrs. Conroth, woman," corrected the lady tartly. + +Betty scowled and went away, muttering: "Who's a 'woman,' I want to +know? I ain't one no more'n _she_ is," and it can be set down in the +log that the "able seaman" began by being no friend of Aunt Euphemia's. + +It was with a sinking at her heart that Louise heard of her aunt's +arrival. She had written to her Aunt Euphemia before leaving New York +that she had decided to try Cape Cod for the summer and would go to her +mother's relative, Captain Abram Silt. Again, on reaching the store on +the Shell Road, she had dutifully written a second letter announcing +her arrival. + +She had known perfectly well that some time she would have to "pay the +piper." Aunt Euphemia would never overlook such a thing. Louise was +sure of that. But the idea that the Poughkeepsie lady would follow her +to Cardhaven never for a moment entered Louise's thought. + +She had put off this reckoning until the fall--until the return of +daddy-professor. But here Aunt Euphemia had descended upon her as +unexpectedly as the Day of Wrath spoken of in Holy Writ. + +As she came down the stairs she heard her uncle's voice in the +living-room. Something had started him upon a tale of adventure above +and beyond the usual run of his narrative. + +"Yes, _ma'am_," he was saying, "them that go down to the sea in ships, +as the Good Book says, sartain sure meet with hair-raisin' experiences. +You jumped then, ma'am, when old Jerry let out a peep. He was just +tryin' his voice I make no doubt. Ain't sung for months they say. I +didn't know why till I--I found out t'other day he was blind---stone +blind. + +"Some thinks birds don't know nothing, or ain't much account in this +man-world----But, as I was sayin', I lay another course. I'll never +forget one v'y'ge I made on the brigantine _Hermione_. That was 'fore +the day of steam-winches and we carried a big crew--thirty-two men +for'ard and a big after-guard. + +"Well, ma'am! Whilst she was hove down in a blow off the Horn an +albatross came aboard. You know what they be--the one bird in all the +seven seas that don't us'ally need a dry spot for the sole of his foot. +If Noah had sent out one from the ark he'd never have come back with +any sprig of promise for the land-hungry wanderers shut up in that +craft. + +"'Tis bad luck they do say to kill an albatross. Some sailors claim +ev'ry one o' them is inhabited by a lost soul. I ain't superstitious +myself. I'm only telling you what happened. + +"Dunno why that bird boarded us. Mebbe he was hurt some way. Mebbe +'twas fate. But he swooped right inboard, his wing brushing the men at +the wheel. Almost knocked one o' them down. He was a Portugee man +named Tony Spadello and he had a re'l quick temper. + +"Tony had his knife out in a flash and jumped for the creature. The +other steersman yelled (one man couldn't rightly hold the wheel alone, +the sea was kicking up such a bobberation) but Tony's one slash was +enough. The albatross tumbled right down on the deck, a great cut in +its throat. It bled like a dog shark, cluttering up the deck." + +"Horrid!" murmured Mrs. Conroth with a shudder of disgust. + +"Yes--the poor critter!" agreed Cap'n Amazon. "I never like to see +innocent, dumb brutes killed. Cap'n Hicks--he was a young man in them +days, and boastful--cursed the mess it made, yanked off the bird's +head, so's to have the beautiful pink beak of it made into the head of +a walking-stick, and ordered Tony to throw the carcass overboard and +clean up the deck. I went to the wheel in his stead, with Jim Ledward. +Jim says to me: 'Am'zon, that bird'll foller us. Can't git rid of it +so easy as _that_.' + +"I thought he was crazy," went on Cap'n Amazon, shaking his head. "I +wasn't projectin' much about superstitions. No, ma'am! We had all we +could do--the two of us--handlin' the wheel with them old graybacks +huntin' us. Them old he waves hunt in droves mostly, and when one did +board us we couldn't scarce get clear of the wash of it before another +would rise right up over our rail and fill the waist, or mebbe sweep +ev'rything clean from starn to bowsprit. + +"It was sundown (only we hadn't seen no sun in a week) when that +albatross was killed and hove overboard. At four bells of the mornin' +watch one o' them big waves come inboard. It washed everything that +wasn't lashed into the scuppers and took one of our smartest men +overboard with it. But there, floatin' in the wash it left behind, was +the dead albatross!" + +"Oh, how terrible!" murmured Mrs. Conroth, watching Cap'n Amazon much +as a charmed bird is said to watch a snake. + +"Yes, ma'am; tough to lose a shipmate like that, I agree. But that was +only the beginning. Cap'n Hicks pitched the thing overboard himself. +Couldn't ha' got one of the men, mebbe, to touch it. Jim Ledward says: +'Skipper, ye make nothin' by that. It's too late. Bad luck's boarded +us.' + +"And sure 'nough it had," sighed Cap'n Amazon, as though reflecting. +"You never did see such a time as we had in gettin' round the Cape. +And we got it good in the roarin' forties, too--hail, sleet, snow, +rain, and lightnin' all mixed, and the sea a reg'lar hell's broth all +the time." + +"I beg of you, sir," breathed the lady, shuddering again. Cap'n +Amazon, enthralled by his own narrative, steamed ahead without noticing +her shocked expression. + +"One hurricane on top of another--that's what we got. We lost four men +overboard, includin' the third officer, one time and another. I was +knocked down myself and got a broken arm--had it in a sling nine weeks. +We got fever in a port that hadn't had such an epidemic in six months, +and seven of the crew had to be took ashore. + +"Bad luck dogged us and the ship. Only, it never touched the skipper +or Tony Spadello--the only two that had handled the albatross. That +is, not as far as I know. Last time I see Cappy Hicks he was carryin' +his cane with the albatross beak for a handle; and Tony Spadello has +made a barrel of money keeping shop on the Bedford docks. + +"But birds have an influence in the world, I take it, like other folks. +You wouldn't think, ma'am, how much store my brother Abe sets by old +Jerry yonder." + +Aunt Euphemia jumped up with an exclamation of relief. "Louise!" she +uttered as she saw the girl, amusement in her eyes, standing in the +doorway. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WASHY GALLUP'S CURIOSITY + +"I do not see how you can endure it, Louise! He is impossible--quite +impossible! I never knew your tastes were low!" + +Critical to the tips of her trembling fingers, Aunt Euphemia sat stiffly +upright in Louise's bedroom rocking chair and uttered this harsh +reflection upon her niece's good taste. Louise never remembered having +seen her aunt so angry before. But she was provoked herself, and her +determination to go her own way and spend her summer as she chose +stiffened under the lash of the lady's criticism. + +"What will our friends think of you?" demanded Mrs. Conroth. "I am +horrified to have them know you ever remained overnight in such a place. +There are the Perritons. They were on the train with me coming down from +Boston. They are opening their house here at what they call The +Beaches--one of the most exclusive colonies on the coast, I understand. +They insisted upon my coming there at once, and I have promised to bring +you with me." + +"You have promised more than you can perform. Aunt Euphemia," Louise +replied shortly. "I will remain here." + +"Louise!" + +"I will remain here with Cap'n Amazon. And with Uncle Abram when he +returns. They are both dear old men----" + +"That awful looking pirate!" gasped Mrs. Conroth. + +"You do not know him," returned the girl. "You do not know how worthy +and now kind he is." + +"You have only known him a week yourself," remarked Aunt Euphemia. "What +can a young girl like you know about these awful creatures--fishermen, +sailors, and the like? How can you judge?" + +Louise laughed. "Why, Auntie, you know I have seen much of the world and +many more people than you have. And if I have not learned to judge those +I meet by this time I shall never learn, though I grow to be as old +as"--she came near saying "as you are," but substituted instead--"as Mrs. +Methuselah. I shall remain here. I would not insult Cap'n Amazon or +Cap'n Abe, by leaving abruptly and going with you to the Perritons' +bungalow." + +"But what shall I say to them?" wailed Aunt Euphemia. + +"What have you already said?" + +"I said I expected you were waiting for me at Cardhaven. I would not +come over from Paulmouth in their car, but hurried on ahead. I wished to +save you the disgrace--yes, _disgrace_!--of being found here in +this--this country store. Ugh!" She shuddered again. + +"I am determined that they shall not know your poor, dear father +unfortunately married beneath him." + +"Aunt Euphemia!" exclaimed Louise, her gray eyes flashing now. "Don't +say that. It offends me. Daddy-prof never considered my mother or her +people beneath his own station." + +"Your father, Louise, is a fool!" was the lady's tart reply. + +"As he is your brother as well as my father," Louise told her coldly, "I +presume you feel you have a right to call him what you please. But I +assure you, Aunt Euphemia, it does not please me to hear you do so." + +"You are a very obstinate girl!" + +"That attribute of my character I fancy I inherit from daddy-professor's +side of the family," the girl returned bluntly. + +"I shall be shamed to death! I must accept the Perritons' invitation. I +already have accepted it. They will think you a very queer girl, to say +the least." + +"I am," her niece told her, the gray eyes smiling again, for Louise was +soon over her wrath. "Even daddy-prof says that." + +"Because of his taking you all over the world with him as he did. I only +wonder he did not insist upon your going on this present horrid cruise. + +"No. I have begun to like my comfort too well," and now Louise laughed +outright. "A mark of oncoming age, perhaps." + +"You are a most unpleasant young woman, Louise." + +Louise thought she might return the compliment with the exchange of but a +single word; but she was too respectful to do so. + +"I am determined to remain here," she repeated, "so you may as well take +it cheerfully, auntie. If you intend staying with the Perritons any +length of time, of course I shall see you often, and meet them. I +haven't come down here to the Cape to play the hermit, I assure you. But +I am settled here with Cap'n Amazon, and I am comfortable. So, why +should I make any change?" + +"But in this common house! With that awful looking old sailor! And the +way he talks! The rough adventures he has experienced--and the way he +relates them!" + +"Why, I think he is charming. And his stories are jolly fun. He tells +the most thrilling and interesting things! I have before heard people +tell about queer corners of the world--and been in some of them myself. +Only the romance seems all squeezed out of such places nowadays. But +when Cap'n Amazon was young!" she sighed. + +"You should hear him tell of having once been wrecked on an island in the +South Seas where there were only women left of the tribe inhabiting it, +the men all having been killed in battle by a neighboring tribe. The +poor sailors did not know whether those copper-colored Eves would decide +to kill and eat them, or merely marry them." + +"Louise!" Aunt Euphemia rose and fairly glared at her niece. "You show +distinctly that association with these horrid people down here has +already contaminated your mind. You are positively vulgar!" + +She sailed out of the room, descended the stairs, and "beat up" through +the living-room and store, as Betty Gallup said "with ev'ry stitch of +canvas drawin' and a bone in her teeth." Louise agreed about the +"bone"--she had given her Aunt Euphemia a hard one to gnaw on. + +The girl followed Mrs. Conroth to the automobile and helped her in. +Cap'n Amazon came to the store door as politely as though he were seeing +an honored guest over the ship's side. + +"Ask your A'nt 'Phemie to come again. Too bad she ain't satisfied to +jine us here. Plenty o' cabin room. But if she's aimin' to anchor near +by she'll be runnin' in frequent I cal'late. Good-day to ye, ma'am!" + +Aunt Euphemia did not seem even to see him. She was also afflicted with +sudden deafness. + +"Louise! I shall never forget this--never!" she declared haughtily, as +Willy Peebles started the car and it rumbled on down the Shell Road. + +Unable to face Cap'n Amazon just then for several reasons, Louise did not +re-enter the store but strolled down to the sands. There was a skiff +drawn up above high-water mark and the hoop-backed figure of Washy Gallup +sat in it. He was mending a net. He nodded with friendliness to Louise, +his jaw working from side to side like a cow chewing her cud--and for the +same reason. Washy had no upper teeth left. + +"How be you this fine day, miss?" the old fellow asked sociably. "It's +enough to put new marrer in old bones, this weather. Cold weather lays +me up same's any old hulk. An' I been used to work, I have, all my life. +Warn't none of 'em any better'n me in my day." + +"You have done your share, I am sure, Mr. Gallup," the girl said, smiling +cheerfully down upon him. "Yours is the time for rest." + +"Rest? How you talk!" exclaimed Washy. "A man ought to be able to aim +his own pollock and potaters, or else he might's well give up the ship. +I tell 'em if I was only back in my young days where I could do a full +day's work, I'd be satisfied." + +Louise had turned up a fiddler with the toe of her boot. As the creature +scurried for sanctuary, Washy observed: + +"Them's curious critters. All crabs is." + +"I think they are curious," Louise agreed. "Like a cross-eyed man. Look +one way and run another." + +"Surely--surely. Talk about a curiosity--the curiousest-osity I ever +see was a crab they have in Japanese waters; big around's a clam-bucket +and dangling gre't long laigs to it like a sea-going giraffe."' + +Louise was thankful for this opportunity for laughter, for that +"curiousest-osity" was too much for her sense of the ludicrous. + +Like almost every other man of any age that Louise had met about +Cardhaven--save Cap'n Abe himself--Washy had spent a good share of his +life in deep-bottomed craft. But he had never risen higher than petty +officer. + +"Some men's born to serve afore the mast--or how'd we git sailors?" +observed the old fellow, with all the philosophy of the unambitious man. +"Others get into the afterguard with one, two, three, and a jump!" His +trembling fingers knotted the twine dexterously. "Now, there's your +uncle." + +"Uncle Amazon?" asked Louise. + +"No, miss. Cap'n Abe, I mean. This here Am'zon Silt, 'tis plain to be +seen, has got more salt water than blood in _his_ veins. Cap'n Abe's a +nice feller--not much again him here where he's lived and kep' store for +twenty-odd year. 'Ceptin' his yarnin' 'bout his brother all the time. +But from the look of Cap'n Am'zon I wouldn't put past him anything that +Cap'n Abe says he's done--and more. + +"But Abe himself, now, I'd never believed would trust himself on open +water." + +"Yet," cried Louise, "he's shipped on a sailing vessel, Uncle Amazon +says. He's gone for a voyage." + +"Ye-as. But _has_ he?" Washy retorted, his head on one side and his +rheumy old eyes looking up at her as sly as a ferret's. + +"What do you mean?" + +"We none of us--none of the neighbors, I mean--seen him go. As fur's we +know he didn't go away at all. We're only taking his brother's word for +it." + +"Why, Mr. Gallup! You're quite as bad as Betty. One would think to hear +you and her talk that Cap'n Amazon was a fratricide." + +"Huh?" + +"That he had murdered his brother," explained the girl. + +"That's fratter side, is it? Well, I don't take no stock in such +foolishness. Them's Bet Gallup's notions, Cap'n Am'zon's all right, to +_my_ way o' thinkin'. I was talkin' about Cap'n Abe." + +"I do not understand you at all, then," said the puzzled girl. + +"I see you don't just foller me," he replied patiently. "I ain't casting +no alligators at your Uncle Am'zon. It's Cap'n Abe. I doubt his goin' +to sea at all. I bet he never shipped aboard that craft his brother +tells about." + +"Goodness! Why not?" + +"'Cause he ain't a sea-goin' man. There's a few o' such amongst Cape +Codders. Us'ally they go away from the sea before they git found out, +though." + +"'Found out?'" the girl repeated with exasperation. "Found out in +_what_?" + +"That they're _scare't_ o' blue water," Washy said decidedly. "Nobody +'round here ever seen Cap'n Abe outside the Haven. He wouldn't no more +come down here, push this skiff afloat, and row out to deep water than +he'd go put his hand in a wild tiger's mouth--no, ma'am!" + +"Why, isn't that very ridiculous?" Louise said, not at all pleased. "Of +course Cap'n Abe shipped on that boat just as Cap'n Amazon said he was +going to. Otherwise he would have been back--or we would have heard from +him." + +"He did, hey?" responded Washy sharply, springing the surprise he had +been leading up to. "Then why didn't he take his chist with him? It's +come back to the Paulmouth depot, so Perry Baker says, it not being +claimed down to Boston." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A CHOICE OF CHAPERONS + +Washy Gallup's gossip should not have made much impression upon Louise +Grayling's mind, but it fretted her. Perhaps her recent interview with +Aunt Euphemia had rasped the girl's nerves. She left the old fisherman +with a tart speech and returned to the store. + +There were customers being waited upon, so she had no opportunity to +mention the matter of Cap'n Abe's chest to the substitute storekeeper +at once. Then, when she had taken time to consider it, she decided not +to do so. + +It really was no business of hers whether Cap'n Abe had taken his chest +with him when he sailed from Boston or not. She had never asked Cap'n +Amazon the name of the vessel his brother was supposed to have shipped +on. Had she known it was the _Curlew_, the very schooner on which +Professor Grayling had sailed, she would, of course, have shown a much +deeper interest. And had Cap'n Amazon learned from Louise the name of +the craft her father was aboard, he surely would have mentioned the +coincidence. + +It stuck in the girl's mind--the puzzle about Cap'n Abe's chest--but it +did not come to her lips. Looking across the table that evening, after +the store was closed, as they sat together under the hanging lamp, she +wondered that Cap'n Amazon did not speak of it if he knew his brother's +chest had been returned to the Paulmouth express agent. + +Without being in the least grim-looking in her eyes, there was an +expression on Cap'n Amazon's face, kept scrupulously shaven, that made +one hesitate to pry into or show curiosity regarding any of his private +affairs. + +He might be perfectly willing to tell her anything she wished to know. +He was frank enough in relating his personal experiences up and down +the seas, that was sure! + +Cap'n Amazon puffed at his pipe and tried to engage the attention of +Diddimus. The big tortoise-shell ran from him no longer; but he +utterly refused to be petted. He now lay on the couch and blinked with +a bored manner at the captain. + +If Louise came near him he purred loudly, putting out a hooked claw to +catch her skirt and stop her, and so get his head rubbed. But if Cap'n +Amazon undertook any familiarities, Diddimus arose in dignified silence +and changed his place or left the room. + +"Does beat all," the Captain said reflectively, reaching for his +knitting, "what notions dumb critters get. We had a black man and a +black dog with us aboard the fo'master _Sally S. Stern_ when I was +master, out o' Baltimore for Chilean ports. Bill was the blackest +negro, I b'lieve, I ever see. You couldn't see him in the dark with +his mouth and eyes both shut. And that Newfoundland of his was just as +black and his coat just as kinky as Bill's wool. The crew called 'em +the two Snowballs." + +"What notion did the dog take, Uncle Amazon?" Louise asked as he +halted. Sometimes he required a little urging to "get going." But not +much. + +"Why, no matter what Bill did around the deck, or below, or overside, +or what not, the dog never seemed to pay much attention to him. But +the minute Bill started aloft that dog began to cry--whine and +bark--and try to climb the shrouds after that nigger. Land sakes, you +never in your life saw such actions! Got so we had to chain the dog +Snowball whenever it came on to blow, for there's a consarned lot o' +reefin' down and hoistin' sail on one o' them big fo'masters. The +skipper't keeps his job on a ship like the _Sally S. Stern_ must get +steamboat speed out o' her. + +"So, 'twas 'all hands to stations!' sometimes three and four times in a +watch. Owners ain't overlib'ral in matter of crew nowadays. Think +because there's a donkey-engine on deck and a riggin' to hoist your big +sails, ye don't re'lly need men for'ard at all. + +"That v'y'ge out in pertic'lar I remember that there was two weeks on a +stretch that not a soul aboard had more'n an hour's undisturbed sleep. +And that dog! Poor brute, I guess he thought Bill was goin' to heaven +and leavin' him behind ev'ry time the nigger started for the masthead. + +"I most always," continued Cap'n Amazon, "seen to it myself that the +dog was chained when Bill was likely to go aloft. I liked that dog. +He was a gentleman, if he was black. And Bill was a good seaman, and +with a short tongue. The dog was about the only critter aboard he +seemed to cotton to. Nothin' was too good for the dog, and the only +way I got Bill to sign on was by agreeing to take the Newfoundland +along. + +"Well, we got around the Horn much as us'al. Windjammers all have +their troubles there. And then, not far from the western end o' the +Straits we got into a belt of light airs--short, gusty winds that blew +every which way. It kept the men in the tops most of the time. Some +of 'em vowed they was goin' to swing their hammocks up there. + +"Come one o' those days, with the old _Sally_ just loafin' along," +pursued Cap'n Amazon, sucking hard on his pipe, "when I spied a flicker +o' wind comin', and the mate he sent the men gallopin' up the shrouds. +I'd forgot the dog. So had Nigger Bill, I reckon. + +"Bill was one o' the best topmen aboard. He was up there at work +before the dog woke up and started ki-yi-ing. He bayed Bill like a +beagle hound at the foot of a coon tree. Then, jumping, he caught the +lower shrouds with his forepaws. + +"The new slant of the wind struck us at the same moment. The old +_Sally S._ heeled to larboard and that Newfoundland was jerked over the +rail." + +"The poor thing!" Louise cried. + +"You'd ha' thought so. I wouldn't have felt no worse if one of the men +had gone over. Owner's business, or not, I sung out to the second to +get his boat out and I kicked off my shoes, grabbed a life-ring, and +jumped myself." + +"You! Uncle Amazon?" gasped his niece. + +"Yep. The mate had the deck and I was the only man free. There wasn't +much of a sea runnin', anyway. No pertic'lar danger. That is, not +commonly. + +"But the minute I come up to the surface and rose breast-high, dashin' +the water out o' my eyes so's to look around for the dog, I seen I'd +been a leetle mite too previous, as the feller said. I hadn't taken +into consideration one pertic'lar chance--like the feller't married one +o' twins an' then couldn't tell which from t'other. + +"I see Snowball the dog, all right; but headin' for him like a streak +o' greased lightin' was the triandicular fin of a shark. I'd forgot +all about those fellers; and we hadn't see one for weeks, anyway. In +warmer waters than them the _Sally S. Stern_ was then in, the sharks +will come right up and stand with their noses out o' the sea begging +like a dog for scraps. They'd bark, if they knew how, by gravy! + +"Well," went on Cap'n Amazon while Louise listened spellbound, "that +dog Snowball was in a bad fix. A dog's a dog--almost human as you +might say. But I wasn't aimin' puttin' myself in a shark's mouth for a +whole kennel full o' dogs. + +"Mind you, not minutes but only seconds had passed since the dog shot +outboard. The ship was not movin' fast. She heeled over again' and +her spars and flappin' canvas was almost over my head as I glanced up. + +"And then I seen a sight--I did, for a fact. I cal'late you never give +a thought to how high the teetering top of a mast on such a vessel as +the _Sally S. Stern_ is, from the ocean level. Never did, eh? + +"Well," as the enthralled Louise shook her head, "they're taller than a +lot of these tall buildings you see in the city. 'Skyscrapers' they +call 'em. That's what the old Sally's topmasts looked like gazin' up +at 'em out of the sea. They looked like they brushed the wind-driven +clouds chasin' overhead. + +"And out o' that web of riggin' and small spars, and slattin' canvas, +and other gear, I seen a man's body hurled into the air. It was +Snowball, the man. Bill his right name was. + +"Flung himself, he did, clean out o' the ship and as she heeled back to +starboard he shot down, feet first, straight as a die, and made a hole +in the sea not ha'f a cable's length from me and nearer the dog than I +was. And as he came down I seen his open knife flashing in his hand. + +"Yes, my dear, that was a mem'rable leap. Talk about these fellers +jumpin' off that there Brooklyn Bridge! 'Tain't much higher. + +"The mate brought the _Sally S. Stern_ up into the wind, the second's +crew got the boat over, and they picked me up in a jiffy. Then I stood +up and yelled for 'em to pull on, for I could see the man, the dog, and +the shark almost in a bunch together. + +"But," concluded Cap'n Amazon, "a nigger ain't often much afraid of a +shark. When we got to 'em there was a patch of bloody water and foam; +but it wasn't the blood of neither of the Snowballs that was spilled. +They come out of it without a scratch." + +"Oh, Cap'n Amazon, what a really wonderful life you have led!" Louise +said earnestly. + +Cap'n Amazon's eye brightened, and he looked vastly pleased. Whenever +he made a serious impression with one of his tales of personal +achievement or peril, he was as frankly delighted as a child. + +"Yes, ain't I?" he observed. "I don't for the life of me see how Abe's +stood it ashore all these years. An' him keepin' a shop!" and he +sniffed scornfully. + +Before Louise could make rejoinder, or bolster up the reputation of the +absent Cap'n Abe in any way, the noise of an automobile stopping before +the store was audible, + +"Now, if that's one o' them summer fellers, for gas I shall raise the +price of it--I vow!" ejaculated Cap'n Amazon, but getting up briskly +and laying aside his pipe and knitting. + +The summons did not come on the store door. Somebody opened the gate, +came to the side door and rapped. Cap'n Amazon shuffled into the hall +and held parley with the caller. + +"Why, come right in! Sure she's here--an' we're both sittin' up for +comp'ny," Louise heard the captain say heartily. + +He ushered in Lawford Tapp. Not the usual Lawford, in rough +fisherman's clothing or boating flannels--or even in the chauffeur's +uniform Louise supposed he sometimes wore. But in the neat, +well-fitting clothing of what the habit-advertising pages of the +magazines term the "up to date young man." His sartorial appearance +outclassed that of any longshoreman she had ever imagined. + +Louise gave him her hand with just a little apprehension. She realized +that for a young man to make an evening call upon a girl in a simple +community such as Cardhaven might cause comment which she did not care +to arouse. But it seemed Lawford Tapp had an errand. + +"I do not know, Miss Grayling, whether you care to go out in my _Merry +Andrew_ now that your friends have arrived," he said. "But if you do, +we might go on Thursday." + +"Day after to-morrow? Why not?" she replied with alacrity. "Of course +I shall be glad to go--as I already assured you. My--er--friends' +coming makes no difference." She thought he referred to Aunt Euphemia +and the Perritons. "They will not take up so much of my time that I +shall have to desert all my other acquaintances." + +Lawford cheered up immensely at this statement. Cap'n Amazon had gone +into the store at once and now returned with, his box of "private stock +two-fors," one of which choice cigars each of the men took. + +"Light up! Light up!" he said cordially. "My niece don't mind the +smell of tobacker." Cap'n Amazon was much more friendly with Lawford +than Louise might have expected him to be. But, of course, hospitality +was a form of religion with the Silt brothers. They could neither of +them have treated a guest shabbily. + +Indeed, under the influence of the cigar and the presence of another +listener, the captain expanded. With little urging he related incident +after incident of his varied career--stories of stern trial, of +dangerous adventure, of grim fights with the ravening sea; peril by +shipwreck, by fire, by savages; encounters with whales and sharks, with +Malay pirates; voyaging with a hold full of opium-crazed coolie +laborers, and of actual mutiny on the hermaphrodite brig, _Galatea_, +when Cap'n Amazon alone of all the afterguard was left alive to fight +the treacherous crew and navigate the ship. + +Those two hours were memorable--and would remain so in Louise's mind +for weeks. Lawford Tapp, too, quite gave himself up to the charm of +the old romancer. To watch Cap'n Amazon's dark intent face and his +glowing eyes, while he told of these wonders of sea and land, would +have thrilled the most sophisticated listener. + +"Isn't he a wonder?" murmured Lawford, as Louise accompanied him to the +gate and watched him start the automobile engine. "I never heard such +a fellow in my life. And good as gold!" + +Louise had made up her mind to be distinctly casual with the young man +hereafter; but his hearty praise of her uncle warmed her manner toward +him. Besides, she had to confess in secret that Lawford was most +likable. + +She mentioned her aunt's arrival in the neighborhood and he asked, +laughing: + +"Oh, then shall we have her for our chaperon?" + +"Aunt Euphemia? Mercy, no! I have chosen Betty Gallup and believe me, +Mr. Tapp, Betty is much to be preferred." + +It was odd that Louise had not yet discovered who and what Lawford Tapp +was. Yet the girl had talked with few of the neighbors likely to +discuss the affairs of the summer residents along The Beaches. And, of +course, she asked Cap'n Amazon no questions, for he was not likely to +possess the information. + +After she had bidden her uncle good-night and retired, thoughts of +Lawford Tapp kept her mind alert. She could not settle herself to +sleep. With the lamp burning brightly on the stand at the bedside and +herself propped with pillows, she opened the old scrapbook found in the +storeroom chest and fluttered its pages. + +Almost immediately she came upon a story related in the Newport +_Mercury_. It was the supposedly veracious tale of an ancient sea +captain who had been a whaler in the old days. + +There, almost word for word, was printed the story Cap'n Amazon had +told her that evening about the black man and the black dog! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE UNEXPECTED + +The finding of one of Cap'n Amazon's amazing narratives of personal +prowess in the old scrapbook shocked Louise Grayling. The mystery of +the thing made alert her brain and awoke in the girl vague suspicions +that troubled her for hours. Indeed, it was long that night before she +could get to sleep. + +During these days of acquaintanceship and familiarity with the old sea +captain she had learned to love him so well for his good qualities that +it was easy for her to forgive his faults. If he "drew the long bow" +in relating his adventures, his niece was prepared to excuse the +failing. + +There was, too, an explanation of this matter, and one not at all +improbable. The reporter of the _Mercury_ claimed to have taken down +the story of the black man who had fought a shark for the life of his +dog just as it fell from the lips of an ancient mariner. This mariner +might have been Cap'n Amazon Silt himself. Why not? The captain might +have been more modest in relating his personal connection with the +incident when talking with the reporter than he had been in relating +the story to his niece. + +Still, even with this suggested explanation welcomed to her mind, +Louise Grayling was puzzled. She went through the entire scrapbook, +skimming the stories there related, to learn if any were familiar. But +no. She found nothing to suggest any of the other tales Cap'n Amazon +had related in her hearing. And it was positive that her uncle had not +read this particular story of the black man and the black dog since +coming to the store on the Shell Road, for Louise had had possession of +the book. + +Therefore she was quite as mystified when she fell asleep at dawn as +she had been when first her discovery was made. She was half +determined to probe for an explanation of the coincidence when she came +downstairs to a late breakfast. But no good opportunity presented +itself for the broaching of any such inquiry. + +She wished to make preparations for the fishing party in the _Merry +Andrew_, and that kept her in the kitchen part of the day. She baked a +cake and made filling for sandwiches. + +Betty Gallup accepted the invitation to accompany Louise on the sloop +without hesitation. She approved of Lawford Tapp. Yet she dropped +nothing in speaking of the young man to open Louise's eyes to the fact +that he was the son of a multi-millionaire. + +The activities of the moving picture company increased on this day; but +it was not until the following morning, when Louise went shoreward with +the tackle and the smaller lunch basket, that she again saw Mr. Judson +Bane to speak to. As she sat upon the thwart of the old skiff where +Washy Gallup had mended his net, the handsome leading man of the +picture company strolled by. + +Bane certainly made a picturesque fisherman, whether he looked much +like the native breed or not. An open-air studio had been arranged on +the beach below the Bozewell bungalow, and Louise could see a director +trying to give a number of actors his idea of what a group of fishermen +mending their nets should look like. + +"He should engage old Washy Gallup to give color to the group," Louise +said to Bane, laughing. + +"Anscomb is having his own troubles with that bunch," sighed the +leading man. "Some of them never saw a bigger net before than one to +catch minnows. Do you sail in this sloop I see coming across from the +millionaire's villa, Miss Grayling?" + +"Yes," Louise replied. "Mr. Tapp is kind enough to take us fishing." + +"You are, then, one of these fortunate creatures," and Bane's sweeping +gesture indicated that he referred to the occupants of the cottages set +along the bluff above The Beaches, "who toil not, neither do they spin. +I fancied you might be one of us. Rather, I've heard that down here." + +"That surmise gained coinage when I first arrived at Cardhaven," Louise +said, dimpling. "I did nothing to discourage the mistake, and I +presume Gusty Durgin still believes I pose before the camera." + +"Gusty has aspirations that way herself," chuckled Bane. "She is a +character." + +"I wonder what kind of screen actress I would make?" + +He smiled down at her rather grimly. "The kind the directors call the +appealing type, I fancy, Miss Grayling. Though I have no doubt you +would do much better than most. Making big eyes at a camera is the +limit of art achieved by many of our feminine screen stars. I do not +expect to put in a very pleasant summer amid my present surroundings." + +"Oh, then you are here for more than one picture." + +"Several, if the weather proves propitious. I shall play the fisherman +hero, or the villain, until my manager has my new play ready in the +fall. Believe me, Miss Grayling, I am not in love with this picture +drama. But when one is offered for his resting season half as much +again as he can possibly earn during the run of a legitimate Broadway +production he must not be blamed for accepting the contract. We all +bow to the power of gold." + +Louise, whose gaze was fixed upon the approaching sloop, smiled. She +was thinking; "All but Lawford Tapp, the philosophic fisherman!" + +"I believe," Bane said, with flattery, "that I should delight to play +opposite to you, Miss Grayling, rank amateur though you would be. This +Anscomb really is a wonderful director and gets surprising results from +material that cannot compare with you. I'll speak to him if you say +the word. He'd oblige me, I am sure. One of the scripts he has told +me about has a part fitted to you." + +"Oh, Mr. Bane!" she cried. "I'd have to think about that, I fear. And +such a tempting offer! Now, if you said that to Gusty Durgin----" + +At the moment Betty Gallup came into view. Masculine in appearance at +any time in her man's hat and coat, she was doubly so now. She frankly +wore overalls, but had drawn a short skirt over them; and she wore gum +boots. Bane stared at this apparition and gasped: + +"Is--is it a man--or what?" + +"Why, Mr. Bane! That is my chaperon." + +"Chaperon! Ye gods and little fishes! Miss Grayling, no matter where +you go, or with whom, you are perfectly safe with _that_ as a chaperon." + +"How rediculous, Mr. Bane!" the girl cried, laughing. Betty strode +through the sand to the spot where they stood. "This is Mr. Bane, +Betty," Louise continued, "Mrs. Gallup, Mr. Bane." + +The actor swept off his sou'wester with a flourish. Betty eyed him +with disfavor. + +"So you're one o' them play-actors, be you? Land sakes! And tryin' to +look like a fisherman, too! I don't s'pose you know a grommet from the +bight of a hawser." + +"Guilty as charged," Bane admitted with a chuckle. "But we all must +live, Mrs. Gallup." + +"Humph!" grunted the old woman. "Are you sure that's so in ev'ry case? +There's more useless folks on the Cape now than the Recordin' Angel can +well take care on." + +"Oh, Betty!" Louise gasped. + +But Bane was highly amused. "I'm not at all sure you're not right, +Mrs. Gallup. I sometimes feel that if I were a farmer and raised +onions, or a fisherman and caught the denizens of the sea, I might feel +a deeper respect for myself. As it is, when I work I am only +_playing_." + +"Humph!" exploded Betty again. "'Denizens of the sea,' eh? New one on +me. I ain't never heard of _them_ fish afore." + +The sail of the sloop slatted and then came down with the rattle of new +canvas. Having let go the sheet, Lawford ran forward and pitched the +anchor over. Then he drew in the skiff that trailed the _Merry +Andrew_, stepped in, and sculled himself ashore, beaching the boat, +just as Cap'n Amazon came down from the store with a second basket of +supplies. + +"Wish I was goin' with ye," he said heartily. "Would, too, if I could +shut up shop. But I promised Abe I'd stay by the ship till he come +home again." + +Louise introduced her uncle to Mr. Bane; but during the bustle of +getting into the skiff and pushing off she overlooked the fact that +Lawford and the actor were not introduced. + +"Bring us home a mess of tautog," Cap'n Amazon shouted. "I sartainly +do fancy blackfish when they're cooked right. Bile 'em, an' serve with +an egg sauce, is my way o' puttin' 'em on the table." + +"That was Cap'n Abe's way, too," muttered Betty. + +The cloud on Lawford Tapp's countenance did not lift immediately as he +sculled them out to the anchored sloop. Louise saw quickly that his +ill humor was for Bane. + +"I must keep this young man at a distance," she thought, as she waved +her hand to Uncle Amazon and Mr. Bane. "He takes too much for granted, +I fear. Perhaps, after all, I should have excused myself from this +adventure." + +She eyed Lawford covertly as, with swelling muscles and lithe, swinging +body, he drove his sculling oar. "But he does look more 'to the manner +born'--much more the man, in fact--than that actor!" + +Lawford could not for long forget his duty as host, and he was as +cheerful and obliging as usual by the time the three had scrambled +aboard the _Merry Andrew_. + +Immediately Betty Gallup cast aside her skirt and stood forth +untrammeled in the overalls. "Gimme my way and I'd wear 'em doin' +housework and makin' my garding," she declared. "Land sakes! I allus +did despise women's fooleries." + +Louise laughed blithely. + +"Why, Betty," she said, "lots of city women who do their own housework +don 'knickers' or gymnasium suits to work in. No excuse is needed." + +"Humph!" commented the old woman. "I had no idee city women had so +much sense. The ones I see down here on the Cape don't show it." + +The morning breeze was light but steady. The _Merry Andrew_ was a +sweetly sailing boat and Lawford handled her to the open admiration of +Betty Gallup. The old woman's comment would have put suspicion in +Louise's mind had the girl not been utterly blind to the actual +identity of the sloop's owner. + +"Humph! you're the only furiner, Lawford Tapp, I ever see who could +sail a smack proper. But you got Cape blood in you--that's what 'tis." + +"Thank you, Betty," he returned, with the ready smile that crinkled the +corners of his eyes. "That is a compliment indeed." + +The surf only moaned to-day over Gull Rocks, for there was little +ground swell. The waves heaved in, with an oily, leisurely motion and, +it being full sea, merely broke with a streak of foam marking the ugly +reef below. + +A little to the seaward side of the apex of the reef Betty, at a word +from Lawford, cast loose the sheet and then dropped the anchor. + +"Mussel beds all about here," explained the young man to his guest. +"That means good feeding for the blackfish. Can't catch them anywhere +save on a rock bottom, or around old spiles or sunken wrecks. Better +let me rig your line, Miss Grayling. You'll need a heavier sinker than +that for outside here--ten ounces at least. You see, the tug of the +undertow is considerable." + +Betty Gallup, looking every whit the "able seaman" now, rigged her own +line quickly and opened the bait can. + +"Land sakes!" she exclaimed. "Where'd you get scallop bait this time +o' year, Lawford? You must be a houn' dog for smellin' 'em out." + +"I am," he laughed. "I know that tautog will leave mussels for scallop +any time. And we'll have the eyes of the scallops fried for lunch. +They're all ready in the cabin." + +The pulpy, fat bodies of the scallop--a commercial waste--were +difficult to hang upon the short, blunt hooks; but Lawford seemed to +have just the knack of it. He showed Louise how to lower the line to +the proper depth, advising: + +"Remember, you'll only feel a nibble. The tautog is a shy fish. He +doesn't swallow hook, line, and sinker like a hungry cod. You must +snap him quick when he takes the hook, for his mouth is small and you +must get him instantly--or not at all." + +Louise found this to be true. Her hooks were "skinned clean" several +times before she managed to get inboard her first fish. + +She learned, too, why the tackle for tautog has to be so strong. Once +hooked, the fish darts straight down under rocks or into crevasses, and +sulks there. He comes out of that ambush like a chunk of lead. + +The party secured a number of these dainty fish; but to lend variety to +the day's haul they got the anchor up after luncheon and ran down to +the channels there to chum for snappers. Lawford had brought along +rods; for to catch the young and gamey bluefish one must use an +entirely different rigging from that used for tautog. + +Louise admired the rod Lawford himself used. She knew something about +fancy tackle, and this outfit of the young man, she knew, never cost a +penny less than a hundred dollars. + +"And this sloop, which is his property," she thought, "is another +expensive possession. I can see where his money goes--when he has any +to spend. He is absolutely improvident. Too bad." + +She had to keep reminding herself, it seemed, of Lawford Tapp's most +glaring faults. Improvidence and a hopeless leaning toward +extravagance were certainly unforgivable blemishes in the character of +a young man in the position she believed Lawford held. + +The sport of chumming for snappers, even if they hooked more of +sluggish fluke than of the gamier fish to tempt which the chopped bait +is devoted, was so exciting that Betty, sailing the sloop, overlooked a +pregnant cloud that streaked up from the horizon almost like a puff of +cannon smoke. + +The squall was upon them so suddenly that Louise could not wind in her +line in good season. Lawford was quicker; but in getting his tackle +inboard he was slow to obey Betty's command: + +"Let go that sheet! Want to swamp us, foolin' with that fancy fish +rod?" + +"Aye, aye, skipper!" he sang out, laughing, and jumped to cast off the +line in question just as the sail bulged taut as a drumhead with the +striking squall. + +There was a "lubber's loop" in the bight of the sheet and as the young +man loosed it his arm was caught in this trap. The boom swung +viciously outboard and Lawford went with it. He was snatched like some +inanimate object over the sloop's rail and, the next instant, plunged +beneath the surface of the suddenly foam-streaked sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS + +Lawford came up as the sloop swept by on her new tack, his smile as +broad as ever. He blew loudly and then shouted: + +"Going---too--fast--for--me! Whoa! Back up a little, ladies, and let +me climb aboard." + +"Well, of all the crazy critters!" the "able seaman" declared. "Stand +by with that boathook, Miss Lou, and see if you can harpoon him." + +Louise swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to laugh too. To +tell the truth, the accident to Lawford Tapp had frightened her +dreadfully at the moment it occurred. + +Betty Gallup put over the wheel and the _Merry Andrew_, still under +propulsion of the bursting squall, flew about, almost on her heel. +Louise, who was shielding her eyes from the flying spray under the +sharp of her hand and watching the head and shoulders of Lawford as he +plowed through the jumping waves with a great overhand stroke, suddenly +shrieked aloud: + +"Oh, Betty!" + +"What's the matter? Land sakes!" + +Both saw the peril threatening the swimmer. The light skiff at the end +of the long painter whipped around when the line tautened. As Betty +cried out in echo to Louise's wail, the gunnel of the skiff crashed +down upon Lawford's head and shoulders. + +"Oh! Oh! He's hurt!" cried Louise. + +"He's drowned--dead!" ejaculated Betty Gallup. "Here, Miss Lou, you +take the wheel----" + +But the girl had no intention of letting the old woman go overboard. +Betty in her heavy boots would be wellnigh helpless in the choppy sea. +If it were possible to rescue Lawford Tapp she would do it herself. + +The human mind is a wonderfully constituted--mechanism, may we call it? +It receives and registers impressions that are seemingly incoordinate; +then of a sudden each cog slips into place and the perfection of a +belief, of an opinion, of a desire, even of a most momentous discovery, +is attained. + +Thus instantly Louise Grayling had a startling revelation, "Handle the +boat yourself, Betty!" she commanded. "_I am going to get him_." + +Her skirt was dropped, even as she spoke. She wore "sneaks" to-day +instead of high boots, and she kicked them off without unlacing them. +Then, poising on the rail for a moment, she dived overboard on a long +slant. + +She swam under the surface for some fathoms and coming up dashed the +water from her eyes to stare about. + +The black squall had passed. The sea dimpled in blue and green streaks +as before. A few whitecaps only danced about the girl. Where Lawford +had gone down---- + +A round, sleek object--like the head of a seal--bobbed in the agitated +water. It was not ten yards away. Had she not been so near she must +have overlooked it. He might have sunk again, going down forever, for +it was plain the blow he had suffered had deprived Lawford of +consciousness. + +Louise wasted no breath in shouting, nor moments in looking back at +Betty and the sloop. All her life she had been confident in the water. +She had learned to ride a surfboard with her father like the natives in +Hawaii. A comparatively quiet sea like this held no terrors for Louise +Grayling. + +She dived in a long curve like a jumping porpoise, and went down after +the sinking man. In thirty seconds she had him by the hair, and then +beat her way to the surface with her burden. + +Lawford's face was dead white; his eyes open and staring. There was a +cut upon the side of his head from which blood and water dribbled upon +her shoulder as she held him high out of the sea. + +There sounded the clash of oars in her ears. How Betty had lowered the +jib, thrown over the anchor, and manned the skiff so quickly would +always be a mystery to Louise. But the "able seaman" knew this coast +as well, at least, as Lawford Tapp. They were just over a shoal, and +there was safe anchorage for a small craft. + +"Give him to me. Land sakes!" gasped Betty over her head. "I never +see no city gal like you, Miss Lou." + +Nor had Louise ever seen a woman with so much muscular strength and the +knowledge of how to apply it as Betty displayed. She lifted Lawford +out of the girl's arms and into the skiff with the dexterity of one +trained in hauling in halibut, for Betty had spent her younger years on +the Banks with her father. + +Louise scrambled into the skiff without assistance. Betty was already +at the oars and Louise took the injured head of the man in her lap. He +began to struggle back to life again. + +"I--I'm all right," he muttered. "Sorry made such a--a +fool--of--myself." + +"Hush up, _you_!" snapped Betty. "I'd ought to have seed to this +skiff. Then you wouldn't have got battered like you did." A tear ran +frankly down Betty's nose and dripped off its end. "If anything really +bad had happened to you, Lawford, I'd a-never forgive myself. I +thought you was a goner for sure." + +"Thanks to you, I'm not, I guess, Betty," he said more cheerfully. He +did not know who had jumped overboard to his rescue. + +For some reason the girl was suddenly embarrassed by this fact. + +The skiff reached the plunging sloop and Louise got inboard and aided +Betty to get Lawford over the rail. Then she slipped on her skirt. + +Lawford slumped down in the cockpit, saying he was all right but +looking all wrong. + +"Going to get him back to Tapp Point just as quick as I can," declared +the "able seaman" to Louise. "Doctor ought to see that cut." + +"Oh, Betty!" + +"Now, now, Miss Lou," murmured the old woman with the light of sudden +comprehension in her eyes. "Don't take on now! You've been a brave +gal so fur." + +"And I will keep my courage," Louise said with tremulous smile. + +"Go right over there an' hold his head, Miss Lou. Pet him up a leetle +bit; 'twon't hurt a mite." + +The vivid blush that dyed the girl's cheeks signaled the fact that +Betty had guessed more of the truth than Louise cared to have her or +anybody know. She shook her head negatively to the keen-eyed old +woman; nevertheless she went forward, found one of Lawford's +handkerchiefs and bound up his head. The cut did not seem very deep; +yet the shock of the blow he had suffered certainly had dulled the +young man's comprehension. + +"Thank you--thank you," he muttered and laid his head down on his arms +again. + +Betty rounded the end of the Neck where the lighthouse stood. One of +the lightkeepers was on the gallery just under the lamp chamber and had +been watching them through his glasses. He waved a congratulatory hand +as the _Merry Andrew_ shot along, under the "able seaman's" skillful +guidance. + +"I'm goin' to put you ashore in the skiff right there by the store, +Miss Lou," Betty said. + +"Shouldn't I get a doctor and send him over to the Point?" + +"They've got a telephone there," Betty told her. + +"I--I hope they'll take good care of him." + +"They ought to," sniffed Betty. "I'll see to it he's all right, Miss +Lou, before I leave him." + +"Thank you, Betty," returned the girl, too honest to make any further +attempt to deny her deep interest in the man. + +When the sail rattled down and Louise tossed over the anchor, Lawford +roused a bit. "Sorry the trip turned out so rotten bad, Miss +Grayling," he mumbled. "I--I don't feel just right yet." + +Louise patted his shoulder. "You poor boy!" she said tenderly. "Don't +mind about me. It's you we are worrying about. But I am sure you +cannot be seriously injured. Betty will take you directly over to the +Point and the folks there will get a doctor for you. Next time we'll +have a much nicer fishing trip, Mr. Tapp. Good-bye." + +He muttered his adieu and watched her get into the skiff after Betty +and the baskets. The "able seaman" rowed quickly to the beach. The +sharp eyes of Mr. Bane noted their arrival, and he strode over to the +spot where the skiff came in, to help Louise out of the boat and bring +the baskets ashore. + +"You need a handy man, I see," the actor observed. "What a fine catch +you have had--blackfish, snappers, and fluke, eh? I'll carry the +baskets up to your uncle's store for you. Fine old man, your uncle, +Miss Grayling. And what stories he can tell of his adventures--my +word!" + +"Come over to-night and tell me how he is, betty, won't you?" the girl +whispered to the "able seaman" and the latter, nodding her +comprehension, pulled back to the sloop. Neither of them saw that +Lawford was watching the little group on shore and that when Bane and +the girl turned toward the store the young man looked after them with +gloomy visage. + +The girl's replies to Bane's observation were most inconsequential. +Her mind was upon Lawford and his condition. She was personally +uncomfortable, too; for although the sun and wind had dried her hair +and her blouse, beneath the dry skirt her clothing was wet. + +As they came to the Shell Road the long, gray roadster Louise had seen +before came down from town. L'Enfant Terrible was at the wheel while +her two older sisters sat in the narrow seat behind. Cecile tossed a +saucy word over her shoulder, indicating Louise and Bane, and her older +sisters smiled superciliously upon the two pedestrians. Louise was too +deeply occupied with thoughts of the injured man to note this by-play. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE ODDS AGAINST HIM + +"Horrid taste she has, I must say," drawled Marian. Marian was the +eldest of the Tapp girls. To tell the truth (but this is strictly in +confidence and must go no further!) she had been christened Mary Ann +after Israel Tapp's commonplace mother. That, of course, was some time +before I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King, had come into his kingdom +and assumed the robe and scepter of his present financial position. + +"Oh!" ejaculated Cecile. "That's Judson Bane, the Broadway star, she's +walking with. I'd like to know him myself." + +"You coarse little thing!" drawled Marian. + +"And you not out yet!" Prue, the second sister, observed cuttingly. +"You're only a child. I wish you'd learn your place and keep it." + +"Oh, fudge!" responded L'Enfant Terrible, not deeply impressed by these +sisterly admonitions. + +Marian was twenty-six--two years Lawford's senior. She was a heavy, +lymphatic girl, fast becoming as matronly of figure as her mother. She +still bolstered up her belief that she had matrimonial prospects; but +the men who wanted to marry her she would not have while those she +desired to marry would not have her. Marian Tapp was becoming bored. + +Prue was a pretty girl. She was but nineteen. However, she had +likewise assumed a bored air after being in society a single season. + +"That big actor man will put poor Fordy's nose out of joint with the +film lady," Prue said. "Look out for that dog, Cis. It's the +Perritons'. If you run over him----" + +"Nasty little thing!" grumbled Cecile. + +"And the apple of Sue Perriton's eye," drawled Marian. "Be careful +what you are about, Cecile. It all lies with the Perritons whether we +get into society this season or not." + +"And that Mrs. Conroth who is with them," put in Prue. "_She_ is the +real thing--the link between the best of New York and Albany society. +Old family--away back to the patroons--so old she has to keep moth +balls hung in her family tree. My! if mother could once become the +familiar friend of miladi Conroth----" + +"No such luck," groaned Marian. "After all's said and done, mother +can't forget the candy kitchen. She always looks to me, poor dear, as +though she had just been surreptitiously licking her fingers." + +"We _do_ have the worst luck!" groaned the second sister. "There's +that Dot Johnson coming. Mother says daddy insists, and when I. Tapp +does put down his foot----Well!" + +"We'll put her off on Fordy," suggested, the brighter-witted Cecile. +"She rather fancies Ford, I think." + +"Dot Johnson!" chorused the older girls, in horror. "Not really?" +Marian continued. "The Johnsons are impossible." + +"They've got more money than daddy has," said Prue. + +"But they have no aspirations--none at all," murmured Marian, in +horror. "If Lawford married Dot Johnson it would be almost as bad as +his being mixed up with that picture actress." + +"For him; not for us," said Prue promptly. "Of course, as far as the +Johnsons go, they are too respectable for anything. Poor Fordy!" + +"Goodness!" snapped Cecile. "It's not all settled. The banns aren't +up." + +The girls wheeled into the grounds surrounding the Tapp villa just as +Betty Gallup guided the _Merry Andrew_ to the dock and leaped ashore +with the mooring rope. + +Tapp Point consisted of about five acres of bluff and sand. At great +expense the Taffy King had terraced the bluff and had made to grow +several blades of grass where none at all had been able to gain root +before. + +The girls saw the queer-looking Betty Gallup helping their brother out +of the sloop. + +"Say! something's happened to Ford, I guess," Cecile cried, stopping +the car short of the porte-cochere. + +"Run down and see," commanded Marian languidly. + +But Prue hopped out of the roadster and started down the path +immediately. She and Lawford still had a few things in common. Mutual +affection was one of them. + +"What's happened to him?" she cried. "You're Mrs. Gallup, aren't you?" + +"I'm Bet Gallup--yes. You run call up Doc Ambrose from over to +Paulmouth. Your brother's got a bad knock on the head." + +"And he's been overboard!" gasped Prue. + +"I--I'm all right," stammered Lawford. "Let me lie down for a little +while. Don't need a doctor." + +"You're as wet as a drowned rat," his sister said. "Come on up and get +some dry clothes, Ford. I'm sure you're awful kind, Mrs. Gallup. I +will telephone for the doctor at once." + +"You bet she's kind! Good old soul!" murmured Lawford. "I'd have been +six fathoms deep if it hadn't been for Betty." + +"She hauled you into the boat, did she?" Prue said in a sympathetic +tone. "Well, we won't forget _that_." + +Betty had stepped aboard the sloop again to reef down and make all +taut. Her sailor-soul would not allow her to leave the lapstreak in a +frowsy condition. + +Meanwhile Cecile came flying down from the garage, and between his two +sisters Lawford was aided up to the house. Despite the young man's +protests, Dr. Ambrose was called and he rattled over in what the jolly +medical man termed his "one-horse shay." That rattletrap of a +second-hand car was known in every town and hamlet for miles around. +Sometimes he got stalled, for the engine of the car was one of the +crankiest ever built, and the good physician had to get out and proceed +on foot. When this happened the man who owned a horse living nearest +to the unredeemed automobile always hitched up and dragged the car +home. For Dr. Ambrose was beloved as few men save a physician is ever +loved in a country community. + +"You got a hard crack and no mistake, young man," the physician said, +plastering his patient's head in a workmanlike manner. "But you've a +good, solid cranium as I've often told you. Not much to get hurt above +the ears--mostly bone all the way through. Not easy to crack, like +some of these eggshell heads." + +Lawford felt the effects of the blow, however, for the rest of the +evening. His father was away and so he had no support against the +organized attack of the women of the family. Although it is doubtful +if I. Tapp would have sided with his son. + +"It really serves you right, Ford, for taking that movie actress +sailing," drawled Marian. + +"It is a judgment upon him," sighed their mother, wiping her eyes. +"Oh, Ford, if you only would settle down and not be so wild!" + +"'Wild!' Oh, bluey!" murmured L'Enfant Terrible, who considered her +brother a good deal of a tame cat. + +"At least," Marian pursued, "you might carry on your flirtation in a +less public manner." + +"'Flirtation!'" ejaculated Lawford, with a spark of anger--and then +settled back on the couch with a groan. + +"My goodness me, Ford!" gasped Prue. "You're surely not in earnest?" + +"I should hope _not_," drawled Marian. + +"Oh, Ford, my boy----" + +"Now, mother, don't turn on the sprinkler again," advised L'Enfant +Terrible. "It will do you no good. And, anyway, I guess Ford hasn't +any too bright a chance with the Grayling. You ought to have seen that +handsome Judson Bane lean over her when they were walking up to Cap'n +Abe's. I thought he was going to nibble her ear!" + +"Cecile!" + +"Horrid thing!" Prue exclaimed. "I don't know where she gets such rude +manners." + +"That boarding school last winter completely spoiled her," complained +the mother. "And I sent her to it because Sue Perriton and Alice +Bozewell go there." + +"And I had a fine chance to get chummy with _them_!" snapped Cecile. +"They were both seniors." + +"But really," Marian went on, "your entanglement with that movie +actress is sure to make trouble for us, Ford. You might be a little +more considerate. Just as we are getting in with the Perritons. And +their guest, Mrs. Conroth, was really very nice to mother this morning +on the beach. She has the open sesame to all the society there is on +this side of the Atlantic. It's really a wonderful chance for us, +Ford." + +"And--he's bound--to spoil--it all!" Mrs. Tapp sobbed into an expensive +bit of lace. + +"You might be a good sport, Fordy, dear," urged Prue. + +"Yes, Fordy; don't crab the game," added the vulgar Cecile. + +"You know very well," said the elder sister, "how hard we have tried to +take our rightful place here at The Beaches. We have the finest home +by far; daddy's got the most money of any of them, and let's us spend +it, too. And still it's like rolling a barrel up a sand bank. Just a +little thing will spoil our whole season here." + +"Do, do be sensible, Ford!" begged his mother. + +"Sacrifice yourself for the family's good," said Prue. + +"Dear Ford," began Mrs. Tapp again, "for my sake--for all our +sakes--take thought of what you are doing. This--this actress person +cannot be a girl you could introduce to your sisters----" + +"No more of that, mother!" exclaimed the young man, patience at last +ceasing to be a virtue. "Criticise me if you wish to; but I will hear +nothing against Miss Grayling." + +"Oh, dear! Now I have offended him again!" sobbed the matron. + +"You are too utterly selfish for words!" declared Marian. + +"You're a regular _pig_!" added Prue. + +"If you get mixed up with an actress, Fordy, I'll have a fine time when +I come out, won't I?" complained Cecile. + +"Caesar's ghost!" burst from the lips of the badgered young man. "I +wish Betty Gallup had let me drown instead of hauling me inboard this +afternoon!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SOMETHING BREAKS + +An express wagon, between the shafts of which was a raw-boned gray +horse leaning against one shaft as a prop while he dozed, stood before +Cap'n Abe's store as Louise and Mr. Judson Bane came up from the shore +front. She thanked the actor as he set the heavy baskets on the porch +step. + +"Those blackfish look so good I long for a fish supper," he said, +smiling in open admiration upon her. + +Louise was quick to establish a reputation for hospitality. Perhaps it +was the Silt blood that influenced her to say: "Wait till I speak to +Uncle Amazon, Mr. Bane." + +There was a tall gaunt man in overalls and jumper, who, somehow, +possessed a family resemblance to the gray horse, leaning against the +door frame, much as his beast leaned against the wagon shaft. Perry +Baker and the gray horse had traveled so many years together about +Paulmouth and Cardhaven that it was not surprising they looked alike. + +When Louise mounted the porch steps she could not easily pass the +expressman, who was saying, in drawling tones: + +"Well, I brought it over, seeing I had a light load. I didn't know +what else to do with it. Of course, it was Cap'n Abe give it to me to +ship. Let's see, I didn't happen to see you here that night you came, +an' I brought the young lady's trunks over, did I?" + +"Not as I know on," barked Cap'n Amazon with brevity. + +"Funny how we didn't meet then," drawled Perry Baker. + +There seemed to be a tenseness to the atmosphere of the old store. +Louise saw the usual idlers gathered about the cold stove--Washy Gallup +on his nail-keg, his jaw wagging eagerly; Milt Baker and Amiel Perdue +side by side with their elbows on the counter; Cap'n Joab Beecher +leaning forward on his stick--all watching Cap'n Amazon, it seemed, +with strained attention. + +It was like a scene set for a play--for the taking of a film, perhaps. +The whimsical thought came to Louise that the director had just +shouted: "Get set!" and would immediately add: "Action! Camera! Go!" + +"Course," Perry Baker drawled, "I sent it to Boston as consigner, +myself; so when the chest warn't called for within a reasonable time +they shipped it back to me, knowin' I was agent. Funny Cap'n Abe +didn't show up for to claim it." + +Cap'n Amazon, grim as a gargoyle, leaned upon the counter and stared +the expressman out of countenance, saying nothing. Perry shifted +uneasily in the doorway. The captain's silence and his stare were +becoming irksome to bear. + +"Well!" he finally ejaculated, "that's how 'tis. I'd ha' waited +till--till Cap'n Abe come home--if he ever _does_ come; but my wife, +Huldy, got fidgety. She reads the papers, and she's got it into her +head there's something wrong 'bout the old chest. She dreamed 'bout +it. An' ye know, when a woman gets to dreamin' she'll drag her +anchors, no matter what the bottom is. She says folks have been +murdered 'fore now and their bodies crammed into a chest----" + +"Why, you long-winded sculpin!" exclaimed Cap'n Amazon, at length +goaded to speech. "Bring that chest in and take a reef in your +jaw-tackle. I knew a man once't looked nigh enough like you to be your +twin; and he was purt nigh a plumb idiot, too." + +Louise had never before heard her uncle's voice so sharp. It was plain +he had not seen his niece until after Perry Baker turned and clumped +out upon the porch, thus giving the girl free entrance to the store. +She turned, smiling a little whimsically, and said to Bane: + +"The moment is not propitious, I fear. Uncle Amazon seems to be put +out about something." + +"Don't bother him now, I beg," urged the actor, lifting his hat. "I +will call later--if I may." + +"Certainly, Mr. Bane," she said with seriousness. "Uncle Amazon and I +will both be glad to see you." + +The expressman came heavily up the steps with a green chest on his +shoulder. It had handles of tarred rope and had plainly seen much +service; indeed, it was brother to the box in the storeroom which +Louise had found filled with nautical literature. + +The girl entered the store ahead of the staggering expressman, but +stepped aside for him to precede her, for she wished to beckon to Amiel +to come out for the baskets of fish. + +"Watch out where you're putting your foot, Perry!" Cap'n Joab suddenly +exclaimed. + +His warning was too late. Some youngster, eager to peel his banana, +had flung its treacherous skin upon the floor. The expressman set his +clumsy boot upon it. + +"Whee! 'Ware below!" yelled Amiel Perdue. + +To recover his footing Perry let go of the chest. It fell to the floor +with a mighty crash, landing upon one corner and bursting open. During +the long years it had stood in Cap'n Abe's storeroom the wood had +suffered dry rot. + +"Land o' Liberty an' all han's around!" bawled the irrepressible Milt +Baker. "There ain't ho corpse in that dust, for a fac'!" + +"What kind of a mess d'ye make that out to be, I want to know?" cackled +Washy Gallup. + +The hinges had torn away from the rotting wood so that the lid lay wide +open. Tumbled out upon the floor were several ancient garments, +including a suit of quite unwearable oilskins, and with them at least a +wheelbarrow load of bricks! + +"Well, I vum!" drawled the expressman, at length recovering speech. "I +hope Huldy'll be satisfied." + +But Cap'n Joab Beecher was not. He stood up and pointed his stick at +the heap of rubbish on the floor and his voice quavered as he shrilly +asked: + +"Then, _where's Cap'n Abe_?" + +They all turned to stare again at Cap'n Amazon. That hardy mariner +seemed to be quite as self-possessed as usual. His grim lips opened +and in caustic tone he said: + +"You fellers seem to think that I'm Abe Silt's keeper. I ain't. Abe's +old enough--and ought to be seaman enough--to look out for Abe Silt. +What tomfoolery he packed into that chest is none o' my consarn. I +l'arnt years ago that Moses an' them old fellers left the chief +commandment out o' the Scriptures. That's 'Mind your own business.' +Abe's business ain't mine. Here, you Amiel! clear up that clutter an' +let's have no more words about it." + +The decisive speech of the master mariner closed the lips of even Cap'n +Joab. The latter did not repeat his query about Cap'n Abe but, with a +baffled expression on his weather-beaten countenance, departed with +Perry Baker. + +That a trap had been for Cap'n Amazon, that it had been sprung and +failed to catch the master mariner, seemed quite plain to Louise. +Betty Gallup's oft-expressed suspicions and Washy Gallup's gossip +suddenly impressed the girl. With these vague thoughts was connected +in her mind the discovery she had made that one of Cap'n Amazon's +thrilling stories was pasted into the old scrapbook. Why she should +think of that discovery just now mystified her; but it seemed somehow +to dovetail into the enigma. + +Cap'n Amazon lifted the flap in the counter for Louise and in his usual +kindly tone said: + +"Good fishin', Niece Louise? Bring home a mess?" + +"Yes, indeed," she told him. "The baskets are outside. Let Amiel +bring them around to the back." + +"Aye, aye!" returned the captain briskly. "Tautog? We'll have 'em for +supper," and let her pass as though nothing extraordinary had occurred. + +But to Louise's troubled mind the bursting of the old chest was like +the explosion of a bomb in Cap'n Abe's store. + +What was the meaning of it all? Why had the chest been filled with +bricks and useless garments? And by whom? + +If by Cap'n Abe, what was his object in doing such a perfectly +incomprehensible thing? He had deliberately, it seemed, shipped a +quite useless chest to Boston with no expectation of calling for it at +the express office. Then, _where had he gone_? + +Cap'n Joab's query was the one uppermost in Louise Grayling's thought. +All these incomprehensible things seemed to lead to that most important +question. Had Cap'n Abe gone to sea, or had he not? If not, what had +become of him? + +And how much more regarding his brother's disappearance did Cap'n +Amazon know than the neighbors or herself? In her room Louise sat and +faced the problem. She deliberated upon each incident connected with +Cap'n Abe's departure as she knew them. + +From almost the first moment of her arrival at the store on the Shell +Road, the storekeeper had announced the expected arrival of Cap'n +Amazon and his own departure for a sea voyage if his brother would +undertake the conduct of the store. + +The incidents of the night of Cap'n Amazon's coming and of Cap'n Abe's +departure seemed reasonable enough. Here had arisen the opportunity +long desired by the Shell Road storekeeper. His brother would remain +to look out for his business while he could go seafaring. Cap'n Amazon +knew just the craft for the storekeeper to sail in, clearing from the +port of Boston within a few hours. + +There was not much margin of time for Cap'n Abe to make his +preparations. Perry Baker was at hand with Louise's trunks, and the +storekeeper had sent off his chest, supposedly filled with an outfit +for use at sea. Just what he had intended to do with useless clothing +and a hod of bricks it was impossible to understand. + +Cap'n Abe had come to her bedroom door to bid Louise good-bye, and she +had seen him depart in the fog just at dawn. Yet nobody had observed +him at the railroad station and he had not called for the chest at the +Boston express office. + +The chest! That was the apex of the mystery. Never in this world had +Cap'n Abe intended to take the chest with him to sea--or wherever else +he had it in his mind to go. + +Nor was the chest intended to be returned to the store until Cap'n Abe +himself came back from his mysterious journey. The fact that Perry +Baker had shipped it in his own name instead of that of the owner had +brought about this unexpected incident. + +Washy Gallup's gossip--his doubt regarding Cap'n Abe's shipping on a +sea voyage--now came home to Louise with force. Washy suggested that +the storekeeper was afraid of the sea; that in all his years at +Cardhaven he had never been known to venture out of the quiet waters of +the bay. + +To the girl's mind, too, came the remembrance of that talk she had had +with Cap'n Abe on the evening of her arrival at the store. Was there +something he had said then that explained this mystery? + +He had told her of the wreck of the Bravo and the drowning of Captain +Joshua Silt, his father, in sight of his mother's window. She had been +powerfully affected by that awful tragedy; this could not be doubted. + +And the son, Cap'n Abe, a posthumous child, might indeed have come into +the world with that horror of the sea which must have filled his poor +mother's soul. + +"It would explain why Uncle Abram never became a sailor--the only Silt +for generations who remained ashore. Yet, he spoke that night as +though he loved the sea--or the romance of it, at least," Louise +thought. + +"Perhaps, too, his own inability to sail to foreign shores and his +terror of the sea made him so worship Cap'n Amazon's prowess. For they +say he was continually relating stories of his brother's +adventures--even more marvelous tales than Cap'n Amazon himself has +related. + +"Such a misfortune as Cap'n Abe's fear of the sea may easily explain +his brother's good-natured scorn of him. Uncle Amazon doesn't say much +about him; but I can see he looks upon Cap'n Abe as a weakling. + +"But," sighed the girl in conclusion, "even this does not explain the +mystery of the chest, or where Cap'n Abe can be hiding. I wonder if +Uncle Amazon knows?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +MUCH ADO + +As on previous occasions, Louise Grayling was deterred from putting a +searching question to Cap'n Amazon because of his look and manner. The +little she had seen of Cap'n Abe assured her that she would have felt +no hesitancy in approaching the mild-mannered storekeeper upon any +subject. + +But the master mariner seemed to be an entirely different personality. +The way he had overawed the idlers in the store that afternoon when the +old chest was broken open, and his refusal to make any further +explanation of Cap'n Abe's absence, pinched out Louise's courage as one +might pinch out a candle wick. + +That suspicion was rife in the community, and that the story of the +strange contents of Cap'n Abe's chest had spread like a prairie fire, +Louise was sure. Yet at supper time Cap'n Amazon was as calm and +cheerful as usual and completely ignored the accident of the afternoon. + +"Hi-mighty likely mess of tautog you caught, Louise," he said, ladling +the thick white gravy dotted with crumbly yellow egg yolk upon her +plate with lavish hand. "That Lawford Tapp knows where the critters +school, if he doesn't know much else." + +"Oh, Uncle Amazon! I think he is a very intelligent young man. Only +he wastes his time so!" + +"He knows enough book l'arnin', I do allow," agreed Cap'n Amazon. "But +fritters away his time as you say. They all do that over to Tapp +P'int, I cal'late." + +"I wonder how it came to be called Tapp Point?" Louise asked, with a +suddenly sharpened curiosity. + +"'Cause it's belonged to the Tapps since away back,--or, so Cap'n Joab +says. That sand heap never was wuth a punched nickel a ton till these +city folks began to build along The Beaches." + +Louise, in her own mind, immediately constructed another theory about +Lawford Tapp, "the fisherman's son." The sandy point had been sold to +the builder of the very ornate villa now crowning it, and the proceeds +of that sale had paid for the _Merry Andrew_ sloop and the expensive +fishing rod and the clothes of superquality which the young man wore. + +She shrank, however, from commenting upon this extravagant and +spendthrift trait in his character, even to Uncle Amazon. Nor would +she have spoken to anybody else upon the subject. + +Something had happened to Louise Grayling on this adventurous +afternoon--something of which she scarcely dared think, let alone talk! + +The grip of fear at her heart when she thought Lawford was drowning had +startled her as much as the accident itself. She had seen men in peril +before--in deadly peril--without feeling any personal terror for their +fate. + +In that moment when Lawford was sinking and she was preparing to leap +to his aid, Louise had realized this fact. And in her inmost soul she +admitted--with a thrill that shook her physically as well as +spiritually--that her interest in this Cape Cod fisherman's son was an +interest rooted in her inmost being. + +The incident of the wrecked sea chest held her attention in only a +secondary degree. All through supper she was listening for Betty +Gallup's heavy step. She knew she could not sleep that night without +knowing how Lawford was. + +For the very reason that she felt so deeply regarding it, she shrank +from talking with Cap'n Amazon of the accident that had happened to +Lawford. She was glad the substitute storekeeper had "gone for'ard" +again to attend to customers when Betty came clumping up the back steps. + +"He's all right, Miss Lou," said the kindly woman, patting the girl's +hand. "I waited to see Doc Ambrose when he come back from the P'int. +He says there ain't a thing the matter with him that vinegar an' brown +paper won't cure. + +"But land sakes! Miss Lou, ain't this an awful thing 'bout your Uncle +Abe's chest? That old pirate knows more'n he'd ought to 'bout what's +come o' Cap'n Abe, even if they ain't brought it home to him yit." + +"Now, Betty, I wish you wouldn't," begged the girl. "Why should you +give currency to such foolish gossip?" + +"What foolish gossip?" snapped the woman. + +"Why, about my Uncle Amazon." + +"How d'ye _know_ he's your uncle at all?" demanded Betty. "You never +seen him before he come here. You never knowed nothin' 'bout him, so +you said, 'fore you come here to Cardhaven." + +"But, Betty----" + +"Ain't no 'buts' about it!" fiercely declared the "able seaman." +"Cap'n Abe's gone--disappeared. We don't know what's become of him. +Course, Huldy Baker was a silly to think Cap'n Abe had been murdered +and cut up like shark bait and shipped away in that old chest." + +"Oh!" + +"Yes. 'Cause Perry seen Cap'n Abe himself that night when he took the +chest away. That was ridic'lous. But then, Huldy Baker ain't got +right good sense, nor never had. + +"But it stands to reason Cap'n Abe had no intent of shipping aboard any +craft with sich dunnage in his chest as they say was in it." + +"No-o. I suppose that is so," admitted Louise. + +"Then, what's become of the poor man?" Betty ejaculated. + +"Why, nobody seems to know. Not even Uncle Amazon." + +"Have you axed him?" demanded the other bluntly. + +"No. I haven't done that." + +"Humph!" was the rejoinder. "You're just as much afeared on him as the +rest on us. You take it from me, Miss Lou, he's been a hard man on his +own quarter-deck. He ain't no more like Cap'n Abe than buttermilk's +like tartaric acid. + +"Cap'n Abe warn't no seafarin' man," pursued Betty, "though he had the +lingo on his tongue and 'peared as salt as a dried pollock. It's in my +mind that he wouldn't never re'lly go to sea--'nless he was egged on to +it." + +Here it was again! That same doubt as expressed by Washy Gallup--the +suggestion that Cap'n Abe Silt possessed an inborn fear of the sea that +he had never openly confessed. + +"Why do you say that, Betty?" Louise hesitatingly asked the old woman. + +"'Cause I've knowed Cap'n Abe for more'n twenty year, and in all that +endurin' time he's stuck as close to shore as a fiddler. With all his +bold talk about ships and sailin', I tell you he warn't a seafarin' +man." + +"But what has Uncle Amazon to do with the mystery of his brother's +absence?" demanded Louise. + +"Humph! If he _is_ Cap'n Abe's brother. Now, now, you don't know no +more about this old pirate than I do, Miss Lou. He influenced Cap'n +Abe somehow, or someway, so't he cut his hawser and drifted out o' +soundings--that's sure! Here this feller callin' himself Am'zon Silt +has got the store an' all it holds, an' Cap'n Abe's money, and +ev'rything." + +"Oh, Betty, how foolishly you talk," sighed the girl. + +"Humph! Mebbe. And then again, mebbe it ain't foolish. Them men +to-day thought they could scare that old pirate into admittin' +something if they sprung Cap'n Abe's chest on him. Oh, I knowed they +was goin' to do it," admitted Betty. + +"Course, they had no idee what was in the chest. Bustin' it open was +an accident. Perry Baker's as clumsy as a cow. But you see, Miss Lou, +just how cool that ol' pirate took it all. Washy was tellin' me. He +just browbeat 'em an' left 'em with all their canvas slattin'. + +"Oh, you can't tell me! That old pirate's handled a crew without no +tongs, you may lay to that! And what he's done to poor old Cap'n +Abe----" + +She went away shaking a sorrowful head and without finishing her +sentence. Louise was unable to shake off the burden of doubt of Cap'n +Amazon's character and good intentions. She felt that she could not +spend the long evening in his company, and bidding him good-night +through the open store door she retired to the upper floor. + +She felt that sleep was far from her eyelids on this night; therefore +she lit a candle and went into the storeroom to get something to read. +She selected a much battered volume, printed in an early year of the +nineteenth century, its title being: + + LANDSMEN'S TALES: + Seafaring Yarns of a Lubber. + +Louise became enthralled by the narratives of perilous adventure and +odd happenings on shipboard which the author claimed to have himself +observed. She read for an hour or more, while the sounds in the store +below gradually ceased and she heard Cap'n Amazon close and lock the +front door for the night. + +Silence below. Outside the lap, lap, lap of the waves on the strand +and the rising moan of the surf over Gulf Rocks. + +Louise turned a page. She plunged into another yarn. Breathlessly +and, almost fearfully she read it to the end--the very story of the +murdered albatross and the sailors' superstitious belief in the bird's +bad influence, as she had heard Cap'n Amazon relate it to Aunt Euphemia +Conroth. + +She laid down the book at last in amazement and confusion. There was +no doubt now of Cap'n Amazon's mendacity. This book of nautical tales +had been written and printed _long before Amazon Silt was born_! + +And if the falseness of his wild narratives was established, was it a +far cry to Betty Gallup's suspicions and accusations? What and who was +this man, who called himself Amazon Silt who had taken Cap'n Abe's +place in the store on the Shell Road? + +Louise lay with wide-open eyes for a long time. Then she crept out of +bed and turned the key in the lock of her door--the first time she had +thought to do such a thing since her arrival at Cardhaven. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE SUN WORSHIPERS + +"Them movin' picture people are hoppin' about The Beaches like +sandpipers," observed Cap'n Amazon at the breakfast table. "And I +opine they air pretty average useless, too. They were hurrahin' around +all day yest'day while you was out fishin'. Want to take a picture of +Abe's old store here. Dunno what to do about it." + +Louise was too much disturbed by her discoveries of overnight to give +much attention to this subject. + +"It's Abe's store, you see," went on Cap'n Amazon. "Dunno how he'd +feel 'bout havin' it took in a picture and showed all over the country. +It needs a coat o' paint hi-mighty bad. Ought to be fixed up some +'fore havin' its picture took--don't ye think so, Niece Louise?" + +The girl awoke to the matter sufficiently to advise him: + +"The lack of paint will not show in the picture, Uncle Amazon. And I +suppose they want the store for a location just because it is +weather-beaten and old-fashioned." + +"I want to know! Well, now, if I was in the photograftin' business, +seems t' me I'd pick out the nice-lookin' places to make pictures of. +I knowed a feller once that made a business of takin' photografts in +furin' parts. He sailed with me when I was master of the _Blue +Sparrow_--clipper built she was, an' a spankin' fine craft. We----" + +"Oh, Uncle Amazon!" Louise cried, rising from, the table suddenly, +"you'll have to excuse me. I--I forgot something upstairs. Yes--I've +finished my breakfast. Betty can clear off." + +She fairly ran away from the table. It seemed to her as though she +could not sit and listen to another of his preposterous stories. It +would be on the tip of her tongue to declare her disbelief in his +accuracy. How and where he had gained access to Cap'n Abe's store of +nautical romances she could not imagine; but she was convinced that +many, if not all, of his supposedly personal adventures were entirely +fictitious in so far as his own part in them was concerned. + +She put on her hat and went out of the back door in order to escape +further intercourse with Cap'n Amazon for the present. On the shore +she found the spot below the Bozewell bungalow a busy scene. This was +a perfect day for "the sun worshipers," as somebody has dubbed motion +picture people. Director Anscomb was evidently planning to secure +several scenes and the entire company was on hand. + +Louise saw that there were a number of spectators besides herself--some +from the town, but mostly young folk from the cottages along The +Beaches. + +Lawford Tapp was present, and she waved her hand to him, yet preserving +an air of merely good comradeship. She was glad that he did not know +that it was she who had leaped to his rescue the day before. +Considering the nature of the feeling she had for him, into the +knowledge of which his peril had surprised her, the girl could not +endure any intimate conversation with Lawford. Not just then, at least. + +Tapp was in the midst of a group of girls, and she remarked his ease of +manner. She did not wonder at it, for he was a gentleman by instinct +no matter what his social level might be. Three of the girls were +those Louise Grayling believed to be daughters of Lawford's employer. + +She saw that he was breaking away from the group with the intention of +coming to her. L'Enfant Terrible said something to him and laughed +shrilly. She saw Lawford's cheek redden. + +So Louise welcomed the approach of Mr. Bane, who chanced at the moment +to be idle. + +"Now you will see us grinding them out, Miss Grayling," the actor said. + +Louise broke into a series of questions regarding the taking of the +pictures. Her evident interest in the big leading man halted Lawford's +approach. Besides, Miss Louder, who had evidently been introduced to +the Taffy King's son, attached herself to him. + +She was a pretty girl despite the layers of grease paint necessary to +accentuate the lights and shadows of her piquant face. Her manner with +men was free without being bold. With a big parasol over her shoulder, +she adapted her step to Lawford's and they strolled nearer. + +Bane was speaking of the script he had previously mentioned as +containing a part eminently fitted for Louise. As Lawford and Miss +Louder passed he said: + +"I am sure you can do well in that part, Miss Grayling. It is exactly +your style." + +Had Lawford any previous reason for doubting Louise Grayling's +connection with the moving picture industry this overheard remark would +have lulled such a doubt to sleep. + +The young man realized well enough that Louise was a very different +girl from the blithe young woman at his side. But how could he make I. +Tapp see it? + +Money was not everything in the world; Lawford Tapp was far from +thinking it was. He had always considered it of much less importance +than the things one could exchange it for. + +However, never having felt the necessity for working for mere pelf, and +being untrained for any form of industry whatsoever, his father's +threat of disowning him loomed a serious menace to the young man. + +Not for himself did Lawford fear. He felt warm blood in his veins, +vigor in his muscles, a keen edge to his nerves. He could +work--preferably with his hands. He realized quite fully his +limitation of brain power. + +But what right had he to ask any girl to share his lot--especially a +girl like Louise Grayling, who he supposed won a sufficient livelihood +in a profession the emoluments of which must be far greater than those +of any trade he might seek to follow? + +He saw now that after his somewhat desultory college course, his months +of loafing about on sea and shore had actually unfitted him for +concentration upon any ordinary work. And he was not sanguine enough +to expect an extraordinary situation to come his way. + +Then, too, the young man realized that Louise Grayling had not given +him the least encouragement to lead him to believe that she thought of +him at all. At this moment her preference for Bane's society seemed +marked. Already Cecile had rasped Lawford regarding the leading man's +attentions to Louise. + +Lawford could not face the taunting glances of Marian and Prue. They +had come down to the beach on this particular morning he felt sure to +comment--and not kindly--upon Louise Grayling. He hoped that she was +not included in the director's plans for the day, and he was glad to +see that she had no make-up on, as had these other young women. + +So he strolled on grimly with Miss Louder, who would not be called for +work for an hour. But the young man heard little of her chatter. + +The tide was at the ebb and the two walked on at the edge of the +splashing surf, where the strand was almost as firm as a cement walk. +The curve of the beach took them toward the lighthouse and here, +approaching with bucket and clam hoe along the flats, was the very +lightkeeper who had watched the _Merry Andrew_ and her crew the day, +before when Lawford met with his accident. + +"There ye be, Mr. Lawford," crowed the man, "as chipper as a sandpiper. +But I swanny, I didn't ever expect t' hail ye again this side o' +Jordan, one spell yest'day." + +"You had your glass on us, did you?" Lawford said languidly. + +"I did, young man--I did. An' when that bobbin' skiff walloped ye on +the side of the head I never 'spected t' see you come up again. If it +hadn't been for this little lady who------Shucks, now! This ain't her +'tall, is it?" + +"Oh, Mr. Tapp, were you in a boating accident yesterday?" cried Miss +Louder. + +"I was overboard--yes," responded Lawford, but rather blankly, for he +was startled by the lightkeeper's statement. "What do you mean, +Jonas?" to the lightkeeper. "Didn't Betty Gallup haul me inboard?" + +"Bet Gallup--nawthin'!" exploded Jonas with disgust. "She handled that +sloop o' yourn all right. I give her credit for that. But 'twas that +there gal stayin' at Cap'n Abe's. Ye had her out with ye, eh?" + +"Miss Grayling? Certainly." + +"She's some gal, even if she is city bred," was the lightkeeper's +enthusiastic observation. "An' quick! My soul! Ye'd ought to seen +her kick off her skirt an' shoes an' dive after ye! I swanny, she was +a sight!" + +"I should think she would have been!" gasped Miss Louder with some +scorn. "Goodness me, she must be a regular stunt actress!" and she +laughed shrilly. + +But Lawford gave her small attention. "Jonas, do you mean that?" he +asked. "I thought it was Betty who saved me. Why, dad said this +morning he was going to send the old woman a check. He doesn't much +approve of me," and the heir of the Taffy King smiled rather grimly, +"but as I'm the last Tapp----" + +"He's glad ye didn't git done for _com_-pletely, heh?" suggested Jonas, +and giggled. "I wouldn't for a minute stand in the way of Bet Gallup's +gittin' what's due her. She did pick ye both up, Lawford. But, land +sakes! ye'd been six fathoms down, all right, if it hadn't been for +that gal at Cap'n Abe's." + +"I--I had no idea of it. I never even thanked her," muttered Lawford. +"What can she think of me?" + +But not even Miss Louder heard this. She realized, however, that the +young man who she had been told was "the greatest catch at The Beaches" +was much distrait and that her conversation seemed not to interest him +at all. + +They went back toward the scene of the film activities. It was the +hour of the usual promenade on the sands. Everybody in the summer +colony appeared on the beach while the walking along the water's edge +was fine. This promenade hour was even more popular than the bathing +hour which was, of, course, at high tide. + +Groups of women, young and old, strolled under gay parasols, or camped +on the sands to chat. Brilliantly striped marquees were set up below +some of the cottages, in which tea and other refreshments were served. +The younger people fluttered about, talking and laughing, much like a +flock of Mother Carey's chickens before a storm. + +There were several wagons over from the Haven, in which the small-fry +summer visitors arrived and joined their more aristocratic neighbors. +The wagons stopped upon the Shell Road and the passengers climbed down +to the beach between two of the larger cottages. + +The people at The Beaches had tried on several occasions to inclose the +stretch of shore below their summer homes, and to make it a private +beach. But even the most acquisitive of the town councilmen (and there +were several of the fraternity of the Itching Palm in the council) +dared not establish such a precedent. The right of the public to the +shore at tide-water could not safely be ignored in a community of +fishermen and clam diggers. + +So the shore on this morning had become a gay scene, with the interest +centering on the open air studio of the film company. Lawford saw +Louise walking on alone along the edge of the water. Bane had been +called into conference by the director. + +Lawford could not well hasten his steps and desert Miss Louder, but he +desired strongly to do so. And ere the film actress lingeringly left +him to rejoin her company, Louise was some distance in advance. + +His sisters were near her. Lawford could see them look at her most +superciliously, and the saucy Cecile said something that made Prue +laugh aloud. + +Just beyond the Tapp girls was approaching a group of women and men. +Lawford recognized them as the Perritons and their friends. Lawford +had no particular interest in the summer crowd himself; but he knew the +Perritons were influential people in the social world. + +With them was a majestic person the young man had never seen before. +Undoubtedly the "Lady from Poughkeepsie." Her pink countenance and +beautifully dressed gray hair showed to excellent advantage under the +black and white parasol she carried. + +She stepped eagerly before the party, calling: + +"Louise!" + +Louise Grayling raised her head and waved a welcoming hand. + +"What brings you forth so early in the morning, auntie?" she asked, her +voice ringing clearly across the sands. + +There were at least four dumfounded spectators of this meeting, and +they were all named Tapp. + +Lawford stood rooted to the sands, feeling quite as though the universe +had fallen into chaos. It was only L'Enfant Terrible who found speech. + +"Oh, my!" she cried. "What a mistake! The movie queen turns out to be +some pumpkins!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +DISCOVERIES + +Louise, knowing Aunt Euphemia so well, was immediately aware that the +haughty lady had something more than ordinarily unpleasant to +communicate. It was nothing about Uncle Amazon and the Shell Road +store; some other wind of mischance had ruffled her soul. + +But the girl ignored Aunt Euphemia's signals for several minutes; until +she made herself, indeed, more familiar with the manner and personal +attributes of these new acquaintances. There was a Miss Perriton of +about her own age whom she liked at first sight. Two or three men of +the party were clean-cut and attractive fellows. Despite the fact that +their cottage had been so recently opened for the season, the Perritons +had already assembled a considerable house party. + +"Louise, I wish to talk to you," at last said Mrs. Conroth grimly. + +"True," sighed her niece. "And how extremely exact you always are in +your use of the language, auntie. You never wish to talk _with_ me. +_You_ will do all the talking as usual, I fear." + +"You are inclined to be saucy," bruskly rejoined Aunt Euphemia. "As +your father is away I feel more deeply my responsibility in this +matter. You are a wayward girl--you always have been." + +"You don't expect me to agree with you on that point, do you, auntie?" +Louise asked sweetly. + +Mrs. Conroth ignored the retort, continuing: "I am not amazed, after +seeing your surroundings at the Silt place, that you should become +familiar with these common longshore characters. But this that I have +just learned--only this forenoon in fact--astonishes me beyond measure; +it does, indeed!" + +"Let me be astonished, too, auntie. I love a surprise," drawled her +niece. + +"Where were you yesterday?" demanded Aunt Euphemia sharply. + +Louise at once thought she knew what was coming. She smiled as she +replied: "Out fishing." + +"And with whom, may I ask?" + +"With Betty Gallup, Uncle Abram's housekeeper." + +"But the man?" + +"Oh! Mr. Tapp, you mean? A very pleasant young man, auntie." + +"That is what I was told, Louise," her aunt said mournfully. "With +young Tapp. And you have been seen with him frequently. It is being +remarked by the whole colony. Of course, you can mean nothing by this +intimacy. It arises from your thoughtlessness, I presume. You must +understand that he is not--er----Well, the Tapps are not of our set, +Louise." + +"My goodness, no!" laughed the girl cheerfully. "The Tapps are real +Cape Codders, I believe." + +Aunt Euphemia raised her eyebrows and her lorgnette together. "I do +not understand you, I fear. What the Tapps are by blood, I do not +know. But they are not in society at all--not at all!" + +"Not in society?" repeated Louise, puzzled indeed. + +"Scarcely. Of course, as Mrs. Perriton says, the way the cottagers are +situated here at The Beaches, the Tapps _must_ be treated with a +certain friendliness. That quite impossible 'I. Tapp,' as he +advertises himself, owns all the Point and might easily make it very +disagreeable for the rest of the colony if he so chose." + +She stopped because of the expression on her niece's countenance. + +"What _do_ you mean?" Louise asked. "Who--who are these Tapps?" + +"My dear child! Didn't you know? Was I blaming you for a fault of +which you were not intentionally guilty? See how wrong you are to go +unwarned and unaccompanied to strange places and into strange company. +I thought you were merely having a mild flirtation with that young man +in the full light of understanding." + +Louise controlled her voice and her countenance with an effort. "Tell +me, Aunt Euphemia," she repeated, "just who Lawford Tapp is?" + +"His father is a manufacturer of cheap candies. He is advertised far +and wide as 'I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King.' Fancy! I presume +you are quite right; they probably were nothing more than clam diggers +originally. The wife and daughters are extremely raw; no other word +expresses it. And that house! Have you seen it close to? There was +never anything quite so awful built outside an architect's nightmare." + +"They own Tapp Point? _That_ is Lawford's home? Those girls are his +sisters?" Louise murmured almost breathlessly. + +"Whom _did_ you take that young man to be, Louise?" + +"A fisherman's son," confessed her niece, in a very small voice. And +at that Aunt Euphemia all but fainted. + +But Louise would say nothing more--just then. On the approach of some +of her friends, Mrs. Conroth was forced to put a cap upon her vexation, +and bid her niece good-day as sweetly as though she had never dreamed +of boxing her ears. + +Louise climbed the nearest stairs to the summit of the bluff. She felt +she could not meet Lawford at this time, and he was between her and the +moving picture actors. + +Within the past few hours several things that had seemed stable in +Louise Grayling's life had been shaken. + +She had accepted in the very first of her acquaintanceship with Lawford +Tapp the supposition that his social position was quite inferior to her +own. She was too broadly democratic to hold that as an insurmountable +barrier between them. + +Her disapproval of the young man grew out of her belief in his identity +as a mere "hired man" of the wealthy owner of the villa on the Point. +She had considered that a man who was so intelligent and well educated +and at the same time so unambitious was lacking in those attributes of +character necessary to make him a success in life. + +His love for the open--for the sea and shore and all that pertained to +them--coincided exactly with Louise's own aspirations. She considered +it all right that her father and herself spent much of their time as +Lawford spent his. Only, daddy-prof often added to the sum-total of +human knowledge by his investigations, and sometimes added to their +financial investments through his work as well. + +Until now she had considered Lawford Tapp's tendencies toward living +such an irresponsible existence as all wrong--for him. The rather +exciting information she had just gained changed her mental attitude +toward the young man entirely. + +Louise gave no consideration whatsoever to Aunt Euphemia's snobbish +stand in the matter of Lawford's social position. Professor Grayling +had laughingly said that Euphemia chose to ignore the family's small +beginnings in America. True, the English Graylings possessed a crest +and a pedigree as long as the moral law. But in America the family had +begun by being small tradespeople and farmers. + +Of course, Louise considered, Aunt Euphemia would be very unpleasant +and bothersome about this matter. Louise had hoped to escape all that +for the summer by fleeing to Cap'n Abe's store at Cardhaven. + +However (and the girl's lips set firmly) she was determined to take her +own gait--to stand upon her own opinion--to refuse to be swerved from +her chosen course by any consideration. Lawford Tapp was in a +financial situation to spend his time in the improvement of his body +and mind without regard to money considerations. Louise foresaw that +they were going to have a delightful time together along the shore +here, until daddy-prof came home in the fall. And then---- + +She saw no such cloud upon the horizon as Lawford saw. Louise +acknowledged the existence of nothing--not even Aunt Euphemia's +opposition--which could abate the happiness she believed within her +grasp. + +She admitted that her interest in Lawford had risen far above the mark +of mere friendly feeling. When she had seen him sinking the day +before, and in peril of his life, she knew beyond peradventure that his +well-being and safety meant more to her than anything else in the world. + +Now she was only anxious to have him learn that she instead of Betty +had leaped into the sea after him. She would avoid him no more. Only +she did not wish to meet him there on the beach before all those +idlers. Louise feared that if she did so, she would betray her +happiness. She thrilled with it--she was obsessed with the thought +that there was nothing, after all, to separate Lawford and herself! + +Yet the day passed without his coming to the store on the Shell Road. +Louise still felt some disturbance of mind regarding Cap'n Amazon. She +kept away from him as much as possible, for she feared that she might +be tempted to blurt out just what she thought of his ridiculous stories. + +She did not like to hear Betty Gallup utter her diatribes against the +master mariner; although in secret she was inclined to accept as true +many of the "able seaman's" strictures upon Cap'n Amazon's character. + +It was really hard when she was in his presence to think of him as an +audacious prevaricator--and perhaps worse. He was so kindly in his +manner and speech to her. His brisk consideration for her comfort at +all times--his wistful glances for Jerry, the ancient canary, and the +tenderness he showed the bird--even his desire to placate Diddimus, the +tortoise-shell cat--all these things withstood the growing ill-opinion +being fostered in Louise Grayling's mind. Who and what was this +mysterious person calling himself Cap'n Amazon Silt? + +She had, too, a desire to know just how many of those weird stories he +told were filched from Cap'n Abe's accumulation of nautical literature. +When Cap'n Amazon had gained access to the chest of books Louise could +not imagine; but the fact remained that he had at least two of the +stories pat. + +Louise had promised to spend the evening at the Perritons, and did so; +but she returned to Cap'n Abe's store early and did not invite her +escort in, although he was a youth eager to taste the novelty of being +intimate with "one of these old Cape Codders," as he expressed it. + +"No," she told young Malcolm Standish firmly. "Uncle Amazon is not to +be made a peepshow of by the idle rich of The Beaches. Besides, from +your own name, you should be a descendant of Miles Standish, and blood +relation to these Cape Codders yourself. And Uncle Amazon and Uncle +Abram are fine old gentlemen." She said it boldly, whether she could +believe it about Cap'n Amazon or not. "I will not play showman." + +"Oh, say! Ford Tapp comes here. I saw his car standing outside the +other evening." + +"Mr. Tapp," Louise explained calmly, "comes in the right spirit. He is +a friend of the--ahem--family. He is well known to Cap'n Abe who owns +the store and has made himself acquainted with Cap'n Amazon over the +counter." + +"And how has he made himself so solid with you, Miss Grayling?" +Standish asked impudently. + +"By his gentlemanly behavior, and because he knows a deal more about +boat-sailing and the shores than I know," she retorted demurely. + +"Leave it to me!" exclaimed Malcolm Standish. "I am going to learn +navigation and fishology at once." + +"But--don't you think you may be too late?" she asked him, running up +the steps. "Good-night, Mr. Standish!" + +Upon going indoors she did not find Cap'n Amazon. The lamp was burning +in the living-room, but he was not there and the store was dark. +Louise mounted the stairs, rather glad of his absence; but when she +came to the top of the flight she saw the lamplight streaming through +the open door of her uncle's bedroom. Diddimus, with waving tail, was +just advancing into the "cabin," as Cap'n Amazon called the chamber he +occupied. + +Knowing that he particularly objected to having any of his possessions +disturbed, and fearing that Diddimus might do some mischief there, +Louise followed the tortoise-shell, calling to him: + +"Come out of there! Come out instantly, Diddimus! What do you mean by +venturing in where we are all forbidden to enter? Don't you know, +Diddimus, that only fools dare venture where angels fear to tread? +Scat!" + +Something on the washstand caught Louise's glance. In the bottom of +the washbowl was the stain of a dark brown liquid. Beside it stood a +bottle the label of which she could read from the doorway. + +She caught her breath, standing for half a minute as though entranced. +Diddimus, hearing a distant footstep, and evidently suspecting it, +whisked past Louise out of the room. + +There were other articles on the washstand that claimed the girl's +notice; but it was to the bottle labeled "Walnut Stain" that her gaze +returned. She crept away to her own room, lit her lamp, and did not +even see Cap'n Amazon Silt again that night. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +SHOCKING NEWS + +"Ford Tapp was here last night," Cap'n Amazon told Louise at the +breakfast table. "I cal'late he was lookin' for you, though he didn't +just up an' say so. Seemed worried like for fear't you wouldn't have a +good opinion of him." + +"Mercy! what has he done?" cried the girl laughing, for even the sound +of Lawford's name made her glad. + +"Seems it's what he ain't done. What's all this 'bout your jumpin' +overboard t'other day and savin' him from drownin'?" and the mariner +fairly beamed upon her. + +"Oh, uncle, you mustn't believe everything you hear!" + +"No? But Bet Gallup says 'tis so. You air a hi-mighty plucky girl, I +guess. I allus have thought so--and so did Abe. But I kind of feel as +though I'm sort o' responsible for your safety an' well-bein' while you +air here, and I can't countenance no such actions." + +"Now, uncle!" + +"Fellers like Ford Tapp air as plenty as horse-briers in a sand lot; +but girls like you ain't made often, I cal'late. Next time that feller +has to be rescued, you let Bet Gallup do it." + +She knew Cap'n Amazon well enough now to see that his roughness was +assumed. His eyes were moist as his gaze rested on her face, and he +blew his nose noisily at the end of his speech. + +"You take keer o' yourself, Louise," he added huskily. "If anything +should happen to you, what--what would Abe say?" + +The depth of his feeling for her--so plainly and so unexpectedly +displayed--halted Louise in her already formed intention. She had +arisen on this morning, determined to "have it out" with Cap'n Amazon +Silt. On several points she wished to be enlightened--felt that she +had a right to demand an explanation. + +For she was quite positive that Cap'n Amazon was not at all what he +claimed to be. His actual personality was as yet a mystery to her; but +she was positive on this point: He was _not_ Captain Amazon Silt, +master mariner and rover of the seas. He was an entirely different +person, and Louise desired to know what he meant by this masquerade. + +His seamanship, his speech, his masterful manner, were assumed. And in +the matter of his related adventures the girl was confident that they +were mere repetitions of what he had read. + +Now Louise suddenly remembered how Cap'n Abe had welcomed her here at +the old store, and how cheerfully and tenderly this piratical looking +substitute for the storekeeper had assumed her care. No relative or +friend could have been kinder to her than Cap'n Amazon. + +How could she, then, stand before him and say: "Cap'n Amazon, you are +an impostor. You have assumed a character that is not your own. You +tell awful stories about adventures that never befell you. What do you +mean by it all? And, in conclusion and above all, _Where is Cap'n +Abe_?" + +This had been Louise's intention when she came downstairs on this +morning. The nagging of Betty Gallup, the gossip of the other +neighbors, the wild suspicions whispered from lip to lip did not +influence her so much. It was what she had herself discovered the +evening before in the captain's "cabin" that urged her on. + +Now Cap'n Amazon's display of tenderness "took all the wind out of her +sails," as Betty Gallup would have said. + +Louise watched him stirring about the living-room, chirruping to old +Jerry and thrusting his finger into the cage for the bird to hop upon +it, and finally shuffling off into the store. She hesitatingly +followed him. She desired to speak, but could not easily do so. And +now Cap'n Joab Beecher was before her. + +Amiel Perdue had been uptown and brought down the early mail, of which +the most important piece was always the Boston morning paper. Cap'n +Joab had helped himself to this and was already unfolding it. + +"What's in the _Globe_ paper, Joab?" asked Cap'n Amazon. "You +millionaires 'round here git more time to read it than ever _I_ do, I +vum!" + +"It don't cost you nothin' to have us read it," said Cap'n Joab easily. +"The news is all here arter we git through." + +"Uh-huh! I s'pose so. I'd ought to thank ye, I don't dispute, for +keepin' the paper from feelin' lonesome. + +"I dunno why Abe takes it, anyway, 'cept to foller the sailin's and +arrivals at the port o' Boston--'nless he finds more time to read than +ever I do. I ain't ever been so busy in my life as I be in this +store--'nless it was when I shipped a menagerie for a feller at a Dutch +Guinea port and his monkeys broke out o' their cages when we was two +days at sea and they tried to run the ship. + +"That was some v'y'ge, as the feller said," continued Cap'n Amazon, +getting well under way as he lit his after-breakfast pipe. "Them +monkeys kep' all the crew on the jump and the afterguard scurcely got a +meal in peace, I was----" + +"Belay there!" advised Cap'n Joab, with disgust. "Save that yarn for +the dog watch. What was it ye said that craft was named Cap'n Abe +sailed in?" + +Cap'n Amazon stopped in his story-telling and was silent for an +instant. Louise, who had stood at the inner doorway listening, turned +to go, when she heard the substitute storekeeper finally say: + +"_Curlew_, out o' Boston." + +The name caught the girl's instant attention and she felt suddenly +apprehensive. + +"Here's news o' her," Cap'n Joab said in a hushed voice. "And it ain't +good news, Cap'n Silt." + +"What d'ye mean?" asked the latter. + +"Report from Fayal. A Portugee fisherman's picked up and brought in a +boat with 'Curlew' painted on her stern, and he saw spars and wreckage +driftin' near the empty boat. There's been a hurricane out there. +It--it looks bad, Cap'n Silt." + +Before the latter could speak again Louise was at his side and had +seized his tattooed arm. + +"Uncle Amazon!" she gasped. "Not the _Curlew_? Didn't I tell you +before? That is the schooner daddy-prof's party sailed upon. Can +there be two Curlews?" + +"My soul and body!" exclaimed Cap'n Joab. + +It was Cap'n Amazon who kept his head. + +"Not likely to be two craft of the same name and register--no, my +dear," he said, patting her hand. "But don't take this so much to +heart. It's only rumor. A dozen things might have happened to set +that boat adrift. Ain't that so, Cap'n Joab?" + +Cap'n Joab swallowed hard and nodded; but his wind-bitten face +displayed much distress. "I had no idee the gal's father was aboard +that schooner with Cap'n Abe." + +"Why, sure! I forgot it for a minute," Cap'n Amazon said cheerfully. +"There, there, my dear. Don't take on so. Abe's with your father, if +so be anything has happened the _Curlew_; and Abe'll take keer o' him. +Sure he will! Ain't he a Silt? And lemme tell you a Silt never backed +down when trouble riz up to face him. No, sir!" + +"But if they have been wrecked?" groaned Louise. "Both father and +Uncle Abram. What shall we do about it, Uncle Amazon?" + +In this moment of trouble she clung to the master mariner as her single +recourse. And impostor or no, he who called himself Amazon Silt did +not fail her. + +"There ain't nothing much we can rightly do at this minute, Niece +Louise," he told her firmly, still patting her morsel of a hand in his +huge one. "We'll watch the noospapers and I'll send a telegraph +dispatch to the ship news office in N'York and git just the latest word +there is 'bout the _Curlew_. + +"You be brave, girl--you be brave. Abe an' Professor Grayling being +together, o' course they'll get along all right. One'll help t'other. +Two pullin' on the sheet can allus h'ist the sail quicker than one. +Keep your heart up, Louise." + +She looked at him strangely for a moment. The tears frankly standing +in his eyes, the quivering muscles of his face, his expression of keen +sorrow for her fears--all impressed her. She suddenly kissed him in +gratitude, impostor though she knew him to be, and then ran away. +Cap'n Joab hissed across the counter: + +"Ye don't _know_ that Cap'n Abe's on that there craft, Am'zon Silt!" + +"Well, if I don't--an' if you don't--don't lemme hear you makin' any +cracks about it 'round this store so't she'll hear ye," growled Cap'n +Amazon, boring into the very soul of the flustered Joab with his fierce +gaze. + +Louise did not hear the expression of these doubts; but she suffered +uncertainties in her own mind. She longed to talk with somebody to +whom she could tell all that was in her thoughts. Aunt Euphemia was +out of the question, of course; although she must reveal to her the +possible peril menacing Professor Grayling. Betty Gallup could not be +trusted, Louise knew. And the day dragged by its limping hours without +Lawford Tapp's coming near the store on the Shell Road. + +This last Louise could not understand. But there was good reason for +Lawford's effacing himself at this time. In the empire of the Taffy +King there was revolution, and this trouble dated from the hour on the +previous morning when Louise had met and greeted Aunt Euphemia on the +beach. + +The Tapp sisters may have been purse-proud and a little vulgar--from +Aunt Euphemia's point of view, at least--but they did not lack acumen. +They had seen and heard the greeting of Louise by the Ferritons and the +extremely haughty Lady from Poughkeepsie, and knew that Louise must be +"a somebody." + +Cecile, young and bold enough to be direct, was not long in making +discoveries. With a rather blank expression of countenance L'Enfant +Terrible, for once almost speechless, beckoned her sisters to one side. + +"Pestiferous infant," drawled Marian, "tell us who she is?" + +"Is she a Broadway star?" asked Prue. + +"Oh, she's a star all right," Cecile said, with disgust in her tone. +"We've been a trio of sillies, ignoring _her_. Fordy's fallen on both +feet--only he's too dense to know it, I s'pose." + +"Tell us!" commanded Prue. "Who is she?" + +"She's no screen actress," answered the gloomy Cecile. + +"Who is she, then?" gasped Marian. + +"Sue Perriton says she is Mrs. Conroth's niece, and Mrs. Conroth is all +the Society with a capital letter there _is_. Now, figure it out," +said Cecile tartly. "If you smarties had taken her up right at the +start----" + +"But we didn't kno-o-ow!" wailed Marian. + +"Go on!" commanded Prue grimly. + +"Why, Miss Grayling's father is a big scientist, or something, at +Washington. Her mother happened to be born here on the Cape; she was a +Card. This girl is just stopping over there with that old fellow who +keeps the store--her half-uncle--for a lark. What do you know about +_that_?" + +"My word!" murmured Marian. + +"And Ford------" + +"He's mamma's precious white-haired boy _this_ time," declared the +slangy Cecile. + +"Do--do you suppose he knew it all the time?" questioned Marian. + +"Never! Just like old Doc Ambrose says, there isn't much above Fordy's +ears but solid bone," scoffed L'Enfant Terrible. + +"Wait till ma hears of this," murmured Prue, and they proceeded to beat +a retreat for home that their mother might be informed of the wonder. +Lawford was already out of sight. + +"How really fortunate Fordy is," murmured Mrs. Tapp, having received +the shocking news and been revived after it. "Fancy! Mrs. Conroth's +own niece!" + +"It's going to put us in just _right_ with the best of the crowd at The +Beaches," Prue announced. "We've only been tolerated so far." + +"Oh, Prudence!" admonished Mrs. Tapp. + +"That's the truth," her second daughter repeated bluntly. "We might as +well admit it. Now, if Fordy only puts this over with this Miss +Grayling, they'll _have_ to take us up; for it's plain to be seen they +won't drop Miss Grayling, no matter whom she marries." + +"If Fordy doesn't miss the chance," muttered Cecile. + +"He can't!" + +"He mustn't!" + +"He wouldn't be mean enough to drop her just to spite us!" wailed +Marian. + +"No," said Prue. "He won't do that. Ford isn't a butterfly. You must +admit that he's as steadfast as a rock in his likes and dislikes. Once +he gets a thing in that head of his------Well! I'm sure he's fond of +Miss Grayling." + +"But that big actor?" suggested Cecile. + +"Surely," gasped Mrs. Tapp, "the girl cannot fancy such a person as +_that_?" + +"My! you should just see Judson Bane," sighed Cecile. + +"He's the matinee girl's delight," drawled Marian. "Ford has the +advantage, however, if he will take it. He's too modest." + +Mrs. Tapp's face suddenly paled and she clasped a plump hand to her +bosom. "Oh, girls!" she gasped. + +"_Now_ what, mother?" begged Prue. + +"What will I. Tapp say?" + +"Oh, bother father!" scoffed L'Enfant Terrible. + +"He doesn't care what Ford does," Prue said. + +"Does he ever really care what any of us does?" observed Marian, yet +looking doubtfully at her mother. + +"You don't understand, girls!" wailed Mrs. Tapp, wringing her hands. +"You know he made me write and invite that Johnson girl here." + +"Oh, Dot Johnson!" said Prue. "Well, she is harmless." + +"She's _not_ harmless," declared Mrs. Tapp. "I. Tapp ordered me to get +her here because, he wants Ford to marry her." + +"Marry Dot Johnson?" gasped Prue. + +"Oh, bluey!" ejaculated the slangy Cecile. + +"But of course Ford won't do it," drawled Marian. + +"Then he means to disinherit poor Ford! Oh, yes, he will!" sobbed the +lady. "They've had words about it already. You know very well that +when once I. Tapp makes up his mind to do a thing, he does it." And +there she broke down utterly, with the girls looking at each other in +silent horror. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +BETWEEN THE FIRES + +The discovery of Louise's identity was but a mild shock to Lawford +after all. His preconceived prejudice against the ordinary feminine +member of "The Profession" had, during his intercourse with Cap'n Abe's +niece, been lulled to sleep. Miss Louder and Miss Noyes more nearly +embodied his conception of actresses--nice enough young women, perhaps, +but entirely different from Louise Grayling. + +Lawford forgave the latter for befooling him in the matter of her +condition in life; indeed, he realized that he had deceived himself. +He had accepted the gossip of the natives--Milt Baker was its +originator, he remembered--as true, and so had believed Louise Grayling +was connected with the moving picture company. + +Her social position made no difference to him. At first sight Lawford +Tapp had told himself she was the most charming woman he had ever seen. + +For a college graduate of twenty-four he was, though unaware of the +fact, rather unsophisticated regarding women. + +He had given but slight attention to girls. Perhaps they interested +him so little because of his three sisters. + +He remembered now that he and Dot Johnson had been pretty good "pals" +before he had gone to college, and while Dot was still in middy blouse +and wore her hair in plaits. + +Now, as he walked along the beach and thought of the daughter of his +father's partner, he groaned. He, as well as the women of the family, +knew well the Taffy King's obstinacy. + +His streak of determination had enabled I. Tapp to reach the pinnacle +of business wealth and influence. When he wanted a thing he went after +it, and he got it! + +If his father was really determined that Lawford should marry Dot +Johnson, and her parents were willing, the young man had an almost +uncanny feeling that the candy manufacturer's purpose would be +accomplished. + +And yet Lawford knew that such was a coward-nature feeling. Why should +he give up the only thing he had ever really wanted in life--so it +seemed to him now--because of any third person's obstinacy? + +"Of course, she won't have me anyway," an inner voice told him. And, +after a time, Lawford realized that that, too, was his coward-nature +speaking. + +On the other hand: "Why should I give her up? Further, why should I +marry Dot Johnson against my will, whether I can get Louise Grayling or +not?" + +This thought electrified him. His easy-going, placid disposition had +made a coward of him. In his heart and soul he was now ready to fight +for what he desired. It was now not merely the question of winning +Louise's love. Whether he could win her or not his determination grew +to refuse to obey his father's command. He revolted, right then and +there. Let his father keep his money. He, Lawford Tapp, would go to +work in any case and would support himself. + +This was no small resolve on the part of the millionaire's son. He +could not remember of ever having put his hand into an empty pocket. +His demands on the paternal purse had been more reasonable than most +young men of his class perhaps, because of his naturally simple tastes +and the life he had led outside the classroom. Without having "gone +in" for athletics at Cambridge he was essentially an out-of-door man. + +Nevertheless, to stand in open revolt against I. Tapp's command was a +very serious thing to do. Lawford appreciated his own shortcomings in +the matter of intellect. He knew he was not brilliant enough to make +his wit entirely serve him for daily bread--let alone cake and other +luxuries. If his father disinherited him he must verily expect to earn +his bread by the sweat of his brow. + +It was that evening, after his fruitless call at Cap'n Abe's store, +that the young man met his father and had it out. Lawford came back to +Tapp Point in the motor boat. As he walked up from the dock there was +a sudden eruption of voices from the house, a door banged, and the +Taffy King began exploding verbal fireworks as he crunched the gravel +under foot. + +"I'll show him! Young upstart! Settin' the women on me! Ha! Thinks +he can do as he pleases forever and ever, amen! I'll show him!" + +Just then he came face to face with "the young upstart." I. Tapp +seized his son's arm with a vicious if puny grasp and yelled: + +"What d'you mean by it?" + +"Mean by what, dad?" asked the boy with that calmness that always +irritated I. Tapp. + +"Settin' your ma and the girls on me? They all lit on me at once. All +crying together some foolishness about your marrying this Grayling girl +and putting the family into society." + +"Into society?" murmured Lawford. "I--I don't get you." + +"You know what they're after," cried the candy manufacturer. "If a +dynamite bomb would blow in the walls of that exclusive Back Bay set, +they'd use one. And now it turns out this girl's right in the +swim------I thought you said she was a picture actress?" + +"I thought she was," stammered Lawford. + +"Bah! You thought? You never thought a thing in your life of any +consequence." + +The young man was silent at this thrust. His silence made I. Tapp even +angrier. + +"But it makes no difference--no difference at all, I tell you. If she +was the queen of Sheba I'd say the same," went on the candy +manufacturer wildly. "I've said you shall marry Dorothy Johnson--I've +always meant you should; and marry her you shall!" + +"No, dad, I'm not going to do any such thing." + +Suddenly the Taffy King quieted down. He struggled to control his +voice and his shaking hands. A deadly calm mantled his excitement and +his eyes glittered as he gazed up at his tall son. + +"Is this a straight answer, Lawford? Or are you just talking to hear +yourself talk?" he asked coldly. + +"I am determined not to marry Dot." + +"And you'll marry that other girl?" + +"If she'll have me. But whether or no I won't be forced into marriage +with a girl I do not love." + +"Love!" exploded the Taffy King. Then in a moment he was calm again, +only for that inward glow of rage. "People don't really love each +other until after marriage. Love is born of propinquity and thrives on +usage and custom. You only _think_ you love this girl. It's after two +people have been through a good deal together that they learn what love +means." + +Lawford was somewhat startled by this philosophy; but he was by no +means convinced. + +"Whether or no," he repeated, "I think I should have the same right +that you had of choosing a wife." + +His father brushed this aside without comment. "Do you understand what +this means--if you are determined to disobey me?" he snarled. + +"I suppose you won't begrudge me a bite and sup till I find a job, +dad?" the son said with just a little tremor in his voice. "I know I +haven't really anything of my own. You have done everything for me. +Your money bought the very clothes I stand in. You gave me the means +to buy the _Merry Andrew_. I realize that nothing I have called my own +actually belongs to me because I did not earn it----" + +"As long as you are amenable to discipline," put in his father +gloomily, "you need not feel this way." + +"But I do feel it now," said Lawford simply. "You have made me. And, +as I say, I'll need to live, I suppose, till I get going for myself." + +His father winced again. Then suddenly burst out: + +"D'you think for a minute that that society girl will stand for your +getting a job and trying to support her on your wages?" + +"She will if she loves me." + +"You poor ninny!" burst out I. Tapp. "You've got about as much idea of +women as you have of business. And where are you going to work?" + +"Well," and Lawford smiled a little whimsically, serious though the +discussion was, "I've always felt a leaning toward the candy business. +I believe I have a natural adaptability for that. Couldn't I find a +job in one of your factories, dad?" + +"You'll get no leg-up from me, unless you show you're worthy of it." + +"But you'll give me a job?" + +"I won't interfere if the superintendent of any of the factories takes +you on," growled I. Tapp. "But mind you, he'll hire you on his own +responsibility--he'll understand that from me. But I tell you right +now this is no time to apply for a job in a candy factory. We're +discharging men--not hiring them." + +"I will apply for the first opening," announced the son. + +I. Tapp stamped away along the graveled walk, leaving the young man +alone. Lawford's calmness was as irritating to him as sea water to a +raw wound. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +GRAY DAYS + +Those days were dark for Louise Grayling; on her shoulders she bore +double trouble. Anxiety for her father's safety made her sufficiently +unhappy; but in addition her mind must cope with the mystery of Cap'n +Amazon's identity and Cap'n Abe's whereabouts. + +For she was not at all satisfied in her heart that the storekeeper had +sailed from the port of Boston on the _Curlew_; and the status of the +piratical looking Amazon Silt was by no means decided to her +satisfaction. Her discoveries in his bedroom had quite convinced the +young woman that Cap'n Amazon was in masquerade. + +His comforting words and his thoughtfulness touched her so deeply, +however, that she could not quarrel with the old man; and his +insistence that Cap'n Abe had sailed on the Curlew and would be at hand +to assist Professor Grayling if the schooner had been wrecked was +kindly meant, she knew. He scoffed at the return of Cap'n Abe's chest +as being of moment; he refused to discuss his brother's reason for +stuffing the old chest with such useless lumber as it contained. + +"Leave Abe for knowing his own business, Niece Louise. 'Tain't any of +our consarn," was the most he would say about that puzzling +circumstance. + +Louise watched the piratical figure of Cap'n Amazon shuffling around +the store or puttering about certain duties of housekeeping that he +insisted upon doing himself, with a wonder that never waned. + +His household habits were those which she supposed Cap'n Abe to have +had. She wondered if all sailors were as neat and as fussy as he. He +still insisted upon doing much of the cooking; it was true that he had +good reason to doubt Betty Gallup's ability to cook. + +When there were no customers in the store Louise often sat there with +Cap'n Amazon, with either a book or her sewing in her hand. Sometimes +they would not speak for an hour, while the substitute storekeeper +"made up the books," which was a serious task for him. + +He seemed normally dexterous in everything else, but he wrote with his +left hand--an angular, upright chirography which, Louise thought, +showed unmistakably that he was unfamiliar with the use of the pen. +"Writing up the log" he called this clerkly task, and his awkward +looking characters in the ledger were in great contrast to Cap'n Abe's +round, flowing hand. + +For several days following the discovery in the "_Globe_ paper" of the +notice about the _Curlew_, Louise Grayling and Cap'n Amazon lived a +most intimate existence. She would not allow Betty Gallup to criticise +the captain even slightly within her hearing. + +They received news from New York which was no news at all. The Boston +Chamber of Commerce had heard no further word of the schooner. Louise +and the captain could only hope. + +The world of seafaring is so filled with mysteries like this of the +_Curlew_, that Louise knew well that no further word might ever be +received of the vessel. + +Cap'n Amazon rang the changes daily--almost hourly--upon sea escapes +and rescues. He related dozens of tales (of course with the personal +note in most), showing how ships' companies had escaped the threat of +disaster in marvelous and almost unbelievable ways. + +Louise had not the heart now to stop this flow of narrative by telling +him bluntly that she doubted the authenticity of his tales. Nor would +she look into the old books again to search out the originals of the +stories which flowed so glibly from his lips. + +Who and what he could really be puzzled Louise quite as much as before; +yet she had not the heart to probe the mystery with either question or +personal scrutiny. The uncertainty regarding the _Curlew_ and those on +board filled so much of the girl's thought that little else disturbed +her. + +Save one thing. She desired to see Lawford Tapp and talk with him. +But Lawford did not appear at the store on the Shell Road. + +Mr. Bane came frequently to call. He was an eager listener to Cap'n +Amazon's stories and evidently enjoyed the master mariner hugely. +Several of the young people from the cottages along The Beaches called +on Louise; but if the girl desired to see Aunt Euphemia she had to go +to the Perritons, or meet the Lady from Poughkeepsie in her walks along +the sands. Aunt Euphemia could not countenance Cap'n Amazon in the +smallest particular. + +"It is a mystery to me, Louise--a perfect mystery--how you are able to +endure that awful creature and his coarse stories. That dreadful tale +of the albatross sticks in my mind--I cannot forget it," she +complained. "And his appearance! No more savage looking man did I +ever behold. I wonder you are not afraid to live in the same house +with him." + +Louise would not acknowledge that she had ever been fearful of Cap'n +Amazon. Her own qualms of terror had almost immediately subsided. The +news from the _Curlew_, indeed, seemed to have smothered the +neighborhood criticism of the captain, if all suspicions had not +actually been lulled to rest. + +Cap'n Amazon spoke no more of his brother, save in connection with +Professor Grayling's peril, than he had before. He seemed to have no +fears for Cap'n Abe. "Abe can look out for himself," was a frequent +expression with him. But Cap'n Amazon never spoke as though he held +the danger of Louise's father in light regard. + +"I'll give 'em a fortnight to be heard from," Cap'n Joab Beecher said +confidently. "Then if ye don't hear from Cap'n Abe, or the noospapers +don't print nothin' more about the schooner, I shall write her down in +the log as lost with all hands." + +"Don't you be too sartain sure 'bout it," growled Cap'n Amazon. +"There's many a wonder of the sea, as you an' I know, Joab Beecher. +Look at what happened the crew of the _Mailfast_, clipper built, out o' +Baltimore--an' that was when you an' I, Cap'n Joab, was sharpenin' our +milk teeth on salt hoss." + +"What happened her, Cap'n Am'zon?" queried Milt Baker, reaching for a +fresh piece of Brown Mule, and with a wink at the other idlers. "Did +she go down, or did she go up?" + +"Both," replied Cap'n Amazon unruffled. "She went up in smoke _an'_ +flame, an' finally sunk when she'd burned to the Plimsol mark. + +"Every man of the crew and afterguard got safely into two boats. This +wasn't far to the westward of Fayal--in mebbe somewhere near the same +spot where that Portugee fisherman reports pickin' up the _Curlew's_ +boat. + +"When the _Mailfast_ burned the sea was calm; but in six hours a sudden +gale came up and drove the two boats into the southwest. They wasn't +provisioned or watered for a long v'y'ge, and they had to run for it a +full week, ev'ry mile reeled off takin' them further an' further from +the islands, and further and further off the reg'lar course of +shipping." + +"Where'd they wind up at, Cap'n Am'zon?" asked Milt. + +"Couldn't hit nothin' nearer'n the Guineas on that course," growled +Cap'n Joab. + +"There you're wrong," the substitute storekeeper said. "They struck +seaweed--acres an' acres of it--square miles of it--everlastin' +seaweed!" + +"Sargasso Sea!" exploded Washy Gallup, wagging his toothless jaw. "I +swanny!" + +"I've heard about that place, but never seen it," said Cap'n Joab. + +"And you don't want to," declared the narrator of the incident. "It +ain't a place into which no sailorman wants to venture. The +_Mailfast's_ comp'ny--so 'tis said--was driven far into the pulpy, +grassy sea. The miles of weed wrapped 'em around like a blanket. They +couldn't row because the weed fouled the oars; and they couldn't sail +'cause the weed was so heavy. But there's a drift they say, or a +suction, or something that gradually draws a boat toward the middle of +the field." + +"Then, by golly!" exclaimed Milt Baker, "how in tarnation did they git +aout? I sh'd think anybody that every drifted into the Sargasso Sea +would be there yit." + +"P'r'aps many a ship an' many a ship's company _have_ found their grave +there," said Cap'n Amazon solemnly. "'Tis called the graveyard of +derelicts. But there's the chance of counter-storms. Before the two +boats from the _Mailfast_ were sucked down, and 'fore the crew was fair +starved, a sudden shift of wind broke up the seaweed field and they +escaped and were picked up. + +"The danger of the Sargasso threatens all sailin' ships in them seas. +Steam vessels have a better chance; but many a craft that's turned up +missin' has undoubtedly been swallowed by the Sargasso." + +Louise, who heard this discussion from the doorway of the store, could +not fail to be impressed by it. Could the _Curlew_, with her father +and Cap'n Abe aboard, have suffered such a fate? There was an element +of probability in this tale of Cap'n Amazon's that entangled the girl's +fancy. However, the idea colored the old man's further imagination in +another way. + +"Sargasso Sea," he said reflectively, between puffs of his pipe, after +the idlers had left the store. "Yes, 'tis a fact, Niece Louise. +That's what Abe drifted in for years--a mort of seaweed and pulp." + +"What _do_ you mean, Uncle Amazon?" gasped the girl, shocked by his +words. + +"This," the master mariner said, with a wide sweep of his arm taking in +the cluttered store. "This was Abe's Sargasso Sea--and it come nigh to +smotherin' him and bearin' him down by the head." + +"Oh! you mean his life was so confined here?" + +Cap'n Amazon nodded, "I wonder he bore it so long." + +"I am afraid Uncle Abram is getting all he wants of adventure now," +Louise said doubtfully. + +Cap'n Amazon stared at her unwinkingly for a minute. Then all he said +was: + +"I wonder?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +AUNT EUPHEMIA MAKES A POINT + +Lawford Tapp did not appear at the store and Louise continued to wonder +about it; but she shrank from asking Betty Gallup, who might have been +able to inform her why the young man did not come again. However, on +one bright morning the gray roadster stopped before the door and +Louise, from her window, saw that the three Tapp girls were in the car. + +She thought they had come to make purchases, for the store on the Shell +Road was often a port of call for the automobiles of the summer +colonists. Suddenly, however, she realized that L'Enfant Terrible was +standing up in the driver's seat and beckoning to her. + +"Oh, Miss Grayling!" shrilled Cecile. "May I come up? I want to speak +to you." + +"No," commanded Prue firmly, preparing to step out of the car. "I will +speak to Miss Grayling myself." + +"I don't see why she can't come down," drawled Marian, the languid. +"_I_ have a message for her." + +"Why!" ejaculated the surprised Louise, "if you all wish to see me I'd +better come down, hadn't I?" and she left the window at once. + +She had remarked on the few occasions during the last few days that she +had met the Tapp sisters on the beach, that they had seemed desirous of +being polite to her--very different from their original attitude; but +so greatly taken up had Louise's mind been with more important matters +that she had really considered this change but little. + +Therefore it was with some curiosity that she descended the stairs and +went around by the yard gate to the side of the automobile. + +"Dear Miss Grayling," drawled Marian, putting out a gloved hand. +"Pardon the informality. But mother wants to know if you will help us +pour tea at our lawn fete and dance Friday week? It would be so nice +of you." + +Louise smiled quietly. But she was not a stickler for social +proprieties; so, although she knew the invitation savored of that +"rawness" of which her aunt had remarked, she was inclined to meet +Lawford's family halfway. She said: + +"If you really want me I shall be glad to do what I can to make your +affair a success. Tell your mother I will come--and thank you." + +"So kind of you," drawled Marian. + +But Cecile was not minded to let the interview end so tamely--or so +suddenly. + +"Say!" she exclaimed, "did Ford see you, Miss Grayling, before he went +away?" + +"He has gone away, then?" Louise repeated, and she could not keep the +color from flooding into her cheeks. + +"He wanted to see you, I'm sure," Cecile said bluntly. "But he started +off in a hurry. Had a dickens of a row with dad." + +"Cecile!" admonished Prue. "That sounds worse than it is." + +Louise looked at her curiously, though she did not ask a question. + +"Well, they did have a shindy," repeated L'Enfant Terrible. "When +daddy gets on his high horse------" + +"Ford wished to see you before he went away, Miss Grayling," broke in +Prue, with an admonitory glare at her young sister. "He told us he was +so confused that day he fell overboard from the _Merry Andrew_ that he +did not even thank you for fishing him out of the sea. It was awfully +brave of you." + +"Bully, _I_ say!" cried Cecile. + +"Really heroic," added Marian. "Mother will never get over talking +about it." + +"Oh! I wish you wouldn't," murmured Louise. "I'm glad Betty and I +saved him. Mrs. Gallup did quite as much as I----" + +"We know all that," Prue broke in quickly. "And daddy's made it up to +_her_." + +"Yes. I know. He was very liberal," Louise agreed. + +"But mercy!" cried Prue. "He can't send _you_ a check, Miss Grayling. +And we all do feel deeply grateful to you. Ford is an awfully good +sort of a chap--for a brother." + +Louise laughed outright at that. "I suppose, though never having had a +brother, I can appreciate his good qualities fully as much as you +girls," she said. "Will he be long away?" + +"That we don't know," Marian said slowly. Louise had asked the +question so lightly that Miss Tapp could not be sure there was any real +interest behind it. But Cecile, who had alighted to crank up, +whispered to Louise: + +"You know what he's gone away for? No? To get a job! He and father +have disagreed dreadfully." + +"Oh! I am so sorry," murmured Louise. She would not ask any further +questions. She was troubled, however, by this information, for +L'Enfant Terrible seemed to have said it significantly. Louise +wondered very much what had caused the quarrel between Lawford and his +father. + +She got at the heart of this mystery when she appeared at the lawn fete +to help the Tapp girls and their mother entertain. She was introduced +at that time to the Taffy King. Louise thought him rather a funny +little man, and his excitability vastly amused her. + +She caught him staring at her and scowling more than once; so, in her +direct way, she asked him what he meant by it. + +"Don't you approve at all of me, Mr. Tapp?" she asked, presenting him +with a cup of tea that he did not want. + +"Ha! Beg pardon!" ejaculated the candy manufacturer. "Did you think I +was watching you?" + +"I _know_ you were," she rejoined. "And your disapproval is marked. +Tell me my faults. Of course, I sha'n't like you if you do; but I am +curious." + +"Huh! I'd like to see what that son of mine sees in you, Miss +Grayling," he blurted out. + +"Does he see anything particular in me?" Louise queried, her color +rising, but with a twinkle in her eye. + +"He's crazy about you," said I. Tapp. + +"Oh! Is _that_ why you and he disagreed?" + +"It's going to cost him his home and his patrimony," the candy +manufacturer declared fiercely. "I won't have it, I tell you! I've +other plans for him. He's got to do as I say, or----" + +Something in the girl's face halted him at the very beginning of one of +his tirades. Positively she was laughing at him? + +"Is _that_ the reef on which you and Lawford have struck?" Louise asked +gently. "If he chooses to address attentions to me he must become +self-supporting?" + +"I'll cut him off without a cent if he marries you!" threatened I. Tapp. + +"Why," murmured Louise, "then that will be the making of him, I have no +doubt. It is the lack I have seen in his character from the beginning. +Responsibility will make a man of him." + +"Ha!" snarled I. Tapp. "How about _you_? Will you marry a poor man--a +chap like my son who, if he ever makes twenty dollars a week, will be +doing mighty well?" + +"Oh! This is so--so sudden, Mr. Tapp!" murmured Louise, dimpling. +"You are not seriously asking me to marry your son, are you?" + +"Asking you to?" exploded the excitable Taffy King, with a wild +gesture. "I forbid it! Forbid it! do you hear?" and he rushed away +from the scene of the festivities and did not appear again during the +afternoon. + +Mrs. Tapp, all of a flutter, appeared at Louise's elbow. + +"Oh, dear, Miss Grayling! What _did_ he say? He is so excitable." +She almost wept. "I hope he has said nothing to offend you?" + +Louise looked at her with a rather pitying smile. + +"Don't be worried, Mrs. Tapp," she assured her. "Really, I think your +husband is awfully amusing." + +Naturally disapproval was plainly enthroned upon Aunt Euphemia's +countenance when she saw her niece aiding in the entertainment of the +guests at the Tapp lawn fete. The Lady from Poughkeepsie had come with +the Perritons because, as she admitted, the candy manufacturer's family +must be placated to a degree. + +"But you go too far, Louise. Even good nature cannot excuse this. I +am only thankful that young man is not at home. Surely you cannot be +really interested in Lawford Tapp?" + +"Do spare my blushes," begged Louise, her palms upon her cheeks but her +eyes dancing. "Really, I haven't seen Lawford for days." + +"Really, Louise?" + +"Surely I would not deceive you, auntie," she said. "He may have lost +all his interest in me, too. He went away without bidding me good-bye." + +"Well, I am glad of that!" sighed Aunt Euphemia. "I feared it was +different. Indeed, I heard something said------Oh, well, people will +gossip so! Never mind. But these Tapps are so pushing." + +"I think Mrs. Tapp is a very pleasant woman; and the girls are quite +nice," Louise said demurely. + +"You need not have displayed your liking for them in quite this way," +objected Aunt Euphemia. "You could easily have excused yourself--the +uncertainty about your poor father would have been reason enough. I +don't know--I am not sure, indeed, but that we should go into mourning. +Of course, it would spoil the summer----" + +"Oh! Aunt Euphemia!" + +"Yes. Well, I only mentioned it. For my own part I look extremely +well in crepe." + +Louise was shocked by this speech; yet she knew that its apparent +heartlessness did not really denote the state of her aunt's mind. It +was merely bred of the lady's shallowness, and of her utterly +self-centered existence. + +That evening, long after supper and after the store lights were out, +and while Cap'n Amazon and Louise were sitting as usual in the room +behind the store, a hasty step on the porch and a rat-tat-tat upon the +side door announced a caller than whom none could have been more +unexpected. + +"Aunt Euphemia!" cried Louise, when the master mariner ushered the lady +in. "What has happened?" + +"Haven't you heard? Did you not get a letter?" demanded Mrs. Conroth. +But she kept a suspicious eye on the captain. + +"From daddy-prof?" exclaimed Louise, jumping up. + +"Yes. Mailed at Gibraltar. Nothing has happened to that vessel he is +on. That was all a ridiculous story. But there is something else, +Louise." + +"Sit down, ma'am," Cap'n Amazon was saying politely. "Do sit down, +ma'am." + +"Not in this house," declared the lady, with finality. "I do not feel +safe here. And it's not safe for you to be here, Louise, with +this--this man. You don't know who he is; nobody knows who he is. I +have just heard all about it from one of the--er--natives. Mr. Abram +Silt never had a brother that anybody in Cardhaven ever saw. There is +no Captain Amazon Silt--and never was!" + +"Oh!" gasped Louise. + +"Nor does your father say a word in his letter to me about Abram Silt +being with him aboard that vessel, the _Curlew_. Nobody knows what has +become of your uncle--the man who really owns this store. How do we +know but that this--this creature," concluded Aunt Euphemia, with +dramatic gesture, "has made away with Mr. Silt and taken over his +property?" + +"It 'ud be jest like the old pirate!" croaked a harsh voice from the +kitchen doorway, and Betty Gallup appeared, apparently ready to back up +Mrs. Conroth physically, as well as otherwise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +AT LAST + +That hour in the old-fashioned living-room behind Cap'n Abe's store was +destined to be marked indelibly upon Louise Grayling's memory. Aunt +Euphemia and Betty Gallup had both come armed for the fray. They +literally swept Louise off her feet by their vehemence. + +The effect of the challenge on Cap'n Amazon was most puzzling. As Mrs. +Conroth refused to sit down--she could talk better standing, becoming +quite oracular, in fact--the captain could not, in politeness, take his +customary chair. And he had discarded his pipe upon going to the door +to let the visitor in. + +Therefore, it seemed to Louise, the doughty captain seemed rather lost. +It was not that he displayed either surprise or fear because of Aunt +Euphemia's accusation. Merely he did not know what to do with himself +during her exhortation. + +The fact that he was taxed with a crime--a double crime, indeed--did +not seem to bother him at all. But the clatter of the women's tongues +seemed to annoy him. + +His silence and his calmness affected Mrs. Conroth and Betty Gallup +much as the store idlers had been affected when they tried to bait +him--their exasperation increased. Cap'n Amazon's utter disregard of +what they said (for Betty did her share of the talking, relieving the +Lady from Poughkeepsie when she was breathless) continued unabated. It +was a situation that, at another time, would have vastly amused Louise. + +But it was really a serious matter. Mrs. Conroth was quite as excited +as Betty. Both became vociferous in acclaiming the captain's +irresponsibility, and both accused him of having caused Cap'n Abe's +disappearance. + +"Mark my word," declared Aunt Euphemia, with her most indignant air, +"that creature is guilty--guilty of an awful crime!" + +"The old pirate! That he is!" reiterated Betty. + +"Louise, my child, come away from here at once. This is no place for a +young woman--or for any self-respecting person. Come." + +For the first time since the opening of this scene Cap'n Amazon +displayed trouble. He turned to look at Louise, and she thought his +countenance expressed apprehension--as though he feared she might go. + +"Come!" commanded Mrs. Conroth again. "This is no fit place for you; +it never _has_ been fit!" + +"Avast, there, ma'am!" growled the captain, at last stung to retort. + +"You are an old villain!" declared Aunt Euphemia. + +"He's an old pirate!" concluded Betty Gallup. Here Louise found her +voice--and she spoke with decision. + +"I shall stay just the same, aunt. I am satisfied that you all +misjudge Captain Amazon." His face--the sudden flash of gratitude in +it--thanked her. + +"Louise!" cried her aunt. + +"You better come away, Miss Lou," said Betty. "The constable'll git +that old pirate; that's what'll happen to him." + +"Stop!" exclaimed Louise. "I'll listen to no more. I do not believe +these things you say. And neither of you can prove them. I'm going to +bed. Good-night, Aunt Euphemia," and she marched out of the room. + +That closed the discussion. Cap'n Amazon bowed Mrs. Conroth politely +out of the door and Betty went with her. Louise did not get to sleep +in her chamber overhead for hours; nor did she hear the captain come +upstairs at all. + +In the morning's post there was a letter for Louise from her father--a +letter that had been delayed. It had been mailed at the same time the +one to Aunt Euphemia was sent. The _Curlew_ would soon turn her bows +Bostonward, the voyage having been successful from a scientific point +of view. Professor Grayling even mentioned the loss of a small boat in +a squall, when it had been cast adrift from the taffrail by accident. + +Betty, with face like a thundercloud, had brought the letter up to +Louise. When the girl had hastily read it through she ran down to show +it to Cap'n Amazon. She found him reading an epistle of his own, while +Cap'n Joab, Milt Baker, Washy Gallup, and several other neighbors +hovered near. + +"Yep. I got one myself," announced Cap'n Amazon. + +"Oh, captain!" + +"Yep. From Abe. Good reason why your father didn't speak of Abe in +his letter to your a'nt. Didn't in yours, did he?" + +Louise shook her head. + +"No? Listen here," Cap'n Amazon said. "'I haven't spoke to Professor +Grayling. He don't know Abe Silt from the jib-boom. Why should he? I +am a foremast hand and he lives abaft. But he is a fine man. +Everybody says so. We've had some squally weather----' + +"Well! that's nothin'. Ahem!" + +He went on, reading bits to the interested listeners now and then, and +finally handed the letter to Cap'n Joab Beecher. The latter, looking +mighty queer indeed, adjusted his spectacles and spread out the sheet. + +"Ye-as," he admitted cautiously. "That 'pears to be Cap'n Abe's +handwritin', sure 'nough." + +"Course 'tis!" squealed Washy Gallup. "As plain, as plain!" + +"Read it out," urged Milt while the captain went to wait upon a +customer. + +Louise listened with something besides curiosity. The letter was a +rambling account of the voyage of the _Curlew_, telling little directly +or exactly about the daily occurrences; but nothing in it conflicted +with what Professor Grayling had written Louise--save one thing. + +The girl realized that the arrival of this letter from Cap'n Abe had +finally punctured that bubble of suspicion against the captain that had +been blown overnight. It seemed certain and unshakable proof that the +substitute storekeeper was just whom he claimed to be, and it once and +for all put to death the idea that Cap'n Abe had not gone to sea in the +_Curlew_. + +Yet Louise had never been more puzzled since first suspicion had been +roused against Cap'n Amazon. A single sentence in her father's letter +could not be made to jibe with Cap'n Abe's epistle, and therefore she +folded up her own letter and thrust it into her pocket. In speaking of +his companions on shipboard, the professor had written: + + +"I am by far the oldest person aboard the _Curlew_, skipper included. +They are all young fellows, both for'ard and in the afterguard. Yet +they treat me like one of themselves and I am having a most enjoyable +time." + + +Cap'n Abe was surely much older than her daddy-prof! It puzzled her. +It troubled her. There was not a moment of that day when it was not +the uppermost thought in her mind. + +People came in from all around to read Cap'n Abe's letter and to +congratulate Cap'n Amazon and Louise that the _Curlew_ was safe. The +captain took the matter as coolly as he did everything else. + +Louise watched him, trying to fathom his manner and the mystery about +him. Yet, when the solution of the problem was developed, she was most +amazed by the manner in which her eyes were opened. + +Supper time was approaching, and the cooler evening breeze blew in +through the living-room windows. Relieved for the moment from his +store tasks, Cap'n Amazon appeared, rubbing his hands cheerfully, and +briskly approached old Jerry's cage as he chirruped to the bird. + +"Well! well! And how's old Jerry been to-day?" Louise heard him say. +Then: "Hi-mighty! What's this?" + +Louise glanced in from the kitchen. She saw him standing before the +cage, his chin sunk on his breast, the tears trickling down his +mahogany face. + +That hard, stern visage, with its sweeping piratical mustache and the +red bandana above it, was a most amazing picture of grief. + +"Oh! What is it?" cried the girl, springing to his side. + +He pointed with shaking index finger to the bird within the cage. + +"Dead!" he said brokenly, "Dead, Niece Louise! Poor old Jerry's +dead--and him and me shipmates for so many, many years." + +"Oh!" screamed the girl, grasping his arm. "_You are Cap'n Abe_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +SARGASSO + +After all, when she considered it later, Louise wondered only that she +had not seen through the masquerade long before. + +From the beginning--the very first night of her occupancy of the +pleasant chamber over the store on the Shell Road--she should have +understood the mystery that had had the whole neighborhood by the ears +during the summer. + +She, more than anybody else, should have seen through Cap'n Abe's +masquerade. Louise had been in a position, she now realized, to have +appreciated the truth. + +"You are Cap'n Abe," she told him, and he did not deny it. Sadly he +looked at the dead canary in the bottom of the cage, and wiped his eyes. + +"Poor Jerry!" her uncle said, and in that single phrase all the outer +husk of the rough and ready seaman--the character he had assumed in +playing his part for so many weeks--sloughed away. He was the simple, +tender-hearted, almost childish Cap'n Abe that she had met upon first +coming to Cardhaven. + +Swiftly through her mind the incidents of that first night and morning +flashed. She remembered that he had prepared her--as he had prepared +his neighbors--for the coming of this wonderful Cap'n Amazon, whose +adventures he had related and whose praises he had sung for so many +years. + +Cap'n Abe had taken advantage of Perry Baker's coming with Louise's +trunk to send off his own chest, supposedly filled with the clothes he +would need on a sea voyage. + +Then, the house clear of the expressman and Louise safe in bed, the +storekeeper had proceeded to disguise himself as he had long planned to +do. + +Not content with the shaving of his beard only, he had dyed his hair +and the sweeping piratical mustache left him. Walnut juice applied to +his face and body had given him the stain of a tropical sun. Of +course, this stain and the dye had to be occasionally renewed. + +The addition of gold rings in his ears (long before pierced for the +purpose, of course) and the wearing of the colored handkerchief to +cover his bald crown completed a disguise that his own mother would +have found hard to penetrate. + +Cap'n Abe was gone; Cap'n Amazon stood in his place. + +To befool his niece was a small matter. At daybreak he had come to her +door and bidden Louise good-bye. But she had not seen him--only his +figure as he walked up the road in the fog. Cap'n Abe had, of course, +quickly made a circuit and come back to re-enter the house by the rear +door. + +From that time--or from the moment Lawford Tapp had first seen him on +the store porch that morning--the storekeeper had played a huge game of +bluff. And what a game it had been! + +In his character of Cap'n Amazon he had commanded the respect--even the +fear--of men who for years had considered Cap'n Abe a butt for their +poor jests. It was marvelous, Louise thought, when one came to think +of it. + +And yet, not so marvelous after all, when she learned all that lay +behind the masquerade. There had always been, lying dormant in Cap'n +Abe's nature, characteristics that had never before found expression. + +Much she learned on this evening at supper, and afterward when the +store had been closed and they were alone in the living-room. +Diddimus, who still had his doubts of the piratical looking captain, +lay in Louise's lap and purred loudly under the ministration of her +gentle hand, while Cap'n Abe talked. + +It was a story that brought to the eyes of the sympathetic girl the +sting of tears as well as bubbling laughter to her lips. And in it all +she found something almost heroic as well as ridiculous. + +"My mother marked me," said Cap'n Abe. "Poor mother! I was born with +her awful horror of the ravenin' sea as she saw the Bravo an' Cap'n +Josh go down. I knew it soon--when I was only a little child. I knew +I was set apart from other Silts, who had all been seafarin' men since +the beginnin' of time. + +"And yet I loved the sea, Niece Louise. The magic of it, its mystery, +its romance and its wonders; all phases of the sea and seafarin' +charmed me. But I could not step foot in a boat without almost +swoonin' with fright, and the sight of the sea in its might filled me +with terror. + +"Ah, me! You can have no idea what pains I suffered as a boy because +of this fear," said Cap'n Abe. "I dreamed of voyagin' into unknown +seas--of seein' the islands of the West and of the East--of visitin' +all the wonderful corners of the world--of facin' all the perils and +experiencin' all the adventures of a free rover. And what was my fate? + +"The tamest sort of a life," he said, answering his own question. "The +flattest existence ever man could imagine. Hi-mighty! Instead of a +sea rover--a storekeeper! Instead of romance--Sargasso!" and he +gestured with his pipe in his hand. "You understand, Louise? That's +what I meant when I spoke of the Sargasso Sea t'other day. It was my +doom to live in the tideless and almost motionless Sea of Sargasso. + +"But my mind didn't stay tame ashore," pursued Cap'n Abe. "As a boy I +fed it upon all the romances of the sea I could gather. Ye-as. I +suppose I am greatly to be blamed. I have been a hi-mighty liar, +Louise! + +"It began because I heard so many other men tellin' of their +adventoors, an' I couldn't tell of none. My store at Rocky Head where +I lived all my life till I come here (mother came over to Cardhaven +with her second husband; but I stayed on there till twenty-odd year +ago)--my store there was like this one. There's allus a lot of old +barnacles like Cap'n Joab and Washy Gallup clingin' to such reefs as +this. + +"So I heard unendin' experiences of men who had gone to sea. And at +night I read everything I could get touchin' on, an' appertainin' to, +sea-farin'. In my mind I've sailed the seven seas, charted unknown +waters, went through all the perils I tell 'bout. Yes, sir, I don't +dispute I'm a hi-mighty liar," he repeated, sighing and shaking his +head. + +"But when I come here to the Shell Road, where there warn't nobody +knowed me, it struck me forcible," pursued Cap'n Abe, "that my fambly +bein' so little known I could achieve a sort of vicarious repertation +as a seagoin' man. + +"Ye see what I mean? I cal'lated if I'd had a brother--a brother who +warn't marked with a fear of the ocean--_he_ would ha' been a sailor. +Course he would! All us Silts was seafarin' men! + +"An' I thought so much 'bout this brother that I _might_ ha' had, and +what he would ha' done sailin' up an' down the world, learnin' to be a +master mariner, an' finally pacin' his own quarter-deck, that he grew +like he was real to me, Niece Louise--he re'lly did. I give him a +name. 'Am'zon' has been a name in our fambly since Cap'n Reba Silt +first put the nose of his old _Tigris_ to the tidal wave of the Am'zon +River--back in seventeen-forty. He come home to New Bedford and named +his first boy, that was waitin' to be christened, 'Am'zon Silt.' + +"So I called this--this dream brother of mine--'Am'zon.' These +Cardhaven folks warn't likely to know whether I had a brother or not. +And I made up he went to sea when he was twelve--like I told ye, my +dear. Ye-as. I did hate to lie to ye, an' you just new-come here. +But I'd laid my plans for a long while back just to walk out, as it +were, an' let these fellers 'round here have a taste o' Cap'n Am'zon +Silt that they'd begun to doubt was ever comin' to Cardhaven. An' +hi-mighty!" exploded Cap'n Abe, with a great laugh, "I _have_ give 'em +a taste of him, I vum!" + +"Oh, you have, Uncle Abram! You have!" agreed Louise, and burst, into +laughter herself. "It is wonderful how you did it! It is marvelous! +How _could_ you?" + +"Nothin' easier, when you come to think on't," replied Cap'n Abe. "I'd +talked so much 'bout Cap'n Am'zon that he was a fixed idea in people's +minds. I said when he come I'd go off on a v'y'ge. I'd fixed +ev'rything proper for the exchange when you lit down on me, Niece +Louise. Hi-mighty!" grinned Cap'n Abe, "at first I thought sure you'd +spilled the beans." + +Louise rippled another appreciative laugh. "Oh, dear!" she cried, +clapping her hands together. "It's too funny for anything! How you +startled Betty! Why, even Lawford Tapp was amazed at your appearance. +You--you do look like an old pirate, Uncle Abram." + +"Don't I?" responded Cap'n Abe, childishly delighted. + +"That awful scar along your jaw--and you so brown," said the girl. +"How did you get that scar, Uncle Abram?" + +"Fallin' down the cellar steps when I was a kid," said the storekeeper. +"But these fellers think I must ha' got it through a cutlass stroke, or +somethin'. Oh, I guess I've showed 'em what a real Silt should look +like. Yes, sir! I cal'late I look the part of a feller that's roved +the sea for sixty year or so, Niece Louise." + +"You do, indeed. That red bandana--and the earrings--and the +mustache--and stain. Why, uncle! even to that tattooing----" + +He looked down at his bared arm and nodded proudly. + +"Ye-as. That time I went away ten year ago and left Joab to run the +store (and a proper mess he made of things!) I found a feller down in +the South End of Boston and he fixed me up with this tattoo work for +twenty-five dollars. Course, I didn't dare show it none here--kep' my +sleeves down an' my throat-latch buttoned all winds and weathers. But +now------" + +He laughed again, full-throated and joyous like a boy. Then, suddenly, +he grew grave. + +"Niece Louise, I wonder if you can have any idea what this here +dead-and-alive life all these years has meant to me? Lashed hard and +fast to this here store, and to a stay-ashore life, when my heart an' +soul was longin' to set a course for 'way across't the world? +Sargasso--that's it. This was my Sargasso Sea--and I was smothered in +it!" + +"I think I understand, Cap'n Abe," the girl said softly, laying her +hand in his big palm. + +"An' now, Louise, that I've got a taste of romance, I don't want to +come back to humdrum things--no, sir! I want to keep right on bein' +Cap'n Am'zon, and havin' even them old hardshells like Cap'n Joab and +Washy Gallup look on me as a feller-salt." + +"But how------?" + +"They never really respected Cap'n Abe," her uncle hurried on to say. +"I find my neighbors _did_ love him, an' I thank God for that! But +they knew he warn't no seaman, and a man without salt water in his +blood don't make good with Cardhaven folks. + +"But Cap'n Am'zon--he's another critter entirely. They mebbe think +he's an old pirate or the like," and he chuckled again, "but they +sartin sure respect him. Even Bet Gallup fears Cap'n Am'zon; but, to +tell ye the truth, Niece Louise, she used to earwig Cap'n Abe!" + +"But when the _Curlew_ arrives home?" queried the girl suddenly. + +"Hi-mighty, ye-as! I see _that_," he groaned. "Looks to me as though +somethin'll have to happen to Abe Silt 'twixt Boston and this port. +And you'll have to stop your father's mouth, Louise. I depend upon you +to help me. Otherwise I shall be undone--completely undone." + +"Goodness!" cried the girl, choked with laughter again. "Do you mean +to do away with Cap'n Abe? I fear you are quite as wicked as Betty +Gallup believes you to be--and Aunt Euphemia." + +He grinned broadly once more. "I got Cap'n Abe's will filed away +already--if somethin' should happen," said the old intriguer. +"Everything's fixed, Niece Louise." + +"I'll help you," she declared, and gave him her hand a second time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +STORM CLOUDS THREATEN + +The next week Gusty Durgin made her debut as a picture actress. She +had pestered Mr. Bane morn, noon, and night at the hotel until finally +the leading man obtained Mr. Anscomb's permission to work the buxom +waitress into a picture. + +"But nothin' funny, Mr. Bane," Gusty begged. "Land sakes! It's the +easiest thing in the world to get a laugh out of a fat woman fallin' +down a sand bank, or a fat man bein' busted in the face with a custard +pie. I don't want folks to laugh at my fat. I want 'em to forget that +I _am_ fat." + +"Do you know, Miss Grayling," said Bane, recounting this to Louise, +"_that_ is art. Gusty has the right idea. Many a floweret is born to +blush unseen, the poet says. But can it be we have found in Gusty +Durgin a screen artist in embryo?" + +Louise was interested enough to go to the beach early to watch Gusty in +a moving picture part. + +"A real sad piece 'tis, too," the waitress confided to Louise. "I got +to make up like a mother--old, you know, and real wrinkled. And when +my daughter (she's Miss Noyes) is driv' away from home by her father +because she's done wrong, I got to take on like kildee 'bout it. It's +awful touchin'. I jest cried about it ha'f the night when this Mr. +Anscomb told me what I'd have to do in the picture. + +"Land sakes! I can cry re'l tears with the best of 'em--you see if I +can't, Miss Grayling. You ought to be a movie actress yourself. It +don't seem just right that you ain't." + +"But I fear I could not weep real tears," Louise said. + +"No. Mebbe not. That's a gift, I guess," Gusty agreed. "There! I +got to go now. He's callin' me. The boss's sister will have to wait +on all the boarders for dinner to-day. An' my! ain't she sore! But if +I'm a success in these pictures you can just believe the Cardhaven Inn +won't see _me_ passin' biscuits and clam chowder for long." + +In the midst of the rehearsal Louise saw a figure striding along the +shore from the direction of Tapp Point, and her heart leaped. Already +there seemed to be a change in the appearance of Lawford. + +His sisters, who came frequently to see Louise at Cap'n Abe's, had told +her their brother, was actually working in one of his father's +factories. He had not even obtained a position in the office, but in +the factory itself. He ran one of the taffy cutting machines, for one +thing, and wore overalls! + +"Poor Ford!" Cecile said, shaking her head. "He's up against it. I'm +going to save up part of my pocket money for him--if he'll take it. I +think daddy's real mean, and I've told him so. And when Dot Johnson +comes I'm not going to treat her nice at all." + +Lawford, however, did not look the part of the abused and disowned +heir. He seemed brisker than Louise remembered his being before and +his smile was as winning as ever. + +"Miss Grayling!" he exclaimed, seizing both her hands. + +"Lawford! I am _so_ glad to see you," she rejoined frankly. And then +she had to pull her hands away quickly and raise an admonitory finger. +"Walk beside me--and be good," she commanded. "Do you realize that two +worlds are watching us--the world of The Beaches and the movie world as +well?" + +"Hang 'em!" announced Lawford with emphasis, his eyes shining. "Think! +I've never even thanked you for what you did for me that day. I +thought Betty Gallup hauled me out of the sea till Jonas Crabbe at the +lighthouse put me wise." + +"Never mind that," she said. "Tell me, how do you like your work? And +why are you at home again?" + +"I'm down here for the week-end---to get some more of my duds, to tell +the truth. I'm going to be a fixture at the Egypt factory--much to +dad's surprise, I fancy." + +"Do you like it?" she asked him, watching his face covertly. + +"I hate it! But I can stick, just the same. I have a scheme for +improving the taffy cutting machines, too. I think I've a streak in me +for mechanics. I have always taken to engines and motors and other +machinery." + +"An inventor!" + +"Yes. Why not?" he asked soberly, "Oh! I'm not going to be one of +those inventors who let sharp business men cheat them out of their +eye-teeth. If I improve that candy cutter it will cost I. Tapp real +money, believe me!" + +Louise's eyes danced at him in admiration and she dimpled. "I think +you are splendid, Lawford!" she murmured. + +It was a mean advantage to take of a young man. They were on the open +beach and every eye from the lighthouse to Tapp Point might be watching +them. Lawford groaned deeply--and looked it. + +"Don't," she said. "I know it's because of me you have been driven to +work." + +"You know that, Miss Grayling? Louise!" + +"Yes. I had a little talk with your father. He's _such_ a funny man!" + +"If you can find anything humorous about I. Tapp in his present mood +you are a wonder!" he exclaimed. "Oh, Louise!" He could not keep his +hungry gaze off her face. + +"You're a nice boy, Lawford," she told him, nodding. "I liked you a +lot from the very first. Now I admire you." + +"Oh, Louise!" + +"Don't look like that at me," she commanded. "They'll see you. +And--and I feel as though I were about to be eaten." + +"You will be," he said significantly. "I am coming to the store +to-night. Or shall I go to see your aunt first?" + +"You'd better keep away from Aunt Euphemia, Lawford," she replied, +laughing gayly. "Wait till my daddy-prof comes home. See him." + +"And you really love me? Do you? Please . . . dear!" + +She nodded, pursing her lips. + +"But eighteen dollars a week!" groaned Lawford. "I think the super +would have made it an even twenty if it hadn't been for dad." + +"Never mind," she told him, almost gayly. "Maybe the invention will +make our fortune." + +At that speech Lawford's cannibalistic tendencies were greatly and +visibly increased. Louise was no coy and coquettish damsel without a +thorough knowledge of her own heart. Having made up her mind that +Lawford was the mate for her, and being confident that her father would +approve of any choice she made, she was willing to let the young man +know his good fortune. + +Nor was Lawford the only person to learn her mind. Cap'n Abe said: + +"Land sakes! you come 'way down here to the Cape to be took in by a +feller like Ford Tapp, Niece Louise? I thought you was a girl with too +much sense for that!" + +"But what has love to do with sense, uncle?" she asked him, dimpling. + +"Hi-mighty! I s'pect that's so. An', anyway, he does seem to improve. +He's really gone to work, they tell me, in one of his father's candy +factories." + +"But that's the one thing about him I'm not sure I approve of," sighed +Louise. "We could have so much better times if he and I could play +along the shore this summer and not have to think about hateful money." + +"My soul an' body!" gasped the storekeeper, as though she had spoken +irreverently about sacred things. "Money ain't never hateful, Niece +Louise." + +On Sunday I. Tapp did not accompany his family to church at Paulmouth. +Returning, the big car stopped before Cap'n Abe's store and Mrs. Tapp +came in to call on Louise. The good woman hugged the girl and wept on +her bosom. + +"I'm so happy and so sorry, both together, that I'm half sick," she +said. "Lawford is so proud and joyful that I could cry every time I +look at him. And his father's so cross and unhappy that I have to cry +for him, too." + +Which seemed to prove that Mrs. Tapp was being kept in a moist state +most of the time. + +"But I know I. Tapp is sorry for what he's done. Only there's no use +expectin' him to admit it, or that he'll change. If Fordy won't marry +Dot Johnson I. Tapp will never forgive him. I don't know what I shall +say to her when she does come." + +"Maybe she will not appear at all," Louise suggested comfortingly. + +"I don't know. I got a letter from her mother putting the visit off +till later. But it can't be put off forever. Anyhow, when she comes +Lawford says he won't be at home. I hope the girls will act nice to +her." + +"_I_ will," Louise assured her. "And I'll make Mr. Tapp like me yet; +you see if I don't." + +"Oh, I can't hope for that much, my dear," sighed the lachrymose lady, +shaking her head; but she kissed Louise again. + +Lawford waved a hand to her at her chamber window early on Monday +morning as L'Enfant Terrible drove him in the roadster to Paulmouth to +catch the milk train. All the girls were proud of their brother +because, as Cecile said, he was proving himself to be "such a perfectly +good sport after all." And perhaps I. Tapp himself admired his son for +the pluck he was showing. + +They corresponded after that--Louise and Lawford. As she could not +hope to hear from the _Curlew_ again until the schooner made the port +of Boston, Lawford's letters were the limit of her correspondence. +Louise had always failed to make many close friends among women. + +Her interests aside from those at the store and with the movie people +were limited, too. The butterfly society of The Beaches did not much +attract Louise Grayling. + +Aunt Euphemia manifestly disapproved of her niece at every turn. The +Lady from Poughkeepsie had remained on the Cape for the full season in +the hope of breaking up the intimacy between Louise and Lawford Tapp. +His absence, which she had believed so fortunate, soon proved to be +merely provocative of her niece's interest in the heir of the Taffy +King. + +Nor could she wean Louise from association with the piratical looking +mariner at Cap'n Abe's store. The girl utterly refused to be guided by +the older woman in either of these particulars. + +"You are a reckless, abandoned girl!" Aunt Euphemia declared. "I am +sure, no matter what others may say, that awful sailor is no fit +companion for you. + +"And as, for Lawford Tapp----Why, his people are impossible, Louise. +Wherever you have your establishment, if you marry him, his people, +when they visit you will have to be apologized for," the indignant +woman continued. + +"Let--me--see," murmured Louise. "How large an 'establishment' should +you think, auntie, we could keep up on eighteen dollars a week?" + +"Eighteen dollars a week!" exclaimed Aunt Euphemia, aghast. + +"Yes. That is Lawford's present salary. Wages, I think they call it +at the factory. He gets it in cash--in a pay envelope." + +"Mercy, Louise! You are not in earnest?" + +"Certainly. My young man is going to earn our living. If he marries +me his father will cut him off with the proverbial shilling. I. Tapp +has other matrimonial plans for Lawford." + +"What?" gasped the horrified Mrs. Conroth. "He does not approve of +you?" + +"Too true, auntie. I have driven poor Lawford to work in a candy +factory." + +"That--that upstart!" exploded the lady. But she did not refer to +Lawford. + +It was evident that Aunt Euphemia saw nothing but the threat of storm +clouds for her niece in the offing. Trouble, deep and black, seemed, +to her mind to be hovering upon the horizon of the future, + +As it chanced, the weather about this time seemed to reflect Aunt +Euphemia's mood. The summer had passed with but few brief tempests. +Seldom had Louise seen any phase of the sea in its wrath. + +September, however, is an uncertain month at best. For several days a +threatening haze shrouded the distant sea line. The kildees, fluttered +and shrieked over the booming surf. + +Washy Gallup, meeting Louise as she strolled on the beach, +prognosticated: + +"Shouldn't be surprised none, Miss Lou, if we had a spell of weather. +Mebbe we'll have an airly equinoctooral. We sometimes do. + +"Then ye'll hear the sea sing psalms, as the feller said, an' no +mistake. Them there picture folks'll mebbe git a show at a re'l storm. +That's what they been wishin' for--an' a wreck off shore. Land sakes! +if they'd ever _seed_ a ship go to pieces afore their very eyes they +wouldn't ask for a second helpin'--no, ma'am!" + +That evening threatening clouds rolled up from seaward and mantled the +arch of the sky. The fishing boats ran to cover in the harbor before +dark. The surf rumbled louder and louder along the shore. + +And all night the sea mourned its dead over Gull Rocks. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE SCAR + +Another fishfly (or was it the same that had droned accompaniment to +Cap'n' Abe's story-telling upon a former occasion?) boomed against the +dusty panes of the window while the fretful, sand-laden wind swept +searchingly about the store on the Shell Road. + +It was early afternoon; but a green and dreary light lay upon sea and +land as dim as though the hour was that of sunset. In the silence +punctuating the desultory conversation, the sharp _swish, swish_ of the +sand upon the panes almost drowned the complaint of the fishfly. + +"We're going to have a humdinger of a gale," announced Milt Baker, the +last to enter and bang the store door. "She's pullin' 'round into the +no'th-east right now, and I tell Mandy she might's well make up her +mind to my lyin' up tight an' dry for a while. Won't be no clams +shipped from _these_ flats to-morrow." + +"High you'll likely be," agreed the storekeeper. "How _dry_ ye'll be, +Milt, remains to be seen." + +"_In_-side, or _aout_?" chuckled Cap'n Joab, for + +Milt Baker's failing was not hidden under a bushel. + +Amiel hastened to toll attention away from his side partner. "This +wind's driv' them picture folks to cover," he said. "They was makin' +some fillums over there on the wreck of the _Goldrock_, that's laid out +four year or so in Ham Cove------" + +"Nearer five year," put in Cap'n Joab, a stickler for facts. + +"You air right, cap'n," agreed Washy Gallup. + +"Well," said Amiel, "four _or_ five. The heave of her made ha'f of 'em +sick, and that big actor man, Bane, got knocked off into the water an' +'twas more by good luck than good management he warn't drowned. I +cal'late _he's_ got enough." + +"The gale that brought the _Goldrock_ ashore had just such another +beginning as this," Cap'n Joab said reflectively. "But she'd never +been wrecked on a lee shore if her crew had acted right. They +mutineed, you know." + +"The sculpins!" ejaculated the storekeeper briskly. "Can't excuse +that. Anything but a crew that'll turn on the afterguard that they've +signed on for to obey!" + +"That's right, Cap'n Am'zon," said Cap'n Joab. "Ye say a true word." + +"An' for good reason," declared the mendacious storekeeper. "I've had +experience with such sharks," and he ran his finger reflectively down +the old scar upon his jaw. + +"I always wanted to ask you 'bout that scar, Cap'n Am'zon," put in Milt +Baker encouragingly. "Did you get it in a mutiny?" + +"Yep." + +"I didn't know but ye got it piratin'," chuckled Milt. "Bet Gallup, +she swears you sailed under the Jolly Roger more'n once." + +"So I did," declared the captain boldly. "This crew o' mutineers I +speak of turned pirates, and they held me--the only one of the +afterguard left alive--to navigate the ship. + +"Guess mebbe you've heard tell, Cap'n Joab, of the mutiny of the +_Galatea_?" went on the narrator unblushingly. + +His fellow skipper nodded. "I've heard of it--yes. But you don't mean +to say you sailed on _her_, Am'zon?" + +"Yes, I did," the storekeeper declared. "I was third aboard her--she +carried a full crew. She sailed out o' N'York for Australia and home +by the way of the Chile ports and the Horn--a hermaphrodite brig she +was; and--she--could--sail! + +"But she warn't well found. The grub was wuss'n a Blue-nose herrin' +smack's. Weevilly bread and rusty beef. The crew had a sayin' that +the doc didn't have to call 'em to mess; the smell of it was sufficient. + +"They was a hard crew I allow--them boys; many of 'em dock rats and the +like. Warn't scurcely half a dozen able seamen in the whole crew. And +the skipper and mate was master hard on 'em. In the South Atlantic we +got some bad weather and the crew was worked double tides, as you might +say. + +"The extry work on top o' the poor grub finished 'em," said the +storekeeper. "One day in the mornin' watch the whole crew come boilin' +aft and caught the skipper and the mate at breakfast. _They_ lived +well. The second was in his berth and I had the deck. + +"I got knocked out first thing--there's the scar of it," and the +captain put a finger again on the mark along his jaw which actually was +a memento of contact with the cellar step when he was a child. +"Belayin' pin. Knocked me inside out for Sunday. But I cal'late they +didn't put the steel to me 'cause I'd been fairly decent to 'em comin' +down from N'York. + +"Then, after the fight was over and they'd hove the others overboard, +they begun to see they needed me to navigate the _Galatea_. They give +me the choice of four inches of cold steel or actin' as navigator--the +bloody crew o' pirates!" + +"And what did ye do?" demanded Amiel Perdue, his mouth ajar. + +"Well," snorted the storekeeper, "ye can see I didn't choose a knife in +my gizzard. We sailed up an' down the coast of Brazil and the Guineas +for two months, sellin' the cargo piecemeal to dirty little Portugee +traders an' smugglers. Then we h'isted the black flag and took our +first prize--an English barque goin' down to Rio. It was me saved her +crew's lives and give 'em a chance't in their longboat. They made Para +all right, I heard afterward. + +"We burned that barque," proceeded the storekeeper dreamily, "after we +looted her of everything wuth while. Then----" + +The door was flung open with a gust of wind behind it. A lanky, +half-grown lad stuck his head in at the opening to shrill: + +"Hi! ain't ye heard 'bout it?" + +"Bout what?" demanded Milt Baker. + +"There's a schooner drivin' in on to the Gull Rocks," cried the news +vender. "Something gone wrong with her rudder, they say. She's goin' +spang onto the reef. Ev'rybody's down there, an' the life-savers are +comin' around from Wellriver with their gear." + +"Gale out o' the no'theast, too!" exclaimed Cap'n Joab, starting for +the door. + +The story-teller saw his audience melt away in a minute. He went out +on the porch. Fluttering across the fields and sand lots from all +directions were the neighbors--both men and women. The possibility of +a wreck--the great tragedy of long-shore existence--would bring +everybody not bed-ridden to the sands. + +He saw Betty Gallup in high boots, her pea-coat buttoned tightly across +her flat bosom, her man's hat pulled down over her ears, already +halfway to the shore. From the cottage on the bluffs above The Beaches +the summer visitors were trailing down. Below Bozewell's bungalow the +motion picture company were running excitedly about. + +"Like sandpipers," muttered the storekeeper. "Crazy critters. Wonder +where that schooner is." + +He hesitated to leave the premises. Cap'n Abe had never been known to +follow the crowd to the beach when an endangered craft was in the +offing. Indeed, he never looked in the direction of the sea if he +could help it when a storm lashed its surface and piled the breakers +high upon the strand. + +But suddenly the man remembered that he was _not_ Cap'n Abe! He stood +here in an entirely different character. Cap'n Amazon, the rough and +ready mariner, had little in common with the timid creature who had +tamely kept store on the Shell Road for twenty-odd years. + +What would the neighbors think of Cap'n Amazon if he remained away from +the scene of excitement at such a time? He turned back into the store +for his hat and coat and later came out and closed the door. Then he +shuffled down the road. + +At first he closed his eyes--squeezing the lids tight so as not to see +the gale-ridden sea. But finally, stumbling, he opened them. Far away +where the pale tower of the lighthouse lifted staunchly against the +greenish gray sky, the surf was rolling in from the open sea, the waves +charging up the strand one after the other like huge white horses, +their manes of spume tossed high by the breath of the gale. Black was +the sea, and streaked angrily with foam. + +Thunderously did it roar and break over the Gull Rocks. A curtain of +spoondrift hung above that awful reef and almost shut from the view of +those ashore the open sea and what swam on it. + +The old storekeeper reached the sands below the Shell Road. Scattered +in groups along the strand were the people of all classes and degrees +brought together by the word that a vessel was in peril. Here a group +of fishermen in guernseys and high boots, their sou'westers battened +down upon their heads. Yonder Bane and his fellow actors in natty +summer suits stood around the camera discussing with the director the +possibility of making a film of the scene. Farther away huddled a +party of women from the neighborhood, with shawls over their heads and +children at their skirts. Beyond them the people from the cottages on +the bluff were hurrying to the spot--women in silk attire and men in +the lounge suits that fashion prescribed for afternoon wear. + +The storekeeper saw and appreciated all this. He stood squarely up to +the wind, the ends of the red bandana over his ears snapping in the +rifted airs, and shaded his eyes with his hand. With his other hand he +stroked the scar along his jaw. He had a feeling that he had been +cheated. That story of the mutiny of the _Galatea_ was destined to be +one of his very best narratives. + +He had come to take great pride in these tales, had Cap'n Abe. He had +heard enough men relate personal reminiscences to realize that his +achievements in the story-telling line had a flavor all their own. He +could hold his course with any of them, was his way of expressing it. + +And here something had intervened to shut him off in the middle of a +narrative. Cap'n Abe did not like it. + +His keen vision swept the outlook once more. How darkly the clouds +lowered! And the wind, spray-ridden down here on the open strand, cut +shrewdly. It would be a wild night. Casually he thought of his +cheerful living-room, with his chintz-cushioned rocker, Diddimus +purring on the couch, and the lamplight streaming over all. + +"Lucky chap, you, Abe Silt, after all," he muttered. "Lucky you ain't +at sea in a blow like this." + +It was just then that he saw the laboring schooner in the offing. Her +poles were completely bare and by the way she pitched and tossed Cap'n +Abe knew she must have two anchors out and that they were dragging. + +She was so far away that she looked like a toy on the huge waves that +rolled in from the horizon line. Now and then a curling wave-crest hid +even her topmasts. Again, the curtain of mist hanging above Gull Rocks +shrouded her. + +For the craft was being driven steadily upon the rocks. Unless the +wind shifted--and that soon--she must batter her hull to bits upon the +reef. + +The storekeeper, who knew this coast and the weather conditions so +well, saw at once that the schooner had no chance for salvation. When +the wind backed around into the northeast, as it had on this occasion, +it foreran a gale of more than usual power and of more than twenty-four +hours' duration. + +"She's doomed!" he whispered, and wagged his head sadly. + +The might of the sea made him tremble. The thought of what was about +to happen to the schooner--a fate that naught could avert--sickened +him. Yet he walked on to join the nearest group of anxious watchers, +the spray beating into that face which was strangely marred. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +WHEN THE STRONG TIDES LIFT + +It was the tag-end of the season for the summer colony at The Beaches. +Mrs. Conroth expected to leave the Perritons that evening--was leaving +lingeringly, for she had desired to bear her niece off to New York with +her. But on that point Louise had been firm. + +"No, Aunt Euphemia," she had said. "I shall wait for daddy-prof and +the _Curlew_ to arrive at Boston. Then I shall either go there to meet +him, or he will come here. I want him to meet Lawford just as quickly +as possible, for we are not going to wait all our lives to be married." + +"Louise!" gasped Mrs. Conroth with horror. "How can you say such a +thing!" + +"I mean it," said the girl, nodding with pursed lips. + +"You are behaving in a most selfish way," the Lady from Poughkeepsie +declared. "Everybody here has remarked how you have neglected me for +those Tapps. They have taken full advantage of your patronage to push +themselves into the society of their betters." + +"Perhaps," sighed Louise. "But consider, auntie. This is a free and +more or less independent republic. After all, money is the only +recognized mark of aristocracy." + +"Money!" + +"Yes. How far would the Perritons' blue blood get them--or the +Standishes'--or the Graylings'--without money? And consider our own +small beginnings. Your great, great, great grandfather was a knight of +the yardstick and sold molasses by the quart." + +"You are incorrigible, Louise," cried Aunt Euphemia, her fingers in her +ears. "I will not listen to you. It is sacrilegious." + +"It's not a far cry," her niece pursued, "from molasses to taffy. And +it seems to me one is quite as aristocratic as the other." + +So she left Mrs. Conroth in a horrified state of mind and stepped out +to face the gale. Seeing others streaming down upon the sands, Louise, +too, sought the nearest flight of steps and descended to the foot of +the bluff. + +This was Saturday and she hoped that Lawford would come for the +week-end. It was not Lawford, however, but his father into whose arms +she almost stumbled as she came out from under the shelter of the bank +into the full sweep of the gale. + +"Oh, Mr. Tapp! Why is everybody running so? What has happened?" + +The Taffy King had a most puzzling expression upon his face. He glared +at her as though he did not hear what she said. In his hand he +clutched an envelope. + +"Ha! That you, Miss Grayling?" he growled. "Seen Ford?" + +"No. Is he at home?" + +"He's here fast enough," was I. Tapp's ungracious rejoinder. "I +supposed he'd come over to see you." + +"Perhaps he has," she returned wickedly. "He is a very faithful +knight." + +"He's a perfect ninny, if _that's_ what you mean," snapped the Taffy +King. "He's made a fool of me, too. I shouldn't wonder if he knew +this all along," and he shook the letter in his hand and scowled. + +"You arouse my curiosity," Louise said. "I hope Lawford has done +nothing more to cause you vexation." + +"I don't know whether he has or not. The young upstart! I feel like +punching him one minute, and then the next I've got to take off my hat +to him, Miss Grayling. D'you know what he's done?" + +"Something really fine, I hope. I do not think you wholly appreciate +Lawford, Mr. Tapp," the girl told him firmly. + +"Ha! No. I s'pose he's got to go outside his immediate family to be +appreciated," he snarled. + +But at that Louise merely laughed. "You don't tell me what he has +done," she urged. + +"Why, the young rascal's solved a problem in mechanics that has puzzled +us candy makers for years. I'm having a new cutting machine built +after his suggestions." + +"I hope Lawford will be properly reimbursed for his idea," she +interrupted. "You know, he and I are going to need the money." + +"Ha!" snorted I. Tapp again. "Ford's no fool, it seems, when it comes +to a contract. He's got me tied hard and fast to a royalty agreement +and a lump sum down if the machine works the way he says it will." + +"I'm so glad!" cried Louise. + +"You are, eh? What for?" + +"Because we need not wait so long to be married," she frankly told him. + +I. Tapp stood squarely in the path and looked at her. + +"So you are going to marry him, whether I agree or not?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Right in my very teeth?" + +"I--I hope you won't be _very_ angry, Mr. Tapp," Louise said softly. +"You see--we love each other." + +"Love!" began I. Tapp. Then he stopped, turning the thick letter over +and over in his hand. "Well!" and he actually blew a sigh. "Perhaps +there is something in that. Seems to be. I set my heart on having my +fortune and my partner's joined by Ford and Dot Johnson--and see what's +come of it." + +He suddenly thrust the missive into Louise's hand. + +"Look at that!" + +With a growing suspicion of what it meant she opened the outer envelope +and then the inner one, drawing out the engraved inclosure. Before she +could speak a commotion along the beach drew their attention. + +"What can it be?" Louise cried. "The lifesavers!" + +"And their gear--lifeboat and all," Mr. Tapp agreed. "Must be a +wreck----" + +His gaze swept the sea and he seized Louise's arm. "There! Don't you +see her? A vessel in distress sure enough. She's drifting in upon +Gull Rocks. Bad business, Miss Grayling." + +"Oh, there is Lawford!" murmured Louise. "He's with the surfmen!" + +Two teams of heavy farm horses were dragging the boat and the surfmen's +two-wheeled cart along the hard sand at the edge of the surf. The +bursting waves wetted all the crew as they helped push the wagons, and +the snorting horses were sometimes body deep in the water. + +Lawford, in his fishermen's garments, waved his hand to Louise and his +father. The girl smiled upon him proudly and the Taffy King, seeing +the expression on her face, suddenly seized the missive from her hand. + +"I give up! I give up!" he exclaimed. "I said I'd disown him if he +refused to marry Dorothy Johnson, my partner's daughter. But 'tain't +really Lawford's fault, I s'pose, if Dot won't marry him. It seems she +had other ideas along that line, too, and I never knew it till we got +this invitation to her wedding." + +Louise smiled on the little man with tolerance. "Of course, I knew you +would see it in the right light in time. But it really has been the +making of Lawford," she said calmly. + +"You think so, do you?" returned the Taffy King. "I wonder what good +it would have done him if you hadn't been the prize he wanted? I'm not +sure I shouldn't pay you out, Louise Grayling, by making the two of you +live for a year on his eighteen dollars a week." + +"Are you sure that would be such a great punishment?" she asked him +softly. + +They moved on with the crowd about the gear and boat. The patrol had +come in good season. It was not probable that the schooner would hold +together long after she struck the reef. + +Not until this moment, when she saw the stern faces of the men and the +wan countenances of the women, did Louise understand what the incident +really meant. A few children, clinging to their mother's skirts, +whimpered. The men talked in low voices, the women not at all. + +Her heart suddenly shorn of its happiness, Louise Grayling stared out +at the distant, laboring craft. Death rode on the gale, and lurked +where the billows roared and burst over Gull Rocks. The schooner was +doomed. + +That might be the _Curlew_ out there--the schooner her father was +aboard--instead of this imperiled vessel. Only the night before she +and her uncle had figured out the _Curlew's_ course homeward-bound from +her last port of call. She might pass in sight of Cardhaven Head and +the lighthouse any day now. + +The thought sobered Louise. Clinging to I. Tapp's arm she went nearer +to the spot where the surfmen had brought their gear and boat. + +The sea beyond the line of surf--between the strand and the reef--was +foam-streaked and broken, a veritable cauldron of boiling water. The +captain of the life-saving crew shrank from launching the boat into +that wild waste. + +If the line could be shot as far as the reef the moment the schooner +struck, a breeches buoy could be rigged with less danger and, perhaps, +with a better chance of bringing the ship's company safely ashore. + +"'Tis a woeful pickle of water," Washy Gallup shrieked in Louise's ear. +"And the wind a-risin'. 'Tis only allowed by law to shoot a sartain +charge o' powder in the pottery little gun. Beyond that, is like to +burst her. But mebbe they can make it. Cap'n Jim Trainor knows his +work; and 'tis cut out for him this day." + +Gradually the seriousness of the situation began to affect all the +lighter-minded spectators. Louise saw the group of moving picture +actors at one side. The men dropped their cigarettes and strained +forward as they watched the schooner drive in to certain destruction. + +It was like a play. The schooner, rearing on each succeeding wave, +drew nearer and nearer. A hawser parted and they saw her bows swing +viciously shoreward, the jib-boom thrusting itself seemingly into the +very sky as she topped a huge breaker. + +The crew had to slip the cable of the second anchor. The foremast came +crashing down before she struck. Then, with a grinding thud those on +the shore could not hear, but could keenly sense, the fated craft +rebounded on the reef. + +A gasping cry--the intake of a chorused breath--arose from the throng +of spectators. The fishermen and sailors recoiled from the cart and +left an open space in which the life-saving crew could handle their +gear. + +Cap'n Trainor, the grizzled veteran of the crew, had already loaded the +gun and now aimed it. The shot to which was attached the line was +slipped into the muzzle. + +"Back!" the old man ordered, and waved his hand. Then he pulled the +lanyard. + +The line fled out of the box with a speed that made it smoke. But the +shot fell short. + +"'Tis too much wind, skipper," squealed Washy Gallup. "You be +a-shootin' into the wind's eye. An' she's risin' ev'ry minute." + +His only answer was a black look from Cap'n Trainor. The latter loaded +the gun again, and yet again. The last time he waited for every one to +get well back before he fired the cannon. When she went off she did +not burst as they half expected--she turned a double back somersault. + +"'Tis no use, boys!" the captain roared at them, smiting his hands +together. "We must try the boat. But that's a hell's broth out there, +and no two ways about it." + +The stranded schooner, all but hidden at times in the smother of flying +spume and jumping waves, hung halfway across the reef. They could see +men, like black specks, lashed to her after rigging. Louise, between +bursting waves, counted twenty of these figures. + +"It may be the _Curlew_!" she cried to the Taffy King. "Father told me +in his letter there were twenty people aboard her afore and abaft. He +may be out there!" and the girl shuddered. + +"No, no," said I. Tapp. "Not possible. Don't think of such a thing, +my girl. But whoever they are, they are to be pitied." + +There rose a shout at the edge of the surf. The fringe of fishermen +had rushed in to aid in launching the boat. Anscomb and his camera man +had taken up a good position with the machine. The director was going +to get some "real stuff." + +Louise saw that Lawford was foremost among the volunteers. The +lifeboat crew, their belts strapped under their arms, had taken their +places in the boat. Captain Trainor stood in the stern with his +steering oar. On its truck the lifeboat was run into the surf. + +"Now!" shrieked the excited moving picture director. "Action! Camera! +Go!" + +There was something unreal about it--it was like a play. And yet out +there on that schooner her crew faced bitter death, while the men of +the Coast Patrol took their lives in their hands as the lifeboat was +run through the bursting surf. + +The volunteers ran in till those ahead were neck deep in the sea. Then +the boat floated clear and, with a mighty shove from behind the surfmen +pulled out. + +Lawford and his mates staggered back with the gear. The lifeboat +lifted to meet the onrolling breakers. The men tugged at the oars. + +Somebody screamed. Those ashore saw the white gash of a split oar. +The man in the bow went overboard, not being strapped to the seat. His +mate reached for him and the banging broken oar handle hit him on the +head. + +The boat swung broadside and the next instant was rolling over and over +in the surf, the crew half smothered. + +The spectators ran together in a crowd. But Lawford and some of the +men who had helped to launch the boat rushed into the surf and dragged +the overturned craft and her crew out upon the beach. + +"One of the crew with a broken arm; another knocked out complete with +that crack on the head," sputtered Cap'n Jim Trainor. "Two of my very +best men. Come on, boys! Who'll take their places?" + +Lawford was already putting on the belt he had unbuckled from about one +of the injured surfmen. The Taffy King, seeing what his son was about, +shouted: + +"Ford! Ford! Don't dare do that! I forbid you!" + +Lawford turned a grim face upon his father. "I earn eighteen a week, +dad. I am my own boss." + +A soft palm was placed upon I. Tapp's lips before he could reply. +Louise was weeping frankly, but she urged: + +"Don't stop him, Mr. Tapp. Don't say another word to him. My--my +heart is breaking; but I am glad--oh, I am so glad!--that he is a real +man." + +Cap'n Trainor's hard gaze swept the circle of strained faces about him. +After all, the men here were mostly "second raters"--weaklings like +Milt Baker and Amiel Perdue, or cripples like Cap'n Joab and Washy +Gallup. + +Suddenly the captain's gaze descried a figure well back in the +crowd--one who had not pushed forward during these exciting moments, +but who had been chained to the spot by the fascination of what was +happening. + +"Ain't that Cap'n Am'zon Silt back there?" demanded the skipper of the +lifeboat crew. "You pull a strong oar, I know, Cap'n Am'zon. We need +you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +AN ANCHOR TO THE SOUL + +The storekeeper had stretched no point when he told his niece that the +thought of setting foot in a boat made him well-nigh swoon. His only +ventures aboard any craft were in quiet waters. + +He could pull as strong an oar, despite his years, as any man along the +Cape, but never had he gripped the ash save in the haven or in similar +land-locked water. + +His heart was wrung by the sight of those men clinging to the shrouds +of the wrecked schooner. And he rejoiced that the members of the Coast +Patrol crew displayed their manhood in so noble an attempt to reach the +wreck. + +But his very soul was shaken by the spectacle of the storm-fretted sea, +and terror gnawed at his vitals when the lifeboat was thrust out into +that awful maelstrom of tumbling water. + +Relating imaginary events of this character or repeating what mariners +had told or written about wreck and storm at sea in the safe harbor of +the old store on the Shell Road was different from being an eyewitness +of this present catastrophe. + +Trembling, the salt tears stinging his eyes more sharply than the salt +spray stung his cheeks, the storekeeper had ventured into the crowd of +spectators on the sands. So enthralled were his neighbors by what was +going forward that they did not notice his appearance. + +And well they did not. This character of the bluff and ready master +mariner that Cap'n Abe had builded--a new order of Frankenstein--and +with which he had deceived the community for these many weeks, came +near to being wrecked right here and now. + +He all but screamed aloud in fear when the lifeboat was overturned. +Pallid, shaking, panting for every breath he drew, he was slipping out +of the unnoticing crowd when Cap'n Jim Trainor of the lifeboat crew +called to him. + +"You pull a strong oar, I know, Cap'n Am'zon. We need you." + +For the space of a breath the storekeeper "hung in the wind." He had +been poised for flight and the shock of the lifeboat captain's call +almost startled him into running full speed up the beach. + +Then the thought smote upon his harassed mind that Cap'n Trainor was +not speaking to Cap'n Abe, storekeeper. The call for aid was addressed +to Cap'n Amazon Silt. + +It was to Cap'n Amazon, the man who had been through all manner of +perils by sea and land, who had suffered stress of storm and shipwreck +himself, whose reputation for courage the Shell Road storekeeper had +builded so long. + +Should all this fall in a moment? Should he show the coward's side of +the shield after all his effort toward vicarious heroism? Another +moment of hesitancy and as Cap'n Amazon Silt he would never be able to +hold up his head in the company of Cardhaven folk again. + +Cursed by the horror his mother had felt for the cruel sea that had +taken her husband before her very eyes, Cap'n Abe had ever shrunk from +any actual venture upon deep water. But Cap'n Amazon must be true to +his manhood--must uphold by his actions the character the storekeeper +had builded for him. + +He buttoned his coat tightly across his chest and pushed through the +group. Men and women alike made way for him, and in his ringing ears +he heard such phrases as: + +"_He's_ the man to do it!" + +"That's Cap'n Am'zon for ye!" + +"There's _one_ Silt ain't afraid of salt water, whatever Cap'n Abe may +be!" + +"Will you come, Cap'n Am'zon?" called the skipper of the life-saving +crew. + +"I'm coming," mumbled the storekeeper, and held up his arms that Milt +Baker might fasten the belt about his body. + +Afterward Milt was fond of declaring that the look on Cap'n Amazon's +face at that moment prophesied the tragedy that was to follow. "He +seen death facin' him--an' he warn't afraid," Milt said reverently. + +"In with you, boys!" shouted the skipper. "And hook your belts--every +man of you! If she overturns again I want to be able to count noses +when we come right side up. Now!" + +A shuddering cry from the women, in which Louise found herself joining; +a "Yo! heave-ho!" from the men who launched the craft. Then the +lifeboat was in the surf again, her crew laboring like the sons of +Hercules they were to keep her head to the wind and to the breakers. + +The storekeeper was no weakling; rowing was an accomplishment he had +excelled in from childhood. It was the single activity in any way +connected with the sea that he had learned and maintained. + +At first he kept his eyes shut--tight shut. A strange thrill went +through him, however. All these years he had shrunk from an unknown, +an unexperienced, peril. Was it that Cap'n Abe had been frightened by +a bogey, after all? + +He opened his eyes, pulling rhythmically with the oar--never missing a +stroke. His gaze rested on the face of that old sea-dog, Cap'n Jim +Trainor. The fierce light of determination dwelt there. The skipper +meant to get to the wrecked schooner. He had no doubt of accomplishing +this, and Cap'n Abe caught fire of courage from the skipper's +transfigured countenance. + +As for Lawford Tapp, no member of Cap'n Trainor's crew pulled a better +oar than he. With the bow ash he drove on like a young giant. Fear +did not enter into _his_ emotions. + +There was nobody to notice the pallor of the storekeeper's visage. +Every man's attention was centered on his own oar, while the skipper +gazed ahead at the wave-beaten schooner grounded hard and fast upon the +reef. + +There was no lull in the gale. Indeed, it seemed as though the +strength of the wind steadily rose. The lifeboat only crept from the +shore on its course to Gull Rocks. Each yard must be fought for by the +earnest crew. + +Occasionally Cap'n Trainor called an encouraging sentence at them. For +the most part, however, only the ravening sea roared malice in their +ears. + +Around them the hungry waves leaped and fought for their lives; but the +buoyant boat, held true to her course by the skipper, bore up nobly +under the strain. They won on, foot by foot. + +The thunder of the breakers over the reef finally deafened them. The +rocking schooner, buffeted by waves that could not drive her completely +over the reef, towered finally above the heads of the men in the +lifeboat. + +Cap'n Trainor's straining eyes deciphered her name painted on the bow. +He threw a hand upward in a surprised gesture, still clinging to the +steering oar with his other hand, and shrieked aloud: + +"The _Curlew_! By mighty! who'd ha' thought it? 'Tis the _Curlew_." +He, too, knew of Cap'n Abe's supposed voyage on the seaweed ship. + +The oarsmen read the word upon the skipper's lips rather than heard his +voice. Two, at least, were shocked by the announcement--Lawford and +the storekeeper. There was no opportunity for comment upon this wonder. + +Skillfully the lifeboat was brought around under the lee of the wreck. +Already most of her crew had crept down to the rail and were waiting, +half submerged, to drop into the lifeboat. But one figure was still +visible high up in the shrouds. + +When the waves sucked out from under her the keel of the lifeboat +almost scratched the reef. Then it rose on a swell to the very rail of +the wreck, wedged so tightly on the rock. + +The castaways came inboard rapidly, bringing their injured skipper with +them. The lifeboat was quickly overburdened with human freight. + +"No more! No more!" shouted Cap'n Trainor. "We'll have to make +another trip." + +"Where's the professor? Bring down the professor! There he is!" +yelled the mate of the _Curlew_, who had given his attention to the +injured master of the wrecked craft. "Who lashed him fast up there?" + +There was a movement forward. The storekeeper had got up and pulled a +stout-armed member of the _Curlew's_ crew into his place. + +"Take my oar!" commanded Cap'n Abe. "I got a niece--he's her father. +Hi-mighty! I just got to get him aboard!" + +With an agility that belied his years he leaped for the schooner's rail +as the next surge rose. He swarmed inboard and started up the shrouds. +Those below remained silent while he climbed. + +He reached the helpless man, whipped out his knife, cut the lashings. +Slight as the storekeeper seemed, his muscles were of steel. As though +the half-conscious professor were a child, he lowered him to the +slanting deck. + +"Only room for one o' you!" roared Cap'n Trainor. "Only one! We're +overloaded as 'tis. Better wait." + +"You'll take _him_!" shouted Cap'n Abe, and dropped his burden at +Lawford Tapp's feet. + +The next moment the lifeboat shot away from the side of the wreck, +leaving the Man Who Was Afraid marooned upon her deck. + +That was a perilous journey for the overladen boat. Only the good +management of Cap'n Trainor could have brought her safely to shore. +And when she banged upon the beach it was almost a miracle that she did +not start all her bottom boards. + +Many willing hands hauled the heavy boat up upon the sands. The +rescued crew of the schooner tumbled out and lifted their injured +captain ashore. But it was Lawford who brought in Professor Grayling. +Louise had watched with the Taffy King all through the battle of the +lifeboat with the sea, suffering pangs of terror for Lawford's safety, +yet feeling, too, unbounded pride in his achievement. + +Now she pressed down to meet him at the edge of the sea and found that +the drenched, dazed man Lawford bore up in his arms was her own father! + +The meeting served to rouse the professor. He stared searchingly over +the group of rescued men. + +"Where's the man who cut my lashings and helped me down to the deck? I +don't see him," he said. "Louise, my dear, this is a very, very +strange homecoming. And all my summer's work gone for nothing! But +that man----" + +"Cap'n Amazon Silt," said Lawford. "He stayed behind. There wasn't +room in the boat." + +"Cap'n Am'zon!" exclaimed several excited voices. But only one--and +that Louise Grayling's--uttered another name: + +"Cap'n Abe! Isn't _he_ with you? Didn't you bring him ashore?" + +"By heaven! that's so, Louise!" groaned Lawford. "They must both be +out there. The two brothers are marooned on that rotten wreck!" + +Already the kindly neighbors were hurrying the castaways in groups of +twos and threes to the nearer dwellings. Anscomb was getting foot +after foot of "the real stuff." The moving picture actors and the +cottagers hung on the outskirts of the throng of natives, wide-eyed and +marveling. They had all, on this day, gained a taste of the stern +realities of life as it is along the shore. + +Louise was desirous of getting her father to the store, for he was +exhausted. Lawford turned back toward the group of life-saving men +standing about the beached boat. + +"If they can get her launched again they'll need me," he shouted back +over his shoulder. "Poor Cap'n Abe and Cap'n Amazon------" + +"You've done enough, boy," his father declared, clinging to the sleeve +of Lawford's guernsey. "Don't risk your life again." + +"Don't worry, dad. A fellow has to do his bit, you know." + +Betty Gallup came to the assistance of Louise and helped support the +professor. The woman's countenance was all wrinkled with trouble. + +"He must be out there, too," she murmured to Louise. "Ain't none o' +these chaps off the _Curlew_ jest right yet--scar't blue, or suthin'. +They don't seem to rightly sense that Cap'n Abe was with 'em all the +time aboard that schooner." + +"Poor Cap'n Abe!" groaned Louise again. + +"And that old pirate's with him," said Betty. But her tone lacked its +usual venom in speaking of Cap'n Amazon. "Who'd ha' thought it? I +reckoned he was nothing but a bag o' wind, with all his yarns of bloody +murder an' the like. But he is a Silt; no gettin' around that. And +Cap'n Abe allus did say the Silts were proper seamen." + +"Poor, poor Cap'n Abe!" sobbed Louise. + +"Now, now!" soothed Betty. "Don't take on so, deary. They'll get 'em +both. Never fear." + +But the rising gale forbade another launching of the lifeboat for +hours. The night shut down over the wind-ridden sea and shore, and by +the pallid light fitfully playing over the tumbling waters the watchers +along the sands saw the stricken _Curlew_ being slowly wrenched to +pieces by the waves that wolfed about and over her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +ON THE ROLL OF HONOR + +Stretched upon the couch in the living-room behind the store, with +Diddimus purring beside him, Professor Grayling heard that evening the +story of Cap'n Abe's masquerade. Betty Gallup had gone back to the +beach and Louise could talk freely to her father. + +"And he saved me, for your sake!" murmured the professor. "He gave me +his place in the lifeboat! Ah, my dear Lou! there is something besides +physical courage in this world. And I don't see but that your uncle +has plenty of both kinds of bravery. Really, he is a wonderful man." + +"He _was_ a wonderful man," said Louise brokenly. + +"I do not give up hope of his ultimate safety, my dear. The gale will +blow itself out by morning. Captain Ripley is so badly hurt that he is +being taken to Boston to-night, and the crew go with him. But if there +is interest to be roused in the fate of the last man left upon the +wreck----" + +"Oh, I am sure the neighbors will do everything in their power. And +Lawford, too!" she cried. + +"The schooner is not likely to break up before morning. The departure +of her crew to-night will make it all the easier for Mr. Abram Silt's +secret to be kept," the professor reminded her. + +"Yes. We will keep his secret," sighed Louise. "Poor Uncle Abram! +After all, he can gain a reputation for courage only vicariously. It +will be Cap'n Amazon Silt who will go down in the annals of Cardhaven +as the brave man who risked his life for another, daddy-prof." + +Aunt Euphemia did not leave The Beaches on this evening, as she had +intended. Even she was shaken out of her usual marble demeanor by the +wreck and the incidents connected with it. She came to the store after +dinner and welcomed her brother with a most subdued and chastened +spirit. + +"You have been mercifully preserved, Ernest," she said, wiping her +eyes. "I saw young Lawford Tapp bring you ashore. A really remarkable +young man, and so I told Mrs. Perriton just now. So brave of him to +venture out in the lifeboat as a volunteer. + +"I have just been talking to his father. Quite a remarkable man--I. +Tapp. One of these rough diamonds, you know, Ernest. And he is so +enthusiastic about Louise. He has just pointed out to me the spot on +the bluff where he intends to build a cottage for Lawford and Louise." + +"What's this?" demanded Professor Grayling, sitting up so suddenly on +the couch that Diddimus spat and jumped off in haste and anger. + +"I--I was just going to tell you about Lawford," Louise said in a small +voice. + +"Oh, yes! A little thing like your having a lover slipped your mind, I +suppose?" demanded her father. + +"And a young man of most excellent character," put in the surprising +Mrs. Conroth. "Perhaps his family is not all that might be desired; +but I. Tapp is e-_nor_-mously wealthy and I understand he will settle a +good income upon Ford. Besides, the young man has some sort of +interest in the manufacturing of candies." + +Trust the Lady from Poughkeepsie to put the best foot forward when it +became necessary to do so. The professor was gazing quizzically at the +flushed face of his daughter. + +"So that is what you have been doing this summer, is it?" he said. + +"That--and looking after Cap'n Abe," confessed Louise. + +"I'll have to look into this further." + +"Isn't it terrible?" interrupted Mrs. Conroth. "They say the two +brothers are out on that wreck and they cannot be reached until the +gale subsides. And then it will be too late to save them. Well, +Louise, that old sailor was certainly a brave man. I am really sorry I +spoke so harshly about him. They tell me it was he who put your father +in the boat. I hope there is some way you can fittingly show your +appreciation, Ernest." + +"I hope so," said Professor Grayling grimly. + +Lawford came to the store before bedtime--very white and +serious-looking. He had tried with the patrol crew to launch the boat +again and go to the rescue of the two old men supposed to be upon the +wreck. But the effort had been fruitless. Until the gale fell and the +tide turned they could not possibly get out to Gull Rocks. + +"A brave man is Cap'n Amazon," Lawford Tapp said. "And if Cap'n Abe +was in the schooner's crew----Why, Professor Grayling! surely you must +remember him? Not a big man, but with heavy gray beard and +mustache--and very bald. Mild blue eyes and very gentle-spoken. Don't +you remember him in the crew of the _Curlew_?" + +"It would seem quite probable that he was aboard," Professor Grayling +returned, "minding his p's and q's," as Louise had warned him. "But +you see, Mr. Tapp, being only a passenger, I had really little +association with the men forward. You know how it is aboard +ship--strict discipline, and all that." + +"Yes, sir; I see. And, after all, Cap'n Abe was a man that could +easily be overlooked. Not assertive at all. Not like Cap'n Amazon. +Quite timid and retiring by nature. Don't you say so, Louise?" + +"Oh, absolutely!" agreed the girl. "And yet, when you come to think of +it, Uncle Abram is a wonderful man." + +"I don't see how you can say so," the young man said. "It's Cap'n +Amazon who is wonderful. There were other men down on the beach better +able to handle an oar than he. But he took the empty seat in the +lifeboat when he was called without saying 'yes or no'! And he pulled +with the best of us." + +"He is no coward, of that I am sure," said Professor Grayling. "He +gave me his place in the boat. We can but pray that the lifeboat will +get to him in the morning." + +That hope was universal. All night driftwood fires burned on the sands +and the people watched and waited for the dawn and another sight of the +schooner on the reef. + +The tide brought in much wreckage; but it was mostly smashed top gear +and deck lumber. Therefore they had reason to hope that the hull of +the wreck held together. + +It was just at daybreak that the wind subsided and the tide was so that +the lifeboat could be launched again. Wellriver station owned no +motor-driven craft at this time, or Cap'n Jim Trainor and his men would +have been able to reach the wreck at the height of the gale. + +It was no easy matter even now to bring the lifeboat under the lee of +the battered schooner. Her masts and shrouds were overside, anchoring +her to the reef. Not a sign of life appeared anywhere upon her. + +One of the crew of the lifeboat leaped for the rail and clambered +aboard. Down in the scuppers, in the wash of each wave that climbed +aboard the wreck, he spied a huddled bundle. + +"Here's one of 'em, sure 'nough!" he sang out. + +Making his way precariously down the slanting deck, he reached in a +minute the spot where the unfortunate lay. The man had washed back and +forth in the sea water so long that he was all but parboiled. The +rescuer seized him by the shoulders and drew him out of this wash. + +He was a very bald man with gray hair, a stubble of beard on his +cheeks, and a straggling gray mustache. + +"Why, by golly!" yelled the surfman. "This here's Cap'n Abe Silt!" + +"Ain't his brother Am'zon there?" + +"No, I don't see his brother nowhere." + +"Take a good look." + +"Trust me to do that," answered the surfman. + +But the search was useless. Nobody ever saw Cap'n Amazon again. He +had gone, as he had come--suddenly and in a way to shock the placid +thoughts of Cardhaven people. A stone in the First Church graveyard is +all the visible reminder there remains of Cap'n Amazon Silt, who for +one summer amazed the frequenters of the store on the Shell Road. + +The life-savers brought Cap'n Abe, the storekeeper, back from the +wreck, the last survivor of the _Curlew's_ crew. He was in rather bad +shape, for his night's experience on the wreck had been serious indeed. + +They put him to bed, and Louise and Betty Gallup took turns in nursing +him, while Cap'n Joab Beecher puttered about the store, trying to wait +on customers and keep things straight. + +At first, as he lay in his "cabin," Cap'n Abe did not have much to +say--not even to Louise. But after a couple of days, on an occasion +when she was feeding him broth, he suddenly sputtered and put away the +spoon with a vexed gesture. + +"What's the matter, Uncle Abram?" she asked him. "Isn't it good?" + +"The soup's all right, Niece Louise. 'Tain't so fillin' as chowder, I +cal'late, but it'll keep a feller on deck for a spell. That ain't it. +I was just a-thinkin'." + +"Of what?" + +"Hi-mighty! It's all over, ain't it?" he said in desperation. "Can't +never bring forward Cap'n Am'zon again, can I? I _got_ to be Cap'n Abe +hereafter, whether I want to be or not. It's a turrible dis'pointment, +Louise--turrible! + +"I ain't sorry I went out there in that boat. No. For I got your +father off, an' he'd been carried overboard if he'd been let stay in +them shrouds. + +"But land sakes! I _did_ fancy bein' Cap'n Am'zon 'stead o' myself. +And the worst of it is, Niece Louise, I can't have nothin' new to tell +'bout Cap'n Am'zon's adventures. He's drowned, an' he can't never go +rovin' no more." + +"But think of what you've done, Cap'n Abe," Louise urged. "You feared +the sea--and you overcame that fear. All your life you shrank from +venturing on the water; yet you went out in that lifeboat and played +the hero. Oh, I think it is fine, Cap'n Abe! It's wonderful!" + +"Wonderful?" repeated Cap'n Abe. "P'r'aps 'tis. Mebbe I've been too +timid all my life. P'r'aps I could ha' been a sailor and cruised in +foreign seas if I'd just _had_ to. + +"But mother allus was opposed. She kept talkin' against it when I was +a boy--and later, too. She told how scar't she was when Cap'n Josh and +the _Bravo_ went down in sight of her windows. And mebbe I ketched it +more from her talkin' than aught else. + +"But I never realized that stress of circumstances could push me into +it an' make a man of me. I had a feelin' that I'd swoon away an' fall +right down in my tracks if I undertook to face such a sea as that was +t'other day. + +"And see! Nothing of the kind happened! I knew I'd got to make good +Cap'n Am'zon's character, or not hold up my head in Cardhaven again. I +don't dispute I've been a hi-mighty liar, Niece Louise. But--but it's +sort o' made a man o' me for once, don't ye think? + +"I dunno. Good comes out o' bad sometimes. Bitter from the sweet as +well. And when a man's got a repertation to maintain----There was that +feller Hanks, on the _Lunette_, out o' Nantucket. I've heard Cap'n +Am'zon tell it----" + +"Cap'n Abe!" gasped Louise. + +"Hi-mighty! There I go again," said the storekeeper mournfully. "You +can't teach an old dog new tricks--nor break him of them he's l'arned!" + +Louise and her father remained at the store on the Shell Road until +Cap'n Abe was up and about again. Then they could safely leave him to +the ministrations of Betty Gallup. + +"Somehow," confessed that able seaman, "he don't seem just like he used +to. He speaks quicker and sharper--more like that old pirate, Am'zon +Silt, though I shouldn't be sayin' nothin' harsh of the dead, I s'pose. +I don't dispute that Cap'n Am'zon was muchly of a man, when ye come to +think on't. + +"But Cap'n Abe's more to my taste. Now the place seems right again +with him in the house. Cap'n Abe's as easy as an old shoe. And, land +sakes! I ain't locked out o' _his_ bedroom when I want to clean! + +"One thing puzzles me, Miss Lou. I thought Cap'n Abe would take on +c'nsiderable about Jerry. But when I told him the canary was dead he +up and said that mebbe 'twas better so, seem' the old bird couldn't see +no more. Now, who would ha' told him Jerry was blind?" + +There were a few other things about the returned Cap'n Abe that might +have amazed his neighbors. He seemed to possess an almost uncanny +knowledge of what had happened during the summer. Besides, he seemed +to have achieved Cap'n Amazon's manner of "looking down" a too +inquisitive inquirer into personal affairs and refusing to answer. + +Because of this, perhaps, nobody was ever known to ask the storekeeper +why he had filled his sea chest with bricks and useless dunnage when he +shipped it to Boston. That mystery was never explained. + +Before Louise and her father were ready to leave Cardhaven most of the +summer residents along The Beaches, including Aunt Euphemia, had gone. +And the moving picture company had also flown. + +With the latter went Gusty Durgin, bravely refusing to have her +artistic soul trammeled any longer by the claims of hungry boarders at +the Cardhaven Inn. + +"I don't never expect to be one of these stars on the screen," she +confided to Louise. "But I can make a good livin', an' ma's childern +by her second husband, Mr. Vleet, has got to be eddicated. + +"I'm goin' to make me up a fancy name and make a repertation. They +ain't goin' to call me 'Dusty Gudgeon' no more. Miss Louder tells me I +can 'bant'--whatever that is--to take down my flesh, and mebbe you'll +see me some day, Miss Lou, in a re'l ladylike part. An' I can always +cry. Even Mr. Bane says I'm wuth my wages when it comes to the tearful +parts." + +The Tapps were flitting to Boston, Mrs. Tapp and the girls sure of +"getting in" with the proper set at last. Their summer's campaign, +thanks to Louise, had been successful to that end. + +Louise and Lawford walked along the strand below the cottages. The +candy cutting machine had proved a success and Lawford was giving his +attention to a new "mechanical wrapper" for salt water taffy that would +do away with much hand labor. + +On the most prominent outlook of Tapp Point were piles of building +material and men at work. The pudgy figure of I. Tapp was visible +walking about, importantly directing the workmen. + +"It's going to be a most, wonderful house, Louise dear," sighed +Lawford. "Do you suppose you can stand it? The front elevation looks +like a French chateau of the Middle Ages, and there ought to be a moat +and a portcullis to make it look right." + +"Never mind," she responded cheerfully. "We won't have to live in +it--much. See. We have all this to live in," with a wide gesture. +"The sea and the shore. Cape Cod forever! I shall never be +discontented here, Lawford." + +They wandered back to the store on the Shell Road. There was a chill +in the fall air and Cap'n Abe had built a small fire in the rusty +stove. About it were gathered the usual idlers. A huge fishfly droned +on the window pane. + +"It's been breedin' a change of weather for a week," said Cap'n Joab. + +"Right ye air, sir," agreed Washy Gallup, wagging his head. + +"I 'member hearin' Cap'n Am'zon tell 'bout a dry spell like this," +began Cap'n Abe, leaning his hairy fists upon the counter. "Twas when +he was ashore once at Teneriffe----" + +"Don't I hear Mandy a-callin' me?" Milt Baker suddenly demanded, making +for the door. + +"I gotter git over home myself," said Cap'n Joab apologetically. + +"Me, too," said Washy, rising. "'Tis chore time." + +Cap'n Abe clamped his jaws shut for a minute and his eyes blazed. Only +the mild and inoffensive Amiel was left of his audience. + +"Huh!" he growled. "Ain't goin' to waste my breath on _you_, Amiel +Perdue. Go git me a scuttle of coal." + +Then, when the young fellow had departed, the storekeeper grinned +ruefully and whispered in his niece's ear: + +"Hi-mighty! Cap'n Amazon's cut the sand out from under my feet. They +think he told them yarns so much better'n I do that they won't even +stay to hear me. Hard lines. Niece Louise, hard lines. But mebbe I +deserve it!" + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13982 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..463ab57 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13982 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13982) diff --git a/images/cover.jpg b/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..83d80f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/old/13982.txt b/old/13982.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c82c06f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13982.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9579 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper, by James A. Cooper + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper + +Author: James A. Cooper + +Release Date: November 8, 2004 [eBook #13982] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAP'N ABE, STOREKEEPER*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +CAP'N ABE, STOREKEEPER + +A Story of Cape Cod + +by + +JAMES A. COOPER + +1917 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. A CHOICE + II. CAP'N ABE + III. IN CAP'N ABE'S LIVING-ROOM + IV. THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS + V. WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NIGHT + VI. BOARDED BY PIRATES + VII. UNDER FIKE + VIII. SOMETHING ABOUT SALT WATER TAFFY + IX. SUSPICION HOVERS + X. WHAT LOUISE THINKS + XI. THE LEADING MAN + XII. THE DESCENT OF AUNT EUPHEMIA + XIII. WASHY GALLUP'S CURIOSITY + XIV. A CHOICE OF CHAPERONS + XV. THE UNEXPECTED + XVI. A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS + XVII. THE ODDS AGAINST HIM + XVIII. SOMETHING BREAKS + XIX. MUCH ADO + XX. THE SUN WORSHIPERS + XXI. DISCOVERIES + XXII. SHOCKING NEWS + XXIII. BETWEEN THE FIRES + XXIV. GRAY DAYS + XXV. AUNT EUPHEMIA MAKES A POINT + XXVI. AT LAST + XXVII. SARGASSO + XXVIII. STORM CLOUDS THREATEN + XXIX. THE SCAR + XXX. WHEN THE STRONG TIDES LIFT + XXXI. AN ANCHOR TO THE SOUL + XXXII. ON THE ROLL OF HONOR + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A CHOICE + +"Of course, my dear, there is nobody but your Aunt Euphemia for you to go +to!" + +"Oh, daddy-professor! Nobody? Can we rake or scrape up no other +relative on either side of the family who will take in poor little me for +the summer? You will be home in the fall, of course." + +"That is the supposition," Professor Grayling replied, his lips pursed +reflectively. "No. Dear me! there seems nobody." + +"But Aunt Euphemia!" + +"I know, Lou, I know. She expects you, however. She writes----" + +"Yes. She has it all planned," sighed Louise Grayling dejectedly. +"Every move at home or abroad Aunt Euphemia has mapped out for me. When +I am with her I am a mere automaton--only unlike a real marionette I can +feel when she pulls the strings!" + +The professor shook his head. "There's--there's only your poor mother's +half-brother down on the Cape." + +"What half-brother?" demanded Louise with a quick smile that matched the +professor's quizzical one. + +"Why----Well, your mother, Lou, had an older half-brother, a Mr. Silt. +He keeps a store at Cardhaven. You know, I met your mother down that way +when I was hunting seaweed for the Smithsonian Institution. Your +grandmother was a Bellows and her folks lived on the Cape, too. Her +family has died out and your grandfather was dead before I married your +mother. The half-brother, this Mr. Silt--Captain Abram Silt--is the only +individual of that branch of the family left alive, I believe." + +"Goodness!" gasped the girl. "What a family tree!" + +Again the professor smiled whimsically. "Only a few of the branches. +But they all reach back to the first navigators of the world." + +"The first navigators?" + +"I do not mean to the Phoenicians," her father said. "I mean that the +world never saw braver nor more worthy sailors than those who called the +wind-swept hamlets of Cape Cod their home ports. The Silts were all +master-mariners. This Captain Abe is a bachelor, I believe. You could +not very well go there." + +Louise sighed. "No; I couldn't go there--I suppose. I couldn't go +there----" Her voice wandered off into silence. Then suddenly, almost +explosively, it came back with the question: "Why couldn't I?" + +"My dear Lou! What would your aunt say?" gasped the professor. + +He was a tall, rather soldierly looking man--the result of military +training in his youth--with a shock of perfectly white hair and a +sweeping mustache that contrasted clearly with his pink, always cleanly +shaven cheeks and chin. Without impressing the observer with his +muscular power. Professor Grayling was a better man on a long hike and +possessed more reserve strength than many more beefy athletes. + +His daughter had inherited his springy carriage and even the clean +pinkness of his complexion--always looking as though she were fresh from +her shower. But there was nothing mannish about Lou Grayling--nothing at +all, though she had other attributes of body and mind for which to thank +her father. + +They were the best of chums. No father and daughter could have trod the +odd corners of the world these two had visited without becoming so +closely attached to each other that their processes of thought, as well +as their opinions in most matters, were almost in perfect harmony. +Although Mrs. Euphemia Conroth was the professor's own sister he could +appreciate Lou's attitude in this emergency. While the girl was growing +up there had been times when it was considered best--usually because of +her studies--for Lou to live with Aunt Euphemia. Indeed, that good lady +believed it almost a sin that a young girl should attend the professor on +any of his trips into "the wilds," as she expressed it. Aunt Euphemia +ignored the fact that nowadays the railroad and telegraph are in Thibet +and that turbines ply the headwaters of the Amazon. + +Mrs. Conroth dwelt in Poughkeepsie--that half-way stop between New York +and Albany; and she was as exclusive and opinionated a lady as might be +found in that city of aristocracy and learning. + +The college in the shadow of which Aunt Euphemia's dwelling basked, was +that which had led the professor's daughter under the lady's sway. +Although the girls with whom Lou associated within the college walls were +up-to-the-minute--if not a little ahead of it--she found her aunt, like +many of those barnacles clinging to the outer reefs of learning in +college towns, was really a fossil. If one desires to meet the +ultraconservative in thought and social life let me commend him to this +stratum of humanity within stone's throw of a college. These barnacles +like Aunt Euphemia are wedded to a manner of thought, gained from their +own school experiences, that went out of fashion inside the colleges +thirty years ago. + +Originally, in Lou Grayling's case, when she first lived with Aunt +Euphemia and was a day pupil at an exclusive preparatory school, it had +been drilled into her by the lady that "children should be seen but not +heard!" Later, although she acknowledged the fact that young girls were +now taught many things that in Aunt Euphemia's maidenhood were scarcely +whispered within hearing of "the young person," the lady was quite +shocked to hear such subjects discussed in the drawing-room, with her +niece as one of the discussers. + +The structure of man and the lower animals, down to the number of their +ribs, seemed no proper topic for light talk at an evening party. It made +Aunt Euphemia gasp. Anatomy was Lou's hobby. She was an excellent and +practical taxidermist, thanks to her father. And she had learned to name +the bones of the human frame along with her multiplication table. + +However, there was little about Louise Grayling to commend her among, for +instance, the erudite of Boston. She was sweet and wholesome, as has +been indicated. She had all the common sense that a pretty girl should +have--and no more. + +For she was pretty and, as well, owned that charm of intelligence without +which a woman is a mere doll. Her father often reflected that the man +who married Lou would be playing in great luck. He would get a _mate_. + +So far as Professor Grayling knew, however (and he was as keenly +observant of his daughter and her development as he was of scientific +matters), there was as yet no such man in sight. Lou had escaped the +usual boy-and-girl entanglements which fret the lives of many young folk, +because of her association with her father in his journeys about the +world. Being a perfectly normal, well-balanced girl, black boys, brown +boys, yellow boys, or all the hues and shades of boys to be met with in +those odd corners of the earth where the white man is at a premium, did +not interest Lou Grayling in the least. + +Without being ultraconservative like Aunt Euphemia, she was the sort of +girl whom one might reckon on doing the sensible--perhaps the +obvious--thing in almost any emergency. Therefore, after that single +almost awed exclamation from the professor--his sole homage to Mrs. +Grundy--he added: + +"My dear, do as you like. You are old enough and wise enough to choose +for yourself--your aunt's opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. Only, +if you don't mind----" + +"What is it, daddy-prof?" she asked him with a smile, yet still +reflective. + +"Why, if you don't mind," repeated the professor, "I'd rather you didn't +inform me where you decide to spend your summer until I am off. I--I +don't mind knowing after I am at sea--and your aunt cannot get at me." + +She laughed at him gaily. "You take it for granted that I am going to +Cape Cod," she cried accusingly. + +"No--o. But I know how sorely I should be tempted myself, realizing your +aunt's trying disposition." + +"Perhaps this--this half-uncle may be quite as trying." + +"Impossible!" was the father's rather emphatic reply. + +"What?" she cried. "Traitor to the family fame?" + +"You do not know Cape Cod folk. I do," he told her rather seriously. +"Some of them are quaint and peculiar. I suppose there are just as many +down there with traits of extreme Yankee frugality as elsewhere in New +England. But your mother's people, as I knew them, were the very salt of +the earth. Our wanderings were all that kept you from knowing the old +folk before they passed away." + +"You tempt me," was all Louise said. Then the conversation lapsed. + +It was the day following that the professor was to go to Boston +preparatory to sailing. At the moment of departure his daughter, +smiling, tucked a sealed note into his pocket. + +"Don't open it, daddy-prof, till you are out of sight of Cohasset Rocks," +she said. "Then you will not know where I am going to spend the time of +your absence until it is too late--either to oppose or to advise." + +"You can't worry me," he told her, with admiration in his glance. "I've +every confidence in you, my dear. Have a good time if you can." + +She watched him down the long platform between the trains. When she saw +him assisted into the Pullman by the porter she turned with a little +sigh, and walked up the rise toward Forty-second Street. She could +almost wish she were going with him, although seaweed and mollusk +gathering was a messy business, and the vessel he sailed in was an +ancient converted coaster with few comforts for womenkind. Louise +Grayling had been hobbled by city life for nearly a year now and she +began to crave new scenes. + +There were some last things to do at the furnished apartment they were +giving up. Some trunks were to go to the storehouse. Her own baggage +was to be tagged and sent to the Fall River boat. + +For, spurred by curiosity as well as urged by a desire to escape Aunt +Euphemia for a season, Louise was bent upon a visit to Cape Cod. At +least, she would learn what manner of person her only other living +relative was--her mother's half-brother, Captain Abram Silt. + +In the train the next day, which wandered like an erratic caterpillar +along the backbone of the Cape, she began to wonder if, after all, she +was displaying that judgment which daddy-professor praised so highly. It +was too early in the season for the "millionaire's special" to be +scheduled, in which those wealthy summer folk who have "discovered" the +Cape travel to and from Boston. Lou was on a local from Fall River that +stopped at every pair of bars and even hesitated at the pigpens along the +right of way. + +Getting aboard and getting off again at the innumerable little stations, +were people whose like she had never before seen. And their speech, +plentifully sprinkled with colloquialisms of a salt flavor, amused her, +and sometimes puzzled her. Some of the men who rode short distances in +the car wore fishermen's boots and jerseys. They called the conductor +"skipper," and hailed each other in familiar idioms. + +The women were not uncomely, nor did they dress in outlandish manner. +Great is the sway of the modern Catalogue House! But their speech was +blunt and the three topics of conversation most popular were the fish +harvest, clamming, and summer boarders. + +"Land sakes! is that you, Em'line Scudder? What sent you cruisin' in +these waters? I thought you never got away from the Haven." + +"Good-day, Mrs. Eldredge. You're fairin' well? I just _had_ to come +over to Littlebridge for some fixin's. My boarders will be 'long and I +got to freshen the house up a little." + +"You goin' to have the same folks you had last year, Em'line?" + +"Oh, yes. They're real nice---for city people. I tell Barzillai----" + +"How is Barzillai?" + +"Middlin'. His leg ain't never been just right since he was helpin' ice +the _Tryout_, come two summers ago. You know, one o' them big cakes from +the ice fact'ry fell on him. . . . I tell Barzillai the city folks are a +godsend to us Cape Codders in summer time, now that sea-goin' don't seem +so pop'lar with the men as it useter be." + +"I dunno. Some of these city folks don't seem to be sent by the Lord, +but by the other feller!" was the grim rejoinder. "I had tryin' times +with my crowd last summer; and the children with 'em was a +visitation--like the plagues of Egypt!" + +Louise was an amused yet observant listener. She began thus early to +gain what these good people themselves would call a "slant" upon their +characters and their outlook on life. + +Aside from her interest in her fellow-travelers, there were other things +to engage the girl's attention. New places always appealed to her more +than unfamiliar human beings; perhaps because she had seen so many of the +latter in all quarters of the globe and found so little variety in their +characters. There were good people and bad people everywhere, Louise had +found. Greedy, generous, morose, and laughing; faithful and treacherous, +the quick and the stupid; those likable at first meeting as well as those +utterly impossible. Of whatever nation and color they might be, she had +learned that under their skins they were all just human beings. + +But Nature--ah! she was ever changing. This girl who had seen so much of +the world had never seen anything quite like the bits of scene she +observed from the narrow window of the car. Not beautiful, perhaps, but +suggestive and provocative of genre pictures which would remain in her +memory long afterward. There were woods and fields, cranberry bogs and +sand dunes, between the hamlets; and always through the open window the +salt tang of the air delighted her. She was almost prepared to say she +was glad she had ventured when she left the train at Paulmouth and saw +her trunks put off upon the platform. + +A teetering stage, with a rack behind for light baggage, drawn by a pair +of lean horses, waited beside the station. The stage had been freshened +for the season with a thin coat of yellow paint. The word "_Cardhaven_" +was painted in bright blue letters on the doors of this ancient coach. + +"No, ma'am! I can't possibly take your trunks," the driver said, +politely explanatory. "Ye see, miss, I carry the mail this trip an' the +parcel-post traffic is right heavy, as ye might say. . . . Belay that, +Jerry!" he observed to the nigh horse that was stamping because of the +pest of flies. "We'll cast off in a minute and get under way. . . . No, +miss, I can't take 'em; but Perry Baker'll likely go over to the Haven +to-night and he'll fetch 'em for ye. I got all the cargo I can load." + +Soon the horses shacked out of town. The sandy road wandered through the +pine woods where the hot June sunshine extracted the scent of balsam +until its strength was almost overpowering. Louise, alone in the +interior of the old coach, found herself pitching and tossing about as +though in a heavy sea. + +"It is fortunate I am a good sailor," she told herself, somewhat ruefully. + +The driver was a large man in a yellow linen duster. He was not +especially communicative--save to his horses. He told them frankly what +he thought of them on several occasions! But "city folks" were evidently +no novelty for him. As he put Louise and her baggage into the vehicle he +had asked: + +"Who you cal'latin' to stop with, miss?" + +"I am going to Mr. Abram Silt's," Louise had told him. + +"Oh! Cap'n Abe. Down on the Shell Road. I can't take ye that +fur--ain't allowed to drive beyond the tavern. But 'tain't noways a fur +walk from there." + +He expressed no curiosity about her, or her business with the Shell Road +storekeeper. That surprised Louise a little. She had presumed all these +people would display Yankee curiosity. + +It was not a long journey by stage, for which she was thankful. The +noonday sun was hot and the interior of the turnout soon began to take on +the semblance of a bake-oven. They came out at last on a wind-swept +terrace and she gained her first unobstructed view of the ocean. + +She had always loved the sea--its wideness, its mystery, its ever +changing face. She watched the sweep of a gull following the crested +windrow of the breakers on a near-by reef, busy with his fishing. All +manner of craft etched their spars and canvas on the horizon, only bluer +than the sea itself. Inshore was a fleet of small fry--catboats, sloops, +dories under sail, and a smart smack or two going around to Provincetown +with cargoes from the fish pounds. + +"I shall like it," she murmured after a deeper breath. + +They came to the outlying dwellings of Cardhaven; then to the head of +Main Street that descended gently to the wharves and beaches of the inner +harbor. Halfway down the hill, just beyond the First Church and the +post-office, was the rambling, galleried old structure across the face of +which, and high under its eaves, was painted the name "_Cardhaven Inn_." +A pungent, fishy smell swept up the street with the hot breeze. The tide +was out and the flats were bare. + +The coach stopped before the post-office, and Louise got out briskly with +her bag. The driver, backing down from his seat, said to her: + +"If ye wait till I git out the mail I'll drive ye inter the tavern yard +in style. I bait the horses there." + +"Oh, I'll walk," she told him brightly. "I can get dinner there, I +suppose?" + +"Warn't they expectin' you at Cap'n Abe's?" the stage driver asked. "I +want to know! Oh, yes. You can buy your dinner at the tavern. But +'tain't a long walk to Cap'n Abe's. Not fur beyond the Mariner's Chapel." + +Louise thanked him. A young man was coming down the steps of the +post-office. He was a more than ordinarily good-looking young fellow, +deeply tanned, with a rather humorous twist to his shaven lips, and with +steady blue eyes. He was dressed in quite common clothing: the jersey, +high boots, and sou'wester of a fisherman. + +He looked at Louise, but not offensively. He did not remove his hat as +he spoke. + +"I heard Noah say you wished to go to Cap'n Abe's store," he observed +with neither an assumption of familiarity nor any bucolic embarrassment. +"I am bound that way myself." + +"Thank you!" she said with just enough dignity to warn him to keep his +distance if he chanced to be contemplating anything familiar. "But I +shall dine at the hotel first." + +A brighter color flooded into his cheeks and Louise felt that she might +have been too sharp with him. She mended this by adding: + +"You may tell me how to get to the Shell Road and Mr. Silt's, if you will +be so kind." + +He smiled at that. Really, he was an awfully nice-looking youth! She +had no idea that these longshore fishermen would be so gentlemanly and so +good looking. + +"Oh, you can't miss it. Take the first left-hand street, and keep on it. +Cap'n Abe's store is the only one beyond the Mariner's Chapel." + +"Thank you," she said again and mounted the broad steps of the Inn. The +young fellow hesitated as though he were inclined to enter too. But when +Louise reached the piazza and glanced quickly down at him, he was moving +on. + +The cool interior of a broad hall with a stairway mounting out of it and +a screened dining-room at one side, welcomed the girl. A bustling young +woman in checked gingham, which fitted her as though it were a mold for +her rather plump figure, met the visitor. + +"How-do!" she said briskly. "Goin' to stop?" + +"Only for dinner," Louise said, smiling--and when she smiled her gray +eyes made friends. + +"Almost over. But I'll run an' tell the cook to dish you up something +hot. Come right this way an' wash. I'll fix you a table where it's +cool. This is 'bout the first hot day we've had." + +She showed the visitor into the dressing-room and then bustled away. +Later she hovered about the table where Louise ate, the other boarders +having departed. + +"My name's Gusty Durgin," she volunteered. "I reckon you're one o' them +movin' picture actresses they say are goin' to work down to The Beaches +this summer." + +"What makes you think so?" asked Louise, somewhat amused. + +"Why--you kinder look it. I should say you had 'screen charm.' Oh! I +been readin' up about you folks for a long time back. I subscribed to +_The Fillum Universe_ that tells all about you. I'd like to try actin' +before the cam'ra myself. But I cal'late I ain't got much 'screen +charm,'" the waitress added seriously. "I'm too fat. And I wouldn't do +none of them comedy pictures where the fat woman always gets the worst of +it. But you must take lovely photographs." + +"I'm not sure that I do," laughed Louise. + +"Land sakes! Course you do. Them big eyes o' yourn must just look +fetchin' in a picture. I don't believe I've ever seen you in a movie, +have I, Miss------?" + +"Grayling." + +"'Grayling'! Ain't that pretty?" Gusty Durgin gave an envious sigh. "Is +it your honest to goodness, or just your fillum name?" + +"My 'honest to goodness,'" the visitor confessed, bubbling with laughter. + +"Land sakes! I should have to change mine all right. The kids at school +useter call me 'Dusty Gudgeon.' Course, my right name's Augusta; but +nobody ever remembers down here on the Cape to call anybody by such a +long name. Useter be a boy in our school who was named 'Christopher +Columbus George Washington Marquis de Lafayette Gallup.' His mother +named him that. But everybody called him 'Lafe'--after Lafayette, ye see. + +"Land sakes! I should just have to change my name if I acted in the +pictures. Your complexion's real, too, ain't it?" pursued this waitress +with histrionic ambitions. "Real pretty, too, if 'tis high colored. I +expect you have to make up for the pictures, just the same." + +"I suppose I should. I believe it is always necessary to accentuate the +lights and shadows for the camera." + +"'Accentuate'--yep. That's a good word. I'll remember that," said +Gusty. "You goin' to stay down to The Beaches long---and will you like +it?" + +"The Beaches?" + +"That's where you'll work. At the Bozewell house. Swell bungalow. All +the big bugs live along The Beaches." + +"I am not sure just how long I shall stay," confessed Louise Grayling; +"but I know I am going to like it." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CAP'N ABE + +"I see by the _Globe_ paper," Cap'n Abe observed, pushing up from his +bewhiskered visage the silver-bowed spectacles he really did not need, +"that them fellers saved from the wreck of the _Gilbert Gaunt_ cal'late +they went through something of an adventure." + +"And they did," rejoined Cap'n Joab Beecher, "if they seen ha'f what they +tell about." + +"I dunno," the storekeeper went on reflectively, staring at a huge +fishfly booming against one of the dusty window panes. "I dunno. Cap'n +Am'zon was tellin' me once't about what he and two others went through +with after the _Posy Lass,_ out o' Bangor, was smashed up in a big blow +off Hat'ras. What them fellers in the _Globe_ paper tell about ain't a +patch on what Cap'n Am'zon suffered." + +There was an uncertain, troubled movement among Cap'n Abe's hearers. +Even the fishfly stopped droning. Cap'n Beecher looked longingly through +the doorway from which the sea could be observed as well as a strip of +that natural breakwater called "The Neck," a barrier between the tumbling +Atlantic and the quiet bay around which the main village of Cardhaven was +set. + +All the idlers in the store on this June afternoon were not natives. +There were several young fellows from The Beaches--on the Shell Road to +which Cap'n Abe's store was a fixture. In sight of The Beaches the +wealthy summer residents had built their homes--dwellings ranging in +architectural design from the mushroom-roofed bungalow to a villa in the +style of the Italian Renaissance. + +The villa in question had been built by I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy +King, and Lawford Tapp, only son of the house, was one of the audience in +Cap'n Abe's store. + +"Cap'n Amazon said," boomed the storekeeper a good deal like the +fishfly--"Cap'n Amazon said the _Posy Lass_ was loaded with lumber and +her cargo's 'bout all that kep' her afloat as fur as Hat'ras. Then the +smashin' big seas that come aboard settled her right down like a wounded +duck. + +"The deck load went o' course; and about ev'rything else was cleaned off +the decks that warn't bolted to 'em. The seas rose up and picked off the +men, one after t'other, like a person'd clean off a beach plum bush." + +"I shouldn't wonder," spoke up Cap'n Beecher, "if we seen some weather +'fore morning." + +He was squinting through the doorway at an azure and almost speckless +sky. There was an uneasy shuffling of boots. One of the boys from The +Beaches giggled. Cap'n Abe--and the fishfly--boomed on together, the +storekeeper evidently visualizing the scene he narrated and not the +half-lighted and goods-crowded shop. At its best it was never well +illumined. Had the window panes been washed there was little chance of +the sunshine penetrating far save by the wide open door. On either hand +as one entered were the rows of hanging oilskins, storm boots, +miscellaneous clothing and ship chandlery that made up only a part of +Cap'n Abe's stock. + +There were blue flannel shirts dangling on wooden hangers to show all +their breadth of shoulder and the array of smoked-pearl buttons. Brown +and blue dungaree overalls were likewise displayed--grimly, like men +hanging in chains. At the end of one row of these quite ordinary +habiliments was one dress shirt with pleated bosom and cuffs as stiff as +a board. Lawford Tapp sometimes speculated on that shirt--how it chanced +to be in Cap'n Abe's stock and why it had hung there until the flies had +taken title to it! + +Centrally located was the stove, its four heavily rusted legs set in a +shallow box which was sometimes filled with fresh sawdust. The +stovepipe, guyed by wires to the ceiling, ran back to the chimney behind +Cap'n Abe. + +He stood at the one space that was kept cleared on his counter, hairy +fists on the brown, hacked plank--the notches of the yard-stick and +fathom-stick cut with a jackknife on its edge--his pale eyes sparkling as +he talked. + +"There she wallered," went on the narrator of maritime disaster, "her +cargo held together by rotting sheathing and straining ribs. She was +wrung by the seas like a dishrag in a woman's hands. She no longer +mounted the waves; she bored through 'em. 'Twas a serious time--to hear +Cap'n Am'zon tell it." + +"I guess it must ha' been, Abe," Milt Baker put in hastily. "Gimme a +piece o' that Brown Mule chewin' tobacker." + +"I'll _sell_ it to ye, Milt," the storekeeper said gently, with his hand +on the slide of the cigar and tobacco showcase. + +"That's what I mean," rejoined Milt boldly, fishing in his pocket for the +required nickel. + +"For fourteen days while the _Posy Lass_ was drivin' off shore before an +easterly gale, Cap'n Am'zon an' two others, lashed to the stump o' the +fo'mast, _ex_-isted in a smother of foam an' spume, with the waves +picklin' 'em ev'ry few minutes. And five raw potaters was all they had +to eat in all that endurin' time!" + +"Five potatoes?" Lawford Tapp cried. "For three men? And for fourteen +days? Good-_night_!" + +Cap'n Abe stared at him for a moment, his eyes holding sparks of +indignation. "Young man," he said tartly, "you should hear Cap'n Am'zon +himself tell it. You wouldn't cast no doubts upon his statement." + +Cap'n Joab snorted and turned his back again. Young Tapp felt somewhat +abashed. + +"Yes, sir!" proceeded Cap'n Abe who seldom lost the thread of one of his +stories, "they was lashed to that stump of a mast and they lived on them +potaters--scraping 'em fine with their sheath-knives, and husbandin' 'em +like they was jewels. One of 'em went mad." + +"One o' the potaters?" gasped Amiel Perdue. + +"_Who_ went crazy--your brother, Cap'n Abe?" Milt asked cheerfully. He +had squandered a nickel in trying to head off the flow of the +storekeeper's story, and felt that he was entitled to something besides +the Brown Mule. + +Cap'n Abe kept to his course apparently unruffled: "Cap'n Am'zon an' the +other feller lashed the poor chap--han's _an_' feet--and so kep' him from +goin' overboard. But mebbe 'twarn't a marciful act after all. When they +was rescued from the _Posy Lass_, her decks awash and her slowly breakin' +up, there warn't nothing could be done for the feller that had lost his +mind. He was put straightaway into a crazy-house when they got to port. + +"Now, them fellers saved from the _Gilbert Gaunt_ didn't go through +nothin' like that, it stands to reason. Cap'n Am'zon----" + +Lawford Tapp was gazing out of the door beside Cap'n Joab, whose deeply +tanned, whisker-fringed countenance wore an expression of disgust. + +"I declare! I'd love to see this wonderful brother of his. He must have +Baron Munchausen lashed to the post," the young man whispered. + +"Never heard tell of that Munchausen feller," Cap'n Joab reflected. +"Reckon he didn't sail from any of the Cape ports. But you let Abe tell +it, Cap'n Am'zon Silt is the greatest navigator an' has the +rip-snortin'est adventoors of airy deep-bottom sailor that ever chawed +salt hoss." + +"Did you ever see him?" Lawford asked. + +"See who?" + +"Cap'n Amazon?" + +"No. I didn't never see him. But I've heard Cap'n Abe talk about +him--standin' off an' on as ye might say--for twenty year and more." + +"Odd you never met him, isn't it?" + +"No. I never happened on Cap'n Am'zon when I was sea-farin'. And he +ain't never been to Cardhaven to my knowledge." + +"Never been here?" murmured Lawford Tapp more than a little surprised. +"Wasn't he born and brought up here?" + +"No. Neither was Cap'n Abe. The Silts flourish, as ye might say--or, +useter 'fore the fam'ly sort o' petered out--down New Bedford way. Cap'n +Abe come here twenty-odd year back and opened this store. He's as salt +as though he'd been a haddocker since he was weaned. But he's always +stuck mighty close inshore. Nobody ever seen him in a boat--'ceptin' out +in a dory fishin' for tomcod in the bay, and on a mighty ca'm day at +that." + +"How does it come that he is called captain, then?" Lawford asked, +impressed by Cap'n Beecher's scorn of the storekeeper. + +The captain reflected, his jaws working spasmodically. "It's easy 'nough +to pick up skipper's title longshore. 'Most ev'ry man owns some kind of +a boat; and o' course a man's cap'n of his own craft--or 'doughter be. +But I reckon Abe Silt aimed his title honest 'nough." + +"How?" urged Lawford. + +"When Abe fust come here to Cardhaven there was still two-three wrecking +comp'nies left on the Cape. Why, 'tain't been ten years since the +Paulmouth Comp'ny wrecked the _Mary Benson_ that went onto Sanders Reef +all standin'. They made a good speck out o' the job, too. + +"Wal, Abe bought into one o' the comp'nies--was the heaviest stockholder, +in fac', so nat'rally was cap'n. He never headed no crew--not as I ever +heard on. But the title kinder stuck; and I don't dispute Abe likes it." + +"But about his brother--this Captain Amazon?" The line of Cap'n Joab +Beecher's jaw, clean shaven above his whisker, looked very grim indeed, +and he wagged his head slowly. "I don't know what to make of all this +talk o' Cap'n Abe's," was his enigmatical reply. + +Lawford turned to gaze curiously at the storekeeper. He certainly looked +to be of a salt flavor, did Cap'n Abe Silt, though so many of his years +had been spent behind the counter of this gloomy and cluttered shop. He +was not a large man, nor commanding to look upon. His eyes were too mild +for that--save when, perhaps, he grew excited in relating one of his +interminable stories about Cap'n Amazon. + +Cap'n Amazon Silt, it seemed, had been everything on sea and land that a +mariner could be. No romance of the sea, or sea-going, was too +remarkable to be capped by a tale of one of Cap'n Amazon's experiences. +Some of these stories of wild and remarkable happenings, the storekeeper +had told over and over again until they were threadbare. + +Cap'n Abe's brown, gray-streaked beard swept the breast of his blue +jersey. He was seldom seen without a tarpaulin on his head, and this had +made his crown as bare and polished as a shark's tooth. Under the bulk +of his jersey he might have been either thin or deep-chested, for the +observer could not easily judge. And nobody ever saw the storekeeper's +sleeves rolled up or the throat-latch of his shirt open. + +Despite the fact that he held a thriving trade in his store on the Shell +Road (especially during the summer season) Cap'n Abe lived emphatically a +lonely life. Twenty years' residence meant little to Cardhaven folk. +Cap'n Abe was still an outsider to people who were so closely married and +intermarried that every human being within five miles of the Haven (not +counting the aristocrats of The Beaches) could honestly call each of the +others cousin in some degree. + +The house and store was set on a lonely stretch of road. It was +unlighted at night, for the last street lamp had been fixed by the town +fathers at the Mariner's Chapel, as though they said to all mundane +illumination as did King Canute to the sea, "Thus far shalt thou come and +no farther." + +Betty Gallup came cross lots each day to "rid up" Mr. Silt's living-room, +which was behind the store, the chambers being overhead. She was gone +home long before he put out the store lights and turned out the last +lingering idler, for Cap'n Abe preferred to cook for himself. He +declared the Widow Gallup did not know how to make a decent chowder, +anyway; and as for lobscouse, or the proper frying of a mess of +"blood-ends," she was all at sea. He intimated that there were digestive +reasons for her husband's death at the early age of sixty-eight. + +Milt Baker had successfully introduced another topic of conversation, far +removed it would seem from any adventurous happening connected with Cap'n +Amazon Silt's career. + +"I hear tell," said Milt, chewing Brown Mule with gusto, "that them folks +cavortin' down on The Beaches for a week past is movin' picture actors. +That so, Lawford?" + +"There's a camera man and a director, and several handy men arrived," the +son of the Salt Water Taffy King replied. "They are going to use +Bozewell's house for some pictures. The Bozewells are in Europe." + +"But ain't none of the actorines come?" demanded Milt, who was a sad +dog--let him tell it! He had been motorman on a street car in Providence +for a couple of winters before he married Mandy Card, and now tried to +keep green his reputation for sophistication. + +"I believe not," Lawford answered, with reflection. "I presume the +company will come later. The director is taking what he calls 'stills' +of the several localities they propose using when the films are really +made." + +"One of 'em told me," chuckled Amiel Perdue, "that they was hopin' for a +storm, so's to get a real wreck in the picture." + +"Hoh!" snorted Cap'n Joab. "Fine time o' year to be lookin' for a +no'theaster on the Cape." + +"And do they reckon a craft'll drift right in here if there is a storm +an' wrack herself to please 'em?" piped up Washy Gallup--no relation to +Betty save through interminable cross-currents of Card and Baker blood. + +"Sometimes them fillum fellers buy a boat an' wreck it a-purpose. Look +what they did to the old _Morning Star_," Milt said. "I read once of a +comp'ny putting two locomotives on one track an' running 'em full-tilt +together so's to get a picture of the smashup." + +"Crazy critters!" muttered Cap'n Joab. + +"But wait till ye see the fillum actresses," Milt chuckled. "Tell ye +what, boys, some of 'em 'll make ye open your eyes!" + +"Ye better go easy. Milt, 'bout battin' your eyes," advised Amiel +Perdue. "Mandy ain't lost her eyesight none either." + +Washy's thin whine broke through the guffaw: "I seen a picture at +Paulmouth once't about a feller and a girl lost in the woods o' Borneo. +It was a stirrin' picture. They was chased by headhunters, and one o' +these here big man-apes tackled 'em--what d'ye call that critter now? +Suthin' like ringin' a bell." + +"Orang-outang," suggested Lawford. + +"That's it. Sounds jest like the Baptist Meetin' House bell. It's +cracked." + +"Them orang-outangs don't sound like no bell--not when they holler," put +in Cap'n Abe, leaning on his counter and staring at the tireless fishfly +again. "Cap'n Am'zon Silt, when he was ashore once't in Borneo, met one +o' them critters." + +"Gosh all fishhooks!" ejaculated Milt. "Ain't there no place on this +green airth that brother o' yourn ain't been, Cap'n Abe?" + +"He ain't never been in jail, Milt," said the storekeeper mildly, and the +assembly broke into an appreciative chuckle. It was well known that on +the last Fourth of July Milt Baker had been shut into the calaboose at +Paulmouth to sober up. + +"As I was sayin'," pursued Cap'n Abe reflectively, "Cap'n Amazon went up +country with a Dutchman--a trader, I b'lieve he said the man was--and +they got into a part where the orang-outangs was plentiful." + +"Jest as thick as sandpipers along The Beaches, I shouldn't wonder," put +in Cap'n Joab, at last tempted beyond his strength. + +"No; nor like mackerel when ye get a full seine-haul," responded the +storekeeper, unruffled, "but thicker'n you'd want sand fleas to be if the +fleas measured up to the size of orang-outangs." + +Lawford Tapp burst into open laughter. "They can't catch you, can they, +Cap'n Abe?" he said. "If that brother of yours has gone through one-half +the perils by land and sea I've heard you tell about, he's beat out most +sailors from old Noah down to Admiral Dewey." + +Cap'n Abe's brows came together in pronounced disapproval. "Young man," +he said, "if Cap'n Am'zon was here now ye wouldn't darst cast any +aspersions on his word. He ain't the man to stand for't." + +"Well, I'd like to see Cap'n Amazon," Lawford said lightly, "if only for +the sake of asking him a question or two." + +"You'll likely get your wish," returned the storekeeper tartly. + +"What d'ye mean?" drawled Milt Baker, who always bobbed up serenely. "Ye +don't say Cap'n Am'zon's likely to show up here at Cardhaven after all +these years?" + +There was barely a second's hesitation on Mr. Silt's part. Then he said: +"That's exactly what I mean. I got a--ahem!--a letter from Cap'n Am'zon +only lately." + +"And he's comin' to see ye?" gasped Cap'n Joab, turning from the door to +stare like the others at the storekeeper. + +"Yes," the latter confessed. "And he's likely to stay quite a spell when +he does come. Says suthin' 'bout settlin' down. He's gettin' along in +years like the rest of us. Mebbe I'll let him keep store for me this +summer whilst I take a vacation," added Cap'n Abe more briskly, "like I +been wantin' to do for a long spell back." + +"You took a vacation of a week or more about--was it ten year ago?" +demanded Cap'n Joab. "I looked after the place for ye then." + +"Ahem! I mean a real vacation," Cap'n Abe declared, still staring at the +fishfly now feebly butting its head against the pane. "That week was +when I went to the--'hem--buryin' of my a'nt, Joab. I'll go this time +mebbe for two-three months. Take a v'y'ge somewhere, I've always wanted +to." + +"Land sakes!" exploded Cap'n Joab. "I know ye been talkin' 'bout +cruisin' around--to see your folks, or the like--for the longest spell. +But I didn't s'pose ye re'lly meant it. And your brother comin', too! +Well!" + +"If he can tell of his adventures as well as you relate them," laughed +Lawford, "Cap'n Amazon should be an addition to the Cardhaven social +whirl." + +"You take my advice, young man," Cap'n Abe said, with sternness, "and +belay that sort o' talk afore Cap'n Am'zon when he does come. He's lived +a rough sort o' life. He's nobody's tame cat. Doubt his word and he's +jest as like as not to take ye by the scruff of the neck and duck ye in +the water butt." + +There was a general laugh. Almost always the storekeeper managed to turn +the tables in some way upon any doubting Thomas that drifted into his +shop. Because of his ability in this particular he had managed to hold +his audience all these years. + +Lawford could think of no reply with which to turn the laugh. His wit +was not of a nimble order. He turned to the door again and suddenly a +low ejaculation parted his lips. + +"There's that girl again!" + +Milt Baker screwed his neck around for a look. "See who's come!" he +cackled. "I bet it's one o' them moving picture actresses." + +Lawford cast on the ribald Milt a somewhat angry glance. Yet he did not +speak again for a moment. + +"Tidy craft," grunted Cap'n Joab, eying the young woman who was +approaching the store along the white road. + +"I saw her get out of Noah's ark when he landed at the post-office this +noon," Lawford explained to Cap'n Joab. "She looks like a nice girl." + +"Trim as a yacht," declared the old man admiringly. + +She was plainly city bred--and city gowned--and she carried her light +traveling bag by a strap over her shoulder. Her trim shoes were dusty +from her walk and her face was pink under her wide hat brim. + +Lawford stepped out upon the porch. His gaze was glued again to this +vision of young womanhood; but as he stood at one side she did not appear +to see him as she mounted the steps. + +The heir of the Salt Water Taffy King was twenty-four, his rather +desultory college course behind him; and he thought his experience with +girls had been wide. But he had never seen one just like Louise +Grayling. He was secretly telling himself this as she made her entrance +into Cap'n Abe's store. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +IN CAP'N ABE'S LIVING-ROOM + +Louise came into the store smiling and the dusty, musty old place seemed +actually to brighten in the sunshine of her presence. Her big gray eyes +(they were almost blue when their owner was in an introspective mood) now +sparkled as her glance swept Cap'n Abe's stock-in-trade--the shelves of +fly-specked canned goods and cereal packages, with soap, and starch, and +half a hundred other kitchen goods beyond; the bolts of calico, gingham, +"turkey red," and mill-ends; the piles of visored caps and boxes of +sunbonnets on the counter: the ship-lanterns, coils of rope, boathooks, +tholepins hanging in wreaths; bailers, clam hoes, buckets, and the +thousand and one articles which made the store on the Shell Road a museum +that later was sure to engage the interest of the girl. + +Now, however, the clutter of the shop gained but fleeting notice from +Louise. Her gaze almost immediately fastened upon the figure of the +bewhiskered old man, with spectacles and sou'wester both pushed back on +his bald crown, who mildly looked upon her--his smile somehow impressing +Louise Grayling as almost childish, it was so kindly. + +Cap'n Joab had dodged through the door after Lawford Tapp. The other +boys from The Beaches followed their leader. Old Washy Gallup and Amiel +Perdue suddenly remembered that it was almost chore time as this radiant +young woman said: + +"I wish to see Mr. Abram Silt--Captain Silt. Is he here?" + +"I'm him, miss," Cap'n Abe returned politely. + +Milt Baker surely would have remained of all the crowd of idlers, gaping +oilily at the visitor across the top of the rusty stove, had not a shrill +feminine voice been heard outside the store, + +"Is Milt Baker there? Ain't none o' you men seen him? Land sakes! he's +as hard to hold as the greased pig on Fourth o' July--an' jest 'bout as +useful." + +"Milt," said Cap'n Abe suggestively, "I b'lieve I hear Mandy callin' you." + +"I'm a-comin'!--I'm a-comin', Mandy!" gurgled Milt, cognizant of the +girl's gay countenance turned upon him. + +"What did you want, miss?" asked Cap'n Abe, as the recreant husband of +the militant Mandy stumbled over his own feet getting out of the store. + +Louise bubbled over with laughter; she could not help it. Cap'n Abe's +bearded countenance broke slowly into an appreciative grin. + +"Yes," he said, "she does have him on a leadin' string. I do admit +Mandy's a card." + +The girl, quick-witted as she was bright looking, got his point almost at +once. "You mean she was a Card before she married him?" + +"And she's a Card yet," Cap'n Abe said, nodding. "Guess you know a thing +or two, yourself. What can I do for you?" + +"You can say: 'Good-evening, Niece Louise,'" laughed the girl, coming +closer to the counter upon which the storekeeper still leaned. + +"Land sakes!" + +"My mother was a Card. That is how I came to see your joke, Uncle Abram." + +"Land sakes!" + +"Don't you believe me?" + +"I--I ain't got but one niece in the world," mumbled Cap'n Abe. +"An'--an' I never expected to see _her_." + +"Louise Grayling, daughter of Professor Ernest Grayling and Miriam +Card--your half-sister's child. See here--and here." She snapped open +her bag, resting it on the counter, and produced an old-fashioned +photograph of her mother, a letter, yellowed by time, that Cap'n Abe had +written Professor Grayling long before, and her own accident policy +identification card which she always carried. + +Cap'n Abe stretched forth a hairy hand, and it closed on Lou's as a +sunfish absorbs its prey. The girl's hand to her wrist was completely +lost in the grip; but despite its firmness Cap'n Abe's handclasp was by +no means painful. He released her and, leaning back, smiled benignly. + +"Land sakes!" he said again. "I'm glad to see little Mirry's girl. An' +you do favor her a mite. But I guess you take mostly after the +Graylings." + +"People say I am like my father." + +"An' a mighty nice lookin' man--an' a pleasant--as I remember him," Cap'n +Abe declared. + +"Come right in here, into my sittin'-room, Niece Louise, an' lemme take a +look at you. Land sakes!" + +He lifted the flap in the counter to let her through. The doorway beyond +gave entrance to a wide hall, or "entry," between the store and the +living-room. The kitchen was in a lean-to at the back. The table in the +big room was already spread with a clean red-and-white checked tablecloth +and set with heavy chinaware for a meal. A huge caster graced the center +of the table, containing glass receptacles for salt, red and black +pepper, catsup, vinegar, and oil. Knives, forks, and spoons for two--all +of utilitarian style--were arranged with mathematical precision beside +each plate. + +In one window hung a pot with "creeping Jew" and inchplant, the tendrils +at least a yard long. In the other window was a blowzy-looking canary in +a cage. A corpulent tortoise-shell cat occupied the turkey-red cushion +in one generous rocking chair, There was a couch with a faded patchwork +coverlet, several other chairs, and in a glass-fronted case standing on +the mantlepiece a model of a brigantine in full sail, at least two feet +tall. + +"Sit down," said Cap'n Abe heartily. "Drop your dunnage right down +there," as Louise slipped the strap of her bag from her shoulder. "Take +that big rocker. Scat, you, Diddimus! and let the young lady have your +place." + +"Oh, don't bother him, Uncle Abram. What a beauty he is," Louise said, +as the tortoise-shell--without otherwise moving--opened one great, yellow +eye. + +"He's a lazy good-for-nothing," Cap'n Abe said mildly. "Friends with all +the mice on the place, I swan! But sometimes he's the only human critter +I have to talk to. 'Cept Jerry." + +"Jerry?" + +"The bird," explained Cap'n Abe, easing himself comfortably into a chair, +his guest being seated, and resting his palms on his knees as he gazed at +her out of his pale blue eyes. "He's a lot of comfort--Jerry. An' he +useter be a great singer. Kinder gittin' old, now, like the rest of us. + +"Does seem too bad," went on Cap'n Abe reflectively, "how a bird like him +has got to live in a cage all his endurin' days. Jerry's a +prisoner--like I been. _I_ ain't never had the freedom I wanted, +Miss------? + +"Louise, please. Uncle Abram. Lou Grayling," the girl begged, but +smiling. + +"Then just you call me Cap'n Abe. I'm sort o' useter that," the +storekeeper said. + +"Of course I will. But why haven't you been free?" she asked, reverting +to his previous topic. "Seems to me--down here on the Cape where the sea +breezes blow, and everything is open----" + +"Yes, 'twould seem so," Cap'n Abe said, but he said it with hesitation. +"I been some hampered all my life, as ye might say. 'Tis something that +was bred in me. But as for Jerry------ + +"Jerry was give to me by a lady when he was a young bird. After a while +I got thinkin' a heap about him bein' caged, and one sunshiny day--it was +a marker for days down here on the Cape, an' we have lots on 'em! One +sunshiny day I opened his door and opened the window, and I says: 'Scoot! +The hull world's yourn!'" + +"And didn't he go?" asked the girl, watching the rapt face of the old man. + +"Did he go? Right out through that window with a song that'd break your +heart to hear, 'twas so sweet. He pitched on the old apple tree +yonder--the August sweet'nin'--and I thought he'd bust his throat +a-tellin' of how glad he was to be free out there in God's sunshine an' +open air." + +"He came back, I see," said Louise thoughtfully. + +"That's just it!" cried Cap'n Abe, shaking his head till the tarpaulin +fell off and he forgot to pick it up. "That's just it. He come back of +his own self. I didn't try to ketch him. When it grew on toward sundown +an' the air got kinder chill, I didn't hear Jerry singin' no more. I'd +seen him, off'n on, flittin' 'bout the yard all day. When I come in here +to light the hangin'-lamp cal'latin' to make supper, I looked over there +at the window. I'd shut it. There was Jerry on the window sill, humped +all up like an old woman with the tisic." + +"The poor thing!" was Lou's sympathetic cry. + +"Yes," said Cap'n Abe, nodding. "He warn't no more fit to be let loose +than nothin' 'tall. And I wonder if _I_ be," added the storekeeper. +"I've been caged quite a spell how. + +"But now tell me, Niece Louise," he added with latent curiosity, "how did +you find your way here?" + +"Father says--'Daddy-professor,' you know is what I call him. He says if +we had not always been traveling when I was not at school, I should have +known you long ago. He thinks very highly of my mother's people." + +"I wanter know!" + +"He says you are the 'salt of the earth'--that is his very expression." + +"Yes. We're pretty average salt, I guess," admitted Cap'n Abe. "I never +seen your father but once or twice. You see, Louise, your mother was a +lot younger'n me an' Am'zon." + +"Who?" + +"Cap'n Am'zon. Oh! _I_ ain't the only uncle you got," he said, watching +her narrowly. "Cap'n Am'zon Silt----" + +"Have I another relative? How jolly!" exclaimed Louise, clasping her +hands. + +"Ye-as. Ain't it? Jest," Cap'n Abe said. "Ahem! your father never +spoke of Cap'n Am'zon?". + +"I don't believe daddy-prof even knew there was such a person." + +"Mebbe not. Mebbe not," Cap'n Abe agreed hastily. "And not to be +wondered at. You see, Am'zon went to sea when he was only jest a boy." + +"Did he?" + +"Yep. Ran away from home--like most boys done in them days, for their +mothers warn't partial to the sea--and shipped aboard the whaler _South +Sea Belle_. He tied his socks an' shirt an' a book o' navigation he +owned, up in a handkerchief, and slipped out over the shed roof one +night, and away he went." Cap'n Abe told the girl this with that +far-away look on his face that usually heralded one of his tales about +Cap'n Amazon. + +"I can remember it clear 'nough. He walked all the way to New Bedford. +We lived at Rocky Head over against Bayport. Twas quite a step to +Bedford. The _South Sea Belle_ was havin' hard time makin' up her crew. +She warn't a new ship. Am'zon was twelve year old an' looked fifteen. +An' he was fifteen 'fore he got back from that v'y'ge. Mebbe I'll tell +ye 'bout it some time--or Cap'n Am'zon will. He's been a deep-bottom +sailor from that day to this." + +"And where is he now?" asked Louise. + +"Why--mebbe!--he's on his way here. I shouldn't wonder. He might step +in at that door any minute," and Cap'n Abe's finger indicated the store +door. + +There was the sound of a footstep entering the store as he spoke. The +storekeeper arose. "I'll jest see who 'tis," he said. + +While he was absent Louise laid aside her hat and made a closer +inspection of the room and its furniture. Everything was homely but +comfortable. There was a display of marine art upon the walls. All the +ships were drawn exactly, with the stays, spars, and all rigging in +place, line for line. They all sailed, too, through very blue seas, the +crest of each wave being white with foam. + +Flanking the model of the brigantine on the mantle were two fancy shell +pieces--works of art appreciated nowhere but on the coast. The designs +were ornate; but what they could possibly represent Louise was unable to +guess. + +She tried to interest the canary by whistling to him and sticking her +pink finger between the wires of his cage. He was ruffled and dull-eyed +like all old birds of his kind, and paid her slight attention. When she +turned to Diddimus she had better success. He rolled on his side, stuck +all his claws out and drew them in again luxuriously, purring meanwhile +like a miniature sawmill. + +When Cap'n Abe came back the girl asked: + +"Wasn't your customer a young man I saw on the porch as I came in?" + +"Yep. Lawford Tapp. Said he forgot some matches and a length o' +ropeyarn. I reckon you went to that young man's head. And his top +hamper ain't none too secure, Niece Louise." + +"Oh, did I?" laughed the girl, understanding perfectly. "How nice." + +"Nice? That's how ye take it. Lawford Tapp ain't a fav'rite o' mine." + +"But he seemed very accommodating to-day when I asked him how to reach +your store." + +"So you met him up town?" + +"Yes, Uncle Abe." + +"He's perlite enough," scolded the storekeeper. "But I don't jest fancy +the cut of his jib. Wanted to know if you was goin' to stop here." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Louise. "That is what I want to know myself. Am I?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS + +Cap'n Abe reached for his spectacles and pulled them down upon his nose +to look at his guest through the lenses. Not that they aided his sight +in the least; but the act helped to cover the fact that he was startled. + +"Stop here?" he repeated. "Where's your father? Ain't he with you up +to the Inn?" + +"No, Cap'n Abe. He is in Boston to-day. But he will sail to-morrow +for a summer cruise with a party for scientific research. I am all +alone. So I came down here to Cape Cod." + +Louise said it directly and as simply as the storekeeper himself might +have spoken. Yet it seemed really difficult for Cap'n Abe to get her +meaning into his head. + +"You mean you was intendin' to cast anchor here--with _me_?" + +"If it is agreeable. Of course I'll pay my board if you'll let me. +You have a room to spare, haven't you?" + +"Land sakes, yes!" + +"And I am not afraid to use my hands. I might even be of some slight +use," and she smiled at him till his own slow smile responded, troubled +and amazed though he evidently was by her determination. "I've roughed +it a good deal with daddy-prof. I can cook--some things. And I can do +housework----" + +"Bet Gallup does that," interposed Cap'n Abe, finally getting his +bearings. "Hi-mighty, ye did take me aback all standin', Niece Louise! +Ye did, for a fac'. But why not? Land sakes, there's room enough, +an' to spare! Ye don't hafter put them pretty han's to housework. +Betty Gallup'll do all that. An' you don't have to pay no board money. +As for cookin'----That remin's me. I'd better git to work on our +supper. We'll be sharp for it 'fore long." + +"And--and I may stay?" asked Louise, with some little embarrassment +now. "You are sure it won't inconvenience you?" + +"Bless you, no! I cal'late it's more likely to inconvenience _you_," +and Cap'n Abe chuckled mellowly. "I don't know what sort o' 'roughin' +it' you've done with your pa; but if there's anything much rougher than +an ol' man's housekeepin' down here on the Cape, it must be pretty +average rough!" + +She laughed gayly. "You can't scare me!" + +"Ain't a-tryin' to," he responded, eying her admiringly. "You're an +able seaman, I don't dispute. An' we'll git along fine. Hi-mighty! +there's Am'zon!" + +Louise actually turned around this time to look at the door, expecting +to see the mariner in question enter. Then she said, half doubtfully: + +"Do you suppose your brother will object if he does come, Cap'n Abe?" + +"Land sakes, no!" the storekeeper quickly assured her. "'Tain't that. +But I cal'lated 'bout soon's Am'zon anchored here I'd cast off moorin's +myself." + +"Go away?" Louise demanded. + +"Yes. Like poor old Jerry, mebbe," said Cap'n Abe, looking at the +caged bird. "Mebbe I'll be glad to come back again--and in a hurry. +But while Cap'n Am'zon is here I can take a vacation that I've long +hankered for, Niece Louise. I--I got my plans all made." + +"Don't for one moment think of changing them on my account," Louise +said briskly. "I shall like Uncle Amazon immensely if he's anything +like you, Cap'n Abe." + +"He--he ain't so _much_ like me," confessed the storekeeper. "Not in +looks he ain't. But hi-mighty! I know he'll be as pleased as Punch to +see ye." + +"Are you sure of that?" + +"Wait till you see how he takes to ye," declared her reassuring uncle. +"Now, lemme git my apern on and set to work on supper." + +"Can't I help, Cap'n Abe?" + +"In them things?" the storekeeper objected. + +"Well--I'll have plenty of house dresses when my trunks come. I left +my checks at the station for a man named Perry Baker. They said he'd +bring them over to-night." + +"He will," Cap'n Abe assured her. But he stopped a moment, stock-still +in the middle of the room, and stared at her unseeingly. Evidently his +mind was fixed upon an idea suddenly suggested by her speech. "He +will," he repeated. Then: + +"I'll get the fat kettle over an' the fry-cage ready. Amiel brought me +a likely cod. 'Tain't been out o' the water two hours." + +"I love fish," confessed Louise, following him to the kitchen door. + +"Lucky you do, if you're going to stay a spell on Cape Cod. For that's +what you'll eat mornin', noon, and night. Fish and clams, an' mebbe a +pot o' baked beans on a Saturday, or a chicken for Sunday's dinner. I +don't git much time to cook fancy." + +"But can't this woman who comes to do the work cook for you?" + +"She can't cook for me," snorted Cap'n Abe. "I respect my stomach too +much to eat after Bet Gallup. She's as good a man afore the mast as +airy feller in Cardhaven. An' that's where she'd oughter be. But +never let her in the galley." + +"Oh, well," Louise said cheerfully. "I'm a dab at camp cooking myself, +as I told you. Uncle Amazon and I will make out--if he comes." + +"Oh! Ah! 'Hem!" said Cap'n Abe, clearing his throat. He stooped to +pick up a dropped potlid and came up very red in the face. "You +needn't borrow any trouble on that score, Cap'n Am'zon's as good a cook +as I be." + +Only twice did Cap'n Abe make forced trips into the shop. The supper +hour of Cardhaven was well established and the thoughtful housewives +did not seek to make purchases while the fat was hot in Cap'n Abe's +skillet. One of these untimely customers was a wandering child with a +penny. "I might have waited on him, Cap'n Abe," Louise declared. + +"Land sakes! so you might," the storekeeper agreed. "Though if he'd +seen you behind my counter I reckon that young 'un of 'Liathel +Grummet's would have been struck dumber than nature made him in the +fust place." + +The other customer was a gangling, half-grown youth after a ball of +seine twine and the girl heard him say in a shocked whisper to Cap'n +Abe: + +"Say! is it true there's one o' them movin' picture actresses goin' to +stop here with you, Cap'n Abe? Ma heard so." + +"You tell your ma," Cap'n Abe said sternly, "that if she keeps on +stretchin' her ears that a-way, she'll hear the kambuoy over Bartell +Shoals in a dead calm!" + +Cap'n Abe's bald poll began to shine with minute beads of perspiration. +He looked over the bib of his voluminous apron like a bewhiskered gnome +very busy at some mysterious task. Louise noticed that his movements +about the kitchen were remarkably deft. + +"All hands called!" he called out at length. "I'm about to dish up." + +"Shall I put on another plate, Cap'n Abe? You expected somebody else +to supper?" + +"Nope. All set. I'm always ready for a messmate; but 'tain't often +one boards me 'cept Cap'n Joab now and then. His woman likes to git +him out from under foot. You see, when a woman's been useter seein' +her husband only 'twixt v'y'ges for forty year, I 'spect 'tis something +of a cross to have him litterin' up the house ev'ry day," he confessed. +"But as I can't leave the shop myself to go visitin' much in return, +Joab acks offish. We Silts was always bred to be hospitable. Poor or +rich, we could share what we had with another. So I keep an extry +plate on the table. + +"I've had occasion," pursued the philosophical storekeeper, drawing up +his own chair across the table from the girl, "to be at some folks' +houses at meal time and had 'em ask me to set up and have a bite. But +it never looked to me as if they meant it 'nless there was already an +extry plate there. + +"Just like having a spare bedroom. If you can say: 'Stay all night, we +got a room for ye,' then that's what I call hospitality. I wouldn't +live in a house that warn't big enough to have at least one spare room." + +"I believe I must be very welcome here, Cap'n Abe," Louise said, +smiling at the kindly old man. + +"Land sakes, I sh'd hope ye felt so!" ejaculated Cap'n Abe. "Now, if +you don't mind, Niece Louise." He dropped his head suddenly and closed +his eyes in reverence. "For what we are about to partake of, Lord, +make us duly thankful. Amen!" His countenance became animated again. +"Try them biscuit. I made 'em this morning 'twixt Marcy Coe selectin' +that piece of gingham for a new dress and John Peckham buying cordage +for his smack. But they warmed up right nice in the oven." + +Meanwhile he heaped her plate with codfish and fried potatoes cooked to +a delicate brown. There was good butter, fat doughnuts, and beach-plum +preserve. It was a homely meal but Louise ate it graciously. Already +the air of Cardhaven had sharpened her appetite. + +"Lend me your apron," insisted the girl when they had finished, "and I +will wash these dishes." + +"I us'ally let them go till Betty Gallup comes in the morning," the +storekeeper said rather ruefully. "It don't look right to me that you +should mess with these greasy dishes jest as we get under way, as ye +might say." + +"You must not make company of me, Cap'n Abe," Louise declared. "There, +I hear a customer in the store," and she gave him a little pat on the +shoulder as he delivered the huge apron into her hand. + +"I dunno," he said, smiling upon her quizzically, "as I shall really +want to cast off if Cap'n Am'zon _does_ come. Seems to me 'twould be +hi-mighty nice to have a girl like you around the place, Louise." + +"Then don't go," she said, briskly beginning to clear off. "_I_ +sha'n't mind having two of you for me to boss. Two captains! Think of +it." + +"Yes. I know. But I got all my plans laid," he murmured, and then +went slowly into the store. + +There seemed to be some briskness in the after-supper trade, and Louise +suspected that it was founded upon the news of her arrival at Cap'n +Abe's store. Several of his rather tart rejoinders reached her ears as +she went from kitchen to livingroom and back again. Finally removing +the apron, her task done, she seated herself with Diddimus in her lap +within the radiance of the lamp and within hearing of all that was said +in the store. + +"No. I dunno's I ever did tell ye quite all my business, Joab. Some +things I missed, includin' the list of my relations." + +"Yes, I hear tell most of these movin' picture actresses are pretty, +Miz' Peckham. They pick 'em for that puppose, I shouldn't wonder. I +didn't ask her what part she was goin' to play--_if_ any." + +"Land sakes, Mandy, she's just got here! I ain't no idee how long +she'll stay. If you think there's any danger of Milt not tendin' to +his clammin' proper whilst she's here you'd better send him on a cruise +with Cap'n Durgin. The _Tryout_ sails for the Banks to-morrow, I +understand." + +"No, Washy. That was my A'nt Matildy I went away to help bury ten +years ago. She's still dead--an' this ain't her daughter. This is my +ha'f sister's child, she that was Miriam Card. She got married to a +scientific chap that works for the government, I guess when you write +to Washington for your garden seeds next spring, you better ask about +him, if ye want to know more'n _I_ can tell ye." + +"You got it right for once't, Joab. I do expect Cap'n Am'zon. Mebbe +to-night. He may come over from the depot with Perry Baker--I can't +tell. What'll I do with the girl? Land sakes! ain't Cap'n Am'zon just +as much her uncle as _I_ be? Some o' you fellers better stow your +jaw-tackle if Cap'n Am'zon does heave to here. For he ain't no tame +cat, like I told you." + +"You back again, Lawford Tapp? Hi-mighty! what you forgot this time? +Fishhooks? Goin' fishin', be you? Wal, in my 'pinion you're throwin' +your hook into unproductive waters around here, as ye might say. Even +chummin' won't sarve ye. _Good_-night!" + +After getting rid of this importunate customer, Cap'n Abe closed his +door and put out his store lights--an hour earlier than usual--and came +back to sit down with Louise. His visage was red and determination sat +on his brow. + +"I snum!" he emphatically observed. "Cardhaven folks seem bit with +some kind o' bug. Talk 'bout curiosity! 'Hem! I dunno what Cap'n +Am'zon'll think of 'em." + +"_I_ think they are funny," Louise retorted, her laughter bubbling up +again. + +"Likely it looks so to you," said Cap'n Abe. "They're pretty average +funny I do guess to a stranger, as ye might say. But after you've +summered 'em and wintered 'em for twenty-odd years like I have, land +sakes! the humor's worn hi-mighty thin!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NIGHT + +Cap'n Abe produced a pipe. He looked at his niece tentatively. +"Do--do you mind tobacker smoke?" + +"Daddy-prof is an inveterate," she laughed. + +"Huh? An--an invet'rate _what_?" + +"Smoker. I don't begrudge a man smoking tobacco as long as we women +have our tea. A nerve tonic in both cases." + +"I dunno for sure that I've got any nerves," Cap'n Abe said, the +corners of his eyes wrinkling. "Mebbe I was behind the door when they +was given out. But a pipeful o' tobacker this time o' the evening +_does_ seem sort o' satisfyin'. That, and knittin'." + +Having filled his pipe and lit it, he puffed a few times to get it well +alight and then reached for a covered basket that Louise had noticed on +a small stand under Jerry's cage. He drew from this a half-fashioned +gray stocking that was evidently intended for his own foot and the +needles began to click in his strong, capable hands. + +"Supprise you some, does it, Louise?" Cap'n Abe said. "Cap'n Am'zon +taught me. Most old whalers knit. That, an' doin' scrimshaw work, was +'bout all that kep' 'em from losing their minds on them long v'y'ges +into the Pacific. An' I've seen the time myself when I was hi-mighty +glad I'd l'arned to count stitches. + +"Land sakes! Some o' them whalin' v'y'ges lasted three-four years. +Cap'n Am'zon was in the old bark _Neptune's Daughter_ when she was +caught in the ice and drifted pretty average close't to the south pole. + +"You know," said Cap'n Abe reflectively, "the Antarctic regions ain't +like the Arctic. 'Cause why? There ain't no folks there. Cap'n +Am'zon says there ain't 'nough land at the south pole to make Marm +Scudder's garden--and they say she didn't need more'n what her +patchwork quilt would cover. Where there's land there's folks. And if +there was land in the Antarctic there'd be Eskimos like there is up +North. + +"'Hem! Well, that wasn't what I begun on, was it? This knitting. +Cap'n Am'zon says that many's the time he's thanked his stars he knowed +how to knit." + +"I shall be glad to meet him," said Louise. + +"If he comes," Cap'n Abe rejoined, "an' I go away as I planned to, +'twon't make a mite o' difference to you, Niece Louise. You feel right +at home here--and so'll Cap'n Am'zon, though he ain't never been to +Cardhaven yet. He'll be a lot better company for you than I'd be." + +"Oh, Cap'n Abe, I can scarcely believe that!" cried the girl. + +"You don't know Cap'n Am'zon," the storekeeper said. "I tell ye fair: +he's ev'rything that I ain't! As a boy--'hem!--Am'zon was always +leadin' an' me follerin'. I kinder took after my mother, I guess. +She was your grandmother. Your grandfather was a Card--and a nice man +he was. + +"Our father--me an' Am'zon's--was Cap'n Joshua Silt of the schooner +_Bravo_. Hi-mighty trim and taut craft she was, from all accounts. +I--I warn't born when he died," added Cap'n Abe, hesitatingly. + +"You were a posthumous child!" said Louise. + +"Er--I guess so. Kinder 'pindlin', too. Yes! yes! Cap'n Am'zon's +ahead o' me--in ev'ry way. When father died 'twas pretty average hard +on mother," Cap'n Abe pursued. "We was llvin' at Rocky Head, I guess I +told you b'fore?" + +"Yes," Louise said, interested. + +"The _Bravo_ was makin' reg'lar trips from Newport to Bangor, Maine. +Short-coastin' v'y'ges paid well in them days. There come a big storm +in the spring--onexpected. Mother'd got a letter from Cap'n +Josh--father he'd put out o' Newport with a sartain tide. He warn't +jest a fair-weather skipper. Cap'n Am'zon gits his pluck an' darin' +from Cap'n Josh. + +"Well, mother knowed he must be out o' sight of Fort Adams and the +Dumplin's when the storm burst, and that he'd take the inside passage, +the wind bein' what it was. She watched from Rocky Head and she seen +what she knowed to be the _Bravo_ heave in sight. + +"There warn't no foolin' her," pursued Cap'n Abe, whose pipe had gone +out but whose knitting needles twinkled the faster. "No. She knowed +the schooner far's she could glim her. She watched the Bravo caught in +the cross-current when the gale dropped sudden, and tryin' to claw off +shore. + +"But no use! She was doomed! There warn't no help for the schooner. +She went right on to Toll o' Death Reef and busted up in an hour. Not +a body ever was beached, for the current, tide, _an_' gale was all off +shore. And it happened in plain sight of our windows. + +"Two months later," Cap'n Abe said reflectively, "I come into the +world. Objectin', of course, like all babies. Funny thing that. We +all come into it makin' all kinds of a hullabaloo against anchorin' +here; and we most of us kick just as hard against slippin' our moorin's +to get out of it. + +"Land sakes!" he exclaimed in conclusion. "There ye be. I guess my +mother hated the sea 'bout as much as any longshore woman ever did. +And there's a slew of 'em detest it worse'n cats. Why, ye couldn't +hire some o' these Cape Cod females to get into a boat. Their men for +generations was drowned and more'n forty per cent. of the stones in +the churchyards along the coast, sacred to the mem'ry of the men of the +fam'lies, have on 'em: '_Lost at sea_.' + +"Can't blame the women. Old Ella Coffin that lives on Narrer P'int +over yonder ain't been to the main but once't in fifteen years. That +was when an off-shore gale blew all the water out o' the breach 'twixt +the p'int and the mainland. + +"Ye see," said Cap'n Abe, smiling again, "Narrer P'int is re'lly an +island, even at low water. But _then_ a hoss an' buggy can splatter +across't the breach. But it makes Marm Coffin seasick even to ride +through water in a buggy. Marked, she is, as you might say. + +"Well, now, Louise, child," the storekeeper added, "I'm a-gassin' 'bout +things that don't much int'rest you, I cal'late. I'll light a lamp an' +show you up to your room. When Perry Baker comes by and by, I'll help +him in with your trunks. You needn't worry about 'em." + +It had been foggy on the Sound the night before and Louise had not +slept until the boat had rounded Point Judith. So she was not averse +to retiring at this comparatively early hour. + +Cap'n Abe led her upstairs to a cool, clean, and comfortable chamber. +The old four-posted, corded bedstead stood in the middle of the room, +covered with a blue-and-white coverlet, with sheets and pillow cases as +white as foam. It could not be doubted that Cap'n Abe had carried out +his idea of hospitality. The spare room was always ready for the +possible guest. + +"Good-night, uncle," she said, smiling at him as he handed her the +lamp. "I believe I am going to have a delightful time here." + +"Of course you be! Of course!" he exclaimed. "An' if I ain't here, +Cap'n Am'zon will show you a better time than I could. Good-night. +Sleep well, Louise." + +He kissed her on the forehead. But she, impulsively, pressed her fresh +lips to the storekeeper's weather-beaten cheek. Before she closed the +door of the bedroom she heard him clumping downstairs in his heavy +boots. + +After that he must have removed his footgear for, although she heard +doors open and close, she could not distinguish his steps. + +"I'm glad I came!" she told herself with enthusiasm as she prepared to +retire. "What a delightful old place it is! And Uncle Abram--why, +he's a _dear_! Daddy-prof was not half enthusiastic enough about the +Cape Cod folk. It has been a distinct loss to me that I was never here +before." + +She laid out her toilet requisites upon the painted pine bureau and +hung her negligee over the back of a chair. As she retied the ribbon +in one of the sleeves of her nightgown she thought: + +"And that Tapp boy came back a second time! Some fisherman's son, I +suppose. But exceedingly nice looking!" + +A little later the feather bed had taken her into its arms and she +almost instantly fell asleep. Occasionally through the night she was +roused by unfamiliar sounds. There was a fog coming in from the sea +and the siren at the lighthouse on the Neck began to bellow like a +bereft cow. + +There were movements downstairs. Once she heard a wagon stop, and +voices. Then the bumping of heavy boxes on the side porch. Her +trunks. Voices below in the living-room--gruff, yet subdued. Creaking +footsteps on the stair; then Louise realized that they were carrying +something heavy down and out to the waiting wagon. She was just +dropping to sleep when the wagon was driven away. + +There came a heavy summons on her door while it was still dark. But a +glance at her watch assured Lou Grayling that it was the fog that made +the light so dim. + +"Yes, Cap'n Abe?" she called cheerfully, for even early rising could +not quench her good spirits. + +"'Tain't time to get up yet, Niece Louise," he told her behind the thin +panel of the door. "Don't disturb yourself. Cap'n Amazon's come an' +I'm off." + +"You're what?" gasped the girl sitting up in her nest of feathers. + +"I'm a-goin' to Boston. Jest got time to ketch the clam-train at the +depot. Don't you bother; Cap'n Am'zon's here and he'll take care of +you till I get back. Betty Gallup'll be here by six or a little after +to do the work. You can have her stop at night, if you want to." + +"But, Uncle----" + +"Must hurry, Louise," hastily said Cap'n Abe as he heard the bedcords +creak and the patter of the girl's feet on the matting. "Cap'n Am'zon +knows of a craft that'll sail to-day from Boston and I must jine her +crew. Good-bye!" + +He was gone. Louise, throwing on the negligee, hurried to the screened +window. The fog had breathed upon the wires and clouded them. She +heard the door open below, a step on the porch, and then a muffled: + +"Bye, Am'zon. Don't take no wooden money. I'm off." + +A shrouded figure passed up the road and was quickly hidden by the fog. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BOARDED BY PIRATES + +Louise could not go back to sleep. She drew the ruffles of the +negligee about her throat and removed the sliding screen the better to +see into the outer world. + +There was a movement in the fog, for the rising breeze ruffled, it. +Full daybreak would bring its entire dissipation. Already the mist +held a luster heralding the sun. The "hush-hush" of the surf along The +Beaches was more insistent now than at any time since Louise had come +to Cap'n Abe's store, while the moan of the breakers on the outer reefs +was like the deep notes of a distant organ. + +A cock crew, and at his signal outdoor life seemed to awaken. Other +chanticleers sounded their alarms; a colt whistled in a paddock and his +mother neighed softly from her stall; a cow lowed; then, sweet and +clear as a mountain stream, broke forth the whistle of a wild bird in +the marsh. This matin of the feathered songster rose higher and higher +till he reached the very top note of his scale and then fell again, by +cadences, until it mingled with the less compelling calls of other +birds. + +There was a warm pinkness spreading through the fog in one direction, +and Louise knew it must be the reflection of the light upon the eastern +horizon. The sun would soon begin a new day's journey. + +The fog was fast thinning, for across the road she could see a spiral +of blue smoke, mounting through it from the chimney of a neighbor. The +kitchen fire there had just been lighted. + +Below, and from the living-rooms behind the store, the girl heard some +faint noises as though the early morning tasks of getting in wood and +filling the coal scuttle were under way. Uncle Amazon must be "takin' +holt" just as Cap'n Abe said he would. + +Louise was curious to see the returned mariner; but it was too early to +go down yet. She might really have another nap before she dressed, she +thought, yawning behind a pink palm. + +There was a step in the store. Her room overlooked by two windows the +roof of the front porch and she could hear what went on below plainly. +The step was lighter than Cap'n Abe's. The bolts of the two-leaved +door rattled and it was set wide; she heard the iron wedges kicked +under each to hold it open. Then a smell of pipe smoke was wafted to +her nostrils. + +A footstep on the Shell Road announced the approach of somebody from +The Beaches. Louise yawned again and was on the point of creeping into +bed once more when she descried the figure coming through the fog. She +saw only the boots and legs of the person at first; but the fog was +fast separating into wreaths which the rising breeze hurried away, and +the girl at the window soon saw the full figure of the approaching +man--and recognized him. + +At almost the same moment Lawford Tapp raised his eyes and saw her; and +his heart immediately beat the call to arms. Louise Grayling's morning +face, framed by the sash and sill of her bedroom window, was quite the +sweetest picture he had ever seen. + +It was only for a moment he saw her, her bare and rounded forearm on +the sill, the frilly negligee so loosened that he could see the column +of her throat. Her gray eyes looked straight into his--then she was +gone. + +"Actress, or not," muttered the son of the Salt Water Taffy King, +"there's nothing artificial about her. And she's Cap'n Abe's niece. +Well!" + +He saw the figure on the porch, smoking, and hailed it: + +"Hey, Cap'n Abe! Those fishhooks you sold me last evening aren't what +I wanted--and there's the _Merry Andrew_ waiting out there for me now. +I want----" + +The figure in the armchair turned its head. It was not Cap'n Abe at +all! + +"Mornin', young feller," said the stranger cordially. "You'll have to +explain a leetle about them hooks. I ain't had a chance to overhaul +much of Abe's cargo yet. I don't even know where he stows his small +tackle. Do you?" + +Fully a minute did Lawford Tapp keep him waiting for an answer while he +stared at the stranger. He was not a big man, but he somehow gave the +impression of muscular power. He was dressed in shabby +clothing--shirt, dungaree trousers, and canvas shoes such as sailors +work and go aloft in. The pipe he smoked was Cap'n Abe's--Lawford +recognized it. + +There was not, however, another thing about this man to remind one of +the old storekeeper. This stranger was burned to a rich mahogany hue. +Not alone his shaven face, but his bared forearms and his chest where +the shirt was left unbuttoned seemed stained by the tropical sun. +Under jet-black brows the eyes that gazed upon Lawford Tapp seemed dark. + +His sweeping mustache was black; and such hair as was visible showed +none of the iron gray of advancing age in it. He wore gold rings in +his ears and to cap his piratical-looking figure was a red bandana worn +turbanwise upon his head. + +"What's the matter with you, young feller? Cat got your tongue?" +demanded the stranger. + +"Well, of all things!" finally gasped Lawford. "I thought you were +Cap'n Abe. But you're not. You must be Cap'n Amazon Silt." + +"That's who I be," agreed the other. + +"His brother!" + +"Ain't much like Abe, eh?" and Cap'n Amazon smiled widely. + +"Only your voice. That is a little like Cap'n Abe's. Well, I +declare!" repeated Lawford, coming deliberately up the steps. + +Cap'n Amazon rose briskly and led the way into the store. The fog was +clearing with swiftness and a ray of sunlight slanted through a dusty +window with sufficient strength to illumine the shelves behind the +counter. + +"Those boxes yonder are where Cap'n Abe keeps his fishhooks. But isn't +he here?" + +"He's off," Cap'n Amazon replied. "Up anchor'd and sailed 'bout soon's +I come. Been ready to go quite a spell, I shouldn't wonder. Had his +chest all packed and sent it to the depot by a wagon. Walked over +himself airly to ketch the train. These the hooks, son?" + +"But where's he _gone_?" + +"On a v'y'ge," replied Cap'n Amazon. "Why shouldn't he? Seems he's +been lashed here, tight and fast, for c'nsider'ble of a spell. He and +this store of hisn was nigh 'bout spliced. I don't see how he _has_ +weathered it so long." + +"Gone away!" murmured Lawford. + +Cap'n Amazon eyed him with a tilt to his head and possibly a twinkle of +amusement in his eye. "Young man, what's your name?" he asked bluntly. +Lawford told him. "Wal, it strikes me," Cap'n Amazon said, "that your +tops'ls air slattin' a good deal. You ain't on the wind." + +"I am upset, I declare!" + +"Sure you got the right hooks this time?" + +"Yes. I believe so." + +"Then if your _Merry Andrew_--what is she, cat-rigged or----" + +"Sloop." + +"Then if your _Merry Andrew_ sloop's a-waiting for you, _that's_ the +way out," said Cap'n Amazon coolly, pointing with his pipestem to the +door. "Come again--when you want to buy anything in Abe's stock. Good +day!" + +Lawford halted a moment at the door to look back at the bizarre figure +behind the counter, leaning on the scarred brown plank just as Cap'n +Abe so often did. The amazing difference between the storekeeper's +well remembered appearance and that of his substitute grew more +startling. + +As Cap'n Amazon stood there half stooping, leaning on his hairy fists, +the picture rose in Lawford Tapp's mind of a pirate, cutlass in teeth +and his sash full of pistols, swarming over the rail of a doomed ship. +The young man had it in his mind to ask a question about that +wonderfully pretty girl above. But, somehow, Cap'n Amazon did not +appear to be the sort of person to whom one could put even a mildly +impudent question. + +The young man walked slowly down the road toward the shore where his +boat was beached. He had no idea that a pair of gray eyes watched him +from that window where he had glimpsed the vision of girlish beauty +only a few minutes before. + +The neighborhood was stirring now and Louise had not gone back to bed. +Instead, she dressed as simply as she could until it would be possible +to get at her trunks. + +While thus engaged she observed the neighborhood as well as she could +see it from the windows of her chamber. Down the Shell Road, in the +direction of the sea, there were but two or three houses--small +dwellings in wind-swept yards where beach grass was about all the +verdure that would grow. + +Across the road from the store, however, and as far as she could see +toward Cardhaven, were better homes, some standing in the midst of +tilled fields and orchards. Sandy lanes led to these homesteads from +the highway. She could see the blunt spire of the Mariner's Chapel. +Yet Cap'n Abe's house and store stood quite alone, for none of the +other dwellings were close to the road. + +She set her chamber door ajar and suddenly heard the clash of voices. +The one that seemed nearest to the stair was gruff, but feminine. + +"That must be Betty Gallup," thought Louise. "It is nearly six. I'll +go down and interview the lady who Cap'n Abe said ought to sail before +the mast." + +The foot of the stairway was in the back entry which itself opened upon +the rear porch. As she came lightly down the stairs Louise saw a +squat, square figure standing in the open doorway. It was topped by a +man's felt hat and was dressed in a loose, shapeless coat and a scant +skirt down to the tops of a pair of men's shoes. + +Over the shoulder of this queer looking person--of whose sex it was +hard to be sure--Louise could see an open letter that was evidently +being perused not for the first time. + +The hands that held the letter were red and hard and blunt-fingered, +but not large. They did not look feminine, however; not in the least. + +The light tap of the girl's heels as she stepped on the bare floor at +the foot of the stairway aroused this person, who turned, revealing a +rather grim, weather-beaten face, lit by little sharp brown eyes that +proceeded to stare at Louise Grayling with frank curiosity. + +"Humph!" ejaculated the woman. + +Oh, it was a woman, Louise could now see, although Betty Gallup boasted +a pronounced mustache and a voice both deep and hoarse, while she +looked every inch the able seaman she was. + +"Humph!" she exclaimed again. "You don't look much like a pirate, +that's one comfort!" + +Louise burst into gay laughter--she could not help it. + +"I see by this letter Cap'n Abe left for me that you're his niece--his +ha'f sister's child--name, Louise Grayling; and that you've come to +stay a spell." + +"Yes," the girl rejoined, still dimpling. "And I know you must be Mrs. +Gallup!" + +"Bet Gallup. Yep. Ain't much chance of mistaking me," the woman said, +still staring at Louise. "Humph! you're pretty 'nough not to need +m'lasses to ketch flies. Why didn't Cap'n Abe stay to home when you +come visiting him?" + +"Why, he had his plans all laid to go away, if Uncle Amazon came." + +"Ya-as. That's so. You are _his_ niece, too, I s'pose." + +"Whose niece? Uncle Amazon's? I suppose I am," Louise gayly replied, +"though when I came I had no idea there was a second uncle down here on +the Cape." + +"What's that?" demanded Betty Gallup, her speech crackling like a rifle +shot. + +"I had not heard before of Cap'n Amazon," the girl explained. "You +see, for several reasons, I have known very little about my mother's +kinfolk. She died when I was a baby. We have traveled a good deal, +father and I." + +"I see. I been told you worked for them movin' pictures. Mandy Card +was over to my house last night. Well! what do you think of your +Uncle Am'zon?" + +"I can express no opinion until I have met him," Louise returned, again +dimpling. + +"Haven't ye seen him?" gasped Betty in astonishment. + +"Not yet." + +"Ye didn't see him when he came last night?" + +"I was in bed." + +"Then how--how d'ye know Cap'n Abe's gone? Or that this man is Am'zon +Silt? Nobody ever seen this critter 'round Cardhaven before," Betty +Gallup declared with strong conviction. + +"Oh, no; Uncle Amazon has never been here to visit Cap'n Abe before. +Cap'n Abe told me all about it," the girl explained, fearing that +scandal was to take root here and now if she did not discourage it. +"Of course Uncle Abe went away. He came to my door and bade me +good-bye." + +Louise was puzzled. She saw an expression in Betty Gallup's face that +she could not interpret. + +"Ye heard Cap'n Abe _say_ he was goin'," muttered Betty. "_His_ voice +sounds mighty like Cap'n Abe's. But mebbe Abe Silt didn't go after +all--not rightly." + +"What _do_ you mean, Mrs. Gallup?" demanded Louise in bewilderment. + +"Well, if you ask me, I should say we'd been boarded by pirates. Go +take a look at that Uncle Am'zon of yourn. He's in the store." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +UNDER FIRE + +"Uncle Amazon?" burst out Louise. "A pirate?" + +"That's what he looks like," repeated Betty Gallup, nodding her head on +which the man's hat still perched. "I never saw the beat! Why, that +man give me the shock of my life when I came in here just now!" + +"What _do_ you mean?" the amazed girl asked, + +"Why, as I come in--I was a lettle early, knowin' you was here--I heard +as I s'posed Cap'n Abe in the sittin'-room. I saw this letter, sealed +and directed to me, on the dresser there. 'Humph!' says I, 'Who's +writin' billy-doos to _me_, I'd admire to know?' And I up and opened +it and see it's in Cap'n Abe's hand. Just then I heard him behind +me----" + +"Heard _who_? Not Cap'n Abe?" + +"No, no! This other feller--this Cap'n Am'zon Silt, as he calls +himself. But I _thought_ 'twas Cap'n Abe's step I heard. He says: +'Oh! you've found the letter?' I declare I thought 'twas your uncle's +voice!" + +"But it was my uncle's voice, of course," Louise reminded her, much +amused, "Cap'n Amazon Silt is my uncle, too." + +"Humph! I s'pose so. Looks to be. If 'tis him. Anyhow," pursued the +jerkily speaking Betty Gallup, "I turned 'round when he spoke spectin' +to see Cap'n Abe--for I hadn't read this letter then--_and there he +warn't_! Instead--of all the lookin' critters! There! you go take a +peek at him and see what you think yourself. I'll put the breakfast on +the table. He's made coffee and the mush is in the double-biler and +the biscuits in the oven are just browning. I reckon he's as handy +'round the kitchen as Cap'n Abe is. Lots of these old sailors be." + +"Fancy! an uncle who is a pirate!" giggled Louise and she ran through +the living-room and the dividing hall to the door of the store. First +she saw Cap'n Amazon from the rear. The red bandana swathing his bead, +below which was a lank fringe of black hair, was the only bizarre thing +she noticed about her new-found relative. He seemed to have very quick +hearing for almost instantly he swung smartly around to face her. + +"Oh!" was expelled from the girl's lips, for she was as startled as +Lawford Tapp and Betty Gallup had been. + +Compared with the mild-appearing, heavily whiskered Cap'n Abe, this +brother of the storekeeper was in looks what Betty had pronounced him. +His dark complexion, the long mustache, as black and glossy as a crow's +wing, the gold rings in his ears, with the red handkerchief to top it +all, made Cap'n Amazon Silt as romantic a figure as ever peered out of +a Blackbeard or a Henry Morgan legend. + +There were intricate traceries on his forearms in red and blue ink; +beneath the open collar of his shirt the girl gained a glimpse of other +tattooing. There was a faint scar traced along his right jaw, almost +from ear to chin, which added a certain grimness to his expression. + +Yet his was not at all a sinister face. His eyes twinkled at her +kindly--almost like Cap'n Abe's eyes--and the huge mustache lifted in a +smile. + +"Ahoy!" he cried jovially. "So this is my niece, Louise, is it? Well, +to be sure! Abe didn't overpraise you. You _be_ a pretty tidy craft." + +The girl dimpled, coming forward to give him her hand. As on the day +before, her hand was lost in a warm, firm clasp, while her uncle +continued to look her over with approval. + +"Yes, sir!" he ejaculated. "You look to me like one o' the tidiest +craft I ever clapped eyes on. I don't scarcely see how Abe could go +away and leave you. Dunno's he's got an eye for a pretty woman like +me. Bless you! I been a slave to the women all my life." + +"Yet never married, Uncle Amazon?" she cried roguishly. + +"Tell you how 'twas," he whispered hoarsely, his hand beside his mouth. +"I never could decide betwixt and between 'em. No, sir! They are all +so desir'ble that I couldn't make up my mind. So I stayed single." + +"Perhaps you showed wisdom, Uncle Amazon," laughed the girl. +"Still--when you grow old----" + +"Oh! there's plenty of sailors' snug harbors," he hastened to say. +"And time enough to worry about that when I _be_ old." + +"I thought----Why! you look younger than Cap'n Abe," she said. + +"Ain't it a fact? He's let himself run to seed and get old lookin'. +That's from stayin' ashore all his life. It's the feel of a heavin' +deck under his feet that keeps the spring in a man's wishbone. Yes, +sir! Abe's all right--good man and all that--but he's no sailor," +Cap'n Amazon added, shaking his head. + +"Now, here!" he went on briskly, "we ought to have breakfast, hadn't +we? I left that woman Abe has pokin' around here, to dish up; and it's +'most six bells. Feel kind of peckish myself, Louise." + +"I'll run to see if the biscuits are done," said the girl; and she +hurried to the kitchen ahead of him. Betty Gallup was waiting for her. + +"What d'ye think of him?" she whispered anxiously. + +"Why, he's splendid!" the girl replied scarcely stifling her laughter. +"He's a _character_!" + +"Humph! Mebbe. But even if he is your uncle, I got to say right now +he ain't a man I'd trust. Nothin' a-tall like Cap'n Abe!" + +"I think he seems a great deal like Uncle Abram." + +"Humph! How long you knowed Abram Silt? Come here yesterday for the +fust time. Lemme tell you, Miss Grayling, we've knowed Cap'n Abe +around here for twenty year and more. Course, he ain't Cardhaven born; +but we know him. He's as diff'rent from this pirate that calls himself +Cap'n Am'zon Silt as chalk is from cheese." + +The mush was on the table, Louise called Cap'n Amazon from the store. +They sat down to the table just as she had sat opposite to Cap'n Abe +the evening before. She thought, for a moment, that Cap'n Amazon was +going to ask a blessing as her other uncle had. But no, he began +spooning the mush into a rather capacious mouth. + +Into the room from the rear strolled Diddimus, the tortoise-shell cat. +Louise tried to attract his attention; but she was comparatively a +stranger to turn. The cat went around to the chair where Cap'n Abe +always sat. He leaped into Cap'n Amazon's lap. + +"Well, I never!" said Cap'n Amazon. "Seems quite to home, doesn't he?" + +Diddimus, preparing to "make his bed," looked up with topaz eyes into +the face of the captain. Louise could see the cat actually stiffen +with surprise. Then, with a "p-sst-maow!" he leaped down and ran out +of the room at high speed. + +"What--what do you think of that?" gasped Cap'n Amazon. "The cat's +gone crazy!" + +The girl was in a gale of laughter. "Of course he hasn't," she said. +"He thought you were Cap'n Abe--till he looked into your face. You +can't blame the cat, Uncle Amazon." + +Cap'n Amazon smote his knee a resounding smack of appreciation. "You +got your bearin's correct, Louise, I do believe. I must have surprised +the critter. And Abe set store by him, I've no doubt." + +"Diddimus will get over it," said the amused Louise. + +"There's that bird," Cap'n Amazon said suddenly, looking around at the +cage hanging in the sunlit window. "What's Abe call him?" + +"Jerry." + +"And he told me to be hi-mighty tender with that canary. Wouldn't +trust nobody else, he said, to feed and water him." He rose from the +table, leaving his breakfast. "I wonder what Jerry thinks of me?" + +He whistled to the bird and thrust a big forefinger between the wires +of the cage. Immediately, with an answering chirp, the canary hopped +along his perch with a queer sidewise motion and, reaching the finger, +sprang upon it with a little flutter of its wings. + +"There!" cried Cap'n Amazon, with boyish relief. "_He_ takes to me all +right." + +"That don't show nothin'," said Betty Gallup from the doorway. She had +removed her hat and coat and was revealed now as a woman approaching +seventy, her iron-gray hair twisted into a "bob" so that it could be +completely hidden when she had the hat on her head. "That don't show +nothin'," she repeated grimly. + +Cap'n Amazon jerked his head around to look at her, demanding: "Why +don't it, I want to know?" + +"'Cause the bird's pretty near stone-blind." + +"Blind!" gasped Louise, pity in her tone. + +"It can't be," murmured the captain, hastily facing the window again. + +"I found that out a year an' more ago," Betty announced. "Didn't want +to tell Cap'n Abe--he was that foolish about the old bird. Jerry's +used to Cap'n Abe chirping to him and putting his finger 'twixt the +slats of the cage for him to perch on. He just thinks you're Cap'n +Abe." + +She clumped out into the kitchen again in her heavy shoes. Cap'n +Amazon came slowly back to his chair. "Blind!" he repeated. "I want +to know! Both his deadlights out. Too bad! Too bad!" + +He did not seem to care for any more breakfast. + +Footsteps in the store soon brought the substitute shopkeeper to his +feet again. + +"I s'pose that's somebody come aboard for a yard o' tape, or the +seizings of a pair of shoes," he growled. "I'd ought to hauled in the +gang-plank when we set down." + +He disappeared into the store and almost at once a shrill feminine +voice greeted him as "Cap'n Abe." Vastly abused, Louise arose and +softly followed to the store. + +"Give me coupla dozen clothespins and a big darnin' needle, Cap'n Abe. +I got my wash ready to hang out and found them pesky young 'uns of Myra +Stout's had got holt o' my pin bag and fouled the pins all up usin' 'em +for markers in their garden. I want--land sakes! Who--what---- +_Where's_ Cap'n Abe?" + +"He ain't here just now," Cap'n Amazon replied. "I'm his brother. +You'll have to pick out the needle you want. I can find and count the +clothespins, I guess. Two dozen, you say?" + +"Land sakes! Cap'n Abe gone away? Don't seem possible." + +"There's a hull lot of seemin' impossible things in this world that +come to pass just the same," the substitute storekeeper made answer, +with some tartness. "Here's the needle drawer. Find what you want, +ma'am." + +Louise was frankly spying. She saw that the customer was a lanky young +woman in a sunbonnet. When she dropped the bonnet back upon her narrow +shoulders with an impatient jerk, the better to see the needles, it was +revealed that her thin, light hair was drawn so tightly back from her +face that it actually seemed to make her pop-eyed. + +She had a rather pretty pink and white complexion, and aside from the +defect of hairdressing might have been attractive. She possessed a +thin and aquiline nose, however, the nostrils fairly quivering with +eagerness and curiosity. + +"Land sakes!" she was saying. "I know Cap'n Abe's been talkin' of +goin' away--the longest spell! But so suddent--'twixt night and +mornin' as ye might say------" + +"Exactly," said Cap'n Amazon dryly, and went on counting the pins from +the box into a paper sack. + +"What 'bout the girl that's come here? That movie actress?" asked the +young woman with added sharpness in her tone. "What you going to do +with _her_?" + +Cap'n Amazon came back to the counter and even his momentary silence +was impressive. He favored the customer with a long stare. + +"Course, 'tain't none o' my business. I was just askin'----" + +"You made an int'restin' discovery, then, ma'am," he said. "It _ain't_ +any of your business. Me and my niece'll get along pretty average +well, I shouldn't wonder. Anything else, ma'am? I see the needle's +two cents and the pins two cents a dozen. Six cents in all." + +"Well, I run a book with Cap'n Abe. I ain't got no money with me," +said the young woman defiantly. + +"Le's see; what did you say your name was?" and Cap'n Amazon drew from +the cash drawer a long and evidently fully annotated list of customers' +names, prepared by Cap'n Abe. + +"I'm Mandy Baker--she 'twas Mandy Card." + +"Yes. I find you here all right. Your bill o' ladin' seems good. +Good-mornin', ma'am. Call again." + +Mandy Baker looked as though she desired to continue the conversation. +But there was that in Cap'n Amazon's businesslike manner and speech +that impressed Mrs. Baker--as it had Lawford Tapp--that here was a very +different person from the easy-going, benign Cap'n Abe. Mandy sniffed, +jerked her sunbonnet forward, and departed with her purchases. + +Cap'n Amazon's quick eye caught sight of Louise's amused face in the +doorway. + +"Kind of a sharp craft that," he observed, watching' Mandy cross the +road. "Reminds me some o' one o' them Block Island double-enders they +built purpose for sword-fishing. When you strike on to a sword-fish +you are likely to want to back water 'bout as often as shove ahead. I +cal'late this here Mandy Baker is some spry in her maneuvers. And I +bet she's got one o' the laziest husbands in this whole town. 'Most +always happens that way," concluded the captain, who seemed quite as +homely philosophical and observant as his brother. + +As a stone thrown into a quiet pool drives circling ripples farther and +farther away from the point of contact, so the news of Cap'n Abe's +secret departure and the appearance of the strange brother in his +place, spread through the neighborhood. + +The coming of Louise to the store on the Shell Road had also set the +tongues to clacking. Mandy Baker, who took her husband's rating in +women's eyes at his own valuation, was up in arms. A pretty girl, and +an actress at that!--for until recent years that was a word to be only +whispered in polite society on the Cape--was considered by such as +Mandy to be under suspicion right from the start. + +The mystery of Cap'n Amazon, however, quite overtopped the gossip about +Louise. Idlers who seldom dropped into the store before afternoon came +on this day much earlier to have a look at Cap'n Amazon Silt. Women +left their housework at "slack ends" to run over to the store for +something considered suddenly essential to their work. Some of the +clam-diggers lost a tide to obtain an early glimpse of Cap'n Amazon. +Even the children came and peered in at the store door to see that +strange, red-kerchief-topped figure behind Cap'n Abe's counter. + +Cap'n Joab Beecher was one of the earliest arrivals. Cap'n Joab had +been as close to Cap'n Abe as anybody in Cardhaven. There had been +some little friction between him and the storekeeper on the previous +evening. Cap'n Joab felt almost as though Cap'n Abe's sudden departure +was a thrust at him. + +But when he introduced himself to Cap'n Amazon the latter seized the +caller's hand in a seaman's grip, and said heartily: "I want to know +Cap'n Joab Beecher, of the old _Sally Noble_. I knowed the bark well, +though I never happened to clap eyes on _you_, sir. Abe give me a +letter for you. Here 'tis. Said you was a good feller and might help +wise me to things in the store here till I'd l'arned her riggin' and +how to sail her proper." + +Cap'n Joab was frankly pleased by this. He spelled out the note Cap'n +Abe had addressed to him slowly, being without his reading glasses, and +then said: + +"I'm yours to command, Cap'n Silt. Land sakes! I s'pose your brother +had a puffict right to go away. He'd talked about goin' enough. +Where's he gone?" + +"On a v'y'ge," said Cap'n Amazon. + +"No! Gone to sea?" + +"Yes. Sailing to-day--out o' Boston." + +"I want to know! Abe Silt gone to sea! Wouldn't never believed it. +Always 'peared to be afraid of gettin' his paws wet--same's a cat," +ruminated Cap'n Joab. "What craft's he sailin' in?" + +The Boston morning paper lay before Cap'n Amazon, opened at the page +containing the shipping news. His glance dropped to the sailing +notices and with scarcely a moment's hesitancy he said: + +"_Curlew_, Ripley, master, out o' Boston. I knowed of her--knowed +Cap'n Ripley," and he pointed to the very first line of the sailing +list. "If Abe got there in time he like enough j'ined her crew." + +"Shipped before the mast?" exploded Cap'n Joab. + +"Well," Cap'n Amazon returned sensibly, "if you were skipper about +where would you expect a lubber like Abe Silt to fit into your crew?" + +"I swanny, that's so!" agreed Cap'n Joab. "But it's goin' to be hard +lines for a man of his years--and no experience." + +Cap'n Amazon sniffed. "I guess he'll get along," he said, seemingly +less disturbed by his brother's plight than other people. "Three +months of summer sailin' won't do him no harm." + +That he was under fire he evidently felt, and resented it. His +brother's old neighbors and friends desired to know altogether too much +about his business and that of Cap'n Abe. He told Louise before night: + +"I tell you what, Abe's got the best of it! If I'd knowed I was goin' +to be picked to pieces by a lot of busybodies the way I be, I'd never +agreed to stay by the ship till Abe got back. No, sir! These folks +around here are the beatenest I ever see." + +Yet Louise noticed that he seemed able to hold his own with the curious +ones. His tongue was quite as nimble as Cap'n Abe's had been. On the +day of her arrival, Lou Grayling had believed she would be amused at +Cardhaven. Ere the second twenty-four hours of her stay were rounded +out, she knew she would be. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SOMETHING ABOUT SALT WATER TAFFY + +During the day Cap'n Amazon and Amiel Perdue carried Louise's trunks +upstairs and into the storeroom, handy to her own chamber. It seems +Cap'n Amazon had not brought his own sea chest; only a "dunnage bag," +as he called it. + +"But there's plenty of Abe's duds about," he said; "and we're about of +a size." + +When Louise went to unpack her trunks she found a number of things in +the storeroom more interesting even than her own pretty summer frocks. +There were shells, corals, sea-ivory--curios, such as are collected by +seamen the world over. Cap'n Abe was an indefatigable gatherer of such +wares. There was a green sea chest standing with its lid wide open, +tarred rope handles on its ends, that may have been around the world a +score of times. It was half filled with old books. + +All the dusty, musty volumes in the chest seemed to deal with the sea +and sea-going. Many of them, long since out of print and forgotten, +recounted strange and almost unbelievable romances of nautical +life--stories of wrecks, fires, battles with savages and pirates, +discoveries of lone islands and marvelous explorations in lands which, +since the date of publication, have become semi-civilized or altogether +so. + +Here were narratives of men who had sailed around the world in tiny +craft like Captain Slocum; stories of seamen who had become chiefs of +cannibal tribes, like the famous Larry O'Brien; several supposedly +veracious narratives of the survivors of the Bounty; stories of Arctic +and Antarctic discovery and privation. There were also several +scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings of nautical wonders--many of +these clipped from New Bedford and Newport papers which at one time +were particularly rich in whalers' yarns. + +Interested in skimming these wonderful stories, Lou Grayling spent most +of the afternoon. Here was a fund of entertainment for rainy days--or +wakeful nights, if she chanced to suffer such. She carried one of the +scrapbooks into her bedroom that it might be under her hand if she +desired such amusement. + +In arranging her possessions in closet and bureau, she found no time on +this first day at Cap'n Abe's store to stroll even as far as The +Beaches; but the next morning she got up betimes, as soon as Cap'n +Amazon himself was astir, dressed, and ran down and out of the open +back door while her uncle was sweeping the store. + +The sun was but then opening a red eye above the horizon. The ocean, +away out to this line demarcating sea and sky, was perfectly flat. +Unlike the previous dawn, this was as clear as a bell's note. + +Louise had been wise enough to wear high shoes, so the sands above +high-water mark did not bother her. The waves lapped in softly, +spreading over the dimpling gray beach, their voice reduced to a +whispering murmur. + +Along the crescent of the sands, above on the bluffs, were set the +homes of the summer residents--those whom Gusty Durgin, the waitress at +the hotel, termed "the big bugs." On the farthest point visible in +this direction was a sprawling, ornate villa with private dock and +boathouses, and a small breakwater behind which floated a fleet of +small craft. Louise heard the "put-put-a-put" of a motor and descried +a swift craft coming from this anchorage. + +She saw, by sweeping it with her glance, that not a soul but herself +was on the shore--neither in the direction of the summer colony nor on +the other hand where the beach curved sharply out to the lighthouse at +the end of the Neck. The motor boat was fast approaching the spot +where Louise stood. + +It being the single moving object on the scene, save the gulls, she +began to watch it. There was but one person in the motor boat. He was +hatless and was dressed in soiled flannels. It was the young man, +Lawford Tapp, of whom Cap'n Abe did not altogether approve. + +"He must work for those people over there," Louise Grayling thought. +"He is nice looking." + +It could not be possible that Lawford Tapp had descried and recognized +the figure of the girl from the Tapp anchorage! + +He no longer wore his hip boots. After shutting off his engine, he +guided the sharp prow of the launch right up into the sand and leaped +into shallow water, bringing ashore the bight of the painter to throw +over a stub sunk above high-water mark. + +"Good-morning! What do you think of it?" he asked Louise, with a +cordial smile that belonged to him. + +"It is lovely!" she said. "Really wonderful! I suppose you have lived +here so long it does not appeal to you as strongly as to the +new-beholder?" + +"I don't know about that. It's the finest place in the world; I think. +There's no prettier shore along the Atlantic coast than The Beaches." + +"Perhaps you are right. I do not know much about the New England +coast," she confessed. "And that--where the spray dashes up so high, +even on this calm morning?" + +"Gull Rocks. The danger spot of all danger spots along the outer line +of the Cape. In rough weather all one can see out there is a cauldron +of foam." + +Before she could express herself again the purr of a swiftly moving +motor car attracted her attention, and she turned to see a low gray +roadster coming toward them from the north. The Shell Road, before +reaching the shore, swerved northward and ran along the bluffs on which +the bungalows and summer cottages were built. These dwellings faced +the smooth white road, the sea being behind them. + +As Louise looked the car slowed down and stopped, the engine still +throbbing. A girl was at the wheel. She was perhaps fifteen, without +a hat and with two plaits of yellow hair lying over her slim shoulders. + +"Hey, Ford!" she shouted to the young man, "haven't you been up to +Cap'n Abe's yet? Daddy's down at the dock now and he's in a tearing +hurry." + +She gazed upon Lou Grayling frankly but made no sign of greeting. She +did not wait, indeed, for a reply from the young man but threw in the +clutch and the car shot away. + +"I've got to go up to the store," he said. "L'Enfant Terrible is +evidently going to Paulmouth to meet the early train. Must be somebody +coming." + +Louise looked at him quickly, her expression one of perplexity. She +supposed this child in the car was the daughter of Lawford's employer. +But whoever before heard a fisherman speak just as he did? Had Cap'n +Abe been at home she certainly would have tapped that fount of local +knowledge for information regarding Lawford. He did not look so much +the fisherman type without his jersey and high boots. + +"How do you like the old fellow up at the store?" Lawford asked, as +they strolled along together. "Isn't he a curious old bird?" + +"You mean my Uncle Amazon?" + +"Goodness! He _is_ your uncle, too, isn't he?" and a flush of +embarrassment came into his bronzed cheek. "I had forgotten he was +Cap'n Abe's brother. He is so different!" + +"Isn't he?" responded Louise demurely. "He doesn't look anything like +Uncle Abram, at least." + +"I should say not!" ejaculated Lawford. "Do you know, he's an +awfully--er--romantic looking old fellow. Looks just as though he had +stepped out of an old print" + +"The frontispiece of a book about buccaneers, for instance?" she +suggested gleefully. + +"Well," and he smiled down upon her from his superior height, "I wasn't +sure you would see it that way." + +"Do you know," she told him, still laughing, "that Betty Gallup calls +him nothing but 'that old pirate.' She has taken a decided dislike to +him and I have to keep smoothing her ruffled feathers. And, really, +Cap'n Amazon is the nicest man." + +"I bet he's seen some rough times," Lawford rejoined with vigor. "We +used to think Cap'n Abe told some stretchers about his brother; but +Cap'n Amazon looks as though he had been through all that Cap'n Abe +ever told about--and more." + +"Oh, he's not so very terrible, I assure you," Louise said, much amused. + +"Did you notice the scar along his jaw? Looks like a cutlass stroke to +me. I'd like to know how he came by it. It must have been some fight!" + +"You will make him out a much more terrible character than he can +possibly be." + +"Never mind. If he's anything at all like Cap'n Abe, we'll get it all +out of him. I bet he can tell us some hair-raisers." + +"I tell you he's a nice old man, and I won't have you talk so about +him," Louise declared. "We must change the subject." + +"We'll talk about _you_," said Lawford quickly. "I'm awfully curious. +When does your--er--work begin down here?" + +"My work?" Then she understood him and dimpled. "Oh, just now is my +playtime." + +"Making pictures must be interesting." + +"I presume it looks so to the outsider," she admitted. It amused her +immensely that he should think her a motion picture actress. + +"Your coming here and Cap'n Amazon exchanging jobs with his brother +have caused more excitement than Cardhaven and the vicinity have seen +in a decade. Or at least since _I_ have lived here." + +"Oh! Then are you not native to the soil?" + +"No, not exactly," he replied. And then after a moment he added: "It's +a great old place, even in winter." + +"Not dull at all?" + +"Never dull," he reassured her. "Too much going on, on sea and shore, +to ever be dull. Not for me, at least. I love it." + +They reached the store. Louise bade the young man good-morning and +went around to the back door to greet Betty. + +Lawford made his purchases in rather serious mood and returned to his +motor boat. His mind was fixed upon the way Louise Grayling had looked +as he stepped ashore and greeted her. + +He had been close enough to her now, and for time enough as well, to be +sure that there was nothing artificial about this girl. She was as +natural as a flower--and just as sweet! There was a softness to her +cheek and to the curve of her neck like rich velvet. Her eyes were +mild yet sparkling when she became at all animated. And that demure +smile! And her dimples! + +When a young man gets to making an accounting of a girl's charms in +this way, he is far gone indeed. Lawford Tapp was very seriously +smitten. + +He saw his youngest sister, Cicely, whom the family always called +L'Enfant Terrible, speeding back to the villa in the automobile. She +had not gone as far as Paulmouth, after all, and she reached home long +before he docked the launch. Lawford did not pay much attention to +what went on in the big villa. His mother and sisters lived a social +life of their own. He merely slept there, spending most of his days on +the water. + +The Salt Water Taffy King was not at the private dock when Lawford +arrived. Mr. Israel Tapp was an irritable and impatient man. He "flew +off the handle" at the slightest provocation. Many times a day he lost +his temper and, as Lawford phlegmatically expressed it, "blew up." + +These exhibitions meant nothing particularly to Mr. Tapp. They were +escape-valves for a nervous irritability that had grown during his +years of idleness. Born of a poor Cape family, but with a dislike for +fish-seines and lobster-pots, he had turned his attention from the +first to the summer visitors, even in his youth beginning to flock to +the old-fashioned ports of the Cape. Catering to their wants was a +gold mine but little worked at that time. + +He began to sell candy at one of the more popular resorts. Then he +began to make candy. His Salt Water Taffy became locally famous. He +learned that a good many of the wealthier people who visited the Cape +in summer played all the year around. They went to Atlantic City or to +the Florida beaches in the winter. + +So Israel Tapp branched out and established salt water taffy kitchens +all up and down the coast. "I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King" became +a catch-word. It was then but a step to incorporating a company and +establishing huge candy factories. I. Tapp went on by leaps and +bounds. While yet a comparatively young man he found himself a +multi-millionaire. Even a rather expensive family could not spend his +income fast enough. + +He built the ornate villa at The Beaches and, like Lawford, preferred +to live there rather than elsewhere. His wife and the older girls +insisted upon having a town house in Boston and in traveling at certain +times to more or less exclusive resorts and to Europe. Their one +ambition was to get into that exclusive social set in which they felt +their money should rightfully place them. But a house on the Back Bay +does not always assure one's entrance to the circles of the "gilded +codfish." + +Mr. Tapp went down to the dock again after a time. Lawford had the +_Merry Andrew_ all ready to set out on the proposed fishing trip. The +sloop was a pretty craft, clinker built, and about the fastest sailing +boat within miles of Cardhaven. Lawford was proud of her. + +"So you're back at last, are you?" snapped the Salt Water Taffy King. + +He was a portly little man with a red face and a bald brow. His very +strut pronounced him a self-made man. He glared at his son, whose cool +nonchalance he often declared was impudence. + +"I've been waiting some time for you, dad. Hop aboard," Lawford calmly +said. + +"You took your time in getting back here," responded his father, by no +means mollified. "And you knew I was waiting. But you had to stand +and talk to a girl over there. Cicely says it is that picture actress +who is staying at Cap'n Abe's. Is that so?" + +"I presume Cicely is right," his son answered. "There is no other here +at present to my knowledge." + +"Of all things!" ejaculated Mr. Tapp. "You are always making some kind +of a fool of yourself, Lawford. Don't, for pity's sake, be _that_ kind +of a fool." + +"What do you mean, dad?" and now the young man's eyes flashed. It was +seldom that Lawford turned upon his father in anger. + +"You know very well what I mean. Keep away from such women. Don't get +messed up with actor people. I won't have it, I tell you! I am +determined that at least _one_ rich man's son shall not be the victim +of the wiles of any of these stage women." + +The flush remained in Lawford's cheek. It hurt him to hear his father +speak so in referring to Louise Grayling. He, too, possessed some of +the insular prejudice of his kind against those who win their +livelihood in the glare of the theatrical spotlight. This gentle, +well-bred, delightful girl staying at Cap'n Abe's store was a +revelation to him. He held his tongue, however, and held his temper in +check as well. + +"I don't see," stormed I. Tapp, "why you can't take up with a nice girl +and marry. Why, at your age I was married and we had Marian!" + +"Don't you think that should discourage me, dad?" Lawford put in. +"Marian is nobody to brag of, I should say." + +"Hah!" ejaculated his father. "She's a fool, too. But there are nice +girls. I was talking to your mother about your case last night. Of +course, I don't want you to say anything to her about what I'm going to +tell you now. She's got the silliest notions," pursued Mr. Tapp who +labored under the belief that all the wisdom of the ages had lodged +under his own hat. "Expects her daughters to marry dukes and you to +catch a princess or the like." + +"There are no such fish in these waters," laughed Lawford. "At least, +none has so much as nibbled at my hook." + +"And no nice girl will nibble at it if you don't come ashore once in a +while and get into something besides fisherman's duds." + +"Now, dad, clothes do not make the man." + +"Who told you such a fool thing as that? Some fool philosopher with +only one shirt to his back said it. Bill Johnson proved how wrong that +was to my satisfaction years and years ago. Good old Bill! I wanted +to branch out. We had just that one little candy factory and I worked +in it myself every day. + +"I got the idea," continued I. Tapp, launched on a favorite subject +now, "that my balance sheet and outlook for trade might impress the +bank people. I wanted to build a bigger factory. So I took off my +apron one day and walked over to the bank. I saw the president. He +looked like a fashion plate himself and he swung a pair of dinky +glasses on a cord as he listened to me and looked me over. Then he +turned me down--flat! + +"I told Bill about it. Bill was kind of tied up just then himself. +That was before he made his big strike. But he was a different fellow +from me. Bill always looked like ready money. + +"'Isra,' he says to me, 'I'll tell you how to get that money from the +bank.' + +"'It can't be done, Bill,' I told him. 'The president of the bank +showed me that my business was too weak to stand such spread-eagling. + +"'Nonsense!' says Bill. 'It isn't your business, it's your nerve that +you've got to hire money on--and your clothes. You do what I tell you. +Come to my tailor's in the morning.' + +"Well, to cut a long story short, I did it. I rigged up to beat that +bank president himself. When he saw me in about two hundred dollars' +worth of good clothes he considered the case again and recommended the +loan to his board. 'You put your facts much more lucidly to-day, Mr. +Tapp,' is the way he expressed himself. But take it from me, Lawford, +it was my clothes that made the impression. + +"So!" ruminated Mr. Tapp, "that is one thing Bill Johnson did for me. +And later, as you know, he came into the candy business with me and his +money helped make I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King. Lawford, Bill is +like a brother to me. His girl, Dorothy, is one of the nicest girls +who ever stepped in a slipper." + +"Dorothy Johnson is a really sweet girl, dad," Lawford agreed. "I like +her." + +"There!" ejaculated I. Tapp. "You let that liking become something +stronger. Dorothy's just the girl for you to marry." + +"_What_?" gasped the skipper of the _Merry Andrew_, almost losing his +grip on the steering wheel. + +"You get my meaning," said his father, scowling. "I've always meant +you should marry Bill's daughter. I had your mother write her last +night inviting her down here. Of course, your mother and the girls +think Bill Johnson's folks are too plain. But I'm boss once in a while +in my own house." + +"And you call mother a matchmaker!" + +"I know what I want and I'm going to get it," said I. Tapp doggedly. +"Dorothy is the girl for you. Don't you get entangled with anybody +else. Not a penny of my money will you ever handle if you don't do as +I say, young man!" + +"You needn't holler till you're hit, dad," Lawford said, trying to +speak carelessly. + +"Oh! _I_ sha'n't holler," snarled the Taffy King. "I warn you. One +such play as that and I'm through with you. I'm willing to support an +idle, ne'er-do-well; but he sha'n't saddle himself with one of those +theatrical creatures and bring scandal upon the family. Do you know +what I was doing when I was your age? I had a booth at 'Gansett, two +at Newport, a big one at Atlantic City, and was beginning to branch +out. I worked like a dog, too." + +"That's why I think I don't have to work, dad," said Lawford coolly. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SUSPICION HOVERS + +Betty Gallup, clothed as usual in her man's hat and worn pea-coat, but +likewise on this occasion with mystery, seized Louise by the hand the +instant she appeared and drew her into the kitchen, shutting the door +between that and the living-room. + +"What is the matter?" the girl asked. "Have you broken something--or +is the canary dead?" + +"Sh!" warned Betty, her little brown eyes blinking rapidly. "I heard +something last night." + +"I didn't. I slept like a baby. The night before I heard that old +foghorn----" + +"I mean," interrupted Betty, "something was told me." + +"Well, go on." Louise made up her mind that she could not stem the +tide of talk. + +"About your uncle, Cap'n Abe. He--he never was seen to take that train +to Boston. I got it straight, or pretty average straight. Mandy Baker +told me, and Peke Card's wife, Mary Lizbeth, told her, who got it right +from Lute Craven who works in the post-office uptown, and Lute got it +from Noah Coffin. You know, he't drives the ark you come over in from +Paulmouth. Well! Noah was at Paulmouth depot as he always is of +course when the clam train stops at five-thutty-five. He says he +didn't see Cap'n Abe nor nobody that looked like him board that train +yest'day mornin'." + +"Why, Betty!" Louise could only gasp. This house-that-Jack-built +narrative quite took her breath away. + +"Besides," went on Betty; "there's more to it. Cap'n Abe's chest was +took back to the depot by Perry Baker when he brought your trunks over, +sure 'nough. And Perry Baker says he shipped that chest to Boston for +your uncle, marked to be called for. It went by express." + +"But--but what of it?" asked the puzzled girl. + +"Humph! Stands to reason," declared Mrs. Gallup, "that Cap'n Abe +wouldn't have done no such foolish thing as that. It costs money to +ship a heavy sea chest by express. He could have took it on his ticket +as baggage, free gratis, for nothin'!" + +"I really don't see," Louise now said rather severely, "that these +facts you state--if they are facts--are any of our business, Betty. +Uncle Abram might have taken the train at some other station. He was +not sure, perhaps, whether he would join the ship Cap'n Amazon +recommended, so why should he not send his chest by express?" + +"Cap'n Am'zon! Humph!" sniffed Betty. "Nobody knows whether that's +his name or not. _He_ comes here without a smitch of clo'es, as near +as I can find out." + +Louise was amused; yet she was somewhat vexed as well. The curiosity, +as well as the animosity, displayed by Betty and others of the +neighbors began to appall her. If Cape Cod folk were, as her +daddy-professor had declared, "the salt of the earth," some of the salt +seemed to have lost its savor. + +"We were talking about Cap'n Abe," said Louise severely. "Just as he +had his own good reasons for going away when and how he did, he +probably had his reasons for taking nobody into his confidence. This +Perry Baker, the expressman, must know that Cap'n Abe sent the trunk +from the house, here." + +"Humph! Yes! Nobody's denyin' that." + +"Then Cap'n Abe must have known exactly what he wished to do. Cap'n +Amazon surely had nothing to do with the chest, with how his brother +took the train, or with _where_ he took it. Really, Betty, what do you +suspect Cap'n Amazon has done?" + +"I don't know what he's done," snapped Betty. "But I wouldn't put +nothin' past him, from his looks. The old pirate!" + +"You will make me feel very bad if you continue to talk this way about +my Uncle Amazon," said the girl, far from feeling amused now. "It is +not right. I hope you will not continue to repeat such things. If you +do you will some time be sorry for it, Betty." + +"Humph!" sniffed the woman. "Mebbe I will. But I'm warnin' you, Miss +Grayling." + +"Warning me of what?" + +"Of that man. That old sinner! I never see a wickeder looking feller +in my life--and I've sailed with my father and my husband to 'most +ev'ry quarter of the globe. He may be twin brother to the Angel +Gabriel; but if he is, his looks belie it!" + +There was nothing in all this of enough consequence to disturb the +girl, only in so far as she was vexed to find the neighbors so gossipy +and unkind. She gazed thoughtfully upon Cap'n Amazon as he sat across +from her at the breakfast table, and wondered how anybody could see in +his bronzed face anything sinister. + +That he was rather ridiculously gotten up, it was true. Those gold +earrings! But then, she had seen several of the older men about the +store wearing rings in their ears. If he did not always have that +bright-colored kerchief on his head! But then, he might wear that +because he was susceptible to neuralgia and did not wish to wear a hat +all the time as seemed to have been Cap'n Abe's custom. + +When he smiled at her and his eyes crinkled at the corners, he was as +kindly of expression, she thought, as Cap'n Abe himself. And he was a +much better looking man than the brother who had gone away. + +"Cap'n Amazon," she said to him, "I believe you must be just full of +stories of adventure and wonderful happenings by sea and land. Uncle +Abram said you had been everywhere." + +Cap'n Amazon seemed to take a long breath, then cleared his throat, and +said: + +"I've been pretty nigh everywhere. Seen some funny corners of the +world, too, Louise." + +"You must tell me about your adventures," she said. "Your brother told +me that you ran away to sea when you were only twelve years old and +sailed on a long whaling voyage." + +"Yep. _South Sea Belle_. Some old hooker, she was," said Cap'n Amazon +briskly. "We was out three year and come home with our hold bustin' +with ile, plenty of baleen, some sperm, and a lump of ambergris as big +as a nail keg--or pretty nigh." + +Right then and there he launched into relating how the wondrous find of +ambergris came to be made, neglecting his breakfast to do so. He told +it so vividly that Louise was enthralled. The picture of the whaling +bark beating up to the dead and festering leviathan lying on the +surface of the ocean to which the exploding gases of decomposition had +brought the hulk, lived in her mind for days. The mate of the _South +Sea Belle_, believing the creature had died of the disease supposedly +caused by the growth of the ambergris in its intestines, had insisted +upon boarding the carcass. Driving away the clamorous and ravenous sea +fowl, he had dug down with his blubber-spade into the vitals of the +whale and recovered the gray, spongy, ill-smelling mass which was worth +so great a sum to the perfumer. + +"'Twas a big haul--one o' the biggest lumps o' ambergris ever brought +into the port of New Bedford," concluded Cap'n Amazon. "Helped make +the owners rich, and the Old Man, too. Course, I got my sheer; but a +boy's sheer on a whaler them days wouldn't buy him no house and lot. +So I went to sea again." + +"You must have been at sea almost all your life, Cap'n Amazon." + +"Pretty nigh. I ain't never lazed around on shore when there was a +berth in a seaworthy craft to be had for the askin'. I let Abe do +that," he added, in what Louise thought was a rather scornful tone. + +"Why, I don't believe Uncle Abram has a lazy bone in his body! See the +nice business he has built up here. And he told me he owned shares in +several vessels and other property." + +"That's true," Cap'n Amazon agreed promptly. "And a tidy sum in the +Paulmouth National Bank. I got a letter to the bank folks he left to +introduce me, if I needed cash. Yes, Abe's done well enough that way. +But he's the first Silt, I swanny! that ever stayed ashore." + +"And now you are going to remain ashore yourself," she said, laughing. + +"I'm going to try it, Louise. I've done my sheer of roaming about. +Mebbe I'll settle down here for good." + +"With Cap'n Abe? Won't that be fine?" + +"Yep. With Abe," he muttered and remained silent for the rest of the +meal. + +On Saturday the store trade was expected to be larger than usual. +Louise told Cap'n Amazon she would gladly help wait on the customers; +but he would not listen to that for a moment. + +"I'm not goin' to have you out there in that store for these folks to +look over and pick to pieces, my girl," he said decidedly. "You stay +aft and I'll 'tend to things for'ard and handle this crew. Besides, +there's that half-grown lout, Amiel Perdue. Abe said he sometimes +helped around. He knows the ship, alow and aloft, and how the stores +is stowed." + +The morning was still young when Betty came downstairs in hot rage and +attacked Cap'n Amazon. It seemed she had gone up to give the chambers +their usual weekly cleaning, and had found the room in which the +captain slept locked against her. It was Cap'n Abe's room and it +seemed it was Cap'n Abe's custom--as it was Cap'n Amazon's--to make his +own bed and keep his room tidy during the week. But Betty had always +given it a thorough cleaning and changed the bed linen on Saturdays. + +"What's that room locked for? I want to know what you mean?" the woman +demanded of Cap'n Amazon. "Think I'm goin' to work in a house where +doors is locked against me? I'm as honest as any Silt that ever +hobbled on two laigs. Nex' thing, I cal'late, you'll be lockin' the +coal shed and countin' the sticks in the woodpile." + +She had much more to say--and said it. It seemed to make her feel +better to do so. Cap'n Amazon looked coolly at her, but did not offer +to take the key out of his trousers' pocket. + +"What d'ye mean?" repeated Betty, breathless. + +"I mean to keep my cabin locked," he told her in a perfectly passive +voice, but in a manner that halted her suddenly, angry as she was. "I +don't want no woman messin' with my berth nor with my duds. That +door's no more locked against you than it is against my niece. You do +the rest of your work and don't you worry your soul 'bout my cabin." + +Louise, who was an observant spectator of this contest, expected at +first that Betty would not stand the indignity--that she would resign +from her situation on the spot. + +But that hard, compelling stare of Cap'n Amazon seemed to tame her. +And Betty Gallup was a person not easily tamed. She spluttered a +little more, then returned to her work. Though she was sullen all day, +she did not offer to reopen the discussion. + +"What a master he must have been on his own quarter-deck," Louise +thought. "And he must have seen rough times, as that Lawford Tapp +suggested. My! he's not much like Cap'n Abe, after all." + +But with her, Cap'n Amazon was as gentle as her own father. He stood +on his dignity with the customers who came to the store, and with +Betty; but he was most kindly toward Louise in every look and word. + +That under his self-contained and stern exterior dwelt a very tender +heart, the girl was sure. For the absent Cap'n Abe he appeared to feel +a strong man's good-natured scorn for a weak one; but Louise saw him +stand often before Jerry's cage, chirping to the bird and playing with +him. And at such times there was moisture in Cap'n Amazon's eye. + +"Blind's a bat! Poor little critter!" he would murmur. "All the +sunshine does is to warm him; he can't see it no more. Out-o'-doors +ain't nothin' to him now." + +Nor would he allow anybody but himself to attend to the needs of poor +little Jerry. He had promised Abe, he said. He kept that promise +faithfully. + +Diddimus, the cat, was entirely another problem. At first, whenever he +saw Cap'n Amazon approach, he howled and fled. Then, gradually, an +unholy curiosity seemed to enthrall the big tortoise-shell. He would +peer around corners at Cap'n Amazon, stare at him with wide yellow eyes +through open doorways, leap upon the window sill and glower at the +substitute storekeeper--in every way showing his overweening interest +in the man. But he absolutely would not go within arm's reach of him. + +"I always did say a cat's a plumb fool," declared Cap'n Amazon. +"They'll desert ship as soon as wink. Treacherous critters, the hull +tribe. Why, when I was up country in Cuba once, I stopped at a man's +hacienda and he had a tame wildcat--had had it from a kitten. Brought +it up on a bottle himself. + +"He thought a heap of that critter, and when he laid in his hammock +under the trees--an' that was most of the time, for them Caribs are as +lazy as the feller under the tree that wished for the cherries to fall +in his mouth!--Yes, sir! when he laid in his hammock that yaller-eyed +demon would lay in it, too, and purr like an ordinary cat. + +"But a day come when the man fell asleep and had a nightmare or +something, and kicked out, cracking that cat on the snout with his +heel. Next breath the cat had a chunk out o' his calf and if I hadn't +been there with a gun he'd pretty near have eat the feller!" + +The personal touch always entered into Cap'n Amazon's stories. He had +always been on me spot when the thing in point happened--and usually he +was the heroic and central figure. No foolish modesty stayed his +tongue when it came to recounting adventures. + +He had all his wits, as well as all his wit, about him, had Cap'n +Amazon. This was shown by an occurrence that very Saturday afternoon. + +Milt Baker, like the other neighbors, was becoming familiar, if not +friendly, with the substitute storekeeper and, leaning on the showcase. +Milt said: + +"Leave me have a piece of Brown Mule, Cap'n Am'zon. I'm all out o' +chewin'. Put it on the book and Mandy'll pay for it." + +"Avast there!" Cap'n Amazon returned. "Seems to me I got something in +the bill o' ladin' 'bout that," and he drew forth the long memorandum +Cap'n Abe had made to guide his substitute's treatment of certain +customers. "No," the substitute storekeeper said, shaking his head +negatively. "Can't do it." + +"Why not, I want to know?" blustered Milt. "I guess my credit's good." +He already had the Brown Mule in his hand. + +"Your wife's credit seems to be good," Cap'n Amazon returned firmly. +"But here's what I find here: 'Don't trust Milt Baker for Brown Mule +'cause Mandy makes him pay cash for his tobacker and rum. We don't +sell no rum.' That's enough, young man." + +Milt might have tried to argue the case with Cap'n Abe; but not with +Cap'n Amazon. There was something in the steady look of the latter +that caused the shiftless clam digger to dig down into his pocket for +the nickel, pay it over, and walk grumblingly out of the store. + +"Does beat all what a fool a woman will be," commented Cap'n Amazon, +rather enigmatically; only Louise, who heard him, realized fully what +his thought was. Jealous and hard-working Mandy Baker had chosen for +herself a handicap in the marriage game. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHAT LOUISE THINKS + +Sunday morning such a hush pervaded the store on the Shell Road, and +brooded over its surroundings, as Lou Grayling had seldom experienced +save in the depths of the wilderness. + +She beheld a breeze-swept sea from her window with no fishing boats +going out. There was nobody on the clam flats, although the tide was +just right at dawn. The surfman from the patrol station beyond The +Beaches paced to the end of his beat dressed in his best, like a man +merely taking a Sunday morning stroll. + +The people she saw seemed to be changed out of their everyday selves. +Not only were they in Sabbath garb, but they had on their Sabbath +manner. Even to Milt Baker, the men were cleanly shaven and wore fresh +cotton shirts of their wives' laundering. + +Cap'n Amazon appeared from his "cabin" when the first church bells +began to ring, arrayed in a much wrinkled but very good suit of "go +ashore" clothes of blue, which were possibly those he had worn when he +arrived at the store on the Shell Road. He wore a hard, glazed hat of +an old-fashioned naval shape and, instead of the usual red bandana, he +wore a black silk handkerchief tied about his head. + +Just why he always kept his crown thus swathed, Louise was very +desirous of knowing. Yet she did not feel like asking him such a very +personal question. Had it been Cap'n Abe she would not for a moment +have hesitated. Louise had heard of men being scalped by savages and +she was almost tempted to believe that this had happened to Cap'n +Amazon in one of his wild encounters. + +"We'll go to the First Church, Niece Louise," he said firmly. "Abe +always did. These small-fry craft, like the Mariner's Chapel, are all +right, I don't dispute; but they are lacking in ballast. It's in my +mind to attend the church that's the most like a well-founded, deep-sea +craft." + +Louise was more impressed than amused by this philosophy. The captain +seemed to have put on his "Sunday face" like everybody else. As they +came out of the yard old Washington Gallup hobbled by, but instead of +stopping to chatter inconsequently, for he was an inveterate gossip, he +saluted the captain respectfully and hobbled on. + +Indeed, the captain was a figure on this day to command profound +respect. It is no trick at all for a big man to look dignified and +impressive; but Cap'n Amazon was not a big man. However, in his blue +pilot-cloth suit, cut severely plain, and with his hard black hat on +his head he made a veritable picture of what a master-mariner should be. + +On his quarter-deck, in fair or foul weather, Louise was sure that he +had never lacked the respect of his crew or their confidence. He was +distinctly a man to command--a leader and director by nature. He was, +indeed, different from the seemingly easy-going, gentle-spoken Cap'n +Abe, the storekeeper. + +They had scarcely started up the Shell Road when the whir of a +fast-running automobile sounded behind them and the mellow hoot of a +horn. Louise turned to see a great touring car take the curve from the +direction of The Beaches and glide swiftly toward them. Lawford Tapp +was guiding the car. + +"Then he's a chauffeur as well as fisherman and boatman," she thought. + +She could not see how he was dressed under the coat he wore; but he +touched his cap to her and Cap'n Amazon as he drove by. + +Beside Lawford on the driving seat was a plump little man who seemed to +be violently quarreling with the chauffeur. In the tonneau was a +matronly woman and three girls including "L'Enfant Terrible," all, +Louise thought, rather overdressed. + +"Those folks, so I'm told," said Cap'n Amazon placidly, "come from that +big house on the p'int--as far as you can see from our windows. More +money than good sense, I guess. Though the man, he comes of good old +Cape stock. But I guess that blood can de-te-ri-orate, as the feller +said. Ain't much of it left in the young folks, pretty likely. They +just laze around and play all the time. If 'All work and no play makes +Jack a dull boy,' you can take it from me, Niece Louise, that all play +and no work makes Jill a pretty average useless girl. Yes, sir!" + +To the First Church it was quite a walk, up Main Street beyond the Inn +and the post-office. There was some little bustle on Main Street at +church-going time for some of the vacation visitors--those of more +modest pretensions than the occupants of the cottages at The +Beaches--had already arrived. + +At the head of the church aisle Cap'n Amazon spoke apologetically to +the usher: + +"Young man, my brother, Mr. Abram Silt, hires a pew here; but I don't +rightly know its bearings. Would you mind showin' me and my niece the +course?" + +They were accommodated. After service several shook hands with them; +but Louise noticed that many cast curious glances at the black silk +handkerchief on Cap'n Amazon's head and did not come near. Despite his +dignity and the reverence of his bearing, he did look peculiar with +that 'kerchief swathing his crown. + +Gusty Durgin, the waitress at the Cardhaven Inn, claimed +acquaintanceship after church with Louise. + +"There's goin' to be more of your crowd come to-morrow, Miss Grayling," +she said. "Some of 'em's goin' to stop with us at the Inn. How you +makin' out down there to Cap'n Abe's? Land sakes! _that_ ain't Cap'n +Abe!" + +"It is his brother, Cap'n Amazon Silt," explained Louise. + +"I want to know! He looks amazin' funny, don't he? Not much like +Cap'n Abe. You see, my folks live down the Shell Road. My ma married +again. D'rius Vleet. Nice man, but a Dutchman. I don't take up much +with these furiners. + +"Now! what was I sayin'? Oh! The boss tells me there's a Mr. Judson +Bane of your crowd goin' to stop with us. Sent a telegraph dispatch +for a room to be saved for him. With bath! Land sakes! ain't the +whole ocean big enough for him to take a bath in? We ain't got nothing +like that. And two ladies--I forget their names. You know Mr. Bane?". + +"I have met him--once," confessed Louise. + +"Some swell he is, I bet," Gusty declared. "I'm goin' to speak to him. +Mebbe he can get me into the company. I ain't so _aw_-ful fat. I seen +a picture over to Paulmouth last night where there was a girl bigger'n +I am, and she took a re'l sad part. + +"She cried re'l tears. _I_ can do that. All I got to do is to think +of something re'l mis'rable--like the time our old brahma hen, Beauty, +got bit by Esek Coe's dog, and ma had to saw her up. Then the tears'll +squeeze right out, _just as ea'sy_!" + +Louise thought laughter would overcome her "just as easy" despite the +day and place. She knew a hearty burst of laughter in the church +edifice would amaze and shock the lingering congregation. + +Seeing that Cap'n Amazon was busy with some men he had met, the girl +walked out to the little vestibule of the church. Here a number of +women and men were discussing various matters--the sermon, the weather, +clamming, boating, and the colony at The Beaches. Two women stood +apart from the others and presently Louise was attracted to them by the +sound of Lawford Tapp's name. + +"I dunno who he is exactly, bein' somethin' o' a stranger here," one of +the women said. "But I was told he was some poor relation who allers +lived among the fisher folk. But he does seem to know how to run thet +autermobile, don't he?" + +"I should say!" returned the other woman. "An' he's well spoken, +too--from what I heard him say down to the store." + +"Yes, I know that too. Well, I hope he buys the outfit--Jimmy wants to +sell it bad enough--an' needs the money, believe me!" And thereupon +the two women took their departure. + +The conversation hung in Louisa's mind and she looked exceedingly +thoughtful when Cap'n Amazon broke away from those with whom he had +been talking and joined her. + +"Nice man, that Reverend Jimson, I guess," the captain said, as they +wended their way homeward; "but he's got as many ways of holdin' a +feller as an octopus. And lemme tell you, that's a plenty! Arms seem +to grow on devilfish 'while you wait' as the feller said. + +"I sha'n't ever forget the time I was a boy in the old _Mary Bedloe_ +brig, out o' Boston, loaded with sundries for Jamaica, to bring back +molasses--and something a leetle mite stronger. That's 'bout as near +as I ever got to having traffic with liquor--and 'twas an unlucky +v'y'ge all the way through. + +"Before we ever got the rum aboard," pursued Cap'n Amazon, "on our way +down there, our water went bad. Yes, sir! Water does get stringy +sometimes on long v'y'ges. It useter on whalin' cruises--get all +stringy and bad; but after she'd worked clear she'd be fit to drink +again. + +"But this time in the _Mary Bedloe_ it was something mysterious +happened to the drinking water. Made the hull crew sick. Cap'n Jim +Braman was master. He was a good navigator, but an awful profane man. +Swore without no reason to it. + +"Well----Where was I? Oh, yes! We had light airs in the Caribbean for +once, and didn't make no more headway in a day than a brick barge goin' +upstream. We come to an island--something more than a key--and Cap'n +Braman ordered a boat's crew ashore for water. I was in the second's +boat so I went. We found good water easy and the second officer, who +was a nice young chap, let us scour around on our own hook for fruit +and such, after we'd filled the barrels. + +"I was all for shellfish them days, and I see some big mussels attached +to the rocks, it bein' low water. Some o' them mussels, when ye gut +'em same as ye would deep-sea clams, make the nicest fry you ever +tasted. + +"Wal," said Cap'n Amazon, walking sedately home from church with his +amused niece on his arm, "I wanted a few of them mussels. There was a +mud bottom and so the water was black. Just as I reached for the first +mussel I felt something creeping around my left leg. I thought it was +eel-grass; then I thought it was an eel. + +"Next thing I knowed it took holt like a leech in half a dozen places. +I jumped; but I didn't jump far. There was two o' the things had me, +and that left leg o' mine was fast as a duck's foot in the mud!" + +"Oh, Uncle Amazon!" gasped Louise. + +"Yep. A third arm whipped out o' the water had helt me round the waist +tighter'n any girl of my acquaintance ever lashed her best feller. +Land sakes, that devilfish certainly give me a hi-mighty hug! + +"But I had what they call down in the Spanish speakin' islands a +machette--a big knife for cuttin' your way through the jungle. I +hauled that out o' the waistband of my pants and I began slicing at +them snake-like arms of the critter and yelling like all get-out. + +"More scare't than hurt, I reckon. I was a young feller, as I tell +you, and hadn't seen so much of the world as I have since," continued +Cap'n Amazon. "But the arms seemed fairly to grow on that devilfish. +I wasn't hacked loose when the second officer come runnin' with his +gun. I dragged the critter nearer inshore and he got a look at it. +Both barrels went into that devilfish, and that was more than it could +stomach; so it let go," finished the captain. + +"Mercy! what an experience," commented Louise, wondering rather vaguely +why the minister of the First Church had reminded her uncle of this +octopus. + +"Yes. 'Twas _some_," agreed Cap'n Amazon. "But let's step along a +little livelier, Niece Louise. I'm goin' to give you a re'l +fisherman's chowder for dinner, an' I want to git the pork and onions +over. I like my onions well browned before I slice in the potaters." + +Cap'n Amazon insisted on doing most of the cooking, just as Cap'n Abe +had. Louise had baked some very delicate pop-overs for breakfast that +morning and the captain ate his share with appreciation. + +"Pretty average nice, I call 'em, for soft-fodder," he observed. "But, +land sakes! give me something hearty and kind of solid for reg'lar +eating. Ordinary man would starve pretty handy, I guess, on breadstuff +like this." + +The chowder was both as hearty and as appetizing as one could desire. +Nor would the captain allow Louise to wash the dishes afterward. + +"No, girl. I'll clean up this mess. You go out and see how fur you +can walk on that hard beach now it's slack tide. You ain't been up +there to Tapp P'int yit and seen that big house that belongs to the +candy king. Neither have I, of course," he added; "but they been +tellin' me about it in the store." + +Louise accepted the suggestion and started to walk up the beach; but +she did not get far. There was a private dock running out beyond +low-water mark just below the very first bungalow. She saw several men +coming down the steps from the top of the bluff to the shore and the +bathhouses; a big camera was set up on the sands. This must be +Bozewell's bungalow, she decided; the one engaged by the moving picture +people. + +If Judson Bane was to be leading man of the company the picture was +very likely to be an important production; for Bane would not leave the +legitimate stage for any small salary. Seeing no women in the party +and that the men were heading up the beach, Louise went no farther in +that direction, and instead walked out upon the private dock to its end. + +It was not until then that she saw, shooting inshore, the swift launch +in which Lawford Tapp had come over in the morning previous. The wind +being off the land she had not heard its exhaust. In three minutes the +launch glided in beside the dock where she stood. + +"Come for a sail, Miss Grayling?" he asked her, with his very widest +smile. "I'll take you out around Gull Rocks." + +"Oh! I am not sure----" + +"Surely you're not down here to work on Sunday?" and he glanced at the +actors. + +She laughed. "Oh, no, Mr. Tapp. I do not work on Sundays. Uncle +Amazon would not even let me wash the dishes." + +"I should think not," murmured Lawford with an appreciative glance at +her ungloved hands. "He's a pretty decent old fellow, I guess. Will +you come aboard? She's perfectly safe, Miss Grayling." + +If he had invited her to enter the big touring car he had driven that +morning, to go for a "joy ride," Louise Grayling would certainly have +refused. To go on a pleasure trip at the invitation of a chauffeur in +his employer's car was quite out of consideration. + +But this was somehow different, or so it seemed. She hesitated not +because of who or what he was (or what she believed him to be), but +because she had seen something in his manner and expression of +countenance that warned her he was a young man not to be lightly +encouraged. + +In that moment of reflection Louise Grayling, asked herself if she felt +that he possessed a more interesting personality than almost any man +she had ever met socially before. She did so consider him, she told +herself, and so--she stepped aboard the launch. + +She did not need his hand to help her to the seat beside him. She was +boatwise. He pushed off, starting his engine; and they were soon +chug-chugging out upon the limitless sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LEADING MAN + +"I saw you with Cap'n Amazon going to church this morning," Lawford +said. "To the First Church, I presume?" + +"And you?" + +"Oh, I drove the folks over to Paulmouth. There is an Episcopal Church +there and the girls think it's more fashionable. You don't see many +soft-collared shirts among the Paulmouth Episcopalians." + +There spoke the "native," Louise thought; and she smiled. + +"It scarcely matters, I fancy, which denomination one attends. It is +the spirit in which we worship that counts." + +He gazed upon her seriously. "You're a thoughtful girl, I guess. I +should not have looked for that--in your business." + +"In my business? Oh!" + +"We outsiders have an idea that people in the theatrical line are a +peculiar class unto themselves," Lawford went on. + +"But I----" On the point of telling him of his mistake she hesitated. +He was unobservant of her amusement and went on with seriousness: + +"I guess I'm pretty green after all. I don't know much about the +world--your world, at least. I love the sea, and sailing, and all the +seashore has to offer. Sometimes I'm out here alone all day long." + +"But what is it doing for you?" she asked him rather sharply. "Surely +there can be very little in it, when all's said and done. A man with +your intelligence--you have evidently had a good education." + +"I suppose I don't properly appreciate that," he admitted. + +"And to really waste your time like this--loafing longshore, and +sailing boats, and--and driving an automobile. Why! you are a regular +beach comber, Mr. Tapp. It's not much of an outlook for a man I should +think." + +She suddenly stopped, realizing that she was showing more interest than +the occasion called for. Lawford was watching her with smoldering eyes. + +"Don't you think it is a nice way to live?" he asked. "The sea is +really wonderful. I have learned more about sea and shore already than +you can find in all the books. Do you know where the gulls nest, and +how they hatch their young? Did you ever watch a starfish feeding? Do +you know what part of the shellfish is the scallop of commerce? Do you +know that every seventh wave is almost sure to be larger than its +fellows? Do you----" + +"Oh, it may be very delightful," Louise interrupted this flow of badly +catalogued information to say. He expressed exactly her own desires. +Nothing could be pleasanter than spending the time, day after day, +learning things "at first hand" about nature. For her father--and of +course for her--to do this was quite proper, Louise thought. But not +for this young fisherman, who should be making his way in the world. +"Where is it getting you?" she demanded. + +"Getting me?" + +"Yes," she declared with vigor, yet coloring a little. "A man should +work." + +"But I'm not idle." + +"He should work to get ahead--to save--to make something of himself--to +establish himself in life--to have a home." + +He smiled then and likewise colored. "I--I------A man can't do that +alone. Especially the home-making part." + +"You don't suppose any of these girls about here--the nice girls, I +mean--want a man who is not a home provider?" + +He laughed outright then. "Some of them get that kind, I fear, Miss +Grayling. Mandy Card, for instance." + +"Are you planning to be another Milt Baker?" she responded with scorn. + +"Oh, now, you're hard on a fellow," he complained. "I'm always busy. +And, fixed as I am, I don't see why I should grub and moil at +unpleasant things." + +Louise shrugged her shoulders and made a gesture of finality. "You are +impossible, I fear," she said and put aside--not without a secret +pang--her interest in Lawford Tapp, an interest which had been +developing since she first met the young man. + +He allowed the subject to lapse and began telling her about the ledges +on which the rock cod and tautog schooled; where bluefish might be +caught on the line, and snappers in the channels going into the Haven. + +"Good sport. I must take you out in the _Merry Andrew_," he said. +"She's a peach of a sailer--and my very own." + +"Oh! do you own the sloop, Mr. Tapp?" + +"I guess I do! And no money could buy her," he cried with boyish +enthusiasm. "She's the best lap-streak boat anywhere along the Cape. +And _sail_!" + +"I love sailing," she confessed, with brightening visage. + +"Say! You just set the day--so it won't conflict with your work--and +I'll take you out," he declared eagerly, + +"But won't it conflict with your duties?" + +"Humph!" he returned. "I thought your idea was that I didn't have any +duties. However," and he smiled again, "you need not worry about that. +When you want to go I will arrange everything so that I'll have a free +day." + +"But not alone, Mr. Tapp?" + +"No," he agreed gravely. "I suppose that wouldn't do. But we can +rake up a chaperon somewhere." + +"Oh, yes!" and Louise dimpled again. "We'll take Betty Gallup along. +She's an able seaman, too." + +"I _bet_ she is!" ejaculated Lawford with emphasis. + +He handled the boat with excellent judgment, and his confidence caused +Louise to see no peril when they ran almost on the edge of the +maelstrom over Gull Rocks. "I know this coast by heart," he said. "I +believe there's not one of them sailing out of the Haven who is a +better pilot than I am. At least, I've learned _that_ outside of +textbooks," and he smiled at her. + +Louise wondered how good an education this scion of a Cape Cod family +really had secured. The longer she was in his company the more she was +amazed by his language and manners. She noted, too, that he was much +better dressed to-day. His flannels were not new; indeed they were +rather shabby. But the garments' original cost must have been +prohibitive for a young man in his supposed position. Very likely, +however, they had been given him, second-hand, by some member of the +family for which he worked. + +The more she saw of him, and the more she thought about it, the greater +was Louise's disappointment in Lawford Tapp. She was not exactly sorry +she had come out with him in the motor boat; but her feeling toward him +was distinctly different when she landed, from that which had been +roused in her first acquaintance. + +It was true he was not an idle young man--not exactly. But he betrayed +an ability and a training that should already have raised him above his +present situation in the social scale, as Louise understood it. She +was disappointed, and although she bade Lawford Tapp good-bye +pleasantly she was secretly unhappy. + +The next morning she chanced to need several little things that were +not to be found in Cap'n Abe's store and she went uptown in quest of +them. At midday she was still thus engaged, so she went to the Inn for +lunch. + +Gusty Durgin spied her as she entered and found a small table for +Louise where she would be alone. A fat woman whom Gusty mentioned as +"the boss's sister, Sara Ann Whipple," helped wait upon the guests. +Several of the business men of the town, as well as the guests of the +Inn, took their dinners there. + +To one man, sitting alone at a table not far distant, Louise saw that +Gusty was particularly attentive. He was typically a city man; one +could not for a moment mistake him for a product of the Cape. + +He was either a young-old or an old-young looking man, his hair graying +at the temples, but very luxuriant and worn rather long. A bright +complexion and beautifully kept teeth and hands marked him as one more +than usually careful of his personal appearance. Indeed, his character +seemed to border on that of the exquisite. + +His countenance was without doubt attractive, for it was intelligent +and expressed a quiet humor that seemed to have much kindliness mixed +with it. His treatment of the unsophisticated Gusty, who hovered about +him with open admiration, held just that quality of good-natured +tolerance which did not offend the waitress but that showed discerning +persons that he considered her only in the light of an artless child. + +"D'you know who that is?" Gusty whispered to Louise when she found time +to do so. The plump girl was vastly excited; her hands shook as she +set down the dishes. "That's Mr. Judson Bane." + +"Yes. I chanced to meet Mr. Bane once, as I told you," smiled Louise, +keeping up the illusion of her own connection with the fringe of the +theatrical world. + +"And Miss Louder and Miss Noyes have come. My, you ought to see +_them_!" said the emphatic waitress. "They've got one o' them +flivvers. Some gen'leman friend of Miss Noyes' lent it to 'em. +They're out now hunting what they call a garridge for it. That's a +fancy name for a barn, I guess. And dressed!" gasped Gusty finally. +"They're dressed to kill!" + +"We shall have lively times around Cardhaven now, sha'n't we?" Louise +commented demurely. + +"We almost always do in summer," Gusty agreed with a sigh. "Last +summer an Italian lost his trick bear in the pine woods 'twixt here and +Paulmouth and the young 'uns didn't darest to go out of the houses for +a week. Poor critter! When they got him he was fair foundered eating +green cranberries in the bogs." + +"Something doing," no matter what, was Gusty's idea of life as it +should be. Louise finished her meal and went out of the dining-room. +In the hall her mesh bag caught in the latch of the screen door and +dropped to the floor. Somebody was right at hand to pick it up for her. + +"Allow me." said a deep and cultivated voice. "Extremely annoying." + +It was Mr. Bane, hat in hand. He restored the bag, and as Louise +quietly thanked him they walked out of the Inn together. Louise was +returning to Cap'n Abe's store, and she turned in that direction before +she saw that Mr. Bane was bound down the hill, too. + +"I fancy we are fellow-outcasts," he said. "You, too, are a visitor to +this delightfully quaint place?" + +"Yes, Mr. Bane," she returned frankly. "Though I can claim +relationship to some of these Cardhaven folk. My mother came from the +Cape." + +"Indeed? It is not such a far cry to Broadway from any point of the +compass, after all, is it?" and he smiled engagingly down at her. + +"You evidently do not remember me, Mr. Bane?" she said, returning his +smile. "Aboard the Anders Liner, coming up from Jamaica, two years ago +this last winter? Professor Ernest Grayling is my father." + +"Indeed!" he exclaimed. "You are Miss Grayling? I remember you and +your father clearly. Fancy meeting you here!" and Mr. Bane insisted on +taking her hand. "And how is the professor? No need to ask after your +health, Miss Grayling." + +As they walked on together Louise took more careful note of the actor. +He had the full habit of a well-fed man, but was not gross. He was +athletic, indeed, and his head was poised splendidly on broad +shoulders. Louise saw that his face was massaged until it was as pink +and soft as a baby's, without a line of close shaving to be detected. +The network of fine wrinkles at the outer corners of his eyes was +scarcely distinguishable. That there was a faint dust of powder upon +his face she noted, too. + +Judson Bane was far, however, from giving the impression of effeminacy. +Quite the contrary. He looked able to do heroic things in real life as +well as in the drama. And as their walk and conversation developed, +Louise Grayling found the actor to be an interesting person. + +He spoke well and without bombast upon any subject she ventured on. +His vocabulary was good and his speaking voice one of the most pleasing +she had ever heard. + +So interested was Louise in what Mr. Bane said that she scarcely +noticed Lawford Tapp who passed and bowed to her, only inclining her +head in return. Therefore she did not catch the expression on +Lawford's face. + +"A fine-looking young fisherman," observed Mr. Bane patronizingly. + +"Yes. Some of them are good-looking and more intelligent than you +would believe," Louise rejoined carelessly. She had put Lawford Tapp +aside as inconsequential. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE DESCENT OF AUNT EUPHEMIA + +It was mid forenoon the following day, and quite a week after Louise +Grayling's arrival at Cap'n Abe's store on the Shell Road, that the +stage was set for a most surprising climax. + +The spirit of gloom still hovered over Betty Gallup in the rear +premises where she was sweeping and dusting and scrubbing. Her idea of +cleanliness indoors was about the same as that of a smart skipper of an +old-time clipper ship. + +"If that woman ain't holystonin' the deck ev'ry day she thinks we're +wadin' in dirt, boot-laig high," growled Cap'n Amazon. + +"Cleanliness is next to godliness!" quoted Louise, who was in the store +at the moment. + +"Land sakes!" ejaculated the captain. "It's next door to a lot of +other things, seems like, too. I shouldn't say that Bet Gallup was +spillin' over with piety." + +Louise, laughing softly, went to the door. There was a cloud of dust +up the road and ahead of it came a small automobile. Cap'n Amazon was +singing, in a rather cracked voice: + + "'_The Boundin' Biller, Captain Hanks, + She was hove flat down on the Western Banks_;------" + +With a saucy blast of its horn the automobile flashed past the store. +There were two young women in it, one driving. Louise felt sure they +were Miss Louder and Miss Noyes, mentioned by Gusty Durgin the day +before, and their frocks and hats were all that their names suggested. + +"Them contraptions," Cap'n Amazon broke off in his ditty to say, "go +past so swift that you can't tell rightly whether they got anybody to +the helm or not. Land sakes, here comes another! They're getting as +common as sandfleas on Horseneck Bar, and Washy Gallup says that's +a-plenty." + +He did not need to come to the door to make this discovery of the +approach of the second machine. There sounded another blast from an +auto horn and a considerable racket of clashing gears. + +"Land sakes!" Cap'n Amazon added. "Is it going to heave to here?" + +Louise had already entered the living-room, bound for her chamber to +see if, by chance, Betty had finished dusting there. She did not hear +the second automobile stop nor the cheerful voice of its gawky driver +as he said to his fare: + +"This is the place, ma'am. This is Cap'n Abe's." + +His was the only car in public service at the Paulmouth railroad +station and Willy Peebles seldom had a fare to Cardhaven. Noah +Coffin's ark was good enough for most Cardhaven folk if they did not +own equipages of their own. + +When Willy reached around and snapped open the door of the covered car +a lady stepped out and, like a Newfoundland after a plunge into the +sea, shook herself. The car was a cramped vehicle and the ride had +been dusty. Her clothing was plentifully powdered; but her face was +not. That was heated, perspiring, and expressed a mixture of +indignation and disapproval. + +"Are you sure this is the place, young man?" she demanded. + +"This is Cap'n Abe Silt's," repeated Willy. + +"Why--it doesn't look------" + +"Want your suitcase, ma'am?" asked Willy. + +"Wait. I am not sure. I--I must see if I----. I may not stay. +Wait," she repeated, still staring about the neighborhood. + +As a usual thing, she was not a person given to uncertainty, in either +manner or speech. Her somewhat haughty glance, her high-arched nose, +her thin lips, all showed decision and a scorn of other people's +opinions and wishes. But at this moment she was plainly nonplused. + +"There--there doesn't seem to be anybody about," she faltered. + +"Oh, go right into the store, ma'am. Cap'n Abe's somewheres around. +He always is." + +Thus encouraged by the driver the woman stalked up the store steps. +She was not a ponderous woman, but she was tall and carried +considerable flesh. She could carry this well, however, and did. Her +traveling dress and hat were just fashionable enough to be in the mode, +but in no extreme. This well-bred, haughty, but perspiring woman +approached the entrance to Cap'n Abe's store in a spirit of frank +disapproval. + +On the threshold she halted with an audible gasp, indicating amazement. +Her glance swept the interior of the store with its strange +conglomeration of goods for sale--on the shelves the rows of glowingly +labeled canned goods, the blue papers of macaroni, the little green +cartons of fishhooks; the clothing hanging in groves, the rows and rows +of red mittens; tiers of kegs of red lead, barrels of flour, boxes of +hardtack; hanks of tarred ground-line, coils of several sizes of +cordage, with a small kedge anchor here and there. It was not so much +a store as it was a warehouse displaying many articles the names and +uses for which the lady did not even know. + +The wondrous array of goods in Cap'n Abe's store did not so much +startle the visitor, as the figure that rose from behind the counter, +where he was stooping at some task. + +She might be excused her sudden cry, for Cap'n Amazon was an apparition +to shock any nervous person. The bandana he wore seemed, if possible, +redder than usual this morning; his earrings glistened; his long +mustache seemed blacker and glossier than ever. As he leaned +characteristically upon the counter, his sleeves rolled to his elbows, +the throat-latch of his shirt open, he did not give one impression of a +peaceful storekeeper, to say the least. + +"Mornin', ma'am," said Cap'n Amazon, not at all embarrassed. "What can +I do for you, ma'am?" + +"You--you are not Captain Silt?" the visitor almost whispered in her +agitation. + +"Yes, ma'am; I am." + +"Captain Abram Silt?" + +"No, ma'am; I ain't. I'm Cap'n Am'zon, his brother. What can I do for +you?" he repeated. The explanation of his identity may have been +becoming tedious; at least, Cap'n Amazon gave it grimly. + +"Is--is my niece, Louise Grayling, here?" queried the lady, her voice +actually trembling, her gaze glued to the figure behind the counter. + +"'Hem!" said the captain, clearing his throat. "Who did you say you +was, ma'am?" + +"I did not say," the visitor answered stiffly enough now. "I asked you +a question." + +"Likely--likely," agreed Cap'n Amazon. "But you intimated that you was +the a'nt of a party by the name of Grayling. I happen to be her uncle +myself. Her mother was my ha'f-sister. I don't remember--jest _who'd_ +you say you was, ma'am?" + +"I am her father's own sister," cried the lady in desperation. + +"Oh, yes! I see!" murmured Cap'n Amazon. "Then you must be her A'nt +'Phemie. I've heard Louise speak of you. Tubbesure!" + +"I am Mrs. Conroth," said Mrs. Euphemia Conroth haughtily. + +"Happy to make your acquaintance," said Cap'n Amazon, bobbing his head +and putting forth his big hand. Mrs. Conroth scorned the hand, raised +her lorgnette and stared at the old mariner as though he were some +curious specimen from the sea that she had never observed before. +Cap'n Amazon smiled whimsically and looked down at his stained and +toil-worn palm. + +"I see you're nigh-sighted, ma'am. Some of us git that way as we grow +older. I never have been bothered with short eyesight myself." + +"I wish to see my niece at once," Mrs. Conroth said, flushing a little +at his suggestion of her advancing years. + +"Come right in," he said, lifting the flap in the counter. + +Mrs. Conroth glared around the store through her glass. "Cannot Louise +come here?" She asked helplessly. + +"We live back o' the shop--and overhead," explained Cap'n Amazon. +"Come right in, I'll have Betty Gallup call Louise." + +Bristling her indignation like a porcupine its quills, the majestic +woman followed the spry figure of the captain. Her first glance over +the old-fashioned, homelike room elicited a pronounced sniff. + +"Catarrh, ma'am?" suggested the perfectly composed Cap'n Amazon. "This +strong salt air ought to do it a world of good. I've known a sea +v'y'ge to cure the hardest cases. They tell me lots of 'em come down +here to the Cape afflicted that way and go home cured." + +Mrs. Conroth stared with growing comprehension at Cap'n Amazon. It +began to percolate into her brain that possibly this strange-looking +seaman possessed qualities of apprehension for which she had not given +him credit. + +"Sit down, ma'am," said Cap'n Amazon hospitably. "Abe ain't here, but +I cal'late he'd want me to do the honors, and assure you that you are +welcome. He always figgers on having a spare berth for anybody that +boards us, as well as a seat at the table. + +"Betty," he added, turning to the amazed Mrs. Gallup, just then +appearing at the living-room door, "tell Louise her A'nt 'Phemie is +here, will you?" + +"Say Mrs. Conroth, woman," corrected the lady tartly. + +Betty scowled and went away, muttering: "Who's a 'woman,' I want to +know? I ain't one no more'n _she_ is," and it can be set down in the +log that the "able seaman" began by being no friend of Aunt Euphemia's. + +It was with a sinking at her heart that Louise heard of her aunt's +arrival. She had written to her Aunt Euphemia before leaving New York +that she had decided to try Cape Cod for the summer and would go to her +mother's relative, Captain Abram Silt. Again, on reaching the store on +the Shell Road, she had dutifully written a second letter announcing +her arrival. + +She had known perfectly well that some time she would have to "pay the +piper." Aunt Euphemia would never overlook such a thing. Louise was +sure of that. But the idea that the Poughkeepsie lady would follow her +to Cardhaven never for a moment entered Louise's thought. + +She had put off this reckoning until the fall--until the return of +daddy-professor. But here Aunt Euphemia had descended upon her as +unexpectedly as the Day of Wrath spoken of in Holy Writ. + +As she came down the stairs she heard her uncle's voice in the +living-room. Something had started him upon a tale of adventure above +and beyond the usual run of his narrative. + +"Yes, _ma'am_," he was saying, "them that go down to the sea in ships, +as the Good Book says, sartain sure meet with hair-raisin' experiences. +You jumped then, ma'am, when old Jerry let out a peep. He was just +tryin' his voice I make no doubt. Ain't sung for months they say. I +didn't know why till I--I found out t'other day he was blind---stone +blind. + +"Some thinks birds don't know nothing, or ain't much account in this +man-world----But, as I was sayin', I lay another course. I'll never +forget one v'y'ge I made on the brigantine _Hermione_. That was 'fore +the day of steam-winches and we carried a big crew--thirty-two men +for'ard and a big after-guard. + +"Well, ma'am! Whilst she was hove down in a blow off the Horn an +albatross came aboard. You know what they be--the one bird in all the +seven seas that don't us'ally need a dry spot for the sole of his foot. +If Noah had sent out one from the ark he'd never have come back with +any sprig of promise for the land-hungry wanderers shut up in that +craft. + +"'Tis bad luck they do say to kill an albatross. Some sailors claim +ev'ry one o' them is inhabited by a lost soul. I ain't superstitious +myself. I'm only telling you what happened. + +"Dunno why that bird boarded us. Mebbe he was hurt some way. Mebbe +'twas fate. But he swooped right inboard, his wing brushing the men at +the wheel. Almost knocked one o' them down. He was a Portugee man +named Tony Spadello and he had a re'l quick temper. + +"Tony had his knife out in a flash and jumped for the creature. The +other steersman yelled (one man couldn't rightly hold the wheel alone, +the sea was kicking up such a bobberation) but Tony's one slash was +enough. The albatross tumbled right down on the deck, a great cut in +its throat. It bled like a dog shark, cluttering up the deck." + +"Horrid!" murmured Mrs. Conroth with a shudder of disgust. + +"Yes--the poor critter!" agreed Cap'n Amazon. "I never like to see +innocent, dumb brutes killed. Cap'n Hicks--he was a young man in them +days, and boastful--cursed the mess it made, yanked off the bird's +head, so's to have the beautiful pink beak of it made into the head of +a walking-stick, and ordered Tony to throw the carcass overboard and +clean up the deck. I went to the wheel in his stead, with Jim Ledward. +Jim says to me: 'Am'zon, that bird'll foller us. Can't git rid of it +so easy as _that_.' + +"I thought he was crazy," went on Cap'n Amazon, shaking his head. "I +wasn't projectin' much about superstitions. No, ma'am! We had all we +could do--the two of us--handlin' the wheel with them old graybacks +huntin' us. Them old he waves hunt in droves mostly, and when one did +board us we couldn't scarce get clear of the wash of it before another +would rise right up over our rail and fill the waist, or mebbe sweep +ev'rything clean from starn to bowsprit. + +"It was sundown (only we hadn't seen no sun in a week) when that +albatross was killed and hove overboard. At four bells of the mornin' +watch one o' them big waves come inboard. It washed everything that +wasn't lashed into the scuppers and took one of our smartest men +overboard with it. But there, floatin' in the wash it left behind, was +the dead albatross!" + +"Oh, how terrible!" murmured Mrs. Conroth, watching Cap'n Amazon much +as a charmed bird is said to watch a snake. + +"Yes, ma'am; tough to lose a shipmate like that, I agree. But that was +only the beginning. Cap'n Hicks pitched the thing overboard himself. +Couldn't ha' got one of the men, mebbe, to touch it. Jim Ledward says: +'Skipper, ye make nothin' by that. It's too late. Bad luck's boarded +us.' + +"And sure 'nough it had," sighed Cap'n Amazon, as though reflecting. +"You never did see such a time as we had in gettin' round the Cape. +And we got it good in the roarin' forties, too--hail, sleet, snow, +rain, and lightnin' all mixed, and the sea a reg'lar hell's broth all +the time." + +"I beg of you, sir," breathed the lady, shuddering again. Cap'n +Amazon, enthralled by his own narrative, steamed ahead without noticing +her shocked expression. + +"One hurricane on top of another--that's what we got. We lost four men +overboard, includin' the third officer, one time and another. I was +knocked down myself and got a broken arm--had it in a sling nine weeks. +We got fever in a port that hadn't had such an epidemic in six months, +and seven of the crew had to be took ashore. + +"Bad luck dogged us and the ship. Only, it never touched the skipper +or Tony Spadello--the only two that had handled the albatross. That +is, not as far as I know. Last time I see Cappy Hicks he was carryin' +his cane with the albatross beak for a handle; and Tony Spadello has +made a barrel of money keeping shop on the Bedford docks. + +"But birds have an influence in the world, I take it, like other folks. +You wouldn't think, ma'am, how much store my brother Abe sets by old +Jerry yonder." + +Aunt Euphemia jumped up with an exclamation of relief. "Louise!" she +uttered as she saw the girl, amusement in her eyes, standing in the +doorway. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WASHY GALLUP'S CURIOSITY + +"I do not see how you can endure it, Louise! He is impossible--quite +impossible! I never knew your tastes were low!" + +Critical to the tips of her trembling fingers, Aunt Euphemia sat stiffly +upright in Louise's bedroom rocking chair and uttered this harsh +reflection upon her niece's good taste. Louise never remembered having +seen her aunt so angry before. But she was provoked herself, and her +determination to go her own way and spend her summer as she chose +stiffened under the lash of the lady's criticism. + +"What will our friends think of you?" demanded Mrs. Conroth. "I am +horrified to have them know you ever remained overnight in such a place. +There are the Perritons. They were on the train with me coming down from +Boston. They are opening their house here at what they call The +Beaches--one of the most exclusive colonies on the coast, I understand. +They insisted upon my coming there at once, and I have promised to bring +you with me." + +"You have promised more than you can perform. Aunt Euphemia," Louise +replied shortly. "I will remain here." + +"Louise!" + +"I will remain here with Cap'n Amazon. And with Uncle Abram when he +returns. They are both dear old men----" + +"That awful looking pirate!" gasped Mrs. Conroth. + +"You do not know him," returned the girl. "You do not know how worthy +and now kind he is." + +"You have only known him a week yourself," remarked Aunt Euphemia. "What +can a young girl like you know about these awful creatures--fishermen, +sailors, and the like? How can you judge?" + +Louise laughed. "Why, Auntie, you know I have seen much of the world and +many more people than you have. And if I have not learned to judge those +I meet by this time I shall never learn, though I grow to be as old +as"--she came near saying "as you are," but substituted instead--"as Mrs. +Methuselah. I shall remain here. I would not insult Cap'n Amazon or +Cap'n Abe, by leaving abruptly and going with you to the Perritons' +bungalow." + +"But what shall I say to them?" wailed Aunt Euphemia. + +"What have you already said?" + +"I said I expected you were waiting for me at Cardhaven. I would not +come over from Paulmouth in their car, but hurried on ahead. I wished to +save you the disgrace--yes, _disgrace_!--of being found here in +this--this country store. Ugh!" She shuddered again. + +"I am determined that they shall not know your poor, dear father +unfortunately married beneath him." + +"Aunt Euphemia!" exclaimed Louise, her gray eyes flashing now. "Don't +say that. It offends me. Daddy-prof never considered my mother or her +people beneath his own station." + +"Your father, Louise, is a fool!" was the lady's tart reply. + +"As he is your brother as well as my father," Louise told her coldly, "I +presume you feel you have a right to call him what you please. But I +assure you, Aunt Euphemia, it does not please me to hear you do so." + +"You are a very obstinate girl!" + +"That attribute of my character I fancy I inherit from daddy-professor's +side of the family," the girl returned bluntly. + +"I shall be shamed to death! I must accept the Perritons' invitation. I +already have accepted it. They will think you a very queer girl, to say +the least." + +"I am," her niece told her, the gray eyes smiling again, for Louise was +soon over her wrath. "Even daddy-prof says that." + +"Because of his taking you all over the world with him as he did. I only +wonder he did not insist upon your going on this present horrid cruise. + +"No. I have begun to like my comfort too well," and now Louise laughed +outright. "A mark of oncoming age, perhaps." + +"You are a most unpleasant young woman, Louise." + +Louise thought she might return the compliment with the exchange of but a +single word; but she was too respectful to do so. + +"I am determined to remain here," she repeated, "so you may as well take +it cheerfully, auntie. If you intend staying with the Perritons any +length of time, of course I shall see you often, and meet them. I +haven't come down here to the Cape to play the hermit, I assure you. But +I am settled here with Cap'n Amazon, and I am comfortable. So, why +should I make any change?" + +"But in this common house! With that awful looking old sailor! And the +way he talks! The rough adventures he has experienced--and the way he +relates them!" + +"Why, I think he is charming. And his stories are jolly fun. He tells +the most thrilling and interesting things! I have before heard people +tell about queer corners of the world--and been in some of them myself. +Only the romance seems all squeezed out of such places nowadays. But +when Cap'n Amazon was young!" she sighed. + +"You should hear him tell of having once been wrecked on an island in the +South Seas where there were only women left of the tribe inhabiting it, +the men all having been killed in battle by a neighboring tribe. The +poor sailors did not know whether those copper-colored Eves would decide +to kill and eat them, or merely marry them." + +"Louise!" Aunt Euphemia rose and fairly glared at her niece. "You show +distinctly that association with these horrid people down here has +already contaminated your mind. You are positively vulgar!" + +She sailed out of the room, descended the stairs, and "beat up" through +the living-room and store, as Betty Gallup said "with ev'ry stitch of +canvas drawin' and a bone in her teeth." Louise agreed about the +"bone"--she had given her Aunt Euphemia a hard one to gnaw on. + +The girl followed Mrs. Conroth to the automobile and helped her in. +Cap'n Amazon came to the store door as politely as though he were seeing +an honored guest over the ship's side. + +"Ask your A'nt 'Phemie to come again. Too bad she ain't satisfied to +jine us here. Plenty o' cabin room. But if she's aimin' to anchor near +by she'll be runnin' in frequent I cal'late. Good-day to ye, ma'am!" + +Aunt Euphemia did not seem even to see him. She was also afflicted with +sudden deafness. + +"Louise! I shall never forget this--never!" she declared haughtily, as +Willy Peebles started the car and it rumbled on down the Shell Road. + +Unable to face Cap'n Amazon just then for several reasons, Louise did not +re-enter the store but strolled down to the sands. There was a skiff +drawn up above high-water mark and the hoop-backed figure of Washy Gallup +sat in it. He was mending a net. He nodded with friendliness to Louise, +his jaw working from side to side like a cow chewing her cud--and for the +same reason. Washy had no upper teeth left. + +"How be you this fine day, miss?" the old fellow asked sociably. "It's +enough to put new marrer in old bones, this weather. Cold weather lays +me up same's any old hulk. An' I been used to work, I have, all my life. +Warn't none of 'em any better'n me in my day." + +"You have done your share, I am sure, Mr. Gallup," the girl said, smiling +cheerfully down upon him. "Yours is the time for rest." + +"Rest? How you talk!" exclaimed Washy. "A man ought to be able to aim +his own pollock and potaters, or else he might's well give up the ship. +I tell 'em if I was only back in my young days where I could do a full +day's work, I'd be satisfied." + +Louise had turned up a fiddler with the toe of her boot. As the creature +scurried for sanctuary, Washy observed: + +"Them's curious critters. All crabs is." + +"I think they are curious," Louise agreed. "Like a cross-eyed man. Look +one way and run another." + +"Surely--surely. Talk about a curiosity--the curiousest-osity I ever +see was a crab they have in Japanese waters; big around's a clam-bucket +and dangling gre't long laigs to it like a sea-going giraffe."' + +Louise was thankful for this opportunity for laughter, for that +"curiousest-osity" was too much for her sense of the ludicrous. + +Like almost every other man of any age that Louise had met about +Cardhaven--save Cap'n Abe himself--Washy had spent a good share of his +life in deep-bottomed craft. But he had never risen higher than petty +officer. + +"Some men's born to serve afore the mast--or how'd we git sailors?" +observed the old fellow, with all the philosophy of the unambitious man. +"Others get into the afterguard with one, two, three, and a jump!" His +trembling fingers knotted the twine dexterously. "Now, there's your +uncle." + +"Uncle Amazon?" asked Louise. + +"No, miss. Cap'n Abe, I mean. This here Am'zon Silt, 'tis plain to be +seen, has got more salt water than blood in _his_ veins. Cap'n Abe's a +nice feller--not much again him here where he's lived and kep' store for +twenty-odd year. 'Ceptin' his yarnin' 'bout his brother all the time. +But from the look of Cap'n Am'zon I wouldn't put past him anything that +Cap'n Abe says he's done--and more. + +"But Abe himself, now, I'd never believed would trust himself on open +water." + +"Yet," cried Louise, "he's shipped on a sailing vessel, Uncle Amazon +says. He's gone for a voyage." + +"Ye-as. But _has_ he?" Washy retorted, his head on one side and his +rheumy old eyes looking up at her as sly as a ferret's. + +"What do you mean?" + +"We none of us--none of the neighbors, I mean--seen him go. As fur's we +know he didn't go away at all. We're only taking his brother's word for +it." + +"Why, Mr. Gallup! You're quite as bad as Betty. One would think to hear +you and her talk that Cap'n Amazon was a fratricide." + +"Huh?" + +"That he had murdered his brother," explained the girl. + +"That's fratter side, is it? Well, I don't take no stock in such +foolishness. Them's Bet Gallup's notions, Cap'n Am'zon's all right, to +_my_ way o' thinkin'. I was talkin' about Cap'n Abe." + +"I do not understand you at all, then," said the puzzled girl. + +"I see you don't just foller me," he replied patiently. "I ain't casting +no alligators at your Uncle Am'zon. It's Cap'n Abe. I doubt his goin' +to sea at all. I bet he never shipped aboard that craft his brother +tells about." + +"Goodness! Why not?" + +"'Cause he ain't a sea-goin' man. There's a few o' such amongst Cape +Codders. Us'ally they go away from the sea before they git found out, +though." + +"'Found out?'" the girl repeated with exasperation. "Found out in +_what_?" + +"That they're _scare't_ o' blue water," Washy said decidedly. "Nobody +'round here ever seen Cap'n Abe outside the Haven. He wouldn't no more +come down here, push this skiff afloat, and row out to deep water than +he'd go put his hand in a wild tiger's mouth--no, ma'am!" + +"Why, isn't that very ridiculous?" Louise said, not at all pleased. "Of +course Cap'n Abe shipped on that boat just as Cap'n Amazon said he was +going to. Otherwise he would have been back--or we would have heard from +him." + +"He did, hey?" responded Washy sharply, springing the surprise he had +been leading up to. "Then why didn't he take his chist with him? It's +come back to the Paulmouth depot, so Perry Baker says, it not being +claimed down to Boston." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A CHOICE OF CHAPERONS + +Washy Gallup's gossip should not have made much impression upon Louise +Grayling's mind, but it fretted her. Perhaps her recent interview with +Aunt Euphemia had rasped the girl's nerves. She left the old fisherman +with a tart speech and returned to the store. + +There were customers being waited upon, so she had no opportunity to +mention the matter of Cap'n Abe's chest to the substitute storekeeper +at once. Then, when she had taken time to consider it, she decided not +to do so. + +It really was no business of hers whether Cap'n Abe had taken his chest +with him when he sailed from Boston or not. She had never asked Cap'n +Amazon the name of the vessel his brother was supposed to have shipped +on. Had she known it was the _Curlew_, the very schooner on which +Professor Grayling had sailed, she would, of course, have shown a much +deeper interest. And had Cap'n Amazon learned from Louise the name of +the craft her father was aboard, he surely would have mentioned the +coincidence. + +It stuck in the girl's mind--the puzzle about Cap'n Abe's chest--but it +did not come to her lips. Looking across the table that evening, after +the store was closed, as they sat together under the hanging lamp, she +wondered that Cap'n Amazon did not speak of it if he knew his brother's +chest had been returned to the Paulmouth express agent. + +Without being in the least grim-looking in her eyes, there was an +expression on Cap'n Amazon's face, kept scrupulously shaven, that made +one hesitate to pry into or show curiosity regarding any of his private +affairs. + +He might be perfectly willing to tell her anything she wished to know. +He was frank enough in relating his personal experiences up and down +the seas, that was sure! + +Cap'n Amazon puffed at his pipe and tried to engage the attention of +Diddimus. The big tortoise-shell ran from him no longer; but he +utterly refused to be petted. He now lay on the couch and blinked with +a bored manner at the captain. + +If Louise came near him he purred loudly, putting out a hooked claw to +catch her skirt and stop her, and so get his head rubbed. But if Cap'n +Amazon undertook any familiarities, Diddimus arose in dignified silence +and changed his place or left the room. + +"Does beat all," the Captain said reflectively, reaching for his +knitting, "what notions dumb critters get. We had a black man and a +black dog with us aboard the fo'master _Sally S. Stern_ when I was +master, out o' Baltimore for Chilean ports. Bill was the blackest +negro, I b'lieve, I ever see. You couldn't see him in the dark with +his mouth and eyes both shut. And that Newfoundland of his was just as +black and his coat just as kinky as Bill's wool. The crew called 'em +the two Snowballs." + +"What notion did the dog take, Uncle Amazon?" Louise asked as he +halted. Sometimes he required a little urging to "get going." But not +much. + +"Why, no matter what Bill did around the deck, or below, or overside, +or what not, the dog never seemed to pay much attention to him. But +the minute Bill started aloft that dog began to cry--whine and +bark--and try to climb the shrouds after that nigger. Land sakes, you +never in your life saw such actions! Got so we had to chain the dog +Snowball whenever it came on to blow, for there's a consarned lot o' +reefin' down and hoistin' sail on one o' them big fo'masters. The +skipper't keeps his job on a ship like the _Sally S. Stern_ must get +steamboat speed out o' her. + +"So, 'twas 'all hands to stations!' sometimes three and four times in a +watch. Owners ain't overlib'ral in matter of crew nowadays. Think +because there's a donkey-engine on deck and a riggin' to hoist your big +sails, ye don't re'lly need men for'ard at all. + +"That v'y'ge out in pertic'lar I remember that there was two weeks on a +stretch that not a soul aboard had more'n an hour's undisturbed sleep. +And that dog! Poor brute, I guess he thought Bill was goin' to heaven +and leavin' him behind ev'ry time the nigger started for the masthead. + +"I most always," continued Cap'n Amazon, "seen to it myself that the +dog was chained when Bill was likely to go aloft. I liked that dog. +He was a gentleman, if he was black. And Bill was a good seaman, and +with a short tongue. The dog was about the only critter aboard he +seemed to cotton to. Nothin' was too good for the dog, and the only +way I got Bill to sign on was by agreeing to take the Newfoundland +along. + +"Well, we got around the Horn much as us'al. Windjammers all have +their troubles there. And then, not far from the western end o' the +Straits we got into a belt of light airs--short, gusty winds that blew +every which way. It kept the men in the tops most of the time. Some +of 'em vowed they was goin' to swing their hammocks up there. + +"Come one o' those days, with the old _Sally_ just loafin' along," +pursued Cap'n Amazon, sucking hard on his pipe, "when I spied a flicker +o' wind comin', and the mate he sent the men gallopin' up the shrouds. +I'd forgot the dog. So had Nigger Bill, I reckon. + +"Bill was one o' the best topmen aboard. He was up there at work +before the dog woke up and started ki-yi-ing. He bayed Bill like a +beagle hound at the foot of a coon tree. Then, jumping, he caught the +lower shrouds with his forepaws. + +"The new slant of the wind struck us at the same moment. The old +_Sally S._ heeled to larboard and that Newfoundland was jerked over the +rail." + +"The poor thing!" Louise cried. + +"You'd ha' thought so. I wouldn't have felt no worse if one of the men +had gone over. Owner's business, or not, I sung out to the second to +get his boat out and I kicked off my shoes, grabbed a life-ring, and +jumped myself." + +"You! Uncle Amazon?" gasped his niece. + +"Yep. The mate had the deck and I was the only man free. There wasn't +much of a sea runnin', anyway. No pertic'lar danger. That is, not +commonly. + +"But the minute I come up to the surface and rose breast-high, dashin' +the water out o' my eyes so's to look around for the dog, I seen I'd +been a leetle mite too previous, as the feller said. I hadn't taken +into consideration one pertic'lar chance--like the feller't married one +o' twins an' then couldn't tell which from t'other. + +"I see Snowball the dog, all right; but headin' for him like a streak +o' greased lightin' was the triandicular fin of a shark. I'd forgot +all about those fellers; and we hadn't see one for weeks, anyway. In +warmer waters than them the _Sally S. Stern_ was then in, the sharks +will come right up and stand with their noses out o' the sea begging +like a dog for scraps. They'd bark, if they knew how, by gravy! + +"Well," went on Cap'n Amazon while Louise listened spellbound, "that +dog Snowball was in a bad fix. A dog's a dog--almost human as you +might say. But I wasn't aimin' puttin' myself in a shark's mouth for a +whole kennel full o' dogs. + +"Mind you, not minutes but only seconds had passed since the dog shot +outboard. The ship was not movin' fast. She heeled over again' and +her spars and flappin' canvas was almost over my head as I glanced up. + +"And then I seen a sight--I did, for a fact. I cal'late you never give +a thought to how high the teetering top of a mast on such a vessel as +the _Sally S. Stern_ is, from the ocean level. Never did, eh? + +"Well," as the enthralled Louise shook her head, "they're taller than a +lot of these tall buildings you see in the city. 'Skyscrapers' they +call 'em. That's what the old Sally's topmasts looked like gazin' up +at 'em out of the sea. They looked like they brushed the wind-driven +clouds chasin' overhead. + +"And out o' that web of riggin' and small spars, and slattin' canvas, +and other gear, I seen a man's body hurled into the air. It was +Snowball, the man. Bill his right name was. + +"Flung himself, he did, clean out o' the ship and as she heeled back to +starboard he shot down, feet first, straight as a die, and made a hole +in the sea not ha'f a cable's length from me and nearer the dog than I +was. And as he came down I seen his open knife flashing in his hand. + +"Yes, my dear, that was a mem'rable leap. Talk about these fellers +jumpin' off that there Brooklyn Bridge! 'Tain't much higher. + +"The mate brought the _Sally S. Stern_ up into the wind, the second's +crew got the boat over, and they picked me up in a jiffy. Then I stood +up and yelled for 'em to pull on, for I could see the man, the dog, and +the shark almost in a bunch together. + +"But," concluded Cap'n Amazon, "a nigger ain't often much afraid of a +shark. When we got to 'em there was a patch of bloody water and foam; +but it wasn't the blood of neither of the Snowballs that was spilled. +They come out of it without a scratch." + +"Oh, Cap'n Amazon, what a really wonderful life you have led!" Louise +said earnestly. + +Cap'n Amazon's eye brightened, and he looked vastly pleased. Whenever +he made a serious impression with one of his tales of personal +achievement or peril, he was as frankly delighted as a child. + +"Yes, ain't I?" he observed. "I don't for the life of me see how Abe's +stood it ashore all these years. An' him keepin' a shop!" and he +sniffed scornfully. + +Before Louise could make rejoinder, or bolster up the reputation of the +absent Cap'n Abe in any way, the noise of an automobile stopping before +the store was audible, + +"Now, if that's one o' them summer fellers, for gas I shall raise the +price of it--I vow!" ejaculated Cap'n Amazon, but getting up briskly +and laying aside his pipe and knitting. + +The summons did not come on the store door. Somebody opened the gate, +came to the side door and rapped. Cap'n Amazon shuffled into the hall +and held parley with the caller. + +"Why, come right in! Sure she's here--an' we're both sittin' up for +comp'ny," Louise heard the captain say heartily. + +He ushered in Lawford Tapp. Not the usual Lawford, in rough +fisherman's clothing or boating flannels--or even in the chauffeur's +uniform Louise supposed he sometimes wore. But in the neat, +well-fitting clothing of what the habit-advertising pages of the +magazines term the "up to date young man." His sartorial appearance +outclassed that of any longshoreman she had ever imagined. + +Louise gave him her hand with just a little apprehension. She realized +that for a young man to make an evening call upon a girl in a simple +community such as Cardhaven might cause comment which she did not care +to arouse. But it seemed Lawford Tapp had an errand. + +"I do not know, Miss Grayling, whether you care to go out in my _Merry +Andrew_ now that your friends have arrived," he said. "But if you do, +we might go on Thursday." + +"Day after to-morrow? Why not?" she replied with alacrity. "Of course +I shall be glad to go--as I already assured you. My--er--friends' +coming makes no difference." She thought he referred to Aunt Euphemia +and the Perritons. "They will not take up so much of my time that I +shall have to desert all my other acquaintances." + +Lawford cheered up immensely at this statement. Cap'n Amazon had gone +into the store at once and now returned with, his box of "private stock +two-fors," one of which choice cigars each of the men took. + +"Light up! Light up!" he said cordially. "My niece don't mind the +smell of tobacker." Cap'n Amazon was much more friendly with Lawford +than Louise might have expected him to be. But, of course, hospitality +was a form of religion with the Silt brothers. They could neither of +them have treated a guest shabbily. + +Indeed, under the influence of the cigar and the presence of another +listener, the captain expanded. With little urging he related incident +after incident of his varied career--stories of stern trial, of +dangerous adventure, of grim fights with the ravening sea; peril by +shipwreck, by fire, by savages; encounters with whales and sharks, with +Malay pirates; voyaging with a hold full of opium-crazed coolie +laborers, and of actual mutiny on the hermaphrodite brig, _Galatea_, +when Cap'n Amazon alone of all the afterguard was left alive to fight +the treacherous crew and navigate the ship. + +Those two hours were memorable--and would remain so in Louise's mind +for weeks. Lawford Tapp, too, quite gave himself up to the charm of +the old romancer. To watch Cap'n Amazon's dark intent face and his +glowing eyes, while he told of these wonders of sea and land, would +have thrilled the most sophisticated listener. + +"Isn't he a wonder?" murmured Lawford, as Louise accompanied him to the +gate and watched him start the automobile engine. "I never heard such +a fellow in my life. And good as gold!" + +Louise had made up her mind to be distinctly casual with the young man +hereafter; but his hearty praise of her uncle warmed her manner toward +him. Besides, she had to confess in secret that Lawford was most +likable. + +She mentioned her aunt's arrival in the neighborhood and he asked, +laughing: + +"Oh, then shall we have her for our chaperon?" + +"Aunt Euphemia? Mercy, no! I have chosen Betty Gallup and believe me, +Mr. Tapp, Betty is much to be preferred." + +It was odd that Louise had not yet discovered who and what Lawford Tapp +was. Yet the girl had talked with few of the neighbors likely to +discuss the affairs of the summer residents along The Beaches. And, of +course, she asked Cap'n Amazon no questions, for he was not likely to +possess the information. + +After she had bidden her uncle good-night and retired, thoughts of +Lawford Tapp kept her mind alert. She could not settle herself to +sleep. With the lamp burning brightly on the stand at the bedside and +herself propped with pillows, she opened the old scrapbook found in the +storeroom chest and fluttered its pages. + +Almost immediately she came upon a story related in the Newport +_Mercury_. It was the supposedly veracious tale of an ancient sea +captain who had been a whaler in the old days. + +There, almost word for word, was printed the story Cap'n Amazon had +told her that evening about the black man and the black dog! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE UNEXPECTED + +The finding of one of Cap'n Amazon's amazing narratives of personal +prowess in the old scrapbook shocked Louise Grayling. The mystery of +the thing made alert her brain and awoke in the girl vague suspicions +that troubled her for hours. Indeed, it was long that night before she +could get to sleep. + +During these days of acquaintanceship and familiarity with the old sea +captain she had learned to love him so well for his good qualities that +it was easy for her to forgive his faults. If he "drew the long bow" +in relating his adventures, his niece was prepared to excuse the +failing. + +There was, too, an explanation of this matter, and one not at all +improbable. The reporter of the _Mercury_ claimed to have taken down +the story of the black man who had fought a shark for the life of his +dog just as it fell from the lips of an ancient mariner. This mariner +might have been Cap'n Amazon Silt himself. Why not? The captain might +have been more modest in relating his personal connection with the +incident when talking with the reporter than he had been in relating +the story to his niece. + +Still, even with this suggested explanation welcomed to her mind, +Louise Grayling was puzzled. She went through the entire scrapbook, +skimming the stories there related, to learn if any were familiar. But +no. She found nothing to suggest any of the other tales Cap'n Amazon +had related in her hearing. And it was positive that her uncle had not +read this particular story of the black man and the black dog since +coming to the store on the Shell Road, for Louise had had possession of +the book. + +Therefore she was quite as mystified when she fell asleep at dawn as +she had been when first her discovery was made. She was half +determined to probe for an explanation of the coincidence when she came +downstairs to a late breakfast. But no good opportunity presented +itself for the broaching of any such inquiry. + +She wished to make preparations for the fishing party in the _Merry +Andrew_, and that kept her in the kitchen part of the day. She baked a +cake and made filling for sandwiches. + +Betty Gallup accepted the invitation to accompany Louise on the sloop +without hesitation. She approved of Lawford Tapp. Yet she dropped +nothing in speaking of the young man to open Louise's eyes to the fact +that he was the son of a multi-millionaire. + +The activities of the moving picture company increased on this day; but +it was not until the following morning, when Louise went shoreward with +the tackle and the smaller lunch basket, that she again saw Mr. Judson +Bane to speak to. As she sat upon the thwart of the old skiff where +Washy Gallup had mended his net, the handsome leading man of the +picture company strolled by. + +Bane certainly made a picturesque fisherman, whether he looked much +like the native breed or not. An open-air studio had been arranged on +the beach below the Bozewell bungalow, and Louise could see a director +trying to give a number of actors his idea of what a group of fishermen +mending their nets should look like. + +"He should engage old Washy Gallup to give color to the group," Louise +said to Bane, laughing. + +"Anscomb is having his own troubles with that bunch," sighed the +leading man. "Some of them never saw a bigger net before than one to +catch minnows. Do you sail in this sloop I see coming across from the +millionaire's villa, Miss Grayling?" + +"Yes," Louise replied. "Mr. Tapp is kind enough to take us fishing." + +"You are, then, one of these fortunate creatures," and Bane's sweeping +gesture indicated that he referred to the occupants of the cottages set +along the bluff above The Beaches, "who toil not, neither do they spin. +I fancied you might be one of us. Rather, I've heard that down here." + +"That surmise gained coinage when I first arrived at Cardhaven," Louise +said, dimpling. "I did nothing to discourage the mistake, and I +presume Gusty Durgin still believes I pose before the camera." + +"Gusty has aspirations that way herself," chuckled Bane. "She is a +character." + +"I wonder what kind of screen actress I would make?" + +He smiled down at her rather grimly. "The kind the directors call the +appealing type, I fancy, Miss Grayling. Though I have no doubt you +would do much better than most. Making big eyes at a camera is the +limit of art achieved by many of our feminine screen stars. I do not +expect to put in a very pleasant summer amid my present surroundings." + +"Oh, then you are here for more than one picture." + +"Several, if the weather proves propitious. I shall play the fisherman +hero, or the villain, until my manager has my new play ready in the +fall. Believe me, Miss Grayling, I am not in love with this picture +drama. But when one is offered for his resting season half as much +again as he can possibly earn during the run of a legitimate Broadway +production he must not be blamed for accepting the contract. We all +bow to the power of gold." + +Louise, whose gaze was fixed upon the approaching sloop, smiled. She +was thinking; "All but Lawford Tapp, the philosophic fisherman!" + +"I believe," Bane said, with flattery, "that I should delight to play +opposite to you, Miss Grayling, rank amateur though you would be. This +Anscomb really is a wonderful director and gets surprising results from +material that cannot compare with you. I'll speak to him if you say +the word. He'd oblige me, I am sure. One of the scripts he has told +me about has a part fitted to you." + +"Oh, Mr. Bane!" she cried. "I'd have to think about that, I fear. And +such a tempting offer! Now, if you said that to Gusty Durgin----" + +At the moment Betty Gallup came into view. Masculine in appearance at +any time in her man's hat and coat, she was doubly so now. She frankly +wore overalls, but had drawn a short skirt over them; and she wore gum +boots. Bane stared at this apparition and gasped: + +"Is--is it a man--or what?" + +"Why, Mr. Bane! That is my chaperon." + +"Chaperon! Ye gods and little fishes! Miss Grayling, no matter where +you go, or with whom, you are perfectly safe with _that_ as a chaperon." + +"How rediculous, Mr. Bane!" the girl cried, laughing. Betty strode +through the sand to the spot where they stood. "This is Mr. Bane, +Betty," Louise continued, "Mrs. Gallup, Mr. Bane." + +The actor swept off his sou'wester with a flourish. Betty eyed him +with disfavor. + +"So you're one o' them play-actors, be you? Land sakes! And tryin' to +look like a fisherman, too! I don't s'pose you know a grommet from the +bight of a hawser." + +"Guilty as charged," Bane admitted with a chuckle. "But we all must +live, Mrs. Gallup." + +"Humph!" grunted the old woman. "Are you sure that's so in ev'ry case? +There's more useless folks on the Cape now than the Recordin' Angel can +well take care on." + +"Oh, Betty!" Louise gasped. + +But Bane was highly amused. "I'm not at all sure you're not right, +Mrs. Gallup. I sometimes feel that if I were a farmer and raised +onions, or a fisherman and caught the denizens of the sea, I might feel +a deeper respect for myself. As it is, when I work I am only +_playing_." + +"Humph!" exploded Betty again. "'Denizens of the sea,' eh? New one on +me. I ain't never heard of _them_ fish afore." + +The sail of the sloop slatted and then came down with the rattle of new +canvas. Having let go the sheet, Lawford ran forward and pitched the +anchor over. Then he drew in the skiff that trailed the _Merry +Andrew_, stepped in, and sculled himself ashore, beaching the boat, +just as Cap'n Amazon came down from the store with a second basket of +supplies. + +"Wish I was goin' with ye," he said heartily. "Would, too, if I could +shut up shop. But I promised Abe I'd stay by the ship till he come +home again." + +Louise introduced her uncle to Mr. Bane; but during the bustle of +getting into the skiff and pushing off she overlooked the fact that +Lawford and the actor were not introduced. + +"Bring us home a mess of tautog," Cap'n Amazon shouted. "I sartainly +do fancy blackfish when they're cooked right. Bile 'em, an' serve with +an egg sauce, is my way o' puttin' 'em on the table." + +"That was Cap'n Abe's way, too," muttered Betty. + +The cloud on Lawford Tapp's countenance did not lift immediately as he +sculled them out to the anchored sloop. Louise saw quickly that his +ill humor was for Bane. + +"I must keep this young man at a distance," she thought, as she waved +her hand to Uncle Amazon and Mr. Bane. "He takes too much for granted, +I fear. Perhaps, after all, I should have excused myself from this +adventure." + +She eyed Lawford covertly as, with swelling muscles and lithe, swinging +body, he drove his sculling oar. "But he does look more 'to the manner +born'--much more the man, in fact--than that actor!" + +Lawford could not for long forget his duty as host, and he was as +cheerful and obliging as usual by the time the three had scrambled +aboard the _Merry Andrew_. + +Immediately Betty Gallup cast aside her skirt and stood forth +untrammeled in the overalls. "Gimme my way and I'd wear 'em doin' +housework and makin' my garding," she declared. "Land sakes! I allus +did despise women's fooleries." + +Louise laughed blithely. + +"Why, Betty," she said, "lots of city women who do their own housework +don 'knickers' or gymnasium suits to work in. No excuse is needed." + +"Humph!" commented the old woman. "I had no idee city women had so +much sense. The ones I see down here on the Cape don't show it." + +The morning breeze was light but steady. The _Merry Andrew_ was a +sweetly sailing boat and Lawford handled her to the open admiration of +Betty Gallup. The old woman's comment would have put suspicion in +Louise's mind had the girl not been utterly blind to the actual +identity of the sloop's owner. + +"Humph! you're the only furiner, Lawford Tapp, I ever see who could +sail a smack proper. But you got Cape blood in you--that's what 'tis." + +"Thank you, Betty," he returned, with the ready smile that crinkled the +corners of his eyes. "That is a compliment indeed." + +The surf only moaned to-day over Gull Rocks, for there was little +ground swell. The waves heaved in, with an oily, leisurely motion and, +it being full sea, merely broke with a streak of foam marking the ugly +reef below. + +A little to the seaward side of the apex of the reef Betty, at a word +from Lawford, cast loose the sheet and then dropped the anchor. + +"Mussel beds all about here," explained the young man to his guest. +"That means good feeding for the blackfish. Can't catch them anywhere +save on a rock bottom, or around old spiles or sunken wrecks. Better +let me rig your line, Miss Grayling. You'll need a heavier sinker than +that for outside here--ten ounces at least. You see, the tug of the +undertow is considerable." + +Betty Gallup, looking every whit the "able seaman" now, rigged her own +line quickly and opened the bait can. + +"Land sakes!" she exclaimed. "Where'd you get scallop bait this time +o' year, Lawford? You must be a houn' dog for smellin' 'em out." + +"I am," he laughed. "I know that tautog will leave mussels for scallop +any time. And we'll have the eyes of the scallops fried for lunch. +They're all ready in the cabin." + +The pulpy, fat bodies of the scallop--a commercial waste--were +difficult to hang upon the short, blunt hooks; but Lawford seemed to +have just the knack of it. He showed Louise how to lower the line to +the proper depth, advising: + +"Remember, you'll only feel a nibble. The tautog is a shy fish. He +doesn't swallow hook, line, and sinker like a hungry cod. You must +snap him quick when he takes the hook, for his mouth is small and you +must get him instantly--or not at all." + +Louise found this to be true. Her hooks were "skinned clean" several +times before she managed to get inboard her first fish. + +She learned, too, why the tackle for tautog has to be so strong. Once +hooked, the fish darts straight down under rocks or into crevasses, and +sulks there. He comes out of that ambush like a chunk of lead. + +The party secured a number of these dainty fish; but to lend variety to +the day's haul they got the anchor up after luncheon and ran down to +the channels there to chum for snappers. Lawford had brought along +rods; for to catch the young and gamey bluefish one must use an +entirely different rigging from that used for tautog. + +Louise admired the rod Lawford himself used. She knew something about +fancy tackle, and this outfit of the young man, she knew, never cost a +penny less than a hundred dollars. + +"And this sloop, which is his property," she thought, "is another +expensive possession. I can see where his money goes--when he has any +to spend. He is absolutely improvident. Too bad." + +She had to keep reminding herself, it seemed, of Lawford Tapp's most +glaring faults. Improvidence and a hopeless leaning toward +extravagance were certainly unforgivable blemishes in the character of +a young man in the position she believed Lawford held. + +The sport of chumming for snappers, even if they hooked more of +sluggish fluke than of the gamier fish to tempt which the chopped bait +is devoted, was so exciting that Betty, sailing the sloop, overlooked a +pregnant cloud that streaked up from the horizon almost like a puff of +cannon smoke. + +The squall was upon them so suddenly that Louise could not wind in her +line in good season. Lawford was quicker; but in getting his tackle +inboard he was slow to obey Betty's command: + +"Let go that sheet! Want to swamp us, foolin' with that fancy fish +rod?" + +"Aye, aye, skipper!" he sang out, laughing, and jumped to cast off the +line in question just as the sail bulged taut as a drumhead with the +striking squall. + +There was a "lubber's loop" in the bight of the sheet and as the young +man loosed it his arm was caught in this trap. The boom swung +viciously outboard and Lawford went with it. He was snatched like some +inanimate object over the sloop's rail and, the next instant, plunged +beneath the surface of the suddenly foam-streaked sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS + +Lawford came up as the sloop swept by on her new tack, his smile as +broad as ever. He blew loudly and then shouted: + +"Going---too--fast--for--me! Whoa! Back up a little, ladies, and let +me climb aboard." + +"Well, of all the crazy critters!" the "able seaman" declared. "Stand +by with that boathook, Miss Lou, and see if you can harpoon him." + +Louise swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to laugh too. To +tell the truth, the accident to Lawford Tapp had frightened her +dreadfully at the moment it occurred. + +Betty Gallup put over the wheel and the _Merry Andrew_, still under +propulsion of the bursting squall, flew about, almost on her heel. +Louise, who was shielding her eyes from the flying spray under the +sharp of her hand and watching the head and shoulders of Lawford as he +plowed through the jumping waves with a great overhand stroke, suddenly +shrieked aloud: + +"Oh, Betty!" + +"What's the matter? Land sakes!" + +Both saw the peril threatening the swimmer. The light skiff at the end +of the long painter whipped around when the line tautened. As Betty +cried out in echo to Louise's wail, the gunnel of the skiff crashed +down upon Lawford's head and shoulders. + +"Oh! Oh! He's hurt!" cried Louise. + +"He's drowned--dead!" ejaculated Betty Gallup. "Here, Miss Lou, you +take the wheel----" + +But the girl had no intention of letting the old woman go overboard. +Betty in her heavy boots would be wellnigh helpless in the choppy sea. +If it were possible to rescue Lawford Tapp she would do it herself. + +The human mind is a wonderfully constituted--mechanism, may we call it? +It receives and registers impressions that are seemingly incoordinate; +then of a sudden each cog slips into place and the perfection of a +belief, of an opinion, of a desire, even of a most momentous discovery, +is attained. + +Thus instantly Louise Grayling had a startling revelation, "Handle the +boat yourself, Betty!" she commanded. "_I am going to get him_." + +Her skirt was dropped, even as she spoke. She wore "sneaks" to-day +instead of high boots, and she kicked them off without unlacing them. +Then, poising on the rail for a moment, she dived overboard on a long +slant. + +She swam under the surface for some fathoms and coming up dashed the +water from her eyes to stare about. + +The black squall had passed. The sea dimpled in blue and green streaks +as before. A few whitecaps only danced about the girl. Where Lawford +had gone down---- + +A round, sleek object--like the head of a seal--bobbed in the agitated +water. It was not ten yards away. Had she not been so near she must +have overlooked it. He might have sunk again, going down forever, for +it was plain the blow he had suffered had deprived Lawford of +consciousness. + +Louise wasted no breath in shouting, nor moments in looking back at +Betty and the sloop. All her life she had been confident in the water. +She had learned to ride a surfboard with her father like the natives in +Hawaii. A comparatively quiet sea like this held no terrors for Louise +Grayling. + +She dived in a long curve like a jumping porpoise, and went down after +the sinking man. In thirty seconds she had him by the hair, and then +beat her way to the surface with her burden. + +Lawford's face was dead white; his eyes open and staring. There was a +cut upon the side of his head from which blood and water dribbled upon +her shoulder as she held him high out of the sea. + +There sounded the clash of oars in her ears. How Betty had lowered the +jib, thrown over the anchor, and manned the skiff so quickly would +always be a mystery to Louise. But the "able seaman" knew this coast +as well, at least, as Lawford Tapp. They were just over a shoal, and +there was safe anchorage for a small craft. + +"Give him to me. Land sakes!" gasped Betty over her head. "I never +see no city gal like you, Miss Lou." + +Nor had Louise ever seen a woman with so much muscular strength and the +knowledge of how to apply it as Betty displayed. She lifted Lawford +out of the girl's arms and into the skiff with the dexterity of one +trained in hauling in halibut, for Betty had spent her younger years on +the Banks with her father. + +Louise scrambled into the skiff without assistance. Betty was already +at the oars and Louise took the injured head of the man in her lap. He +began to struggle back to life again. + +"I--I'm all right," he muttered. "Sorry made such a--a +fool--of--myself." + +"Hush up, _you_!" snapped Betty. "I'd ought to have seed to this +skiff. Then you wouldn't have got battered like you did." A tear ran +frankly down Betty's nose and dripped off its end. "If anything really +bad had happened to you, Lawford, I'd a-never forgive myself. I +thought you was a goner for sure." + +"Thanks to you, I'm not, I guess, Betty," he said more cheerfully. He +did not know who had jumped overboard to his rescue. + +For some reason the girl was suddenly embarrassed by this fact. + +The skiff reached the plunging sloop and Louise got inboard and aided +Betty to get Lawford over the rail. Then she slipped on her skirt. + +Lawford slumped down in the cockpit, saying he was all right but +looking all wrong. + +"Going to get him back to Tapp Point just as quick as I can," declared +the "able seaman" to Louise. "Doctor ought to see that cut." + +"Oh, Betty!" + +"Now, now, Miss Lou," murmured the old woman with the light of sudden +comprehension in her eyes. "Don't take on now! You've been a brave +gal so fur." + +"And I will keep my courage," Louise said with tremulous smile. + +"Go right over there an' hold his head, Miss Lou. Pet him up a leetle +bit; 'twon't hurt a mite." + +The vivid blush that dyed the girl's cheeks signaled the fact that +Betty had guessed more of the truth than Louise cared to have her or +anybody know. She shook her head negatively to the keen-eyed old +woman; nevertheless she went forward, found one of Lawford's +handkerchiefs and bound up his head. The cut did not seem very deep; +yet the shock of the blow he had suffered certainly had dulled the +young man's comprehension. + +"Thank you--thank you," he muttered and laid his head down on his arms +again. + +Betty rounded the end of the Neck where the lighthouse stood. One of +the lightkeepers was on the gallery just under the lamp chamber and had +been watching them through his glasses. He waved a congratulatory hand +as the _Merry Andrew_ shot along, under the "able seaman's" skillful +guidance. + +"I'm goin' to put you ashore in the skiff right there by the store, +Miss Lou," Betty said. + +"Shouldn't I get a doctor and send him over to the Point?" + +"They've got a telephone there," Betty told her. + +"I--I hope they'll take good care of him." + +"They ought to," sniffed Betty. "I'll see to it he's all right, Miss +Lou, before I leave him." + +"Thank you, Betty," returned the girl, too honest to make any further +attempt to deny her deep interest in the man. + +When the sail rattled down and Louise tossed over the anchor, Lawford +roused a bit. "Sorry the trip turned out so rotten bad, Miss +Grayling," he mumbled. "I--I don't feel just right yet." + +Louise patted his shoulder. "You poor boy!" she said tenderly. "Don't +mind about me. It's you we are worrying about. But I am sure you +cannot be seriously injured. Betty will take you directly over to the +Point and the folks there will get a doctor for you. Next time we'll +have a much nicer fishing trip, Mr. Tapp. Good-bye." + +He muttered his adieu and watched her get into the skiff after Betty +and the baskets. The "able seaman" rowed quickly to the beach. The +sharp eyes of Mr. Bane noted their arrival, and he strode over to the +spot where the skiff came in, to help Louise out of the boat and bring +the baskets ashore. + +"You need a handy man, I see," the actor observed. "What a fine catch +you have had--blackfish, snappers, and fluke, eh? I'll carry the +baskets up to your uncle's store for you. Fine old man, your uncle, +Miss Grayling. And what stories he can tell of his adventures--my +word!" + +"Come over to-night and tell me how he is, betty, won't you?" the girl +whispered to the "able seaman" and the latter, nodding her +comprehension, pulled back to the sloop. Neither of them saw that +Lawford was watching the little group on shore and that when Bane and +the girl turned toward the store the young man looked after them with +gloomy visage. + +The girl's replies to Bane's observation were most inconsequential. +Her mind was upon Lawford and his condition. She was personally +uncomfortable, too; for although the sun and wind had dried her hair +and her blouse, beneath the dry skirt her clothing was wet. + +As they came to the Shell Road the long, gray roadster Louise had seen +before came down from town. L'Enfant Terrible was at the wheel while +her two older sisters sat in the narrow seat behind. Cecile tossed a +saucy word over her shoulder, indicating Louise and Bane, and her older +sisters smiled superciliously upon the two pedestrians. Louise was too +deeply occupied with thoughts of the injured man to note this by-play. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE ODDS AGAINST HIM + +"Horrid taste she has, I must say," drawled Marian. Marian was the +eldest of the Tapp girls. To tell the truth (but this is strictly in +confidence and must go no further!) she had been christened Mary Ann +after Israel Tapp's commonplace mother. That, of course, was some time +before I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King, had come into his kingdom +and assumed the robe and scepter of his present financial position. + +"Oh!" ejaculated Cecile. "That's Judson Bane, the Broadway star, she's +walking with. I'd like to know him myself." + +"You coarse little thing!" drawled Marian. + +"And you not out yet!" Prue, the second sister, observed cuttingly. +"You're only a child. I wish you'd learn your place and keep it." + +"Oh, fudge!" responded L'Enfant Terrible, not deeply impressed by these +sisterly admonitions. + +Marian was twenty-six--two years Lawford's senior. She was a heavy, +lymphatic girl, fast becoming as matronly of figure as her mother. She +still bolstered up her belief that she had matrimonial prospects; but +the men who wanted to marry her she would not have while those she +desired to marry would not have her. Marian Tapp was becoming bored. + +Prue was a pretty girl. She was but nineteen. However, she had +likewise assumed a bored air after being in society a single season. + +"That big actor man will put poor Fordy's nose out of joint with the +film lady," Prue said. "Look out for that dog, Cis. It's the +Perritons'. If you run over him----" + +"Nasty little thing!" grumbled Cecile. + +"And the apple of Sue Perriton's eye," drawled Marian. "Be careful +what you are about, Cecile. It all lies with the Perritons whether we +get into society this season or not." + +"And that Mrs. Conroth who is with them," put in Prue. "_She_ is the +real thing--the link between the best of New York and Albany society. +Old family--away back to the patroons--so old she has to keep moth +balls hung in her family tree. My! if mother could once become the +familiar friend of miladi Conroth----" + +"No such luck," groaned Marian. "After all's said and done, mother +can't forget the candy kitchen. She always looks to me, poor dear, as +though she had just been surreptitiously licking her fingers." + +"We _do_ have the worst luck!" groaned the second sister. "There's +that Dot Johnson coming. Mother says daddy insists, and when I. Tapp +does put down his foot----Well!" + +"We'll put her off on Fordy," suggested, the brighter-witted Cecile. +"She rather fancies Ford, I think." + +"Dot Johnson!" chorused the older girls, in horror. "Not really?" +Marian continued. "The Johnsons are impossible." + +"They've got more money than daddy has," said Prue. + +"But they have no aspirations--none at all," murmured Marian, in +horror. "If Lawford married Dot Johnson it would be almost as bad as +his being mixed up with that picture actress." + +"For him; not for us," said Prue promptly. "Of course, as far as the +Johnsons go, they are too respectable for anything. Poor Fordy!" + +"Goodness!" snapped Cecile. "It's not all settled. The banns aren't +up." + +The girls wheeled into the grounds surrounding the Tapp villa just as +Betty Gallup guided the _Merry Andrew_ to the dock and leaped ashore +with the mooring rope. + +Tapp Point consisted of about five acres of bluff and sand. At great +expense the Taffy King had terraced the bluff and had made to grow +several blades of grass where none at all had been able to gain root +before. + +The girls saw the queer-looking Betty Gallup helping their brother out +of the sloop. + +"Say! something's happened to Ford, I guess," Cecile cried, stopping +the car short of the porte-cochere. + +"Run down and see," commanded Marian languidly. + +But Prue hopped out of the roadster and started down the path +immediately. She and Lawford still had a few things in common. Mutual +affection was one of them. + +"What's happened to him?" she cried. "You're Mrs. Gallup, aren't you?" + +"I'm Bet Gallup--yes. You run call up Doc Ambrose from over to +Paulmouth. Your brother's got a bad knock on the head." + +"And he's been overboard!" gasped Prue. + +"I--I'm all right," stammered Lawford. "Let me lie down for a little +while. Don't need a doctor." + +"You're as wet as a drowned rat," his sister said. "Come on up and get +some dry clothes, Ford. I'm sure you're awful kind, Mrs. Gallup. I +will telephone for the doctor at once." + +"You bet she's kind! Good old soul!" murmured Lawford. "I'd have been +six fathoms deep if it hadn't been for Betty." + +"She hauled you into the boat, did she?" Prue said in a sympathetic +tone. "Well, we won't forget _that_." + +Betty had stepped aboard the sloop again to reef down and make all +taut. Her sailor-soul would not allow her to leave the lapstreak in a +frowsy condition. + +Meanwhile Cecile came flying down from the garage, and between his two +sisters Lawford was aided up to the house. Despite the young man's +protests, Dr. Ambrose was called and he rattled over in what the jolly +medical man termed his "one-horse shay." That rattletrap of a +second-hand car was known in every town and hamlet for miles around. +Sometimes he got stalled, for the engine of the car was one of the +crankiest ever built, and the good physician had to get out and proceed +on foot. When this happened the man who owned a horse living nearest +to the unredeemed automobile always hitched up and dragged the car +home. For Dr. Ambrose was beloved as few men save a physician is ever +loved in a country community. + +"You got a hard crack and no mistake, young man," the physician said, +plastering his patient's head in a workmanlike manner. "But you've a +good, solid cranium as I've often told you. Not much to get hurt above +the ears--mostly bone all the way through. Not easy to crack, like +some of these eggshell heads." + +Lawford felt the effects of the blow, however, for the rest of the +evening. His father was away and so he had no support against the +organized attack of the women of the family. Although it is doubtful +if I. Tapp would have sided with his son. + +"It really serves you right, Ford, for taking that movie actress +sailing," drawled Marian. + +"It is a judgment upon him," sighed their mother, wiping her eyes. +"Oh, Ford, if you only would settle down and not be so wild!" + +"'Wild!' Oh, bluey!" murmured L'Enfant Terrible, who considered her +brother a good deal of a tame cat. + +"At least," Marian pursued, "you might carry on your flirtation in a +less public manner." + +"'Flirtation!'" ejaculated Lawford, with a spark of anger--and then +settled back on the couch with a groan. + +"My goodness me, Ford!" gasped Prue. "You're surely not in earnest?" + +"I should hope _not_," drawled Marian. + +"Oh, Ford, my boy----" + +"Now, mother, don't turn on the sprinkler again," advised L'Enfant +Terrible. "It will do you no good. And, anyway, I guess Ford hasn't +any too bright a chance with the Grayling. You ought to have seen that +handsome Judson Bane lean over her when they were walking up to Cap'n +Abe's. I thought he was going to nibble her ear!" + +"Cecile!" + +"Horrid thing!" Prue exclaimed. "I don't know where she gets such rude +manners." + +"That boarding school last winter completely spoiled her," complained +the mother. "And I sent her to it because Sue Perriton and Alice +Bozewell go there." + +"And I had a fine chance to get chummy with _them_!" snapped Cecile. +"They were both seniors." + +"But really," Marian went on, "your entanglement with that movie +actress is sure to make trouble for us, Ford. You might be a little +more considerate. Just as we are getting in with the Perritons. And +their guest, Mrs. Conroth, was really very nice to mother this morning +on the beach. She has the open sesame to all the society there is on +this side of the Atlantic. It's really a wonderful chance for us, +Ford." + +"And--he's bound--to spoil--it all!" Mrs. Tapp sobbed into an expensive +bit of lace. + +"You might be a good sport, Fordy, dear," urged Prue. + +"Yes, Fordy; don't crab the game," added the vulgar Cecile. + +"You know very well," said the elder sister, "how hard we have tried to +take our rightful place here at The Beaches. We have the finest home +by far; daddy's got the most money of any of them, and let's us spend +it, too. And still it's like rolling a barrel up a sand bank. Just a +little thing will spoil our whole season here." + +"Do, do be sensible, Ford!" begged his mother. + +"Sacrifice yourself for the family's good," said Prue. + +"Dear Ford," began Mrs. Tapp again, "for my sake--for all our +sakes--take thought of what you are doing. This--this actress person +cannot be a girl you could introduce to your sisters----" + +"No more of that, mother!" exclaimed the young man, patience at last +ceasing to be a virtue. "Criticise me if you wish to; but I will hear +nothing against Miss Grayling." + +"Oh, dear! Now I have offended him again!" sobbed the matron. + +"You are too utterly selfish for words!" declared Marian. + +"You're a regular _pig_!" added Prue. + +"If you get mixed up with an actress, Fordy, I'll have a fine time when +I come out, won't I?" complained Cecile. + +"Caesar's ghost!" burst from the lips of the badgered young man. "I +wish Betty Gallup had let me drown instead of hauling me inboard this +afternoon!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SOMETHING BREAKS + +An express wagon, between the shafts of which was a raw-boned gray +horse leaning against one shaft as a prop while he dozed, stood before +Cap'n Abe's store as Louise and Mr. Judson Bane came up from the shore +front. She thanked the actor as he set the heavy baskets on the porch +step. + +"Those blackfish look so good I long for a fish supper," he said, +smiling in open admiration upon her. + +Louise was quick to establish a reputation for hospitality. Perhaps it +was the Silt blood that influenced her to say: "Wait till I speak to +Uncle Amazon, Mr. Bane." + +There was a tall gaunt man in overalls and jumper, who, somehow, +possessed a family resemblance to the gray horse, leaning against the +door frame, much as his beast leaned against the wagon shaft. Perry +Baker and the gray horse had traveled so many years together about +Paulmouth and Cardhaven that it was not surprising they looked alike. + +When Louise mounted the porch steps she could not easily pass the +expressman, who was saying, in drawling tones: + +"Well, I brought it over, seeing I had a light load. I didn't know +what else to do with it. Of course, it was Cap'n Abe give it to me to +ship. Let's see, I didn't happen to see you here that night you came, +an' I brought the young lady's trunks over, did I?" + +"Not as I know on," barked Cap'n Amazon with brevity. + +"Funny how we didn't meet then," drawled Perry Baker. + +There seemed to be a tenseness to the atmosphere of the old store. +Louise saw the usual idlers gathered about the cold stove--Washy Gallup +on his nail-keg, his jaw wagging eagerly; Milt Baker and Amiel Perdue +side by side with their elbows on the counter; Cap'n Joab Beecher +leaning forward on his stick--all watching Cap'n Amazon, it seemed, +with strained attention. + +It was like a scene set for a play--for the taking of a film, perhaps. +The whimsical thought came to Louise that the director had just +shouted: "Get set!" and would immediately add: "Action! Camera! Go!" + +"Course," Perry Baker drawled, "I sent it to Boston as consigner, +myself; so when the chest warn't called for within a reasonable time +they shipped it back to me, knowin' I was agent. Funny Cap'n Abe +didn't show up for to claim it." + +Cap'n Amazon, grim as a gargoyle, leaned upon the counter and stared +the expressman out of countenance, saying nothing. Perry shifted +uneasily in the doorway. The captain's silence and his stare were +becoming irksome to bear. + +"Well!" he finally ejaculated, "that's how 'tis. I'd ha' waited +till--till Cap'n Abe come home--if he ever _does_ come; but my wife, +Huldy, got fidgety. She reads the papers, and she's got it into her +head there's something wrong 'bout the old chest. She dreamed 'bout +it. An' ye know, when a woman gets to dreamin' she'll drag her +anchors, no matter what the bottom is. She says folks have been +murdered 'fore now and their bodies crammed into a chest----" + +"Why, you long-winded sculpin!" exclaimed Cap'n Amazon, at length +goaded to speech. "Bring that chest in and take a reef in your +jaw-tackle. I knew a man once't looked nigh enough like you to be your +twin; and he was purt nigh a plumb idiot, too." + +Louise had never before heard her uncle's voice so sharp. It was plain +he had not seen his niece until after Perry Baker turned and clumped +out upon the porch, thus giving the girl free entrance to the store. +She turned, smiling a little whimsically, and said to Bane: + +"The moment is not propitious, I fear. Uncle Amazon seems to be put +out about something." + +"Don't bother him now, I beg," urged the actor, lifting his hat. "I +will call later--if I may." + +"Certainly, Mr. Bane," she said with seriousness. "Uncle Amazon and I +will both be glad to see you." + +The expressman came heavily up the steps with a green chest on his +shoulder. It had handles of tarred rope and had plainly seen much +service; indeed, it was brother to the box in the storeroom which +Louise had found filled with nautical literature. + +The girl entered the store ahead of the staggering expressman, but +stepped aside for him to precede her, for she wished to beckon to Amiel +to come out for the baskets of fish. + +"Watch out where you're putting your foot, Perry!" Cap'n Joab suddenly +exclaimed. + +His warning was too late. Some youngster, eager to peel his banana, +had flung its treacherous skin upon the floor. The expressman set his +clumsy boot upon it. + +"Whee! 'Ware below!" yelled Amiel Perdue. + +To recover his footing Perry let go of the chest. It fell to the floor +with a mighty crash, landing upon one corner and bursting open. During +the long years it had stood in Cap'n Abe's storeroom the wood had +suffered dry rot. + +"Land o' Liberty an' all han's around!" bawled the irrepressible Milt +Baker. "There ain't ho corpse in that dust, for a fac'!" + +"What kind of a mess d'ye make that out to be, I want to know?" cackled +Washy Gallup. + +The hinges had torn away from the rotting wood so that the lid lay wide +open. Tumbled out upon the floor were several ancient garments, +including a suit of quite unwearable oilskins, and with them at least a +wheelbarrow load of bricks! + +"Well, I vum!" drawled the expressman, at length recovering speech. "I +hope Huldy'll be satisfied." + +But Cap'n Joab Beecher was not. He stood up and pointed his stick at +the heap of rubbish on the floor and his voice quavered as he shrilly +asked: + +"Then, _where's Cap'n Abe_?" + +They all turned to stare again at Cap'n Amazon. That hardy mariner +seemed to be quite as self-possessed as usual. His grim lips opened +and in caustic tone he said: + +"You fellers seem to think that I'm Abe Silt's keeper. I ain't. Abe's +old enough--and ought to be seaman enough--to look out for Abe Silt. +What tomfoolery he packed into that chest is none o' my consarn. I +l'arnt years ago that Moses an' them old fellers left the chief +commandment out o' the Scriptures. That's 'Mind your own business.' +Abe's business ain't mine. Here, you Amiel! clear up that clutter an' +let's have no more words about it." + +The decisive speech of the master mariner closed the lips of even Cap'n +Joab. The latter did not repeat his query about Cap'n Abe but, with a +baffled expression on his weather-beaten countenance, departed with +Perry Baker. + +That a trap had been for Cap'n Amazon, that it had been sprung and +failed to catch the master mariner, seemed quite plain to Louise. +Betty Gallup's oft-expressed suspicions and Washy Gallup's gossip +suddenly impressed the girl. With these vague thoughts was connected +in her mind the discovery she had made that one of Cap'n Amazon's +thrilling stories was pasted into the old scrapbook. Why she should +think of that discovery just now mystified her; but it seemed somehow +to dovetail into the enigma. + +Cap'n Amazon lifted the flap in the counter for Louise and in his usual +kindly tone said: + +"Good fishin', Niece Louise? Bring home a mess?" + +"Yes, indeed," she told him. "The baskets are outside. Let Amiel +bring them around to the back." + +"Aye, aye!" returned the captain briskly. "Tautog? We'll have 'em for +supper," and let her pass as though nothing extraordinary had occurred. + +But to Louise's troubled mind the bursting of the old chest was like +the explosion of a bomb in Cap'n Abe's store. + +What was the meaning of it all? Why had the chest been filled with +bricks and useless garments? And by whom? + +If by Cap'n Abe, what was his object in doing such a perfectly +incomprehensible thing? He had deliberately, it seemed, shipped a +quite useless chest to Boston with no expectation of calling for it at +the express office. Then, _where had he gone_? + +Cap'n Joab's query was the one uppermost in Louise Grayling's thought. +All these incomprehensible things seemed to lead to that most important +question. Had Cap'n Abe gone to sea, or had he not? If not, what had +become of him? + +And how much more regarding his brother's disappearance did Cap'n +Amazon know than the neighbors or herself? In her room Louise sat and +faced the problem. She deliberated upon each incident connected with +Cap'n Abe's departure as she knew them. + +From almost the first moment of her arrival at the store on the Shell +Road, the storekeeper had announced the expected arrival of Cap'n +Amazon and his own departure for a sea voyage if his brother would +undertake the conduct of the store. + +The incidents of the night of Cap'n Amazon's coming and of Cap'n Abe's +departure seemed reasonable enough. Here had arisen the opportunity +long desired by the Shell Road storekeeper. His brother would remain +to look out for his business while he could go seafaring. Cap'n Amazon +knew just the craft for the storekeeper to sail in, clearing from the +port of Boston within a few hours. + +There was not much margin of time for Cap'n Abe to make his +preparations. Perry Baker was at hand with Louise's trunks, and the +storekeeper had sent off his chest, supposedly filled with an outfit +for use at sea. Just what he had intended to do with useless clothing +and a hod of bricks it was impossible to understand. + +Cap'n Abe had come to her bedroom door to bid Louise good-bye, and she +had seen him depart in the fog just at dawn. Yet nobody had observed +him at the railroad station and he had not called for the chest at the +Boston express office. + +The chest! That was the apex of the mystery. Never in this world had +Cap'n Abe intended to take the chest with him to sea--or wherever else +he had it in his mind to go. + +Nor was the chest intended to be returned to the store until Cap'n Abe +himself came back from his mysterious journey. The fact that Perry +Baker had shipped it in his own name instead of that of the owner had +brought about this unexpected incident. + +Washy Gallup's gossip--his doubt regarding Cap'n Abe's shipping on a +sea voyage--now came home to Louise with force. Washy suggested that +the storekeeper was afraid of the sea; that in all his years at +Cardhaven he had never been known to venture out of the quiet waters of +the bay. + +To the girl's mind, too, came the remembrance of that talk she had had +with Cap'n Abe on the evening of her arrival at the store. Was there +something he had said then that explained this mystery? + +He had told her of the wreck of the Bravo and the drowning of Captain +Joshua Silt, his father, in sight of his mother's window. She had been +powerfully affected by that awful tragedy; this could not be doubted. + +And the son, Cap'n Abe, a posthumous child, might indeed have come into +the world with that horror of the sea which must have filled his poor +mother's soul. + +"It would explain why Uncle Abram never became a sailor--the only Silt +for generations who remained ashore. Yet, he spoke that night as +though he loved the sea--or the romance of it, at least," Louise +thought. + +"Perhaps, too, his own inability to sail to foreign shores and his +terror of the sea made him so worship Cap'n Amazon's prowess. For they +say he was continually relating stories of his brother's +adventures--even more marvelous tales than Cap'n Amazon himself has +related. + +"Such a misfortune as Cap'n Abe's fear of the sea may easily explain +his brother's good-natured scorn of him. Uncle Amazon doesn't say much +about him; but I can see he looks upon Cap'n Abe as a weakling. + +"But," sighed the girl in conclusion, "even this does not explain the +mystery of the chest, or where Cap'n Abe can be hiding. I wonder if +Uncle Amazon knows?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +MUCH ADO + +As on previous occasions, Louise Grayling was deterred from putting a +searching question to Cap'n Amazon because of his look and manner. The +little she had seen of Cap'n Abe assured her that she would have felt +no hesitancy in approaching the mild-mannered storekeeper upon any +subject. + +But the master mariner seemed to be an entirely different personality. +The way he had overawed the idlers in the store that afternoon when the +old chest was broken open, and his refusal to make any further +explanation of Cap'n Abe's absence, pinched out Louise's courage as one +might pinch out a candle wick. + +That suspicion was rife in the community, and that the story of the +strange contents of Cap'n Abe's chest had spread like a prairie fire, +Louise was sure. Yet at supper time Cap'n Amazon was as calm and +cheerful as usual and completely ignored the accident of the afternoon. + +"Hi-mighty likely mess of tautog you caught, Louise," he said, ladling +the thick white gravy dotted with crumbly yellow egg yolk upon her +plate with lavish hand. "That Lawford Tapp knows where the critters +school, if he doesn't know much else." + +"Oh, Uncle Amazon! I think he is a very intelligent young man. Only +he wastes his time so!" + +"He knows enough book l'arnin', I do allow," agreed Cap'n Amazon. "But +fritters away his time as you say. They all do that over to Tapp +P'int, I cal'late." + +"I wonder how it came to be called Tapp Point?" Louise asked, with a +suddenly sharpened curiosity. + +"'Cause it's belonged to the Tapps since away back,--or, so Cap'n Joab +says. That sand heap never was wuth a punched nickel a ton till these +city folks began to build along The Beaches." + +Louise, in her own mind, immediately constructed another theory about +Lawford Tapp, "the fisherman's son." The sandy point had been sold to +the builder of the very ornate villa now crowning it, and the proceeds +of that sale had paid for the _Merry Andrew_ sloop and the expensive +fishing rod and the clothes of superquality which the young man wore. + +She shrank, however, from commenting upon this extravagant and +spendthrift trait in his character, even to Uncle Amazon. Nor would +she have spoken to anybody else upon the subject. + +Something had happened to Louise Grayling on this adventurous +afternoon--something of which she scarcely dared think, let alone talk! + +The grip of fear at her heart when she thought Lawford was drowning had +startled her as much as the accident itself. She had seen men in peril +before--in deadly peril--without feeling any personal terror for their +fate. + +In that moment when Lawford was sinking and she was preparing to leap +to his aid, Louise had realized this fact. And in her inmost soul she +admitted--with a thrill that shook her physically as well as +spiritually--that her interest in this Cape Cod fisherman's son was an +interest rooted in her inmost being. + +The incident of the wrecked sea chest held her attention in only a +secondary degree. All through supper she was listening for Betty +Gallup's heavy step. She knew she could not sleep that night without +knowing how Lawford was. + +For the very reason that she felt so deeply regarding it, she shrank +from talking with Cap'n Amazon of the accident that had happened to +Lawford. She was glad the substitute storekeeper had "gone for'ard" +again to attend to customers when Betty came clumping up the back steps. + +"He's all right, Miss Lou," said the kindly woman, patting the girl's +hand. "I waited to see Doc Ambrose when he come back from the P'int. +He says there ain't a thing the matter with him that vinegar an' brown +paper won't cure. + +"But land sakes! Miss Lou, ain't this an awful thing 'bout your Uncle +Abe's chest? That old pirate knows more'n he'd ought to 'bout what's +come o' Cap'n Abe, even if they ain't brought it home to him yit." + +"Now, Betty, I wish you wouldn't," begged the girl. "Why should you +give currency to such foolish gossip?" + +"What foolish gossip?" snapped the woman. + +"Why, about my Uncle Amazon." + +"How d'ye _know_ he's your uncle at all?" demanded Betty. "You never +seen him before he come here. You never knowed nothin' 'bout him, so +you said, 'fore you come here to Cardhaven." + +"But, Betty----" + +"Ain't no 'buts' about it!" fiercely declared the "able seaman." +"Cap'n Abe's gone--disappeared. We don't know what's become of him. +Course, Huldy Baker was a silly to think Cap'n Abe had been murdered +and cut up like shark bait and shipped away in that old chest." + +"Oh!" + +"Yes. 'Cause Perry seen Cap'n Abe himself that night when he took the +chest away. That was ridic'lous. But then, Huldy Baker ain't got +right good sense, nor never had. + +"But it stands to reason Cap'n Abe had no intent of shipping aboard any +craft with sich dunnage in his chest as they say was in it." + +"No-o. I suppose that is so," admitted Louise. + +"Then, what's become of the poor man?" Betty ejaculated. + +"Why, nobody seems to know. Not even Uncle Amazon." + +"Have you axed him?" demanded the other bluntly. + +"No. I haven't done that." + +"Humph!" was the rejoinder. "You're just as much afeared on him as the +rest on us. You take it from me, Miss Lou, he's been a hard man on his +own quarter-deck. He ain't no more like Cap'n Abe than buttermilk's +like tartaric acid. + +"Cap'n Abe warn't no seafarin' man," pursued Betty, "though he had the +lingo on his tongue and 'peared as salt as a dried pollock. It's in my +mind that he wouldn't never re'lly go to sea--'nless he was egged on to +it." + +Here it was again! That same doubt as expressed by Washy Gallup--the +suggestion that Cap'n Abe Silt possessed an inborn fear of the sea that +he had never openly confessed. + +"Why do you say that, Betty?" Louise hesitatingly asked the old woman. + +"'Cause I've knowed Cap'n Abe for more'n twenty year, and in all that +endurin' time he's stuck as close to shore as a fiddler. With all his +bold talk about ships and sailin', I tell you he warn't a seafarin' +man." + +"But what has Uncle Amazon to do with the mystery of his brother's +absence?" demanded Louise. + +"Humph! If he _is_ Cap'n Abe's brother. Now, now, you don't know no +more about this old pirate than I do, Miss Lou. He influenced Cap'n +Abe somehow, or someway, so't he cut his hawser and drifted out o' +soundings--that's sure! Here this feller callin' himself Am'zon Silt +has got the store an' all it holds, an' Cap'n Abe's money, and +ev'rything." + +"Oh, Betty, how foolishly you talk," sighed the girl. + +"Humph! Mebbe. And then again, mebbe it ain't foolish. Them men +to-day thought they could scare that old pirate into admittin' +something if they sprung Cap'n Abe's chest on him. Oh, I knowed they +was goin' to do it," admitted Betty. + +"Course, they had no idee what was in the chest. Bustin' it open was +an accident. Perry Baker's as clumsy as a cow. But you see, Miss Lou, +just how cool that ol' pirate took it all. Washy was tellin' me. He +just browbeat 'em an' left 'em with all their canvas slattin'. + +"Oh, you can't tell me! That old pirate's handled a crew without no +tongs, you may lay to that! And what he's done to poor old Cap'n +Abe----" + +She went away shaking a sorrowful head and without finishing her +sentence. Louise was unable to shake off the burden of doubt of Cap'n +Amazon's character and good intentions. She felt that she could not +spend the long evening in his company, and bidding him good-night +through the open store door she retired to the upper floor. + +She felt that sleep was far from her eyelids on this night; therefore +she lit a candle and went into the storeroom to get something to read. +She selected a much battered volume, printed in an early year of the +nineteenth century, its title being: + + LANDSMEN'S TALES: + Seafaring Yarns of a Lubber. + +Louise became enthralled by the narratives of perilous adventure and +odd happenings on shipboard which the author claimed to have himself +observed. She read for an hour or more, while the sounds in the store +below gradually ceased and she heard Cap'n Amazon close and lock the +front door for the night. + +Silence below. Outside the lap, lap, lap of the waves on the strand +and the rising moan of the surf over Gulf Rocks. + +Louise turned a page. She plunged into another yarn. Breathlessly +and, almost fearfully she read it to the end--the very story of the +murdered albatross and the sailors' superstitious belief in the bird's +bad influence, as she had heard Cap'n Amazon relate it to Aunt Euphemia +Conroth. + +She laid down the book at last in amazement and confusion. There was +no doubt now of Cap'n Amazon's mendacity. This book of nautical tales +had been written and printed _long before Amazon Silt was born_! + +And if the falseness of his wild narratives was established, was it a +far cry to Betty Gallup's suspicions and accusations? What and who was +this man, who called himself Amazon Silt who had taken Cap'n Abe's +place in the store on the Shell Road? + +Louise lay with wide-open eyes for a long time. Then she crept out of +bed and turned the key in the lock of her door--the first time she had +thought to do such a thing since her arrival at Cardhaven. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE SUN WORSHIPERS + +"Them movin' picture people are hoppin' about The Beaches like +sandpipers," observed Cap'n Amazon at the breakfast table. "And I +opine they air pretty average useless, too. They were hurrahin' around +all day yest'day while you was out fishin'. Want to take a picture of +Abe's old store here. Dunno what to do about it." + +Louise was too much disturbed by her discoveries of overnight to give +much attention to this subject. + +"It's Abe's store, you see," went on Cap'n Amazon. "Dunno how he'd +feel 'bout havin' it took in a picture and showed all over the country. +It needs a coat o' paint hi-mighty bad. Ought to be fixed up some +'fore havin' its picture took--don't ye think so, Niece Louise?" + +The girl awoke to the matter sufficiently to advise him: + +"The lack of paint will not show in the picture, Uncle Amazon. And I +suppose they want the store for a location just because it is +weather-beaten and old-fashioned." + +"I want to know! Well, now, if I was in the photograftin' business, +seems t' me I'd pick out the nice-lookin' places to make pictures of. +I knowed a feller once that made a business of takin' photografts in +furin' parts. He sailed with me when I was master of the _Blue +Sparrow_--clipper built she was, an' a spankin' fine craft. We----" + +"Oh, Uncle Amazon!" Louise cried, rising from, the table suddenly, +"you'll have to excuse me. I--I forgot something upstairs. Yes--I've +finished my breakfast. Betty can clear off." + +She fairly ran away from the table. It seemed to her as though she +could not sit and listen to another of his preposterous stories. It +would be on the tip of her tongue to declare her disbelief in his +accuracy. How and where he had gained access to Cap'n Abe's store of +nautical romances she could not imagine; but she was convinced that +many, if not all, of his supposedly personal adventures were entirely +fictitious in so far as his own part in them was concerned. + +She put on her hat and went out of the back door in order to escape +further intercourse with Cap'n Amazon for the present. On the shore +she found the spot below the Bozewell bungalow a busy scene. This was +a perfect day for "the sun worshipers," as somebody has dubbed motion +picture people. Director Anscomb was evidently planning to secure +several scenes and the entire company was on hand. + +Louise saw that there were a number of spectators besides herself--some +from the town, but mostly young folk from the cottages along The +Beaches. + +Lawford Tapp was present, and she waved her hand to him, yet preserving +an air of merely good comradeship. She was glad that he did not know +that it was she who had leaped to his rescue the day before. +Considering the nature of the feeling she had for him, into the +knowledge of which his peril had surprised her, the girl could not +endure any intimate conversation with Lawford. Not just then, at least. + +Tapp was in the midst of a group of girls, and she remarked his ease of +manner. She did not wonder at it, for he was a gentleman by instinct +no matter what his social level might be. Three of the girls were +those Louise Grayling believed to be daughters of Lawford's employer. + +She saw that he was breaking away from the group with the intention of +coming to her. L'Enfant Terrible said something to him and laughed +shrilly. She saw Lawford's cheek redden. + +So Louise welcomed the approach of Mr. Bane, who chanced at the moment +to be idle. + +"Now you will see us grinding them out, Miss Grayling," the actor said. + +Louise broke into a series of questions regarding the taking of the +pictures. Her evident interest in the big leading man halted Lawford's +approach. Besides, Miss Louder, who had evidently been introduced to +the Taffy King's son, attached herself to him. + +She was a pretty girl despite the layers of grease paint necessary to +accentuate the lights and shadows of her piquant face. Her manner with +men was free without being bold. With a big parasol over her shoulder, +she adapted her step to Lawford's and they strolled nearer. + +Bane was speaking of the script he had previously mentioned as +containing a part eminently fitted for Louise. As Lawford and Miss +Louder passed he said: + +"I am sure you can do well in that part, Miss Grayling. It is exactly +your style." + +Had Lawford any previous reason for doubting Louise Grayling's +connection with the moving picture industry this overheard remark would +have lulled such a doubt to sleep. + +The young man realized well enough that Louise was a very different +girl from the blithe young woman at his side. But how could he make I. +Tapp see it? + +Money was not everything in the world; Lawford Tapp was far from +thinking it was. He had always considered it of much less importance +than the things one could exchange it for. + +However, never having felt the necessity for working for mere pelf, and +being untrained for any form of industry whatsoever, his father's +threat of disowning him loomed a serious menace to the young man. + +Not for himself did Lawford fear. He felt warm blood in his veins, +vigor in his muscles, a keen edge to his nerves. He could +work--preferably with his hands. He realized quite fully his +limitation of brain power. + +But what right had he to ask any girl to share his lot--especially a +girl like Louise Grayling, who he supposed won a sufficient livelihood +in a profession the emoluments of which must be far greater than those +of any trade he might seek to follow? + +He saw now that after his somewhat desultory college course, his months +of loafing about on sea and shore had actually unfitted him for +concentration upon any ordinary work. And he was not sanguine enough +to expect an extraordinary situation to come his way. + +Then, too, the young man realized that Louise Grayling had not given +him the least encouragement to lead him to believe that she thought of +him at all. At this moment her preference for Bane's society seemed +marked. Already Cecile had rasped Lawford regarding the leading man's +attentions to Louise. + +Lawford could not face the taunting glances of Marian and Prue. They +had come down to the beach on this particular morning he felt sure to +comment--and not kindly--upon Louise Grayling. He hoped that she was +not included in the director's plans for the day, and he was glad to +see that she had no make-up on, as had these other young women. + +So he strolled on grimly with Miss Louder, who would not be called for +work for an hour. But the young man heard little of her chatter. + +The tide was at the ebb and the two walked on at the edge of the +splashing surf, where the strand was almost as firm as a cement walk. +The curve of the beach took them toward the lighthouse and here, +approaching with bucket and clam hoe along the flats, was the very +lightkeeper who had watched the _Merry Andrew_ and her crew the day, +before when Lawford met with his accident. + +"There ye be, Mr. Lawford," crowed the man, "as chipper as a sandpiper. +But I swanny, I didn't ever expect t' hail ye again this side o' +Jordan, one spell yest'day." + +"You had your glass on us, did you?" Lawford said languidly. + +"I did, young man--I did. An' when that bobbin' skiff walloped ye on +the side of the head I never 'spected t' see you come up again. If it +hadn't been for this little lady who------Shucks, now! This ain't her +'tall, is it?" + +"Oh, Mr. Tapp, were you in a boating accident yesterday?" cried Miss +Louder. + +"I was overboard--yes," responded Lawford, but rather blankly, for he +was startled by the lightkeeper's statement. "What do you mean, +Jonas?" to the lightkeeper. "Didn't Betty Gallup haul me inboard?" + +"Bet Gallup--nawthin'!" exploded Jonas with disgust. "She handled that +sloop o' yourn all right. I give her credit for that. But 'twas that +there gal stayin' at Cap'n Abe's. Ye had her out with ye, eh?" + +"Miss Grayling? Certainly." + +"She's some gal, even if she is city bred," was the lightkeeper's +enthusiastic observation. "An' quick! My soul! Ye'd ought to seen +her kick off her skirt an' shoes an' dive after ye! I swanny, she was +a sight!" + +"I should think she would have been!" gasped Miss Louder with some +scorn. "Goodness me, she must be a regular stunt actress!" and she +laughed shrilly. + +But Lawford gave her small attention. "Jonas, do you mean that?" he +asked. "I thought it was Betty who saved me. Why, dad said this +morning he was going to send the old woman a check. He doesn't much +approve of me," and the heir of the Taffy King smiled rather grimly, +"but as I'm the last Tapp----" + +"He's glad ye didn't git done for _com_-pletely, heh?" suggested Jonas, +and giggled. "I wouldn't for a minute stand in the way of Bet Gallup's +gittin' what's due her. She did pick ye both up, Lawford. But, land +sakes! ye'd been six fathoms down, all right, if it hadn't been for +that gal at Cap'n Abe's." + +"I--I had no idea of it. I never even thanked her," muttered Lawford. +"What can she think of me?" + +But not even Miss Louder heard this. She realized, however, that the +young man who she had been told was "the greatest catch at The Beaches" +was much distrait and that her conversation seemed not to interest him +at all. + +They went back toward the scene of the film activities. It was the +hour of the usual promenade on the sands. Everybody in the summer +colony appeared on the beach while the walking along the water's edge +was fine. This promenade hour was even more popular than the bathing +hour which was, of, course, at high tide. + +Groups of women, young and old, strolled under gay parasols, or camped +on the sands to chat. Brilliantly striped marquees were set up below +some of the cottages, in which tea and other refreshments were served. +The younger people fluttered about, talking and laughing, much like a +flock of Mother Carey's chickens before a storm. + +There were several wagons over from the Haven, in which the small-fry +summer visitors arrived and joined their more aristocratic neighbors. +The wagons stopped upon the Shell Road and the passengers climbed down +to the beach between two of the larger cottages. + +The people at The Beaches had tried on several occasions to inclose the +stretch of shore below their summer homes, and to make it a private +beach. But even the most acquisitive of the town councilmen (and there +were several of the fraternity of the Itching Palm in the council) +dared not establish such a precedent. The right of the public to the +shore at tide-water could not safely be ignored in a community of +fishermen and clam diggers. + +So the shore on this morning had become a gay scene, with the interest +centering on the open air studio of the film company. Lawford saw +Louise walking on alone along the edge of the water. Bane had been +called into conference by the director. + +Lawford could not well hasten his steps and desert Miss Louder, but he +desired strongly to do so. And ere the film actress lingeringly left +him to rejoin her company, Louise was some distance in advance. + +His sisters were near her. Lawford could see them look at her most +superciliously, and the saucy Cecile said something that made Prue +laugh aloud. + +Just beyond the Tapp girls was approaching a group of women and men. +Lawford recognized them as the Perritons and their friends. Lawford +had no particular interest in the summer crowd himself; but he knew the +Perritons were influential people in the social world. + +With them was a majestic person the young man had never seen before. +Undoubtedly the "Lady from Poughkeepsie." Her pink countenance and +beautifully dressed gray hair showed to excellent advantage under the +black and white parasol she carried. + +She stepped eagerly before the party, calling: + +"Louise!" + +Louise Grayling raised her head and waved a welcoming hand. + +"What brings you forth so early in the morning, auntie?" she asked, her +voice ringing clearly across the sands. + +There were at least four dumfounded spectators of this meeting, and +they were all named Tapp. + +Lawford stood rooted to the sands, feeling quite as though the universe +had fallen into chaos. It was only L'Enfant Terrible who found speech. + +"Oh, my!" she cried. "What a mistake! The movie queen turns out to be +some pumpkins!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +DISCOVERIES + +Louise, knowing Aunt Euphemia so well, was immediately aware that the +haughty lady had something more than ordinarily unpleasant to +communicate. It was nothing about Uncle Amazon and the Shell Road +store; some other wind of mischance had ruffled her soul. + +But the girl ignored Aunt Euphemia's signals for several minutes; until +she made herself, indeed, more familiar with the manner and personal +attributes of these new acquaintances. There was a Miss Perriton of +about her own age whom she liked at first sight. Two or three men of +the party were clean-cut and attractive fellows. Despite the fact that +their cottage had been so recently opened for the season, the Perritons +had already assembled a considerable house party. + +"Louise, I wish to talk to you," at last said Mrs. Conroth grimly. + +"True," sighed her niece. "And how extremely exact you always are in +your use of the language, auntie. You never wish to talk _with_ me. +_You_ will do all the talking as usual, I fear." + +"You are inclined to be saucy," bruskly rejoined Aunt Euphemia. "As +your father is away I feel more deeply my responsibility in this +matter. You are a wayward girl--you always have been." + +"You don't expect me to agree with you on that point, do you, auntie?" +Louise asked sweetly. + +Mrs. Conroth ignored the retort, continuing: "I am not amazed, after +seeing your surroundings at the Silt place, that you should become +familiar with these common longshore characters. But this that I have +just learned--only this forenoon in fact--astonishes me beyond measure; +it does, indeed!" + +"Let me be astonished, too, auntie. I love a surprise," drawled her +niece. + +"Where were you yesterday?" demanded Aunt Euphemia sharply. + +Louise at once thought she knew what was coming. She smiled as she +replied: "Out fishing." + +"And with whom, may I ask?" + +"With Betty Gallup, Uncle Abram's housekeeper." + +"But the man?" + +"Oh! Mr. Tapp, you mean? A very pleasant young man, auntie." + +"That is what I was told, Louise," her aunt said mournfully. "With +young Tapp. And you have been seen with him frequently. It is being +remarked by the whole colony. Of course, you can mean nothing by this +intimacy. It arises from your thoughtlessness, I presume. You must +understand that he is not--er----Well, the Tapps are not of our set, +Louise." + +"My goodness, no!" laughed the girl cheerfully. "The Tapps are real +Cape Codders, I believe." + +Aunt Euphemia raised her eyebrows and her lorgnette together. "I do +not understand you, I fear. What the Tapps are by blood, I do not +know. But they are not in society at all--not at all!" + +"Not in society?" repeated Louise, puzzled indeed. + +"Scarcely. Of course, as Mrs. Perriton says, the way the cottagers are +situated here at The Beaches, the Tapps _must_ be treated with a +certain friendliness. That quite impossible 'I. Tapp,' as he +advertises himself, owns all the Point and might easily make it very +disagreeable for the rest of the colony if he so chose." + +She stopped because of the expression on her niece's countenance. + +"What _do_ you mean?" Louise asked. "Who--who are these Tapps?" + +"My dear child! Didn't you know? Was I blaming you for a fault of +which you were not intentionally guilty? See how wrong you are to go +unwarned and unaccompanied to strange places and into strange company. +I thought you were merely having a mild flirtation with that young man +in the full light of understanding." + +Louise controlled her voice and her countenance with an effort. "Tell +me, Aunt Euphemia," she repeated, "just who Lawford Tapp is?" + +"His father is a manufacturer of cheap candies. He is advertised far +and wide as 'I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King.' Fancy! I presume +you are quite right; they probably were nothing more than clam diggers +originally. The wife and daughters are extremely raw; no other word +expresses it. And that house! Have you seen it close to? There was +never anything quite so awful built outside an architect's nightmare." + +"They own Tapp Point? _That_ is Lawford's home? Those girls are his +sisters?" Louise murmured almost breathlessly. + +"Whom _did_ you take that young man to be, Louise?" + +"A fisherman's son," confessed her niece, in a very small voice. And +at that Aunt Euphemia all but fainted. + +But Louise would say nothing more--just then. On the approach of some +of her friends, Mrs. Conroth was forced to put a cap upon her vexation, +and bid her niece good-day as sweetly as though she had never dreamed +of boxing her ears. + +Louise climbed the nearest stairs to the summit of the bluff. She felt +she could not meet Lawford at this time, and he was between her and the +moving picture actors. + +Within the past few hours several things that had seemed stable in +Louise Grayling's life had been shaken. + +She had accepted in the very first of her acquaintanceship with Lawford +Tapp the supposition that his social position was quite inferior to her +own. She was too broadly democratic to hold that as an insurmountable +barrier between them. + +Her disapproval of the young man grew out of her belief in his identity +as a mere "hired man" of the wealthy owner of the villa on the Point. +She had considered that a man who was so intelligent and well educated +and at the same time so unambitious was lacking in those attributes of +character necessary to make him a success in life. + +His love for the open--for the sea and shore and all that pertained to +them--coincided exactly with Louise's own aspirations. She considered +it all right that her father and herself spent much of their time as +Lawford spent his. Only, daddy-prof often added to the sum-total of +human knowledge by his investigations, and sometimes added to their +financial investments through his work as well. + +Until now she had considered Lawford Tapp's tendencies toward living +such an irresponsible existence as all wrong--for him. The rather +exciting information she had just gained changed her mental attitude +toward the young man entirely. + +Louise gave no consideration whatsoever to Aunt Euphemia's snobbish +stand in the matter of Lawford's social position. Professor Grayling +had laughingly said that Euphemia chose to ignore the family's small +beginnings in America. True, the English Graylings possessed a crest +and a pedigree as long as the moral law. But in America the family had +begun by being small tradespeople and farmers. + +Of course, Louise considered, Aunt Euphemia would be very unpleasant +and bothersome about this matter. Louise had hoped to escape all that +for the summer by fleeing to Cap'n Abe's store at Cardhaven. + +However (and the girl's lips set firmly) she was determined to take her +own gait--to stand upon her own opinion--to refuse to be swerved from +her chosen course by any consideration. Lawford Tapp was in a +financial situation to spend his time in the improvement of his body +and mind without regard to money considerations. Louise foresaw that +they were going to have a delightful time together along the shore +here, until daddy-prof came home in the fall. And then---- + +She saw no such cloud upon the horizon as Lawford saw. Louise +acknowledged the existence of nothing--not even Aunt Euphemia's +opposition--which could abate the happiness she believed within her +grasp. + +She admitted that her interest in Lawford had risen far above the mark +of mere friendly feeling. When she had seen him sinking the day +before, and in peril of his life, she knew beyond peradventure that his +well-being and safety meant more to her than anything else in the world. + +Now she was only anxious to have him learn that she instead of Betty +had leaped into the sea after him. She would avoid him no more. Only +she did not wish to meet him there on the beach before all those +idlers. Louise feared that if she did so, she would betray her +happiness. She thrilled with it--she was obsessed with the thought +that there was nothing, after all, to separate Lawford and herself! + +Yet the day passed without his coming to the store on the Shell Road. +Louise still felt some disturbance of mind regarding Cap'n Amazon. She +kept away from him as much as possible, for she feared that she might +be tempted to blurt out just what she thought of his ridiculous stories. + +She did not like to hear Betty Gallup utter her diatribes against the +master mariner; although in secret she was inclined to accept as true +many of the "able seaman's" strictures upon Cap'n Amazon's character. + +It was really hard when she was in his presence to think of him as an +audacious prevaricator--and perhaps worse. He was so kindly in his +manner and speech to her. His brisk consideration for her comfort at +all times--his wistful glances for Jerry, the ancient canary, and the +tenderness he showed the bird--even his desire to placate Diddimus, the +tortoise-shell cat--all these things withstood the growing ill-opinion +being fostered in Louise Grayling's mind. Who and what was this +mysterious person calling himself Cap'n Amazon Silt? + +She had, too, a desire to know just how many of those weird stories he +told were filched from Cap'n Abe's accumulation of nautical literature. +When Cap'n Amazon had gained access to the chest of books Louise could +not imagine; but the fact remained that he had at least two of the +stories pat. + +Louise had promised to spend the evening at the Perritons, and did so; +but she returned to Cap'n Abe's store early and did not invite her +escort in, although he was a youth eager to taste the novelty of being +intimate with "one of these old Cape Codders," as he expressed it. + +"No," she told young Malcolm Standish firmly. "Uncle Amazon is not to +be made a peepshow of by the idle rich of The Beaches. Besides, from +your own name, you should be a descendant of Miles Standish, and blood +relation to these Cape Codders yourself. And Uncle Amazon and Uncle +Abram are fine old gentlemen." She said it boldly, whether she could +believe it about Cap'n Amazon or not. "I will not play showman." + +"Oh, say! Ford Tapp comes here. I saw his car standing outside the +other evening." + +"Mr. Tapp," Louise explained calmly, "comes in the right spirit. He is +a friend of the--ahem--family. He is well known to Cap'n Abe who owns +the store and has made himself acquainted with Cap'n Amazon over the +counter." + +"And how has he made himself so solid with you, Miss Grayling?" +Standish asked impudently. + +"By his gentlemanly behavior, and because he knows a deal more about +boat-sailing and the shores than I know," she retorted demurely. + +"Leave it to me!" exclaimed Malcolm Standish. "I am going to learn +navigation and fishology at once." + +"But--don't you think you may be too late?" she asked him, running up +the steps. "Good-night, Mr. Standish!" + +Upon going indoors she did not find Cap'n Amazon. The lamp was burning +in the living-room, but he was not there and the store was dark. +Louise mounted the stairs, rather glad of his absence; but when she +came to the top of the flight she saw the lamplight streaming through +the open door of her uncle's bedroom. Diddimus, with waving tail, was +just advancing into the "cabin," as Cap'n Amazon called the chamber he +occupied. + +Knowing that he particularly objected to having any of his possessions +disturbed, and fearing that Diddimus might do some mischief there, +Louise followed the tortoise-shell, calling to him: + +"Come out of there! Come out instantly, Diddimus! What do you mean by +venturing in where we are all forbidden to enter? Don't you know, +Diddimus, that only fools dare venture where angels fear to tread? +Scat!" + +Something on the washstand caught Louise's glance. In the bottom of +the washbowl was the stain of a dark brown liquid. Beside it stood a +bottle the label of which she could read from the doorway. + +She caught her breath, standing for half a minute as though entranced. +Diddimus, hearing a distant footstep, and evidently suspecting it, +whisked past Louise out of the room. + +There were other articles on the washstand that claimed the girl's +notice; but it was to the bottle labeled "Walnut Stain" that her gaze +returned. She crept away to her own room, lit her lamp, and did not +even see Cap'n Amazon Silt again that night. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +SHOCKING NEWS + +"Ford Tapp was here last night," Cap'n Amazon told Louise at the +breakfast table. "I cal'late he was lookin' for you, though he didn't +just up an' say so. Seemed worried like for fear't you wouldn't have a +good opinion of him." + +"Mercy! what has he done?" cried the girl laughing, for even the sound +of Lawford's name made her glad. + +"Seems it's what he ain't done. What's all this 'bout your jumpin' +overboard t'other day and savin' him from drownin'?" and the mariner +fairly beamed upon her. + +"Oh, uncle, you mustn't believe everything you hear!" + +"No? But Bet Gallup says 'tis so. You air a hi-mighty plucky girl, I +guess. I allus have thought so--and so did Abe. But I kind of feel as +though I'm sort o' responsible for your safety an' well-bein' while you +air here, and I can't countenance no such actions." + +"Now, uncle!" + +"Fellers like Ford Tapp air as plenty as horse-briers in a sand lot; +but girls like you ain't made often, I cal'late. Next time that feller +has to be rescued, you let Bet Gallup do it." + +She knew Cap'n Amazon well enough now to see that his roughness was +assumed. His eyes were moist as his gaze rested on her face, and he +blew his nose noisily at the end of his speech. + +"You take keer o' yourself, Louise," he added huskily. "If anything +should happen to you, what--what would Abe say?" + +The depth of his feeling for her--so plainly and so unexpectedly +displayed--halted Louise in her already formed intention. She had +arisen on this morning, determined to "have it out" with Cap'n Amazon +Silt. On several points she wished to be enlightened--felt that she +had a right to demand an explanation. + +For she was quite positive that Cap'n Amazon was not at all what he +claimed to be. His actual personality was as yet a mystery to her; but +she was positive on this point: He was _not_ Captain Amazon Silt, +master mariner and rover of the seas. He was an entirely different +person, and Louise desired to know what he meant by this masquerade. + +His seamanship, his speech, his masterful manner, were assumed. And in +the matter of his related adventures the girl was confident that they +were mere repetitions of what he had read. + +Now Louise suddenly remembered how Cap'n Abe had welcomed her here at +the old store, and how cheerfully and tenderly this piratical looking +substitute for the storekeeper had assumed her care. No relative or +friend could have been kinder to her than Cap'n Amazon. + +How could she, then, stand before him and say: "Cap'n Amazon, you are +an impostor. You have assumed a character that is not your own. You +tell awful stories about adventures that never befell you. What do you +mean by it all? And, in conclusion and above all, _Where is Cap'n +Abe_?" + +This had been Louise's intention when she came downstairs on this +morning. The nagging of Betty Gallup, the gossip of the other +neighbors, the wild suspicions whispered from lip to lip did not +influence her so much. It was what she had herself discovered the +evening before in the captain's "cabin" that urged her on. + +Now Cap'n Amazon's display of tenderness "took all the wind out of her +sails," as Betty Gallup would have said. + +Louise watched him stirring about the living-room, chirruping to old +Jerry and thrusting his finger into the cage for the bird to hop upon +it, and finally shuffling off into the store. She hesitatingly +followed him. She desired to speak, but could not easily do so. And +now Cap'n Joab Beecher was before her. + +Amiel Perdue had been uptown and brought down the early mail, of which +the most important piece was always the Boston morning paper. Cap'n +Joab had helped himself to this and was already unfolding it. + +"What's in the _Globe_ paper, Joab?" asked Cap'n Amazon. "You +millionaires 'round here git more time to read it than ever _I_ do, I +vum!" + +"It don't cost you nothin' to have us read it," said Cap'n Joab easily. +"The news is all here arter we git through." + +"Uh-huh! I s'pose so. I'd ought to thank ye, I don't dispute, for +keepin' the paper from feelin' lonesome. + +"I dunno why Abe takes it, anyway, 'cept to foller the sailin's and +arrivals at the port o' Boston--'nless he finds more time to read than +ever I do. I ain't ever been so busy in my life as I be in this +store--'nless it was when I shipped a menagerie for a feller at a Dutch +Guinea port and his monkeys broke out o' their cages when we was two +days at sea and they tried to run the ship. + +"That was some v'y'ge, as the feller said," continued Cap'n Amazon, +getting well under way as he lit his after-breakfast pipe. "Them +monkeys kep' all the crew on the jump and the afterguard scurcely got a +meal in peace, I was----" + +"Belay there!" advised Cap'n Joab, with disgust. "Save that yarn for +the dog watch. What was it ye said that craft was named Cap'n Abe +sailed in?" + +Cap'n Amazon stopped in his story-telling and was silent for an +instant. Louise, who had stood at the inner doorway listening, turned +to go, when she heard the substitute storekeeper finally say: + +"_Curlew_, out o' Boston." + +The name caught the girl's instant attention and she felt suddenly +apprehensive. + +"Here's news o' her," Cap'n Joab said in a hushed voice. "And it ain't +good news, Cap'n Silt." + +"What d'ye mean?" asked the latter. + +"Report from Fayal. A Portugee fisherman's picked up and brought in a +boat with 'Curlew' painted on her stern, and he saw spars and wreckage +driftin' near the empty boat. There's been a hurricane out there. +It--it looks bad, Cap'n Silt." + +Before the latter could speak again Louise was at his side and had +seized his tattooed arm. + +"Uncle Amazon!" she gasped. "Not the _Curlew_? Didn't I tell you +before? That is the schooner daddy-prof's party sailed upon. Can +there be two Curlews?" + +"My soul and body!" exclaimed Cap'n Joab. + +It was Cap'n Amazon who kept his head. + +"Not likely to be two craft of the same name and register--no, my +dear," he said, patting her hand. "But don't take this so much to +heart. It's only rumor. A dozen things might have happened to set +that boat adrift. Ain't that so, Cap'n Joab?" + +Cap'n Joab swallowed hard and nodded; but his wind-bitten face +displayed much distress. "I had no idee the gal's father was aboard +that schooner with Cap'n Abe." + +"Why, sure! I forgot it for a minute," Cap'n Amazon said cheerfully. +"There, there, my dear. Don't take on so. Abe's with your father, if +so be anything has happened the _Curlew_; and Abe'll take keer o' him. +Sure he will! Ain't he a Silt? And lemme tell you a Silt never backed +down when trouble riz up to face him. No, sir!" + +"But if they have been wrecked?" groaned Louise. "Both father and +Uncle Abram. What shall we do about it, Uncle Amazon?" + +In this moment of trouble she clung to the master mariner as her single +recourse. And impostor or no, he who called himself Amazon Silt did +not fail her. + +"There ain't nothing much we can rightly do at this minute, Niece +Louise," he told her firmly, still patting her morsel of a hand in his +huge one. "We'll watch the noospapers and I'll send a telegraph +dispatch to the ship news office in N'York and git just the latest word +there is 'bout the _Curlew_. + +"You be brave, girl--you be brave. Abe an' Professor Grayling being +together, o' course they'll get along all right. One'll help t'other. +Two pullin' on the sheet can allus h'ist the sail quicker than one. +Keep your heart up, Louise." + +She looked at him strangely for a moment. The tears frankly standing +in his eyes, the quivering muscles of his face, his expression of keen +sorrow for her fears--all impressed her. She suddenly kissed him in +gratitude, impostor though she knew him to be, and then ran away. +Cap'n Joab hissed across the counter: + +"Ye don't _know_ that Cap'n Abe's on that there craft, Am'zon Silt!" + +"Well, if I don't--an' if you don't--don't lemme hear you makin' any +cracks about it 'round this store so't she'll hear ye," growled Cap'n +Amazon, boring into the very soul of the flustered Joab with his fierce +gaze. + +Louise did not hear the expression of these doubts; but she suffered +uncertainties in her own mind. She longed to talk with somebody to +whom she could tell all that was in her thoughts. Aunt Euphemia was +out of the question, of course; although she must reveal to her the +possible peril menacing Professor Grayling. Betty Gallup could not be +trusted, Louise knew. And the day dragged by its limping hours without +Lawford Tapp's coming near the store on the Shell Road. + +This last Louise could not understand. But there was good reason for +Lawford's effacing himself at this time. In the empire of the Taffy +King there was revolution, and this trouble dated from the hour on the +previous morning when Louise had met and greeted Aunt Euphemia on the +beach. + +The Tapp sisters may have been purse-proud and a little vulgar--from +Aunt Euphemia's point of view, at least--but they did not lack acumen. +They had seen and heard the greeting of Louise by the Ferritons and the +extremely haughty Lady from Poughkeepsie, and knew that Louise must be +"a somebody." + +Cecile, young and bold enough to be direct, was not long in making +discoveries. With a rather blank expression of countenance L'Enfant +Terrible, for once almost speechless, beckoned her sisters to one side. + +"Pestiferous infant," drawled Marian, "tell us who she is?" + +"Is she a Broadway star?" asked Prue. + +"Oh, she's a star all right," Cecile said, with disgust in her tone. +"We've been a trio of sillies, ignoring _her_. Fordy's fallen on both +feet--only he's too dense to know it, I s'pose." + +"Tell us!" commanded Prue. "Who is she?" + +"She's no screen actress," answered the gloomy Cecile. + +"Who is she, then?" gasped Marian. + +"Sue Perriton says she is Mrs. Conroth's niece, and Mrs. Conroth is all +the Society with a capital letter there _is_. Now, figure it out," +said Cecile tartly. "If you smarties had taken her up right at the +start----" + +"But we didn't kno-o-ow!" wailed Marian. + +"Go on!" commanded Prue grimly. + +"Why, Miss Grayling's father is a big scientist, or something, at +Washington. Her mother happened to be born here on the Cape; she was a +Card. This girl is just stopping over there with that old fellow who +keeps the store--her half-uncle--for a lark. What do you know about +_that_?" + +"My word!" murmured Marian. + +"And Ford------" + +"He's mamma's precious white-haired boy _this_ time," declared the +slangy Cecile. + +"Do--do you suppose he knew it all the time?" questioned Marian. + +"Never! Just like old Doc Ambrose says, there isn't much above Fordy's +ears but solid bone," scoffed L'Enfant Terrible. + +"Wait till ma hears of this," murmured Prue, and they proceeded to beat +a retreat for home that their mother might be informed of the wonder. +Lawford was already out of sight. + +"How really fortunate Fordy is," murmured Mrs. Tapp, having received +the shocking news and been revived after it. "Fancy! Mrs. Conroth's +own niece!" + +"It's going to put us in just _right_ with the best of the crowd at The +Beaches," Prue announced. "We've only been tolerated so far." + +"Oh, Prudence!" admonished Mrs. Tapp. + +"That's the truth," her second daughter repeated bluntly. "We might as +well admit it. Now, if Fordy only puts this over with this Miss +Grayling, they'll _have_ to take us up; for it's plain to be seen they +won't drop Miss Grayling, no matter whom she marries." + +"If Fordy doesn't miss the chance," muttered Cecile. + +"He can't!" + +"He mustn't!" + +"He wouldn't be mean enough to drop her just to spite us!" wailed +Marian. + +"No," said Prue. "He won't do that. Ford isn't a butterfly. You must +admit that he's as steadfast as a rock in his likes and dislikes. Once +he gets a thing in that head of his------Well! I'm sure he's fond of +Miss Grayling." + +"But that big actor?" suggested Cecile. + +"Surely," gasped Mrs. Tapp, "the girl cannot fancy such a person as +_that_?" + +"My! you should just see Judson Bane," sighed Cecile. + +"He's the matinee girl's delight," drawled Marian. "Ford has the +advantage, however, if he will take it. He's too modest." + +Mrs. Tapp's face suddenly paled and she clasped a plump hand to her +bosom. "Oh, girls!" she gasped. + +"_Now_ what, mother?" begged Prue. + +"What will I. Tapp say?" + +"Oh, bother father!" scoffed L'Enfant Terrible. + +"He doesn't care what Ford does," Prue said. + +"Does he ever really care what any of us does?" observed Marian, yet +looking doubtfully at her mother. + +"You don't understand, girls!" wailed Mrs. Tapp, wringing her hands. +"You know he made me write and invite that Johnson girl here." + +"Oh, Dot Johnson!" said Prue. "Well, she is harmless." + +"She's _not_ harmless," declared Mrs. Tapp. "I. Tapp ordered me to get +her here because, he wants Ford to marry her." + +"Marry Dot Johnson?" gasped Prue. + +"Oh, bluey!" ejaculated the slangy Cecile. + +"But of course Ford won't do it," drawled Marian. + +"Then he means to disinherit poor Ford! Oh, yes, he will!" sobbed the +lady. "They've had words about it already. You know very well that +when once I. Tapp makes up his mind to do a thing, he does it." And +there she broke down utterly, with the girls looking at each other in +silent horror. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +BETWEEN THE FIRES + +The discovery of Louise's identity was but a mild shock to Lawford +after all. His preconceived prejudice against the ordinary feminine +member of "The Profession" had, during his intercourse with Cap'n Abe's +niece, been lulled to sleep. Miss Louder and Miss Noyes more nearly +embodied his conception of actresses--nice enough young women, perhaps, +but entirely different from Louise Grayling. + +Lawford forgave the latter for befooling him in the matter of her +condition in life; indeed, he realized that he had deceived himself. +He had accepted the gossip of the natives--Milt Baker was its +originator, he remembered--as true, and so had believed Louise Grayling +was connected with the moving picture company. + +Her social position made no difference to him. At first sight Lawford +Tapp had told himself she was the most charming woman he had ever seen. + +For a college graduate of twenty-four he was, though unaware of the +fact, rather unsophisticated regarding women. + +He had given but slight attention to girls. Perhaps they interested +him so little because of his three sisters. + +He remembered now that he and Dot Johnson had been pretty good "pals" +before he had gone to college, and while Dot was still in middy blouse +and wore her hair in plaits. + +Now, as he walked along the beach and thought of the daughter of his +father's partner, he groaned. He, as well as the women of the family, +knew well the Taffy King's obstinacy. + +His streak of determination had enabled I. Tapp to reach the pinnacle +of business wealth and influence. When he wanted a thing he went after +it, and he got it! + +If his father was really determined that Lawford should marry Dot +Johnson, and her parents were willing, the young man had an almost +uncanny feeling that the candy manufacturer's purpose would be +accomplished. + +And yet Lawford knew that such was a coward-nature feeling. Why should +he give up the only thing he had ever really wanted in life--so it +seemed to him now--because of any third person's obstinacy? + +"Of course, she won't have me anyway," an inner voice told him. And, +after a time, Lawford realized that that, too, was his coward-nature +speaking. + +On the other hand: "Why should I give her up? Further, why should I +marry Dot Johnson against my will, whether I can get Louise Grayling or +not?" + +This thought electrified him. His easy-going, placid disposition had +made a coward of him. In his heart and soul he was now ready to fight +for what he desired. It was now not merely the question of winning +Louise's love. Whether he could win her or not his determination grew +to refuse to obey his father's command. He revolted, right then and +there. Let his father keep his money. He, Lawford Tapp, would go to +work in any case and would support himself. + +This was no small resolve on the part of the millionaire's son. He +could not remember of ever having put his hand into an empty pocket. +His demands on the paternal purse had been more reasonable than most +young men of his class perhaps, because of his naturally simple tastes +and the life he had led outside the classroom. Without having "gone +in" for athletics at Cambridge he was essentially an out-of-door man. + +Nevertheless, to stand in open revolt against I. Tapp's command was a +very serious thing to do. Lawford appreciated his own shortcomings in +the matter of intellect. He knew he was not brilliant enough to make +his wit entirely serve him for daily bread--let alone cake and other +luxuries. If his father disinherited him he must verily expect to earn +his bread by the sweat of his brow. + +It was that evening, after his fruitless call at Cap'n Abe's store, +that the young man met his father and had it out. Lawford came back to +Tapp Point in the motor boat. As he walked up from the dock there was +a sudden eruption of voices from the house, a door banged, and the +Taffy King began exploding verbal fireworks as he crunched the gravel +under foot. + +"I'll show him! Young upstart! Settin' the women on me! Ha! Thinks +he can do as he pleases forever and ever, amen! I'll show him!" + +Just then he came face to face with "the young upstart." I. Tapp +seized his son's arm with a vicious if puny grasp and yelled: + +"What d'you mean by it?" + +"Mean by what, dad?" asked the boy with that calmness that always +irritated I. Tapp. + +"Settin' your ma and the girls on me? They all lit on me at once. All +crying together some foolishness about your marrying this Grayling girl +and putting the family into society." + +"Into society?" murmured Lawford. "I--I don't get you." + +"You know what they're after," cried the candy manufacturer. "If a +dynamite bomb would blow in the walls of that exclusive Back Bay set, +they'd use one. And now it turns out this girl's right in the +swim------I thought you said she was a picture actress?" + +"I thought she was," stammered Lawford. + +"Bah! You thought? You never thought a thing in your life of any +consequence." + +The young man was silent at this thrust. His silence made I. Tapp even +angrier. + +"But it makes no difference--no difference at all, I tell you. If she +was the queen of Sheba I'd say the same," went on the candy +manufacturer wildly. "I've said you shall marry Dorothy Johnson--I've +always meant you should; and marry her you shall!" + +"No, dad, I'm not going to do any such thing." + +Suddenly the Taffy King quieted down. He struggled to control his +voice and his shaking hands. A deadly calm mantled his excitement and +his eyes glittered as he gazed up at his tall son. + +"Is this a straight answer, Lawford? Or are you just talking to hear +yourself talk?" he asked coldly. + +"I am determined not to marry Dot." + +"And you'll marry that other girl?" + +"If she'll have me. But whether or no I won't be forced into marriage +with a girl I do not love." + +"Love!" exploded the Taffy King. Then in a moment he was calm again, +only for that inward glow of rage. "People don't really love each +other until after marriage. Love is born of propinquity and thrives on +usage and custom. You only _think_ you love this girl. It's after two +people have been through a good deal together that they learn what love +means." + +Lawford was somewhat startled by this philosophy; but he was by no +means convinced. + +"Whether or no," he repeated, "I think I should have the same right +that you had of choosing a wife." + +His father brushed this aside without comment. "Do you understand what +this means--if you are determined to disobey me?" he snarled. + +"I suppose you won't begrudge me a bite and sup till I find a job, +dad?" the son said with just a little tremor in his voice. "I know I +haven't really anything of my own. You have done everything for me. +Your money bought the very clothes I stand in. You gave me the means +to buy the _Merry Andrew_. I realize that nothing I have called my own +actually belongs to me because I did not earn it----" + +"As long as you are amenable to discipline," put in his father +gloomily, "you need not feel this way." + +"But I do feel it now," said Lawford simply. "You have made me. And, +as I say, I'll need to live, I suppose, till I get going for myself." + +His father winced again. Then suddenly burst out: + +"D'you think for a minute that that society girl will stand for your +getting a job and trying to support her on your wages?" + +"She will if she loves me." + +"You poor ninny!" burst out I. Tapp. "You've got about as much idea of +women as you have of business. And where are you going to work?" + +"Well," and Lawford smiled a little whimsically, serious though the +discussion was, "I've always felt a leaning toward the candy business. +I believe I have a natural adaptability for that. Couldn't I find a +job in one of your factories, dad?" + +"You'll get no leg-up from me, unless you show you're worthy of it." + +"But you'll give me a job?" + +"I won't interfere if the superintendent of any of the factories takes +you on," growled I. Tapp. "But mind you, he'll hire you on his own +responsibility--he'll understand that from me. But I tell you right +now this is no time to apply for a job in a candy factory. We're +discharging men--not hiring them." + +"I will apply for the first opening," announced the son. + +I. Tapp stamped away along the graveled walk, leaving the young man +alone. Lawford's calmness was as irritating to him as sea water to a +raw wound. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +GRAY DAYS + +Those days were dark for Louise Grayling; on her shoulders she bore +double trouble. Anxiety for her father's safety made her sufficiently +unhappy; but in addition her mind must cope with the mystery of Cap'n +Amazon's identity and Cap'n Abe's whereabouts. + +For she was not at all satisfied in her heart that the storekeeper had +sailed from the port of Boston on the _Curlew_; and the status of the +piratical looking Amazon Silt was by no means decided to her +satisfaction. Her discoveries in his bedroom had quite convinced the +young woman that Cap'n Amazon was in masquerade. + +His comforting words and his thoughtfulness touched her so deeply, +however, that she could not quarrel with the old man; and his +insistence that Cap'n Abe had sailed on the Curlew and would be at hand +to assist Professor Grayling if the schooner had been wrecked was +kindly meant, she knew. He scoffed at the return of Cap'n Abe's chest +as being of moment; he refused to discuss his brother's reason for +stuffing the old chest with such useless lumber as it contained. + +"Leave Abe for knowing his own business, Niece Louise. 'Tain't any of +our consarn," was the most he would say about that puzzling +circumstance. + +Louise watched the piratical figure of Cap'n Amazon shuffling around +the store or puttering about certain duties of housekeeping that he +insisted upon doing himself, with a wonder that never waned. + +His household habits were those which she supposed Cap'n Abe to have +had. She wondered if all sailors were as neat and as fussy as he. He +still insisted upon doing much of the cooking; it was true that he had +good reason to doubt Betty Gallup's ability to cook. + +When there were no customers in the store Louise often sat there with +Cap'n Amazon, with either a book or her sewing in her hand. Sometimes +they would not speak for an hour, while the substitute storekeeper +"made up the books," which was a serious task for him. + +He seemed normally dexterous in everything else, but he wrote with his +left hand--an angular, upright chirography which, Louise thought, +showed unmistakably that he was unfamiliar with the use of the pen. +"Writing up the log" he called this clerkly task, and his awkward +looking characters in the ledger were in great contrast to Cap'n Abe's +round, flowing hand. + +For several days following the discovery in the "_Globe_ paper" of the +notice about the _Curlew_, Louise Grayling and Cap'n Amazon lived a +most intimate existence. She would not allow Betty Gallup to criticise +the captain even slightly within her hearing. + +They received news from New York which was no news at all. The Boston +Chamber of Commerce had heard no further word of the schooner. Louise +and the captain could only hope. + +The world of seafaring is so filled with mysteries like this of the +_Curlew_, that Louise knew well that no further word might ever be +received of the vessel. + +Cap'n Amazon rang the changes daily--almost hourly--upon sea escapes +and rescues. He related dozens of tales (of course with the personal +note in most), showing how ships' companies had escaped the threat of +disaster in marvelous and almost unbelievable ways. + +Louise had not the heart now to stop this flow of narrative by telling +him bluntly that she doubted the authenticity of his tales. Nor would +she look into the old books again to search out the originals of the +stories which flowed so glibly from his lips. + +Who and what he could really be puzzled Louise quite as much as before; +yet she had not the heart to probe the mystery with either question or +personal scrutiny. The uncertainty regarding the _Curlew_ and those on +board filled so much of the girl's thought that little else disturbed +her. + +Save one thing. She desired to see Lawford Tapp and talk with him. +But Lawford did not appear at the store on the Shell Road. + +Mr. Bane came frequently to call. He was an eager listener to Cap'n +Amazon's stories and evidently enjoyed the master mariner hugely. +Several of the young people from the cottages along The Beaches called +on Louise; but if the girl desired to see Aunt Euphemia she had to go +to the Perritons, or meet the Lady from Poughkeepsie in her walks along +the sands. Aunt Euphemia could not countenance Cap'n Amazon in the +smallest particular. + +"It is a mystery to me, Louise--a perfect mystery--how you are able to +endure that awful creature and his coarse stories. That dreadful tale +of the albatross sticks in my mind--I cannot forget it," she +complained. "And his appearance! No more savage looking man did I +ever behold. I wonder you are not afraid to live in the same house +with him." + +Louise would not acknowledge that she had ever been fearful of Cap'n +Amazon. Her own qualms of terror had almost immediately subsided. The +news from the _Curlew_, indeed, seemed to have smothered the +neighborhood criticism of the captain, if all suspicions had not +actually been lulled to rest. + +Cap'n Amazon spoke no more of his brother, save in connection with +Professor Grayling's peril, than he had before. He seemed to have no +fears for Cap'n Abe. "Abe can look out for himself," was a frequent +expression with him. But Cap'n Amazon never spoke as though he held +the danger of Louise's father in light regard. + +"I'll give 'em a fortnight to be heard from," Cap'n Joab Beecher said +confidently. "Then if ye don't hear from Cap'n Abe, or the noospapers +don't print nothin' more about the schooner, I shall write her down in +the log as lost with all hands." + +"Don't you be too sartain sure 'bout it," growled Cap'n Amazon. +"There's many a wonder of the sea, as you an' I know, Joab Beecher. +Look at what happened the crew of the _Mailfast_, clipper built, out o' +Baltimore--an' that was when you an' I, Cap'n Joab, was sharpenin' our +milk teeth on salt hoss." + +"What happened her, Cap'n Am'zon?" queried Milt Baker, reaching for a +fresh piece of Brown Mule, and with a wink at the other idlers. "Did +she go down, or did she go up?" + +"Both," replied Cap'n Amazon unruffled. "She went up in smoke _an'_ +flame, an' finally sunk when she'd burned to the Plimsol mark. + +"Every man of the crew and afterguard got safely into two boats. This +wasn't far to the westward of Fayal--in mebbe somewhere near the same +spot where that Portugee fisherman reports pickin' up the _Curlew's_ +boat. + +"When the _Mailfast_ burned the sea was calm; but in six hours a sudden +gale came up and drove the two boats into the southwest. They wasn't +provisioned or watered for a long v'y'ge, and they had to run for it a +full week, ev'ry mile reeled off takin' them further an' further from +the islands, and further and further off the reg'lar course of +shipping." + +"Where'd they wind up at, Cap'n Am'zon?" asked Milt. + +"Couldn't hit nothin' nearer'n the Guineas on that course," growled +Cap'n Joab. + +"There you're wrong," the substitute storekeeper said. "They struck +seaweed--acres an' acres of it--square miles of it--everlastin' +seaweed!" + +"Sargasso Sea!" exploded Washy Gallup, wagging his toothless jaw. "I +swanny!" + +"I've heard about that place, but never seen it," said Cap'n Joab. + +"And you don't want to," declared the narrator of the incident. "It +ain't a place into which no sailorman wants to venture. The +_Mailfast's_ comp'ny--so 'tis said--was driven far into the pulpy, +grassy sea. The miles of weed wrapped 'em around like a blanket. They +couldn't row because the weed fouled the oars; and they couldn't sail +'cause the weed was so heavy. But there's a drift they say, or a +suction, or something that gradually draws a boat toward the middle of +the field." + +"Then, by golly!" exclaimed Milt Baker, "how in tarnation did they git +aout? I sh'd think anybody that every drifted into the Sargasso Sea +would be there yit." + +"P'r'aps many a ship an' many a ship's company _have_ found their grave +there," said Cap'n Amazon solemnly. "'Tis called the graveyard of +derelicts. But there's the chance of counter-storms. Before the two +boats from the _Mailfast_ were sucked down, and 'fore the crew was fair +starved, a sudden shift of wind broke up the seaweed field and they +escaped and were picked up. + +"The danger of the Sargasso threatens all sailin' ships in them seas. +Steam vessels have a better chance; but many a craft that's turned up +missin' has undoubtedly been swallowed by the Sargasso." + +Louise, who heard this discussion from the doorway of the store, could +not fail to be impressed by it. Could the _Curlew_, with her father +and Cap'n Abe aboard, have suffered such a fate? There was an element +of probability in this tale of Cap'n Amazon's that entangled the girl's +fancy. However, the idea colored the old man's further imagination in +another way. + +"Sargasso Sea," he said reflectively, between puffs of his pipe, after +the idlers had left the store. "Yes, 'tis a fact, Niece Louise. +That's what Abe drifted in for years--a mort of seaweed and pulp." + +"What _do_ you mean, Uncle Amazon?" gasped the girl, shocked by his +words. + +"This," the master mariner said, with a wide sweep of his arm taking in +the cluttered store. "This was Abe's Sargasso Sea--and it come nigh to +smotherin' him and bearin' him down by the head." + +"Oh! you mean his life was so confined here?" + +Cap'n Amazon nodded, "I wonder he bore it so long." + +"I am afraid Uncle Abram is getting all he wants of adventure now," +Louise said doubtfully. + +Cap'n Amazon stared at her unwinkingly for a minute. Then all he said +was: + +"I wonder?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +AUNT EUPHEMIA MAKES A POINT + +Lawford Tapp did not appear at the store and Louise continued to wonder +about it; but she shrank from asking Betty Gallup, who might have been +able to inform her why the young man did not come again. However, on +one bright morning the gray roadster stopped before the door and +Louise, from her window, saw that the three Tapp girls were in the car. + +She thought they had come to make purchases, for the store on the Shell +Road was often a port of call for the automobiles of the summer +colonists. Suddenly, however, she realized that L'Enfant Terrible was +standing up in the driver's seat and beckoning to her. + +"Oh, Miss Grayling!" shrilled Cecile. "May I come up? I want to speak +to you." + +"No," commanded Prue firmly, preparing to step out of the car. "I will +speak to Miss Grayling myself." + +"I don't see why she can't come down," drawled Marian, the languid. +"_I_ have a message for her." + +"Why!" ejaculated the surprised Louise, "if you all wish to see me I'd +better come down, hadn't I?" and she left the window at once. + +She had remarked on the few occasions during the last few days that she +had met the Tapp sisters on the beach, that they had seemed desirous of +being polite to her--very different from their original attitude; but +so greatly taken up had Louise's mind been with more important matters +that she had really considered this change but little. + +Therefore it was with some curiosity that she descended the stairs and +went around by the yard gate to the side of the automobile. + +"Dear Miss Grayling," drawled Marian, putting out a gloved hand. +"Pardon the informality. But mother wants to know if you will help us +pour tea at our lawn fete and dance Friday week? It would be so nice +of you." + +Louise smiled quietly. But she was not a stickler for social +proprieties; so, although she knew the invitation savored of that +"rawness" of which her aunt had remarked, she was inclined to meet +Lawford's family halfway. She said: + +"If you really want me I shall be glad to do what I can to make your +affair a success. Tell your mother I will come--and thank you." + +"So kind of you," drawled Marian. + +But Cecile was not minded to let the interview end so tamely--or so +suddenly. + +"Say!" she exclaimed, "did Ford see you, Miss Grayling, before he went +away?" + +"He has gone away, then?" Louise repeated, and she could not keep the +color from flooding into her cheeks. + +"He wanted to see you, I'm sure," Cecile said bluntly. "But he started +off in a hurry. Had a dickens of a row with dad." + +"Cecile!" admonished Prue. "That sounds worse than it is." + +Louise looked at her curiously, though she did not ask a question. + +"Well, they did have a shindy," repeated L'Enfant Terrible. "When +daddy gets on his high horse------" + +"Ford wished to see you before he went away, Miss Grayling," broke in +Prue, with an admonitory glare at her young sister. "He told us he was +so confused that day he fell overboard from the _Merry Andrew_ that he +did not even thank you for fishing him out of the sea. It was awfully +brave of you." + +"Bully, _I_ say!" cried Cecile. + +"Really heroic," added Marian. "Mother will never get over talking +about it." + +"Oh! I wish you wouldn't," murmured Louise. "I'm glad Betty and I +saved him. Mrs. Gallup did quite as much as I----" + +"We know all that," Prue broke in quickly. "And daddy's made it up to +_her_." + +"Yes. I know. He was very liberal," Louise agreed. + +"But mercy!" cried Prue. "He can't send _you_ a check, Miss Grayling. +And we all do feel deeply grateful to you. Ford is an awfully good +sort of a chap--for a brother." + +Louise laughed outright at that. "I suppose, though never having had a +brother, I can appreciate his good qualities fully as much as you +girls," she said. "Will he be long away?" + +"That we don't know," Marian said slowly. Louise had asked the +question so lightly that Miss Tapp could not be sure there was any real +interest behind it. But Cecile, who had alighted to crank up, +whispered to Louise: + +"You know what he's gone away for? No? To get a job! He and father +have disagreed dreadfully." + +"Oh! I am so sorry," murmured Louise. She would not ask any further +questions. She was troubled, however, by this information, for +L'Enfant Terrible seemed to have said it significantly. Louise +wondered very much what had caused the quarrel between Lawford and his +father. + +She got at the heart of this mystery when she appeared at the lawn fete +to help the Tapp girls and their mother entertain. She was introduced +at that time to the Taffy King. Louise thought him rather a funny +little man, and his excitability vastly amused her. + +She caught him staring at her and scowling more than once; so, in her +direct way, she asked him what he meant by it. + +"Don't you approve at all of me, Mr. Tapp?" she asked, presenting him +with a cup of tea that he did not want. + +"Ha! Beg pardon!" ejaculated the candy manufacturer. "Did you think I +was watching you?" + +"I _know_ you were," she rejoined. "And your disapproval is marked. +Tell me my faults. Of course, I sha'n't like you if you do; but I am +curious." + +"Huh! I'd like to see what that son of mine sees in you, Miss +Grayling," he blurted out. + +"Does he see anything particular in me?" Louise queried, her color +rising, but with a twinkle in her eye. + +"He's crazy about you," said I. Tapp. + +"Oh! Is _that_ why you and he disagreed?" + +"It's going to cost him his home and his patrimony," the candy +manufacturer declared fiercely. "I won't have it, I tell you! I've +other plans for him. He's got to do as I say, or----" + +Something in the girl's face halted him at the very beginning of one of +his tirades. Positively she was laughing at him? + +"Is _that_ the reef on which you and Lawford have struck?" Louise asked +gently. "If he chooses to address attentions to me he must become +self-supporting?" + +"I'll cut him off without a cent if he marries you!" threatened I. Tapp. + +"Why," murmured Louise, "then that will be the making of him, I have no +doubt. It is the lack I have seen in his character from the beginning. +Responsibility will make a man of him." + +"Ha!" snarled I. Tapp. "How about _you_? Will you marry a poor man--a +chap like my son who, if he ever makes twenty dollars a week, will be +doing mighty well?" + +"Oh! This is so--so sudden, Mr. Tapp!" murmured Louise, dimpling. +"You are not seriously asking me to marry your son, are you?" + +"Asking you to?" exploded the excitable Taffy King, with a wild +gesture. "I forbid it! Forbid it! do you hear?" and he rushed away +from the scene of the festivities and did not appear again during the +afternoon. + +Mrs. Tapp, all of a flutter, appeared at Louise's elbow. + +"Oh, dear, Miss Grayling! What _did_ he say? He is so excitable." +She almost wept. "I hope he has said nothing to offend you?" + +Louise looked at her with a rather pitying smile. + +"Don't be worried, Mrs. Tapp," she assured her. "Really, I think your +husband is awfully amusing." + +Naturally disapproval was plainly enthroned upon Aunt Euphemia's +countenance when she saw her niece aiding in the entertainment of the +guests at the Tapp lawn fete. The Lady from Poughkeepsie had come with +the Perritons because, as she admitted, the candy manufacturer's family +must be placated to a degree. + +"But you go too far, Louise. Even good nature cannot excuse this. I +am only thankful that young man is not at home. Surely you cannot be +really interested in Lawford Tapp?" + +"Do spare my blushes," begged Louise, her palms upon her cheeks but her +eyes dancing. "Really, I haven't seen Lawford for days." + +"Really, Louise?" + +"Surely I would not deceive you, auntie," she said. "He may have lost +all his interest in me, too. He went away without bidding me good-bye." + +"Well, I am glad of that!" sighed Aunt Euphemia. "I feared it was +different. Indeed, I heard something said------Oh, well, people will +gossip so! Never mind. But these Tapps are so pushing." + +"I think Mrs. Tapp is a very pleasant woman; and the girls are quite +nice," Louise said demurely. + +"You need not have displayed your liking for them in quite this way," +objected Aunt Euphemia. "You could easily have excused yourself--the +uncertainty about your poor father would have been reason enough. I +don't know--I am not sure, indeed, but that we should go into mourning. +Of course, it would spoil the summer----" + +"Oh! Aunt Euphemia!" + +"Yes. Well, I only mentioned it. For my own part I look extremely +well in crepe." + +Louise was shocked by this speech; yet she knew that its apparent +heartlessness did not really denote the state of her aunt's mind. It +was merely bred of the lady's shallowness, and of her utterly +self-centered existence. + +That evening, long after supper and after the store lights were out, +and while Cap'n Amazon and Louise were sitting as usual in the room +behind the store, a hasty step on the porch and a rat-tat-tat upon the +side door announced a caller than whom none could have been more +unexpected. + +"Aunt Euphemia!" cried Louise, when the master mariner ushered the lady +in. "What has happened?" + +"Haven't you heard? Did you not get a letter?" demanded Mrs. Conroth. +But she kept a suspicious eye on the captain. + +"From daddy-prof?" exclaimed Louise, jumping up. + +"Yes. Mailed at Gibraltar. Nothing has happened to that vessel he is +on. That was all a ridiculous story. But there is something else, +Louise." + +"Sit down, ma'am," Cap'n Amazon was saying politely. "Do sit down, +ma'am." + +"Not in this house," declared the lady, with finality. "I do not feel +safe here. And it's not safe for you to be here, Louise, with +this--this man. You don't know who he is; nobody knows who he is. I +have just heard all about it from one of the--er--natives. Mr. Abram +Silt never had a brother that anybody in Cardhaven ever saw. There is +no Captain Amazon Silt--and never was!" + +"Oh!" gasped Louise. + +"Nor does your father say a word in his letter to me about Abram Silt +being with him aboard that vessel, the _Curlew_. Nobody knows what has +become of your uncle--the man who really owns this store. How do we +know but that this--this creature," concluded Aunt Euphemia, with +dramatic gesture, "has made away with Mr. Silt and taken over his +property?" + +"It 'ud be jest like the old pirate!" croaked a harsh voice from the +kitchen doorway, and Betty Gallup appeared, apparently ready to back up +Mrs. Conroth physically, as well as otherwise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +AT LAST + +That hour in the old-fashioned living-room behind Cap'n Abe's store was +destined to be marked indelibly upon Louise Grayling's memory. Aunt +Euphemia and Betty Gallup had both come armed for the fray. They +literally swept Louise off her feet by their vehemence. + +The effect of the challenge on Cap'n Amazon was most puzzling. As Mrs. +Conroth refused to sit down--she could talk better standing, becoming +quite oracular, in fact--the captain could not, in politeness, take his +customary chair. And he had discarded his pipe upon going to the door +to let the visitor in. + +Therefore, it seemed to Louise, the doughty captain seemed rather lost. +It was not that he displayed either surprise or fear because of Aunt +Euphemia's accusation. Merely he did not know what to do with himself +during her exhortation. + +The fact that he was taxed with a crime--a double crime, indeed--did +not seem to bother him at all. But the clatter of the women's tongues +seemed to annoy him. + +His silence and his calmness affected Mrs. Conroth and Betty Gallup +much as the store idlers had been affected when they tried to bait +him--their exasperation increased. Cap'n Amazon's utter disregard of +what they said (for Betty did her share of the talking, relieving the +Lady from Poughkeepsie when she was breathless) continued unabated. It +was a situation that, at another time, would have vastly amused Louise. + +But it was really a serious matter. Mrs. Conroth was quite as excited +as Betty. Both became vociferous in acclaiming the captain's +irresponsibility, and both accused him of having caused Cap'n Abe's +disappearance. + +"Mark my word," declared Aunt Euphemia, with her most indignant air, +"that creature is guilty--guilty of an awful crime!" + +"The old pirate! That he is!" reiterated Betty. + +"Louise, my child, come away from here at once. This is no place for a +young woman--or for any self-respecting person. Come." + +For the first time since the opening of this scene Cap'n Amazon +displayed trouble. He turned to look at Louise, and she thought his +countenance expressed apprehension--as though he feared she might go. + +"Come!" commanded Mrs. Conroth again. "This is no fit place for you; +it never _has_ been fit!" + +"Avast, there, ma'am!" growled the captain, at last stung to retort. + +"You are an old villain!" declared Aunt Euphemia. + +"He's an old pirate!" concluded Betty Gallup. Here Louise found her +voice--and she spoke with decision. + +"I shall stay just the same, aunt. I am satisfied that you all +misjudge Captain Amazon." His face--the sudden flash of gratitude in +it--thanked her. + +"Louise!" cried her aunt. + +"You better come away, Miss Lou," said Betty. "The constable'll git +that old pirate; that's what'll happen to him." + +"Stop!" exclaimed Louise. "I'll listen to no more. I do not believe +these things you say. And neither of you can prove them. I'm going to +bed. Good-night, Aunt Euphemia," and she marched out of the room. + +That closed the discussion. Cap'n Amazon bowed Mrs. Conroth politely +out of the door and Betty went with her. Louise did not get to sleep +in her chamber overhead for hours; nor did she hear the captain come +upstairs at all. + +In the morning's post there was a letter for Louise from her father--a +letter that had been delayed. It had been mailed at the same time the +one to Aunt Euphemia was sent. The _Curlew_ would soon turn her bows +Bostonward, the voyage having been successful from a scientific point +of view. Professor Grayling even mentioned the loss of a small boat in +a squall, when it had been cast adrift from the taffrail by accident. + +Betty, with face like a thundercloud, had brought the letter up to +Louise. When the girl had hastily read it through she ran down to show +it to Cap'n Amazon. She found him reading an epistle of his own, while +Cap'n Joab, Milt Baker, Washy Gallup, and several other neighbors +hovered near. + +"Yep. I got one myself," announced Cap'n Amazon. + +"Oh, captain!" + +"Yep. From Abe. Good reason why your father didn't speak of Abe in +his letter to your a'nt. Didn't in yours, did he?" + +Louise shook her head. + +"No? Listen here," Cap'n Amazon said. "'I haven't spoke to Professor +Grayling. He don't know Abe Silt from the jib-boom. Why should he? I +am a foremast hand and he lives abaft. But he is a fine man. +Everybody says so. We've had some squally weather----' + +"Well! that's nothin'. Ahem!" + +He went on, reading bits to the interested listeners now and then, and +finally handed the letter to Cap'n Joab Beecher. The latter, looking +mighty queer indeed, adjusted his spectacles and spread out the sheet. + +"Ye-as," he admitted cautiously. "That 'pears to be Cap'n Abe's +handwritin', sure 'nough." + +"Course 'tis!" squealed Washy Gallup. "As plain, as plain!" + +"Read it out," urged Milt while the captain went to wait upon a +customer. + +Louise listened with something besides curiosity. The letter was a +rambling account of the voyage of the _Curlew_, telling little directly +or exactly about the daily occurrences; but nothing in it conflicted +with what Professor Grayling had written Louise--save one thing. + +The girl realized that the arrival of this letter from Cap'n Abe had +finally punctured that bubble of suspicion against the captain that had +been blown overnight. It seemed certain and unshakable proof that the +substitute storekeeper was just whom he claimed to be, and it once and +for all put to death the idea that Cap'n Abe had not gone to sea in the +_Curlew_. + +Yet Louise had never been more puzzled since first suspicion had been +roused against Cap'n Amazon. A single sentence in her father's letter +could not be made to jibe with Cap'n Abe's epistle, and therefore she +folded up her own letter and thrust it into her pocket. In speaking of +his companions on shipboard, the professor had written: + + +"I am by far the oldest person aboard the _Curlew_, skipper included. +They are all young fellows, both for'ard and in the afterguard. Yet +they treat me like one of themselves and I am having a most enjoyable +time." + + +Cap'n Abe was surely much older than her daddy-prof! It puzzled her. +It troubled her. There was not a moment of that day when it was not +the uppermost thought in her mind. + +People came in from all around to read Cap'n Abe's letter and to +congratulate Cap'n Amazon and Louise that the _Curlew_ was safe. The +captain took the matter as coolly as he did everything else. + +Louise watched him, trying to fathom his manner and the mystery about +him. Yet, when the solution of the problem was developed, she was most +amazed by the manner in which her eyes were opened. + +Supper time was approaching, and the cooler evening breeze blew in +through the living-room windows. Relieved for the moment from his +store tasks, Cap'n Amazon appeared, rubbing his hands cheerfully, and +briskly approached old Jerry's cage as he chirruped to the bird. + +"Well! well! And how's old Jerry been to-day?" Louise heard him say. +Then: "Hi-mighty! What's this?" + +Louise glanced in from the kitchen. She saw him standing before the +cage, his chin sunk on his breast, the tears trickling down his +mahogany face. + +That hard, stern visage, with its sweeping piratical mustache and the +red bandana above it, was a most amazing picture of grief. + +"Oh! What is it?" cried the girl, springing to his side. + +He pointed with shaking index finger to the bird within the cage. + +"Dead!" he said brokenly, "Dead, Niece Louise! Poor old Jerry's +dead--and him and me shipmates for so many, many years." + +"Oh!" screamed the girl, grasping his arm. "_You are Cap'n Abe_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +SARGASSO + +After all, when she considered it later, Louise wondered only that she +had not seen through the masquerade long before. + +From the beginning--the very first night of her occupancy of the +pleasant chamber over the store on the Shell Road--she should have +understood the mystery that had had the whole neighborhood by the ears +during the summer. + +She, more than anybody else, should have seen through Cap'n Abe's +masquerade. Louise had been in a position, she now realized, to have +appreciated the truth. + +"You are Cap'n Abe," she told him, and he did not deny it. Sadly he +looked at the dead canary in the bottom of the cage, and wiped his eyes. + +"Poor Jerry!" her uncle said, and in that single phrase all the outer +husk of the rough and ready seaman--the character he had assumed in +playing his part for so many weeks--sloughed away. He was the simple, +tender-hearted, almost childish Cap'n Abe that she had met upon first +coming to Cardhaven. + +Swiftly through her mind the incidents of that first night and morning +flashed. She remembered that he had prepared her--as he had prepared +his neighbors--for the coming of this wonderful Cap'n Amazon, whose +adventures he had related and whose praises he had sung for so many +years. + +Cap'n Abe had taken advantage of Perry Baker's coming with Louise's +trunk to send off his own chest, supposedly filled with the clothes he +would need on a sea voyage. + +Then, the house clear of the expressman and Louise safe in bed, the +storekeeper had proceeded to disguise himself as he had long planned to +do. + +Not content with the shaving of his beard only, he had dyed his hair +and the sweeping piratical mustache left him. Walnut juice applied to +his face and body had given him the stain of a tropical sun. Of +course, this stain and the dye had to be occasionally renewed. + +The addition of gold rings in his ears (long before pierced for the +purpose, of course) and the wearing of the colored handkerchief to +cover his bald crown completed a disguise that his own mother would +have found hard to penetrate. + +Cap'n Abe was gone; Cap'n Amazon stood in his place. + +To befool his niece was a small matter. At daybreak he had come to her +door and bidden Louise good-bye. But she had not seen him--only his +figure as he walked up the road in the fog. Cap'n Abe had, of course, +quickly made a circuit and come back to re-enter the house by the rear +door. + +From that time--or from the moment Lawford Tapp had first seen him on +the store porch that morning--the storekeeper had played a huge game of +bluff. And what a game it had been! + +In his character of Cap'n Amazon he had commanded the respect--even the +fear--of men who for years had considered Cap'n Abe a butt for their +poor jests. It was marvelous, Louise thought, when one came to think +of it. + +And yet, not so marvelous after all, when she learned all that lay +behind the masquerade. There had always been, lying dormant in Cap'n +Abe's nature, characteristics that had never before found expression. + +Much she learned on this evening at supper, and afterward when the +store had been closed and they were alone in the living-room. +Diddimus, who still had his doubts of the piratical looking captain, +lay in Louise's lap and purred loudly under the ministration of her +gentle hand, while Cap'n Abe talked. + +It was a story that brought to the eyes of the sympathetic girl the +sting of tears as well as bubbling laughter to her lips. And in it all +she found something almost heroic as well as ridiculous. + +"My mother marked me," said Cap'n Abe. "Poor mother! I was born with +her awful horror of the ravenin' sea as she saw the Bravo an' Cap'n +Josh go down. I knew it soon--when I was only a little child. I knew +I was set apart from other Silts, who had all been seafarin' men since +the beginnin' of time. + +"And yet I loved the sea, Niece Louise. The magic of it, its mystery, +its romance and its wonders; all phases of the sea and seafarin' +charmed me. But I could not step foot in a boat without almost +swoonin' with fright, and the sight of the sea in its might filled me +with terror. + +"Ah, me! You can have no idea what pains I suffered as a boy because +of this fear," said Cap'n Abe. "I dreamed of voyagin' into unknown +seas--of seein' the islands of the West and of the East--of visitin' +all the wonderful corners of the world--of facin' all the perils and +experiencin' all the adventures of a free rover. And what was my fate? + +"The tamest sort of a life," he said, answering his own question. "The +flattest existence ever man could imagine. Hi-mighty! Instead of a +sea rover--a storekeeper! Instead of romance--Sargasso!" and he +gestured with his pipe in his hand. "You understand, Louise? That's +what I meant when I spoke of the Sargasso Sea t'other day. It was my +doom to live in the tideless and almost motionless Sea of Sargasso. + +"But my mind didn't stay tame ashore," pursued Cap'n Abe. "As a boy I +fed it upon all the romances of the sea I could gather. Ye-as. I +suppose I am greatly to be blamed. I have been a hi-mighty liar, +Louise! + +"It began because I heard so many other men tellin' of their +adventoors, an' I couldn't tell of none. My store at Rocky Head where +I lived all my life till I come here (mother came over to Cardhaven +with her second husband; but I stayed on there till twenty-odd year +ago)--my store there was like this one. There's allus a lot of old +barnacles like Cap'n Joab and Washy Gallup clingin' to such reefs as +this. + +"So I heard unendin' experiences of men who had gone to sea. And at +night I read everything I could get touchin' on, an' appertainin' to, +sea-farin'. In my mind I've sailed the seven seas, charted unknown +waters, went through all the perils I tell 'bout. Yes, sir, I don't +dispute I'm a hi-mighty liar," he repeated, sighing and shaking his +head. + +"But when I come here to the Shell Road, where there warn't nobody +knowed me, it struck me forcible," pursued Cap'n Abe, "that my fambly +bein' so little known I could achieve a sort of vicarious repertation +as a seagoin' man. + +"Ye see what I mean? I cal'lated if I'd had a brother--a brother who +warn't marked with a fear of the ocean--_he_ would ha' been a sailor. +Course he would! All us Silts was seafarin' men! + +"An' I thought so much 'bout this brother that I _might_ ha' had, and +what he would ha' done sailin' up an' down the world, learnin' to be a +master mariner, an' finally pacin' his own quarter-deck, that he grew +like he was real to me, Niece Louise--he re'lly did. I give him a +name. 'Am'zon' has been a name in our fambly since Cap'n Reba Silt +first put the nose of his old _Tigris_ to the tidal wave of the Am'zon +River--back in seventeen-forty. He come home to New Bedford and named +his first boy, that was waitin' to be christened, 'Am'zon Silt.' + +"So I called this--this dream brother of mine--'Am'zon.' These +Cardhaven folks warn't likely to know whether I had a brother or not. +And I made up he went to sea when he was twelve--like I told ye, my +dear. Ye-as. I did hate to lie to ye, an' you just new-come here. +But I'd laid my plans for a long while back just to walk out, as it +were, an' let these fellers 'round here have a taste o' Cap'n Am'zon +Silt that they'd begun to doubt was ever comin' to Cardhaven. An' +hi-mighty!" exploded Cap'n Abe, with a great laugh, "I _have_ give 'em +a taste of him, I vum!" + +"Oh, you have, Uncle Abram! You have!" agreed Louise, and burst, into +laughter herself. "It is wonderful how you did it! It is marvelous! +How _could_ you?" + +"Nothin' easier, when you come to think on't," replied Cap'n Abe. "I'd +talked so much 'bout Cap'n Am'zon that he was a fixed idea in people's +minds. I said when he come I'd go off on a v'y'ge. I'd fixed +ev'rything proper for the exchange when you lit down on me, Niece +Louise. Hi-mighty!" grinned Cap'n Abe, "at first I thought sure you'd +spilled the beans." + +Louise rippled another appreciative laugh. "Oh, dear!" she cried, +clapping her hands together. "It's too funny for anything! How you +startled Betty! Why, even Lawford Tapp was amazed at your appearance. +You--you do look like an old pirate, Uncle Abram." + +"Don't I?" responded Cap'n Abe, childishly delighted. + +"That awful scar along your jaw--and you so brown," said the girl. +"How did you get that scar, Uncle Abram?" + +"Fallin' down the cellar steps when I was a kid," said the storekeeper. +"But these fellers think I must ha' got it through a cutlass stroke, or +somethin'. Oh, I guess I've showed 'em what a real Silt should look +like. Yes, sir! I cal'late I look the part of a feller that's roved +the sea for sixty year or so, Niece Louise." + +"You do, indeed. That red bandana--and the earrings--and the +mustache--and stain. Why, uncle! even to that tattooing----" + +He looked down at his bared arm and nodded proudly. + +"Ye-as. That time I went away ten year ago and left Joab to run the +store (and a proper mess he made of things!) I found a feller down in +the South End of Boston and he fixed me up with this tattoo work for +twenty-five dollars. Course, I didn't dare show it none here--kep' my +sleeves down an' my throat-latch buttoned all winds and weathers. But +now------" + +He laughed again, full-throated and joyous like a boy. Then, suddenly, +he grew grave. + +"Niece Louise, I wonder if you can have any idea what this here +dead-and-alive life all these years has meant to me? Lashed hard and +fast to this here store, and to a stay-ashore life, when my heart an' +soul was longin' to set a course for 'way across't the world? +Sargasso--that's it. This was my Sargasso Sea--and I was smothered in +it!" + +"I think I understand, Cap'n Abe," the girl said softly, laying her +hand in his big palm. + +"An' now, Louise, that I've got a taste of romance, I don't want to +come back to humdrum things--no, sir! I want to keep right on bein' +Cap'n Am'zon, and havin' even them old hardshells like Cap'n Joab and +Washy Gallup look on me as a feller-salt." + +"But how------?" + +"They never really respected Cap'n Abe," her uncle hurried on to say. +"I find my neighbors _did_ love him, an' I thank God for that! But +they knew he warn't no seaman, and a man without salt water in his +blood don't make good with Cardhaven folks. + +"But Cap'n Am'zon--he's another critter entirely. They mebbe think +he's an old pirate or the like," and he chuckled again, "but they +sartin sure respect him. Even Bet Gallup fears Cap'n Am'zon; but, to +tell ye the truth, Niece Louise, she used to earwig Cap'n Abe!" + +"But when the _Curlew_ arrives home?" queried the girl suddenly. + +"Hi-mighty, ye-as! I see _that_," he groaned. "Looks to me as though +somethin'll have to happen to Abe Silt 'twixt Boston and this port. +And you'll have to stop your father's mouth, Louise. I depend upon you +to help me. Otherwise I shall be undone--completely undone." + +"Goodness!" cried the girl, choked with laughter again. "Do you mean +to do away with Cap'n Abe? I fear you are quite as wicked as Betty +Gallup believes you to be--and Aunt Euphemia." + +He grinned broadly once more. "I got Cap'n Abe's will filed away +already--if somethin' should happen," said the old intriguer. +"Everything's fixed, Niece Louise." + +"I'll help you," she declared, and gave him her hand a second time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +STORM CLOUDS THREATEN + +The next week Gusty Durgin made her debut as a picture actress. She +had pestered Mr. Bane morn, noon, and night at the hotel until finally +the leading man obtained Mr. Anscomb's permission to work the buxom +waitress into a picture. + +"But nothin' funny, Mr. Bane," Gusty begged. "Land sakes! It's the +easiest thing in the world to get a laugh out of a fat woman fallin' +down a sand bank, or a fat man bein' busted in the face with a custard +pie. I don't want folks to laugh at my fat. I want 'em to forget that +I _am_ fat." + +"Do you know, Miss Grayling," said Bane, recounting this to Louise, +"_that_ is art. Gusty has the right idea. Many a floweret is born to +blush unseen, the poet says. But can it be we have found in Gusty +Durgin a screen artist in embryo?" + +Louise was interested enough to go to the beach early to watch Gusty in +a moving picture part. + +"A real sad piece 'tis, too," the waitress confided to Louise. "I got +to make up like a mother--old, you know, and real wrinkled. And when +my daughter (she's Miss Noyes) is driv' away from home by her father +because she's done wrong, I got to take on like kildee 'bout it. It's +awful touchin'. I jest cried about it ha'f the night when this Mr. +Anscomb told me what I'd have to do in the picture. + +"Land sakes! I can cry re'l tears with the best of 'em--you see if I +can't, Miss Grayling. You ought to be a movie actress yourself. It +don't seem just right that you ain't." + +"But I fear I could not weep real tears," Louise said. + +"No. Mebbe not. That's a gift, I guess," Gusty agreed. "There! I +got to go now. He's callin' me. The boss's sister will have to wait +on all the boarders for dinner to-day. An' my! ain't she sore! But if +I'm a success in these pictures you can just believe the Cardhaven Inn +won't see _me_ passin' biscuits and clam chowder for long." + +In the midst of the rehearsal Louise saw a figure striding along the +shore from the direction of Tapp Point, and her heart leaped. Already +there seemed to be a change in the appearance of Lawford. + +His sisters, who came frequently to see Louise at Cap'n Abe's, had told +her their brother, was actually working in one of his father's +factories. He had not even obtained a position in the office, but in +the factory itself. He ran one of the taffy cutting machines, for one +thing, and wore overalls! + +"Poor Ford!" Cecile said, shaking her head. "He's up against it. I'm +going to save up part of my pocket money for him--if he'll take it. I +think daddy's real mean, and I've told him so. And when Dot Johnson +comes I'm not going to treat her nice at all." + +Lawford, however, did not look the part of the abused and disowned +heir. He seemed brisker than Louise remembered his being before and +his smile was as winning as ever. + +"Miss Grayling!" he exclaimed, seizing both her hands. + +"Lawford! I am _so_ glad to see you," she rejoined frankly. And then +she had to pull her hands away quickly and raise an admonitory finger. +"Walk beside me--and be good," she commanded. "Do you realize that two +worlds are watching us--the world of The Beaches and the movie world as +well?" + +"Hang 'em!" announced Lawford with emphasis, his eyes shining. "Think! +I've never even thanked you for what you did for me that day. I +thought Betty Gallup hauled me out of the sea till Jonas Crabbe at the +lighthouse put me wise." + +"Never mind that," she said. "Tell me, how do you like your work? And +why are you at home again?" + +"I'm down here for the week-end---to get some more of my duds, to tell +the truth. I'm going to be a fixture at the Egypt factory--much to +dad's surprise, I fancy." + +"Do you like it?" she asked him, watching his face covertly. + +"I hate it! But I can stick, just the same. I have a scheme for +improving the taffy cutting machines, too. I think I've a streak in me +for mechanics. I have always taken to engines and motors and other +machinery." + +"An inventor!" + +"Yes. Why not?" he asked soberly, "Oh! I'm not going to be one of +those inventors who let sharp business men cheat them out of their +eye-teeth. If I improve that candy cutter it will cost I. Tapp real +money, believe me!" + +Louise's eyes danced at him in admiration and she dimpled. "I think +you are splendid, Lawford!" she murmured. + +It was a mean advantage to take of a young man. They were on the open +beach and every eye from the lighthouse to Tapp Point might be watching +them. Lawford groaned deeply--and looked it. + +"Don't," she said. "I know it's because of me you have been driven to +work." + +"You know that, Miss Grayling? Louise!" + +"Yes. I had a little talk with your father. He's _such_ a funny man!" + +"If you can find anything humorous about I. Tapp in his present mood +you are a wonder!" he exclaimed. "Oh, Louise!" He could not keep his +hungry gaze off her face. + +"You're a nice boy, Lawford," she told him, nodding. "I liked you a +lot from the very first. Now I admire you." + +"Oh, Louise!" + +"Don't look like that at me," she commanded. "They'll see you. +And--and I feel as though I were about to be eaten." + +"You will be," he said significantly. "I am coming to the store +to-night. Or shall I go to see your aunt first?" + +"You'd better keep away from Aunt Euphemia, Lawford," she replied, +laughing gayly. "Wait till my daddy-prof comes home. See him." + +"And you really love me? Do you? Please . . . dear!" + +She nodded, pursing her lips. + +"But eighteen dollars a week!" groaned Lawford. "I think the super +would have made it an even twenty if it hadn't been for dad." + +"Never mind," she told him, almost gayly. "Maybe the invention will +make our fortune." + +At that speech Lawford's cannibalistic tendencies were greatly and +visibly increased. Louise was no coy and coquettish damsel without a +thorough knowledge of her own heart. Having made up her mind that +Lawford was the mate for her, and being confident that her father would +approve of any choice she made, she was willing to let the young man +know his good fortune. + +Nor was Lawford the only person to learn her mind. Cap'n Abe said: + +"Land sakes! you come 'way down here to the Cape to be took in by a +feller like Ford Tapp, Niece Louise? I thought you was a girl with too +much sense for that!" + +"But what has love to do with sense, uncle?" she asked him, dimpling. + +"Hi-mighty! I s'pect that's so. An', anyway, he does seem to improve. +He's really gone to work, they tell me, in one of his father's candy +factories." + +"But that's the one thing about him I'm not sure I approve of," sighed +Louise. "We could have so much better times if he and I could play +along the shore this summer and not have to think about hateful money." + +"My soul an' body!" gasped the storekeeper, as though she had spoken +irreverently about sacred things. "Money ain't never hateful, Niece +Louise." + +On Sunday I. Tapp did not accompany his family to church at Paulmouth. +Returning, the big car stopped before Cap'n Abe's store and Mrs. Tapp +came in to call on Louise. The good woman hugged the girl and wept on +her bosom. + +"I'm so happy and so sorry, both together, that I'm half sick," she +said. "Lawford is so proud and joyful that I could cry every time I +look at him. And his father's so cross and unhappy that I have to cry +for him, too." + +Which seemed to prove that Mrs. Tapp was being kept in a moist state +most of the time. + +"But I know I. Tapp is sorry for what he's done. Only there's no use +expectin' him to admit it, or that he'll change. If Fordy won't marry +Dot Johnson I. Tapp will never forgive him. I don't know what I shall +say to her when she does come." + +"Maybe she will not appear at all," Louise suggested comfortingly. + +"I don't know. I got a letter from her mother putting the visit off +till later. But it can't be put off forever. Anyhow, when she comes +Lawford says he won't be at home. I hope the girls will act nice to +her." + +"_I_ will," Louise assured her. "And I'll make Mr. Tapp like me yet; +you see if I don't." + +"Oh, I can't hope for that much, my dear," sighed the lachrymose lady, +shaking her head; but she kissed Louise again. + +Lawford waved a hand to her at her chamber window early on Monday +morning as L'Enfant Terrible drove him in the roadster to Paulmouth to +catch the milk train. All the girls were proud of their brother +because, as Cecile said, he was proving himself to be "such a perfectly +good sport after all." And perhaps I. Tapp himself admired his son for +the pluck he was showing. + +They corresponded after that--Louise and Lawford. As she could not +hope to hear from the _Curlew_ again until the schooner made the port +of Boston, Lawford's letters were the limit of her correspondence. +Louise had always failed to make many close friends among women. + +Her interests aside from those at the store and with the movie people +were limited, too. The butterfly society of The Beaches did not much +attract Louise Grayling. + +Aunt Euphemia manifestly disapproved of her niece at every turn. The +Lady from Poughkeepsie had remained on the Cape for the full season in +the hope of breaking up the intimacy between Louise and Lawford Tapp. +His absence, which she had believed so fortunate, soon proved to be +merely provocative of her niece's interest in the heir of the Taffy +King. + +Nor could she wean Louise from association with the piratical looking +mariner at Cap'n Abe's store. The girl utterly refused to be guided by +the older woman in either of these particulars. + +"You are a reckless, abandoned girl!" Aunt Euphemia declared. "I am +sure, no matter what others may say, that awful sailor is no fit +companion for you. + +"And as, for Lawford Tapp----Why, his people are impossible, Louise. +Wherever you have your establishment, if you marry him, his people, +when they visit you will have to be apologized for," the indignant +woman continued. + +"Let--me--see," murmured Louise. "How large an 'establishment' should +you think, auntie, we could keep up on eighteen dollars a week?" + +"Eighteen dollars a week!" exclaimed Aunt Euphemia, aghast. + +"Yes. That is Lawford's present salary. Wages, I think they call it +at the factory. He gets it in cash--in a pay envelope." + +"Mercy, Louise! You are not in earnest?" + +"Certainly. My young man is going to earn our living. If he marries +me his father will cut him off with the proverbial shilling. I. Tapp +has other matrimonial plans for Lawford." + +"What?" gasped the horrified Mrs. Conroth. "He does not approve of +you?" + +"Too true, auntie. I have driven poor Lawford to work in a candy +factory." + +"That--that upstart!" exploded the lady. But she did not refer to +Lawford. + +It was evident that Aunt Euphemia saw nothing but the threat of storm +clouds for her niece in the offing. Trouble, deep and black, seemed, +to her mind to be hovering upon the horizon of the future, + +As it chanced, the weather about this time seemed to reflect Aunt +Euphemia's mood. The summer had passed with but few brief tempests. +Seldom had Louise seen any phase of the sea in its wrath. + +September, however, is an uncertain month at best. For several days a +threatening haze shrouded the distant sea line. The kildees, fluttered +and shrieked over the booming surf. + +Washy Gallup, meeting Louise as she strolled on the beach, +prognosticated: + +"Shouldn't be surprised none, Miss Lou, if we had a spell of weather. +Mebbe we'll have an airly equinoctooral. We sometimes do. + +"Then ye'll hear the sea sing psalms, as the feller said, an' no +mistake. Them there picture folks'll mebbe git a show at a re'l storm. +That's what they been wishin' for--an' a wreck off shore. Land sakes! +if they'd ever _seed_ a ship go to pieces afore their very eyes they +wouldn't ask for a second helpin'--no, ma'am!" + +That evening threatening clouds rolled up from seaward and mantled the +arch of the sky. The fishing boats ran to cover in the harbor before +dark. The surf rumbled louder and louder along the shore. + +And all night the sea mourned its dead over Gull Rocks. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE SCAR + +Another fishfly (or was it the same that had droned accompaniment to +Cap'n' Abe's story-telling upon a former occasion?) boomed against the +dusty panes of the window while the fretful, sand-laden wind swept +searchingly about the store on the Shell Road. + +It was early afternoon; but a green and dreary light lay upon sea and +land as dim as though the hour was that of sunset. In the silence +punctuating the desultory conversation, the sharp _swish, swish_ of the +sand upon the panes almost drowned the complaint of the fishfly. + +"We're going to have a humdinger of a gale," announced Milt Baker, the +last to enter and bang the store door. "She's pullin' 'round into the +no'th-east right now, and I tell Mandy she might's well make up her +mind to my lyin' up tight an' dry for a while. Won't be no clams +shipped from _these_ flats to-morrow." + +"High you'll likely be," agreed the storekeeper. "How _dry_ ye'll be, +Milt, remains to be seen." + +"_In_-side, or _aout_?" chuckled Cap'n Joab, for + +Milt Baker's failing was not hidden under a bushel. + +Amiel hastened to toll attention away from his side partner. "This +wind's driv' them picture folks to cover," he said. "They was makin' +some fillums over there on the wreck of the _Goldrock_, that's laid out +four year or so in Ham Cove------" + +"Nearer five year," put in Cap'n Joab, a stickler for facts. + +"You air right, cap'n," agreed Washy Gallup. + +"Well," said Amiel, "four _or_ five. The heave of her made ha'f of 'em +sick, and that big actor man, Bane, got knocked off into the water an' +'twas more by good luck than good management he warn't drowned. I +cal'late _he's_ got enough." + +"The gale that brought the _Goldrock_ ashore had just such another +beginning as this," Cap'n Joab said reflectively. "But she'd never +been wrecked on a lee shore if her crew had acted right. They +mutineed, you know." + +"The sculpins!" ejaculated the storekeeper briskly. "Can't excuse +that. Anything but a crew that'll turn on the afterguard that they've +signed on for to obey!" + +"That's right, Cap'n Am'zon," said Cap'n Joab. "Ye say a true word." + +"An' for good reason," declared the mendacious storekeeper. "I've had +experience with such sharks," and he ran his finger reflectively down +the old scar upon his jaw. + +"I always wanted to ask you 'bout that scar, Cap'n Am'zon," put in Milt +Baker encouragingly. "Did you get it in a mutiny?" + +"Yep." + +"I didn't know but ye got it piratin'," chuckled Milt. "Bet Gallup, +she swears you sailed under the Jolly Roger more'n once." + +"So I did," declared the captain boldly. "This crew o' mutineers I +speak of turned pirates, and they held me--the only one of the +afterguard left alive--to navigate the ship. + +"Guess mebbe you've heard tell, Cap'n Joab, of the mutiny of the +_Galatea_?" went on the narrator unblushingly. + +His fellow skipper nodded. "I've heard of it--yes. But you don't mean +to say you sailed on _her_, Am'zon?" + +"Yes, I did," the storekeeper declared. "I was third aboard her--she +carried a full crew. She sailed out o' N'York for Australia and home +by the way of the Chile ports and the Horn--a hermaphrodite brig she +was; and--she--could--sail! + +"But she warn't well found. The grub was wuss'n a Blue-nose herrin' +smack's. Weevilly bread and rusty beef. The crew had a sayin' that +the doc didn't have to call 'em to mess; the smell of it was sufficient. + +"They was a hard crew I allow--them boys; many of 'em dock rats and the +like. Warn't scurcely half a dozen able seamen in the whole crew. And +the skipper and mate was master hard on 'em. In the South Atlantic we +got some bad weather and the crew was worked double tides, as you might +say. + +"The extry work on top o' the poor grub finished 'em," said the +storekeeper. "One day in the mornin' watch the whole crew come boilin' +aft and caught the skipper and the mate at breakfast. _They_ lived +well. The second was in his berth and I had the deck. + +"I got knocked out first thing--there's the scar of it," and the +captain put a finger again on the mark along his jaw which actually was +a memento of contact with the cellar step when he was a child. +"Belayin' pin. Knocked me inside out for Sunday. But I cal'late they +didn't put the steel to me 'cause I'd been fairly decent to 'em comin' +down from N'York. + +"Then, after the fight was over and they'd hove the others overboard, +they begun to see they needed me to navigate the _Galatea_. They give +me the choice of four inches of cold steel or actin' as navigator--the +bloody crew o' pirates!" + +"And what did ye do?" demanded Amiel Perdue, his mouth ajar. + +"Well," snorted the storekeeper, "ye can see I didn't choose a knife in +my gizzard. We sailed up an' down the coast of Brazil and the Guineas +for two months, sellin' the cargo piecemeal to dirty little Portugee +traders an' smugglers. Then we h'isted the black flag and took our +first prize--an English barque goin' down to Rio. It was me saved her +crew's lives and give 'em a chance't in their longboat. They made Para +all right, I heard afterward. + +"We burned that barque," proceeded the storekeeper dreamily, "after we +looted her of everything wuth while. Then----" + +The door was flung open with a gust of wind behind it. A lanky, +half-grown lad stuck his head in at the opening to shrill: + +"Hi! ain't ye heard 'bout it?" + +"Bout what?" demanded Milt Baker. + +"There's a schooner drivin' in on to the Gull Rocks," cried the news +vender. "Something gone wrong with her rudder, they say. She's goin' +spang onto the reef. Ev'rybody's down there, an' the life-savers are +comin' around from Wellriver with their gear." + +"Gale out o' the no'theast, too!" exclaimed Cap'n Joab, starting for +the door. + +The story-teller saw his audience melt away in a minute. He went out +on the porch. Fluttering across the fields and sand lots from all +directions were the neighbors--both men and women. The possibility of +a wreck--the great tragedy of long-shore existence--would bring +everybody not bed-ridden to the sands. + +He saw Betty Gallup in high boots, her pea-coat buttoned tightly across +her flat bosom, her man's hat pulled down over her ears, already +halfway to the shore. From the cottage on the bluffs above The Beaches +the summer visitors were trailing down. Below Bozewell's bungalow the +motion picture company were running excitedly about. + +"Like sandpipers," muttered the storekeeper. "Crazy critters. Wonder +where that schooner is." + +He hesitated to leave the premises. Cap'n Abe had never been known to +follow the crowd to the beach when an endangered craft was in the +offing. Indeed, he never looked in the direction of the sea if he +could help it when a storm lashed its surface and piled the breakers +high upon the strand. + +But suddenly the man remembered that he was _not_ Cap'n Abe! He stood +here in an entirely different character. Cap'n Amazon, the rough and +ready mariner, had little in common with the timid creature who had +tamely kept store on the Shell Road for twenty-odd years. + +What would the neighbors think of Cap'n Amazon if he remained away from +the scene of excitement at such a time? He turned back into the store +for his hat and coat and later came out and closed the door. Then he +shuffled down the road. + +At first he closed his eyes--squeezing the lids tight so as not to see +the gale-ridden sea. But finally, stumbling, he opened them. Far away +where the pale tower of the lighthouse lifted staunchly against the +greenish gray sky, the surf was rolling in from the open sea, the waves +charging up the strand one after the other like huge white horses, +their manes of spume tossed high by the breath of the gale. Black was +the sea, and streaked angrily with foam. + +Thunderously did it roar and break over the Gull Rocks. A curtain of +spoondrift hung above that awful reef and almost shut from the view of +those ashore the open sea and what swam on it. + +The old storekeeper reached the sands below the Shell Road. Scattered +in groups along the strand were the people of all classes and degrees +brought together by the word that a vessel was in peril. Here a group +of fishermen in guernseys and high boots, their sou'westers battened +down upon their heads. Yonder Bane and his fellow actors in natty +summer suits stood around the camera discussing with the director the +possibility of making a film of the scene. Farther away huddled a +party of women from the neighborhood, with shawls over their heads and +children at their skirts. Beyond them the people from the cottages on +the bluff were hurrying to the spot--women in silk attire and men in +the lounge suits that fashion prescribed for afternoon wear. + +The storekeeper saw and appreciated all this. He stood squarely up to +the wind, the ends of the red bandana over his ears snapping in the +rifted airs, and shaded his eyes with his hand. With his other hand he +stroked the scar along his jaw. He had a feeling that he had been +cheated. That story of the mutiny of the _Galatea_ was destined to be +one of his very best narratives. + +He had come to take great pride in these tales, had Cap'n Abe. He had +heard enough men relate personal reminiscences to realize that his +achievements in the story-telling line had a flavor all their own. He +could hold his course with any of them, was his way of expressing it. + +And here something had intervened to shut him off in the middle of a +narrative. Cap'n Abe did not like it. + +His keen vision swept the outlook once more. How darkly the clouds +lowered! And the wind, spray-ridden down here on the open strand, cut +shrewdly. It would be a wild night. Casually he thought of his +cheerful living-room, with his chintz-cushioned rocker, Diddimus +purring on the couch, and the lamplight streaming over all. + +"Lucky chap, you, Abe Silt, after all," he muttered. "Lucky you ain't +at sea in a blow like this." + +It was just then that he saw the laboring schooner in the offing. Her +poles were completely bare and by the way she pitched and tossed Cap'n +Abe knew she must have two anchors out and that they were dragging. + +She was so far away that she looked like a toy on the huge waves that +rolled in from the horizon line. Now and then a curling wave-crest hid +even her topmasts. Again, the curtain of mist hanging above Gull Rocks +shrouded her. + +For the craft was being driven steadily upon the rocks. Unless the +wind shifted--and that soon--she must batter her hull to bits upon the +reef. + +The storekeeper, who knew this coast and the weather conditions so +well, saw at once that the schooner had no chance for salvation. When +the wind backed around into the northeast, as it had on this occasion, +it foreran a gale of more than usual power and of more than twenty-four +hours' duration. + +"She's doomed!" he whispered, and wagged his head sadly. + +The might of the sea made him tremble. The thought of what was about +to happen to the schooner--a fate that naught could avert--sickened +him. Yet he walked on to join the nearest group of anxious watchers, +the spray beating into that face which was strangely marred. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +WHEN THE STRONG TIDES LIFT + +It was the tag-end of the season for the summer colony at The Beaches. +Mrs. Conroth expected to leave the Perritons that evening--was leaving +lingeringly, for she had desired to bear her niece off to New York with +her. But on that point Louise had been firm. + +"No, Aunt Euphemia," she had said. "I shall wait for daddy-prof and +the _Curlew_ to arrive at Boston. Then I shall either go there to meet +him, or he will come here. I want him to meet Lawford just as quickly +as possible, for we are not going to wait all our lives to be married." + +"Louise!" gasped Mrs. Conroth with horror. "How can you say such a +thing!" + +"I mean it," said the girl, nodding with pursed lips. + +"You are behaving in a most selfish way," the Lady from Poughkeepsie +declared. "Everybody here has remarked how you have neglected me for +those Tapps. They have taken full advantage of your patronage to push +themselves into the society of their betters." + +"Perhaps," sighed Louise. "But consider, auntie. This is a free and +more or less independent republic. After all, money is the only +recognized mark of aristocracy." + +"Money!" + +"Yes. How far would the Perritons' blue blood get them--or the +Standishes'--or the Graylings'--without money? And consider our own +small beginnings. Your great, great, great grandfather was a knight of +the yardstick and sold molasses by the quart." + +"You are incorrigible, Louise," cried Aunt Euphemia, her fingers in her +ears. "I will not listen to you. It is sacrilegious." + +"It's not a far cry," her niece pursued, "from molasses to taffy. And +it seems to me one is quite as aristocratic as the other." + +So she left Mrs. Conroth in a horrified state of mind and stepped out +to face the gale. Seeing others streaming down upon the sands, Louise, +too, sought the nearest flight of steps and descended to the foot of +the bluff. + +This was Saturday and she hoped that Lawford would come for the +week-end. It was not Lawford, however, but his father into whose arms +she almost stumbled as she came out from under the shelter of the bank +into the full sweep of the gale. + +"Oh, Mr. Tapp! Why is everybody running so? What has happened?" + +The Taffy King had a most puzzling expression upon his face. He glared +at her as though he did not hear what she said. In his hand he +clutched an envelope. + +"Ha! That you, Miss Grayling?" he growled. "Seen Ford?" + +"No. Is he at home?" + +"He's here fast enough," was I. Tapp's ungracious rejoinder. "I +supposed he'd come over to see you." + +"Perhaps he has," she returned wickedly. "He is a very faithful +knight." + +"He's a perfect ninny, if _that's_ what you mean," snapped the Taffy +King. "He's made a fool of me, too. I shouldn't wonder if he knew +this all along," and he shook the letter in his hand and scowled. + +"You arouse my curiosity," Louise said. "I hope Lawford has done +nothing more to cause you vexation." + +"I don't know whether he has or not. The young upstart! I feel like +punching him one minute, and then the next I've got to take off my hat +to him, Miss Grayling. D'you know what he's done?" + +"Something really fine, I hope. I do not think you wholly appreciate +Lawford, Mr. Tapp," the girl told him firmly. + +"Ha! No. I s'pose he's got to go outside his immediate family to be +appreciated," he snarled. + +But at that Louise merely laughed. "You don't tell me what he has +done," she urged. + +"Why, the young rascal's solved a problem in mechanics that has puzzled +us candy makers for years. I'm having a new cutting machine built +after his suggestions." + +"I hope Lawford will be properly reimbursed for his idea," she +interrupted. "You know, he and I are going to need the money." + +"Ha!" snorted I. Tapp again. "Ford's no fool, it seems, when it comes +to a contract. He's got me tied hard and fast to a royalty agreement +and a lump sum down if the machine works the way he says it will." + +"I'm so glad!" cried Louise. + +"You are, eh? What for?" + +"Because we need not wait so long to be married," she frankly told him. + +I. Tapp stood squarely in the path and looked at her. + +"So you are going to marry him, whether I agree or not?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Right in my very teeth?" + +"I--I hope you won't be _very_ angry, Mr. Tapp," Louise said softly. +"You see--we love each other." + +"Love!" began I. Tapp. Then he stopped, turning the thick letter over +and over in his hand. "Well!" and he actually blew a sigh. "Perhaps +there is something in that. Seems to be. I set my heart on having my +fortune and my partner's joined by Ford and Dot Johnson--and see what's +come of it." + +He suddenly thrust the missive into Louise's hand. + +"Look at that!" + +With a growing suspicion of what it meant she opened the outer envelope +and then the inner one, drawing out the engraved inclosure. Before she +could speak a commotion along the beach drew their attention. + +"What can it be?" Louise cried. "The lifesavers!" + +"And their gear--lifeboat and all," Mr. Tapp agreed. "Must be a +wreck----" + +His gaze swept the sea and he seized Louise's arm. "There! Don't you +see her? A vessel in distress sure enough. She's drifting in upon +Gull Rocks. Bad business, Miss Grayling." + +"Oh, there is Lawford!" murmured Louise. "He's with the surfmen!" + +Two teams of heavy farm horses were dragging the boat and the surfmen's +two-wheeled cart along the hard sand at the edge of the surf. The +bursting waves wetted all the crew as they helped push the wagons, and +the snorting horses were sometimes body deep in the water. + +Lawford, in his fishermen's garments, waved his hand to Louise and his +father. The girl smiled upon him proudly and the Taffy King, seeing +the expression on her face, suddenly seized the missive from her hand. + +"I give up! I give up!" he exclaimed. "I said I'd disown him if he +refused to marry Dorothy Johnson, my partner's daughter. But 'tain't +really Lawford's fault, I s'pose, if Dot won't marry him. It seems she +had other ideas along that line, too, and I never knew it till we got +this invitation to her wedding." + +Louise smiled on the little man with tolerance. "Of course, I knew you +would see it in the right light in time. But it really has been the +making of Lawford," she said calmly. + +"You think so, do you?" returned the Taffy King. "I wonder what good +it would have done him if you hadn't been the prize he wanted? I'm not +sure I shouldn't pay you out, Louise Grayling, by making the two of you +live for a year on his eighteen dollars a week." + +"Are you sure that would be such a great punishment?" she asked him +softly. + +They moved on with the crowd about the gear and boat. The patrol had +come in good season. It was not probable that the schooner would hold +together long after she struck the reef. + +Not until this moment, when she saw the stern faces of the men and the +wan countenances of the women, did Louise understand what the incident +really meant. A few children, clinging to their mother's skirts, +whimpered. The men talked in low voices, the women not at all. + +Her heart suddenly shorn of its happiness, Louise Grayling stared out +at the distant, laboring craft. Death rode on the gale, and lurked +where the billows roared and burst over Gull Rocks. The schooner was +doomed. + +That might be the _Curlew_ out there--the schooner her father was +aboard--instead of this imperiled vessel. Only the night before she +and her uncle had figured out the _Curlew's_ course homeward-bound from +her last port of call. She might pass in sight of Cardhaven Head and +the lighthouse any day now. + +The thought sobered Louise. Clinging to I. Tapp's arm she went nearer +to the spot where the surfmen had brought their gear and boat. + +The sea beyond the line of surf--between the strand and the reef--was +foam-streaked and broken, a veritable cauldron of boiling water. The +captain of the life-saving crew shrank from launching the boat into +that wild waste. + +If the line could be shot as far as the reef the moment the schooner +struck, a breeches buoy could be rigged with less danger and, perhaps, +with a better chance of bringing the ship's company safely ashore. + +"'Tis a woeful pickle of water," Washy Gallup shrieked in Louise's ear. +"And the wind a-risin'. 'Tis only allowed by law to shoot a sartain +charge o' powder in the pottery little gun. Beyond that, is like to +burst her. But mebbe they can make it. Cap'n Jim Trainor knows his +work; and 'tis cut out for him this day." + +Gradually the seriousness of the situation began to affect all the +lighter-minded spectators. Louise saw the group of moving picture +actors at one side. The men dropped their cigarettes and strained +forward as they watched the schooner drive in to certain destruction. + +It was like a play. The schooner, rearing on each succeeding wave, +drew nearer and nearer. A hawser parted and they saw her bows swing +viciously shoreward, the jib-boom thrusting itself seemingly into the +very sky as she topped a huge breaker. + +The crew had to slip the cable of the second anchor. The foremast came +crashing down before she struck. Then, with a grinding thud those on +the shore could not hear, but could keenly sense, the fated craft +rebounded on the reef. + +A gasping cry--the intake of a chorused breath--arose from the throng +of spectators. The fishermen and sailors recoiled from the cart and +left an open space in which the life-saving crew could handle their +gear. + +Cap'n Trainor, the grizzled veteran of the crew, had already loaded the +gun and now aimed it. The shot to which was attached the line was +slipped into the muzzle. + +"Back!" the old man ordered, and waved his hand. Then he pulled the +lanyard. + +The line fled out of the box with a speed that made it smoke. But the +shot fell short. + +"'Tis too much wind, skipper," squealed Washy Gallup. "You be +a-shootin' into the wind's eye. An' she's risin' ev'ry minute." + +His only answer was a black look from Cap'n Trainor. The latter loaded +the gun again, and yet again. The last time he waited for every one to +get well back before he fired the cannon. When she went off she did +not burst as they half expected--she turned a double back somersault. + +"'Tis no use, boys!" the captain roared at them, smiting his hands +together. "We must try the boat. But that's a hell's broth out there, +and no two ways about it." + +The stranded schooner, all but hidden at times in the smother of flying +spume and jumping waves, hung halfway across the reef. They could see +men, like black specks, lashed to her after rigging. Louise, between +bursting waves, counted twenty of these figures. + +"It may be the _Curlew_!" she cried to the Taffy King. "Father told me +in his letter there were twenty people aboard her afore and abaft. He +may be out there!" and the girl shuddered. + +"No, no," said I. Tapp. "Not possible. Don't think of such a thing, +my girl. But whoever they are, they are to be pitied." + +There rose a shout at the edge of the surf. The fringe of fishermen +had rushed in to aid in launching the boat. Anscomb and his camera man +had taken up a good position with the machine. The director was going +to get some "real stuff." + +Louise saw that Lawford was foremost among the volunteers. The +lifeboat crew, their belts strapped under their arms, had taken their +places in the boat. Captain Trainor stood in the stern with his +steering oar. On its truck the lifeboat was run into the surf. + +"Now!" shrieked the excited moving picture director. "Action! Camera! +Go!" + +There was something unreal about it--it was like a play. And yet out +there on that schooner her crew faced bitter death, while the men of +the Coast Patrol took their lives in their hands as the lifeboat was +run through the bursting surf. + +The volunteers ran in till those ahead were neck deep in the sea. Then +the boat floated clear and, with a mighty shove from behind the surfmen +pulled out. + +Lawford and his mates staggered back with the gear. The lifeboat +lifted to meet the onrolling breakers. The men tugged at the oars. + +Somebody screamed. Those ashore saw the white gash of a split oar. +The man in the bow went overboard, not being strapped to the seat. His +mate reached for him and the banging broken oar handle hit him on the +head. + +The boat swung broadside and the next instant was rolling over and over +in the surf, the crew half smothered. + +The spectators ran together in a crowd. But Lawford and some of the +men who had helped to launch the boat rushed into the surf and dragged +the overturned craft and her crew out upon the beach. + +"One of the crew with a broken arm; another knocked out complete with +that crack on the head," sputtered Cap'n Jim Trainor. "Two of my very +best men. Come on, boys! Who'll take their places?" + +Lawford was already putting on the belt he had unbuckled from about one +of the injured surfmen. The Taffy King, seeing what his son was about, +shouted: + +"Ford! Ford! Don't dare do that! I forbid you!" + +Lawford turned a grim face upon his father. "I earn eighteen a week, +dad. I am my own boss." + +A soft palm was placed upon I. Tapp's lips before he could reply. +Louise was weeping frankly, but she urged: + +"Don't stop him, Mr. Tapp. Don't say another word to him. My--my +heart is breaking; but I am glad--oh, I am so glad!--that he is a real +man." + +Cap'n Trainor's hard gaze swept the circle of strained faces about him. +After all, the men here were mostly "second raters"--weaklings like +Milt Baker and Amiel Perdue, or cripples like Cap'n Joab and Washy +Gallup. + +Suddenly the captain's gaze descried a figure well back in the +crowd--one who had not pushed forward during these exciting moments, +but who had been chained to the spot by the fascination of what was +happening. + +"Ain't that Cap'n Am'zon Silt back there?" demanded the skipper of the +lifeboat crew. "You pull a strong oar, I know, Cap'n Am'zon. We need +you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +AN ANCHOR TO THE SOUL + +The storekeeper had stretched no point when he told his niece that the +thought of setting foot in a boat made him well-nigh swoon. His only +ventures aboard any craft were in quiet waters. + +He could pull as strong an oar, despite his years, as any man along the +Cape, but never had he gripped the ash save in the haven or in similar +land-locked water. + +His heart was wrung by the sight of those men clinging to the shrouds +of the wrecked schooner. And he rejoiced that the members of the Coast +Patrol crew displayed their manhood in so noble an attempt to reach the +wreck. + +But his very soul was shaken by the spectacle of the storm-fretted sea, +and terror gnawed at his vitals when the lifeboat was thrust out into +that awful maelstrom of tumbling water. + +Relating imaginary events of this character or repeating what mariners +had told or written about wreck and storm at sea in the safe harbor of +the old store on the Shell Road was different from being an eyewitness +of this present catastrophe. + +Trembling, the salt tears stinging his eyes more sharply than the salt +spray stung his cheeks, the storekeeper had ventured into the crowd of +spectators on the sands. So enthralled were his neighbors by what was +going forward that they did not notice his appearance. + +And well they did not. This character of the bluff and ready master +mariner that Cap'n Abe had builded--a new order of Frankenstein--and +with which he had deceived the community for these many weeks, came +near to being wrecked right here and now. + +He all but screamed aloud in fear when the lifeboat was overturned. +Pallid, shaking, panting for every breath he drew, he was slipping out +of the unnoticing crowd when Cap'n Jim Trainor of the lifeboat crew +called to him. + +"You pull a strong oar, I know, Cap'n Am'zon. We need you." + +For the space of a breath the storekeeper "hung in the wind." He had +been poised for flight and the shock of the lifeboat captain's call +almost startled him into running full speed up the beach. + +Then the thought smote upon his harassed mind that Cap'n Trainor was +not speaking to Cap'n Abe, storekeeper. The call for aid was addressed +to Cap'n Amazon Silt. + +It was to Cap'n Amazon, the man who had been through all manner of +perils by sea and land, who had suffered stress of storm and shipwreck +himself, whose reputation for courage the Shell Road storekeeper had +builded so long. + +Should all this fall in a moment? Should he show the coward's side of +the shield after all his effort toward vicarious heroism? Another +moment of hesitancy and as Cap'n Amazon Silt he would never be able to +hold up his head in the company of Cardhaven folk again. + +Cursed by the horror his mother had felt for the cruel sea that had +taken her husband before her very eyes, Cap'n Abe had ever shrunk from +any actual venture upon deep water. But Cap'n Amazon must be true to +his manhood--must uphold by his actions the character the storekeeper +had builded for him. + +He buttoned his coat tightly across his chest and pushed through the +group. Men and women alike made way for him, and in his ringing ears +he heard such phrases as: + +"_He's_ the man to do it!" + +"That's Cap'n Am'zon for ye!" + +"There's _one_ Silt ain't afraid of salt water, whatever Cap'n Abe may +be!" + +"Will you come, Cap'n Am'zon?" called the skipper of the life-saving +crew. + +"I'm coming," mumbled the storekeeper, and held up his arms that Milt +Baker might fasten the belt about his body. + +Afterward Milt was fond of declaring that the look on Cap'n Amazon's +face at that moment prophesied the tragedy that was to follow. "He +seen death facin' him--an' he warn't afraid," Milt said reverently. + +"In with you, boys!" shouted the skipper. "And hook your belts--every +man of you! If she overturns again I want to be able to count noses +when we come right side up. Now!" + +A shuddering cry from the women, in which Louise found herself joining; +a "Yo! heave-ho!" from the men who launched the craft. Then the +lifeboat was in the surf again, her crew laboring like the sons of +Hercules they were to keep her head to the wind and to the breakers. + +The storekeeper was no weakling; rowing was an accomplishment he had +excelled in from childhood. It was the single activity in any way +connected with the sea that he had learned and maintained. + +At first he kept his eyes shut--tight shut. A strange thrill went +through him, however. All these years he had shrunk from an unknown, +an unexperienced, peril. Was it that Cap'n Abe had been frightened by +a bogey, after all? + +He opened his eyes, pulling rhythmically with the oar--never missing a +stroke. His gaze rested on the face of that old sea-dog, Cap'n Jim +Trainor. The fierce light of determination dwelt there. The skipper +meant to get to the wrecked schooner. He had no doubt of accomplishing +this, and Cap'n Abe caught fire of courage from the skipper's +transfigured countenance. + +As for Lawford Tapp, no member of Cap'n Trainor's crew pulled a better +oar than he. With the bow ash he drove on like a young giant. Fear +did not enter into _his_ emotions. + +There was nobody to notice the pallor of the storekeeper's visage. +Every man's attention was centered on his own oar, while the skipper +gazed ahead at the wave-beaten schooner grounded hard and fast upon the +reef. + +There was no lull in the gale. Indeed, it seemed as though the +strength of the wind steadily rose. The lifeboat only crept from the +shore on its course to Gull Rocks. Each yard must be fought for by the +earnest crew. + +Occasionally Cap'n Trainor called an encouraging sentence at them. For +the most part, however, only the ravening sea roared malice in their +ears. + +Around them the hungry waves leaped and fought for their lives; but the +buoyant boat, held true to her course by the skipper, bore up nobly +under the strain. They won on, foot by foot. + +The thunder of the breakers over the reef finally deafened them. The +rocking schooner, buffeted by waves that could not drive her completely +over the reef, towered finally above the heads of the men in the +lifeboat. + +Cap'n Trainor's straining eyes deciphered her name painted on the bow. +He threw a hand upward in a surprised gesture, still clinging to the +steering oar with his other hand, and shrieked aloud: + +"The _Curlew_! By mighty! who'd ha' thought it? 'Tis the _Curlew_." +He, too, knew of Cap'n Abe's supposed voyage on the seaweed ship. + +The oarsmen read the word upon the skipper's lips rather than heard his +voice. Two, at least, were shocked by the announcement--Lawford and +the storekeeper. There was no opportunity for comment upon this wonder. + +Skillfully the lifeboat was brought around under the lee of the wreck. +Already most of her crew had crept down to the rail and were waiting, +half submerged, to drop into the lifeboat. But one figure was still +visible high up in the shrouds. + +When the waves sucked out from under her the keel of the lifeboat +almost scratched the reef. Then it rose on a swell to the very rail of +the wreck, wedged so tightly on the rock. + +The castaways came inboard rapidly, bringing their injured skipper with +them. The lifeboat was quickly overburdened with human freight. + +"No more! No more!" shouted Cap'n Trainor. "We'll have to make +another trip." + +"Where's the professor? Bring down the professor! There he is!" +yelled the mate of the _Curlew_, who had given his attention to the +injured master of the wrecked craft. "Who lashed him fast up there?" + +There was a movement forward. The storekeeper had got up and pulled a +stout-armed member of the _Curlew's_ crew into his place. + +"Take my oar!" commanded Cap'n Abe. "I got a niece--he's her father. +Hi-mighty! I just got to get him aboard!" + +With an agility that belied his years he leaped for the schooner's rail +as the next surge rose. He swarmed inboard and started up the shrouds. +Those below remained silent while he climbed. + +He reached the helpless man, whipped out his knife, cut the lashings. +Slight as the storekeeper seemed, his muscles were of steel. As though +the half-conscious professor were a child, he lowered him to the +slanting deck. + +"Only room for one o' you!" roared Cap'n Trainor. "Only one! We're +overloaded as 'tis. Better wait." + +"You'll take _him_!" shouted Cap'n Abe, and dropped his burden at +Lawford Tapp's feet. + +The next moment the lifeboat shot away from the side of the wreck, +leaving the Man Who Was Afraid marooned upon her deck. + +That was a perilous journey for the overladen boat. Only the good +management of Cap'n Trainor could have brought her safely to shore. +And when she banged upon the beach it was almost a miracle that she did +not start all her bottom boards. + +Many willing hands hauled the heavy boat up upon the sands. The +rescued crew of the schooner tumbled out and lifted their injured +captain ashore. But it was Lawford who brought in Professor Grayling. +Louise had watched with the Taffy King all through the battle of the +lifeboat with the sea, suffering pangs of terror for Lawford's safety, +yet feeling, too, unbounded pride in his achievement. + +Now she pressed down to meet him at the edge of the sea and found that +the drenched, dazed man Lawford bore up in his arms was her own father! + +The meeting served to rouse the professor. He stared searchingly over +the group of rescued men. + +"Where's the man who cut my lashings and helped me down to the deck? I +don't see him," he said. "Louise, my dear, this is a very, very +strange homecoming. And all my summer's work gone for nothing! But +that man----" + +"Cap'n Amazon Silt," said Lawford. "He stayed behind. There wasn't +room in the boat." + +"Cap'n Am'zon!" exclaimed several excited voices. But only one--and +that Louise Grayling's--uttered another name: + +"Cap'n Abe! Isn't _he_ with you? Didn't you bring him ashore?" + +"By heaven! that's so, Louise!" groaned Lawford. "They must both be +out there. The two brothers are marooned on that rotten wreck!" + +Already the kindly neighbors were hurrying the castaways in groups of +twos and threes to the nearer dwellings. Anscomb was getting foot +after foot of "the real stuff." The moving picture actors and the +cottagers hung on the outskirts of the throng of natives, wide-eyed and +marveling. They had all, on this day, gained a taste of the stern +realities of life as it is along the shore. + +Louise was desirous of getting her father to the store, for he was +exhausted. Lawford turned back toward the group of life-saving men +standing about the beached boat. + +"If they can get her launched again they'll need me," he shouted back +over his shoulder. "Poor Cap'n Abe and Cap'n Amazon------" + +"You've done enough, boy," his father declared, clinging to the sleeve +of Lawford's guernsey. "Don't risk your life again." + +"Don't worry, dad. A fellow has to do his bit, you know." + +Betty Gallup came to the assistance of Louise and helped support the +professor. The woman's countenance was all wrinkled with trouble. + +"He must be out there, too," she murmured to Louise. "Ain't none o' +these chaps off the _Curlew_ jest right yet--scar't blue, or suthin'. +They don't seem to rightly sense that Cap'n Abe was with 'em all the +time aboard that schooner." + +"Poor Cap'n Abe!" groaned Louise again. + +"And that old pirate's with him," said Betty. But her tone lacked its +usual venom in speaking of Cap'n Amazon. "Who'd ha' thought it? I +reckoned he was nothing but a bag o' wind, with all his yarns of bloody +murder an' the like. But he is a Silt; no gettin' around that. And +Cap'n Abe allus did say the Silts were proper seamen." + +"Poor, poor Cap'n Abe!" sobbed Louise. + +"Now, now!" soothed Betty. "Don't take on so, deary. They'll get 'em +both. Never fear." + +But the rising gale forbade another launching of the lifeboat for +hours. The night shut down over the wind-ridden sea and shore, and by +the pallid light fitfully playing over the tumbling waters the watchers +along the sands saw the stricken _Curlew_ being slowly wrenched to +pieces by the waves that wolfed about and over her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +ON THE ROLL OF HONOR + +Stretched upon the couch in the living-room behind the store, with +Diddimus purring beside him, Professor Grayling heard that evening the +story of Cap'n Abe's masquerade. Betty Gallup had gone back to the +beach and Louise could talk freely to her father. + +"And he saved me, for your sake!" murmured the professor. "He gave me +his place in the lifeboat! Ah, my dear Lou! there is something besides +physical courage in this world. And I don't see but that your uncle +has plenty of both kinds of bravery. Really, he is a wonderful man." + +"He _was_ a wonderful man," said Louise brokenly. + +"I do not give up hope of his ultimate safety, my dear. The gale will +blow itself out by morning. Captain Ripley is so badly hurt that he is +being taken to Boston to-night, and the crew go with him. But if there +is interest to be roused in the fate of the last man left upon the +wreck----" + +"Oh, I am sure the neighbors will do everything in their power. And +Lawford, too!" she cried. + +"The schooner is not likely to break up before morning. The departure +of her crew to-night will make it all the easier for Mr. Abram Silt's +secret to be kept," the professor reminded her. + +"Yes. We will keep his secret," sighed Louise. "Poor Uncle Abram! +After all, he can gain a reputation for courage only vicariously. It +will be Cap'n Amazon Silt who will go down in the annals of Cardhaven +as the brave man who risked his life for another, daddy-prof." + +Aunt Euphemia did not leave The Beaches on this evening, as she had +intended. Even she was shaken out of her usual marble demeanor by the +wreck and the incidents connected with it. She came to the store after +dinner and welcomed her brother with a most subdued and chastened +spirit. + +"You have been mercifully preserved, Ernest," she said, wiping her +eyes. "I saw young Lawford Tapp bring you ashore. A really remarkable +young man, and so I told Mrs. Perriton just now. So brave of him to +venture out in the lifeboat as a volunteer. + +"I have just been talking to his father. Quite a remarkable man--I. +Tapp. One of these rough diamonds, you know, Ernest. And he is so +enthusiastic about Louise. He has just pointed out to me the spot on +the bluff where he intends to build a cottage for Lawford and Louise." + +"What's this?" demanded Professor Grayling, sitting up so suddenly on +the couch that Diddimus spat and jumped off in haste and anger. + +"I--I was just going to tell you about Lawford," Louise said in a small +voice. + +"Oh, yes! A little thing like your having a lover slipped your mind, I +suppose?" demanded her father. + +"And a young man of most excellent character," put in the surprising +Mrs. Conroth. "Perhaps his family is not all that might be desired; +but I. Tapp is e-_nor_-mously wealthy and I understand he will settle a +good income upon Ford. Besides, the young man has some sort of +interest in the manufacturing of candies." + +Trust the Lady from Poughkeepsie to put the best foot forward when it +became necessary to do so. The professor was gazing quizzically at the +flushed face of his daughter. + +"So that is what you have been doing this summer, is it?" he said. + +"That--and looking after Cap'n Abe," confessed Louise. + +"I'll have to look into this further." + +"Isn't it terrible?" interrupted Mrs. Conroth. "They say the two +brothers are out on that wreck and they cannot be reached until the +gale subsides. And then it will be too late to save them. Well, +Louise, that old sailor was certainly a brave man. I am really sorry I +spoke so harshly about him. They tell me it was he who put your father +in the boat. I hope there is some way you can fittingly show your +appreciation, Ernest." + +"I hope so," said Professor Grayling grimly. + +Lawford came to the store before bedtime--very white and +serious-looking. He had tried with the patrol crew to launch the boat +again and go to the rescue of the two old men supposed to be upon the +wreck. But the effort had been fruitless. Until the gale fell and the +tide turned they could not possibly get out to Gull Rocks. + +"A brave man is Cap'n Amazon," Lawford Tapp said. "And if Cap'n Abe +was in the schooner's crew----Why, Professor Grayling! surely you must +remember him? Not a big man, but with heavy gray beard and +mustache--and very bald. Mild blue eyes and very gentle-spoken. Don't +you remember him in the crew of the _Curlew_?" + +"It would seem quite probable that he was aboard," Professor Grayling +returned, "minding his p's and q's," as Louise had warned him. "But +you see, Mr. Tapp, being only a passenger, I had really little +association with the men forward. You know how it is aboard +ship--strict discipline, and all that." + +"Yes, sir; I see. And, after all, Cap'n Abe was a man that could +easily be overlooked. Not assertive at all. Not like Cap'n Amazon. +Quite timid and retiring by nature. Don't you say so, Louise?" + +"Oh, absolutely!" agreed the girl. "And yet, when you come to think of +it, Uncle Abram is a wonderful man." + +"I don't see how you can say so," the young man said. "It's Cap'n +Amazon who is wonderful. There were other men down on the beach better +able to handle an oar than he. But he took the empty seat in the +lifeboat when he was called without saying 'yes or no'! And he pulled +with the best of us." + +"He is no coward, of that I am sure," said Professor Grayling. "He +gave me his place in the boat. We can but pray that the lifeboat will +get to him in the morning." + +That hope was universal. All night driftwood fires burned on the sands +and the people watched and waited for the dawn and another sight of the +schooner on the reef. + +The tide brought in much wreckage; but it was mostly smashed top gear +and deck lumber. Therefore they had reason to hope that the hull of +the wreck held together. + +It was just at daybreak that the wind subsided and the tide was so that +the lifeboat could be launched again. Wellriver station owned no +motor-driven craft at this time, or Cap'n Jim Trainor and his men would +have been able to reach the wreck at the height of the gale. + +It was no easy matter even now to bring the lifeboat under the lee of +the battered schooner. Her masts and shrouds were overside, anchoring +her to the reef. Not a sign of life appeared anywhere upon her. + +One of the crew of the lifeboat leaped for the rail and clambered +aboard. Down in the scuppers, in the wash of each wave that climbed +aboard the wreck, he spied a huddled bundle. + +"Here's one of 'em, sure 'nough!" he sang out. + +Making his way precariously down the slanting deck, he reached in a +minute the spot where the unfortunate lay. The man had washed back and +forth in the sea water so long that he was all but parboiled. The +rescuer seized him by the shoulders and drew him out of this wash. + +He was a very bald man with gray hair, a stubble of beard on his +cheeks, and a straggling gray mustache. + +"Why, by golly!" yelled the surfman. "This here's Cap'n Abe Silt!" + +"Ain't his brother Am'zon there?" + +"No, I don't see his brother nowhere." + +"Take a good look." + +"Trust me to do that," answered the surfman. + +But the search was useless. Nobody ever saw Cap'n Amazon again. He +had gone, as he had come--suddenly and in a way to shock the placid +thoughts of Cardhaven people. A stone in the First Church graveyard is +all the visible reminder there remains of Cap'n Amazon Silt, who for +one summer amazed the frequenters of the store on the Shell Road. + +The life-savers brought Cap'n Abe, the storekeeper, back from the +wreck, the last survivor of the _Curlew's_ crew. He was in rather bad +shape, for his night's experience on the wreck had been serious indeed. + +They put him to bed, and Louise and Betty Gallup took turns in nursing +him, while Cap'n Joab Beecher puttered about the store, trying to wait +on customers and keep things straight. + +At first, as he lay in his "cabin," Cap'n Abe did not have much to +say--not even to Louise. But after a couple of days, on an occasion +when she was feeding him broth, he suddenly sputtered and put away the +spoon with a vexed gesture. + +"What's the matter, Uncle Abram?" she asked him. "Isn't it good?" + +"The soup's all right, Niece Louise. 'Tain't so fillin' as chowder, I +cal'late, but it'll keep a feller on deck for a spell. That ain't it. +I was just a-thinkin'." + +"Of what?" + +"Hi-mighty! It's all over, ain't it?" he said in desperation. "Can't +never bring forward Cap'n Am'zon again, can I? I _got_ to be Cap'n Abe +hereafter, whether I want to be or not. It's a turrible dis'pointment, +Louise--turrible! + +"I ain't sorry I went out there in that boat. No. For I got your +father off, an' he'd been carried overboard if he'd been let stay in +them shrouds. + +"But land sakes! I _did_ fancy bein' Cap'n Am'zon 'stead o' myself. +And the worst of it is, Niece Louise, I can't have nothin' new to tell +'bout Cap'n Am'zon's adventures. He's drowned, an' he can't never go +rovin' no more." + +"But think of what you've done, Cap'n Abe," Louise urged. "You feared +the sea--and you overcame that fear. All your life you shrank from +venturing on the water; yet you went out in that lifeboat and played +the hero. Oh, I think it is fine, Cap'n Abe! It's wonderful!" + +"Wonderful?" repeated Cap'n Abe. "P'r'aps 'tis. Mebbe I've been too +timid all my life. P'r'aps I could ha' been a sailor and cruised in +foreign seas if I'd just _had_ to. + +"But mother allus was opposed. She kept talkin' against it when I was +a boy--and later, too. She told how scar't she was when Cap'n Josh and +the _Bravo_ went down in sight of her windows. And mebbe I ketched it +more from her talkin' than aught else. + +"But I never realized that stress of circumstances could push me into +it an' make a man of me. I had a feelin' that I'd swoon away an' fall +right down in my tracks if I undertook to face such a sea as that was +t'other day. + +"And see! Nothing of the kind happened! I knew I'd got to make good +Cap'n Am'zon's character, or not hold up my head in Cardhaven again. I +don't dispute I've been a hi-mighty liar, Niece Louise. But--but it's +sort o' made a man o' me for once, don't ye think? + +"I dunno. Good comes out o' bad sometimes. Bitter from the sweet as +well. And when a man's got a repertation to maintain----There was that +feller Hanks, on the _Lunette_, out o' Nantucket. I've heard Cap'n +Am'zon tell it----" + +"Cap'n Abe!" gasped Louise. + +"Hi-mighty! There I go again," said the storekeeper mournfully. "You +can't teach an old dog new tricks--nor break him of them he's l'arned!" + +Louise and her father remained at the store on the Shell Road until +Cap'n Abe was up and about again. Then they could safely leave him to +the ministrations of Betty Gallup. + +"Somehow," confessed that able seaman, "he don't seem just like he used +to. He speaks quicker and sharper--more like that old pirate, Am'zon +Silt, though I shouldn't be sayin' nothin' harsh of the dead, I s'pose. +I don't dispute that Cap'n Am'zon was muchly of a man, when ye come to +think on't. + +"But Cap'n Abe's more to my taste. Now the place seems right again +with him in the house. Cap'n Abe's as easy as an old shoe. And, land +sakes! I ain't locked out o' _his_ bedroom when I want to clean! + +"One thing puzzles me, Miss Lou. I thought Cap'n Abe would take on +c'nsiderable about Jerry. But when I told him the canary was dead he +up and said that mebbe 'twas better so, seem' the old bird couldn't see +no more. Now, who would ha' told him Jerry was blind?" + +There were a few other things about the returned Cap'n Abe that might +have amazed his neighbors. He seemed to possess an almost uncanny +knowledge of what had happened during the summer. Besides, he seemed +to have achieved Cap'n Amazon's manner of "looking down" a too +inquisitive inquirer into personal affairs and refusing to answer. + +Because of this, perhaps, nobody was ever known to ask the storekeeper +why he had filled his sea chest with bricks and useless dunnage when he +shipped it to Boston. That mystery was never explained. + +Before Louise and her father were ready to leave Cardhaven most of the +summer residents along The Beaches, including Aunt Euphemia, had gone. +And the moving picture company had also flown. + +With the latter went Gusty Durgin, bravely refusing to have her +artistic soul trammeled any longer by the claims of hungry boarders at +the Cardhaven Inn. + +"I don't never expect to be one of these stars on the screen," she +confided to Louise. "But I can make a good livin', an' ma's childern +by her second husband, Mr. Vleet, has got to be eddicated. + +"I'm goin' to make me up a fancy name and make a repertation. They +ain't goin' to call me 'Dusty Gudgeon' no more. Miss Louder tells me I +can 'bant'--whatever that is--to take down my flesh, and mebbe you'll +see me some day, Miss Lou, in a re'l ladylike part. An' I can always +cry. Even Mr. Bane says I'm wuth my wages when it comes to the tearful +parts." + +The Tapps were flitting to Boston, Mrs. Tapp and the girls sure of +"getting in" with the proper set at last. Their summer's campaign, +thanks to Louise, had been successful to that end. + +Louise and Lawford walked along the strand below the cottages. The +candy cutting machine had proved a success and Lawford was giving his +attention to a new "mechanical wrapper" for salt water taffy that would +do away with much hand labor. + +On the most prominent outlook of Tapp Point were piles of building +material and men at work. The pudgy figure of I. Tapp was visible +walking about, importantly directing the workmen. + +"It's going to be a most, wonderful house, Louise dear," sighed +Lawford. "Do you suppose you can stand it? The front elevation looks +like a French chateau of the Middle Ages, and there ought to be a moat +and a portcullis to make it look right." + +"Never mind," she responded cheerfully. "We won't have to live in +it--much. See. We have all this to live in," with a wide gesture. +"The sea and the shore. Cape Cod forever! I shall never be +discontented here, Lawford." + +They wandered back to the store on the Shell Road. There was a chill +in the fall air and Cap'n Abe had built a small fire in the rusty +stove. About it were gathered the usual idlers. A huge fishfly droned +on the window pane. + +"It's been breedin' a change of weather for a week," said Cap'n Joab. + +"Right ye air, sir," agreed Washy Gallup, wagging his head. + +"I 'member hearin' Cap'n Am'zon tell 'bout a dry spell like this," +began Cap'n Abe, leaning his hairy fists upon the counter. "Twas when +he was ashore once at Teneriffe----" + +"Don't I hear Mandy a-callin' me?" Milt Baker suddenly demanded, making +for the door. + +"I gotter git over home myself," said Cap'n Joab apologetically. + +"Me, too," said Washy, rising. "'Tis chore time." + +Cap'n Abe clamped his jaws shut for a minute and his eyes blazed. Only +the mild and inoffensive Amiel was left of his audience. + +"Huh!" he growled. "Ain't goin' to waste my breath on _you_, Amiel +Perdue. Go git me a scuttle of coal." + +Then, when the young fellow had departed, the storekeeper grinned +ruefully and whispered in his niece's ear: + +"Hi-mighty! Cap'n Amazon's cut the sand out from under my feet. They +think he told them yarns so much better'n I do that they won't even +stay to hear me. Hard lines. Niece Louise, hard lines. But mebbe I +deserve it!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAP'N ABE, STOREKEEPER*** + + +******* This file should be named 13982.txt or 13982.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/9/8/13982 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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