n this occasion with mystery, seized Louise by the hand the instant she appeared

l asked. "Have you broken som

brown eyes blinking rapidly.

baby. The night before I

pted Betty, "some

up her mind that she coul

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

sp. This house-that-Jack-built nar

ot by Perry Baker when he brought your trunks over, sure 'nough. And Perry Baker says he

f it?" asked th

one no such foolish thing as that. It costs money to ship a heavy sea chest by e

of our business, Betty. Uncle Abram might have taken the train at some other station. He was not sure, perh

whether that's his name or not. He comes here with

splayed by Betty and others of the neighbors began to appall her. If Cape Cod folk were, as her da

going away when and how he did, he probably had his reasons for taking nobody into his confidenc

Nobody's de

ly had nothing to do with the chest, with how his brother took the train, or wi

Betty. "But I wouldn't put nothin' pa

n," said the girl, far from feeling amused now. "It is not right. I hope you will not

oman. "Mebbe I will. B

yli

g me of

and I've sailed with my father and my husband to 'most ev'ry quarter of the glob

to find the neighbors so gossipy and unkind. She gazed thoughtfully upon Cap'n Amazon as he sat across

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

as kindly of expression, she thought, as Cap'n Abe himself. And h

st full of stories of adventure and wonderful happenings b

ke a long breath, then cl

where. Seen some funny corne

brother told me that you ran away to sea when you were o

e was out three year and come home with our hold bustin' with ile, plenty of ba

ing 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 i

concluded Cap'n Amazon. "Helped make the owners rich, and the Old Man, too. Course, I got my sheer

t sea almost all your

berth in a seaworthy craft to be had for the askin'. I let Abe do

dy! See the nice business he has built up here. And he told

mazon agreed promptly.

k. I got a letter to t

ed cash. Yes, Abe's don

ilt, I swanny! that

to remain ashore yourse

Louise. I've done my s

ettle down h

Abe? Won't t

ered and remained silent

sual. Louise told Cap'n Amazon she would gladly help wait on

decidedly. "You stay aft and I'll 'tend to things for'ard and handle this crew. Besides, there's that half-grown lou

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'

goin' to work in a house where doors is locked against me? I'm as honest as any Silt that ever hobbled on

feel better to do so. Cap'n Amazon looked coolly at her, b

?" repeated Bet

ly, angry as she was. "I don't want no woman messin' with my berth nor with my duds. That door's no more locked ag

expected at first that Betty would not stand the indigni

up was a person not easily tamed. She spluttered a little more, then returned to h

ise thought. "And he must have seen rough times, as that Lawfo

d on his dignity with the customers who came to the store, and with

n Abe he appeared to feel a strong man's good-natured scorn for a weak one; but Louise saw him stand often before

r. "All the sunshine does is to warm him; he can't s

to the needs of poor little Jerry. He had promi

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

k. Treacherous critters, the hull tribe. Why, when I was up country in Cuba once, I stopped at a ma

e, for them Caribs are as lazy as the feller under the tree that wished for the cherries to fall in his mouth!-Y

ut, cracking that cat on the snout with his heel. Next breath the cat had a chunk out o

n me spot when the thing in point happened-and usually he was the heroic and centra

as well as all his wi

by an occurrence that v

familiar, if not friendly, with the substitute st

p'n Am'zon. I'm all out o' chewin'. Put

," and he drew forth the long memorandum Cap'n Abe had made to guide his substitute's treatment of

w?" blustered Milt. "I

the Brown Mul

what I find here: 'Don't trust Milt Baker for Brown Mule 'cause Mandy makes him p

was something in the steady look of the latter that caused the shiftless clam digger to d

tically; only Louise, who heard him, realized fully what his thought was. Jealous