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 peere