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