ccasion 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
neig