ispered 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. Conr