two boats into the southwest. They wasn't
provisioned or watered for a long v'y'ge, and they had to run for it a
full week, ev'ry mile reeled off takin' them further an' further from
the islands, and further and further off the reg'lar course of
shipping."

"Where'd they wind up at, Cap'n Am'zon?" asked Milt.

"Couldn't hit nothin' nearer'n the Guineas on that course," growled
Cap'n Joab.

"There you're wrong," the substitute storekeeper said. "They struck
seaweed--acres an' acres of it--square miles of it--everlastin'
seaweed!"

"Sargasso Sea!" exploded Washy Gallup, wagging his toothless jaw. "I
swanny!"

"I've heard about that place, but never seen it," said Cap'n Joab.

"And you don't want to," declared the narrator of the incident. "It
ain't a place into which no sailorman wants to venture. The
_Mailfast's_ comp'ny--so 'tis said--was driven far into the pulpy,
grassy sea. The miles of weed wrapped 'em around like a blanket. They
couldn't row because the weed fouled the oars; and they couldn't sail
'cause the weed was so heavy. But there's a drift they say, or a
suction, or something that gradually draws a boat toward the middle of
the field."

"Then, by golly!" exclaimed Milt Baker, "how in tarnation did they git
aout? I sh'd think anybody that every drifted into the Sargasso Sea
would be there yit."

"P'r'aps many a ship an' many a ship's company _have_ found their grave
there," said Cap'n Amazon solemnly. "'Tis called the graveyard of
derelicts. But there's the chance of counter-storms. Before the two
boats from the _Mailfast_ were sucked down, and 'fore the crew was fair
starved, a sudden shift of wind broke up the seaweed field and they
escaped and were picked up.

"The danger of the Sargasso threatens all sailin' ships in them seas.
Steam vessels have a better chance; but many a craft that's turned up
missin' has undoubtedly been swallowed by the Sargasso."

Louise, who heard this discussion from the doorway of the store, could
not fail to be impressed by it. Could the _Curlew_, with her father
and Cap'n Abe aboard, have suffered such a fate? There was an element
of probability in this tale of Cap'n Amazon's that entangled the girl's
fancy. However, the idea colored the old man's further imagination in
another way.

"Sargasso Sea," he said reflectively, between puffs of his pipe, after
the idlers had left the store. "Yes, 'tis a fact, Niece Louise.
That's what Abe drifted in fo