yet."

"Ye didn't see him when he came last night?"

"I was in bed."

"Then how--how d'ye know Cap'n Abe's gone? Or that this man is Am'zon
Silt? Nobody ever seen this critter 'round Cardhaven before," Betty
Gallup declared with strong conviction.

"Oh, no; Uncle Amazon has never been here to visit Cap'n Abe before.
Cap'n Abe told me all about it," the girl explained, fearing that
scandal was to take root here and now if she did not discourage it.
"Of course Uncle Abe went away. He came to my door and bade me
good-bye."

Louise was puzzled. She saw an expression in Betty Gallup's face that
she could not interpret.

"Ye heard Cap'n Abe _say_ he was goin'," muttered Betty. "_His_ voice
sounds mighty like Cap'n Abe's. But mebbe Abe Silt didn't go after
all--not rightly."

"What _do_ you mean, Mrs. Gallup?" demanded Louise in bewilderment.

"Well, if you ask me, I should say we'd been boarded by pirates. Go
take a look at that Uncle Am'zon of yourn. He's in the store."

CHAPTER VII

UNDER FIRE

"Uncle Amazon?" burst out Louise. "A pirate?"

"That's what he looks like," repeated Betty Gallup, nodding her head on
which the man's hat still perched. "I never saw the beat! Why, that
man give me the shock of my life when I came in here just now!"

"What _do_ you mean?" the amazed girl asked,

"Why, as I come in--I was a lettle early, knowin' you was here--I heard
as I s'posed Cap'n Abe in the sittin'-room. I saw this letter, sealed
and directed to me, on the dresser there. 'Humph!' says I, 'Who's
writin' billy-doos to _me_, I'd admire to know?' And I up and opened
it and see it's in Cap'n Abe's hand. Just then I heard him behind
me----"

"Heard _who_? Not Cap'n Abe?"

"No, no! This other feller--this Cap'n Am'zon Silt, as he calls
himself. But I _thought_ 'twas Cap'n Abe's step I heard. He says:
'Oh! you've found the letter?' I declare I thought 'twas your uncle's
voice!"

"But it was my uncle's voice, of course," Louise reminded her, much
amused, "Cap'n Amazon Silt is my uncle, too."

"Humph! I s'pose so. Looks to be. If 'tis him. Anyhow," pursued the
jerkily speaking Betty Gallup, "I turned 'round when he spoke spectin'
to see Cap'n Abe--for I hadn't read this letter then--_and there he
warn't_! Instead--of all the lookin' critters! There! you go take a
peek at him and see what you think yourself. I'll put the breakfast on
the table. He's made coffee and the mush is in