utside the Haven. He wouldn't no more
come down here, push this skiff afloat, and row out to deep water than
he'd go put his hand in a wild tiger's mouth--no, ma'am!"

"Why, isn't that very ridiculous?" Louise said, not at all pleased. "Of
course Cap'n Abe shipped on that boat just as Cap'n Amazon said he was
going to. Otherwise he would have been back--or we would have heard from
him."

"He did, hey?" responded Washy sharply, springing the surprise he had
been leading up to. "Then why didn't he take his chist with him? It's
come back to the Paulmouth depot, so Perry Baker says, it not being
claimed down to Boston."

CHAPTER XIV

A CHOICE OF CHAPERONS

Washy Gallup's gossip should not have made much impression upon Louise
Grayling's mind, but it fretted her. Perhaps her recent interview with
Aunt Euphemia had rasped the girl's nerves. She left the old fisherman
with a tart speech and returned to the store.

There were customers being waited upon, so she had no opportunity to
mention the matter of Cap'n Abe's chest to the substitute storekeeper
at once. Then, when she had taken time to consider it, she decided not
to do so.

It really was no business of hers whether Cap'n Abe had taken his chest
with him when he sailed from Boston or not. She had never asked Cap'n
Amazon the name of the vessel his brother was supposed to have shipped
on. Had she known it was the _Curlew_, the very schooner on which
Professor Grayling had sailed, she would, of course, have shown a much
deeper interest. And had Cap'n Amazon learned from Louise the name of
the craft her father was aboard, he surely would have mentioned the
coincidence.

It stuck in the girl's mind--the puzzle about Cap'n Abe's chest--but it
did not come to her lips. Looking across the table that evening, after
the store was closed, as they sat together under the hanging lamp, she
wondered that Cap'n Amazon did not speak of it if he knew his brother's
chest had been returned to the Paulmouth express agent.

Without being in the least grim-looking in her eyes, there was an
expression on Cap'n Amazon's face, kept scrupulously shaven, that made
one hesitate to pry into or show curiosity regarding any of his private
affairs.

He might be perfectly willing to tell her anything she wished to know.
He was frank enough in relating his personal experiences up and down
the seas, that was sure!

Cap'n Amazon puffed at his pipe and tried to engage the at