e chest warn't called for within a reasonable time
they shipped it back to me, knowin' I was agent. Funny Cap'n Abe
didn't show up for to claim it."

Cap'n Amazon, grim as a gargoyle, leaned upon the counter and stared
the expressman out of countenance, saying nothing. Perry shifted
uneasily in the doorway. The captain's silence and his stare were
becoming irksome to bear.

"Well!" he finally ejaculated, "that's how 'tis. I'd ha' waited
till--till Cap'n Abe come home--if he ever _does_ come; but my wife,
Huldy, got fidgety. She reads the papers, and she's got it into her
head there's something wrong 'bout the old chest. She dreamed 'bout
it. An' ye know, when a woman gets to dreamin' she'll drag her
anchors, no matter what the bottom is. She says folks have been
murdered 'fore now and their bodies crammed into a chest----"

"Why, you long-winded sculpin!" exclaimed Cap'n Amazon, at length
goaded to speech. "Bring that chest in and take a reef in your
jaw-tackle. I knew a man once't looked nigh enough like you to be your
twin; and he was purt nigh a plumb idiot, too."

Louise had never before heard her uncle's voice so sharp. It was plain
he had not seen his niece until after Perry Baker turned and clumped
out upon the porch, thus giving the girl free entrance to the store.
She turned, smiling a little whimsically, and said to Bane:

"The moment is not propitious, I fear. Uncle Amazon seems to be put
out about something."

"Don't bother him now, I beg," urged the actor, lifting his hat. "I
will call later--if I may."

"Certainly, Mr. Bane," she said with seriousness. "Uncle Amazon and I
will both be glad to see you."

The expressman came heavily up the steps with a green chest on his
shoulder. It had handles of tarred rope and had plainly seen much
service; indeed, it was brother to the box in the storeroom which
Louise had found filled with nautical literature.

The girl entered the store ahead of the staggering expressman, but
stepped aside for him to precede her, for she wished to beckon to Amiel
to come out for the baskets of fish.

"Watch out where you're putting your foot, Perry!" Cap'n Joab suddenly
exclaimed.

His warning was too late. Some youngster, eager to peel his banana,
had flung its treacherous skin upon the floor. The expressman set his
clumsy boot upon it.

"Whee! 'Ware below!" yelled Amiel Perdue.

To recover his footing Perry let go of the chest. It fell to the floo