iel
bring them around to the back."

"Aye, aye!" returned the captain briskly. "Tautog? We'll have 'em for
supper," and let her pass as though nothing extraordinary had occurred.

But to Louise's troubled mind the bursting of the old chest was like
the explosion of a bomb in Cap'n Abe's store.

What was the meaning of it all? Why had the chest been filled with
bricks and useless garments? And by whom?

If by Cap'n Abe, what was his object in doing such a perfectly
incomprehensible thing? He had deliberately, it seemed, shipped a
quite useless chest to Boston with no expectation of calling for it at
the express office. Then, _where had he gone_?

Cap'n Joab's query was the one uppermost in Louise Grayling's thought.
All these incomprehensible things seemed to lead to that most important
question. Had Cap'n Abe gone to sea, or had he not? If not, what had
become of him?

And how much more regarding his brother's disappearance did Cap'n
Amazon know than the neighbors or herself? In her room Louise sat and
faced the problem. She deliberated upon each incident connected with
Cap'n Abe's departure as she knew them.

From almost the first moment of her arrival at the store on the Shell
Road, the storekeeper had announced the expected arrival of Cap'n
Amazon and his own departure for a sea voyage if his brother would
undertake the conduct of the store.

The incidents of the night of Cap'n Amazon's coming and of Cap'n Abe's
departure seemed reasonable enough. Here had arisen the opportunity
long desired by the Shell Road storekeeper. His brother would remain
to look out for his business while he could go seafaring. Cap'n Amazon
knew just the craft for the storekeeper to sail in, clearing from the
port of Boston within a few hours.

There was not much margin of time for Cap'n Abe to make his
preparations. Perry Baker was at hand with Louise's trunks, and the
storekeeper had sent off his chest, supposedly filled with an outfit
for use at sea. Just what he had intended to do with useless clothing
and a hod of bricks it was impossible to understand.

Cap'n Abe had come to her bedroom door to bid Louise good-bye, and she
had seen him depart in the fog just at dawn. Yet nobody had observed
him at the railroad station and he had not called for the chest at the
Boston express office.

The chest! That was the apex of the mystery. Never in this world had
Cap'n Abe intended to take the chest with him to sea-