eart. It's only rumor. A dozen things might have happened to set
that boat adrift. Ain't that so, Cap'n Joab?"

Cap'n Joab swallowed hard and nodded; but his wind-bitten face
displayed much distress. "I had no idee the gal's father was aboard
that schooner with Cap'n Abe."

"Why, sure! I forgot it for a minute," Cap'n Amazon said cheerfully.
"There, there, my dear. Don't take on so. Abe's with your father, if
so be anything has happened the _Curlew_; and Abe'll take keer o' him.
Sure he will! Ain't he a Silt? And lemme tell you a Silt never backed
down when trouble riz up to face him. No, sir!"

"But if they have been wrecked?" groaned Louise. "Both father and
Uncle Abram. What shall we do about it, Uncle Amazon?"

In this moment of trouble she clung to the master mariner as her single
recourse. And impostor or no, he who called himself Amazon Silt did
not fail her.

"There ain't nothing much we can rightly do at this minute, Niece
Louise," he told her firmly, still patting her morsel of a hand in his
huge one. "We'll watch the noospapers and I'll send a telegraph
dispatch to the ship news office in N'York and git just the latest word
there is 'bout the _Curlew_.

"You be brave, girl--you be brave. Abe an' Professor Grayling being
together, o' course they'll get along all right. One'll help t'other.
Two pullin' on the sheet can allus h'ist the sail quicker than one.
Keep your heart up, Louise."

She looked at him strangely for a moment. The tears frankly standing
in his eyes, the quivering muscles of his face, his expression of keen
sorrow for her fears--all impressed her. She suddenly kissed him in
gratitude, impostor though she knew him to be, and then ran away.
Cap'n Joab hissed across the counter:

"Ye don't _know_ that Cap'n Abe's on that there craft, Am'zon Silt!"

"Well, if I don't--an' if you don't--don't lemme hear you makin' any
cracks about it 'round this store so't she'll hear ye," growled Cap'n
Amazon, boring into the very soul of the flustered Joab with his fierce
gaze.

Louise did not hear the expression of these doubts; but she suffered
uncertainties in her own mind. She longed to talk with somebody to
whom she could tell all that was in her thoughts. Aunt Euphemia was
out of the question, of course; although she must reveal to her the
possible peril menacing Professor Grayling. Betty Gallup could not be
trusted, Louise knew. And the day dragged by its limping hours with