community for these many weeks, came
near to being wrecked right here and now.

He all but screamed aloud in fear when the lifeboat was overturned.
Pallid, shaking, panting for every breath he drew, he was slipping out
of the unnoticing crowd when Cap'n Jim Trainor of the lifeboat crew
called to him.

"You pull a strong oar, I know, Cap'n Am'zon. We need you."

For the space of a breath the storekeeper "hung in the wind." He had
been poised for flight and the shock of the lifeboat captain's call
almost startled him into running full speed up the beach.

Then the thought smote upon his harassed mind that Cap'n Trainor was
not speaking to Cap'n Abe, storekeeper. The call for aid was addressed
to Cap'n Amazon Silt.

It was to Cap'n Amazon, the man who had been through all manner of
perils by sea and land, who had suffered stress of storm and shipwreck
himself, whose reputation for courage the Shell Road storekeeper had
builded so long.

Should all this fall in a moment? Should he show the coward's side of
the shield after all his effort toward vicarious heroism? Another
moment of hesitancy and as Cap'n Amazon Silt he would never be able to
hold up his head in the company of Cardhaven folk again.

Cursed by the horror his mother had felt for the cruel sea that had
taken her husband before her very eyes, Cap'n Abe had ever shrunk from
any actual venture upon deep water. But Cap'n Amazon must be true to
his manhood--must uphold by his actions the character the storekeeper
had builded for him.

He buttoned his coat tightly across his chest and pushed through the
group. Men and women alike made way for him, and in his ringing ears
he heard such phrases as:

"_He's_ the man to do it!"

"That's Cap'n Am'zon for ye!"

"There's _one_ Silt ain't afraid of salt water, whatever Cap'n Abe may
be!"

"Will you come, Cap'n Am'zon?" called the skipper of the life-saving
crew.

"I'm coming," mumbled the storekeeper, and held up his arms that Milt
Baker might fasten the belt about his body.

Afterward Milt was fond of declaring that the look on Cap'n Amazon's
face at that moment prophesied the tragedy that was to follow. "He
seen death facin' him--an' he warn't afraid," Milt said reverently.

"In with you, boys!" shouted the skipper. "And hook your belts--every
man of you! If she overturns again I want to be able to count noses
when we come right side up. Now!"

A shuddering cry from the women, in which Louis