orway. It was topped by a
man's felt hat and was dressed in a loose, shapeless coat and a scant
skirt down to the tops of a pair of men's shoes.

Over the shoulder of this queer looking person--of whose sex it was
hard to be sure--Louise could see an open letter that was evidently
being perused not for the first time.

The hands that held the letter were red and hard and blunt-fingered,
but not large. They did not look feminine, however; not in the least.

The light tap of the girl's heels as she stepped on the bare floor at
the foot of the stairway aroused this person, who turned, revealing a
rather grim, weather-beaten face, lit by little sharp brown eyes that
proceeded to stare at Louise Grayling with frank curiosity.

"Humph!" ejaculated the woman.

Oh, it was a woman, Louise could now see, although Betty Gallup boasted
a pronounced mustache and a voice both deep and hoarse, while she
looked every inch the able seaman she was.

"Humph!" she exclaimed again. "You don't look much like a pirate,
that's one comfort!"

Louise burst into gay laughter--she could not help it.

"I see by this letter Cap'n Abe left for me that you're his niece--his
ha'f sister's child--name, Louise Grayling; and that you've come to
stay a spell."

"Yes," the girl rejoined, still dimpling. "And I know you must be Mrs.
Gallup!"

"Bet Gallup. Yep. Ain't much chance of mistaking me," the woman said,
still staring at Louise. "Humph! you're pretty 'nough not to need
m'lasses to ketch flies. Why didn't Cap'n Abe stay to home when you
come visiting him?"

"Why, he had his plans all laid to go away, if Uncle Amazon came."

"Ya-as. That's so. You are _his_ niece, too, I s'pose."

"Whose niece? Uncle Amazon's? I suppose I am," Louise gayly replied,
"though when I came I had no idea there was a second uncle down here on
the Cape."

"What's that?" demanded Betty Gallup, her speech crackling like a rifle
shot.

"I had not heard before of Cap'n Amazon," the girl explained. "You
see, for several reasons, I have known very little about my mother's
kinfolk. She died when I was a baby. We have traveled a good deal,
father and I."

"I see. I been told you worked for them movin' pictures. Mandy Card
was over to my house last night. Well! what do you think of your
Uncle Am'zon?"

"I can express no opinion until I have met him," Louise returned, again
dimpling.

"Haven't ye seen him?" gasped Betty in astonishment.

"Not