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"Are you sure this is the place, young man?" she demanded. "This is Cap'n Abe Silt's," repeated Willy. "Why it doesn't look " "Want your suitcase, ma'am?" asked Willy. "Wait. I am not sure. I I must see if I . I may not stay. Wait," she repeated, still staring about the neighborhood. As a usual thing, she was not a person given to uncertainty, in either manner or speech.
Though, Rickie, you will have to accept the Jacksons' invitation." "I cannot possibly go. I have been too rude; with Widdrington we always meet here. I'll stop with the boys " His voice caught suddenly. He had opened Mrs. Silt's letter. "The Silts are not ill, I hope?" "No. But, I say," he looked at his wife, "I do think this is going too far. Really, Agnes." "What has happened?"
"But I shall dine at the hotel first." A brighter color flooded into his cheeks and Louise felt that she might have been too sharp with him. She mended this by adding: "You may tell me how to get to the Shell Road and Mr. Silt's, if you will be so kind." He smiled at that. Really, he was an awfully nice-looking youth!
His grim lips opened and in caustic tone he said: "You fellers seem to think that I'm Abe Silt's keeper. I ain't. Abe's old enough and ought to be seaman enough to look out for Abe Silt. What tomfoolery he packed into that chest is none o' my consarn. I l'arnt years ago that Moses an' them old fellers left the chief commandment out o' the Scriptures.
"Well, I'd like to see Cap'n Amazon," Lawford said lightly, "if only for the sake of asking him a question or two." "You'll likely get your wish," returned the storekeeper tartly. "What d'ye mean?" drawled Milt Baker, who always bobbed up serenely. "Ye don't say Cap'n Am'zon's likely to show up here at Cardhaven after all these years?" There was barely a second's hesitation on Mr. Silt's part.
He intimated that there were digestive reasons for her husband's death at the early age of sixty-eight. Milt Baker had successfully introduced another topic of conversation, far removed it would seem from any adventurous happening connected with Cap'n Amazon Silt's career.
As he put Louise and her baggage into the vehicle he had asked: "Who you cal'latin' to stop with, miss?" "I am going to Mr. Abram Silt's," Louise had told him. "Oh! Cap'n Abe. Down on the Shell Road. I can't take ye that fur ain't allowed to drive beyond the tavern. But 'tain't noways a fur walk from there." He expressed no curiosity about her, or her business with the Shell Road storekeeper.
His manners were growing rough, for he saw few gentlemen now, and he was either incoherent or else alarmingly direct. "However, if Lawrie Silt's a Cockney like his father, and if my next is a boy and like me " A shy beautiful look came into his eyes, and passed unnoticed. "They'll do," he repeated.
It was unlighted at night, for the last street lamp had been fixed by the town fathers at the Mariner's Chapel, as though they said to all mundane illumination as did King Canute to the sea, "Thus far shalt thou come and no farther." Betty Gallup came cross lots each day to "rid up" Mr. Silt's living-room, which was behind the store, the chambers being overhead.
The departure of her crew to-night will make it all the easier for Mr. Abram Silt's secret to be kept," the professor reminded her. "Yes. We will keep his secret," sighed Louise. "Poor Uncle Abram! After all, he can gain a reputation for courage only vicariously. It will be Cap'n Amazon Silt who will go down in the annals of Cardhaven as the brave man who risked his life for another, daddy-prof."
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