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Updated: June 22, 2025
You never knowed nothin' 'bout him, so you said, 'fore you come here to Cardhaven." "But, Betty " "Ain't no 'buts' about it!" fiercely declared the "able seaman." "Cap'n Abe's gone disappeared. We don't know what's become of him. Course, Huldy Baker was a silly to think Cap'n Abe had been murdered and cut up like shark bait and shipped away in that old chest." "Oh!" "Yes.
There was a tall gaunt man in overalls and jumper, who, somehow, possessed a family resemblance to the gray horse, leaning against the door frame, much as his beast leaned against the wagon shaft. Perry Baker and the gray horse had traveled so many years together about Paulmouth and Cardhaven that it was not surprising they looked alike.
Even the children came and peered in at the store door to see that strange, red-kerchief-topped figure behind Cap'n Abe's counter. Cap'n Joab Beecher was one of the earliest arrivals. Cap'n Joab had been as close to Cap'n Abe as anybody in Cardhaven. There had been some little friction between him and the storekeeper on the previous evening.
But they knew he warn't no seaman, and a man without salt water in his blood don't make good with Cardhaven folks. "But Cap'n Am'zon he's another critter entirely. They mebbe think he's an old pirate or the like," and he chuckled again, "but they sartin sure respect him. Even Bet Gallup fears Cap'n Am'zon; but, to tell ye the truth, Niece Louise, she used to earwig Cap'n Abe!"
Louise was returning to Cap'n Abe's store, and she turned in that direction before she saw that Mr. Bane was bound down the hill, too. "I fancy we are fellow-outcasts," he said. "You, too, are a visitor to this delightfully quaint place?" "Yes, Mr. Bane," she returned frankly. "Though I can claim relationship to some of these Cardhaven folk. My mother came from the Cape." "Indeed?
A teetering stage, with a rack behind for light baggage, drawn by a pair of lean horses, waited beside the station. The stage had been freshened for the season with a thin coat of yellow paint. The word "Cardhaven" was painted in bright blue letters on the doors of this ancient coach. "No, ma'am! I can't possibly take your trunks," the driver said, politely explanatory.
Tapp went down to the dock again after a time. Lawford had the Merry Andrew all ready to set out on the proposed fishing trip. The sloop was a pretty craft, clinker built, and about the fastest sailing boat within miles of Cardhaven. Lawford was proud of her. "So you're back at last, are you?" snapped the Salt Water Taffy King. He was a portly little man with a red face and a bald brow.
Inshore was a fleet of small fry catboats, sloops, dories under sail, and a smart smack or two going around to Provincetown with cargoes from the fish pounds. "I shall like it," she murmured after a deeper breath. They came to the outlying dwellings of Cardhaven; then to the head of Main Street that descended gently to the wharves and beaches of the inner harbor.
The supper hour of Cardhaven was well established and the thoughtful housewives did not seek to make purchases while the fat was hot in Cap'n Abe's skillet. One of these untimely customers was a wandering child with a penny. "I might have waited on him, Cap'n Abe," Louise declared. "Land sakes! so you might," the storekeeper agreed.
The boss's sister will have to wait on all the boarders for dinner to-day. An' my! ain't she sore! But if I'm a success in these pictures you can just believe the Cardhaven Inn won't see me passin' biscuits and clam chowder for long." In the midst of the rehearsal Louise saw a figure striding along the shore from the direction of Tapp Point, and her heart leaped.
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