"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 yet." "Ye didn't see him when he came last night?" "I was in bed." "Then how--how d'ye know Cap'n Abe's gone? Or that this man is Am'zon Silt? Nobody ever seen this critter 'round Cardhaven before," Betty Gallup declared with strong conviction. "Oh, no; Uncle Amazon has never been here to visit Cap'n Abe before. Cap'n Abe told me all about it," the girl explained, fearing that scandal was to take root here and now if she did not discourage it. "Of course Uncle Abe went away. He came to my door and bade me good-bye." Louise was puzzled. She saw an expression in Betty Gallup's face that she could not interpret. "Ye heard Cap'n Abe _say_ he was goin'," muttered Betty. "_His_ voice sounds mighty like Cap'n Abe's. But mebbe Abe Silt didn't go after all--not rightly." "What _do_ you mean, Mrs. Gallup?" demanded Louise in bewilderment. "Well, if you ask me, I should say we'd been boarded by pirates. Go take a look at that Uncle Am'zon of yourn. He's in the store." CHAPTER VII UNDER FIRE "Uncle Amazon?" burst out Louise. "A pirate?" "That's what he looks like," repeated Betty Gallup, nodding her head on which the man's hat still perched. "I never saw the beat! Why, that man give me the shock of my life when I came in here just now!" "What _do_ you mean?" the amazed girl asked,