"Cap'n Sears Kendrick, on deck and all taut again! Well, by the jumpin', creepin'! If this ain't--Cap'n Sears, sir, how be you?" His broad-brimmed, battered straw hat had fallen off in his descent from the wagon seat, uncovering a partially bald head and a round, extremely red face, two-thirds of which was hidden by a tremendously thick and bristly tangle of short gray whiskers. The whiskers were now bisected by a broad grin, a grin so broad and so ecstatic that its wrinkles extended to the bulbous nose and the apple cheeks above. "Cap'n Sears, sir," repeated the driver of the truck-wagon, "I'm proud to see you on deck again, sir. Darned if I ain't!" The captain leaned forward and shook the big red hand extended across the fence pickets. "Judah Cahoon, you old salt herrin'," he cried heartily, "I'm just as glad to see you! But _what_ in the world are you doin' here in Bayport?" CHAPTER II Mr. Cahoon's grin vanished and the expression of his face above the whiskers indicated extreme surprise. "What am I doin' here?" he repeated. "Didn't you know I was here, Cap'n Sears?" "Of course I didn't. The last I heard of you you had shipped as cook aboard the _Gallant Rover_ and was bound for Calcutta, or Singapore or somewhere in those latitudes. And that was only a year ago. What are you doin' on the Cape and pilotin' that kind of a craft?" indicating the truck wagon. The question was ignored. "Didn't they never tell you I was here?" demanded Judah. "Didn't that Joel Macomber tell you I been hailin' him every time he crossed my bows, askin' about you every day since you run on the rocks? Didn't he tell you that?" "No." "Never give you my respects nor--nor kind rememberances, nor nawthin'?" "Not a word. Never so much as mentioned your name." "The red-headed shark!" "There! There! Sshh! Never mind him. Come in here and sit down a minute, can't you? Or are you in a hurry?" "Eh? No-o, I ain't in no 'special hurry. Just got a deck load of seaweed aboard carting it up home, that's all." "Home? What home?" "Why, where I'm livin'. I call it home; anyhow it's all the home I got. Eh? Why, Cap'n Sears, ain't they never told you that I'm livin' at the Minot place?" "The Minot place! Why--why, man alive, you don't mean the General Minot place, do you?" "Um-hm. That's what folks down here call it. There ain't no Generals there though." "And _you_ are livin' in the General Minot house? Look here, Judah, are you trying to make a fool of me?" Mr. Cahoon's countenance--that portion of it above the whisker tidemark, of course--registered horror at the thought. He had been cook and steward aboard Captain Kendrick's ships for many voyages and his feeling for his former skipper was close kin to idolatry. "Eh?" he gasped. "Me try to make a fool out of _you_, Cap'n Sears? _Me?_ No, no, I got _some_ sense left, I hope."