"Why, by golly!" yelled the surfman. "This here's Cap'n Abe Silt!"
"Ain't his brother Am'zon there?"
"No, I don't see his brother nowhere."
"Take a good look."
"Trust me to do that," answered the surfman.
But the search was useless. Nobody ever saw Cap'n Amazon again. He had gone, as he had come—suddenly and in a way to shock the placid thoughts of Cardhaven people. A stone in the First Church graveyard is all the visible reminder there remains of Cap'n Amazon Silt, who for one summer amazed the frequenters of the store on the Shell Road.
The life-savers brought Cap'n Abe, the storekeeper, back from the wreck, the last survivor of the Curlew's crew. He was in rather bad shape, for his night's experience on the wreck had been serious indeed.
They put him to bed, and Louise and Betty Gallup took turns in nursing him, while Cap'n Joab Beecher puttered about the store, trying to wait on customers and keep things straight.
At first, as he lay in his "cabin," Cap'n Abe did not have much to say—not even to Louise. But after a couple of days, on an occasion when she was feeding him broth, he suddenly sputtered and put away the spoon with a vexed gesture.
"What's the matter, Uncle Abram?" she asked him. "Isn't it good?"