"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!"