Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper Part 38

"I'll cut him off without a cent if he marries you!" threatened I. Tapp.

"Why," murmured Louise, "then that will be the making of him, I have no doubt. It is the lack I have seen in his character from the beginning.

Responsibility will make a man of him."

"Ha!" snarled I. Tapp. "How about _you_? Will you marry a poor man--a chap like my son who, if he ever makes twenty dollars a week, will be doing mighty well?"

"Oh! This is so--so sudden, Mr. Tapp!" murmured Louise, dimpling.

"You are not seriously asking me to marry your son, are you?"

"Asking you to?" exploded the excitable Taffy King, with a wild gesture. "I forbid it! Forbid it! do you hear?" and he rushed away from the scene of the festivities and did not appear again during the afternoon.

Mrs. Tapp, all of a flutter, appeared at Louise's elbow.

"Oh, dear, Miss Grayling! What _did_ he say? He is so excitable."

She almost wept. "I hope he has said nothing to offend you?"

Louise looked at her with a rather pitying smile.

"Don't be worried, Mrs. Tapp," she a.s.sured her. "Really, I think your husband is awfully amusing."

Naturally disapproval was plainly enthroned upon Aunt Euphemia's countenance when she saw her niece aiding in the entertainment of the guests at the Tapp lawn fete. The Lady from Poughkeepsie had come with the Perritons because, as she admitted, the candy manufacturer's family must be placated to a degree.

"But you go too far, Louise. Even good nature cannot excuse this. I am only thankful that young man is not at home. Surely you cannot be really interested in Lawford Tapp?"

"Do spare my blushes," begged Louise, her palms upon her cheeks but her eyes dancing. "Really, I haven't seen Lawford for days."

"Really, Louise?"

"Surely I would not deceive you, auntie," she said. "He may have lost all his interest in me, too. He went away without bidding me good-bye."

"Well, I am glad of that!" sighed Aunt Euphemia. "I feared it was different. Indeed, I heard something said------Oh, well, people will gossip so! Never mind. But these Tapps are so pus.h.i.+ng."

"I think Mrs. Tapp is a very pleasant woman; and the girls are quite nice," Louise said demurely.

"You need not have displayed your liking for them in quite this way,"

objected Aunt Euphemia. "You could easily have excused yourself--the uncertainty about your poor father would have been reason enough. I don't know--I am not sure, indeed, but that we should go into mourning.

Of course, it would spoil the summer----"

"Oh! Aunt Euphemia!"

"Yes. Well, I only mentioned it. For my own part I look extremely well in crepe."

Louise was shocked by this speech; yet she knew that its apparent heartlessness did not really denote the state of her aunt's mind. It was merely bred of the lady's shallowness, and of her utterly self-centered existence.

That evening, long after supper and after the store lights were out, and while Cap'n Amazon and Louise were sitting as usual in the room behind the store, a hasty step on the porch and a rat-tat-tat upon the side door announced a caller than whom none could have been more unexpected.

"Aunt Euphemia!" cried Louise, when the master mariner ushered the lady in. "What has happened?"

"Haven't you heard? Did you not get a letter?" demanded Mrs. Conroth.

But she kept a suspicious eye on the captain.

"From daddy-prof?" exclaimed Louise, jumping up.

"Yes. Mailed at Gibraltar. Nothing has happened to that vessel he is on. That was all a ridiculous story. But there is something else, Louise."

"Sit down, ma'am," Cap'n Amazon was saying politely. "Do sit down, ma'am."

"Not in this house," declared the lady, with finality. "I do not feel safe here. And it's not safe for you to be here, Louise, with this--this man. You don't know who he is; n.o.body knows who he is. I have just heard all about it from one of the--er--natives. Mr. Abram Silt never had a brother that anybody in Cardhaven ever saw. There is no Captain Amazon Silt--and never was!"

"Oh!" gasped Louise.

"Nor does your father say a word in his letter to me about Abram Silt being with him aboard that vessel, the _Curlew_. n.o.body knows what has become of your uncle--the man who really owns this store. How do we know but that this--this creature," concluded Aunt Euphemia, with dramatic gesture, "has made away with Mr. Silt and taken over his property?"

"It 'ud be jest like the old pirate!" croaked a harsh voice from the kitchen doorway, and Betty Gallup appeared, apparently ready to back up Mrs. Conroth physically, as well as otherwise.

CHAPTER XXVI

AT LAST

That hour in the old-fas.h.i.+oned living-room behind Cap'n Abe's store was destined to be marked indelibly upon Louise Grayling's memory. Aunt Euphemia and Betty Gallup had both come armed for the fray. They literally swept Louise off her feet by their vehemence.

The effect of the challenge on Cap'n Amazon was most puzzling. As Mrs.

Conroth refused to sit down--she could talk better standing, becoming quite oracular, in fact--the captain could not, in politeness, take his customary chair. And he had discarded his pipe upon going to the door to let the visitor in.

Therefore, it seemed to Louise, the doughty captain seemed rather lost.

It was not that he displayed either surprise or fear because of Aunt Euphemia's accusation. Merely he did not know what to do with himself during her exhortation.

The fact that he was taxed with a crime--a double crime, indeed--did not seem to bother him at all. But the clatter of the women's tongues seemed to annoy him.

His silence and his calmness affected Mrs. Conroth and Betty Gallup much as the store idlers had been affected when they tried to bait him--their exasperation increased. Cap'n Amazon's utter disregard of what they said (for Betty did her share of the talking, relieving the Lady from Poughkeepsie when she was breathless) continued unabated. It was a situation that, at another time, would have vastly amused Louise.

But it was really a serious matter. Mrs. Conroth was quite as excited as Betty. Both became vociferous in acclaiming the captain's irresponsibility, and both accused him of having caused Cap'n Abe's disappearance.

"Mark my word," declared Aunt Euphemia, with her most indignant air, "that creature is guilty--guilty of an awful crime!"

"The old pirate! That he is!" reiterated Betty.

"Louise, my child, come away from here at once. This is no place for a young woman--or for any self-respecting person. Come."

For the first time since the opening of this scene Cap'n Amazon displayed trouble. He turned to look at Louise, and she thought his countenance expressed apprehension--as though he feared she might go.

"Come!" commanded Mrs. Conroth again. "This is no fit place for you; it never _has_ been fit!"

"Avast, there, ma'am!" growled the captain, at last stung to retort.

"You are an old villain!" declared Aunt Euphemia.