Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper Part 30

She went away shaking a sorrowful head and without finishing her sentence. Louise was unable to shake off the burden of doubt of Cap'n Amazon's character and good intentions. She felt that she could not spend the long evening in his company, and bidding him good-night through the open store door she retired to the upper floor.

She felt that sleep was far from her eyelids on this night; therefore she lit a candle and went into the storeroom to get something to read.

She selected a much battered volume, printed in an early year of the nineteenth century, its t.i.tle being:

LANDSMEN'S TALES: Seafaring Yarns of a Lubber.

Louise became enthralled by the narratives of perilous adventure and odd happenings on shipboard which the author claimed to have himself observed. She read for an hour or more, while the sounds in the store below gradually ceased and she heard Cap'n Amazon close and lock the front door for the night.

Silence below. Outside the lap, lap, lap of the waves on the strand and the rising moan of the surf over Gulf Rocks.

Louise turned a page. She plunged into another yarn. Breathlessly and, almost fearfully she read it to the end--the very story of the murdered albatross and the sailors' superst.i.tious belief in the bird's bad influence, as she had heard Cap'n Amazon relate it to Aunt Euphemia Conroth.

She laid down the book at last in amazement and confusion. There was no doubt now of Cap'n Amazon's mendacity. This book of nautical tales had been written and printed _long before Amazon Silt was born_!

And if the falseness of his wild narratives was established, was it a far cry to Betty Gallup's suspicions and accusations? What and who was this man, who called himself Amazon Silt who had taken Cap'n Abe's place in the store on the Sh.e.l.l Road?

Louise lay with wide-open eyes for a long time. Then she crept out of bed and turned the key in the lock of her door--the first time she had thought to do such a thing since her arrival at Cardhaven.

CHAPTER XX

THE SUN WORSHIPERS

"Them movin' picture people are hoppin' about The Beaches like sandpipers," observed Cap'n Amazon at the breakfast table. "And I opine they air pretty average useless, too. They were hurrahin' around all day yest'day while you was out fishin'. Want to take a picture of Abe's old store here. Dunno what to do about it."

Louise was too much disturbed by her discoveries of overnight to give much attention to this subject.

"It's Abe's store, you see," went on Cap'n Amazon. "Dunno how he'd feel 'bout havin' it took in a picture and showed all over the country.

It needs a coat o' paint hi-mighty bad. Ought to be fixed up some 'fore havin' its picture took--don't ye think so, Niece Louise?"

The girl awoke to the matter sufficiently to advise him:

"The lack of paint will not show in the picture, Uncle Amazon. And I suppose they want the store for a location just because it is weather-beaten and old-fashioned."

"I want to know! Well, now, if I was in the photograftin' business, seems t' me I'd pick out the nice-lookin' places to make pictures of.

I knowed a feller once that made a business of takin' photografts in furin' parts. He sailed with me when I was master of the _Blue Sparrow_--clipper built she was, an' a spankin' fine craft. We----"

"Oh, Uncle Amazon!" Louise cried, rising from, the table suddenly, "you'll have to excuse me. I--I forgot something upstairs. Yes--I've finished my breakfast. Betty can clear off."

She fairly ran away from the table. It seemed to her as though she could not sit and listen to another of his preposterous stories. It would be on the tip of her tongue to declare her disbelief in his accuracy. How and where he had gained access to Cap'n Abe's store of nautical romances she could not imagine; but she was convinced that many, if not all, of his supposedly personal adventures were entirely fict.i.tious in so far as his own part in them was concerned.

She put on her hat and went out of the back door in order to escape further intercourse with Cap'n Amazon for the present. On the sh.o.r.e she found the spot below the Bozewell bungalow a busy scene. This was a perfect day for "the sun worshipers," as somebody has dubbed motion picture people. Director Ans...o...b..was evidently planning to secure several scenes and the entire company was on hand.

Louise saw that there were a number of spectators besides herself--some from the town, but mostly young folk from the cottages along The Beaches.

Lawford Tapp was present, and she waved her hand to him, yet preserving an air of merely good comradeship. She was glad that he did not know that it was she who had leaped to his rescue the day before.

Considering the nature of the feeling she had for him, into the knowledge of which his peril had surprised her, the girl could not endure any intimate conversation with Lawford. Not just then, at least.

Tapp was in the midst of a group of girls, and she remarked his ease of manner. She did not wonder at it, for he was a gentleman by instinct no matter what his social level might be. Three of the girls were those Louise Grayling believed to be daughters of Lawford's employer.

She saw that he was breaking away from the group with the intention of coming to her. L'Enfant Terrible said something to him and laughed shrilly. She saw Lawford's cheek redden.

So Louise welcomed the approach of Mr. Bane, who chanced at the moment to be idle.

"Now you will see us grinding them out, Miss Grayling," the actor said.

Louise broke into a series of questions regarding the taking of the pictures. Her evident interest in the big leading man halted Lawford's approach. Besides, Miss Louder, who had evidently been introduced to the Taffy King's son, attached herself to him.

She was a pretty girl despite the layers of grease paint necessary to accentuate the lights and shadows of her piquant face. Her manner with men was free without being bold. With a big parasol over her shoulder, she adapted her step to Lawford's and they strolled nearer.

Bane was speaking of the script he had previously mentioned as containing a part eminently fitted for Louise. As Lawford and Miss Louder pa.s.sed he said:

"I am sure you can do well in that part, Miss Grayling. It is exactly your style."

Had Lawford any previous reason for doubting Louise Grayling's connection with the moving picture industry this overheard remark would have lulled such a doubt to sleep.

The young man realized well enough that Louise was a very different girl from the blithe young woman at his side. But how could he make I.

Tapp see it?

Money was not everything in the world; Lawford Tapp was far from thinking it was. He had always considered it of much less importance than the things one could exchange it for.

However, never having felt the necessity for working for mere pelf, and being untrained for any form of industry whatsoever, his father's threat of disowning him loomed a serious menace to the young man.

Not for himself did Lawford fear. He felt warm blood in his veins, vigor in his muscles, a keen edge to his nerves. He could work--preferably with his hands. He realized quite fully his limitation of brain power.

But what right had he to ask any girl to share his lot--especially a girl like Louise Grayling, who he supposed won a sufficient livelihood in a profession the emoluments of which must be far greater than those of any trade he might seek to follow?

He saw now that after his somewhat desultory college course, his months of loafing about on sea and sh.o.r.e had actually unfitted him for concentration upon any ordinary work. And he was not sanguine enough to expect an extraordinary situation to come his way.

Then, too, the young man realized that Louise Grayling had not given him the least encouragement to lead him to believe that she thought of him at all. At this moment her preference for Bane's society seemed marked. Already Cecile had rasped Lawford regarding the leading man's attentions to Louise.

Lawford could not face the taunting glances of Marian and Prue. They had come down to the beach on this particular morning he felt sure to comment--and not kindly--upon Louise Grayling. He hoped that she was not included in the director's plans for the day, and he was glad to see that she had no make-up on, as had these other young women.

So he strolled on grimly with Miss Louder, who would not be called for work for an hour. But the young man heard little of her chatter.

The tide was at the ebb and the two walked on at the edge of the splashing surf, where the strand was almost as firm as a cement walk.

The curve of the beach took them toward the lighthouse and here, approaching with bucket and clam hoe along the flats, was the very lightkeeper who had watched the _Merry Andrew_ and her crew the day, before when Lawford met with his accident.

"There ye be, Mr. Lawford," crowed the man, "as chipper as a sandpiper.

But I swanny, I didn't ever expect t' hail ye again this side o'

Jordan, one spell yest'day."

"You had your gla.s.s on us, did you?" Lawford said languidly.

"I did, young man--I did. An' when that bobbin' skiff walloped ye on the side of the head I never 'spected t' see you come up again. If it hadn't been for this little lady who------Shucks, now! This ain't her 'tall, is it?"

"Oh, Mr. Tapp, were you in a boating accident yesterday?" cried Miss Louder.