"Others get into the afterguard with one, two, three, and a jump!" His
trembling fingers knotted the twine dexterously. "Now, there's your
uncle."
"Uncle Amazon?" asked Louise.
"No, miss. Cap'n Abe, I mean. This here Am'zon Silt, 'tis plain to be
seen, has got more salt water than blood in _his_ veins. Cap'n Abe's a
nice feller--not much again him here where he's lived and kep' store for
twenty-odd year. 'Ceptin' his yarnin' 'bout his brother all the time.
But from the look of Cap'n Am'zon I wouldn't put past him anything that
Cap'n Abe says he's done--and more.
"But Abe himself, now, I'd never believed would trust himself on open
water."
"Yet," cried Louise, "he's shipped on a sailing vessel, Uncle Amazon
says. He's gone for a voyage."
"Ye-as. But _has_ he?" Washy retorted, his head on one side and his
rheumy old eyes looking up at her as sly as a ferret's.
"What do you mean?"
"We none of us--none of the neighbors, I mean--seen him go. As fur's we
know he didn't go away at all. We're only taking his brother's word for
it.
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