"Humph! If he _is_ Cap'n Abe's brother. Now, now, you don't know no
more about this old pirate than I do, Miss Lou. He influenced Cap'n
Abe somehow, or someway, so't he cut his hawser and drifted out o'
soundings--that's sure! Here this feller callin' himself Am'zon Silt
has got the store an' all it holds, an' Cap'n Abe's money, and
ev'rything."
"Oh, Betty, how foolishly you talk," sighed the girl.
"Humph! Mebbe. And then again, mebbe it ain't foolish. Them men
to-day thought they could scare that old pirate into admittin'
something if they sprung Cap'n Abe's chest on him. Oh, I knowed they
was goin' to do it," admitted Betty.
"Course, they had no idee what was in the chest. Bustin' it open was
an accident. Perry Baker's as clumsy as a cow. But you see, Miss Lou,
just how cool that ol' pirate took it all. Washy was tellin' me. He
just browbeat 'em an' left 'em with all their canvas slattin'.
"Oh, you can't tell me! That old pirate's handled a crew without no
tongs, you may lay to that! And what he's done to poor old Cap'n
Abe----"
She went away shaking a sorrowful head and without finishing her
sentence.
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