He was the simple,
tender-hearted, almost childish Cap'n Abe that she had met upon first
coming to Cardhaven.
Swiftly through her mind the incidents of that first night and morning
flashed. She remembered that he had prepared her--as he had prepared
his neighbors--for the coming of this wonderful Cap'n Amazon, whose
adventures he had related and whose praises he had sung for so many
years.
Cap'n Abe had taken advantage of Perry Baker's coming with Louise's
trunk to send off his own chest, supposedly filled with the clothes he
would need on a sea voyage.
Then, the house clear of the expressman and Louise safe in bed, the
storekeeper had proceeded to disguise himself as he had long planned to
do.
Not content with the shaving of his beard only, he had dyed his hair
and the sweeping piratical mustache left him. Walnut juice applied to
his face and body had given him the stain of a tropical sun. Of
course, this stain and the dye had to be occasionally renewed.
The addition of gold rings in his ears (long before pierced for the
purpose, of course) and the wearing of the colored handkerchief to
cover his bald crown completed a disguise that his own mother would
have found hard to penetrate.
Pages:
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321