Cap'n Abe was gone; Cap'n Amazon stood in his place.
To befool his niece was a small matter. At daybreak he had come to her
door and bidden Louise good-bye. But she had not seen him--only his
figure as he walked up the road in the fog. Cap'n Abe had, of course,
quickly made a circuit and come back to re-enter the house by the rear
door.
From that time--or from the moment Lawford Tapp had first seen him on
the store porch that morning--the storekeeper had played a huge game of
bluff. And what a game it had been!
In his character of Cap'n Amazon he had commanded the respect--even the
fear--of men who for years had considered Cap'n Abe a butt for their
poor jests. It was marvelous, Louise thought, when one came to think
of it.
And yet, not so marvelous after all, when she learned all that lay
behind the masquerade. There had always been, lying dormant in Cap'n
Abe's nature, characteristics that had never before found expression.
Much she learned on this evening at supper, and afterward when the
store had been closed and they were alone in the living-room.
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