Trembling, the salt tears stinging his eyes more sharply than the salt
spray stung his cheeks, the storekeeper had ventured into the crowd of
spectators on the sands. So enthralled were his neighbors by what was
going forward that they did not notice his appearance.
And well they did not. This character of the bluff and ready master
mariner that Cap'n Abe had builded--a new order of Frankenstein--and
with which he had deceived the community for these many weeks, came
near to being wrecked right here and now.
He all but screamed aloud in fear when the lifeboat was overturned.
Pallid, shaking, panting for every breath he drew, he was slipping out
of the unnoticing crowd when Cap'n Jim Trainor of the lifeboat crew
called to him.
"You pull a strong oar, I know, Cap'n Am'zon. We need you."
For the space of a breath the storekeeper "hung in the wind." He had
been poised for flight and the shock of the lifeboat captain's call
almost startled him into running full speed up the beach.
Then the thought smote upon his harassed mind that Cap'n Trainor was
not speaking to Cap'n Abe, storekeeper.
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