E-text prepared by Al Haines

CAP'N ABE, STOREKEEPER

A Story of Cape Cod

by

JAMES A. COOPER

1917

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. A CHOICE II. CAP'N ABE III. IN CAP'N ABE'S LIVING-ROOM IV. THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS V. WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NIGHT VI. BOARDED BY PIRATES VII. UNDER FIKE VIII. SOMETHING ABOUT SALT WATER TAFFY IX. SUSPICION HOVERS X. WHAT LOUISE THINKS XI. THE LEADING MAN XII. THE DESCENT OF AUNT EUPHEMIA XIII. WASHY GALLUP'S CURIOSITY XIV. A CHOICE OF CHAPERONS XV. THE UNEXPECTED XVI. A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS XVII. THE ODDS AGAINST HIM XVIII. SOMETHING BREAKS XIX. MUCH ADO XX. THE SUN WORSHIPERS XXI. DISCOVERIES XXII. SHOCKING NEWS XXIII. BETWEEN THE FIRES XXIV. GRAY DAYS XXV. AUNT EUPHEMIA MAKES A POINT XXVI. AT LAST XXVII. SARGASSO XXVIII. STORM CLOUDS THREATEN XXIX. THE SCAR XXX. WHEN THE STRONG TIDES LIFT XXXI. AN ANCHOR TO THE SOUL XXXII. ON THE ROLL OF HONOR

CHAPTER I

A CHOICE

"Of course, my dear, there is nobody but your Aunt Euphemia for you to goto!"

"Oh, daddy-professor! Nobody? Can we rake or scrape up no otherrelative on either side of the family who will take in poor little me forthe summer? You will be home in the fall, of course."

"That is the supposition," Professor Grayling replied, his lips pursedreflectively. "No. Dear me! there seems nobody."

"But Aunt Euphemia!"

"I know, Lou, I know. She expects you, however. She writes——"

"Yes. She has it all planned," sighed Louise Grayling dejectedly.
"Every move at home or abroad Aunt Euphemia has mapped out for me. When
I am with her I am a mere automaton—only unlike a real marionette I can
feel when she pulls the strings!"

The professor shook his head. "There's—there's only your poor mother'shalf-brother down on the Cape."

"What half-brother?" demanded Louise with a quick smile that matched theprofessor's quizzical one.

"Why——Well, your mother, Lou, had an older half-brother, a Mr. Silt.He keeps a store at Cardhaven. You know, I met your mother down that waywhen I was hunting seaweed for the Smithsonian Institution. Yourgrandmother was a Bellows and her folks lived on the Cape, too. Herfamily has died out and your grandfather was dead before I married yourmother. The half-brother, this Mr. Silt—Captain Abram Silt—is the onlyindividual of that branch of the family left alive, I believe."

"Goodness!" gasped the girl. "What a family tree!"

Again the professor smiled whimsically. "Only a few of the branches.
But they all reach back to the first navigators of the world."

"The first navigators?"

"I do not mean to the Phoenicians," her father said. "I mean that theworld never saw braver nor more worthy sailors than those who called thewind-swept hamlets of Cape Cod their home ports. The Silts were allmaster-mariners. This Captain Abe is a bachelor, I believe. You couldnot very well go there."

Louise sighed. "No; I couldn't go there—I suppose. I couldn't gothere——" Her voice wandered off into silence. Then suddenly, almostexplosively, it came back with the question: "Why couldn't I?"

"My dear Lou! What would your aunt say?" gasped the

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