“One of ’em told me,” chuckled Amiel Perdue, “that they was hopin’ for a storm, so’s to get a real wreck in the picture.”

“Hoh!” snorted Cap’n Joab.  “Fine time o’ year to be lookin’ for a no’theaster on the Cape.”

“And do they reckon a craft’ll drift right in here if there is a storm an’ wrack herself to please ’em?” piped up Washy Gallup—­no relation to Betty save through interminable cross-currents of Card and Baker blood.

“Sometimes them fillum fellers buy a boat an’ wreck it a-purpose.  Look what they did to the old Morning Star,” Milt said.  “I read once of a comp’ny putting two locomotives on one track an’ running ’em full-tilt together so’s to get a picture of the smashup.”

“Crazy critters!” muttered Cap’n Joab.

“But wait till ye see the fillum actresses,” Milt chuckled.  “Tell ye what, boys, some of ’em ’ll make ye open your eyes!”

“Ye better go easy.  Milt, ‘bout battin’ your eyes,” advised Amiel Perdue.  “Mandy ain’t lost her eyesight none either.”

Washy’s thin whine broke through the guffaw:  “I seen a picture at Paulmouth once’t about a feller and a girl lost in the woods o’ Borneo.  It was a stirrin’ picture.  They was chased by headhunters, and one o’ these here big man-apes tackled ’em—­what d’ye call that critter now?  Suthin’ like ringin’ a bell.”

“Orang-outang,” suggested Lawford.

“That’s it.  Sounds jest like the Baptist Meetin’ House bell.  It’s cracked.”

“Them orang-outangs don’t sound like no bell—­not when they holler,” put in Cap’n Abe, leaning on his counter and staring at the tireless fishfly again.  “Cap’n Am’zon Silt, when he was ashore once’t in Borneo, met one o’ them critters.”

“Gosh all fishhooks!” ejaculated Milt.  “Ain’t there no place on this green airth that brother o’ yourn ain’t been, Cap’n Abe?”

“He ain’t never been in jail, Milt,” said the storekeeper mildly, and the assembly broke into an appreciative chuckle.  It was well known that on the last Fourth of July Milt Baker had been shut into the calaboose at Paulmouth to sober up.

“As I was sayin’,” pursued Cap’n Abe reflectively, “Cap’n Amazon went up country with a Dutchman—­a trader, I b’lieve he said the man was—­and they got into a part where the orang-outangs was plentiful.”

“Jest as thick as sandpipers along The Beaches, I shouldn’t wonder,” put in Cap’n Joab, at last tempted beyond his strength.

“No; nor like mackerel when ye get a full seine-haul,” responded the storekeeper, unruffled, “but thicker’n you’d want sand fleas to be if the fleas measured up to the size of orang-outangs.”

Lawford Tapp burst into open laughter.  “They can’t catch you, can they, Cap’n Abe?” he said.  “If that brother of yours has gone through one-half the perils by land and sea I’ve heard you tell about, he’s beat out most sailors from old Noah down to Admiral Dewey.”