The summons did not come on the store door.  Somebody opened the gate, came to the side door and rapped.  Cap’n Amazon shuffled into the hall and held parley with the caller.

“Why, come right in!  Sure she’s here—­an’ we’re both sittin’ up for comp’ny,” Louise heard the captain say heartily.

He ushered in Lawford Tapp.  Not the usual Lawford, in rough fisherman’s clothing or boating flannels—­or even in the chauffeur’s uniform Louise supposed he sometimes wore.  But in the neat, well-fitting clothing of what the habit-advertising pages of the magazines term the “up to date young man.”  His sartorial appearance outclassed that of any longshoreman she had ever imagined.

Louise gave him her hand with just a little apprehension.  She realized that for a young man to make an evening call upon a girl in a simple community such as Cardhaven might cause comment which she did not care to arouse.  But it seemed Lawford Tapp had an errand.

“I do not know, Miss Grayling, whether you care to go out in my Merry Andrew now that your friends have arrived,” he said.  “But if you do, we might go on Thursday.”

“Day after to-morrow?  Why not?” she replied with alacrity.  “Of course I shall be glad to go—­as I already assured you.  My—­er—­friends’ coming makes no difference.”  She thought he referred to Aunt Euphemia and the Perritons.  “They will not take up so much of my time that I shall have to desert all my other acquaintances.”

Lawford cheered up immensely at this statement.  Cap’n Amazon had gone into the store at once and now returned with, his box of “private stock two-fors,” one of which choice cigars each of the men took.

“Light up!  Light up!” he said cordially.  “My niece don’t mind the smell of tobacker.”  Cap’n Amazon was much more friendly with Lawford than Louise might have expected him to be.  But, of course, hospitality was a form of religion with the Silt brothers.  They could neither of them have treated a guest shabbily.

Indeed, under the influence of the cigar and the presence of another listener, the captain expanded.  With little urging he related incident after incident of his varied career—­stories of stern trial, of dangerous adventure, of grim fights with the ravening sea; peril by shipwreck, by fire, by savages; encounters with whales and sharks, with Malay pirates; voyaging with a hold full of opium-crazed coolie laborers, and of actual mutiny on the hermaphrodite brig, Galatea, when Cap’n Amazon alone of all the afterguard was left alive to fight the treacherous crew and navigate the ship.

Those two hours were memorable—­and would remain so in Louise’s mind for weeks.  Lawford Tapp, too, quite gave himself up to the charm of the old romancer.  To watch Cap’n Amazon’s dark intent face and his glowing eyes, while he told of these wonders of sea and land, would have thrilled the most sophisticated listener.