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He could take one day for the trip up and back. He could get to Cape Cod more quickly by motor than by train. He was going to have one more hour with Aurilla, on his way to San Francisco. He would be more interesting to her if he could gossip of her ancestral background. He could take pictures of the place to her, and perhaps an old chair from the mansion. As he drove down Front Street, in West Harlepool, he saw the house quite as it had appeared in Aurilla’s picture with the name-board of a wrecked ship over the woodshed, the Penninah Sparrow.

Down the road was a one-room shop with the sign “Gaius Bearse, Gen’l Merchandise. Clam Forks, Windmills, and Souvenirs. ” Out on the porch poked a smallish man. Buffum ambled toward him and saw that the man was very old.

“Good morning. This Cap’n Bearse?” inquired Buffum.

“I be. ”

“Uh, uh! Say—uh, Cap’n, can you tell me who’s living in the Rivers mansion now?”

“The which mansion?”

“Rivers. The house across there. ”

“Huh! That’s the Kendrick house. ”

“But it was built by a Rivers. ”

“No, ‘twa’n’t. That house was built by Cap’n Cephas. Kendricks living in it ever since. Owned now by William Dean Kendrick. He’s in the wool business, in Boston, but his folks comes down every summer. I ought to know. The Kendricks are kin of mine. ”

“B-but where did the Riverses live?”

“The Riverses? Oh, them! Come from the West, don’t ye? Spend the summer here?”

“No. What makes you think I come from the West?”

“Rivers went out there. Bradley Rivers. He the one you’re thinking of?”

“Yes. ”

“Friend of yours—”

“No. Just happened to hear about him. ”

“Well, I’ll tell you. There never was any Rivers family. ”

“What?”

“The father of this here Bradley Rivers called himself Zenas Rivers. But land, Zenas’ right name was Fernao Ribeiro. He was nothing but a Portygee deckhand. Fernao, or Zenas, became a wrecker. He was a good hand in a dory, but when he was drinking, he was a caution for snakes. He come straight from the Cape Verde Islands. ”

“I understand Bradley Rivers’ ancestors were howling aristocrats, and came over on the Mayflower. ”

“Maybe so, maybe so. Aristocrats at drinking Jamaica rum, I guess. But they didn’t come on no Mayflower. Zenas Rivers came over on the brig Jennie B. Smith!”

“I understand Zenas owned this—this Kendrick House?”

“Him? Why, boy, if Zenas or Brad either ever set foot across the threshold of that house, it was to fill the wood box, or maybe sell lobsters!”

“B-but—what kind of looking man was Zenas?”

“Thick-set, dark-complected fellow—real Portygee. ”

“Didn’t he have a Roman nose?”

“Him? Huh! Had a nose like a herring. ”

“But Bradley had a Roman nose. Where’d he get it?”

“From his maw. She was a Yankee, but her folks wa’n’t much account. So she married Zenas. Brad Rivers always was an awful liar. He came back here about seven-eight years ago, and he boasted he was the richest man in Kansas or maybe ’twas Milwaukee. ”

“Did he buy a picture of the Kendrick mansion while he was here?”

“Believe he did. He got one of these artists to paint a picture of the Kendrick house. And he bought a couple of things of me—a horsehair sofy, and a picture of old Cap’n Gould that May Gould left here. ”

“Did—did this Captain Gould in the portrait have a Roman nose? And side whiskers? Stern looking?”

“That’s him. What’s Brad been telling you, boy?”

“Nothing!” sighed Buffum. “Then Rivers was just a plain dub? Like me?”

“Plain? Brad Rivers? Well, Zenas sent Brad to school to Taunton for a year or so, but just the same, we always allowed he was so ordinary that there wa’n’t a dog belonging to a Kendrick or a Bearse or a Doane that would bite him. Ask any of the old codgers in town. ”