"HOOK!"
Sidney found it a little difficult to take up the fun with her
erstwhile chums where she had left off. When she stopped at the
Calkins' house directly after breakfast, Mart coolly declined to go
anywhere with her, and smiled scornfully at her bare legs.
"I s'pose your million-dollar friend is otherwise engaged today!"
Sidney truthfully admitted that she was. "She's gone to Chatham with
her mother to see some people they know. And I'm glad. I've been just
dying for a good swim. Let's go out to the _Arabella_ this morning."
But Mart declared she was tired of all that. In fact she was tired of
doing lots of the silly things they'd been doing. She'd promised Gert
Bartow to go there right after lunch.
Sidney had no choice but to go on alone in search of Lav. She was
discouraged to the point of tears. Yet she knew in her heart that she
deserved Mart's coldness. She remembered how she had felt once when
Nancy had deserted her for a new girl at Miss Downs'. And it had
seriously threatened their friendship.
As she wandered slowly toward the town Sidney wondered what Mart and
Gert Bartow were going to do. Gert Bartow was a girl of nineteen at
least, and much more grown up than even that. Mart had pointed her out
to Sidney. Sidney wished Mart had asked her to go with her to Gert's.
She felt very lonely.
Perhaps she had spoiled everything. Pola would come back, of course,
but, somehow, Pola's glamour had faded. After all, what, besides tons
of candy and quarts of sweet mixtures and much glitter, had there been
to it? The sweets and the glitter and Pola's endless confidences of
"men" had left Sidney jaded and bored, though she did not know it; she
did know that she was suddenly lonely for Mart and Lav and the
stimulating pastimes they seemed to find always right at hand.
As she approached Rockman's, wandering there from force of habit, she
saw Lav pushing off in a dory. She ran down the wharf, hailing him.
"Oh, Lav, take me with you!" she pleaded, breathlessly.
He hesitated a moment before he swung the dory back to the wharf.
Something of the look Mart had given her flashed into his eyes.
Then: "Come on if y'want to," he answered ungraciously.
As she sat down in the bow of the boat Sidney wanted to cry more than
anything else, but Lav's dark face suddenly reminded her of what Aunt
Achsa had told her. Perhaps he had been out in the sand dunes last
night, lying on his face, sobbing aloud! She began chattering with
resolute cheerfulness.
"Isn't it hot this morning, Lav? Where are you going?" Lav answered
shortly that he was going out to the _Arabella_. Sidney noticed a book
in his pocket, but said nothing. She ventured other remarks concerning
the activities in the bay to which Lavender answered in monosyllables,
if at all.
"Oh, look, the _Puritan's_ in, Lav!" And even to this Lavender only
grunted: "It's been in two days!"
By the time they reached the _Arabella_ Sidney's remorse was yielding
to a spark of indignation. Lav needn't be _quite_ so mad for, after
all, it had been his own precious Mr. Dugald who had thrown her and
Pola so constantly together! And if Lav had not hidden himself away he
most certainly would have been included in all the plans. It was not
fair in Lav to act so cross.
"I know you came out to read, Lav, and I've some thinking to do, so I'm
going up in the bow and leave you quite to yourself," Sidney said as
they boarded the _Arabella_, and if in her tone there was something of
Mart's tartness, it may be forgiven for Sidney had been punished enough.
"I don't care if you hang 'round," Lav conceded. "It's too hot to read,
anyways. I thought maybe there'd be a breeze out here. What's that?"
For he had suddenly spied an object lying on the deck close to the rail
as though it had dropped there from someone's pocket.
At almost the same moment Sidney spied it, too. Both darted for it.
Lavender reached it first and picked it up and examined it with
frowning eyes.
"It's a knife!" cried Sidney, at his elbow.
"Sure it's a knife. Anybody can see that. What I want to know--"
"Let me look at it. Isn't it Mr. Dugald's?"
"No, it isn't Mr. Dugald's. He hasn't been out here for a week. And
that knife wasn't here yesterday for I'd a' seen it."
"Let me look at it, Lav," pleaded Sidney, for Lav, a curious expression
on his face, had covered the knife with his hand.
"It's funny, that's all I got to say. I mean--how it come here."
"Lavender Green, show me that knife this minute! You act so mysterious
and I have a right to know why."
Slowly Lavender placed the knife in Sidney's eager hands. It was an
ordinary case knife such as the fishermen carried, but Lavender pointed
to two initials that had been carved on the case.
"J.S."
"J.S." repeated Sidney; then she cried: "Why--J.S.! That's Jed Starrow!"
"Sure it's Jed Starrow!"
"But how did it get on the _Arabella_?"
"That's what I'd like to know."
"He's _been_ on the _Arabella_, Lav!"
"Or someone of his gang."
"Isn't that _funny_? What would he come here for?"
Lavender was silent. And Sidney, staring at him as though to read from
his face some explanation, suddenly fell silent, too. The secret that
Cap'n Davies had laid upon her weighed heavily. She _wished_ she could
tell.
"Sid, I haven't played square," Lavender suddenly blurted out,
flushing. "We promised to tell one another if any one of us found out
anything and _I did_--and I didn't tell!"
Lavender's admission faded beside the fact that he knew something.
"Oh, what?" Sidney cried.
"I wasn't going to tell you. I thought you didn't care anything about
the pirates any more. And the laugh's sort o' on me, anyway, because I
thought we were all crazy to suspect Jed Starrow."
"Tell me quick, Lav," commanded Sidney, quivering with excitement.
Lav leaned against the rail. To tell his story meant confessing his
state of mind.
"I guess I've been sore because you and Mr. Dugald fooled 'round with
those new folks. Jealous. I get that way lots of times--all hot inside
because I'm different. And I go off somewhere alone and stay there
until I fight it down."
"I know, Lav. Aunt Achsa told me. Did you go to the dunes?"
"One night I did. Stayed there all night. But one evening I went out on
the breakwall. There's a place out there where the rocks are piled so's
to make a cave. I used to play there a lot when I was a little kid. I
crawled into it. And I hadn't been there very long when I heard
somebody talking--two men. They were up close so's I heard everything
they said."
"And what did they say, Lav? Oh, tell me quick!"
"I could only get scraps of it. I didn't dare look, I didn't dare move.
But one fellow called the other Jed. I heard 'em say something about
'risk' and a 'stranger from Boston asking too many questions 'round
Rockman's to be healthy,' and Jed Starrow--I'm dead sure it was his
voice--said, sort of blustering like, 'Let them search the _Puritan_!
They won't find anything on her _now_!' And the other fellow answered
him: 'There's too much in this, Jed, to take any chances.' That's what
they said, Sid, and then they went on."
"Oh, Lav, they're pirates!"
"Well, not exactly pirates, but they're up to _something_ that's sure.
Maybe they're rum-runners. There's a lot of that going on. I thought
you were crazy, but I guess you weren't."
Sidney's lips trembled with eagerness. As long as Lavender knew what he
knew she felt that she would be justified in telling him what Cap'n
Davies had told her.
"It isn't rum--Lav," she whispered, "It's _diamonds_!"
"Diamonds! Oh, go on, where did you get that stuff?"
"It's diamonds, Lav." Then Sidney solemnly repeated what the old
Captain had told her concerning the letter and the reward. "He asked me
not to tell a soul, but you're different because you know. And he said
that the reward would be posted everywhere in two weeks at least and
it's that long now. Everyone will know soon."
"Sid, five thousand dollars!" Lavender whistled.
"If someone 'round here's doing it Cap'n Davies wants to catch him
himself. He says he doesn't want the reward but he wants to punish the
man who's hurting the honest name of this part of Cape Cod. I think
that's a grand spirit."
Lavender's shoulders lifted. Why couldn't someone else save the fair
name of Cape Cod--someone like a crippled boy whom most of the
towns-people looked upon as a loafer?
"I'd like to catch 'em, myself," he said slowly in such a low voice
that Sidney barely caught the words.
"Oh, Lav, why not? We have as good a chance as anyone, knowing as much
as we do. What'll we do first?" For Sidney was ready for adventure.
Suddenly Lavender realized that he was gripping the knife in his hand.
He looked down at it.
"What we ought to do first is to find out how this knife got here.
Let's put it where we found it and go back around the other side of
that schooner so's no one on the _Puritan_'ll see us. Then we can come
out late this afternoon and if it's gone--well, we'll know someone came
to look for it!"
"And then we'd know for sure that someone had been on the _Arabella_."
"That's the idea. You get on quickly for a girl, Sid. Come on, now,
we'll pull the dory round to the starboard side."
Sidney caught herself tiptoeing across the deck of the_ Arabella_. In
her excitement she scarcely breathed. Every move, every act, was
fraught with significance. Lavender took the precaution to beach the
dory at an abandoned wharf near Sunset Lane.
"Just as well not to show ourselves 'round Rockman's."
"When can we go out to the _Arabella_?"
"Not 'till four o'clock. We can go out to swim just like we always do.
Even if they see us they won't think it's funny for us to do that.
They'd think it funnier if we didn't."
Sidney admitted the truth of this, but wondered how she could live
until four o'clock!
As they walked up Sunset Lane Sidney reminded Lavender that, because of
their promise, they ought to tell Mart. But when they stopped at the
Calkins' house they found that Mart had already gone to Gert Bartow's.
"Oh, dear," sighed Sidney, with an added pang of remorse.
At four o'clock Sidney and Lavender went out to the _Arabella_ to swim
as they had done always before Pola's coming. Except for a brightness
in Sidney's eyes, an alertness about her whole body, and the occasional
significant glances that passed between them they both appeared quite
normal. Lav talked casually of the heat of the day.
"Gee, the water'll feel great. This is the hottest day we've had yet."
"I can't wait to get in." Most certainly Jed Starrow, had he been
listening, could not have guessed how closely Nemesis pressed upon his
heels!
Lavender pulled up alongside of the _Arabella_ and deliberately made
the boat fast.
"We got to act as though we haven't found the knife, y'see," he warned.
"As though we were going just swimming."
In her eagerness to board the _Arabella_ Sidney stumbled. Lavender had
to clutch her to keep her from tumbling into the water.
"Oh!" They both cried in one sound as they clambered to the deck--for
the knife was gone!
"Well, _that_ means they'd been on the _Arabella_. Jed Starrow dropped
that knife and he missed it and came back to look for it!"
"Lav, I believe they've hidden their treasure on the _Arabella_!"
Sidney still reverted to the more romantic terms of buccaneering.
"Let's look for it now!"
"With 'em watching maybe from the _Puritan_? I guess not. We got to go
ahead and swim the way we always do, Sid. Don't let's even appear to be
talking about anything. Come on, I'll beat you in!"
For the space of the few minutes while the water closed about her with
delicious coolness Sidney forgot everything in an intoxication of
delight. Presently she came back to the _Arabella_ and climbed aboard
with a sigh of utter content. "Thank goodness _I_ haven't any
complexes," she laughed, shaking the salt drops from her bobbed head.
"And now what?"
Lavender pulled on the light sweater he had worn over his bathing suit.
"When it gets dark I'm coming out to the _Arabella_ and stay all night.
Maybe they'll come back and I'll find out why. That fellow said
something 'bout Rockman's not being safe. They'll learn the _Arabella_
isn't safe either!"
"But Lav, I'm coming with you!"
"You can't. And this isn't any work for a girl to get mixed up in."
Sidney drew herself to her full height.
"Lavender Green, if you think you're going to lose me _now_ you're
mistaken. I guess we went into this in a sort of partnership and it's
going to hold. I found out just as much as you did! And if you come out
to the _Arabella_, _I'm_ coming, and Mart, too, if she's home."
Lav still hesitated.
"Aunt Achsa won't let you. How'd you get away?"
This staggered Sidney for a moment, then she thought of a "way." This
was Wednesday night and Miss Letty had said that on Wednesday night she
was going to drive to Truro and that Sidney might go with her. From
Truro Miss Letty was going on to Wellfleet. Aunt Achsa would think
Sidney wanted to see Cap'n Davies again. She explained all this
breathlessly to Lavender. "This is important enough to warrant a fib.
And when it's all over Aunt Achsa will understand. Let's go home now
and find Mart."
Unwillingly Lavender conceded Sidney's right to share with him his
night's vigil at any cost. Again they beached the dory near Sunset Lane.
Now they found Mart at home. Sidney put her head in the door, made
certain that gran'ma was not in hearing, and cried "Hook!"
Mart had only to look once at Sidney's face to know that something had
happened. Sidney dragged her out to the Lane and there she and
Lavender, in words as quick as pistol shots, told the story.
"Meet us down on the beach near Milligan's at eight o'clock," Lav
whispered, as they parted.