"YOU NEED A BIG BROTHER"
Aunt Achsa had not slept through the storm. Accustomed though she was
to the howl of the wind and the roar of the pounding surf, tonight it
filled her heart with dread. Lavender had not come home.
Twice during the night hours she crept to the door of his small room
and peered in, shielding her candle with a trembling hand. For a long
while she sat in the window straining her eyes into the darkness. The
cats came and rubbed her bare ankles and Nip meowed plaintively. She
picked him up and cuddled him to her.
Suddenly a moving object in the lane caught her attention. It separated
itself into the forms of men, men moving slowly as though they bore a
burden. They turned into the garden patch.
"Lavender!" Aunt Achsa cried, jumping up quickly, shaking. "Oh--my boy!"
But that was the only sound she made. She opened the door as though she
had been waiting for these men with their limp burden. She directed
them to carry the boy to his own room. She moved aside for Doctor
Blackwell who had come with the others, an old pair of flannel trousers
drawn over his night shirt. She felt Mr. Dugald put a restraining arm
over her shoulders and nodded as though to say: "I'm all right--just
look out for Lavender."
One of the men coming back from Lavender's room offered an explanation.
"Those young 'uns were on the _Arabella_ and it broke from its
moorin's. The boy swum ashore to give an alarm. Plucky, I say--don't
know how he did it."
"Those young ones--_who_?" cried Dugald Allan.
"Why, I cal'late that gal Sidney and I don't know who else--"
"Sidney went with Miss Vine!" protested Achsa.
But at that moment Miss Letty appeared in the door, as scantily clad as
the doctor had been. From her window which faced Doctor Blackwell's
house, she had heard the men summoning him. She had lost no time in
getting to Sunset Lane.
"Who went with me? Where? What's happened?"
Now Aunt Achsa let her whole weight drop against Mr. Dugald.
"Didn't Sidney go 'long to Truro with you?" she asked falteringly.
"I didn't go to Truro. Knew this storm was comin'. Where--"
"Oh--h!" Aunt Achsa moaned Mr. Dugald motioned to Miss Vine.
"Take care of things--here. I'm off--"
"Cap'n Davies and Jim Saunders and Pete Cady's gone out in the
_Sally_," cried one of the men who had brought Lavender home. But
Dugald Allan had plunged into the darkness without hearing him. The men
rushed after him.
Miss Vine pushed Aunt Achsa into a chair.
"You're not going to cross any bridges 'til you come to them, Achsy
Green. Doctor Blackwell brought Lav into this world and he isn't going
to let him quit it without putting up a pretty good fight. Jeremiah
Berry's in with him and he's as good as two women. You wrap that shawl
'round you 'til I can light a lamp and get you some clothes. You're
shivering like it was December. I'll put the kettle over, too--"
Oddly huge and gaunt in the shadowy room, Miss Vine moved and talked
briskly to keep up Aunt Achsa's nerve and her own against the black
fear that held them.
Mr. Dugald ran with all speed to Rockman's, the other men after him. As
their hurrying steps echoed through the silent street heads popped out
of windows, doors opened. Then more men, half-dressed and dressing as
they ran, rushed after them toward Rockman's. They knew, with that
intuition inbred in seacoast communities, that something was wrong. Old
Simon Tibbetts, too crippled to join the gathering crowds, rang up
Commander Nelson at the Life Guard station on the backside.
When, in the gray light of the dawn, the _Sally_ chugged up to
Rockman's wharf with its precious cargo Sidney and Mart found a weary,
anxious crowd of men and women gathered there. And as Cap'n Davies and
Saunders lifted the girls ashore a lusty shout of rejoicing went
up--eager hands reached out to touch the rescued as though to make
certain they were safe and sound.
Sidney had eyes only for Mr. Dugald who seemed to tower above them all,
his eyes dark lined with the strain of anxious watching, his mouth set
sternly. And strangely enough, at first, Dugald Allan saw only Sidney,
yet it was not strange, for the white-faced, shrinking, abject girl,
barefooted and disheveled, who was hiding behind Mart and Sidney, had
little semblance to his gay young cousin.
Mr. Dugald opened his arms and Sidney ran into them like a little
child, and clung to him. He felt her slender body shaking.
"I--I can't help crying. I wanted Trude--so much!"
"_I_ was thinking of Trude, too. Thank God!" But Sidney was too moved
at the moment to wonder at his words or that the cheek he bent to hers
was wet with tears.
Then Dugald Allan spied Pola shivering forlornly behind Mart and
Sidney. "_You_--" he cried, pushing Sidney aside. "I thought you were
at Chatham!" His mouth tightened in a straight, stern line. "What is
all this? But wait, I must get Sidney back to Aunt Achsa. You shall
explain things as we go along."
He hurried the girls through the crowd which parted, smilingly, to let
them pass. On Commercial Street he hailed old Hiram Moss, who with an
eye to business in the midst of tragedy, had harnessed his horses to
his ancient cab and had them ready for an emergency.
After he had bundled his charges in Dugald Allan turned to Sidney.
"Now give me some inkling of what started this crazy adventure. Thank
God it has not ended as it might have ended though Lavender is still
fighting for his life! Answer me, Sidney."
But before Sidney could begin her tale she had to know what had
happened to Lavender.
"Fighting for his life? But--he _got here_, didn't he?"
"Yes--he reached shore, by an effort so great as to completely
prostrate him. They took him home. I left Doctor Blackwell with him."
Dugald Allan spoke shortly and his crisp sentences had the effect of
stunning poor Sidney. She shivered and leaned close to him. Her voice,
when she spoke, came with a childish tremor.
"Oh, Lavender _can't_ die. If he does--it will be all my fault! I
started everything. I--I told him about the diamonds--"
"_Diamonds_--"
"Yes--the diamonds. That's why we went out on the _Arabella_--" In
broken sentences Sidney told the story; she wanted Mr. Dugald to know
that they had cared most for the honor of Cape Cod!
"And we found them--a big box--at least we _think_ it's the diamonds!
Cap'n Phin Davies says it's _something_ queer!"
Dugald Allan's exclamation had much the character of an explosion.
"_Diamonds!_ What nonsense! You've risked bereaving three homes for
what is probably nothing more than a case of rum. If ever a girl needed
a big brother to keep her in check, you do!"