CHAPTER XXIV
WHAT THE DAY HELD
"Dear Dorothea, again I stand at the crossroads, a saddened soul, andwiser--"
But Sidney could get no further than that. There was so much to tellDorothea that she did not know how to begin. For those terrible hourson the _Arabella_ she had no words; she shrank from trying to depictLavender's splendid courage for his white face as she had seen it inthe precious five minutes still haunted her. Even the diamonds losttheir lustre beside Trude's ultimatum that they must go home.
Go home so ingloriously!
It was two hours since Dugald had led Trude away down the lane andSidney's apprehension had mounted as the time had passed. She wasfeeling very young and very forgotten; Miss Letty who had remained atthe cottage to "be handy" and to answer the stream of inquiries thatcame to the door, had warned her to "keep quiet" as there had beenenough excitement for one day and she had been too rebuffed to evenconfide to Miss Letty that Mr. Dugald was someone her sister had knowna few years before and that they had gone away without her.
Miss Letty was baking vigorously, her great hands moving deftly amongthe cupboards, her straight back eloquently expressive of her mood. "Iguess folks'll have a different opinion of Lavender Green _now_," shemuttered and as Sidney was the only person within hearing she acceptedthe remark as addressed to her and agreed. Miss Letty went on, shakingthe flour-sifter as though she wished she were shaking someone inparticular: "I guess folks like that Mrs. Allan will have a differentopinion of Cape Cod. She came here and asked to see Lavender and I tookher in and waited outside the door--"
"Oh, what did she say?" begged Sidney.
"She offered him money! Well, I thought the boy'd have a relapse on thespot. And I walked in and took her by the arm and led her out and Isaid to her: 'Madam, we on Cape Cod do not sell our bravery--we _give_it!' I said just that. And she withered like a limp leaf. She sort ofclung to me and cried like a baby. Yes, she'll know now what sort o'breed we Cape Coders are."
Even that Sidney could not record in Dorothea.
She began to pack because it was the occupation best suited to her moodand because from the window of her room she could see Trude and Mr.Dugald the moment they turned the corner by Mart's house. She spreadher scant belongings over the bed and set the old satchel on therush-bottomed chair. She was in the act of folding the precious cherrycrepe de chine when she spied approaching figures--Trude and Mr.Dugald, walking slowly. Her heart gave a quick bound only to grow coldat the sight of Trude's chin which was set stubbornly in a way thatSidney well knew! Nor did Mr. Dugald appear the happy lover; he walkedwith bent face and occasionally kicked at the flowers that edged thelane.
Trude sought Sidney directly and nodded with approval when she saw thepacking. She sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Sid," she began in a queer voice that Sidney had never heard before."I suppose I ought to tell you how I happened to know--Dugald Allan."
Trude spoke so slowly and with such difficulty that Sidney hastened tomake it easier for her.
"I do know. You met him at the Whites three winters ago and he wrotesomething. I overheard you and Issy talking once but I didn't hear hisname and I saw you crying over a letter--"
Trude laughed shakily.
"Sidney, you're simply the limit! Yes, I met him there that firstwinter I went to visit Aunt Edith. His father and Mr. White are oldfriends and he was staying at Aunt Edith's while he painted a portraitof one of Aunt Edith's friends. I was just a silly, countrified girland--I didn't understand lots of things and thought--well, there's nouse, now going into all that. I lost my head and let myself thinkthings that weren't so--"
Sidney interrupted, impatiently. "Trude, you talk to me as though I wasa baby and couldn't hear the truth. I guess I know; you fell in lovewith Mr. Dugald and you thought he was in love with you--"
"Thank you, Sid. Yes, I _had_ forgotten your extreme age. I fell inlove with--him. I am not ashamed to admit it. I had never known anyonelike him before. And I thought--yes, that--There was another girlthere, Sylvia Thorn, from Atlanta. She was very pretty and she andDugald were great pals and one day Aunt Edith told me she hoped theywould marry, that it would be a very nice match for Dugald, a relief tohis family, that he needed that type of girl to cure him of his queerways. I remember just what she said. 'You understand, my dear, _you_have lived with genius yourself.' It wasn't exactly _what_ she said, itwas the way she said it, as though she thought I would know because _I_lived entirely out of Dugald Allan's class. It hurt cruelly. It made mesensitive and made me see little things between Dugald--and Sylvia. Andit made me see myself as someone quite unworthy of--Dugald. I foundsome pretext to go home. I thought by running away from it all I couldforget. Dugald wrote a few times--then that letter telling me that hewas going on a six months' painting cruise in the South Seas withSylvia Thorn and her father and mother and wanted to run up toMiddletown to tell me something before he went. I wrote back that hemust not come that I--could not--see him. That's all."
Sidney was listening with clasped hands, a color on her cheeks thatmatched Trude's, stars in her eyes. With magic swiftness her romanticsoul was piecing together a beautiful picture.
"Why, that _can't_ be all! How could you have written to him like that!And he wasn't in love with that Sylvia, was he?"
Trude's eyes softened. "N--no. I know now. He told me--today. Sylviawas engaged at the time to his best friend, but they wanted it keptsecret for awhile. Dugald thought I knew."
"Then--then--" cried Sidney. But, somehow, she could not ask Trude whathad happened during the afternoon, something new in Trude's dear eyesplainly warned her that just now all that was too much her own to beshared with anyone.
Instead she threw her arms around Trude and hugged her violently.
"Oh, Trude, how I love you! And it's so good to be with you. Outthere--on the boat--I kept thinking of you and how safe I always feelwith you--how I _need_ you! I don't ever want to feel grown-up againand independent, I don't care _how_ old I am--"
Trude kissed the tousled head. "You've said just what I wanted to hear,dear," she answered softly. "And that you--need me!"
Summoning them to supper, Miss Letty stood with arms akimbo and with asatisfied eye surveyed the good things she had prepared. That Mr.Dugald was at the hotel starting his aunt and cousin homeward fromProvincetown, was Miss Letty's one regret. Sidney sniffed rapturouslyat everything, begging that Trude sit next to her. The old kitchengleamed golden in the fading sunlight, a fragrance of flowers andsea-air and pines came on the breeze that wafted in through thewide-opened doors and windows. Aunt Achsa, her smiling self again,fluttered around in anxious concern as to Trude's welfare. A greathappiness held the little group. Though Lavender's chair was emptyLavender was better--Lavender would get well!
After supper, while they still lingered over the empty plates, thevoices of men came from the lane.
"More folks askin' after Lav," declared Miss Letty with pride.
Cap'n Davies himself halted before the door and nodded to the womeninside. Back of him stood the men Sidney had met that morning atRockman's and back of them Mr. Dugald, smiling, and back of him manyothers, curious and excited. What _ever_ had happened!
Cap'n Davies wore his most important air.
"I'm here to see one Lavender Green and one Sidney Romley."
"Phin Davies, you know Lav Green's flat on his back," retorted MissLetty brusquely but smiling. It seemed to Sidney, standing close toTrude, that everyone was smiling.
Mr. Dugald pushed into the room.
"Doctor Blackwell says that it won't hurt Lav for me to carry him in!"And without another word he rushed off to Lav's room and returnedalmost instantly with the boy in his arms. He put him carefully in AuntAchsa's rocker and then stood close to him.
Cap'n Phin cleared his throat an extra number of times. Having donethis to his satisfaction he drew a blue slip of paper from a leatherpocketbook and held it high.
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"In the name of Truro and Wellfleet counties I take great pleasure inpresenting to Lavender Green and Sidney Romley this reward for thecapture of--"
He never did finish his speech. His voice was drowned in loud hurrahsthat echoed and reechoed down the lane and brought Gran'ma Calkins andMart and Tillie Higgins in a great hurry to Achsa Green's.
Sidney's face flamed.
"Oh, _I_ don't want it!" she cried. "It's Lav's. Honestly. He reallyfound out about the diamonds. I--I just--"
Everyone looked at Lavender, whose face had gone even whiter. Againstit his eyes shone big and black. He seemed to straighten in the oldchair and his poor shoulders took on a fine dignity.
"_I_--didn't--want--any--money," he answered in a voice so weak that itwas scarcely anything more than a whisper.
But here the practical Miss Letty, who had taught Mrs. Allan her lessonon Cape Cod folks, took charge of matters.
"Well, you can do a whole lot with money, Lav Green. As long as the twocounties decided it was worth that much to run down these smugglers Ireckon you've earned it. And I want you men to go away from here andspread the word over the whole of Cape Cod that in that crooked body ofLav Green's is a heart that's as brave as the bravest and ambition,too. Folks have gotten to think he's a loafer because he wouldn't go toschool, but they'll come to know he isn't and you can tell them LettyVine knows for she's taught him herself and he knows as much and morethan any boy his age! And now--well, you _watch_ Lav Green! That's allI can say. Some day you men will hear about him and remember this dayand be awful proud!"
Miss Vine had to stop to swallow something in her throat. Cap'n Phinforgot entirely the nice phrases he had practiced for the occasion. Hismen shuffled slowly out of the room, some of them coughing and otherscovertly wiping their eyes.
Mr. Dugald and Doctor Blackwell and Cap'n Phin and Martie and Gran'maCalkins remained. Mart and Sidney were excitedly examining the littleslip of paper that meant five thousand whole dollars, not with anycoveting, for Mart was as vehement as Sidney in disclaiming any sharein the reward. It was Lav's. But for Lav's risking everything to swimto shore no one might have known anything about Jed Starrow'sconnection with the persistent smuggling.
"Oh, where _is_ Jed Starrow?" Sidney suddenly asked and Cap'n Phin toldher Jed Starrow was in jail.
"It'll be a lesson to him and others like him," he continued, sternly."Betrayin' the honor of the Cape! And him born and brought up on it!"
Sidney felt a moment's regret that _anyone_ had to be in jail. Then sheforgot it in everyone's interest as to what Lavender would do with somuch money. They pressed him on every side, heedless of DoctorBlackwell's warning that the boy should not be unduly excited.
Lav's eyes found Aunt Achsa's smiling face.
"Get Aunt Achsa an oil stove," he answered promptly. "And--and lots ofthings. And books. And--" his eyes kindled. But he broke off abruptly.He was going to say that now he could go to school in one of the bigcities where folks did not notice other folks who were "different." Buthe did not say it, he did not want to spoil Aunt Achsa's joy.
Sidney understood and, reaching out, squeezed one of Lavender's hands.
Doctor Blackwell ordered his patient back to bed. Martie took Gran'maCalkins home. With much handshaking Cap'n Phin took his leave. MissLetty and Trude and Sidney briskly cleared away the dishes.
"I feel as though I had lived ten years since I heard those menpounding on Steve Blackwell's door," declared Miss Letty, piling theplates with a clatter.
"Oh, ten! A _hundred_! I didn't know anyone _could_ live so fast all atone time!" agreed Sidney solemnly. "Sometimes I think I'm just dreamingand will wake up and find that nothing's happened. I won't mind goinghome now for I'll have so much to think about!"
"Going home?" gasped Aunt Achsa. "Why--why--"
Dugald Allan, coming from Lavender's room, interrupted them.
"I beg to report that your millionaire nephew is resting quietly and isin fine shape." Sidney noticed with a little glow of feeling howquickly Mr. Dugald's eyes sought Trude's. And she thought Trude cruelto look away!
Miss Vine persuaded Aunt Achsa to go to bed and then said good-nightherself. Her "ten years" had left her fatigued. Dugald Allan walked asfar as the lane with her then came back, remembering suddenly that hewas carrying two letters in his pocket.
"In the excitement I nearly forgot them," he apologized. He drew themout. Both were for Trude and had been forwarded by special deliveryfrom Long Island. One was from Vick and one from Issy.
"Oh, open them quickly," begged Sidney.
Trude's hand trembled as she held Issy's envelope. "I'm--almost afraidto. I _know_ it's silly--but so much has happened today that--I don'tthink--I could bear--anything more!"