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cargo to Shanghai. Roughest vā€™yage I ever ran into,ā€ and ā€œI picked that up when we had to lay to at Buenos Aires ā€™cause every man jack in the foā€™castle had small-pox,ā€ or ā€œfound that when Elizy shipped with me on the old Amanda L. Downs. Forget just whereā€”ā€ and so on.

In the cupola on the roof that Capā€™n Davies called his lookout and where he spent most of his time, he had put the paraphernalia from the Viking, his last boat. He had rigged up a bunk so that he could even sleep there when he fancied. He explained that he never let Elizy ā€œtidy up.ā€ ā€œWhen I get a notion I fix things shipshape myself, but I ainā€™t had a notion now in sometime.ā€ Sidney could see that. Yet the littered room had an individuality that Elizyā€™s own spotless quarters lacked.

ā€œNow set down on that bunk and let me have a look at you,ā€ the Capā€™n commanded, seating himself in an old swivel chair that creaked and trembled under his weight. ā€œā€™Pears to me youā€™ve picked up quite a bit!ā€ He smiled his approval and nodded his great head. ā€œYes, they ainā€™t starvinā€™ you and Iā€™d say youā€™d been runninā€™ in the sun and there ainā€™t anything that can beat our Cape sun for bringinā€™ out roses on bushes and little galā€™s cheeks.ā€ He beamed with satisfaction over his long speech. ā€œNow, tell me, howā€™s the pirates? Seen any?ā€

His question came so suddenly that Sidney started. She hesitated, then answered slowly. ā€œYes, I have.ā€

ā€œWell, Iā€™ll be dumblasted!ā€ exclaimed the captain, plainly astonished by her answer. He had spoken only in pleasant chaff and had not thought Sidney would take him seriously.

ā€œAt leastā€”ā€ Sidney amended, ā€œI think Iā€™ve seen some. I told Lavender and Mart theyā€™re pirates orā€”or something, and weā€™re going to watch every move Jed Starrow makes, at least every chance we getā€”ā€

The jovial expression suddenly left the Captainā€™s genial face and a heavy frown furrowed the leathery forehead.

ā€œJed Starrow! Now what in thunder would make you set on Jed Starrowā€”ā€

His frown alarmed Sidney. Perhaps she had made a dreadful mistake in divulging their suspicions of Jed Starrow, suspicions which really Lavender and Mart did not share, except as it helped their fun alongā€”

ā€œOh, I shouldnā€™t have said that itā€™s Jed Starrow we suspect. I heard Mr. Starrow and thatā€”that man with the hookā€”say something that sounded mysterious and I told the others, Mart and Lav, about it and weā€™re just pretending that we think theyā€™re pirates! Itā€™s something to do and makes it exciting when weā€™re down on the wharves. And they do look like piratesā€”especially the wrecker man. But I ought not to have said their namesā€”as long as itā€™s only a sort of game weā€™re playing, ought I? You wonā€™t tell anyone, will you?ā€

Capā€™n Davies promised hastily and took Sidney off to see the new heifer calf, just a week old. In the delight of fondling the pretty little creature Sidney forgot her embarrassing break. She did not notice that the Captain seemed deeply absorbed by some thought and that when he was not talking he still frowned.

After she had visited the Cove and watched the waves dash against the Head and explored the boathouse Miss Letty arrived with King and Mrs. Davies summoned them to dinner. They ate dinner in the big kitchen that stretched from one side of the house to the other so that a breeze, all tangy with salt, stirred the heat of the room. Mrs. Elizy and Miss Letty talked and Sidney ate and laughed as Capā€™n Phin surreptitiously, and with sly winks at her, fed the old Maltese cat under the table. There were fried chicken and peas and mashed potatoes and the gingerbread and cocoa and flaky cherry pie. And after dinner they all went out to watch King eat the gingerbread of his choice.

Sidney and Miss Letty helped Mrs. Elizy clear up and then they joined Capā€™n Phin under the shade of the trees on the Head from where they could see far out over the bay. Sidney stretched on the grass and listened while the others talked, determining to put down every word they said in ā€œDorotheaā€ so that she could read it over when she was a very old woman. She loved the way Miss Letty answered back to Capā€™n Davies when he teased her and she was not the least bit afraid of Mrs. Davies, now. All in all, though it was a very quiet afternoon, it was one Sidney long remembered.

When Miss Letty announced that theyā€™d ā€œhave to be starting for home,ā€ Capā€™n Davies recollected that there was something in the lookout he wanted to show Sidney and had forgotten. But when they reached the lookout it appeared that he had forgotten again for he sat down in the swivel chair and faced her.

ā€œLooky here,ā€ he commanded in a voice Sidney had not heard before in their brief acquaintance, ā€œdonā€™t know as itā€™s any oā€™ my affair but I want you to keep off the wharves after dark. Off the beach, too. Play your games in daylight. Things are shapinā€™ to a sort oā€™ head and there may be mischief anytime and youā€™d best be at home come dark. If you donā€™t promise me Iā€™ll speak a word to Achsy Greenā€”ā€

ā€œOh, Iā€™ll promise,ā€ cried Sidney anxiously. A warning to Aunt Achsa would most likely curtail their precious freedom. But she could not resist the temptation of questioning. ā€œWhat mischief?ā€ she asked, eagerly.

Capā€™n Davies hesitated. Then he drew a letter from his pocket and tapped it with his finger.

ā€œThatā€™s from the Custom House in Boston. Come last week. Theyā€™re sending secret service men down to comb the Cape. Been huntinā€™ the hul coast for a year and a half and they sort oā€™ suspicion these parts because a lot of ā€™em was shipped into Boston thatā€”ā€

ā€œOh, what! You havenā€™t said whatā€”ā€ broke in Sidney, aquiver.

ā€œSo I didnā€™t. Iā€™m sailinā€™ stern first, I calā€™late. Well, thereā€™s always smuggling and smuggling and I guess there always will be, but when it comes to diamonds Uncle Sam sets up and takes notice. And theyā€™re suspicioninā€™ that theyā€™re cominā€™ in somewheres along the Cape, and this part of the Cape, too. And thisā€”ā€ he shook another sheet in Sidneyā€™s face, ā€œthis is a notice of a reward offered by Wellfleet and Truro counties for findinā€™ the dog thatā€™s givinā€™ this part of the Cape a bad name! Five thousand dollars. In two weeks itā€™ll be stuck on every post hereabouts ā€™s far as Provincetown. And Phin Davies ainā€™t goinā€™ to lay to ā€™till Iā€™ve found out whether itā€™s someone on the Cape thatā€™s doing it or not. Cape Codā€™s brung up a race of honest men who could sleep with their doors wide open and if anybody is hurtinā€™ the good name of the Cape I want to know it. ā€™Taint the money I want.ā€

CAPTAIN DAVIES DREW A LETTER FROM HIS POCKET AND TAPPED IT WITH HIS FINGER

Sidney was scarcely drawing a breath for excitement. The Captain, suddenly subsiding, observed her tenseness. He laughed embarrassedly.

ā€œNow there I go spillinā€™ everything I know like a ship thatā€™s sprung a leak. Iā€™ll have to ask you to keep mum ā€™bout what Iā€™ve told you, mate, and remember your word to keep off the beach come night. Ainā€™t no place for a gal like you.ā€ And without another word he rose and led Sidney down the narrow stairs.

On the homeward ride Miss Letty found Sidney an abstracted companion. After a few attempts to keep up conversation she subsided into silence herself. ā€œItā€™s good to find a young one who can keep her tongue still a spell and enjoy her own thoughts.ā€

But Sidney was not enjoying her thoughts, not at all. With the realization that she could not share with Mart and Lavender the astounding revelations Capā€™n Phin Davies had made all joy in them had fled. Had not she and Mart and Lavender agreed solemnly to tell one another anything any one of them discovered? It would be so perfectly thrilling to greet them the instant she reached home with ā€œHook!ā€ They would be so surprised. They wouldnā€™t laugh if she told them what she knew! But she couldnā€™t.

Capā€™n Phin Davies had said: ā€œIā€™ll have to ask you to keep mumā€ and that was quite enough to seal Sidneyā€™s lips.

CHAPTER XVI
 
POLA

For the next few days Mart and Lav found Sidney strangely quiet. Sidney on her part wondered if they could not tell, simply by looking at her, that her uncomfortable heart carried a great secret. Then something happened that put pirates and secrets completely out of her mind, something so amazing, so unexpected, as to turn her world on its head. Pola came!

In her zeal to get out of each day all the joy that it offered Sidney had forgotten Pola, or at least she had tucked her idol into a far-back corner of her mind where it was fast gathering dust.

One morning Mart, racing over the sand of the beach, hailed her. ā€œSid! Sid! They want us to pose for them! That Craig woman and the others!ā€

Sid gasped, unbelieving. The girls had often wished they might pose for some of the artists. Mart, having caught up with her, clutched her arm and hauled her hurriedly forward toward where little groups of artists were gathering on the beach in the shadow of one of the long wharves.

ā€œButā€”butā€”ā€ Sidney protested breathlessly. It would be fun to pose, of course, but not dressed as she was at that moment! Vick, in the picture that had been hung in Paris, had worn a black velvet dress which the artist had borrowed for her sitting; she could run home and don the precious cherry crĆŖpe de chine that she had not worn since she had come to Sunset Lane.

ā€œMiss Craig said to get thatā€”otherā€”girlā€”ā€ Mart was explaining as they ran. ā€œAnd theyā€™re waiting.ā€

Miss Craig, a pretty, earnest-eyed woman who was studying in one of the summer art classes, came forward to meet them. Her glance went over Sidneyā€™s figure with enthusiastic approval.

ā€œYou found her! How nice. Miss Higgins will pose youā€”ā€

ā€œCanā€™t I go home and change my dress? I have an awfully prettyā€”ā€

But Miss Craig cut Sidneyā€™s appeal short.

ā€œGracious no! Why, that would spoil you! We want you exactly as you are this momentā€”both of you. Youā€™reā€”youā€™re precious!ā€

Sidney resented her ā€œprecious.ā€ She resented other remarks that came to their ears as Miss Higgins, who had charge of the little group, posed them against an old, overturned dory. ā€œA perfect typeā€”nativeā€”girlsā€”ā€”freedomā€”ā€”wild beautyā€”ā€”ā€ She resented the rotting dory. Vick had leaned against a crimson velvet chair. Why, her hair had not been combed since the morning before, her skirt was in tatters where she had torn it climbing into Top Notch; she was horribly conscious of her long legs, bare, brown, and bruised.

Sidney found that posing in the morning sun on a beach at Provincetown was not the lark Vick had declared posing for the great Stuart Gelding had been. But then Vick had flirted a little with Stuart Gelding and had always had a cup of tea with him and his wife afterward; these art students appeared to have forgotten that their models were human with legs that ached from holding a position and arms that trembled with very eagerness to move. It was not one bit of fun.

Then, after an interminable time, Miss Craig called out cheerily; ā€œThere, thatā€™s enough for this morning,ā€ and came down to the dory, opening a little crocheted bag. From it she took two crisp one dollar bills. ā€œTake this, girls, and divide it. And we are ever so gratefulā€”you were splendid types.

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