Laughing Last - Jane Abbott (portable ebook reader .txt) š
- Author: Jane Abbott
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āSidney Romley, youāre crazy!ā cried Aunt Achsa, in a quavering voice. āGo away! How can he go away when we aināt even the money to go āsfar as Orleans. And he aināt planninā to go on anyoneās charity!ā
āOh, I donāt mean heās going away soon! I shouldnāt have told anyway for Lav told me as a secret. But I thought maybe it would make you happier knowing he had great ambitions. And heāll tell you sometime himself.ā
When Aunt Achsa spoke it was in a thin, grieved voice.
āItās what I didnāt want him to ever take into his head. Goinā off somewhereāalone. For Iām too old to go with him and heāll need me!ā
āOh I wouldnāt have told you if Iād thought it would make you unhappy. He wonāt go for a long time, Aunt Achsa. And when he does heāll come back real often.ā
Now Aunt Achsa sat so still that Sidney thought she had consoled her. But Aunt Achsa was facing in her own way this at which Sidney had hinted, drawing for it from that courage of hers that had not yet been exhausted. Well, if it was best for Lavender some day to go away sheād send him away with a smile even though the heart that had taken him, a wee baby, from the dying mother did burst with loneliness. Besides, even if Lavender went away she could go on praying to the Lord to keep him āhappyāāno distance could keep her from doing that!
āItās like as not his plans in his head thatās makinā him act so quiet like and short-spoken. And last night he didnāt sleep in his bed at all!ā
āWhy, Aunt Achsa, where was he?ā gasped Sidney, really startled.
āI donāt know, dearie. He used to take to spells like that when he was little. But lately heās got over them. I followed him once and I found him out in the sand dunes lying flat on his face cryinā awfulāout loud and beatinā his arms. I let him be. I stole home and I never let on I knew. When he came back all white lookinā I had a nice cake readyāroll jell, his favorite.ā
āDoādo you think he was out in the sand dunesālast night?ā
āI donāt know. He come in about nine oāclock, awful quiet and I didnāt ask him anything, but I just set his breakfast before him as though the morning waānāt half over. And then he went off again and I aināt seen him sense. I thought mebbe it was these folks of Mr. Dugaldāsāā
āWhat do you mean, Aunt Achsa?ā But Sidney knew what she meant.
āLike as not Lavās plain jealous. Mr. Dugald hasnāt had any time for anything but toting this Pola round everywhere and Lav notices it. He hasnāt any right to be jealous as I can see for Miss Pola is Mr. Dugaldās own cousin, but Lav thinks the sun rises and sets in Mr. Dugald. And like as not he misses youāā
āIāve missed Lav dreadfully. I didnāt know how much I missed him and Mart until today when it came over me suddenly that the things I was doing with Pola werenāt really much funājust at first they were because they were different. Iām afraid, Aunt Achsa, that I love different things! But tomorrow I am going to play all day long with Lav and Mart, see if I donāt. I canāt wait for tomorrow to come!ā
āHOOK!ā
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 Calkinsā house directly after breakfast, Mart coolly declined to go anywhere with her, and smiled scornfully at her bare legs.
āI sāpose your million-dollar friend is otherwise engaged today!ā
Sidney truthfully admitted that she was. āSheās gone to Chatham with her mother to see some people they know. And Iām glad. Iāve been just dying for a good swim. Letās go out to the Arabella this morning.ā
But Mart declared she was tired of all that. In fact she was tired of doing lots of the silly things theyād been doing. Sheād 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 Martās coldness. She remembered how she had felt once when Nancy had deserted her for a new girl at Miss Downsā. 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 Gertās. She felt very lonely.
Perhaps she had spoiled everything. Pola would come back, of course, but, somehow, Polaās 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 Polaās endless confidences of āmenā 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 Rockmanās, wandering there from force of habit, she saw Lav pushing off in a dory. She ran down the wharf, hailing him.
āOh, Lav, take me with you!ā 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: āCome on if yāwant to,ā he answered ungraciously.
As she sat down in the bow of the boat Sidney wanted to cry more than anything else, but Lavās 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.
āIsnāt it hot this morning, Lav? Where are you going?ā 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.
āOh, look, the Puritanās in, Lav!ā And even to this Lavender only grunted: āItās been in two days!ā
By the time they reached the Arabella Sidneyās remorse was yielding to a spark of indignation. Lav neednāt 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.
āI know you came out to read, Lav, and Iāve some thinking to do, so Iām going up in the bow and leave you quite to yourself,ā Sidney said as they boarded the Arabella, and if in her tone there was something of Martās tartness, it may be forgiven for Sidney had been punished enough.
āI donāt care if you hang āround,ā Lav conceded. āItās too hot to read, anyways. I thought maybe thereād be a breeze out here. Whatās that?ā For he had suddenly spied an object lying on the deck close to the rail as though it had dropped there from someoneās 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.
āItās a knife!ā cried Sidney, at his elbow.
āSure itās a knife. Anybody can see that. What I want to knowāā
āLet me look at it. Isnāt it Mr. Dugaldās?ā
āNo, it isnāt Mr. Dugaldās. He hasnāt been out here for a week. And that knife wasnāt here yesterday for Iād aā seen it.ā
āLet me look at it, Lav,ā pleaded Sidney, for Lav, a curious expression on his face, had covered the knife with his hand.
āItās funny, thatās all I got to say. I meanāhow it come here.ā
āLavender Green, show me that knife this minute! You act so mysterious and I have a right to know why.ā
Slowly Lavender placed the knife in Sidneyās 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.
āJ.S.ā
āJ.S.ā repeated Sidney; then she cried: āWhyāJ.S.! Thatās Jed Starrow!ā
āSure itās Jed Starrow!ā
āBut how did it get on the Arabella?ā
āThatās what Iād like to know.ā
āHeās been on the Arabella, Lav!ā
āOr someone of his gang.ā
āIsnāt that funny? What would he come here for?ā
Lavender was silent. And Sidney, staring at him as though to read from his face some explanation, suddenly fell silent, too. The secret that Capān Davies had laid upon her weighed heavily. She wished she could tell.
āSid, I havenāt played square,ā Lavender suddenly blurted out, flushing. āWe promised to tell one another if any one of us found out anything and I didāand I didnāt tell!ā
Lavenderās admission faded beside the fact that he knew something.
āOh, what?ā Sidney cried.
āI wasnāt going to tell you. I thought you didnāt care anything about the pirates any more. And the laughās sort oā on me, anyway, because I thought we were all crazy to suspect Jed Starrow.ā
āTell me quick, Lav,ā commanded Sidney, quivering with excitement.
Lav leaned against the rail. To tell his story meant confessing his state of mind.
āI guess Iāve been sore because you and Mr. Dugald fooled āround with those new folks. Jealous. I get that way lots of timesāall hot inside because Iām different. And I go off somewhere alone and stay there until I fight it down.ā
āI know, Lav. Aunt Achsa told me. Did you go to the dunes?ā
āOne night I did. Stayed there all night. But one evening I went out on the breakwall. Thereās a place out there where the rocks are piled soās to make a cave. I used to play there a lot when I was a little kid. I crawled into it. And I hadnāt been there very long when I heard somebody talkingātwo men. They were up close soās I heard everything they said.ā
āAnd what did they say, Lav? Oh, tell me quick!ā
āI could only get scraps of it. I didnāt dare look, I didnāt dare move. But one fellow called the other Jed. I heard āem say something about āriskā and a āstranger from Boston asking too many questions āround Rockmanās to be healthy,ā and Jed StarrowāIām dead sure it was his voiceāsaid, sort of blustering like, āLet them search the Puritan! They wonāt find anything on her now!ā And the other fellow answered him: āThereās too much in this, Jed, to take any chances.ā Thatās what they said, Sid, and then they went on.ā
āOh, Lav, theyāre pirates!ā
āWell, not exactly pirates, but theyāre up to something thatās sure. Maybe theyāre rum-runners. Thereās a lot of that going on. I thought you were crazy, but I guess you werenāt.ā
Sidneyās lips trembled with eagerness. As long as Lavender knew what he knew she felt that she would be justified in telling him what Capān Davies had told her.
āIt isnāt rumāLav,ā she whispered, āItās diamonds!ā
āDiamonds! Oh,
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