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!" CHAPTER XXIII DIAMONDS During the early morning hours of that summer day that Sidney was destined never to forget, the girl passed through every emotion that a fifteen-year-old heart can suffer. First, to her dismay no one at the cottage had seemed to rejoice, as the crowd on the wharf had rejoiced, at her rescue. When Mr. Dugald led her in Miss Vine was making coffee at the stove and all she said was: "Well, you're all right! Better go to bed now as quick as you can and keep out from under foot." Then Mr. Dugald had taken Pola back to the hotel. Aunt Achsa was with Doctor Blackwell and Lavender. Sidney had tried to summon sufficient courage to ask Miss Vine's forbidding back for some word of Lavender, but the words failed in her throat. Cold, forlorn, hungry, she crept to her room, threw off her clothes and huddled down into the bed-clothes.