In the last hours before Sidney's expected arrival he agreed to meet her. Though that was Lavender's duty he knew, as well as Achsa, that she could not depend upon Lavender. "If he took it into his head to go down to Rockman's wharf why, he'd go--cousin or no cousin comin'," Aunt Achsa had worried; and then Dugald had come to the rescue, even promising to go so far as to hire Hiram Foss's hack--none of the town taxis would go through the sand of Sunset Lane! CHAPTER VII WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE "Land O' Goshen, you don't tell me you're cruisin' down to the Cape all by yourself! Now, ain't that exciting! And you never been there before, y'say?" Sidney nodded, sitting very straight on the seat, her hand closed tightly over her purse which contained all that was left of the Egg after purchasing her tickets. Her face perceptibly brightened. Others had talked to her during the long journey but they had had a way of saying "brave little girl" that had been annoying and that had not helped the lump that persisted in rising in her throat. This stranger Sidney felt was himself from the Cape. He was big and broad and had bushy white whiskers that encircled a very red face. From his booming voice she knew he must have commanded a ship; perhaps he knew Ezekiel Green and the _Betsy King_. She smiled shyly at him as he slid into the seat beside her. They were leaving Plymouth behind. "Goin' to Provincetown? Well, now, that's about as far as you _can_ go, 'lowin' you ain't goin' to Race P'int Light, by chance. You be careful that no pirates come 'long and ship and stow you in the fo'castle! There's a-plenty of 'em 'round these waters yet." "Of course I know there aren't really pirates--but what's a--a fo'castle?" Her new friend roared. "Bless the heart of the little landlubber! Why, the--the fo'castle's the--the fo'castle--for'ard of the fo'mast. And don't you be too sure about the pirates--you ask Jed Starrow if there ain't! Only they don't run up their flag no more--I guess the black sky's _their_ flag." "Have they any treasure buried on the Cape?" Sidney ventured. The old seaman started to laugh again, then smothered it by a big hand at his whiskers. "Now I won't say they have or they haven't. The Cape ought to be full of it. And these here pirates I speak of bury their treasures somewheres--jest where's the business of Uncle Sam's men to find out." He struck his chest proudly and Sidney caught the gleam of a badge pinned to one of the red straps of his suspenders. He saw that she had glimpsed it; doubtless he had intended she should. "Special deputy marshal--I'm Cap'n Phin Davies of Wellfleet, retired, you might say--at Uncle Sam's command." "Oh, I guessed you'd sailed a ship. Do you--did you know the Greens?" "Greens? There's Greens all over the Cape. But I reckon I know 'most everyone in these parts and if I don't, Elizy does--"