Lavender's admission faded beside the fact that he knew something. "Oh, what?" Sidney cried. "I wasn't going to tell you. I thought you didn't care anything about the pirates any more. And the laugh's sort o' on me, anyway, because I thought we were all crazy to suspect Jed Starrow." "Tell me quick, Lav," commanded Sidney, quivering with excitement. Lav leaned against the rail. To tell his story meant confessing his state of mind. "I guess I've been sore because you and Mr. Dugald fooled 'round with those new folks. Jealous. I get that way lots of times--all hot inside because I'm different. And I go off somewhere alone and stay there until I fight it down." "I know, Lav. Aunt Achsa told me. Did you go to the dunes?" "One night I did. Stayed there all night. But one evening I went out on the breakwall. There's a place out there where the rocks are piled so's to make a cave. I used to play there a lot when I was a little kid. I crawled into it. And I hadn't been there very long when I heard somebody talking--two men. They were up close so's I heard everything they said." "And what did they say, Lav? Oh, tell me quick!" "I could only get scraps of it. I didn't dare look, I didn't dare move. But one fellow called the other Jed. I heard 'em say something about 'risk' and a 'stranger from Boston asking too many questions 'round Rockman's to be healthy,' and Jed Starrow--I'm dead sure it was his voice--said, sort of blustering like, 'Let them search the _Puritan_! They won't find anything on her _now_!' And the other fellow answered him: 'There's too much in this, Jed, to take any chances.' That's what they said, Sid, and then they went on." "Oh, Lav, they're pirates!" "Well, not exactly pirates, but they're up to _something_ that's sure. Maybe they're rum-runners. There's a lot of that going on. I thought you were crazy, but I guess you weren't." Sidney's lips trembled with eagerness. As long as Lavender knew what he knew she felt that she would be justified in telling him what Cap'n Davies had told her. "It isn't rum--Lav," she whispered, "It's _diamonds_!" "Diamonds! Oh, go on, where did you get that stuff?" "It's diamonds, Lav." Then Sidney solemnly repeated what the old Captain had told her concerning the letter and the reward. "He asked me not to tell a soul, but you're different because you know. And he said that the reward would be posted everywhere in two weeks at least and it's that long now. Everyone will know soon." "Sid, five thousand dollars!" Lavender whistled. "If someone 'round here's doing it Cap'n Davies wants to catch him himself. He says he doesn't want the reward but he wants to punish the man who's hurting the honest name of this part of Cape Cod. I think that's a grand spirit." Lavender's shoulders lifted. Why couldn't someone else save the fair name of Cape Cod--someone like a crippled boy whom most of the towns-people looked upon as a loafer?