CHAPTER LXIV.
MARRIED AGAIN.
Captain Mason removed his hands, and turned his face, white and tear-stained, upon his friend.
"Rice, I loved that woman."
"True enough, captin; but don't think about that; there are as good fish in the sea as ever were taken out. Jest let us get hold of that scoundrel. We've got him tight now. This 'ere thing of marrying two wives is biggermy, and all the lawyers in Connecticut couldn't keep a man from State's prison if that 'ere crime is brought agin him. Come on, captin, I'll expose him."
"And Ellen—the mother of my child!" said Mason, sadly.
Rice took off his hat, and began to brush it with the sleeve of his coat.
"Yes, captin, I'm afeard we couldn't do one without the other; but the woman desarves it."
"Rice, Rice, her child is looking at you."
"And my sister is moaning her heart out in Simsbury Mines—my innocent sister. If the court had known that she was a married woman it wouldn't have been so hard with her. It was to get rid of her disgrace, they said, that she killed her child. If they had but known that there wasn't no disgrace she wouldn't have been sent to that prison. Mebby, if I was to show this certificate to the governor now, he'd let her out, and put Thrasher in her place."