Story 1--Chapter XIX.
Pepper for the Sharks.
Dutch felt a pang at his heart as he raised and carried the fainting woman below—Bessy Studwick joining him as he laid her on the little couch in the cabin; and he was about to leave her in the latter’s care, when she began to revive, and called him by name.
For a moment he was about to run to her, but the old and bitter suspicions hardened his heart, and he turned away.
“Oh,” exclaimed Bessy Studwick, bitterly, “if he had been my husband, and behaved to me like that!”
“Pray, hush!” said Hester, feebly.
“I can’t,” exclaimed Bessy, clasping the weeping woman in her arms. “I know you must have felt horribly jealous of me once, dear, and I really did of you; but as for Dutch Pugh now, I absolutely hate him, and I’m sure you must ever so much more.”
“I never loved him so dearly as I do now,” sighed Hester. “Some day he will believe in me again.”
She covered her face with her hands, and thought of her little adventure upon the deck, one which puzzled as well as alarmed her; and once or twice she was on the point of confiding in Bessy, but the thoughts of her husband’s peril drove others away, and, making an effort, she rose to go on deck again.
“I’m sure you are not fit to go on deck,” exclaimed Bessy, trying to restrain her.