“But it is no time to speak now,” he exclaimed. “Some terrible calamity has befallen us.”
“Yes, yes, it was what I feared,” she moaned, clinging more tightly to him.
“You feared,” he said. “But stop! Now in this time of peril, Hester, when in a few moments we may be separated for ever, tell me the truth; you were speaking to some man, and even to-night?”
“Yes, Dutch,” she said.
“It was that mulatto?”
“Mulatto!” she said bitterly. “It was Señor Lauré.”
“Lauré,” he exclaimed. “Yes, I half suspected him, and you knew he was on board and did not warn us,” he added, in a tone of disgust, as he tried to free himself from his wife’s embrace.
“I could only warn you at the peril of your life, Dutch,” she said. “He threatened me.”
They were interrupted by the voice of the captain shouting for the door to be opened.
“Are you there, doctor?” said Dutch.