back to you and bless you both.
Then"--

"Then what?" inquired Crippen anxiously.

"You disappear!" concluded Pepper triumphantly; "and, of course,
believing her first husband is alive, she has to leave me. She's a very
particular woman; and, besides that, I'd take care to let the neighbours
know. I'm happy, you're happy, and, if she's not happy, why, she don't
deserve to be."

"I'll think it over," said Crippen, "and write and let you know."

"Make up your mind now," urged Pepper, reaching over and patting him
encouragingly upon the shoulder. "If you promise to do it, the thing's
as good as done. Lord! I think I see you now, coming in at that door and
surprising her. Talk about acting!"

"Is she what you'd call a good-looking woman?" inquired Crippen.

"Very handsome!" said Pepper, looking out of the window.

"I couldn't do it!" said the captain. "It wouldn't be right and fair to
her."

"I don't see that!" said Pepper. "I never ought to have married her
without being certain her first was dead. It ain't right, Crippen; say
what you like, it ain't right!"

"If you put it that way," said the captain hesitatingly.

"Have some more gin," said the artful pilot.

The captain had some more, and, what with flattery and gin, combined
with the pleadings of his friend, began to consider the affair more
favourably. Pepper stuck to his guns, and used them so well that when
the captain saw him off that evening he was pledged up to the hilt
to come down to Sunset Bay and personate the late Captain Budd on the
following Thursday.

The ex-pilot passed the intervening days in a sort of trance, from which
he only emerged to take nourishment, or answer the scoldings of his
wife. On the eventful Thursday, however, his mood changed, and he went
about in such a state of suppressed excitement that he could scarcely
keep still.

"Lor' bless me!" snapped Mrs. Pepper, as he slowly perambulated the
parlour that afternoon. "What ails the man? Can't you keep still for
five minutes?"

The ex-pilot stopped and eyed her solemnly, but, ere he could reply, his
heart gave a great bound, for, from behind the geraniums which filled
the window, he saw the face of Captain Crippen slowly rise and peer
cautiously into the room. Before his wife could follow the direction of
her husband's eyes it had disappeared.

"Somebody looking in at the window," said Pepper, with forced calmness,
in reply to his wife's eyebrows.

"Like their impudence