Months  went  by ;  the  country  was  rife  with  rumours
of  glorious  victories,  but  to  Hester  and  Dorothy  these
only  meant  a  chance  of  death  for  their  absent  lads ;
for  might  they  not  have  been  in  the  very  thick  of  one
or  other  of  these  great  sea-fights  ?  So  they  grew  sadder
and  paler,  and  at  last  both  put  on  mourning  clothes  for
their  loved  ones.
Polly  heard  of  this,  and  she  mocked  openly.  One
day,  at  a  fish  auction  on  the  Staithes,  she  boasted  that
if  a  lad  broke  faith  with  her  she  knew  how  to  punish
him.
*  Ye  can  ask  Hester  Mossburn,'  she  said.
She  was  startled  by  the  sudden  silence  that  fell  on
the  noisy  group,  just  now  full  of  laughter  and  coarse
jokes.
Then  the  oldest  fisherman,  near  whom  she  stood,
gripped  her  arm.
*  Ista  false,  Polly  ?'  he  said.  *  Ah,  wud  not  hav
thout  sic  a  steeany  heart  lived  amongst  us.'  And  he
flung  her  from  him  with  violence.
The  man  against  whom  the  push  sent  her  flung  her
away  also,  as  if  she  were  plague-stricken.
At  this  Polly  gathered  herself  up  with  an  angry
scowl,  and  as  she  met  the  stony  glances  of  the  eyes
all  fixed  on  her — glances  that  to  her  guilty  soul  seemed
to  promise  a  speedy  vengeance  for  her  treason — she
fled  away,  and  from  that  day  she  never  showed  her
face  on  the  Staithes.  But  the  story  fled  like  wild-
fire over  the  town  and  down  into  the  gullies.  Polly's
landlady  turned  her  out  of  doors,  and  not  a  soul  would
give  shelter,  or  employment,  to  the  girl,  who  had
betrayed  Whitby  sailors  to  their  natural  enemies.
