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Page 21
"That is a good idea," said Calpurnia, retreating below. "I can see
through the window that we are in motion. The vessel has left her
moorings, and is making considerable headway down the stream, and the
distinctly masculine voices we have heard are indications to my mind that
the ship is manned, and that this is the result of design rather than of
accident. Let us below."
Elizabeth rose up and readjusted her ruff, which in the excitement of the
moment had been forced to assume a position about her forehead which gave
one the impression that its royal wearer had suddenly donned a sombrero.
"Very well," she said. "Let us below; but oh, for the axe!"
"Bring the lady an axe," cried Xanthippe, sarcastically. "She wants to cut
somebody."
The sally was not greeted with applause. The situation was regarded as
being too serious to admit of humor, and in silence they filed back into
the billiard-room, and, arranging themselves in groups, stood about
anxiously discussing the situation.
"It's getting rougher every minute," sobbed Ophelia. "Look at those
pool-balls!" These were in very truth chasing each other about the table
in an extraordinary fashion. "And I wish I'd never followed you horrid new
creatures on board!" the poor girl added, in an agony of despair.
"I believe we've crossed the bar already!" said Cleopatra, gazing out of
the window at a nasty choppy sea that was adding somewhat to the
disquietude of the fair gathering. "If this is merely a joke on the part
of the Associated Shades, it is a mighty poor one, and I think it is time
it should cease."
"Oh, for an axe!" moaned Elizabeth, again.
"Excuse me, your Majesty," put in Xanthippe. "You said that before, and I
must say it is getting tiresome. You couldn't do anything with an axe.
Suppose you had one. What earthly good would it do you, who were
accustomed to doing all your killing by proxy? I don't believe, if you had
the unmannerly person who slammed the door in your face lying prostrate
upon the billiard-table here, you could hit him a square blow in the neck
if you had a hundred axes. Delilah might as well cry for her scissors, for
all the good it would do us in our predicament. If Cleopatra had her asp
with her it might be more to the purpose. One deadly little snake like
that let loose on the upper deck would doubtless drive these boors into
the sea, and even then our condition would not be bettered, for there
isn't any of us that can sail a boat. There isn't an old salt among us."
"Too bad Mrs. Lot isn't along," giggled Marguerite de Valois, whose Gallic
spirits were by no means overshadowed by the unhappy predicament in which
she found herself.
"I'm here," piped up Mrs. Lot. "But I'm not that kind of a salt."
"I am present," said Mrs. Noah. "Though why I ever came I don't know, for
I vowed the minute I set my foot on Ararat that dry land was good enough
for me, and that I'd never step aboard another boat as long as I lived.
If, however, now that I am here, I can give you the benefit of my nautical
experience, you are all perfectly welcome to it."
"I'm sure we're very much obliged for the offer," said Portia, "but in the
emergency which has arisen we cannot say how much obliged we are until we
know what your experience amounted to. Before relying upon you we ought to
know how far that reliance can go--not that I lack confidence in you, my
dear madam, but that in an hour of peril one must take care to rely upon
the oak, not upon the reed."
"The point is properly taken," said Elizabeth, "and I wish to say here
that I am easier in my mind when I realize that we have with us so
level-headed a person as the lady who has just spoken. She has spoken
truly and to the point. If I were to become queen again, I should make her
my attorney-general. We must not go ahead impulsively, but look at all
things in a calm, judicial manner."
"Which is pretty hard work with a sea like this on," remarked Ophelia,
faintly, for she was getting a trifle sallow, as indeed she might, for the
House-boat was beginning to roll tremendously, with no alleviation save an
occasional pitch, which was an alleviation only in the sense that it gave
variety to their discomfort. "I don't believe a chief-justice could look
at things calmly and in a judicial manner if he felt as I do."
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