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Page 24
"Oh, I beg pardon," cried Cleopatra, rapping for order. "I had forgotten
all about our committees. Excuse me, Delilah. I--ah--was absorbed in other
matters. Will you kindly lay your pattern--I should say your plan--before
us?"
"It is briefly this," said Delilah. "It has been suggested that we invite
the crew of this vessel to a chafing-dish party, under the supervision of
Lucretia Borgia, and that she--"
The balance of the plan was not outlined, for at this point the speaker
was interrupted by a loud knocking at the door, its instant opening, and
the appearance in the doorway of that ill-visaged ruffian Captain Kidd.
"Ladies," he began, "I have come here to explain to you the situation in
which you find yourselves. Have I your permission to speak?"
The ladies started back, but the chairman was equal to the occasion.
"Go on," said Cleopatra, with queenly dignity, turning to the interloper;
and the pirate proceeded to take the second step in the nefarious plan
upon which he and his brother ruffians had agreed, of which the tossing in
through the window of the bundle of fashion papers was the first.
VII
THE "GEHENNA" IS CHARTERED
It was about twenty-four hours after the events narrated in the preceding
chapters that Mr. Sherlock Holmes assumed command of the _Gehenna_, which
was nothing more nor less than the shadow of the ill-starred ocean
steamship _City of Chicago_, which tried some years ago to reach Liverpool
by taking the overland route through Ireland, fortunately without
detriment to her passengers or crew, who had the pleasure of the
experience of shipwreck without any of the discomforts of drowning. As
will be remembered, the obstructionist nature of the Irish soil prevented
the _City of Chicago_ from proceeding farther inland than was necessary to
keep her well balanced amidships upon a convenient and not too stony bed;
and that after a brief sojourn on the rocks she was finally disposed of to
the Styx Navigation Company, under which title Charon had had himself
incorporated, is a matter of nautical history. The change of name to the
_Gehenna_ was the act of Charon himself, and was prompted, no doubt, by a
desire to soften the jealous prejudices of the residents of the Stygian
capital against the flourishing and ever-growing metropolis of Illinois.
The Associated Shades had had some trouble in getting this craft. Charon,
through his constant association with life on both sides of the dark
river, had gained a knowledge, more or less intimate, of modern business
methods, and while as janitor of the club he was subject to the will of
the House Committee, and sympathized deeply with the members of the
association in their trouble, as president of the Styx Navigation Company
he was bound up in certain newly attained commercial ideas which were
embarrassing to those members of the association to whose hands the
chartering of a vessel had been committed.
"See here, Charon," Sir Walter Raleigh had said, after Charon had
expressed himself as deeply sympathetic, but unable to shave the terms
upon which the vessel could be had, "you are an infernal old hypocrite.
You go about wringing your hands over our misfortunes until they've got as
dry and flabby as a pair of kid gloves, and yet when we ask you for a ship
of suitable size and speed to go out after those pirates, you become a
sort of twin brother to Shylock, without his excuse. His instincts are
accidents of birth. Yours are cultivated, and you know it."
"You are very much mistaken, Sir Walter," Charon had answered to this.
"You don't understand my position. It is a very hard one. As janitor of
your club I am really prostrated over the events of the past twenty-four
hours. My occupation is gone, and my despair over your loss is
correspondingly greater, for I have time on my hands to brood over it. I
was hysterical as a woman yesterday afternoon--so hysterical that I came
near upsetting one of the Furies who engaged me to row her down to Madame
Medusa's villa last evening; and right at the sluice of the vitriol
reservoir at that."
[Illustration: "'YOU ARE VERY MUCH MISTAKEN, SIR WALTER'"]
"Then why the deuce don't you do something to help us?" pleaded Hamlet.
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