The Pursuit of the House-Boat

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

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

n business methods, and while as janitor of the club he was subject to the will of the House-boat Committee, and sympathized deeply with the members of the association in their trouble, as president of the

nfernal 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 s

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 af

on't you do something

ml

re than I have done?

" retort

we had all the wealth of the Indies we'd have

n to giving you a vessel like that, I'm bound by my official oath to consider the interest of the stockholders. It isn't as it used to be when I had boats to hire in my

stock, don't you?

red, blandly. "I haven't see

y share of it, and that you haven't

ce cleared, and Sir Walter's heart sank, for it was

e to be content with my offer or go without the Gehenna. There's too much suspicion attached to high corporate officials lately for me to yield a jot in the position I have taken. It would never do to get you all ready to start, and then have an injunction clapped on you by some unforeseen stockholder who was not satisfied with the terms offered you; nor can I ever let it be said of me that to retain my po

. "You might as well of

the river'd freeze," re

own devices, which for the time being consisted largely of winking

afraid," said Sir Walter. "We

olmes," suggested Hamlet, and th

r's statement of the case. "It is an old saying that one should fight fire with fire. We must m

be able to pay

ident that you know nothing of the

an we?" as

lmes. "Let him sue. Suppose he gets a verdict. You haven't anything h

ked Hamlet, shaking

iness," s

ts an advance payme

l have to endorse it when he deposits it, and

when you understand i

m at one of the Brighton hotels, which shall be nameless. I never give the name of any of the hotels at which I stop, because it might give offence to the proprietors of other hotels, with the result that my books would be excluded from sale therein. Suf

ome one for advice. Do you wish

ike a small bottle; and while I do not expect to win, I'll

s a client. If it were a creditor, he would knock boldly, even ostentatiously; if it were the maid, she would not knock at all; if it were the hall-boy, he would not come until I had rung five times for him. None of these things has occurred; th

; and I immediately

ve years of age, in a bathing-suit, entered th

age with you. After luncheon you went bathing. You had machine No. 35, and when you came out of the water you found that No

tinued: 'You have been lying face downward in the sand ever since, waiting for nightfall, so that you could come to me for assist

y exactly as it happened, and I find I have made no mistake in coming

on this morning, and you told me your name was Burgess and that you were a butcher. When you looked to see the t

, 'but I did not tell

other clothing besides that you had on with you, you would have put it on

r of the machin

the key hanging abo

. 'How do you know I have been lying

ws,' I replied; and Watson o

ed Hamlet, somewhat impatient over the delay caused by the narra

ill show," re

the sequel until a later issue? Remember, Mr

he detective. "When the bottle came I invited Mr. Burgess to join us, which he did, and as the hour was la

I arose to dress, the

d its solution?

ng, my false-beard, my suit-case, and my watch. The only thing he

w near to Charon's office-"why does that case re

thing about him. Had I observed that his nose was rectilinear, incurved, and with a lifted base, and that his auricular temporal angle was

ou can tell a criminal by

but I did not know t

refore I should have

re. Good-morn

the president of the Styx Navigation Company, and in a f

wharf, Sir Walter som

the plan they had set

d old fellow," said he.

of your ears is 93.125 degrees, whereas Charon's stand out at 91, by my otometer. To that extent your criminal instincts are superior to his.

ours the Gehenna was under way, carrying a full complement of crew and officers, w

e dead of night he had stolen quietly up the gang-plank and

bung of the barrel, "but it's musty and damp enough, and, considering the c