myself prepare a cake which would in time reduce our captors to a state of
absolute dependence, but of course the effect is not immediate."

"We might give a musicale, and let Trilby sing 'Ben Bolt' to them,"
suggested Marguerite de Valois, with a giggle.

"Don't be flippant, please," said Portia. "We haven't time to waste on
flippant suggestions. Perhaps a court-martial of these pirates,
supplemented by a yard-arm, wouldn't be a bad thing. I'll prosecute the
case."

"You forget that you are dealing with immortal spirits," observed
Cleopatra. "If these creatures were mortals, hanging them would be all
right, and comparatively easy, considering that we outnumber them ten to
one, and have many resources for getting them, more or less, in our power,
but they are not. They have gone through the refining process of
dissolution once, and there's an end to that. Our only resource is in the
line of deception, and if we cannot deceive them, then we have ceased to
be women."

"That is truly said," observed Elizabeth. "And inasmuch as we have already
provided ourselves with a suitable committee for the preparation of our
plans of a deceptive nature, I move, as the easiest possible solution of
the difficulty for the rest of us, that the Committee on Treachery be
requested to go at once into executive session, with orders not to come
out of it until they have suggested a plausible plan of campaign against
our abductors. We must be rid of them. Let the Committee on Treachery say
how."

"Second the motion," said Mrs. Noah. "You are a very clear-headed young