"What on earth for?" growled Johnson.

"So that we can expel him," said Ward.

And while Boswell's hero was trying to get the value of this notion
through his head, the others repaired to the deck, and the _Gehenna_ was
soon under way once more. Meanwhile Captain Kidd and his fellows were put
in irons and stowed away in the forecastle, alongside of the water-cask in
which Shylock lay in hiding.




XII

THE ESCAPE AND THE END


If there was anxiety on board of the _Gehenna_ as to the condition and
whereabouts of the House-boat, there was by no means less uneasiness upon
that vessel itself. Cleopatra's scheme for ridding herself and her
abducted sisters of the pirates had worked to a charm, but, having worked
thus, a new and hitherto undreamed-of problem, full of perplexities
bearing upon their immediate safety, now confronted them. The sole
representative of a sea-faring family on board was Mrs. Noah, and it did
not require much time to see that her knowledge as to navigation was of an
extremely primitive order, limited indeed to the science of floating.

When the last pirate had disappeared behind the rocks of Holmes Island,