"What!" cried Cleopatra, dropping her cue in terror, and rushing for the
stairs. "I was certain I felt a slight motion. You said it was the wash
from one of Charon's barges, Elizabeth."

"I thought it was," said Elizabeth, following closely after.

"Well, it wasn't," moaned Lucretia Borgia. "Calpurnia just looked out of
the window and discovered that we were in mid-stream."

The ladies crowded anxiously about the stair and attempted to ascend,
Cleopatra in the van; but as the Egyptian Queen reached the doorway to the
upper deck, the door opened, and the hard features of Captain Kidd were
thrust roughly through, and his strident voice rang out through the
gathering gloom. "Pipe my eye for a sardine if we haven't captured a
female seminary!" he cried.

[Illustration: "THE HARD FEATURES OF KIDD WERE THRUST THROUGH"]

And one by one the ladies, in terror, shrank back into the billiard-room,
while Kidd, overcome by surprise, slammed the door to, and retreated into
the darkness of the forward deck to consult with his followers as to "what
next."




V

A CONFERENCE ON DECK