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