"Get out!" roared the Doctor. "Get up as high as you can--get up with Shem
on the mizzentop--"

"Very good, sir," replied Boswell, and he was off.

"You ought to be more lenient with him, Doctor," said Bonaparte; "he means
well."

"I know it," observed Johnson; "but he's so very previous. Last winter, at
Chaucer's dinner to Burns, I made a speech, which Boswell printed a week
before it was delivered, with the words 'laughter' and 'uproarious
applause' interspersed through it. It placed me in a false position."

"How did he know what you were going to say?" queried Demosthenes.

"Don't know," replied Johnson. "Kind of mind-reader, I fancy," he added,
blushing a trifle. "But, Captain Holmes, what do you deduce from your
observation of the wake of the House-boat? If she's going to Paris, why
the change?"

"I have two theories," replied the detective.

"Which is always safe," said Le Coq.

"Always; it doubles your chances of success," acquiesced Holmes. "Anyhow,
it gives you a choice, which makes it more interesting. The change of her
course from Londonward to Parisward proves to me either that Kidd is not
satisfied with the extent of the revenge he has already taken, and wishes
to ruin you gentlemen financially by turning your wives, daughters, and
sisters loose on the Parisian shops, or that the pirates have themselves