ladies on board, Portia, Xanthippe, and Elizabeth, he had become a
creature worthy of credence, which meant that he had nothing more to fear.

"I am prepared, your Majesty," said Elizabeth, addressing Cleopatra, "to
accept from this time on the gentleman's word. The little that he has
already told us is hall-marked with truth. I should like to ask, however,
one more question, and that is how our gentleman friends expected to
embark us upon this voyage without letting us into the secret?"

"Oh, as for that," replied Kidd, with a deep-drawn sigh of relief, for he
too had noticed the gradual evaporation of his arm and the incipient
etherization of his cranium--"as for that, it was simple enough. There was
to have been a day set apart for ladies' day at the club, and when you
were all on board we were quietly to weigh anchor and start. The fact that
you had anticipated the day, of your own volition, was telephoned by my
scouts to me at my headquarters, and that news was by me transmitted by
messenger to Sir Walter at Charon's Glen Island, where the long-talked-of
fight between Samson and Goliath was taking place. Raleigh immediately
replied, '_Good! Start at once. Paris first. Unlimited credit. Love to
Elizabeth._' Wherefore, ladies," he added, rising from his chair and
walking to the door--"wherefore you are here and in my care. Make
yourselves comfortable, and with the aid of the fashion papers which you
have already received prepare yourselves for the joys that await you. With
the aid of Madame Récamier and Baedeker's _Paris_, which you will find in
the library, it will be your own fault if when you arrive there you
resemble a great many less fortunate women who don't know what they want."

With these words Kidd disappeared through the door, and fainted in the
arms of Sir Henry Morgan. The strain upon him had been too great.