met his gaze, moored in a shady nook on the dark side of the river,
filled him with dismay.

"Blow me for a landlubber if I like that!" he said, in a hardly audible
whisper. "And shiver my timbers if I don't find out what she's there
for. If anybody thinks he can run an opposition line to mine on this
river he's mightily mistaken. If it comes to competition, I can carry
shades for nothing and still quaff the B. & G. yellow-label benzine three
times a day without experiencing a financial panic. I'll show 'em a
thing or two if they attempt to rival me. And what a boat! It looks for
all the world like a Florentine barn on a canal-boat."

Charon paddled up to the side of the craft, and, standing up in the
middle of his boat, cried out,

"Ship ahoy!"

There was no answer, and the Ferryman hailed her again. Receiving no
response to his second call, he resolved to investigate for himself; so,
fastening his own boat to the stern-post of the stranger, he clambered on
board. If he was astonished as he sat in his ferry-boat, he was
paralyzed when he cast his eye over the unwelcome vessel he had boarded.
He stood for at least two minutes rooted to the spot. His eye swept over
a long, broad deck, the polish of which resembled that of a ball-room
floor. Amidships, running from three-quarters aft to three-quarters
forward, stood a structure that in its lines resembled, as Charon had
intimated, a barn, designed by an architect enamoured of Florentine
simplicity; but in its construction the richest of woods had been used,
and in its interior arrangement and adornment nothing more palatial could
be conceived.