Bonaparte embarked the leaders of the band first, returning
subsequently for the others, and repaired with them at once to the
Gehenna, where they were ushered into the presence of Sherlock
Holmes. The first question he asked was as to the whereabouts of the
House-boat.

"That we do not know," replied Kidd, mournfully, gazing downward at
the wreck of his former self. "We came ashore, sir, early yesterday
morning, in search of food. It appears that when--acting in a wholly
inexcusable fashion, and influenced, I confess it, by motives of
revenge--I made off with your club-house, I neglected to ascertain if
it were well stocked with provisions, a fatal error; for when we
endeavored to get supper we discovered that the larder contained but
half a bottle of farcie olives, two salted almonds, and a soda
cracker--not a luxurious feast for sixty-nine pirates and a hundred
and eighty-three women to sit down to."

"That's all nonsense," said Demosthenes. "The House Committee had
provided enough supper for six hundred people, in anticipation of the
appetite of the members on their return from the fight."

"Of course they did," said Confucius; "and it was a good one, too--
salads, salmon glace, lobsters--every blessed thing a man can't get
at home we had; and what is more, they'd been delivered on board. I
saw to that before I went up the river."

"Then," moaned Kidd, "it is as I suspected. We were the victims of
base treachery on the part of those women."

"Treachery? Well, I like that. Call it reciprocity," said Hamlet,