Noah, indignantly. "The idea! Lifting heavy pieces of iron, my dear
Portia, is not a woman's work. Send for Delilah, and let her cut the
rope with her scissors."

"It would take her a week to cut a hawser like that," said Elizabeth,
who had been investigating. "It would be more to the purpose, I
think, to chop it in two with an axe."

"Very well," replied Mrs. Noah, satisfied. "I don't care how it is
done as long as it is done quickly. It would never do for us to be
recaptured now."

The suggestion of Elizabeth was carried out, and the queen herself
cut the hawser with six well-directed strokes of the axe.

"You ARE an expert with it, aren't you?" smiled Cleopatra.

"I am, indeed," replied Elizabeth, grimly. "I had it suspended over
my head for so long a time before I got to the throne that I couldn't
help familiarizing myself with some of its possibilities."

"Ah!" cried Mrs. Noah, as the vessel began to move. "I begin to feel
easier. It looks now as if we were really off."

"It seems to me, though," said Cleopatra, gazing forward, "that we
are going backward."

"Oh, well, what if we are!" said Mrs. Noah. "We did that on the Ark
half the time. It doesn't make any difference which way we are going
as long as we go, does it?"