The Pursuit of the House-Boat

herlock Holmes came down from the bridge, where he had taken his place as the commander of the expedition at the moment of departure. His brow was furrowed with anxiety, and through his

emosthenes, anxiously. "We ar

for some reason at present unknown to me the House-boat has changed her course. Take that bubble floating by. It is the last expiring bit of aerial agitation of the House-boat's wake. Observe whence it comes. Not from the Azores q

eep from stammering out the exclamation of wonder that rose

a cocaine tablet in your b

t these pebbles sort of ballast me and hold me down. How on earth d

red is not so, but sulphurescent, if I may coin a word which it seems to me the English language is very much in need of. It proves, then, that the bu

ered Le Coq, who did not take much stock in the theories of his great rival, lar

in the water; and as any one of the sides to an angle is greater than the perpendicular from the hypothenuse to the apex, you'd merely be going the long way. This is especially important

sigh of disappointment, "we must c

t. I think if Columbus would go up into the mizzentop and look about him, he

anything," put in Pi

ed Columbus. "I'd like to k

ved Leif Ericson, wi

id it, and the world knows it,

three months, and then you couldn't tell it from a continent, even when you had it right before your eyes. Noah might just as well have

the smoking-room enjoying a small game, anyhow, than climb up that mast and strain my eyes for ten or a dozen hours looking for evidenc

bench must and shall be preserved, and I'll never consent to climb up that

mes, firmly. "I am commander of this ship. It w

that in mind, captain, when you try to send me up. I'll issue a w

orted to. "He's accustomed to weighing everything carefully, and cannot be rushed into a decision. If he saw any evidence, he'd have to sit on it a week before reaching a conclusion. Wha

idering the necessity of disciplining the re

o report at the mizzentop right away, and that immediately he sees anything he shall come below and make it known to me

you," said Raleigh. "Fact is- ah-I

me below and watch us

do yo

ly happened to be on the upper deck. The rest of the spirits repaired below to the saloon,

le, "is what I call comfort. I don't know that I a

to go off cruising on, and with such a larder.

I-I've left my note-bub- book upstairs, D

gestive of a modern magazine poster, that it might be well too if you stayed

you say anything clever during dinner, sir? If

"Get up as high as you can-get

" replied Boswel

nt with him, Doctor," said

Burns, I made a speech, which Boswell printed a week before it was delivered, with the words

you were going to say?

ushing a trifle. "But, Captain Holmes, what do you deduce from your observa

ories," replied

ways safe,"

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 s

would any one in search of p

ide of Brussels," said Wellingto

couldn't have beaten me at a plain ordinary game of old-maid with a stacked pack

ngton. "It was clear

ne

f it hadn't been for the rain, my little Duke, I should have been in London within a week, my gren

esar. "What are French soldiers made of, that th

has no use for fighting in the wet and coming out of the fight conspicuous as a victor with the curl out of his feathers and his epaulets rusted with the damp. There is no glory in water. But if we had had umbrellas and mackintoshes, as every Englishman who comes to the Continent always has, and a bath-

ance of victory all day. We simply played with you, my boy. It was a regular game of golf for us. We let you keep up pretty close and

" said Frederick the Great. "How that rain would have fazed

shoulder. "When you come down to that, I was French-as French as one could be in those days-and these Gallic subjects of my frie

our descendants?" queried Wel

e went back for rugs and coats and all sorts of hand-baggage. Gad, it makes me laugh to this day when I think of it! She looked for all the world like an Englishman travelling on the Continent as she walked up the gang-plank behind

ought to get that ane

skeleton of the plot and set him to work writing it up." Here the detective gave a sudden start, placed his hand to his ear, listened intently for an instant, and, taking

ed earnestly at Ho

k?" querie

t I said, and as I always say what I mean, i

thermore, I fail to see how a squeak, if I had heard

ld surprise you, and it is by the use of cocaine that I have acquired this wonderfully acute sense. A property which dulls the senses of most people renders mine doubly apprehensive; therefore, gentlemen, while to you there was no auricular disturba

n't take him two minutes to get from the d

n that mast you will see. Shem has stopped for a little witch-hazel to soothe h

oke the door burst op

istress, capta

ter-to larboard

rned Shem,

be dead ahead,

arboard?" aske

truly exciting sea-tale, my dear Le Coq, you would have known that interesting things,

greeted this retort

the signal?"

ones down, at half-mast!" cried

his feet and rushing to the deck, where he was joined immed

ed Demosthenes to Diogenes

aid Diogenes, with intense enthusiasm. "I think I