ho are the house committee?" queried the Ferryman.

"Sir Walter Raleigh, Cassius, Demosthenes, Blackstone, Doctor Johnson,
and Confucius," replied the shade.

"Tell 'em I'll be back in an hour," said Charon, pushing off. "I've got
a cargo of shades on board consigned to various places up the river. I've
promised to get 'em all through to-night, but I'll put on a couple of
extra paddles--two of the new arrivals are working their passage this
trip--and it won't take as long as usual. What boat is this, anyhow?"

"The _Nancy Nox_, of Erebus."

"Thunder!" cried Charon, as he pushed off and proceeded on his way up the
river. "Named after my mother! Perhaps it'll come out all right yet."

More hopeful of mood, Charon, aided by the two dead-head passengers, soon
got through with his evening's work, and in less than an hour was back
seeking admittance, as requested, to the company of Sir Walter Raleigh
and his fellow-members on the house committee. He was received by these
worthies with considerable effusiveness, considering his position in
society, and it warmed the cockles of his aged heart to note that Sir
Walter, who had always been rather distant to him since he had carelessly
upset that worthy and Queen Elizabeth in the middle of the Styx far back
in the last century, permitted him to shake three fingers of his left
hand when he entered the committee-room.

"How do you do, Charon?" said Sir Walter, affably. "We are very glad to
see you."

"Thank you, kindly, Sir Walter," said the boatman. "I'm glad to hear
those words, your honor, for I've been feeling very bad since I had the
misfortune to drop your Excellency and her Majesty overboard. I never
knew how it happened, sir, but happen it did, and but for her Majesty's
kind assistance it might have been the worse for us. Eh, Sir Walter?"

The knight shook his head menacingly at Charon. Hitherto he had managed
to keep it a secret that the Queen had rescued him from drowning upon
that occasion by swimming ashore herself first and throwing Sir Walter
her ruff as soon as she landed, which he had used as a life-preserver.

"'Sh!" he said, _sotto voce_. "Don't say anything about that, my man."

"Very well, Sir Walter, I won't," said the boatman; but he made a mental
note of the knight's agitation, and perceived a means by which that
illustrious courtier could be made useful to him in his scheming for
social advancement.

"I understood you had something to sa