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, dryly.

"We were informed by the ladies that there was nothing for supper save the
items I have already referred to," said Kidd. "I see it all now. We had
tried to make them comfortable, and I put myself to some considerable
personal inconvenience to make them easy in their minds, but they were
ungrateful."

"Whatever induced you to take 'em along with you?" asked Socrates.

"We didn't want them," said Kidd. "We didn't know they were on board until
it was too late to turn back. They'd broken in, and were having the club
all to themselves in your absence."

"It served you good and right," said Socrates, with a laugh. "Next time
you try to take things that don't belong to you, maybe you'll be a trifle
more careful as to whose property you confiscate."

"But the House-boat--you haven't told us how you lost her," put in
Raleigh, impatiently.

"Well, it was this way," said Kidd. "When, in response to our polite
request for supper, the ladies said there was nothing to eat on board,
something had to be done, for we were all as hungry as bears, and we
decided to go ashore at the first port and provision. Unfortunately the
crew got restive, and when this floating frying-pan loomed into view, to
keep them good-natured we decided to land and see if we could beg, borrow,
or steal some supplies. We had to. Observations taken with the sextant
showed that there was no port within five hundred miles; the island looked
as if it might be inhabited at least by goats, and ashore we went, every
man of us, leaving the House-boat safely anchored