but
Portia is right. The ship is headed for the Azores, which is the first
tack needed in a windward sail for London under the present conditions."

The reply was greeted with cheers, and when they subsided the cry for
Shylock's subscription began again, but he declined.

"I had intended to put up a thousand ducats," he said, defiantly, "but
with that woman Portia on board I won't give a red obolus!" and with that
he wrapped his cloak about him and stalked off into the gathering shadows
of the wood.

And so the funds were raised without the aid of Shylock, and the shapely
twin-screw steamer the _Gehenna_ was chartered of Charon, and put under
the command of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who, after he had thanked the company
for their confidence, walked abstractedly away, observing in strictest
confidence to himself that he had done well to prepare that bottle
beforehand and bribe Crusoe's man to find it.

"For now," he said, with a chuckle, "I can get back to earth again free of
cost on my own hook, whether my eminent inventor wants me there or not. I
never approved of his killing me off as he did at the very height of my
popularity."

IV

ON BOARD THE HOUSE-BOAT

Meanwhile the ladies were not having such a bad time, after all. Once
having gained possession of the House-boat, they were loath to think of
ever having to give it up again, and it is an open question in my mind if
they would not have made off with it themselves had Captain Kidd and his
men not done it for them.

"I'll never forgive these men for their selfishness in monopolizing all
this," said Elizabeth, with a vicious stroke of a billiard-cue, which
missed the cue-ball and tore a right angle in the cloth. "It is not
right."

"No," said Portia. "It is all wrong; and when we get back home I'm going
to give my beloved Bassanio a piece of my mind; and if he doesn't give in
to me, I'll reverse my decision in the famous case of Shylock _versus_
Antonio."

"Then I sincerely hope he doesn't give in," retorted Cleopatra, "for I
swear by all my auburn locks that that was the very worst bit of injustice
ever perpetrated. Mr. Shakespeare confided to me one night, at one of Mrs.
Caesar's card-parties, that he regarded that as the biggest joke he ever
wrote, and Judge Blackstone observed to Antony that the decision wouldn't
have held in any court of equity outside of Venice. If you owe a man a
thousand ducats, and it costs you three thousand to get them, th