than we can expect
whales to spout kerosene. In the first place, it would be excessively
impolite of us to cut them--to decline to speak to them if they should
address us. We may be pirates, ruffians, cutthroats, but I hope we shall
never forget that we are gentlemen."

"The whole situation is rather contrary to etiquette, don't you think?"
suggested Conrad. "There's nobody to introduce us, and I can't really see
how we can do otherwise than ignore them. I certainly am not going to
stand on deck and make eyes at them, to try and pick up an acquaintance
with them, even if I am of a Byronic strain."

"You forget," said Kidd, "two essential features of the situation. These
women are at present--or shortly will be, when they realize their
situation--in distress, and a true gentleman may always fly to the rescue
of a distressed female; and, the second point, we shall soon be on the
seas, and I understand that on the fashionable transatlantic lines it is
now considered _de rigueur_ to speak to anybody you choose to. The
introduction business isn't going to stand in my way."

"Well, may I ask," put in Abeuchapeta, "just what it is that is worrying
you? You said something about feeding them, and dressing them, and keeping
them in bonnets. I fancy there's fish enough in the sea to feed 'em; and
as for their gowns and hats, they can make 'em themselves. Every woman is
a milliner at heart."

"Exactly, and we'll have to pay the milliners. That is what bothers me. I
was going to lead this expedition to London, Paris, and New York, admiral.
That is where the money is, and to get it you've got to go ashore, to
headquarters. You cannot nowadays find it on the high seas. Modern
civilization," said Kidd, "has ruined the pirate's business. The latest
news from the other world has really opened my eyes to certain facts that
I never dreamed of. The conditions of the day of which I speak are
interestingly shown in the experience of our friend Hawkins here. Captain
Hawkins, would you have any objection to stating to these gentlemen the
condition of affairs which led you to give up piracy on the high seas?"

"Not the slightest, Captain Kidd," returned Captain Hawkins, who was a
recent arrival in Hades. "It is a sad little story, and it gives me a pain
for to think on it, but none the less I'll tell it, since you ask me. When
I were a mere boy, fellow-pirates, I had but one ambition, due to my
readin', which was confined to stories of a Su