breath. I've decided this case in favor of the defendant long
ago. It is plain to every one that Cerberus is only one dog, in spite of
his many talents and manifest ability to be in several places at once,
and inasmuch as the tax which is sued for is merely a dog-tax and not
a poll-tax, I must render judgment for the defendants, with costs. Next
case.'

"And the city of Cimmeria was thrown out of court," concluded Boswell.
"Interesting, eh?"

"Very," said I. "But how will this affect Blackstone? Isn't he a City
Judge?"

"No," replied Boswell; "he was, but his term expired this morning, and
this afternoon Apollyon appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of Hades."

VIII. A HAND-BOOK TO HADES

"Boswell," said I, the other night, as the machine began to click
nervously. "I have just received a letter from an unknown friend in
Hawaii who wants to know how the prize-fight between Samson and Goliath
came out that time when Kidd and his pirate crew stole the House-Boat on
the Styx."

"Just wait a minute, please," the machine responded. "I am very busy
just now mapping out the itinerary of the first series of the Boswell
Personally Conducted Tours you suggested some time ago. I laid that
whole proposition before the Entertainment Committee of the Associated
Shades, and they have resolved unanimously to charter the Ex-Great
Eastern from the Styx Navigation Company, and return to the scenes of
their former glory, devoting a year to it."

"Going to take their wives?" I asked.

"I don't know," Boswell replied. "That is a matter outside of the
jurisdiction of the committee and must be decided by a full vote of the
club. I hope they will, however. As manager of the enterprise I need
assistance, and there are some of the men who can't be managed by
anybody except their wives, or mothers-in-law, anyhow. I'll be through
in a few minutes. Meanwhile let me hand you the latest product of the
Boswell press."

With this the genial spirit produced from an invisible pocket a
red-covered book bearing the delicious title of "Baedeker's Hades: A
Hand-book for Travellers," which has entirely superseded, according to
the advertisement on the fly-leaves, such books as Virgil and Dante's
Inferno as the best guide to the lower regions, as well it might, for
it appeared on perusal to have been prepared with as much care as one
of the more material guide-books of the same publisher, which so greatly
assist travellers on th