“I am in favor of taking a drink as the first step, and considering the matter of further action afterwards,” suggested Shakespeare, and it was this suggestion that made the members unanimous upon the necessity for immediate action, for when the assembled spirits called for their various favorite beverages it was found that there were none to be had, it being Sunday, and all the establishments wherein liquid refreshments were licensed to be sold being closed—­for at the time of writing the local government of Hades was in the hands of the reform party.

“What!” cried Socrates.  “Nothing but Styx water and vitriol, Sundays?  Then the House-boat must be recovered whether Xanthippe comes with it or not.  Sir Walter, I am for immediate action, after all.  This ruffian should be captured at once and made an example of.”

“Excuse me, Socrates,” put in Lindley Murray, “but, ah—­pray speak in Greek hereafter, will you, please?  When you attempt English you have a beastly way of working up to climatic prepositions which are offensive to the ear of a purist.”

“This is no time to discuss style, Murray,” interposed Sir Walter.  “Socrates may speak and spell like Chaucer if he pleases; he may even part his infinitives in the middle, for all I care.  We have affairs of greater moment in hand.”

“We must ransack the earth,” cried Socrates, “until we find that boat.  I’m dry as a fish.”

“There he goes again!” growled Murray.  “Dry as a fish!  What fish I’d like to know is dry?”

“Red herrings,” retorted Socrates; and there was a great laugh at the expense of the purist, in which even Hamlet, who had grown more and more melancholy and morbid since the abduction of Ophelia, joined.

“Then it is settled,” said Raleigh; “something must be done.  And now the point is, what?”

“Relief expeditions have a way of finding things,” suggested Dr. Livingstone.  “Or rather of being found by the things they go out to relieve.  I propose that we send out a number of them.  I will take Africa; Bonaparte can lead an expedition into Europe; General Washington may have North America; and—­”

“I beg pardon,” put in Dr. Johnson, “but have you any idea, Dr. Livingstone, that Captain Kidd has put wheels on this House-boat of ours and is having it dragged across the Sahara by mules or camels?”

“No such absurd idea ever entered my head,” retorted the Doctor.

“Do you then believe that he has put runners on it, and is engaged in the pleasurable pastime of taking the ladies tobogganing down the Alps?” persisted the philosopher.

“Not at all.  Why do you ask?” queried the African explorer, irritably.