"
"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.
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