When the Gehenna had passed down the Styx and out through the beautiful Cimmerian Harbor into the broad waters of the ocean, and everything was comparatively safe for a while at least, Sherlock Holmes came down from the bridge, where he had taken his place as the commander of the expedition at the moment of departure.His brow was furrowed with anxiety, and through his massive forehead his brain could be seen to be throbbing violently, and the corrugations of his gray matter were not pleasant to witness as he tried vainly to squeeze an idea out of them.
"What is the matter?" asked Demosthenes, anxiously."We are not in any danger, are we?""No," replied Holmes."But I am somewhat puzzled at the bubbles on the surface of the ocean, and the ripples which we passed over an hour or two ago, barely perceptible through the most powerful microscope, indicate to my mind that for some reason at present unknown to me the House-boat has changed her course.Take that bubble floating by.It is the last expiring bit of aerial agitation of the House-boat's wake.Observe whence it comes.Not from the Azores quarter, but as if instead of steering a straight course thither the House-boat had taken a sharp turn to the north-east, and was making for Havre; or, in other words, Paris instead of London seems to have become their destination."Demosthenes looked at Holmes with blank amazement, and, to keep from stammering out the exclamation of wonder that rose to his lips, he opened his bonbonniere and swallowed a pebble.
"You don't happen to have a cocaine tablet in your box, do you?"queried Holmes.
"No," returned the Greek."Cocaine makes me flighty and nervous, but these pebbles sort of ballast me and hold me down.How on earth do you know that that bubble comes from the wake of the House-boat?""By my chemical knowledge, merely," replied Holmes."A merely worldly vessel leaves a phosphorescent bubble in its wake.That one we have just discovered is not so, but sulphurescent, if I may coin a word which it seems to me the English language is very much in need of.It proves, then, that the bubble is a portion of the wake of a Stygian craft, and the only Stygian craft that has cleared the Cimmerian Harbor for years is the House-boat--Q.E.D.""We can go back until we find the ripple again, and follow that, Ipresume," sneered Le Coq, who did not take much stock in the theories of his great rival, largely because he was a detective by intuition rather than by study of the science.
"You can if you want to, but it is better not to," rejoined Holmes, simply, as though not observing the sneer, "because the ripple represents the outer lines of the angle of disturbance in the water;and as any one of the sides to an angle is greater than the perpendicular from the hypothenuse to the apex, you'd merely be going the long way.This is especially important when you consider the formation of the bow of the House-boat, which is rounded like the stern of most vessels, and comes near to making a pair of ripples at an angle of ninety degrees.""Then," observed Sir Walter, with a sigh of disappointment, "we must change our course and sail for Paris?""I am afraid so," said Holmes; "but of course it's by no means certain as yet.I think if Columbus would go up into the mizzentop and look about him, he might discover something either in confirmation or refutation of the theory.""He couldn't discover anything," put in Pinzon."He never did.""Well, I like that!" retorted Columbus."I'd like to know who discovered America.""So should I," observed Leif Ericson, with a wink at Vespucci.
"Tut!" retorted Columbus."I did it, and the world knows it, whether you claim it or not.""Yes, just as Noah discovered Ararat," replied Pinzon."You sat upon the deck until we ran plumb into an island, after floating about for three months, and then you couldn't tell it from a continent, even when you had it right before your eyes.Noah might just as well have told his family that he discovered a roof garden as for you to go back to Spain telling 'em all that San Salvador was the United States.""Well, I don't care," said Columbus, with a short laugh."I'm the one they celebrate, so what's the odds? I'd rather stay down here in the smoking-room enjoying a small game, anyhow, than climb up that mast and strain my eyes for ten or a dozen hours looking for evidence to prove or disprove the correctness of another man's theory.Iwouldn't know evidence when I saw it, anyhow.Send Judge Blackstone.""I draw the line at the mizzentop," observed Blackstone."The dignity of the bench must and shall be preserved, and I'll never consent to climb up that rigging, getting pitch and paint on my ermine, no matter who asks me to go.""Whomsoever I tell to go, shall go," put in Holmes, firmly."I am commander of this ship.It will pay you to remember that, Judge Blackstone.""And I am the Court of Appeals," retorted Blackstone, hotly."Bear that in mind, captain, when you try to send me up.I'll issue a writ of habeas corpus on my own body, and commit you for contempt.""There's no use of sending the Judge, anyhow," said Raleigh, fearing by the glitter that came into the eye of the commander that trouble might ensue unless pacificatory measures were resorted to."He's accustomed to weighing everything carefully, and cannot be rushed into a decision.If he saw any evidence, he'd have to sit on it a week before reaching a conclusion.What we need here more than anything else is an expert seaman, a lookout, and I nominate Shem.
He has sailed under his father, and I have it on good authority that he is a nautical expert."Holmes hesitated for an instant.He was considering the necessity of disciplining the recalcitrant Blackstone, but he finally yielded.
