"What nonsense!" ejaculated Mrs.Noah."How can we get away from it?""We've got to pull it up," said Portia."Order all hands on deck and have it pulled up.""It can't be done, and, if it could, I wouldn't have it!" said Mrs.
Noah, indignantly."The idea! Lifting heavy pieces of iron, my dear Portia, is not a woman's work.Send for Delilah, and let her cut the rope with her scissors.""It would take her a week to cut a hawser like that," said Elizabeth, who had been investigating."It would be more to the purpose, Ithink, to chop it in two with an axe."
"Very well," replied Mrs.Noah, satisfied."I don't care how it is done as long as it is done quickly.It would never do for us to be recaptured now."The suggestion of Elizabeth was carried out, and the queen herself cut the hawser with six well-directed strokes of the axe.
"You ARE an expert with it, aren't you?" smiled Cleopatra.
"I am, indeed," replied Elizabeth, grimly."I had it suspended over my head for so long a time before I got to the throne that I couldn't help familiarizing myself with some of its possibilities.""Ah!" cried Mrs.Noah, as the vessel began to move."I begin to feel easier.It looks now as if we were really off.""It seems to me, though," said Cleopatra, gazing forward, "that we are going backward.""Oh, well, what if we are!" said Mrs.Noah."We did that on the Ark half the time.It doesn't make any difference which way we are going as long as we go, does it?""Why, of course it does!" cried Elizabeth."What can you be thinking of? People who walk backward are in great danger of running into other people.Why not the same with ships? It seems to me, it's a very dangerous piece of business, sailing backward.""Oh, nonsense," snapped Mrs.Noah."You are as timid as a zebra.
During the Flood, we sailed days and days and days, going backward.
It didn't make a particle of difference how we went--it was as safe one way as another, and we got just as far away in the end.Our main object now is to get away from the pirates, and that's what we are doing.Don't get emotional, Lizzie, and remember, too, that I am in charge.If I think the boat ought to go sideways, sideways she shall go.If you don't like it, it is still not too late to put you ashore."The threat calmed Elizabeth somewhat, and she was satisfied, and all went well with them, even if Portia had started the propeller revolving reverse fashion; so that the House-boat was, as Elizabeth had said, backing her way through the ocean.
The day passed, and by slow degrees the island and the marooned pirates faded from view, and the night came on, and with it a dense fog.
"We're going to have a nasty night, I am afraid," said Xanthippe, looking anxiously out of the port.
"No doubt," said Mrs.Noah, pleasantly."I'm sorry for those who have to be out in it.""That's what I was thinking about," observed Xanthippe."It's going to be very hard on us keeping watch.""Watch for what?" demanded Mrs.Noah, looking over the tops of her glasses at Xanthippe.
"Why, surely you are going to have lookouts stationed on deck?" said Elizabeth.