f the dark
river, had gained a knowledge, more or less intimate, of modern business
methods, and while as janitor of the club he was subject to the will of
the House Committee, and sympathized deeply with the members of the
association in their trouble, as president of the Styx Navigation Company
he was bound up in certain newly attained commercial ideas which were
embarrassing to those members of the association to whose hands the
chartering of a vessel had been committed.

"See here, Charon," Sir Walter Raleigh had said, after Charon had
expressed himself as deeply sympathetic, but unable to shave the terms
upon which the vessel could be had, "you are an infernal old hypocrite.
You go about wringing your hands over our misfortunes until they've got as
dry and flabby as a pair of kid gloves, and yet when we ask you for a ship
of suitable size and speed to go out after those pirates, you become a
sort of twin brother to Shylock, without his excuse. His instincts are
accidents of birth. Yours are cultivated, and you know it."

"You are very much mistaken, Sir Walter," Charon had answered to this.
"You don't understand my position. It is a very hard one. As janitor of
your club I am really prostrated over the events of the past twenty-four
hours. My occupation is gone, and my despair over your loss is
correspondingly greater, for I have time on my hands to brood over it. I
was hysterical as a woman yesterday afternoon--so hysterical that I came
near upsetting one of the Furies who engaged me to row her down to Madame
Medusa's villa last evening; and right at the sluice of the vitriol
reservoir at that."

[Illustration: "'YOU ARE VERY MUCH MISTAKEN, SIR WALTER'"]

"Then why the deuce don't you do something to help us?" pleaded Hamlet.

"How can I do any more than I have done? I've offered you the _Gehenna_,"
retorted Charon.

"But on what terms?" expostulated Raleigh. "If we had all the wealth of
the Indies we'd have difficulty in paying you the sums you demand."

"But I am only president of the company," explained Charon. "I'd like, as
president, to show you some courtesy, and I'm perfectly willing to do so;
but when it comes down to giving you a vessel like that, I'm bound by my
official oath to consider the interest of the stockholders. It isn't as it
used to be when I had boats to hire in my own behalf alone. In those days
I had nobody's interest but my own to look after. Now the ships all belong
to the Styx Nav