a dead man to life, and of course I was so grateful that I took cocaine to drug my modesty and—the literary market.” [Pg 26] “The latest news we had of you on earth was that you had retired to study bee-farming on Sussex Downs.” “Bee-farming? That is the most unkind sting of all! Then Sussex must reach down to Hades, for here I am, Oslerized and ostracized. James Payne calls books the chloroform of the mind and so I have been embalmed between covers, and ‘finis’ written for my epitaph. Never mind, it is a matter of indifference to me now that I have had my revenge on that pirate.” “Pirate!” I gasped. Holmes laughed at my horrified tone. “You forget that I’m English,” he said. “When I pointed out to Porter that the way to fame lay in a dead man’s shoes I paid off a score of more than a century’s standing. Maybe you are not aware that when a body is disturbed after being once buried, its soul must inhabit the Outer Darkness a thousand years longer than the original decree. Let us see how the admiral bears up under the shock. In Wishland that is[Pg 27] an easy matter. Paul Jones, I desire your presence.” [Pg 27] A moment’s pause, then out of the twilight flitted the spectre of a man in naval dress. A husky voice came to us as from the throat of a phonograph: “A thousand years more! No quarter! No quarter! ‘I had only just begun to fight!’” The detective laughed mirthlessly. “What a merry place is Hades! Imagine a thing and you have it. Think, and at once the thought takes visible form. Truly, this is a land of magic that needs no Aladdin’s lamp. Behold the jugglery of fulfilled desire—that is John Paul Jones!” [Pg 29] [Pg 29] JOHN BROWN’S BODY AND THE BONES OF JOHN PAUL JONES. [Pg 31]
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