Olaf had hatched scheme after scheme in an attempt to get his filthy hands on the enormous fortune the Baudelaire parents had left behind, and although each scheme had failed, it appeared as if some of the villain's wickedness had rubbed off on the children, and now Olaf and the Baudelaires were all is the same boat. Both the children and the count were responsible for a number of treacherous crimes, although at least the Baudelaire orphans had the decency to feel terrible about this, whereas all Count Olaf had been doing for the past few days was bragging about it.
"I've triumphed!"Count Olaf reiterated, a word which here means "announced for the umpteenth time." He stood proudly at the front of the boat, leaning against a carving of an octopus attacking a man in a diving suit that served as the boat's figurehead. "You orphans thought you could escape me, but at last you're in my clutches!"
"Yes, Olaf," Violet agreed wearily. The eldest Baudelaire did not bother to point out that they were all alone in the middle of the ocean, it was just as accurate to say that Olaf was in the Baudelaire's clutches as it was to say they were in his. Sighing, she gazed up at the tall mast of the boat, where a tattered sail drooped limply in the still air. For same time, Violet had been trying to invent a way for the boat to move even when there wasn't any wind, but the only mechanical materials on board were a pair of enormous spatulas from the Hotel Denouement's rooftop sunbathing salon. The children had been using these spatulas as oars, but rowing a boat is very hard work, particularly if one's traveling companions are too busy bragging to help out, and Violet was trying to think of a way they might move the boat faster. “I've burned down the Hotel Denouement,"Olaf cried, gesturing dramatically, “and destroyed V.F.D once amd for all!" “So tou keep telling us," Klaus muttered, without looking up from his commonplace book.
For quite some time, Klaus had been writing down the details of the Baudelaire's situation in this dark blue notebook, including the fact that it was the Baudelaires, not Olaf, who had burned down the Hotel Denouement. V.F.D was a secret organization that the Baudelaires had heard about during their travels, and as far as the middle Baudelaire knew it had no been destroyed---not quite---
although quite a few V.F.D agents had been in the hotel when it caught fire. At the moment , Klaus was examining his notes on V.F.D and the schism, which was enormous fight involving all of this its members and had something to do with a sugar bowl. The middle Baudelaire did not know what the sugar bowl contained, nor fid he know the precise whereabouts of one of the organization's bravest agents, a woman named Kit Snicket
the children had met Kit only once before she headed to sea herself, planning to meet up with the Quagmire triplets, three friends the Baudelaires had not seen in quite some time who were travelimg in a self sustaining hot air mobile home. Klaus was hoping the notes in his commonplace book would help him figure out exactly where they might be, if he studied them long enough.
“And the Baudelaire fortune is finally mine!" Olaf cackled. “Finally, I am a very wealthy man, which means everybody must do what i say!” “Beans,” Sunny said. The youngest Baudelaire was no longer a baby, but she still talked in a somewhat unusual way, “beans” she meant something like, “Count Olaf is spouting pure nonsense,” as the Baudelaire fortune was not to be found in the large, wooden boat, and so could not be said
To belong to anyone. But when Sunny said “beans,” she also meant “bean,” One of the few things the children had found on board the boat was a large clay jar with a rubber seal, which had been wedged underneath one of the boat's wooden benches. The jar was quite dusty and looked very old, bu tthe seal was intact, a word which here mean “not broken, so the food stored inside edible." Sunny was grateful for the jar, as there was no other food to be found on board, bu she she couldn't help wishing that it had contained something other that plain white beans. It is possible to cook a number of delicious dishes.
