If Lowington takes snuff, Kendall sneezes."

"I have seen you talking with him two or three times to-day."

"I was only pumping him."

"Well, there is a jolly row on board now, anyhow," added Wilton, as he prepared to descend over the cat-harpings.

"Hold on; don't let's go on deck yet," interposed Shuffles. "I want to know what our fellows are going to do."

"They will call us down, if we stop here."

"When they do, we will go down, then," replied Shuffles, as he seated himself in the top, with his legs through the lubber's-hole. "What are our fellows going to do? Do they mean to stand this thing?"

"They can't help themselves; they are mad enough to do anything; but what's the use?" added Wilton, as he seated himself by the side of his companion.

"Don't you think they will join the League now?"

"They would join anything that would give them their rights. I'll join now; but I don't want to be toggled in such a way as you said last night."

"Then you can't be toggled at all."

"I haven't any idea of falling overboard accidentally. I'd rather lose my money than do that."

"It's nothing but a form, Wilton. Between you and me, it's only a bugbear, intended to work upon the nerves and the imagination. Of course we shouldn't help any fellow overboard; no one would dare to do any such thing."

"I don't like the sound of the thing."

"If you really mean to expose the secrets which are intrusted to you, I advise you not to join."

"I don't mean any such thing," added Wilton, indignantly.

"If you didn't, you wouldn't be afraid of the penalty."

"Toggle me, then; and see what I mean."

"I don't want you to go in if you don't believe in it."

"But I do believe in it; so go ahead."

Shuffles p.r.o.nounced the ridiculous obligation again, and Wilton repeated it after him.

"Now you are toggled," said the leader.

"What are we going to do?"

"Bring in the rest of our fellows; that is the first job. In my opinion we can get over fifty of them now."

"I don't know about that," answered Wilton, doubtfully.

"I'm very sure we can. If we get enough to take the ship, we can have all the rest as soon as we have done the job."

"Take the ship!" exclaimed Wilton, appalled at the idea.

"That's what we mean."

"I don't believe you can do it," replied the doubtful "link in the Chain."

"It's the easiest thing in the world. The affair will come off at supper time, when the professors are all in their cabin. All we have to do is to clap the hatch on the after companion-way, and secure the doors leading from the main cabin into the steerage. Then we have them, and they can't help themselves."

"But the boatswain, carpenter, and sailmaker will be loose."

"No, they won't. At the right time, we will pa.s.s the word for them, and say that Lowington wants to see them in the main cabin. As soon as they go below we will put the hatch on."

"The cooks and stewards will still be at large."

"We can lock them up in the kitchen. If they make trouble, I have a revolver," whispered Shuffles.

"A revolver! I won't have anything to do with it if you are going to use pistols," said the alarmed confederate.

"It's only to look at; there will be no occasion to use it," answered Shuffles, soothingly.

"There will be twelve men, besides the stewards, locked up in the main cabin."

"That's so."

"How long do you suppose it would take them to break down the bulkhead between the cabin and the steerage, or to climb up through the skylight?"

"If they attempt anything of that kind, we can show them the revolver; that will quiet them."

"You might frighten the parson in that way; but do you suppose men like Mr. Lowington, Mr. Fluxion, and Peaks, who have been in the navy so long, will be afraid of a pistol?"

"They won't want to be shot, if they have been in the navy all their lives."

"Then you mean to shoot them?"

"They will think we do, and it will be all the same."

"I don't know about this business. I'm afraid the pistol might go off, and hurt somebody."

"I suppose you could raise objections all night," added Shuffles, contemptuously. "I'm not going to have any man tyrannize over me, Wilton. I suppose if Lowington wants to pull every fellow's teeth out, you won't object."

"I'm as much opposed to his tyranny as you are, and I will do anything that is reasonable; but I want to know whether the water is hot or cold before I put my fingers into it. What's the use of blundering into an enterprise, and making a failure of it?"

"I have no idea of making a failure of it. Did you ever know me to make a failure of anything that I attempted?"

"Yes, I have."

"What?"