“Then, of course, he is not a member.”

“He must be; he voted,” replied Pelham, maliciously.

“How many more times will you say that?”

“Perhaps fifty; perhaps a hundred,” answered the fourth lieutenant, coolly.  “I shall say it until you are willing to acknowledge the trick you put upon me.”

“What trick?”

“O, I know all about it!  Didn’t you tell Kendall, the captain, and seven or eight others, how to play ’Don’t know Beans’?”

“If I did, it was to cheat them when they wanted to know what the beans meant.”

“You saw that the fellows threw away the beans, instead of voting for you with them, and you invented your game to make the thing come out right.  No matter, Shuffles; I am bound by the compact we made, but I shall persist in regarding Gordon, Kendall Foster, and others as members.  As you made them vote, you are responsible for them.  That’s all.”

“Don’t let us quarrel about it, my dear fellow,” said Shuffles, in soft, insinuating tones.

“By no means.”

“We will have a new election,” suggested the chief.

“If we should, I’m afraid all the fellows would want to play ’Don’t know Beans.’”

“You shall conduct it any way you please.”

“If I did, you would say I cheated you.  I agreed to abide by the election, and I shall do so.  The fact is, Shuffles, you and I are too smart to play in the same game.  I shall stick to the bond.  When you order me to do anything, I shall do it,” replied Pelham as he turned on his heel and walked off.

He retreated into the after cabin, where Shuffles could not follow him. 
At the cabin table, studying his French lesson, sat Paul Kendall.

CHAPTER XIX.

MAN OVERBOARD!

“Do you know how to play ’Don’t know Beans’?” asked Pelham, as he seated himself by the side of the second lieutenant.

“Yes; I know how to play it, but it’s a stupid game.  Shuffles told me how.”

“Did he, indeed?”

“There was some fun in it the first time I tried it; but the second time was enough to satisfy me.  I don’t think there is any sense in it.”

“Of course there isn’t, Kendall,” laughed Pelham.  “It was no game at all.”

“What are you laughing at?”

“You were sold on that game,” added the conspirator indulging in more laughter than the occasion seemed to require.

“How was I sold?  I don’t see anything so very funny about it.”

“I do.”

“Tell me about it; if there is any joke I think I shall enjoy it.  You say I was sold.”

“You were; and so was I.”

“Well, what was it?” asked Paul, impatiently.

“When you gave those fellows the beans that day, you were voting!”

“Voting!  Voting for what, or whom?” exclaimed the second lieutenant.

“For Shuffles.”