A reaction had been produced in his mind; but it was not a healthy movement of the moral nature.  It was not so much the awful crime he had impulsively committed, as the terrible consequences which would have followed, that caused him to shrink from it.  It was an awful crime, and his nature revolted at it.  He could not have done it without the impulse of an insane passion; but it was dreadful because it would have shut him out from society; because it would have placed the mark of Cain upon him; because the dungeon and the gallows were beyond it,—­rather than because it was the sacrifice of a human life, of one created in the image of God.

Shuffles was in a state of terror, as one who has just escaped from an awful gulf that yawned before him.  He was not sincerely penitent, as one who feels the enormity of his offence.  He was not prepared to acknowledge his sin before God, whose law he had outraged.

When Pelham came on deck, on the day after the exciting event, he greeted Shuffles with his accustomed suavity, and seemed not to bear any malice in his heart against the author of his misfortune.  Officers and seamen as well as the principal and the professors, congratulated him upon his escape from the peril which had menaced him; and all commended Shuffles for his prompt and noble efforts in rescuing him.  Pelham dissented from none of their conclusions, and was as generous in his praise of the deliverer as the occasion required.

Shuffles was rather astonished to find himself a lion on board, and at being specially thanked by Mr. Lowington for his humane exertions in saving a shipmate.  He was so warmly and so generously commended that he almost reached the conclusion himself that he had done a good thing.  He was not satisfied with himself.  He was in the power of Pelham, who, by a word, could change the current of popular sentiment and arraign him for the gravest of crimes.  If the fourth lieutenant spoke, Shuffles realized that he should be shunned and despised, as well as hated and feared, by all on board the ship.  It was quite natural, therefore, for him to desire a better understanding with Pelham.

The League had fallen into contempt, at least for the present.  Even “our fellows” would not have spirit enough to strike the blow; besides, the terrible gulf from which Shuffles had just escaped was too vivid in his mind to permit him to place himself on the brink of another.  So far the reaction was salutary.

“When may I see you, Mr. Pelham?” said Shuffles as they came together in the waist.

“We will visit the top-gallant forecastle again, and see if we can understand how I happened to fall overboard for really I’m not in the habit of doing such things,” replied Pelham, with a smile.

They walked forward together, and mounted the ladder to the place indicated.

“Shuffles, I never paid much attention to the snapper of the toggle before, and never supposed it meant anything in particular,” continued Pelham, as he placed himself in the position he had occupied before he went over the bow.  “Am I in any danger now?”