“You are off duty, and you can go where you please.”

“What do you want of me?”

“I want to have an understanding.”

“I suppose you think we have too many members—­don’t you?” asked Pelham, lightly.

“The more the better.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

Shuffles went to the place designated at once, where he was soon followed by the fourth lieutenant.

“Well, Shuffles, what is it?” demanded Pelham, as, with one hand on the sheet of the fore-topmast staysail, he looked over the bow at the bone in the teeth of the ship.

“What is it?  Don’t you know what it is?” replied Shuffles, angrily.

“Upon my life, I don’t know.”

“You have been a traitor,” exclaimed Shuffles, with savage earnestness.

“O! have I?”

“You know you have.”

“Perhaps you would be willing to tell me wherein I have been a traitor,” added Pelham, laughing; for he was enjoying the scene he had witnessed in the waist, when, one after another, the “outsiders” had made the signs to his rival.

“You have betrayed the secrets of the Chain.”

“Have I?”

“Didn’t you give the signs to Paul Kendall, the captain, and half a dozen others?”

“But, my dear fellow, they are members,” replied Pelham, chuckling.

“They are not? and you know they are not.”

“But, Shuffles, just consider that all of them voted for you.”

“I don’t care for that.”

“I do.  You recognized them as members first, and I couldn’t do less than you did.”

“You are a traitor!” said Shuffles, red in the face with passion; and the word hissed through his closed teeth.

“Well, just as you like:  we won’t quarrel about the meaning of words,” replied Pelham, gayly; for he enjoyed the discomfiture of his rival, and felt that Shuffles deserved all he got, for the foul play of which he had been guilty on the ballot.

“You pledged yourself to be honest, and stand by the vote, fair or foul.”

“Very true, my dear fellow? and I do so.  Give me your orders, and I will obey them.”

“But you have exposed the whole thing,” retorted Shuffles.  “What can we do now, when Kendall and the captain know all about it?”

“They don’t know any more than the law allows.  Besides, they are members.  Didn’t they vote for you?  Didn’t they know beans?” continued Pelham, in the most tantalizing of tones.

“Do you mean to insult me?” demanded Shuffles, unable to control his rage.

“Not I. I respect you too much.  You are the captain—­that is to be—­of the ship,” laughed Pelham.  “The captain, the second lieutenant, and all the flunkies, voted for you? and, of course, I couldn’t be so deficient in politeness as to insult one who——­”

At that moment Pelham removed his hand from the sheet, and Shuffles, irritated beyond control at the badinage of his companion, gave him a sudden push, and the fourth lieutenant went down into the surges, under the bow of the ship.