Shuffles was more dissatisfied and discontented than he had ever been before.  He had desired to make the tour of Europe with his father, and he was sorely disappointed when denied this privilege; for with the family he would be free from restraint, and free from hard study.  When he lost his rank as an officer, he became desperate and reckless.  To live in the steerage and do seaman’s duty for three months, after he had enjoyed the luxuries of authority, and of a state-room in the after cabin, were intolerable.  After the cabin offices had been distributed, he told Monroe that he intended to run away that night; but he had found no opportunity to do so; and it was unfortunate for his shipmates that he did not.

“This isn’t bad—­is it, Shuffles?” said Wilton, as the ship slowly ploughed her way through the billows.

“I think it is.  I had made up my mouth to cross the ocean in a steamer, and live high in London and Paris,” replied Shuffles.  “I don’t relish this thing, now.”

“Why not?” asked Wilton.

“I don’t feel at home here.”

“I do.”

“Because you never were anywhere else.  I ought to be captain of this ship.”

“Well, you can be, if you have a mind to work for it,” added Monroe.

“Work for it!  That’s played out.  I must stay in the steerage three months, at any rate; and that while the burden of the fun is going on.  If we were going to lie in harbor, or cruise along the coast, I would go in for my old place.”

“But Carnes is out of the way now, and your chance is better this year than it was last,” suggested Monroe.

“I know that, but I can’t think of straining every nerve for three months, two of them while we are going from port to port in Europe.  When we go ashore at Queenstown, I shall have to wear a short jacket, instead of the frock coat of an officer; and I think the jacket would look better on some younger fellow.”

“What are you going to do, Shuffles?” asked Wilton.

“I’d rather be a king among hogs, than a hog among kings.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“No matter; there’s time enough to talk over these things.”

“Do you mean a mutiny?” laughed Wilton.

“Haven’t you forgotten that?”

“No.”

“I wonder what Lowington would say, if he knew I had proposed such a thing,” added Shuffles, thoughtfully.

“He did know it, at the time you captured the runaways, for I told him.”

“Did you?” demanded Shuffles, his brow contracting with anger.

“I told you I would tell him, and I did,” answered Wilton.  “You were a traitor to our fellows, and got us into a scrape.”

“I was an officer then.”

“No matter for that.  Do you suppose, if I were an officer, I would throw myself in your way when you were up to anything?”

“I don’t know whether you would or not; but I wouldn’t blow on you, if you had told me anything in confidence.  What did Lowington say?”