“I won’t say a word,” protested he, vehemently; for he did not know but that Shuffles was wicked enough to push him into the sea.

“Wilton, you are a fool!” added the disappointed conspirator, with deep disgust.  “Why didn’t you say what I told you?”

“I don’t want to be bound in any such way as that,” replied the terrified student.

“Don’t you see it is only a form?”

“No, I don’t; or if it is, I don’t want anything to do with such forms.  You won’t get any fellows to be toggled in that way.”

“Yes, I shall?  I shall get plenty of them.  They are not babies, like you.”

“I’m not a baby.”

“Yes, you are—­a great calf!  What are you afraid of?”

“I’m not afraid; I didn’t think you meant to have any murder in your Chain.”

“I don’t; no fellow will think of such a thing as betraying one of the secrets.”

“Then what’s the use of having such a penalty?”

“It will prevent any fellow from opening his mouth when he ought to keep it shut.”

“I don’t want anything to do with a concern that means murder.  I’m not any better than I should be, but I’m too good for that.”

“Suit yourself; but remember, if you should happen to say a word, you will fall overboard accidentally, some night when you are on the lookout, or out on the yard-arm.”

“Two bells,” said Wilton, greatly relieved to hear them, for he did not like to stand any longer on the top-gallant forecastle, where there was no railing, with such a dangerous fellow as Shuffles proved to be.

Two other members of the watch were sent forward to take their places.  Wilton and Shuffles went down and mingled with their shipmates, who were talking about what they should do and what they should see in Ireland, where the ship would first make a harbor.  Wilton breathed easier, and the topic was a more agreeable one than the dark and terrible matter which had been under discussion on the top-gallant forecastle.

Shuffles was disappointed by the scruples of his generally unscrupulous companion.  He regarded the machinery of the plot, the clap-trap of the secret league, as decidedly attractive; and he depended largely upon it to influence his companions.  Though he claimed that his plan was original, it was suggested by a secret political organization in Europe, of which he had read in a pamphlet; and the idea had doubtless been modified by his more extensive readings in the department of fiction, in which midnight juntos laid out robbery, treason, and murder; Venetian tales in which bravos, assassins, and decayed princes in disguise largely figured; in which mysterious passwords opened mysterious dungeons beneath ruined castles; in which bravo met bravo, and knew him by some mysterious sign, or cabalistic word.