Part 57 (2/2)
”Why not?”
”How can we? After what has happened, I will not reproach you for what you did. You know how you provoked me. You have exposed the whole affair to the officers.”
”Not a bit of it.”
”No.”
”Certainly not. Did you ever know Augustus Pelham to violate his obligations?” demanded Pelham with dignity.
”Never before; but the captain, the second lieutenant and seven others, who would no more join the League than they would steal your pocket-book, went through all the signs with me.”
”They all voted too,” laughed Pelham.
”I am willing to confess that I played off a mean trick upon you.”
”And I have only made myself even with you. I have not betrayed a single secret of the Chain to any one not posted--except the signs. If I had, of course you and I would both have been in the brig before this time.”
”I was puzzled to find nothing was said,” added Shuffles.
”No one knows anything. The Chain is as perfect as ever. Give me your orders, and I will carry them out.”
”The fellows have backed out now.”
”Then, of course, we must do the same. I doubt whether we could have carried the thing out.”
”No matter whether we could or not; we must drop it for the present. The fellows all suppose they are caught now, and expect every moment to be hauled up to the mast for an investigation.”
”They are all safe; at least we can purchase their safety for ten s.h.i.+llings apiece,” laughed Pelham.
”Purchase it!” exclaimed Shuffles, mystified by the language of his companion.
”Just so--purchase it,” added Pelham; and he proceeded to inform his late rival of the trick he had invented in retaliation for the one Shuffles had put upon him.
”It was t.i.t for tat,” said Shuffles.
”I told nothing which would harm either of us, for I am just as deep in the mud as you are in the mire.”
”That's true. We must hang together.”
”I hope not,” replied Pelham, laughing. ”We have got into this sc.r.a.pe, and we must get out of it.”
”Suppose the captain or the second lieutenant should make the signs to one of our fellows, and he should tell what we were going to do.”
”I told all my recruits not to answer any signs now, whoever made them.”
”I did the same, when I found the captain knew them.”
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