Outward Bound Part 50

"Can you tell me where the forty-one votes came from, Shuffles?"

demanded Pelham.

"Came from the fellows, of course."

"It's no use to snuff at it, my dear fellow. I do not purpose to set aside the election. I acknowledge you as captain. Can I do any more?"

"You can't; but you seem disposed to do something more."

"I merely wish to inquire into this thing, and find out how we stand.

Had you any idea that forty-one fellows belonged to the Chain?"

"I had not," replied Shuffles, honestly. "I was never more surprised in my life, than when I saw Tom Ellis and Andy Groom vote."

"That was all right. Both of them joined."

"I can tell you what took me all aback," interposed McKeon, who, with Grossbeck, had been walking back and forth in the waist.

"No matter what took you all aback," added Shuffles sharply. "The question is settled; what's the use of raking up every thing that may seem to be strange?"

"What was it that took you aback, McKeon?" demanded Pelham.

"It was when the captain voted," replied the receiver.

"The captain!" exclaimed Pelham.

"Yes."

"Do you mean Captain Gordon, McKeon?" asked Pelham, with intense surprise.

"Of course I do."'

"All the officers of the first part of the port watch voted," added Grossbeck.

"They did!" exclaimed Pelham.

"Well, was it any stranger that the officers of the first part of the port watch voted, than it was that those of the second part did so?"

inquired Shuffles, with earnestness.

"I think it was," replied Pelham, decidedly.

"Paul Kendall was one of them," said McKeon.

"Paul Kendall! Does any fellow suppose he has joined the Chain?"

demanded the defeated candidate.

"Why not?"

"And Captain Gordon?"

"Why not?"

"How did the captain vote?" asked Pelham.

"No matter how he voted," said Shuffles, indignantly "I protest against this raking up of matters which are already settled."

"He voted beans," replied McKeon, who, it is hardly necessary to add, was a Pelham man.

"Then he is one of your friends, Shuffles," continued Pelham, who was beginning to understand how his rival had been elected.

"I don't claim him."

"Did you take the captain into the Chain, Shuffles?"

"I won't answer," replied the captain elect.

"If Captain Gordon and Paul Kendall are members, I would like to know it. I am first officer of the ship under the new order of things, and if I command Gordon to do anything, I mean that he shall obey me."

"Of course you will give him no orders till we are in possession of the ship," added Shuffles, not a little alarmed.

"Well, as Gordon and Kendall are members of the Chain--of course they are, or they wouldn't have voted--we can talk over the matter freely with them," said Pelham, chuckling.

"If you make the signs, and they make them, of course you can," replied Shuffles. "No member can speak to another about the business of the Chain until both of them have proved that they belong, by giving the required signals."

"Shuffles, do you suppose Captain Gordon knows the signs?"

"How should I know? I never tried him. I don't know why he shouldn't make them as well as Tom Ellis."

"Tom Ellis is all right. I vouch for him, for I admitted him myself. Who will vouch for the captain? Who took him in?"

"I don't know."

"I don't; but if anybody has admitted him, and not given him the signs, he ought to be instructed in them. Of course he must have been admitted, or he would not have voted," added Pelham, sarcastically.

"I have nothing more to say about this matter," replied Shuffles, disgusted with the cavils of his first officer.

"Nor I; but I shall satisfy myself whether the captain is a member or not," said Pelham, decidedly.

"Well, you must be very cautious what you do."

"Certainly I shall. I will give him the first sign; if he don't answer it, I shall conclude he is not a member; or, if he is, that he has not been properly instructed."

"Better not say anything to him," said Shuffles.

"Why not? He voted, and it must be all right."

"Don't you say a word to him, unless he proves that he is a member."

"I think he has proved that already by voting."