Outward Bound Part 53

"For the fellow who is to present the pitcher and make the speech?"

added Paul.

"Yes."

"And Shuffles was chosen?"

"Yes, by a trick."

"You mean that no one but subscribers ought to have voted?"

"Precisely so."

"It was a mean trick."

"It was a sort of practical joke upon me, I suppose"

"I don't believe in practical jokes which need a lie to carry them through."

"Well, Shuffles has the position, unless some of you fellows will help me out. I wanted to make the speech, and without the nine votes which you and other outsiders put in, I should have been chosen."

"What can we do?"

"I have a right to consider all the fellows that voted as members of the society. The fact of their voting makes them members."

"I don't know anything about that."

"It's clear enough to me, and in a talk I had with Shuffles just now, he didn't pretend to deny the correctness of my position."

"If he agrees, it must be all right," laughed Paul.

"If you had understood the matter, for whom should you have voted?"

"I don't know? but after the trick Shuffles played off upon you, I should not vote for him."

"Very well; then you can change your vote."

"How shall I change it?"

"Go to Shuffles; and the other eight fellows who voted in the dark must do the same."

"What shall I say to him?"

"You must go to him as a member of the society, and salute him as such."

"I don't know how."

"I'll tell you. When you meet him, scratch the tip end of your nose with the nail of your second finger on the right hand; in this manner,"

continued Pelham giving the first sign.

"That's it--is it?" said Paul, as he imitated the action of Pelham.

"Yes; that's right He will reply by taking the lower part of his left ear between the thumb and first finger of the left hand--so," added Pelham.

"I have it," answered Paul, as he made the motions.

"Then you will scratch your chin with the thumb nail of the left hand, and he will reply by blowing his nose."

"Let's see if I can do all that," laughed Paul, very much amused at the mystic indications of membership In the secret a.s.sociation.

He made the signs to Pelham, who replied to them, several times, until he was perfect in his part.

"All right. I will remember them," said Paul.

"But you haven't got the whole of it yet. When you have made the signs, and he has answered them, he will say, '_Is_ that so?' with strong emphasis on the first word."

"_Is_ that so?" repeated Paul.

"Then you will reply, '_That_ is so,' with the stress on _that_."

"_That_ is so," added Paul.

"Then you must place yourself so as to look directly forward or aft. If you look forward, he must look aft."

"I understand you."

"Now I want to know who the other fellows were that played 'Don't know Beans' that day."

"Captain Gordon was one."

"Will you post him up in what I have told you?"

"I will, and the other fellows who voted for Shuffles, if you say so."

"Thank you. I wish you would. Let them all tell him they desire to change their votes; but have them do it one at a time."

Paul Kendall promised to do what was required of him; and in the course of the following forenoon he initiated "the outsiders who had voted for Shuffles" in the secret machinery of the supposed society, but in fact of the Chain League. Being off duty during the second part of the afternoon watch, he encountered Shuffles in the lee side of the waist.

"Well, Shuffles, we are almost up with the coast of Ireland," said Paul, as he scratched the tip of his nose with the second finger of his right hand, agreeably to the instructions given him by Pelham.

"Yes; and I suppose by Sat.u.r.day, if the wind holds fair, we shall be off Cape Clear," replied the captain-elect, as he took the lower part of his left ear between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand.

Shuffles did not suppose that the second lieutenant was a member of the league, and pledged to a.s.sist in the capture of the ship; but as he had made the sign, probably accidentally, he replied to it.

"There is a prospect of fair weather for some days to come," continued Paul, as he scratched his chin with his left hand, which was the second step towards a recognition in the "Chain."

Shuffles was duly and properly astonished at this exhibition of intelligence on the part of the officer; and it was now quite certain that Paul had joined the league, or that he had obtained its tremendous secrets.

"I hope it will be good weather now during the rest of the pa.s.sage,"