Outward Bound Or, Young America Afloat: A Story of Travel and Adventure, Optic [best non fiction books of all time txt] 📗

the officer of the deck; and the order was repeated by his subordinates in the waist and on the forecastle.

"We must go," said Wilton; and they descended from their position. {172}

The wind had continued to freshen, until the ship labored somewhat under her heavy press of canvas. It was the policy of the principal to go as easily and comfortably as possible, and he had directed Mr. Fluxion, if the wind continued to increase, to have the sail reduced, though neither the safety of the ship nor of the spars absolutely required such a step. The quarter watch on deck was sufficient to perform this labor.

"Lay aloft, foretopmen!" said the second lieutenant; and those of the watch who had their stations in the fore rigging sprang up the shrouds. "Stand by the halyard of the top-gallant studding sails! Man the tacks and sheets!"

"All ready, sir," reported the second midshipman, who was in the foretop, superintending the operation.

"Lower on the halyards! Ease off the tacks, and haul on the sheet!"

The two top-gallant studding-sails were thus brought into the top, where they were made up. The fore-topmast and the lower studding sails were taken in by a similar routine, and the Young America then moved along less furiously through the water.

"Now about the chain," said Wilton, when the lookouts had returned to their stations.

"Let me see; where did I leave off?" replied Shuffles.

"You said there was to be a row; which I don't believe."

"I may be mistaken about that; if I am, the job will be all the more difficult. Lowington has got us out to sea now, and, in my opinion, he means to shake {173} us up. He is a tyrant at heart, and he will carry it with a high hand. I hate the man!" added Shuffles, with savage earnestness.

"You may, but the fellows don't generally."

"They will as soon as he begins to put the twisters on them. You won't hear him say, 'If you please, young gentlemen,' now that we are in blue water. You know how savage he was with me."

"Well, but you were disobedient. You told him, up and down, you wouldn't do what he ordered you to do."

"No matter for that. You had a chance to see the spirit of the man. He was a perfect demon. He put me in irons!" exclaimed Shuffles, still groaning under this indignity. "I have been insulted and outraged, and I will teach him that Bob Shuffles is not to be treated in that manner! I will be revenged upon him, if it costs me my life."

"The fellows won't go into any such desperate game as that," replied Wilton, cautiously.

"But there will be fun in the thing," added the malcontent, softening his tone. "We shall have the ship all to ourselves. We needn't trouble ourselves anything about Latin and Greek, and trigonometry and algebra. We shall go in for a good time generally."

"It is all moonshine; it can't be done. What's the use of talking about such a thing?" said Wilton.

"It can be done, and it shall be," replied Shuffles, stamping his foot on the deck."

"How?"

"I am not quite ready to tell you yet."

"Very well; I don't want to know anything more {174} about it," answered the timid conspirator, who was almost disgusted at the foolhardiness of the plan.

"I can get along without you," added Shuffles, with assumed indifference.

"I would rather have you do so."

"All right; but you will want to come in when we have got along a little farther."

"Perhaps I shall; if I do, I suppose the door will be open to me."

"It may be open; but perhaps you can't walk into the cabin then."

"Why not?"

"Do you suppose the fellows who do the burden of the work are going to be shut out of the cabin? If you join at the eleventh hour, you will have to be what you are now—a foremast hand."

"What can I be if I join now?"

"Second or third officer."

"Who will be first."

"I can't mention his name yet. He belongs in the cabin now."

"You don't mean so!" said Wilton, astonished to learn that his bold companion expected to find friends among the present officers of the ship.

"I know what I'm about," replied Shuffles, confidently.

With this information Wilton thought more favorably of the mad enterprise. If it was to be a winning game, he wished to have a part in it; if a losing one, he desired to avoid it. There was something in the decided manner of the chief conspirator which made an impression upon this doubting mind. {175}

"I don't want to go in till I know more about it," said he, after walking two or three times across the top-gallant forecastle.

"You can't know anything more about it until you have been toggled," replied Shuffles.

"Toggled?" repeated the sceptic, curiously.

"This thing is to be well managed, Wilton. We shall not use any hard words, that outsiders can understand; and if any of them happen to hear anything that don't concern them, they will not know what it means. Will you join, or not?"

"I will," replied Wilton, desperately.

The strange words which Shuffles used, and the confidence he manifested in the success of his project, carried the hesitating lookout man. He was fascinated by the "clap-trap" which the leader of "our fellows" had adopted to help along his scheme, for it promised to afford no little excitement during the voyage.

"Now you talk like a man, Wilton," replied Shuffles. "You shall be a member of the league at once."

"What's the league?"

"The Chain League."

"Upon my word, Shuffles, you have been reading yellow-covered novels to some purpose."

"I didn't get this idea from a novel. I invented it myself."

"The Chain League!" repeated Wilton, who was pleased with the title of the conspirators.

"It will be called simply 'The Chain.' I am the {176} first member, and you are the second; or you will be when you have been toggled."

"Toggled again!" laughed Wilton. "What do you mean?"

"Initiated."

"Go ahead, then."

"Repeat after me."

"Go on," replied Wilton, deeply interested in the proceeding, even while he was amused at its formality.

"I am a link of the chain."

"I am a link of the chain," repeated Wilton.

"I will obey my superior officers."

"I will obey my superior officers."

"And I will reveal none of its secrets."

"And I will reveal none of its secrets."

"This I promise——"

"This I promise——"

"On penalty of falling overboard accidentally."

"On penalty of what?" demanded Wilton, both puzzled and terrified by the mysterious words.

"Repeat the words after me. On penalty," said Shuffles, sternly.

"I know what the words are, but I'll be hanged if I will repeat them. 'Falling overboard accidentally!' What does that mean?"

"It means that, if you betray the secrets of The Chain, you might fall overboard accidentally, some day."

"That is, you would push me over when no one was looking," added Wilton, involuntarily retreating from the conspirator, whom, for the moment, he regarded as a very dangerous companion. {177}

"That's what the words mean," replied Shuffles, coolly.

"Have I been toggled?" demanded Wilton.

"No; you didn't repeat all the words."

"Then you needn't toggle me any more. I've got enough of this thing."

"All right; just as you say. But I can tell you this, my dear fellow? if you should whisper the first word of what has passed between us to-night, you might fall overboard," continued Shuffles, sharply, as he laid his hand on his companion's shoulder.

Wilton grasped the sheet of the fore-topmast staysail which was the nearest rope to him, and held on as though he was then in imminent danger of "falling overboard accidentally."

"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?" {178}

"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 {179} 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.

Shuffles had a taste for these things, and out of his lively imagination he had coined a similar association to be recruited from the crew of the Young America, which was to redress fancied wrongs, and even take the ship out of the hands of the principal. He could think of nothing but this brilliant enterprise; and while his shipmates were talking of the future, and indulging in the old salts' vocation of "spinning yarns," he was busy maturing the details of "The Chain League." He did not, for reasons best known to himself attempt to make any more proselytes that night.

The ship continued to go along easily on her course till morning. It was a clear night, and though the wind was fresh, the sea was not rough, and the Young America behaved very handsomely. The programme for the watches was carried out to the letter, but on the first night out, the boys were too much excited by the novelty of the situation to be able to sleep much.

At eight bells in the morning, after the port watch had breakfasted, all the students off duty attended prayers. Then the starboard watch had their morning meal, after which all hands were piped to muster. {180}

Mr. Lowington mounted the hatch, and it was understood that the case of discipline which had come up the day before was to be settled now.

"Shuffles!" called the principal.

The culprit came forward.

"Are you still of the same mind as when I saw you last evening?" continued Mr. Lowington.

"I am, sir," replied Shuffles, with a becoming exhibition of meekness.

"You will step upon the hatch, then."

Shuffles took position by the side of the principal.

"You will repeat after me," added Mr. Lowington.

The culprit was startled at these words, and began to suspect that Wilton had betrayed him in spite of his fear of falling overboard accidentally. It looked just then as though the principal intended to "toggle" him.

"I acknowledge that I have done wrong," Mr. Lowington continued.

Shuffles repeated the words, happy to find that he was not to take the obligation of "The Chain League."

"And I will hereafter endeavor to do my duty faithfully."

The promise was repeated with the lips, but of course it had no meaning, and did not reach the heart.

"That is all, Shuffles," added the principal.—"Young gentlemen, you are dismissed from muster."

This was certainly a very mild atonement for the grave offence which Shuffles had committed, and the lenity of the principal was generally commented upon {181} by the boys. The starboard watch was piped below to study and recite, while the port watch were to be off and on during the forenoon. The first part now had the deck, while the second was off duty, and the boys belonging to it were permitted to remain on deck or