Outward Bound Part 29

"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.

"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 t.i.tle of the conspirators.

"It will be called simply 'The Chain.' I am the 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.

"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 pa.s.sed 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?"