n to get up the mutiny?"

"I do. I feel more like it now than I ever did before," replied
Shuffles; and his low tones came from between his closed teeth.

"It's no use to think of such a thing. It's too wild."

"No matter if it is; it shall be carried out."

"The fellows won't go in for it; they won't dare to do it."

"Yes, they will. I know them better than you do, Wilton. It isn't quite
time yet; but in three or four days they will be ready for anything."

"You can't bring them up to what you mean."

"Yes, I can."

"What do you expect to do, locked up in that place?" demanded Wilton,
incredulously.

"When I get ready to go out of this place, I shall go. I needn't stay
here any longer than I please."

"Do you really mean to get up a mutiny?"

"Hush! Don't call it by that name."

"What shall I call it?"

"Call it making a chain."

"I don't understand you," answered Wilton, puzzled by the expression.

"I know what I'm about, and I have got more friends in the ship than
Lowington has. And I know exactly how to manage the whole thing," added
Shuffles, confidently.

"But the fellows are all perfectly satisfied with their condition. They
wish to go to Europe, and are pleased with the prospect before them."

"Perhaps they are; and they shall all go to Europe, and travel about
without being tied to Lowington's coat-tails. I shall come out of this
place to-morrow, and we will work the thing up."

"I'm in for a time with any good fellow; but I don't think we can make
this thing go," said Wilton. "Hush! Don't say another word. There comes
an officer."

One bell, indicating half past eight in the evening, struck on deck. It
was the duty of the master and midshipman on deck, alternately, to pass
through the steerage every half hour during the watch, to see that there
was no disorder, and that the lights were all secure, so as to avoid any
danger from fire. Henry Martyn, the second master, performed this office
on the present occasion. He descended the main ladder, and Wilton, who
expected the visit when he heard the stroke of the bell, retreated to
his mess room, and threw himself into his berth. Harry walked around the
steerage, and glanced into the gangways, from which the rooms opened.

"Harry," said Shuffles, in a low tone, as the master was about to return
to the deck.

"Did you speak to me?" asked Harry, stepping up to the bars of the cage.

"I did. Will you oblige me by telling the chaplain that I