"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.

"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 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