cted to drag them into any
desperate scheme which might be adopted, and after Raymond and his
party retired, he looked rather blankly at his friends.

"They are nothing but babies--little spoonies!" said he,
contemptuously. "It isn't safe to do anything with them."

"Nor without them," suggested Spencer.

"I don't believe that," added Little. "They are in for it already. They
will be held responsible for anything done below, as well as we. Let's
go on with the job, just as we intended."

After considerable discussion, the suggestion of the little villain was
adopted, with a modification, however, proposed by himself, by which
the whole party were to be implicated in the mischief. No time was to
be lost, for a portion of the faithful, who appeared still to be having
a good time on deck, would soon come below to turn in. Howe and Little
went to the main scuttle, which opened into the hold, and raised it.

"What are you going to do?" asked Raymond.

"We are going to hide in the hold, just for the fun of the thing,"
replied Little. "Won't you come down with us?"

"That's not a bad idea," suggested Lindsley. "When they come down to
look for us, they won't find us. That will make a sensation, at least,
and then we shall not be entirely ignored."

"Are you going to stay there all night?" inquired Raymond.

"Yes--why not?" answered Lindsley. "It is not quite so comfortable a
place to sleep as the mess-rooms; but we can stand it for one night."

Even the mild rebels, Hyde and Johnson, were pleased with the plan, for
it looked like an adventure. The persuasions of Lindsley induced them
to yield whatever scruples they had. It would be a rich thing to have
the principal or the officers come down into the steerage, and find it
empty. There was still a chance to make the principal do something,
even if it were only to call them up for punishment; for anything
seemed better than being entirely ignored.

Little and Howe, each with a lantern in his hand, which he had taken
from the lamp-room forward, led the way into the hold. All the members
of the three parties followed; the mild rebels regarding the movement
rather as a piece of fun than as anything which added to the guilt they
had already incurred. When the last one had descended the ladder, Howe
put on the scuttle, and the steerage was "like some banquet hall
deserted," for the stewards were either on deck or in the kitchen,
where they spent their leisure hours.

As