rs."

"Yes; and they have given him marks enough to make him captain, just to
show good fellows, like you and me, what a saint can do. It is all
humbug! Why, he got more marks than Kendall, Gordon, Haven, and the
rest of those cabin nobs, who are fit to enter the senior class in a
college. I am satisfied that his merit-roll was doctored so as to make
it come out as it did."

"I don't believe Lowington would do any such thing as that," suggested
Spencer, shaking his head.

"Don't you? Well, I do. What's the use of talking! Didn't Shuffles jump
from the steerage into the captain's state-room?"

"Any other fellow may do the same thing. Look at Tom Perth, who lost a
heap of marks for running off in the Josephine, as the rest of us did.
He is second master. If it hadn't been for our scrape, very likely he
would have been captain."

"Don't you believe it."

"If Lowington had not been fair, and let every fellow go just where his
marks carried him, Perth would not have had a place in the cabin."

"O, the principal only wanted to break us up by taking our best fellow
away from us. He couldn't drive Tom Perth, and now he's going to lead
him--bait him with sugar and offices."

"Some of the fellows say Shuffles can't handle the ship without the
help of the principal," said Spencer.

"Of course he can't!" exclaimed Howe. "Hasn't he proved that already?
If Paul Kendall had been captain, he would have spotted every fellow
that made any trouble. Let us keep it up, Spencer, and we shall soon
prove that Shuffles can't handle the ship. That will be enough to
satisfy me."

The approach of an officer interrupted the conversation; but Howe
passed from one to another of the malcontents, and instructed them what
to do in the next drill. They were to create all the confusion they
could in the discharge of their duty. They were to misunderstand the
orders, and to blunder in the execution of them, in such a manner as to
conceal their own agency in the mischief, and divide the responsibility
of it among their companions. The runaway crew of the Josephine,
mortified at their failure, were still fretting because they had not
visited Paris and Switzerland. They were ready to listen to evil
counsels, and regarding Howe as their leader since the promotion of
Perth, they promised to follow his instructions to the letter.

"What are we going to make by it?" demanded Sheffield, who doubted the
policy of the proceeding.

"We are going to pr