PIPING TO MISCHIEF.
After the offensive announcement that the students were to deliver up
their money to the principal, and take his receipt for it, the crew were
dismissed from muster, after being informed that the business of
receiving the funds would be immediately commenced in the steerage. The
three gamblers were not punished, except by the mortification of the
exposure, even by the loss of their marks, though Wilton was confined in
the brig one hour for each falsehood he had uttered. Mr. Lowington knew
that at least a dozen of the boys were guilty of gambling; and as the
matter now came up for the first time, he did not deem it expedient to
punish those who had been discovered hoping that the preventive measures
he had adopted would effectually suppress the evil.
Many of the students regarded the taking of their money as an indignity.
Only a few of them, comparatively, had engaged in gambling, though many
of the occupants of the steerage knew of the existence of the practice
on board the ship. They were willing to believe, and did believe, after
the impressive addresses to which they had listened, that games of
chance were a perilous amusement, but they were not quite willing to
acknowledge the justice of Mr. Lowington's measures.
Most of the officers, and many of the crew, cheerfully complied with the
new regulation. They handed their money to the pursers, and received a
receipt for the amount, signed by the principal. Others emptied the
contents of their exchequer sullenly, and under protest; while not a few
openly grumbled in the presence of Mr. Lowington. Some of "our fellows"
attempted to keep back a portion of their funds, and perhaps a few
succeeded, though the tact of the principal exposed the deceit in
several instances. Whatever may be thought of the justice or the
expediency of depriving the students of their money, it was evidently an
exceedingly unpopular step.
In the second dog watch, when Shuffles and Paul Kendall were off duty,
they happened to meet in the waist; and the exciting topic of the day
came up for discussion, as it had in every little group that collected
that afternoon. Shuffles had accomplished his purpose; he had
accomplished far more than he intended. He had expected nothing more
than a general onslaught upon gambling, followed by increased stringency
in the regulations, and a closer watch over the students in their rooms,
which would produce sufficient irritation among the boys to suit his
purposes. Now the crew, and even some of the officers, were in a ferment
of indignation, and ripe for a demonstration of any kind.
"The business is done," said Paul Kendall, as he met the conspirator.
"I'm afraid it's overdone," answered Shuffles, seriously, though he was
actually in a state of exultation over the effect which had been
produced by the new regulation.
"I hope not. I did not mention your name to the principal in connection
with the matter," added Paul.
"Didn't he ask you?"
"He did? but when I stated the case to him, and told him the person who
had given me the information had let it out accidentally, and did not
wish to be known, he asked no more questions."
"Thank you, Mr. Kendall. This last measure is so unpopular that I should
have been cast out like an unclean bird, if it were known that I gave
the hint."
"No one shall know anything about it from me, Shuffles. You did a good
thing for the ship, and for every fellow in it."
"They wouldn't be willing to believe that just now," said Shuffles,
laughing.
"Perhaps not? but it is a fact, none the less."
"I didn't think Mr. Lowington would go it quite so strong. If I had, I
shouldn't have told you what I did."
"Why, are you not satisfied with what has been done?" asked Kendall,
with some astonishment.
"No, I am not. I am glad enough to see the gambling stopped, but I don't
think the principal had any more right to take my money away from me
than he had to take my head off," replied Shuffles, earnestly.
"Don't you think it will be better for the fellows to be without money
than with it?"
"Perhaps it will; I don't know about that. Your neighbor might be a
better man if he were poor than if he were rich: does that make it that
you have any right to take his property from him?"
"I don't think it does," replied Paul.
"The State of Massachusetts, for instance, or the State of Ohio, makes
laws against games of chance. Why not make a law, if a man gambles, that
all his money shall be taken from him?"
"The state has no right to make such a law, I suppose."
"But the principal goes a long reach beyond that. He takes every man's
money away from him, whether he is accused of gambling or not. Do you
think he had any right to do that?"
"He hasn't made any law; but if you want law, I'll give you some!"
laughed Paul, who was disposed to treat the subject very good-naturedly,
especially as there was so much loose indignation floating about the
decks.
"I don't mean law alone, but justice," added Shuffles. "I call it
high-handed injustice to take the fellows' money away from them."
"Let me give you a little law, then," persisted Paul. "How old are you,
Shuffles?"
"Eighteen."
"Good! You are an infant."
"In law, I am."
"Suppose your uncle, or somebody else, should die to-day, and leave you
fifty thousand dollars: wouldn't you have a good time with it?"
"I should, as soon as I got hold of it, you had better believe," replied
Shuffles.
"As soon as you got hold of it!" exclaimed Paul.
"I suppose I should have a guardian till I became of age."
"Who would appoint your guardian?"
"The court, I believe."
"Exactly so! The law! What, take your money away from you, or not let
you touch it!"
"That's law, certainly."
"Well, wouldn't the law have just as much right to take off a fellow's
head, as to take his money?" demanded Paul, triumphantly.
"Mr. Lowington is not our guardian."
"Yes, he is, for the time being; and I hold that he has just as much
right to take your money from you as your father would have."
"I don't see it; I don't believe it. The money was given us by our
fathers to spend in Europe when we get there."
"Mr. Lowington is to pay all our expenses on shore, by the terms of the
contract. Besides, the regulations of the Academy Ship, to which all the
parents assented, require that the control of the boys shall be wholly
given up to the principal. It's a plain case, Shuffles."
Mr. Lowington and his policy had an able and zealous defender in the
person of Paul Kendall, who, by his arguments, as well as his influence,
had already reconciled several of the students to the new regulation.
"If I were willing to grant the right of the principal to take the
fellows' money from them--which I am not--I think it is treating them
like babies to do so. It is punishing the innocent with the guilty."
"Mr. Lowington said, in so many words, that the measure was not
intended as a punishment; that it was purely a matter of discipline,
intended to meet certain evils which must appear when we landed in
Europe, as well as to prevent gambling."
Paul certainly had the best of the argument; but Shuffles was not
convinced, because he did not wish to be convinced.
At eight bells, when the first part of the port watch went on duty, the
wind had shifted from west to north; the studding-sails had been taken
in, the spanker, main spencer, and all the staysails had been set, and
the ship, close-hauled, was barely laying her course. The wind was
fresh, and she was heeled over on the starboard side, so that her decks
formed a pretty steep inclined plane. Under these circumstances, it
required a great deal of skill and watchfulness on the part of the
wheelmen to keep the sails full, and at the same time to lay the course.
As the ship's head met the heavy seas, a great deal of spray was dashed
on deck, and the position of the lookout-men on the top-gallant
forecastle was not as comfortable as if the weather had been warmer.
There was no dodging; every student was obliged to stand at his post,
wet or dry, blow high or blow low.
Wilton had been discharged from confinement in the brig, where Mr.
Agneau had visited him, giving him good advice and religious
instruction, as he did to all who were punished in any manner, and was
now with his watch on deck. The new regulation was particularly odious
to "our fellows," and Wilton regarded himself as a martyr to the popular
cause, forgetting that he had been punished for the lies he had told.
He and twenty others were forward to say they "wouldn't stand it;" and
the indignation seemed to be increasing rather than subsiding.
"Well, Wilton, how do you like the inside of the brig?" asked Shuffles,
when they met in the maintop, having been sent aloft to clear away the
bowline bridle on the main-topsail.
"I like it well enough," replied Wilton. "I wasn't going to blow on the
fellows; I would stay in there a month first."
"Did you give up your money?"
"Of course I did; I couldn't help myself."
"How do you like the new regulation?"
"I don't like it any better than the rest of the fellows do," answered
Wilton, in surly tones. "I won't stand it, either."
"O, I guess you will," laughed Shuffles. "I told you Lowington was a
tyrant, but you wouldn't believe me."
"Yes, I would; and I did."
"The fellows will find out what he is before they are many days older."
"I think they have found out now, I say, Shuffles, was this the row you
spoke about last night?"
"Yes; only there's more of it than I expected."
"How did you know anything about it beforehand?"
"I have a way of finding out these things," replied the artful
conspirator, mysteriously. "I have one or two friends at court."
"Is Paul Kendall one of them?"
"No; he is a simpleton. He don't know which side his bread is buttered.
If Lowington takes snuff, Kendall sneezes."
"I have seen you talking with him two or three times to-day."
"I was only pumping him."
"Well, there is a jolly row on board now, anyhow," added Wilton, as he
prepared to descend over the cat-harpings.
"Hold on; don't let's go on deck yet," interposed Shuffles. "I want to
know what our fellows are going to do."
"They will call us down, if we stop here."
"When they do, we will go down, then," replied Shuffles, as he seated
himself in the top, with his legs through the lubber's-hole. "What are
our fellows going to do? Do they mean to stand this thing?"
"They can't help themselves; they are mad enough to do anything; but
what's the use?" added Wilton, as he seated himself by the side of his
companion.
"Don't you think they will join the League now?"
"They would join anything that would give them their rights. I'll join
now; but I don't want to be toggled in such a way as you said last
night."
"Then you can't be toggled at all."
"I haven't any idea of falling overboard accidentally. I'd rather lose
my money than do that."
"It's nothing but a form, Wilton. Between you and me, it's only a
bugbear, intended to work upon the nerves and the imagination. Of course
we shouldn't help any fellow overboard; no one would dare to do any such
thing."
"I don't like the sound of the thing."
"If you really mean to expose the secrets which are intrusted to you, I
advise you not to join."
"I don't mean any such thing," added Wilton, indignantly.
"If you didn't, you wouldn't be afraid of the penalty."
"Toggle me, then; and see what I mean."
"I don't want you to go in if you don't believe in it."
"But I do believe in it; so go ahead."
Shuffles pronounced the ridiculous obligation again, and Wilton repeated
it after him.
"Now you are toggled," said the leader.
"What are we going to do?"
"Bring in the rest of our fellows; that is the first job. In my opinion
we can get over fifty of them now."
"I don't know about that," answered Wilton, doubtfully.
"I'm very sure we can. If we get enough to take the ship, we can have
all the rest as soon as we have done the job."
"Take the ship!" exclaimed Wilton, appalled at the idea.
"That's what we mean."
"I don't believe you can do it," replied the doubtful "link in the
Chain."
"It's the easiest thing in the world. The affair will come off at supper
time, when the professors are all in their cabin. All we have to do is
to clap the hatch on the after companion-way, and secure the doors
leading from the main cabin into the steerage. Then we have them, and
they can't help themselves."
"But the boatswain, carpenter, and sailmaker will be loose."
"No, they won't. At the right time, we will pass the word for them, and
say that Lowington wants to see them in the main cabin. As soon as they
go below we will put the hatch on."
"The cooks and stewards will still be at large."
"We can lock them up in the kitchen. If they make trouble, I have a
revolver," whispered Shuffles.
"A revolver! I won't have anything to do with it if you are going to use
pistols," said the alarmed confederate.
"It's only to look at; there will be no occasion to use it," answered
Shuffles, soothingly.
"There will be twelve men, besides the stewards, locked up in the main
cabin."
"That's so."
"How long do you suppose it would take them to break down the bulkhead
between the cabin and the steerage, or to climb up through the
skylight?"
"If they attempt anything of that kind, we can show them the revolver;
that will quiet them."
"You might frighten the parson in that way; but do you suppose men like
Mr. Lowington, Mr. Fluxion, and Peaks, who have been in the navy so
long, will be afraid of a pistol?"
"They won't want to be shot, if they have been in the navy all their
lives."
"Then you mean to shoot them?"
"They will think we do, and it will be all the same."
"I don't know about this business. I'm afraid the pistol might go off,
and hurt somebody."
"I suppose you could raise objections all night," added Shuffles,
contemptuously. "I'm not going to have any man tyrannize over me,
Wilton. I suppose if Lowington wants to pull every fellow's teeth out,
you won't object."
"I'm as much opposed to his tyranny as you are, and I will do anything
that is reasonable; but I want to know whether the water is hot or cold
before I put my fingers into it. What's the use of blundering into an
enterprise, and making a failure of it?"
"I have no idea of making a failure of it. Did you ever know me to make
a failure of anything that I attempted?"
"Yes, I have."
"What?"
"You failed to get elected captain when we first came aboard of the
ship."
"That was only because we had just come on board? the fellows didn't
know me, and I didn't know them. We are better acquainted now, and I am
just as sure of success as though we had already won it," added
Shuffles, confidently. "I don't believe in making failures."
"I don't believe there is more than one chance in ten for you to
succeed," continued the sceptic.
"There isn't more than one chance in ten for us to fail. You are a bird
of evil omen. You have no faith in anything; and if you are going to
croak like this, I don't want you in the Chain," added Shuffles,
petulantly.
"I'm in for it, already; and when I can see my way clearly, I shall be
as strong as you are."
"Then don't croak any more. We must go to work while the fever is on the
fellows, and make up----"
"In the maintop, ahoy!" shouted the master, from the waist.
"On deck!" replied Shuffles.
"Lay down from aloft!"
"Yes, sir."
The conspirators descended, after Shuffles had admonished his shaky
companion to be discreet.
"What are you doing in the top so long?" demanded Foster, the first
master, as the truants reached the sheer-pole.
"Watching the sea, sir," replied Shuffles. "It looks fine from the top."
"When you have done what you are sent aloft for, it is your duty to come
down and report it," added the officer.
Shuffles made no reply, as he probably would have done if he had not had
a heavy operation on his hands, which prevented him from indulging in
any side quarrels.
Except the wheelmen and the lookout, the watch on deck was divided into
little groups, who were quartered in the most comfortable places they
could find, telling stones, or discussing the exciting topic of the day.
"Shuffles, some of our fellows want to see you and Wilton," said Adler,
as the first master went below, to inspect the steerage, at two bells.
"What's up?" demanded the conspirator.
"Don't say anything," added the messenger, as he led the way to the
steerage skylight, under the lee of which Sanborn and Grimme had stowed
themselves away, out of the reach of the stream that was flowing along
the water-ways, and of the spray which was dashing over the weather
bows.
The party from aloft, with the messenger, increased the group to five,
which was the total number of "our fellows" that could be mustered in
the first part of the port watch.
"What's up?" demanded Shuffles, when he had seated himself by the
skylight.
"We intend to pipe to mischief, to-night, Shuffles and we want some help
from you," said Sanborn, in reply.
"We have been robbed of our money, and we are going to have
satisfaction, somehow or other," added Grimme, in explanation. "We are
not going to stand this sort of thing. We must teach Lowington and the
professors that they can't put our noses to the grindstone."
"Exactly so!" exclaimed Shuffles. "And you intend to put them there
yourselves. In other words, you mean to get into some scrape, and be
punished for it, as I was."
"No, we don't. We are going to work man-of-war style. Old Peaks told us
how to do it, when we were on watch last night," replied Grimme.
"Peaks?"
"Yes, he spun us a yarn about man-of-war life, and told us how the men
serve out the officers when they don't behave themselves."
"Peaks told you this--did he?" demanded Shuffles.
"Of course he didn't mean to have us do anything of the kind."
"Well, how did he tell you to serve out the officers?"
"Make them uncomfortable; keep them in a hornet's nest all the time."
"How? How?" asked Shuffles, impatiently.
"Why, if the unpopular officer went forward, a belaying pin was sure to
drop on his head or his feet; a tar can or a paint pot would be upset on
his back; or, if he went below, a cannon ball was liable to roll out of
a shot case upon him. Of course no one ever knew the author of this
mischief."
"Do you propose to play off any of these tricks on Lowington?" demanded
Shuffles.
"We have got a rod in pickle for him," replied Grimme, chuckling.
"What is it?"
"We intend to give him a dose of kerosene oil, to begin with," laughed
Sanborn.
"One of the stewards left his oil can on the fore scuttle ladder, after
the hatch was put on to keep the spray out, and I took possession of
it," added Grimme, hardly able to keep his mirth within the limits of
prudence.
"What are you going to do with it?" asked Shuffles.
"We are going to give Lowington the contents of the can, and then throw
it overboard."
"Indeed! Who is the fellow that has boldness enough to do this thing?"
"I have; and I have volunteered to do the job," answered Grimme, with a
degree of assurance which astonished even Shuffles.
"You dare not do it!"
"I dare, and I will, if the fellows will stand by me. Lowington is
sitting at the table in the professors' cabin, right under the skylight,
reading. One section of the skylight is open, and you can see him, as
plain as day. It's as dark as a pocket on deck, and the officers can't
see you twenty feet off. All I have to do is to pop the oil through the
opening, and get out of the way."
"What then?"
"Why, he will come on deck, and try to find out who did it; but he
can't."
"Perhaps he can."
"No, he can't; only half a dozen of the fellows will know anything about
it, and of course they won't let on."
"Suppose he don't find out. What good will this trick do?"
"The second part of the port watch must follow up the game. Lowington
will come on deck at eight bells, and Monroe, in the starboard watch,
will give him another dose."
"What will that be?"
"Slush the first step of the ladder at the after companion-way, and let
him tumble down stairs," chuckled Grimme.
"Then Lynch will give him some more," said Adler.
"Well, you may break his neck when he tumbles down the ladder. I'll have
nothing to do with any of those tricks," added Shuffles, decidedly. "If
you want to pipe to mischief, I'm with you, but in no such way as that.
Those are little, mean, dirty tricks."
"But they will keep him in hot water all the time, and he will get sick
of being a tyrant over the fellows in less than a week. There are twenty
things we might do to annoy him, which would help to bring him to his
senses. For instance, when the steward carries the coffee into the
professors' cabin, one fellow might engage his attention, while another
drops a lump of salt, a handful of pepper, or a piece of tobacco into
the urn."
"I don't want to hear any more of such low-lived tricks," interposed the
magnificent conspirator. "If you want to pipe to mischief, let us do it
like men."
"What would you do? Fifty of the fellows, at least, will go into
anything to punish Lowington for his tyranny."
"Join the Chain, then," said Shuffles, in a whisper, and with a suitable
parade of mystery.
"The what?"
"The Chain."
The object of the League was duly explained; and before the second part
of the port watch came on deck, three new members had been "toggled."
Greatly to the satisfaction of Shuffles, and to the astonishment of
Wilton, they did not hesitate at the penalty of the obligation, and
seemed to be entirely willing to "fall overboard accidentally" if they
failed to make strong and faithful "links in the Chain."