“Tecumseh,” said Tom.
“Write that down, Chip,” said Dick, “the name of the ship was Tecumseh”; and then he went on with the facts of the story, helped along by suggestions from Tom and Chippie. It took them quite a long time to get through, but finally they came to the last sentence: “And so Captain Craven gave up his life to do his duty as a good scout, and to keep his oath and law; and so, to remind them of his brave and courteous act, the officers of the Navy have the custom of saying, ‘After you, pilot’ when one of them steps back to make way for another; and also, because we want to be reminded of his brave and courteous act and faithfulness to his oath and law, we—the members of the Triangle Club of Duck Island—have written out this story to read once in a while, and have taken ‘After you, Pilot’ as our motto.”
“I move,” cried Chippie, “that we adopt this as the charter of the Club.”
“What’s a charter?” asked Dick.
“It means what the Club’s about,” said Chippie quickly.
“Well, if that’s so,” answered Dick, “I think there ought to be something else in the Charter.”
“What’s that?” asked the others eagerly.
“Why, what we said in the beginning, when we first read the story, that each one of us pledges himself to do his best, first, to keep the law himself as well as he can, and then to help the others to do the same thing; and—not only that—but each one will tell any other, when he sees him sliding off, the way you talked to me coming back from Salem.”
Dick’s motion was unanimously agreed to, and then all three stood up and took hold of hands to confirm their pledge, thus also forming the triangle which was the symbol of the Club. They then all three solemnly signed the document, affixing their scout signs:
