"I thought your name was Rectus!"
"It isn't," said he. "It's Samuel."
This was no sort of an answer to give Corny, and so I explained that Rectus was his school name; that he was younger than most of us, and that we used to call him Young Rectus; but that I had pretty much dropped the "young" since we had been travelling together. It didn't appear to be needed.
"But why did you call him Rectus, when his name's Samuel?" asked Corny.
"Well," said I, laughing, "it seemed to suit him."
This was all that was said about the matter, for Priscilla came up and said she must hurry home, and that she'd like to have her sixpence, and that changed the subject, for we were out of small money and could only make up eleven half-pence among us. But Priscilla agreed to trust us until evening for the other "hoppenny."
Corny didn't say much on the way home, and she looked as if she was doing some private thinking. I suppose, among other things, she thought that as I considered it all right to call Rectus Rectus, she might as well do it herself, for she said:
"Rectus, I don't think you're as good at talking as Will is. I move we have a new election for captain."
"All right," said Rectus; "I'm agreed."
You couldn't make that boy angry. We held a meeting just as we got to the hotel, and he and Corny both voted for me.