"I want to ask," said the former, "what were the numbers in the voting for the prefects?"
"Parkes received fifty-six votes, and Fielding forty-eight."
"Did Thurston receive any votes?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
"That," returned the captain, "is a question which, for certain reasons,
I think it would be best not to answer."
"I think," interrupted Gull, rising to his feet, amid a murmur of excitement, "that we have a perfect right to insist on the figures being made public; everything in connection with these elections ought to be fair and open."
"I don't think," answered Allingford quietly, "that any one has ever had reason to accuse me of being unfair in any of my dealings; it is exactly because I think it would be hardly fair to Thurston himself that I propose not to publish the number of votes awarded to unsuccessful candidates."
The subject of this remark sat in the front row but one, lolling back against the desk behind, with his hands in his pockets and a sneering smile on his lips.
"I don't care what you do," he exclaimed, with a short laugh. "I can guess pretty well what's coming."