"Will you conform, in every respect, to the requirements of the present occasion?"
"We will, sir."
"But they must join the order," interposed Grace, who had accompanied Paul to the waist. "They are not entitled to the white ribbon, for they have come in at the eleventh hour."
Mr. Lowington smiled, and directed the penitents to repair to the quarter-deck.
"I am so glad they have yielded!" said Grace.
"So am I. You can let them take the second degree to-night," laughed Paul.
"Yes; and that shall be a blue ribbon. The next ones that come shall have the yellow ribbon, and be the first degree. That's all the different colors I have," added Grace, as she hastened to her state-room to procure the material for the decoration of the penitents, who were standing before the principal, abaft the mizzen-mast.
"Are you really sorry for what you have done, or do you back out because your plan does not work well?" asked the principal of the delinquents.
"I am really sorry for it, sir," answered Hyde; and there is not a doubt that he spoke the simple truth.
"Have you been into the hold this evening?"