"What do you mean, Scott?" demanded Beckwith, when the commodore had ordered all hands to be piped into the boats, and the students were walking down to the shore.
"I told you I would do the right thing, and I've done it. Wasn't it a fair thing—square and aboveboard?"
"It wasn't a fair thing to nominate Cantwell for chairman."
"If you didn't like him, why didn't you vote him down?" asked Scott. "I think everything has been fairly done."
"Perhaps it was. Allow that it was. Why did you get up an opposition to the plan?" demanded Beckwith, rather warmly.
"What do I care for the plan? You nobs in the cabin got up a ring, and all you wanted of the steerage fellows was to give up their rights. I have just as good a right to be a lieutenant next month as you have, if my marks give me the place. It is only a game of the ring to keep the best places among yourselves; that's all."
"Do you want Cantwell for your captain?" demanded Beckwith.
"I had just as lief have him captain as fourth master. He is over me just the same. But I am not sure he is half so bad a fellow as you make him out to be."
"I don't say he is bad, only that he is a conceited and disagreeable fellow, and no seaman. We don't want a fellow of that sort over us."
"We in the steerage have him over us now, and shall have him, any way you can fix it. He thinks pretty well of No. 1, I know, and so do some of the rest of the cabin nobs. I'm not clear yet that he is no seaman. I go for giving him the same chance that the rest of the fellows have. Then, if he don't do his duty, and behave like a gentleman, it will be time enough to do something."