CHAPTER XVII.
PEAS AND BEANS.
The business of the Chain had been managed with extreme caution by the conspirators, and more than one third of the crew had been initiated without the knowledge of the principal and professors, or of the officers and seamen who were not members. Pelham and Shuffles ordered the affairs of the League, and no "link" was allowed to approach an outsider for the purpose of inducing him to join without the consent of one of these worthies.
As the scheme progressed, various modifications had been made in the plan to adapt it to circumstances, the principal of which was the choice of two "shackles," who should be deemed the officers of the League until a regular election had taken place. By this invention, Shuffles and Pelham had been enabled to compromise their differences, for they assumed the newly-created offices, and labored as equals in the bad cause. Each endeavored to make as many new "links" as possible, for already the conspirators consisted of two factions, one of which favored the election of Shuffles, and the other that of Pelham, to the captaincy. Each, in a measure, controlled his own recruits, and was reasonably sure of their votes when the election should be ordered.
These young gentlemen were not only plotting to take the ship, but to "take in" each other. While both worked for the League as a whole, each worked for himself as an individual. Shuffles was much more thorough than his rival in the making of his converts. He told them the whole story, and taught them to look full in the face the extreme peril of the undertaking. He did not conceal anything from them. On the other hand, Pelham merely represented the project as a means of redressing the grievances of the officers and crew; of having their money restored to them, and abolishing certain portions of the regulations which pressed hard upon those who were disposed to be unruly.
Though the number of "links" in the "Chain" has been mentioned, it was not known to either of the rivals. Each knew his own peculiar followers, but he did not know how many the other could muster. Though there were signs and passwords by which the members could know each other, there were no means by which any one could precisely sum up the whole number of "links." Shuffles could count thirteen including his rival, while Pelham could number nineteen without his coequal in authority. The former believed the list to consist of about twenty four, while the latter estimated it above thirty. With them it was a struggle for an office, as well as to redress their fancied wrongs, and they mutually deceived each other in order to obtain the advantage.
"How many do you suppose we can muster now?" asked Shuffles, on the evening of the eighteenth day out, as they met in the waist, when both were off duty.