"I promise, without any reservation, to acknowledge Shuffles as captain, if he is chosen, and faithfully to obey his orders, on penalty of falling overboard accidentally."
Pelham repeated these words, and then "toggled" his rival in the same manner.
"Now we understand each other perfectly, and there will be no chance of dragging the anchor," said Shuffles, satisfied that his sway would be undisputed. "Let me say, in addition to this, that if I should happen to be chosen, I shall make you my first officer, Pelham."
"And I will make you my first officer, if I should happen to be chosen," replied the obliging Pelham. "Of course I don't expect to be chosen; you have had the swing of this affair, and you will have all the advantage."
"No, I think not; you are an officer now, and you have more influence than I have," added the modest Shuffles.
If both had been laboring for the organization of the League on the same terms, Shuffles would certainly have the better chance of an election; but Pelham had been taking in members on false pretences, merely representing to those whom he approached that the League was an association having for its object the redress of their grievances. To only a few had he mentioned the fact that a regular mutiny was contemplated; that the ship was to be taken out of the hands of the principal, and an independent cruise commenced. He was afraid the whole truth would be more than some of them could bear; and perhaps he had so little faith in the extreme measures to be carried out by the League, that he was unwilling even to mention them.
Those who serve the evil one can neither trust each other nor trust their master.
The only real confidence in each other which can exist among men or boys must be based on moral and religious principle.
The man who pays his debts, or who performs his obligations to his fellow-men, for his reputation's sake, rather than from devotion to pure principle, will fail of his duty when he can conceal his infidelity, or when his reputation will not suffer from his acts.
A man or a boy without principle is not to be trusted out of the line of his own interest.