"Well, Shuffles, what is it?" demanded Pelham, as, with one hand on the sheet of the fore-topmast staysail, he looked over the bow at the bone in the teeth of the ship.
"What is it? Don't you know what it is?" replied Shuffles, angrily.
"Upon my life, I don't know."
"You have been a traitor," exclaimed Shuffles, with savage earnestness.
"O! have I?"
"You know you have."
"Perhaps you would be willing to tell me wherein I have been a traitor," added Pelham, laughing; for he was enjoying the scene he had witnessed in the waist, when, one after another, the "outsiders" had made the signs to his rival.
"You have betrayed the secrets of the Chain."
"Have I?"
"Didn't you give the signs to Paul Kendall, the captain, and half a dozen others?"