"We can't do anything now."
"Why not?"
"How can we? After what has happened, I will not reproach you for what you did. You know how you provoked me. You have exposed the whole affair to the officers."
"Not a bit of it."
"No."
"Certainly not. Did you ever know Augustus Pelham to violate his obligations?" demanded Pelham with dignity.
"Never before; but the captain, the second lieutenant and seven others, who would no more join the League than they would steal your pocket-book, went through all the signs with me."
"They all voted too," laughed Pelham.
"I am willing to confess that I played off a mean trick upon you."
"And I have only made myself even with you. I have not betrayed a single secret of the Chain to any one not posted—except the signs. If I had, of course you and I would both have been in the brig before this time."