"No doubt of that."
"After all, Shuffles, do you really think we intended to take the ship?"
"I did; I know that."
"I don't believe I did," said the fourth lieutenant. "Nothing seemed exactly real to me, until I went overboard."
"It was more real to me then than ever before," replied Shuffles. "What shall we do with the Chain now?"
"Nothing; we may want to use it again, some time. Let every fellow keep still. When the principal gets his silver pitcher, which the doctor will procure as soon as he can go up to Cork, he will think the members of the Chain are the best fellows on board."
"I think you have sold the whole of us, Pelham," continued Shuffles, with a sheepish smile. "Here's the end of the Chain——"
"Yes, and we may be thankful that it isn't the end of a rope instead of a chain," laughed Pelham. "The penalty of mutiny is death."
"I have had no fear of that; it would have been regarded only as a lark. But it is really amusing to think where we have come out," added Shuffles. "We formed the 'Chain' because Lowington was tyrannical; most of the fellows joined it because he took their money from them."
"Precisely so."