"Bob Shuffles will give it to you."
"Give what to me?"
"Give you the biggest licking you ever had in your life," answered Wilton, angrily, "You are so stupid, you can't understand anything."
"I think I can understand the licking, when if comes. That's a game that two can play at."
"What do you mean, you little bantam? Do you think you can whip Bob Shuffles?"
"I had no idea of whipping him; and I have no idea of his whipping me, either."
Kendall was spunky. Wilton could make nothing of him by threats or persuasion; and he turned away from him to seek a more promising field of labor. Kendall took off his cap, scratched his head as he reflected upon the event which had just transpired, and made up his mind that it was an insult to an independent elector to attempt to buy his vote with the paltry consideration of an office. He was sorry that he had been even tempted by the proposition of the wire-pullers, and thankful that his sense of honor and decency had prompted him to decline it when asked to vote for an improper person. True to his promise, he made all haste to expose the conspiracy, as he regarded it, against Carnes.
When the students turned in that night, the wire-pullers had found a sufficient number of candidates for all the offices on the terms set forth in the compact, each of whom had promised to use his influence for the entire ticket. Shuffles had made a very pretty calculation, to the effect that each of the fifteen candidates could influence at least two votes besides his own for the ticket, which would inevitably elect it. But during all this time Paul Kendall had been laboring like a Trojan for Carnes, and had induced his friends to do the same.
At nine-o'clock in the morning, the polls were opened for the election of officers. A box was placed on the fife-rail, at the mainmast, in which the ballots were deposited, under the inspection of Professor Mapps.
"Have all the students voted?" called the professor, when the voting was suspended. "If so, I declare the poll closed."