d not the remotest
idea that anything wrong was in progress.

In the last half of the first dog watch, Shuffles began to be excited.
He was too much of a politician to be idle while any voting was going
on? and so far as his duty would permit, he had watched the receivers
since the balloting commenced. He had seen seven or eight vote of whose
membership in the Chain he had no previous knowledge. He saw that Pelham
had made more initiates than he had been willing to acknowledge,
apparently concealing the facts for the purpose of favoring his own
election. He observed that all the officers of his rival's quarter watch
voted, and he was almost certain that he had been defeated.

Shuffles was angry and indignant when he discovered the treacherous
shrewdness of his fellow-conspirator; but he had solemnly promised to
abide the result of the election, and he could not recede from his
position without a violation of the "honor among thieves" which is said
to exist. The poll would not be closed for half an hour; and as he had
been cheated he deemed it quite right to restore the equilibrium by a
resort to the same policy.

"Wilton, I have been cheated," said he, angrily, as he met his old crony
in the waist.

"How do you know you have?"

"I know it. I will explain by and by. Something must be done. I am
beaten as sure as you live."

"Well, I can't help it if you are. You and Pelham have fixed things to
suit yourselves, and now you must fight it out between you," replied
Wilton, as he turned on his heel, and left the mighty mischief-maker
alone and disconcerted.

"Where do all these beans come from?" said Paul Kendall, as he noticed
the rejected ballots of the Pelhamites, which they had not even taken
the trouble to throw over the rail.

"It's a new game the fellows are playing," replied Shuffles, with
apparent indifference, as he walked aft with the second lieutenant.

"What's that?" asked Paul, curiously.

"It's called 'Don't know Beans,'" answered Shuffles in deep thought.
"The fellows have a good deal of sport out of it in the off-time."

"'Don't know Beans!' I never heard of such a game before. Tell me about
it."

"You see Grossbeck and McKeon?"

"Yes."

"Well, they are the _butts,_ as we call them. All the fellows in our
watch have some beans," added Shuffles, taking a handful of them from
his pocket.

"What do they do with them?"

"You try it yourself. Take two of these beans."

Paul took them.

"N