y Groom vote."

"That was all right. Both of them joined."

"I can tell you what took me all aback," interposed McKeon, who, with
Grossbeck, had been walking back and forth in the waist.

"No matter what took you all aback," added Shuffles sharply. "The
question is settled; what's the use of raking up every thing that may
seem to be strange?"

"What was it that took you aback, McKeon?" demanded Pelham.

"It was when the captain voted," replied the receiver.

"The captain!" exclaimed Pelham.

"Yes."

"Do you mean Captain Gordon, McKeon?" asked Pelham, with intense
surprise.

"Of course I do."'

"All the officers of the first part of the port watch voted," added
Grossbeck.

"They did!" exclaimed Pelham.

"Well, was it any stranger that the officers of the first part of the
port watch voted, than it was that those of the second part did so?"
inquired Shuffles, with earnestness.

"I think it was," replied Pelham, decidedly.

"Paul Kendall was one of them," said McKeon.

"Paul Kendall! Does any fellow suppose he has joined the Chain?"
demanded the defeated candidate.

"Why not?"

"And Captain Gordon?"

"Why not?"

"How did the captain vote?" asked Pelham.

"No matter how he voted," said Shuffles, indignantly "I protest against
this raking up of matters which are already settled."

"He voted beans," replied McKeon, who, it is hardly necessary to add,
was a Pelham man.

"Then he is one of your friends, Shuffles," continued Pelham, who was
beginning to understand how his rival had been elected.

"I don't claim him."

"Did you take the captain into the Chain, Shuffles?"

"I won't answer," replied the captain elect.

"If Captain Gordon and Paul Kendall are members, I would like to know
it. I am first officer of the ship under the new order of things, and if
I command Gordon to do anything, I mean that he shall obey me."

"Of course you will give him no orders till we are in possession of the
ship," added Shuffles, not a little alarmed.

"Well, as Gordon and Kendall are members of the Chain--of course they
are, or they wouldn't have voted--we can talk over the matter freely
with them," said Pelham, chuckling.

"If you make the signs, and they make them, of course you can," replied
Shuffles. "No member can speak to another about the business of the
Chain until both of them have proved that they belong, by giving the
required signals."

"Shuffles, do you suppose Captain Gordon knows the sign