.

"Not I. I respect you too much. You are the captain--that is to be--of
the ship," laughed Pelham. "The captain, the second lieutenant, and all
the flunkies, voted for you? and, of course, I couldn't be so deficient
in politeness as to insult one who----"

At that moment Pelham removed his hand from the sheet, and Shuffles,
irritated beyond control at the badinage of his companion, gave him a
sudden push, and the fourth lieutenant went down into the surges, under
the bow of the ship.

As Pelham disappeared beneath the waves, Shuffles was appalled at his
own act; for even he had not sunk so low as to contemplate murder. The
deed was not premeditated. It was done on the spur of angry excitement,
which dethroned his reason. The chief conspirator had so often and so
lightly used the language of the League, about "falling overboard
accidentally," that he had become familiar with the idea; and, perhaps,
the deed seemed less terrible to him than it really was. When the act
was done, on the impulse of the moment, he realized his own situation,
and that of his victim. He would have given anything at that instant, as
he looked down upon the dark waves, to have recalled the deed; but it
was too late. Self-reproach and terror overwhelmed him.

"Man overboard!" he shouted with desperation, as he threw off his
pea-jacket, and dived, head foremost, from the forecastle into the sea.

His first impulse had been to do a foul deed; his next, to undo it.
Shuffles was a powerful swimmer. The ocean was his element. He struck
the water hardly an instant after Pelham; and the ship, which was under
all sail, making nine knots, hurried on her course, leaving the rivals
to buffet the waves unaided.

"Man overboard!" cried officers and seamen, on all parts of the ship's
deck.

"Hard down the helm, quartermaster! Let go the life-buoys!" shouted
Kendall, who was the officer of the deck.

"Hard down, sir. Buoy overboard," replied Bennington the quartermaster
at the helm.

"Clear away the third cutter!" added Kendall.

The orders were rapidly given for backing the main-topsail, while the
courses were clewed up; but the ship went on a considerable distance
before her headway could be arrested.

When Pelham went down into the water, he had been injured by the fall;
and though he struck out to save himself, it was not with his usual
skill and vigor; for, like his companion in the water, he was a good
swimmer. Shuffles had struck the waves