"Why, are you not satisfied with what has been done?" asked Kendall, with some astonishment.
"No, I am not. I am glad enough to see the gambling stopped, but I don"t think the princ.i.p.al had any more right to take my money away from me than he had to take my head off," replied Shuffles, earnestly.
"Don"t you think it will be better for the fellows to be without money than with it?"
"Perhaps it will; I don"t know about that. Your neighbor might be a better man if he were poor than if he were rich: does that make it that you have any right to take his property from him?"
"I don"t think it does," replied Paul.
"The State of Ma.s.sachusetts, for instance, or the State of Ohio, makes laws against games of chance. Why not make a law, if a man gambles, that all his money shall be taken from him?"
"The state has no right to make such a law, I suppose."
"But the princ.i.p.al goes a long reach beyond that. He takes every man"s money away from him, whether he is accused of gambling or not. Do you think he had any right to do that?"
"He hasn"t made any law; but if you want law, I"ll give you some!"
laughed Paul, who was disposed to treat the subject very good-naturedly, especially as there was so much loose indignation floating about the decks.
"I don"t mean law alone, but justice," added Shuffles. "I call it high-handed injustice to take the fellows" money away from them."
"Let me give you a little law, then," persisted Paul. "How old are you, Shuffles?"
"Eighteen."
"Good! You are an infant."
"In law, I am."
"Suppose your uncle, or somebody else, should die to-day, and leave you fifty thousand dollars: wouldn"t you have a good time with it?"
"I should, as soon as I got hold of it, you had better believe," replied Shuffles.
"As soon as you got hold of it!" exclaimed Paul.
"I suppose I should have a guardian till I became of age."
"Who would appoint your guardian?"
"The court, I believe."
"Exactly so! The law! What, take your money away from you, or not let you touch it!"
"That"s law, certainly."
"Well, wouldn"t the law have just as much right to take off a fellow"s head, as to take his money?" demanded Paul, triumphantly.
"Mr. Lowington is not our guardian."
"Yes, he is, for the time being; and I hold that he has just as much right to take your money from you as your father would have."
"I don"t see it; I don"t believe it. The money was given us by our fathers to spend in Europe when we get there."
"Mr. Lowington is to pay all our expenses on sh.o.r.e, by the terms of the contract. Besides, the regulations of the Academy Ship, to which all the parents a.s.sented, require that the control of the boys shall be wholly given up to the princ.i.p.al. It"s a plain case, Shuffles."
Mr. Lowington and his policy had an able and zealous defender in the person of Paul Kendall, who, by his arguments, as well as his influence, had already reconciled several of the students to the new regulation.
"If I were willing to grant the right of the princ.i.p.al to take the fellows" money from them--which I am not--I think it is treating them like babies to do so. It is punishing the innocent with the guilty."
"Mr. Lowington said, in so many words, that the measure was not intended as a punishment; that it was purely a matter of discipline, intended to meet certain evils which must appear when we landed in Europe, as well as to prevent gambling."
Paul certainly had the best of the argument; but Shuffles was not convinced, because he did not wish to be convinced.
At eight bells, when the first part of the port watch went on duty, the wind had shifted from west to north; the studding-sails had been taken in, the spanker, main spencer, and all the staysails had been set, and the ship, close-hauled, was barely laying her course. The wind was fresh, and she was heeled over on the starboard side, so that her decks formed a pretty steep inclined plane. Under these circ.u.mstances, it required a great deal of skill and watchfulness on the part of the wheelmen to keep the sails full, and at the same time to lay the course.
As the ship"s head met the heavy seas, a great deal of spray was dashed on deck, and the position of the lookout-men on the top-gallant forecastle was not as comfortable as if the weather had been warmer.
There was no dodging; every student was obliged to stand at his post, wet or dry, blow high or blow low.
Wilton had been discharged from confinement in the brig, where Mr.
Agneau had visited him, giving him good advice and religious instruction, as he did to all who were punished in any manner, and was now with his watch on deck. The new regulation was particularly odious to "our fellows," and Wilton regarded himself as a martyr to the popular cause, forgetting that he had been punished for the lies he had told.
He and twenty others were forward to say they "wouldn"t stand it;" and the indignation seemed to be increasing rather than subsiding.
"Well, Wilton, how do you like the inside of the brig?" asked Shuffles, when they met in the maintop, having been sent aloft to clear away the bowline bridle on the main-topsail.
"I like it well enough," replied Wilton. "I wasn"t going to blow on the fellows; I would stay in there a month first."
"Did you give up your money?"
"Of course I did; I couldn"t help myself."
"How do you like the new regulation?"
"I don"t like it any better than the rest of the fellows do," answered Wilton, in surly tones. "I won"t stand it, either."
"O, I guess you will," laughed Shuffles. "I told you Lowington was a tyrant, but you wouldn"t believe me."
"Yes, I would; and I did."
"The fellows will find out what he is before they are many days older."
"I think they have found out now, I say, Shuffles, was this the row you spoke about last night?"
"Yes; only there"s more of it than I expected."
"How did you know anything about it beforehand?"
"I have a way of finding out these things," replied the artful conspirator, mysteriously. "I have one or two friends at court."
"Is Paul Kendall one of them?"
"No; he is a simpleton. He don"t know which side his bread is b.u.t.tered.