Explore "Outward Bound" by Oliver Optic on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The business of the Chain had been managed with extreme caution by the / conspirators, and more than one third of the crew had been initiated / without the knowledge of the principal and professors, or of the / officers and seamen who were not members. Pelham and Shuffles ordered / the affairs of the League, and no "link" was allowed to approach an / outsider for the purpose of inducing him to join without the consent of / one of these worthies.
As the scheme progressed, various modifications had been made in the / plan to adapt it to circumstances, the principal of which was the choice / of two "shackles," who should be deemed the officers of the League until / a regular election had taken place. By this invention, Shuffles and / Pelham had been enabled to compromise their differences, for they / assumed the newly-created offices, and labored as equals in the bad / cause. Each endeavored to make as many new "links" as possible, for / already the conspirators consisted of two factions, one of which favored / the election of Shuffles, and the other that of Pelham, to the / captaincy. Each, in a measure, controlled his own recruits, and was / reasonably sure of their votes when the election should be ordered.