Wilton and his companions were dissatisfied, and disposed to be rash.  They felt that they had been harshly and cruelly denied a reasonable privilege.  The subject of celebrating the Fourth had been under consideration for a long time among the boys, and it had been generally believed that all hands would be permitted to go on shore, with perfect liberty, on that day; and many of them had already arranged their plans for the occasion.

“Well, what do you think now?” said Wilton, as Mr. Lowington walked forward.

“I think it’s too bad,” replied Adler.  “It is meaner than dirt to make us stay on board on the Fourth of July.”

“But I don’t see how we are going to help ourselves,” added Monroe, looking at Wilton for a solution of this difficult problem.

“I do.”

“How?”

“Keep still; don’t say a word here,” continued Wilton.  “Scatter, now, and I will be on the top-gallant forecastle in a few minutes.”

Wilton strolled about the deck a short time, and then went to the place of meeting, where he was soon joined by the rest of the discontented pupils.

“How many fellows can we muster?” asked he, when his associates in mischief had again gathered around him.

“I know at least a dozen, who are up to anything,” replied Monroe; “but some of them are in the other watch.  What are you going to do?”

“I’ll tell you:  There are the professors’ barge and the third cutter at the swinging boom.  We will drop into them when the instructors go down to supper, and make for the shore.  All the rest of the boats are at the davits; and before they can get them into the water, we shall be out of their reach.  What do you think of that for a plan!”

“I think it is a first-rate one.  But hadn’t we better wait till the instructors turn in?” suggested Adler.

“No; the boats will all be hoisted up to the davits at sunset.  We must do it while the professors are at supper, or not at all.  We want eight oars for the barge, and six for the third cutter; that makes fourteen fellows.  Can we raise as many as that?”

“Yes, I think we can; we will try, at any rate.”

“But you must look out, or some fellow will blow the whole thing,” added Wilton.  “Mind whom you speak to.”

The trustworthiness of the various students was canvassed, and it was decided what ones should be invited to join the enterprise.  The discontented boys separated, and went to work with great caution to obtain the needed recruits.  Unfortunately, in such a crowd of young men, there are always enough to engage in any mischievous plot, and it is quite likely that twice as many as were wanted could have been obtained to man the boats in the runaway expedition.

Wilton missed Shuffles very much in arranging the details of the present enterprise.  While at the Brockway Academy, they had plotted mischief so often that each seemed to be necessary to the other.  But Shuffles had reformed; he was now third lieutenant of the ship, and it was not safe to suggest a conspiracy to him, for he would attempt to gain favor with the principal by exposing or defeating it.