“I don’t think it does,” replied Paul.

“The State of Massachusetts, 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 principal 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 shore, by the terms of the contract.  Besides, the regulations of the Academy Ship, to which all the parents assented, require that the control of the boys shall be wholly given up to the principal.  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 principal 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.”