midnight
Wilton breathed easier , and the topic was a more agreeable one than the dark and terrible matter which had been under discussion on the top-gallant forecastle . Shuffles was disappointed by the scruples of his generally unscrupulous companion . He regarded the machinery of the plot , the clap-trap of the secret league , as decidedly attractive ; and he depended largely upon it to influence his companions . Though he claimed that his plan was original , it was suggested by a secret political organization in Europe , of which he had read in a pamphlet ; and the idea had doubtless been modified by his more extensive readings in the department of fiction , in which midnight juntos laid out robbery , treason , and murder ; Venetian tales in which bravos , assassins , and decayed princes in disguise largely figured ; in which mysterious passwords opened mysterious dungeons beneath ruined castles ; in which bravo met bravo , and knew him by some mysterious sign , or cabalistic word . Shuffles had a taste for these things , and out of his lively imagination he had coined a similar association to be recruited from the crew of the Young America , which was to redress fancied wrongs , and even take the ship out of the hands of the principal . He could think of nothing but this brilliant enterprise ; and while his shipmates were talking of the future , and indulging in the old salts ' vocation of `` spinning yarns , '' he was busy maturing the details of `` The Chain League . '' He did not , for reasons best known to himself attempt to make any more proselytes that night .