Page:Adrift in the Pacific, Sampson Low, 1889.djvu/124

 but it did not gain him any friends. In two months Gordon's term of office would be over, and he reckoned on succeeding him as chief of the colony. He persuaded himself that the position was his as a matter of right. Was it not unjust that he had not been elected at the first? Wilcox, Cross, and Webb unfortunately encouraged him in these ideas, and began to canvass for him, having no doubt of his success.

But Donagan, all the same, did not command a majority of the votes; nor did Gordon, who saw clearly all that was going on, make any attempt to obtain a continuance of office. He felt that the severity he had had to show during his year of office would not gain him any votes. His practical good sense had not made him popular, and this unpopularity Donagan hoped to turn to good account. When the election came on there would probably be a somewhat interesting contest.

What the youngsters chiefly complained of was Gordon's care in the matter of sweetmeats. And in addition to this, there was his scolding them for not taking proper care of their clothes when they came back to French Den with rags on their backs and holes in their shoes—which required constant repairs, and made the question of foot gear a very serious one. And then for every lost button, what reprimands, and sometimes what punishments!

And then Briant would intercede sometimes for Jenkins, sometimes for Dole,—and in that way lay his road to popularity. Then the youngsters knew that the two cooks, Service and Moko, were devoted to Briant, and if ever he became chief of Charman Island, they saw a savoury future in which there would be a never-ending course of jam tarts and dainty bits!

What is the world coming to? In this very colony we have but a type of society in general. In what did these children differ from full-grown men?

Briant took little interest in these things. He worked away steadily, and keeping his brother fully employed, both of them the first and last at work as if they had some special duty to fulfil.