"Whom do you intend to vote for, Fred?" asked Charles Hardy, who appeared to be very anxious about the election.
"I don't know; I haven't decided yet," replied Fred Harper. "You know what Captain Sedley said the other day about it."
"Yes; but if I have got to vote, I want to get my mind made up. I don't see what harm there can be in talking about it a little."
"He said he did not want any electioneering about the officers--'log-rolling,' my father calls it."
"Of course not," replied Charles demurely.
"The best fellow ought to get the office," said Fred slyly.
"Of course, but who is the best fellow? That's the question. We ought to talk it over among ourselves a little," added Charles.
"Each fellow would know whom the others were going to vote for."
"That would not help him to ascertain who would make the best coxswain," Fred insisted.
"But it would help towards making a choice."
"I don't believe it. If there is no nomination, and no understanding about the matter beforehand, every fellow will vote for a different person. You see if there are not a dozen different ones voted for," protested Charles.
"We can try it over again, then," said Fred.
"I shall vote for you, and perhaps you will vote for me."
"And that is the way it will be all through the club."
"Charley, what do you say to giving Frank a re-election?" said Fred, with sudden energy, while the mischief seemed to beam from his eyes.
"Well, I don't know," replied Charles, looking intently at the floor.
"Frank has made a good coxswain; there is no rubbing that out."
"If it hadn't been for him, Tim Bunker would have been drowned that time."
"Couldn't another fellow have done the same that he did?"
"Yes, if he had had the presence of mind and the energy of character which Frank has."
"You could have done it, Fred," said Charles.
"I don't know about that," replied Fred modestly.
"Yes, but I only did what Frank told me to do. Look at the Bunkers; they didn't even reach the spot till we had got him on board the Zephyr."
"I should not have been afraid but that I could have managed the boat as well as Frank did," replied Charles, more boldly.
"I don't know but you could, Charley," answered Fred; "but I doubt it."
"Perhaps you will be elected the next coxswain, Charley," continued Fred; and there was a slight twinkle in his mischievous eye.
