public function getShort($offset = 0)
    {
        /*
         * Validate the offset+1 to see if we can safely get two bytes ---
         * this throws an exception if offset is out of range.
         */
        $this->validateOffset($offset);
        $this->validateOffset($offset + 1);

        /* Translate the offset into an offset into the data. */
        $offset += $this->start;

        /* Return an unsigned short. */
        return PelConvert::bytesToShort($this->data, $offset, $this->order);
    }