CHAPTER XX.
INDIGNATION OF THE YEARLINGS.
"By George, he's the freshest plebe that ever struck this place!"
The speaker was Bull Harris, and he was sitting on the steps of thelibrary building along with half a dozen classmates, excitedly andangrily discussing the fight.
"Now I tell you Mark Mallory's got to be put out of this place in aweek," continued the first speaker. "And I don't care how it's done,either, fair or foul."
"That's just what I say, too!" chimed in Baby Edwards. "He's got to beput out in a week!"
Bull Harris smiled benignly upon his toadying echo, while the rest ofthe gang nodded approvingly.
"I'm sure everybody agrees that he's got to be taken down," put insomebody else. "The only trouble is I don't see how on earth it is to bedone."
"That's the worst of it!" snarled Bull. "That fellow Mallory seems toget the best of us everything we try; confound him!"
"I'm sure such a thing has never been known at West Point," saidanother. "Just think of it! Why, it's the talk of the post, andeverybody's laughing at us, and the plebes are getting bolder everyminute. One of them actually dared to turn up his nose at me to-day.Think of it--at me--a yearling, and he a vile beast!"
"It's perfectly awful," groaned Bull. "Perfectly awful! Imagine a crowdof yearlings allowing themselves to be stopped while hazing aplebe--stopped, mind you, by half as many plebes--and then to make it athousand times worse to have the fellow they were hazing taken away!"
"And the yearlings all chased back to camp by a half-crazy Texan,"chimed in another, who hadn't been there and so could afford to mentionunpleasant details.
"Yet what can we do?" cried Baby. "We can't offer to fight him. He's asgood as licked Billy Williams, and Bill's the best man we could put up.That Mallory's a regular terror."
"Mark Mallory's got to be taken down."
This suggestion was good, only rather indefinite, which indefinitenesswas remarked by one of the crowd, Merry Vance, the cadet who hadinterposed the same objection before. Merry was a tall, slender youth,with a whitish hue that suggested dissipation, and a fine, scornfulcurve to his lips that suggested meanness no less clearly.
"It's all very well to say we've got to do him," said he, "but thatdon't say how. As I said, we can't find a man in our class to whip himfair. And we can't tackle him in a crowd because in the first place heseems to have his own gang, and in the second place none of us dares totouch him. I know I don't, for one."
"Pooh!" laughed Bull, scornfully. "I'm not afraid of him."
"Me either!" chimed in the little Baby, doubling up his fists.
"All right," said the other. "Only I noticed you both kept good andquiet when he stepped up to loosen Indian."
There was an awkward silence for a few minutes after that; Bull Harriscould think of nothing to say, for he knew the charge was true; and asfor Baby Edwards, he never said anything until after his big friend hadset him an example.
"We can't get him into any trouble with the authorities, either,"continued Vance at last. "In fact, I don't know what we are to do."
"He's simply turned West Point's customs topsy-turvy," groaned another."Why, when we were plebes nobody ever dared to think of defying ayearling. And this Mallory and his gang are running the place. No onedares to haze a plebe any more."
"Talking about that," said Gus Murray, another yearling who had juststrolled up. "Talking about that, just see what happened to me not fiveminutes ago. Met one of the confounded beasts--that fellow, by the way,we did up, though it don't seem to have done him the least bit ofgood--just as B. J. as ever. You know who I mean, the rather handsomechap they call Dewey. He went to pass the color guard up at camp justnow and he didn't raise his hat. The sentry called him down for it, andthen as he went off I said to him: 'You ought to know better than that,plebe.' 'Thank you,' says he, and when I told him he should say 'sir' toa higher cadet, what on earth do you suppose he had the impudence tosay?"
"What?" inquired the crowd, eagerly.
"Said he wouldn't do it because I hadn't said 'sir' to him!"
"What!"
"Yes, indeed! Did you ever hear of such impudence? Why, I'll leave theacademy to-morrow if that kind of thing keeps up."
And with that dire threat Gus Murray seated himself on the steps andrelapsed into a glum silence.
"I heard you sat down on that Mallory last Saturday," observed some oneat last.
"That's what I did!" responded Murray, brightening up at the mention ofa less discouraging incident. "Mary Adams introduced me to him and I cuthim dead. Gee, but he was mad!"
"Wonder, if he'll try to make you apologize," said Bull.
"It would be just like him," put in Merry.
The other looked as if he didn't relish the possibility one bit; heturned the conversation quickly.
"Wait till he tries it," said he. "In the meantime I'm more interestedin the great question, what are we going to do to take him down?"
"Can't think of a thing," said Vance, flatly. "Not a thing!"
"By George!" cried Bull. "I'm going to think of something if I die forit."
"I'll shake with you on that," put in Murray. "We won't rest till we geta plan."
"Let me in too," said Vance.
"And me too!" cried Baby.
And so it happened that when the informal assembly dissolved for supperit dissolved with but one idea in the mind of every cadet in theparty--that Mark Mallory must be taken down!
A plan came at last, one which was enough to do for any one; and when itcame it came from a most unexpected source, none other than the Baby,who never before in the memory of Bull had dared to say anythingoriginal. The baby's sweet little brain, evolving the interestingproblem, struck an idea which, so to speak, brought down the house.
"I'll tell you what!" he cried. "I've a scheme!"
"What is it?" inquired Bull, incredulously.
"Let's soak him on demerits!"
And with a look of delight Bull turned and stared at Murray.
"By the lord!" he cried, "that's it. We'll soak him on demerits!"
Then the precious trio locked arms and did a war on the campus.
"Just the thing!" gasped Bull, breathlessly. "Murray's a corporal and hecan do it! Whoop!"
"Yes!" cried the Baby. "And he was put over plebes to-day. Will you doit, Murray?"
And Murray lost no time in vowing that he would; Bull Harris felt thenthat at last he was on the road to victory.
It is necessary to explain the system of discipline which prevails atWest Point. A cadet is allowed to receive only one hundred "demerits"during the first six months of his stay. These demerits are assignedaccording to a regular and inflexible schedule; thus for being late atroll call, a minor offense, a cadet receives two demerits, while aserious offense, such as disobedience of orders or sitting down on postwhile on sentry duty, brings ten units of trouble in its wake. Thesedemerits are not given by the instructor or the cadet who notices theoffense; but he enters the charge in a book which is forwarded toheadquarters. The report is read out after parade that same day andposted in a certain place the next day; and four days later thesuperintendent assigns the demerits in all cases where "explanations"have not been received.
The following is an example of an explanation:
"West Point, N. Y., ---- --, 18--. Report--Bedding not properly folded at police inspection.
"Explanation--Some one disarranged my bedding after I had piled it. I was at the sink at the time of inspection, and I readjusted the bedding upon my return.
"Respectfully submitted,
"---- ----,
"Cadet ----, Co. ----, ---- Class.
"To the Commandant of Cadets."
Cadets usually hand in explanations, though the explanations are notalways deemed satisfactory.
Reports are made by the army officers, and also by cadets themselves,file closers, section marchers and others. It was in this last fa
ct thatBull Harris and his friend Murray saw their chance.
It very seldom happens that a cadet reports another except where thereport is deserved; a man who does otherwise soon gets into trouble. ButBull and his gang saw no obstacle in that; most of them were alwayshead over heels in demerits themselves, including Murray--though he wasa "cadet-corporal." Being thus, and in consequent danger of expulsion,they were reckless of possible trouble. And besides, Bull had sworn tohaze that plebe, and he meant to do it.
The plan in brief was simply this: Mark Mallory must be demerited rightand left, everywhere and upon every possible pretext, just orunjust--and that was all. The thing has been done before; there is talkof doing it whenever a colored lad is admitted to the Point. And Murraywas the man to do it, too, because he had just been transferred and put"on duty over plebes." It was only necessary to give one hundreddemerits. One hundred demerits is a ticket of leave without furtherparley or possibility of return.