once hoisted on
the tower, we will keep it there in defiance of the world in arms."

This was another quotation from the Governor's speech, and when Billings
roared it out so that it could be heard by all the boys in the corridor,
he looked at Marcy as much as to say: "Help yourself if you can."

It did not take Cole many minutes to produce the flag, which he had kept
hidden in his trunk for just such an emergency as this; but when he and
his backers got to the top of the tower with it, they were rather
surprised to find Marcy, Graham, Dixon, and a good many other sturdy
fellows there before them. They were walking around with their hands in
their pockets, and Marcy's flag was still floating from the masthead.

"Do you mean--are you going to fight about it?" faltered Cole, who began
to fear that his chances for receiving a standing invitation to visit
those Taylor girls were as slim as they ever had been. "You have heard
the news from Charleston, and ought to see for yourself that this flag
can't stay up any longer."

"We may be of a different opinion, so far as this academy is concerned,
but still we have given up the contest," replied Marcy. "Hold on, there;
don't touch those halliards, please. This flag belongs to me, and when
it comes down for good, I must be the one to pull it down. Major
Anderson was allowed to salute his flag when he lowered it, and I claim
the same privilege."

"I don't know that we have anything to say against that," replied
Billings, looking around upon his friends to see what they thought about
it. "Holler as much as you please. That's the only way you can salute
it, for the colonel would go crazy if you asked him to lend you the
battery."

"That's the only way," said Marcy as he unfastened the color-halliards
from the cleat. "I shall not ask for the guns, for I shall have my
trouble for my pains. Attention! Three cheers for the Star Spangled
Banner; and may the traitors who caused it to be lowered in Charleston
harbor for the time being be glad to turn to it for protection."

"That flag will wave over Sumter again, and don't you forget what I tell
you," shouted Dixon.

It was not a very noisy salute that greeted the flag as it fluttered
down from aloft, but it was a heart-felt one, and there was not a rebel
on the tower who dared utter a derisive word, however much he might have
felt inclined to do so. But when the Stars and Bars were bent on to the
halliards and run up to the mast