ver trick! couldn't put me in disgrace,
for there is no breach of regulations in borrowing a handkerchief
for a moment. But Prescott made so much of that handkerchief
business that it served his purpose and dragged him out safely
before the court."

"Do you think Prescott was really guilty of a crib?" asked one
of Dodge's hearers.

"I can't prove it, but I know what I think," retorted Dodge.
"His effort to draw me into the row shows what kind of a fellow he
is at bottom."

"I'd hate to think that Prescott would really be mean enough for
a crib."

"Think what you like, then, of course. But a fellow guilty of
one meanness might not stop at others."

Dodge talked much in this vein. Cadets are not tale-bearers,
and so little or none of this talk reached Dick's ears until Furlong
came along, one day, in time to hear Dodge holding forth on his
favorite subject.

Yearling Furlong halted, eyeing Cadet Dodge sternly, keenly.

"Well," demanded Dodge, "what's wrong?"

"I don't know exactly," replied Furlong, with a quizzical smile.
"I think, though, that the basic error lay in your ever having
been born at all."

Dodge tried to laugh it off as a pleasantry. He had met Furlong
once, in a fight, and had no desire to be sent to cadet hospital
again with blackened eyes.

"I don't want to mind other people's business, Dodge," continued
Furlong coolly, "but you're going a bit too far, it seems to me,
in what you say about Prescott. Why should you seek to blacken
the character of one of our best fellows, and the president of
our class?"

"Because he tried to blacken mine," retorted Dodge boldly.

"He didn't. All he did, at the court-martial, was to explain
the adventures of his handkerchief just before that piece of paper
fell to the floor of the section room."

"Wasn't that an insinuation against me?" demanded Cadet Dodge.

"Not unless your character here is on such a very poor foundation
that it can't stand any suspicions," replied Furlong coldly.
"Now, see here, Dodge, the general review is on, and Prescott
can't spare any time on private rows. After the general review
is over, if I hear any more about your roasting Prescott, I'm
going to call on you to go with me to Prescott's presence, and
repeat your statements to his face. I don't want to stir up any
needless personal trouble, Dodge, but I declare myself now as
one of old ramrod's friends. Any slander against him must be
backed up. I trust you will