y perfectly.

Yet, every time that his horse was brought close to Haynes's,
Prescott had his eyes open for any foul play that might be attempted
by the turnback.

"If the young men do as splendidly to-morrow before the Board
of Visitors," thought Captain Albutt, "I shall feel that my year
of work here has been a grand success. Jove, what a born trooper
everyone of these young fellows seems to be!"

At last the drill was finished. In detachments, the young cadet
troopers returned to the road between the administration building
and the academic building.

Here each detachment dismounted, surrendered its horses to a waiting
detail of enlisted cavalrymen, and then marched in to barracks.

As soon as the young men had removed their riding leggings, and the
dust from their uniforms, most of them descended into the quadrangle.

Haynes reached his room just an instant behind Pierson.

"See here, Pierson, you cad, what did you-----"

"Oh, shut up!" replied Pierson, with a weary sigh.

"Don't you speak to me like that, sir!" cried Haynes warningly,
as he stepped over to where his roommate was busy with a clothes
brush.

"I don't want to talk with you at all," retorted Pierson.

"You'll talk to me a lot, or you'll answer with your fists!"

"Fight with you? Bah!" growled the other man in disgust.

"You cad, you deliberately li-----"

But Pierson, having put his brush away, turned on his heel and
left the room.

Haynes paused for an instant, his face white with a new dread.

A cadet stands low, indeed, when another cadet will not resent
being called a liar by him.

"This has kicked up an awful row against me, I guess," muttered
the turnback, as he hastily cleaned himself. "I must get down
into the quadrangle, mix with the fellows and set myself straight."

Full of this purpose, for he was not lacking in a certain quality
of nerve and courage, Haynes went down to the quadrangle.

"I am afraid a good deal of feeling was aroused this afternoon,
Furlong," began the turnback.

Then he gulped, clenched his fists and lost color, for Cadet Furlong,
without a word, had turned on his heel and walked away.

"Griffin, what does Fur-----"

Cadet Griffin, too, turned on his heel, passing on.

"Dobbs-----"

It was Dobbs's turn to show his back and stroll away.

"What the deuce has got into them all?" wondered Haynes, though
his heart sank, for, much as he wanted to ignore the meaning,
it was becoming plain to h