olishness off," thought the
"cut" man, trying hard to swallow the obstinate lump that rose in
his throat.

In the quadrangle, mostly in groups, were fully two hundred cadets.
But not one of these young men would address a word to the exposed
turnback.

"There's one satisfaction, anyway," thought Haynes savagely, as
he walked blindly back toward the door of his own subdivision
in barracks, "I can take it all out on the plebes!"

Just as he was going up the steps Haynes encountered a plebe coming
out.

"Here, mister!" growled Haynes. "Swing around with you! At attention,
sir! What's your name, mister?"

But the plebe did not even pause. He did not avert his head, but
he took no pains to look at Haynes, merely passing the turnback
and gaining the quadrangle below.

Now the utter despair of his position came over Haynes. How suddenly
it had come! And even Haynes, with his four years at West Point,
could hardly realize how the Coventry had been pronounced and
carried out in so very few minutes after release from cavalry
drill.

Tears of rage and humiliation in his eyes, Haynes stumbled to his
room. Once inside he shunned the window, but stumbled to his chair
at the study table, and sank down, his face buried in his arms.

"Oh, I'll make somebody suffer for this!" he growled.

Out in the quadrangle, now that the turnback was gone, the main
theme of conversation was the discovery and exposure of the afternoon.

Pierson was requested to repeat his statement to a large group
of first and second classmen.

"I don't believe a man could get a pin stuck into the toe of his
boot accidentally, in the way that Haynes had his pin arranged,"
declared Brayton. "Has one of you fellows a pin to lend me?"

A pin being passed, Brayton sat down on a convenient step and
tried to adjust the pin between the sole and the upper of the
toe of his boot.

"I can force it in a little way," admitted Brayton, "but see how
the pin wobbles. It would fall out if I moved my foot hard.
Some of the rest of you try it."

Other cadets repeated the experiment.

"I'll tell you, fellows," said Spurlock at last; "a fellow couldn't
accidentally get a pin in that position, and hold it firm there.
But I know that, after repeated trying, and working to fit the
pin, I could finally get matters so that I could quickly fit a
pin that would hold in place and be effective."

"Of course," nodded Lewis. "It can be done, but only by design."