THE DECREE OF "COVENTRY"
"Prepare to mount! Mount!"
Some preliminary commands of drill were executed. Then the serious
work of the hour began.
Never had Captain Albutt commanded at a better bit of cavalry work
than was done this afternoon by members of the first and second
classes.
The wheelings, the facings and all the manoeuvres at the different
gaits were executed with precision and dash. All the movements
in troop and squadron were carried out to perfection.
To the instructor, it was plain that the most perfect esprit de
corps existed. The cadets were acting with a singleness and
devotedness of purpose which showed plainly that the perfect
trooper was the sole subject of thought in their minds. At least,
so the instructor thought, from the results obtained.
Even Haynes's face was inexpressive as he rode.
Greg was as jaunty as though he had not an unkind thought toward
anyone in the world.
Cadet Prescott did not betray a sign of any thought save to do
his duty 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 him.
Another cadet was passing along the walk. To him Haynes turned
with an appealing face.
"Lewis," began the turnback, "I am afraid I shall have to ask
you-----"
Whatever it was, Lewis did not wait to hear. He looked at Haynes
as though he saw nothing there, and joined a little group of cadets
beyond.
"Confound these puppies!" growled Haynes to himself. "They're all
fellows that I hazed when they were plebes, and they haven't
forgiven me. I see clearly enough that, if I am to have an
explanation, or get a chance to make one, I must do it through the
members of my old class."
Some distance down the quadrangle stood Brayton and Spurlock, first
classmen and captains in the cadet battalion.
"They're high-minded, decent fellows," said Haynes to himself.
"I will go to them and get this nasty business set straight."
Past several groups of cadets stalked Haynes, affecting not to
see any of the fellows. But these cadets appeared equally indifferent
to being recognized.
Brayton and Spurlock were talking in low tones when the turnback
approached them.
"Brayton," began Haynes, "I want to ask you to do me a bit of
a favor."
Brayton did not stop his conversation with Spurlock, nor did he
show any other sign of having heard the turnback.
"Brayton! I beg your pardon!"
But the first classman did not turn.
"Spurlock," asked Haynes, in a thick voice, "are you in this tommy-rot
business, too?"
Spurlock, however, seemed equally deaf.
"Then see here, both of you-----" insisted Haynes, choking with
anger.
The two first classmen turned their backs, walking slowly off.
There was no chance to doubt the fate that had overtaken him.
Haynes had been "sent to Coventry." Henceforth, as long as he
remained in the corps of cadets, he was to be "cut." No other
cadet could or would speak to him, under the same penalty of also
being sent to Coventry.
Henceforth the only speech that any cadet would have with him would
be a necessary communication on official business. Socially there
was no longer any Cadet Haynes at West Point.
Once, two years before, Haynes had helped to put this punishment
on a plebe, who had soon after quitted the Academy.
Then Haynes had thought that sending another to Coventry was, under
some circumstances, a fine proceeding. But now the like fate had
befallen him!
"The fellows don't really mean it. They're excited now, but to-morrow
they'll be sorry and call the whole foolishness 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."
"And that was the very way that Prescott's horse was enraged,
so that old ramrod got his awful tumble!" exclaimed Greg bitterly.
"You believe, now, that the whole thing was a dirty, deliberate
trick, don't you?" asked Spurlock of Prescott.
"I am pretty sure it must have been," nodded Dick.
"Then," declared Brayton, "the whole thing is something for you
second classmen to settle among yourselves. In the first place,
it is your own class affair. In the next place, we men of the
first class are practically out of the Military Academy already.
It will do the first class no good to take any action, because
we shall not be here to carry out any decree."
"You can advise us, though," suggested Holmes.
"And we'll do so gladly," nodded Brayton. "Then do we need to
hold a class meeting, and vote to make the Coventry permanent?"
"Hardly, I should say," replied Brayton. "You've already started
the cut, and it can be continued without any regular action---unless
Haynes should have the cheek to try to brazen it out. If he does
insist on staying here at the Military Academy, you can easily take
up the matter during the summer encampment."
"It would seem rather strange for me to call a class meeting,
when the whole affair concerns me," suggested Dick.
"Oh, you don't need to call the meeting, old ramrod," advised
Spurlock. "A self-appointed committee of the class can call the
meeting. You can open the meeting, of course, Prescott, and then
you can call any other member of the class to take the chair."
"I wonder if it will be necessary to drum the fellow out of the
class formally?" asked Anstey.
"Only time can show you that," replied Brayton. "Better just wait
and see what action the fellow Haynes will take for himself. He
may have the sense to resign."
Resign? That word was not in Haynes's own dictionary of conduct.
After his first few moments of despair, on gaining his room,
the turnback had risen from his chair, his face showing a courage
and resolution worthy of a better cause.
"Those idiots may think they have 'got' me," he muttered, shaking
his fist toward the quadrangle. "One of these days they'll know
me better! I'll make life miserable for some of those pups yet!"
Just before it was time for the call to dress parade Pierson came
hurrying into the room to hasten into his full-dress uniform.
Haynes, already dressed with scrupulous care, looked curiously
at his roommate. But Pierson did not appear to see him.
Haynes stepped over to the window, drumming listlessly on the
sill. At length he turned around.
"Pierson," he asked, "have the fellows sent me to Coventry?"
"You don't need to ask that," replied the other coldly.
"Is it because of Prescott?"
"Yes. And now, will you stop bothering me with the sound of your
voice?"
"Pierson, you know, when a fellow is cut by the corps, his roommate
is not required to avoid conversation with the unlucky one."
"I know that," replied Pierson coldly. "But I've had all I want
of you and from you. Except when it is absolutely necessary I
shall not answer or address you hereafter."
"How long am I to stay in Coventry?"
Pierson acted as though he did not bear.
"Has formal action been taken, or is this just a flash of prejudice,
Pierson?"
No answer.
"Humph!"
The call to form and march on to the parade ground was sounding.
Snatching up his rifle, Haynes stepped out and joined the others.
Haynes did not receive even as much as a cold glance.
"I'm less than a bit of mud to them!" thought the turnback bitterly.
"These fellows would step around a patch of mud, just to avoid
dirtying their shoes."
It was a relief to hear the command to fall in. Haynes felt still
better when the battalion stepped away at its rhythmic step.
He did not have to look at any of his contemptuous comrades now,
nor did he need a word from them.
Somehow, though in a daze, the turnback got through dress parade
without reproof from any of the watchful cadet officers. Then,
almost immediately after dress parade, came the hardest ordeal
of all.
Once more, this time in fatigue uniform, the turnback had to fall
in at supper formation. With the rest he marched away to cadet
mess ball, found his place at table and occupied it.
During the meal merry conversation ran riot around the tables.
Haynes was the only man among the gray-clad cadets who was left
absolutely alone.
After supper, while Pierson lounged outside, Haynes went back
to his room.
Pacing the floor in his deep misery and agitation, he took this
vow to himself:
"I won't let myself be driven from the Military Academy! No
matter what these idiots try to do to me---no matter what indignities
they may heap upon me, I'll keep silent and fight my way through
the Military Academy! I will receive my commission, and go into
the Army. But that fellow Prescott shall never become an officer
in the Army, no matter what I have to risk to stop him!"