Events crowded thick and fast into plebe life during the next few days.
In the first place both the adjutant and Cadet Captain Leonard came
to Geordie's tent a little after taps the night of the discovery of
the exchange of rifles. Pops and Foster were still awake, chatting in
whispers about the matter. Benny, who had been full of excitement and
interest at first, seemed to be overcome by drowsiness and dropped off
to sleep. The boys were advised by the First Class men to say as little
as possible on the subject. Leonard would report it to the commandant,
as in duty bound, but ask that no official investigation be made. He
had strong suspicions, he said, and if the perpetrators were not put
upon their guard something might be effected. Then, next morning,
when Mr. Jennings marched off guard he surprised his class-mates by
denouncing the whole business as a low-lived trick. Of course the plebe
ought to be "taken down," but not by any such means as that. He came
over to B Company street as his class was dismissed after battery drill
and talked at Bend, who paid no attention to him. He went so far as
to say that he believed no Third Class man had anything to do with the
business; it was the work of plebes who were jealous of the partiality
shown Graham by the adjutant. _There_ was the man who should be given
to understand by the whole class what they thought of him and his
conduct! Other yearlings chimed in with one view or another, but Bend,
working away over some company papers in his tent, held his peace.
Jennings, who had already an unsettled score with Bend, was galled by
this cool, almost contemptuous manner, and the next thing anybody knew
hot words were exchanged—hot at least on the part of Jennings, for Bend
kept control of his tongue and temper—and that evening occurred one of
the most famous fights Fort Clinton ever saw, and Bend, game to the
last, though outmatched from the start, was finally whipped. For three
days B Company was deprived of the services of their plucky senior
corporal, and little Hastings had to act as first sergeant while his
senior stayed in hospital until his many bruises were reduced. Bend
was not the only cadet whose name appeared on the morning sick report,
submitted to the commandant, with "contusions" given as the reason of
his disability, and everybody in authority knew perfectly well that
"contusions" meant another fight; but so long as no one was caught in
the act, no punishment followed. The difference between the cadet duels
and those of the French fencers or German students appears to be that,
though only nature's weapons are allowed, somebody has to be hurt.
But though declared victor, as anybody could have predicted he would
be, Jennings was anything but a happy man. He had lost his chevrons.
He had lost much of the popularity that had attended him since the
plebe camp of the previous year, when his class-mates hailed him as
one of their champions. He saw that now the better men looked upon
him as verging close upon bullyhood, holding that he had forced the
fight between Woods and Graham and then forced another between himself
and Bend, a man whom he clearly outclassed. This in itself was enough
to hurt him seriously, but there were graver matters afoot. Glenn
had never yet dropped the "Mister" in speaking to him, and, by the
unwritten laws of the corps of cadets, that meant "keep your distance."
The invariable custom of the old cadets, First Class officers and all,
was to "Mister" everybody in the Fourth Class from the date of their
entrance until the coming of the following June—nearly twelve long
months—but then to drop the formal title, and welcome the new yearling
to the comradeship of the corps. Then every yearling in good standing
expected to be hailed by his surname or the jovial nickname, and in
return to be accorded the proud privilege of addressing even the first
captain and adjutant as friends and comrades—as "Rand" and "Glenn,"
as the case might be. West Point recognizes no secret societies, no
oath-bound fraternities. There is one general brotherhood, initiation
to which occupies fully ten weeks, probation nearly ten months, but
membership is for life or good behavior. Now Glenn plainly said by
his manner that he neither liked nor trusted Jennings, and Mr. Rand,
the big first captain, who was at first so friendly to him, now began
to hold aloof. It was anything but as a conquering hero he returned
from the battle with Bend. He had expected no such display of cool,
nervy, determined courage against such odds. He was sore without and
within, though he had received, of course, no such heavy punishment as
had sent Bend to the hospital. He sat with his silent second in his
tent, applying wet sponges to his bruises and noting how few were the
congratulations, how indifferent the inquiries as to his own condition.
Later he was lying on his blankets revolving matters in his mind,
wondering what he could do to restore his waning popularity, when he
heard some plebes chatting eagerly in the B Company tent just back of
his own. "Graham's got his gun again all right," was what they were
saying, and before he could arrive at further particulars who should
appear at the tent door but the adjutant and Cadet Captain Leonard.
They bade him lie still, but they had a question or two to ask.
"You were on post on Number Three last evening, Mr. Jennings," said
Glenn, "and for full an hour before tattoo, when Mr. Graham's new rifle
was exchanged for an old rusty one. The new rifle was found in the
weeds near the dump hollow close to your post. Did no one cross your
post?"
"Not a soul that I saw," promptly answered Jennings, "and unless it
was found in the south ditch of Fort Clinton, it must have been hidden
nearer Number Two's day post than mine."
"We have questioned Number Two," said Glenn, briefly. "He denies all
knowledge of it. He says, what's more, that nobody could have got away
without his seeing him. It was Mr. Douglas, of the Fourth Class, as you
know, and this was his third tour."
"Oh, I can't pretend to say no one got across my post. No one can be at
all parts of that long beat at the same time. It was cloudy, too, and
pitch dark. Anybody could have crossed up there at the west end while
I was down by your tent. If the gun was found there, it is more than
likely some one did cross. It would have gone hard with him if I'd
caught him."
"Then you're sure you saw no one—had no conversation with anybody?"
"I saw no one cross. I held conversation with half a dozen—class-mates
and plebes both—when I happened to be down by the tank. There were
Cresswell and Drake, and Curry early in the evening; they were
condoling with me about being 'broke.' Then there were plebes coming
down there frequently; I had more or less chaff with them, and
Major-General Frazier among them. I heard him spouting about his
exploits. Where was the rifle found?" continued Jennings.
"Oh, out near the east end of the old dump hollow, hidden among the
weeds and rubbish," said Leonard. "But never mind that just now. It was
brought to my tent, and you are reported to have said you thought it
was the work of some plebe. Why?"
"Well, lots of 'em are jealous of Mr. Graham for getting colors so
easily for one thing. They think the commandant shows him partiality.
They say it's because Graham's father is an army officer. That's why I
think they might have put up the job among themselves."
"Yes? And how did they know where the old gun was hidden—the one that
was taken from him the night he was dumped into the ditch off Number
Three? You think plebes did that?"
But that was something Jennings could not answer. He stopped short, and
was evidently confused.
There was indeed something queer about the case. Very little the worse
for its night in the weeds, thanks to there having been no dew, for the
night skies were overcast by heavy clouds, the rifle was brought in by
a drum-boy orderly, who said he stumbled upon it accidentally. Glenn
had cross-questioned sharply, but the boy persisted in his story. It
was the same youngster whom Benny had employed to buy him cigarettes at
the Falls. Pops was overjoyed to get his beautiful rifle again, and,
personally, well content to drop any effort to find the perpetrator.
Indeed, it seemed for a time as though nothing was being done. Bend
came back to duty with discolored face, cool and steady as ever, and
Jennings kept away from the B Company street, where he now had few
friends. Geordie began to wonder when the yearlings would decide to
summon him to Fort Clinton to settle the score still hung up between
Woods and himself. It was awkward sitting at table with a man to whom
he couldn't speak.
[Illustration: "THE RIFLE WAS BROUGHT IN BY A DRUM-BOY ORDERLY"]
Meantime every day and hour made him more at home in his duties and in
the new life. Of course it wasn't pleasant to be everywhere hailed
as "Corporal" Graham, and to be compelled, whether in ranks or out,
wherever he moved, to stalk along with his shoulders braced back, his
little fingers on the seams of his trousers and the palms of his hands
turned square to the front, his elbows in consequence being spitted to
his side like the wings of a trussed chicken; but this was the method
resorted to with one and all the new-comers, whether naturally erect
or not, to square the shoulders, flatten the back, and counteract the
ridiculous carriage of so many—at least, of the Eastern city boys.
Anglomania in exaggerated form was epidemic on the Atlantic seaboard
just then, and to insure recognition in polite society it seemed to be
necessary to cultivate a bow-legged, knee-sprung style of walk, with
shoulders hunched forward, chest flat, elbows bent at right angles, and
carried straight out from the side; these, with a vacuous expression
of countenance being considered "good form"; and strenuous measures
were resorted to at the Point to knock it out of such college-bred
youngsters as sought to set the fashion in the corps.
But what appetites they had! How dreamless were their hours of sleep!
How vigorous and healthful the days of martial exercise! Squad drills
were all finished now. Fully uniformed and equipped, the whole plebe
class was in the battalion. A "live" superintendent was watching
every detail of their doings. The system of responsibility among the
officers, both graduates and cadets, was such that no disturbance
of any account occurred by night, no hazing of a harmful nature by
day. The roar of the morning gun and the rattle and bang of the
drums brought Pops from his blanket with a bound. He was always
one of the first to appear in front of his tent, sousing head and
chest and arms in cool water, then rubbing the hard skin red before
dressing for roll-call. Benny, on the other hand, self-indulgent
and procrastinating, copying after the old cadets, thought it more
professional to lie abed three minutes longer, and then come flying
out at the last minute, frequently to be reported late at reveille,
and demerited accordingly. So, too, in many another matter. Howsoever
excellent he may have appeared on parade in command of the High-school
Cadets, Benny was no model on drill as a high private. His wits, too,
had a way of going wool-gathering, and while young men like Geordie and
Connell paid strict attention to business and rarely received reports
of any kind, the "Major-General" was in perpetual hot-water, and ever
ready to lay the blame on somebody else. One thing he could do to
perfection—that was make explanations. He wrote a beautiful hand. He
was plausible, pleading, and successful. He was as full of excuse as
an Irish laundress.
"He's got more reports on the delinquency books than any one in the
class," said Pops, reproachfully.
"Yes," said Connell, whimsically, "and more of 'em off."
And thereby hangs a tale.
No cadet can expect to get along without ever receiving reports. Any
boy who so desires can readily obtain reports aggregating one hundred
demerit in a single day; yet if he receive that many in six months, out
he goes into the world again, discharged for failure in discipline.
The breaches of regulation in the power of a boy to commit are simply
myriad. Only by determination to conform to rules in the first place
and eternal vigilance in the second can he live without demerit. Even
then the faintest slip—a loose button, shoestring, drawer-string, a
speck of dust, a tarnished belt-plate, an instant's mooning on drill or
parade—renders him liable. To utterly avoid report one has to be all
eyes, ears, and attention.
Now, while it is hardly possible to get along without ever receiving
a report, it is equally impossible to be perpetually receiving them
without being more or less to blame. Here was Benny's weakness. He
blamed everybody but himself, and, so believing, sought to convince
the commandant. Before camp was over it was said of him that he got off
many a report he richly deserved—a most unfortunate reputation at West
Point—for there the first lesson taught and the last insisted on was
"the truth in everything, and nothing but the truth."
As read out by the adjutant each day after parade, and posted at the
tent of the sergeant-major, the delinquency list of the corps was
a long one. Every cadet reported for an offence from "absence from
reveille" to "dusty shoes" had forty-eight hours within which to render
a written explanation, something after this form:
Camp Reynolds, West Point, N. Y.,
_August 1, 18—._
_Offence._—Absent from reveille.
_Explanation._—It was raining. The tent walls were battened down. I
did not hear the drums until some one called me. I was in my tent all
the time.
Respectfully submitted,
A. B. Smith,
Cadet Private, Fourth Class, Company B.
A cadet reported absent from any duty had to explain and say that
he was on limits at the time or else be court-martialled. Except
for absences he need offer no explanation unless he so desired. If
satisfactory explanation were tendered, the commandant crossed off the
report; if unsatisfactory, he so indorsed the paper and sent it forward
to the superintendent four days later. The cadet had still the right to
appeal to the superintendent, but if no appeal were made it was posted
in the big record books at headquarters, and stands there yet in black
and white. It is odd to read what little blunders our biggest generals
made in their cadet days. Now Geordie got few reports, and wrote fewer
explanations. Benny spent half his time submitting excuses.
One evening there was a crowd of visitors at parade. The band had just
begun its march down the front of the motionless gray-and-white line.
The commanding officer, Lieutenant Webster, in lonely dignity, stood
with folded arms facing the colors out in front of the centre, the most
conspicuous figure on the field. Twenty paces behind him was the long,
deep rank of visitors seated on camp-chairs, chatting and laughing
in subdued tones, and watching the gray battalion on the color-line.
Suddenly a little mite of a boy, who had broken away from some
gossiping nurse, came toddling gravely forth upon the sacred ground,
and, with all the innocence and curiosity of childhood, moved slowly
yet confidently on until close to the blue-and-red-and-gold statue, and
there halted with much wonderment in the baby face, and began a careful
study of the strange, fascinating object before him. The spectators
shook with merriment. The laughter could not be controlled, and in a
moment the epidemic had reached the battalion. "The whole front rank
shook and snickered," as Geordie afterwards wrote home. Mr. Webster's
face grew redder than his trailing plume, and he bit savagely at his
lip in his effort to control his sense of the ludicrous. But when a
French _bonne_ burst through the line of visitors and charged jabbering
down on the little innocent, only to drive him full tilt in between
the battalion and its now convulsed commander, to capture him midway,
and to be pounded, pommelled, and stormed at in baby vernacular as
she bore him away, "Why, I just bust my chin-strap trying to keep
from laughing," said Connell, "and almost every plebe in the line was
'skinned' for highly unmilitary conduct, laughing in ranks at parade."
Plebes always catch it on such occasions. Geordie had controlled
himself to the extent of suppressing any sound, but Benny had gurgled
and chuckled and exclaimed aloud.
And yet when the reports were read out the next evening, and the plebes
were holding an impromptu indignation meeting, big Harry Winn stopped
and asked Graham what explanation he was going to write.
"None at all," said Pops. "I suppose I did laugh—I couldn't help it."
But Benny Frazier, who had not only laughed aloud, but uttered some
expression of boyish delight, said, "Well, you bet I don't mean to
swallow any two or three demerit if an explanation will get it off."
And Geordie looked at him without saying a word.
Two days later the colonel sent for Pops.
"Mr. Graham," he said, "you have offered no explanation for laughing in
ranks at parade; most of those reported have done so; why didn't you?"
Geordie colored, as he always did when embarrassed. Finally he said:
"The report was true, sir. I couldn't help it exactly, but—I had no
excuse."
"Well, in a case like this, where something comical really appeared,
I do not care to see a cadet punished, provided he comes forward and
explains the matter. Your tent-mate, for instance, explains it very
well, and says he couldn't help smiling a little, so I took his report
off as a matter of course. It seems to me you have allowed several
reports to stand against you that were removed in his case. I shall
remove this one. That is all, sir." And Geordie saluted, and walked
thoughtfully away.
How could Frazier truthfully say he had only smiled; or worse, how
could he imply that he did nothing else, without so saying, when
Graham and others well knew he both laughed and muttered audibly?
Geordie began to understand why it was that Frazier seldom showed his
explanations.
Yet, when Benny eagerly asked him what the colonel said, Pops knew not
how to tell him what was uppermost in his mind. And he had promised to
be Frazier's room-mate.
That evening Mr. Glenn, the adjutant, called him aside.
"Mr. Graham, your confinement in camp will expire next week, and I
understand Mr. Jennings is saying that as soon as you are released you
will have to meet either Mr. Woods or himself. I have seen Mr. Woods,
and told him that you have done all that is necessary; that he was
wrong in the first place. Now should Mr. Jennings make any demands, I
wish you to refuse, and refer him to me."
Two days later Benny Frazier, with white, scared look in his face,
said: "Pops, do you know anything about it? Jennings has just been put
in arrest—conduct unbecoming a cadet and a gentleman—and they say it's
about your rifle."