"no, sir! i wouldn't think of it, not for a moment. the fellow's a coward, and he don't deserve the chance."

and cadet corporal jasper brought his fist down on the table with a bang.

"no, sir," he repeated. "i wouldn't think of it!"

"but he wants to fight!" exclaimed the other.

"well, he had a chance once; why didn't he fight then? that's what i want to know, and that's what he won't tell us. and as far as i'm concerned mallory shall lie in the bed he's made. i wouldn't honor him with another chance."

it was an afternoon late in june, and the two speakers were discussing some ice cream at "the dutchwoman's" and waiting for the call to quarters before dress parade.

"if that fellow," continued corporal jasper, "had any reason on earth for getting up at midnight, dodging sentry and running out of barracks, to stay till reveille, except to avoid fighting you that morning, now, by jingo! i[pg 82] want to know what it is! the class sent me to ask him, and he simply said he wouldn't tell, that's all. his bluff about wanting another chance won't work."

"well, if we don't," protested williams, the other man, a tall, finely-built fellow, "if we don't, he'll go right on getting fresh, won't he?"

"no, sir, he won't! we'll find a way to stop him. in the first place, he's been sent to coventry. not a man in the academy'll speak to him; he may not mind that for a while, but i think he won't brave it out very long. just you watch and see."

"the only trouble with that," said williams, "is that he's not cut by all the fellows. i've seen three of the plebes with him."

"what!" cried the other, in amazement. "who?"

"well, there's that fellow he seconded in the fight——"

"texas, you mean?"

"yes, texas. then that long-legged scarecrow stanard was out walking with him this very day. and i saw that goose they call the indian talking to him at dinner, and before the whole plebe class, too."

"well, now, by jingo! they'll find it costs something to defy the corps!" exclaimed jasper. "it's a pretty state of[pg 83] affairs, indeed, if three or four beasts can come up here and run this place as they please. they'll find when an order's given here they'll obey, or else they can chase themselves home in a hurry. that fellow mallory must be a fool! there's never been a plebe at this academy's dared to do half what he's done."

"that's why i think it would be best to lick him. i'm not sure i can do it, you know, but i think it would be best to try."

"that fellow started out to be b. j. at the very start," growled the excitable corporal, after a moment's thought. "right at the very start! 'baby' edwards was telling me the other day how way last year this fellow met with an accident—fell off the express or something—and while he was staying down at the falls baby and a couple of other fellows thought he was a candidate, and started in to haze him. he was sassy as you please then. and after that he went out west, where he lives, and did some extraordinary thing—saved an express, i believe, and sent in an account to a paper for a lot of money. of course that got him dead stuck on himself, and then he goes and wins a cadetship here and thinks he can run the earth. he[pg 84] was so deucedly b. j. he had to go and lock edwards and bull harris in an icehouse down near the falls!"

"you see what's happened now," he continued, after a moment's pause. "your challenge brought him up with a round turn, and he saw his bluff was stopped. he was afraid to fight, and so he hid, that's all. but, by jingo, he'll pay for it if i've got anything to say in the matter!"

and the little corporal made the dishes on the table rattle.

corporal jasper and cadet williams had finished their council and their ice cream by this time, and arose to go just as the roll of drum was heard from "camp mcpherson." the two strolled off in the direction of the summons, jasper just as positive and vehement as ever.

"you shan't fight him," he declared. "and if sending him to coventry doesn't do any good, we'll find some other way, that's all! and we'll keep at him till he learns how to behave himself if it takes the whole summer to do it."

this was the young cadet officer's parting vow, as he turned and entered his tent.