“Yes,” replied the latter.
“Well, fellows,” continued Himski, “Creelton is the thief we’ve been looking for; he’s a disgrace to our class and to the uniform he wears; I’m thankful enough he has finally been found out even if it has taken four years. I don’t know that I have anything more to say, except that reports will be made immediately and of course the authorities will take action—I’m glad the commandant has been with us to-night; he knows as much about it now as any of us do.”
Himski’s talk, and his reading of the letters, had created a most intense excitement. The world of these young men was very small and this matter was tremendously personal to every one of them. An all-powerful indignation now possessed them and undoubtedly wild disorder was about to ensue. A dozen were on their feet and had commenced shouting, when suddenly Himski’s clear voice in vibrating tones called out, “Attention,” and the commandant’s tall form was seen to approach Himski. The midshipmen all subsided and military order was once more in complete control.
“Mr. Creelton,” asked the commandant, “do you admit the truth of Mr. Himski’s charges?”
Creelton made no reply; he did not raise his eyes to the commandant’s face. There was no fight in him; his one ambition now was to escape. He knew there was no hope of any possibility of defense and in fact he had as much as admitted his guilt.
“Mr. Bollup, take Mr. Creelton to the officer-in-charge in close arrest. I will give orders about him later.” The miserable young man jumped up with alacrity, glad to hurry away from an atmosphere charged to the saturation point with indignation and contempt for him. He now feared bodily injury, not knowing to what extent the angry feelings of his classmates might dominate them. He concerns this narrative no further. It is enough to say that before nine o’clock, during a temporary absence of the midshipman in charge of the floor from his post, Creelton escaped from his room and from the building and was never seen again at Annapolis; but later, although not present, he went through formal dismissal, and a most scathing letter expelling him, written by the Secretary of the Navy, was published to the battalion.
The commandant was speaking when Bollup returned to the class meeting.
“Gentlemen,” he began, “you have witnessed an astonishing thing; it does not seem possible that such a criminal could have lived among you for four years and have escaped detection in all of this time. However, with Mr. Himski and with you all, I am but too thankful that this thief has at last been unmasked. I wish to thank Mr. Himski for the way he has handled this matter; you made no mistake when you elected him your class president. I have known of his suspicions for some time but until to-day there has been positively nothing to work on.
“You are all feeling badly about this; you feel it is a smirch on your class name. But don’t think of it in that way; it’s not your fault if the laws and the authorities introduce a thief among you. None of you helped to make him a midshipman. But as I see the indignation on your faces that such a character should have been a classmate, what would your feelings be”—and here the commandant’s voice rang out in intense tones that reached the heart of every midshipman before him—“what would your feelings be if this thief after stealing Mr. Bollup’s watch had put it on your chain, so as to have you accused of the theft? What would your feelings be if you were denounced to the superintendent in an anonymous letter for being a cheat, for gouging? But for Mr. Himski, I much fear I would have assisted in having Mr. Osborn dismissed because of the words the thief cleverly wrote on Mr. Osborn’s blackboard in Professor Moehler’s section room. And finally we dismissed Mr. Osborn because of the evil machinations of these unscrupulous villains.”
The commandant paused for a moment, and then, with evident emotion, said, looking over to where Ralph stood drinking in his every word:—“Mr. Osborn, I can but apologize to you for the part in which I was made a tool of. It is hard for these other young men to have had a thief for a classmate, but they can have no conception of the fearful trials you have passed through. Your honor has been called into question, you have had repeated dastardly attempts made upon you by an unknown foe, your very roommate; and you actually went through the form of dismissal. All that I can say, is, that I now know, that instead of the last, you deserved the first consideration at the hands of the authorities, and that the unadorned coat sleeve of yours is a monument to my own lack of discernment; I will say but one thing more; gentlemen, I can assure you that if cadet officers of your class were to be made to-morrow, Mr. Osborn would have four stripes where now he has nothing. Would you like to say anything, Mr. Osborn?”