“Didn’t you say that you were going to do your best to put a stop to it, and that every boy who succeeded in getting out of the grounds after taps could call on you for the price of a plate of pancakes at Cony Ryan’s?”
“I did, and you said the same thing.”
“I know it; and I know, too, that we have brought blessings on our heads from two different factions—from the faculty, who say that the battalion was never in better trim than it is at present; and from Lester Brigham and his adherents, who declare that we are the meanest pair that ever lived, and that we exceed our authority every day in the week. They would like to disgrace us before the whole school, if they could.”
Don laughed, but said nothing. He knew just how Enoch and the fellows who had accompanied him on his runaway expedition felt toward himself and Mack, but it did not make him at all uncomfortable. He ate and slept, and enjoyed himself in various ways as well as he ever did. Being one of the highest officers of the academy it was his duty to prevent, as far as lay in his power, all violations of the rules. This duty he performed quietly and effectually, and without fear or favor. He seemed to know everything that went on in and about the academy. He did not intend that what he said concerning guard-running should become noised abroad; but somehow it did, and a great many threats had been made. In addition to this, Cony Ryan had offered extra inducements to the successful guard-runner, but no one had yet come forward to claim the pancakes. Don knew that if a single student escaped from the grounds through his negligence, he (Don) would be a candidate for a court-martial, which would put an end to all his hopes of picking up the lieutenant-colonel’s shoulder-straps when Mack laid them down at the close of the school term.
“There’s lots of uneasy fellows here this term,” continued Mack. “Hadn’t we better let up on them a little and give them a chance to show their hands?”
Don, remembering that there was a time, and it was not so very long ago either, when he would have been prompt to “show his hand” if his officers had “let up” on him in the slightest degree, answered that he couldn’t think of it. He had learned that a student who behaved himself, and who could look his mother in the face when he went home to spend his vacations, had a clearer conscience and a mind that was much more at ease than one who was constantly setting himself up in opposition to lawful authority, and he was resolved that there should be no breaking of the rules that term if he could help it.
“But just think how full last term was crowded of fun and excitement, and how very dull and uninteresting this one is by comparison,” said Mack, in a doleful voice. “First we had a chase after Huggins.”
“That didn’t amount to much,” said Don. “It was soon over.”
“But still it was exciting while it lasted. The tramp who stole Huggins’s money might have made an end of you with that knife of his if you hadn’t been a good swordsman. Then came the strikes and the fight with the rioters at Hamilton Creek bridge, and after that Enoch Williams woke us up with his runaway expedition, and gave us a chance to take a week’s sail on the bay. What have we had to keep our blood in motion this year? Not a thing.”
“Does the unusual quiet worry you?” asked Don.