“Be patient, extremely patient, and you shall know. I am here to do you a favor, if you will so consider it; to do my duty by the service, the academy, and my brother cadets, if you do not obey my wishes.”
“Your words are inexplicable to me, sir!”
“Well, I’ll be more explicit than you can wish, sir. You had as a friend here one Barney Breslin, a cadet who became your tool, for you paid him well to persecute Mark Merrill in every manner possible—hold! I have here Breslin’s confession, and more, I hold other papers to criminate you in that gold coin affair, which you professed to have had stolen from you for the purpose of disgracing Merrill. Now the paper I handed to you, which you left upon the table in the Astor House, I allowed three cadets to read, and I took a copy of it. That shows that Breslin blackmailed you out of six hundred dollars. He did not leave the country, but on the contrary has forced money from your father, who has feared to have you disgraced by his coming to the commandant.”
“My father?” gasped Clemmons.
“Yes, your father paid him over two thousand dollars to prevent his coming here, and so, as I hold all proofs of your villainy——”
“Sir!”
“I repeat it, of your criminal scoundrelism toward Merrill, I tell you, that if you do not this day send in your resignation to the commandant I shall place the whole matter before him, and the result will be your utter disgrace. See, I am blackmailing you now, threatening, forcing you to resign, for if you do not, I shall do as I say; if you do, I shall keep your secret, upon my honor. What will you do?”
“Resign,” and the word was hardly audible.
“When?”
“To-day.”