And Greg!  He didn’t waste any time in trying to be just to any one.  All his hot blood rose and fomented within him at the bare thought of this terrible indignity put upon that prince of good fellows, Dick Prescott.  Holmes felt, in truth, as though he would be glad to fight, in turn, every member of the first class who had voted for the silence.

That practically all the fellows of the first class had voted for the silence, Greg did not for an instant believe.  He was well aware that Dick had many staunch friends in the class who would stand out for him in the face of any appearances.  But a vote of the majority in favor of the silence would be enough; the rest of the class would be bound by the action of the majority.  And all the lower classes would observe and respect any decision of the first class concerning one of its own members.

Not a word did Greg say to Dick.  Yet, under the table, Holmes employed one of his knees to give Dick’s knee a long, firm pressure that conveyed the hidden message of unfaltering friendship and loyalty.

For the other cadets at the table the silence imposed more or less hardship, since they could utter only the most necessary words.  They however, were not objects against whom the silence was directed, and they could endure the absence of conversation with far more indifference than was possible for Prescott.

It was a relief to all at the table, none the less, when the rising order was given.  When the corps had marched back to camp, and had been dismissed, Dick Prescott, head erect, and betraying no sign of annoyance, walked naturally into A company’s Street, drew out his camp chair and seated himself on it in the open.

Barely had he done so, when Greg arrived.  Cadet Holmes, however, did not stop or speak, but hurried on.

“Greg has his hands full,” thought Dick.  “He’s going to investigate.  And I’m afraid his hot head will get him into some sort of trouble, too.”

The imposition of the silence did not affect Greg in his relations with his tentmate.  When a cadet is sent to Coventry, or has the silence “put” on him, his tentmate or roommate may still talk unreservedly with him without fear of incurring class disfavor.  To impose the rule of silence on the tentmate or roommate of the rebuked one would be to punish an innocent man along with the guilty one.

Rarely, after all, does the corps err in its judgment when Coventry or the silence is meted out.  None the less, in Dick’s case a grave mistake had been made.

Time slipped by, and darkness came on, but Greg had not returned.

There was band concert in camp that night.  Many cadets of the first and third classes had already gone to meet girls whom they would escort in strolling near the bandstand.  Plebes are not expected to escort young ladies to these concerts.  The members of the second class were away on the summer furlough, as Dick and Greg had been the summer before.