“Oh, he may, I suppose,” replied Jordan, his lip curling.  “On the whole, however, I am a good deal surprised at seeing you accept the loss of all your liberties and privileges so easily as you are doing.”

Naturally, the effect of Jordan’s words was to kill a good deal of Durville’s fleeting sympathy, for the latter had suffered a good deal from the restraint of his liberties, following the escapade for which Dick had reported him.

The meeting in Anstey’s room resulted in the secret gathering of a dozen men.  Eight of these were friends of Dick, who would still like to see the class action reversed or ended.  But Anstey had been clever enough also to invite four men who were numbered among Prescott’s adversaries.  One of these was Douglass, the cadet who had been elected to succeed Dick as class president.

“Now, gentlemen,” began Anstey, in his soft voice of ordinary conversation, “I don’t believe we have any need of a presiding officer in this little meeting.  With your permission, I will state why I have asked you to come here.

“For months, now, we have had a member of this class in Coventry.  Barely more than a majority believed in that Coventry, but once action had been taken by the class, the disapproving minority stood loyally by class action.  I have been among those of the minority to abide by majority action, and I can assure you that I have suffered very nearly as much as has Mr. Prescott, whose case I am now discussing.

“The majority has had its way for months.  Is it not now time, if the class will not grant full justice, at least to grant something to the wishes of the minority?”

“What do you mean?” asked one of Dick’s opponents.  “Mr. Prescott will let himself be found deficient in at least one study, won’t he, and thus take his unpopular presence away from the Military Academy?”

“I cannot answer that,” admitted Anstey slowly.  “Doubtless many of you will be surprised when I tell you that I have had no word in the matter from Mr. Prescott.  I have not even mentioned the subject to his roommate, Mr. Holmes.”

“Then whom do you represent?” demanded the other cadet.

“Myself and other believers in Mr. Prescott,” replied Anstey simply.  “The very least we ask is that you stop punishing so many of us through Mr. Prescott.  Gentlemen, do you not feel that any man who commands as many friends in his class as does Mr. Prescott must be a man above the petty meannesses of which he was accused, and for which he was sent to Coventry?”

“I’ve been one of the sufferers through Mr. Prescott,” commented Durville grimly.  “As for me, I’ll admit that I’d be glad to see the ‘silence’ lifted.  I feel that Mr. Prescott has been punished enough, and that, if we now lift the ‘silence,’ he would be more careful after this.  I think he has been chastened enough.  If I could find any reason whatever for refusing to vote for the end of the Coventry, it would come from the question as to whether any one class has the right to upset the traditions and establish a new precedent for such cases.”