“Well, then, what does it all mean?” demanded Greg stolidly, for he began to feel dazed.  “But, first of all, old ramrod, aren’t you going to get ready to fall in for dinner formation?”

Mechanically, wearily, Dick obeyed the suggestion.

As he did so he managed to tell the story of the section room to horrified Greg.

“See here,” muttered Cadet Holmes energetically, “you didn’t do anything in the cheating line.  Every fellow in the corps will know that.  So you’ll have to set your wits at work to find the real explanation of the thing.  How could that paper have gotten in with your handkerchief?”

“I don’t know,” replied Dick, shaking his head hopelessly.

“Well, you’ve got to find out, son, and that right quick!  There isn’t a moment to be lost!  You didn’t cheat—–­you wouldn’t know how do a deliberately dishonest thing.  But that reply won’t satisfy the powers that be.  You’ve got to get your answer ready, and do it with a rush.”

“Perhaps you can also suggest where the rush should start,” observed Prescott.

“Yes; I’ve got to suggest everything that is going to be done, I reckon,” muttered Greg, resting a chum’s loyal hand on Dick’s shoulder.  “Old ramrod, you’re too dazed to think of anything, and I’m nearly as badly off myself.  Say, did anyone, to your knowledge, have your handkerchief?”

Cadet Richard Prescott wheeled like a flash.  His face had gone white again; he stared as though at a terrifying ghost.

“By the great horn spoon, Greg-----”

“Good!  You’re getting roused.  Now, out with it!

“There were a lot of us standing about in the area, a little before time for the math. sections to start off.”

“Yes?  And some other fellow handled your handkerchief?”

“Bert Dodge found himself without one, and asked me for mine, to wipe a smear of black from the back of his hand.”

“Which hand?”

“The left.”

“It doesn’t really matter which hand,” Greg pursued, “but I asked to make sure that your mind is working.”

“Oh, my mind is working,” uttered Dick vengefully.

“But what else happened about that handkerchief?

“Dodge used it, then started to tuck it into his own blouse.  I grinned and reminded him that the handkerchief would fit better inside my blouse.”

“And then?”

“Just then the call sounded, and we had to jump.  Dodge handed me back the handkerchief with a swift apology, and raced away to join his section.”

“And you?”

“I tucked the handkerchief in my blouse.”

“Now, do some hard thinking,” insisted Holmes.  “Did you take that handkerchief out again until the unlucky time just after you had turned away from the board after explaining in math.?”

Dick remained silent, while the clock in the room ticked off the seconds.

“I am sure I did not,” he replied firmly.  “No; that was the next time that I took my handkerchief out.”