"Yes," says I, and then after that a little while he says that he wants to win them examinations, "cause there was a feller trying "em that he wanted to beat. So he gimme a hundred--that was the next day; he said he"d earned it in a railroad smash up, or something--and then I got them papers and gave "em to him. And that"s all I know."
"Very good," commented the squire, tapping his cane with approval. "Very good! And what did he say about these West Point examinations?"
"He said, says he, "If I win these here and git the appointment, I ain"t a-going to do nothin" but skin through the others with cribs.""
"That"s right!" cried the squire, triumphantly. "There now! What more do you want?"
He glanced at the superintendent inquiringly, and the superintendent gazed at Mark. As for Mark, he was simply too dumfounded to move. He stood as if glued to the spot and stared in blank consternation from one to the other.
"Well," said the colonel at last, "what have you to say for yourself?"
Mark was too amazed to say much.
"So that is their plan!" he gasped. "So they seek to rob me of my cadetship by this--this----"
He stopped then, unable to express his feelings.
"Colonel Harvey," he inquired at last, "may I ask if you believe this story?"
"I do not see, Mr. Mallory," was the response, "what else I am to believe. I do not like to accuse these three gentlemen of a plot to ruin you. And yet--and yet----"
"May I ask a question or two?" inquired Mark, noticing the puzzled and worried look upon his superior"s face.
"Most certainly," was the answer.
"In the first place, if you please, according to this story, if I gave this man a hundred dollars, why did he tell about it afterward?"
"His conscience troubled him," cried the old squire excitedly. "As yours would have if you had any. He knew that he had done wrong, robbed my son, and he came and told me. And I was wild, sir, wild with anger. I have brought this man on all the way from Colorado, and I propose to see my son into his rights, if I die for it!"
"Oh!" said Mark. "So you want Benny made a cadet. But tell me how, if I had the papers, did Benny beat me so badly, anyhow?"
"My son always was brighter than you," sneered the old man.
"And all the examinations weren"t from printed papers," chimed in Benny"s crowing voice. "There was spelling, and reading and writing--that was where I beat you."
"I see," responded Mark. "It is a clever scheme. And I"m told I pa.s.sed here because I cheated; how came you to fail?"
"My son was sick at the time," cried Squire Bartlett, "and I can prove it, too."
Mark smiled incredulously at that; Benny Bartlett nodded his head in support of his father"s a.s.sertion.
"Well?" inquired the squire. "Is there anything more you want to know?"
"No," said Mark. "Nothing."
"Satisfied now, are ye?" sneered the other; and then he turned to Colonel Harvey. "I think that is all, sir," he said. "What more do you want?"
The colonel stood gazing into s.p.a.ce with a troubled look. He did not know what to say; he did not know what to think. He could not call these three men conspirators; and yet the handsome, st.u.r.dy lad who had done so much to win his approval, surely he did not look like a thief!
"Mr. Mallory," he inquired at last. "What have you to say to this?"
"Nothing," responded Mark. "Nothing, except to denounce it as an absolute and unmitigated lie from beginning to end."
"But what proof can you bring?"
"None whatever, except my word."
After that there was no more said for some minutes. The silence was broken by the superintendent"s rising.
"Mr. Mallory," he said, "you may go now. I must think this matter over."
And Mark went out of the door, his brain fairly reeling. He was lost!
lost! West Point, his aim in life, his one and only hope, was going! He was to be dismissed in disgrace, sent home branded as a criminal! And all for a lie! An infamous lie!
A few minutes later Benny and the printer"s devil, his accomplice, came out of that same door. But it was with a far different look. Benny was chuckling with triumph.
"It worked!" he cried. "By Heaven, it worked to perfection! Even the old man hasn"t caught on!"
"Squire Bartlett"s as blind as Mallory," laughed the other. "And Mallory"ll be out in a week. Remember, you owe me that hundred to-day."
CHAPTER XIX.
TEXAS TURNS HIGHWAYMAN.
There were six terrified plebes up at Camp McPherson, when Mark rushed in, pale and breathless, to tell them the reason for his summons to headquarters. The Banded Seven had not had such a shock since they organized to resist the yearlings.
"Benny Bartlett!" cried Texas, springing up in rage. "Do you mean that little rascal I licked the day he got sa.s.sy during exams?"
"That"s he," said Mark, "and he"s come back to get his revenge."
"And you don"t mean," cried the six, almost in one breath, "Colonel Harvey believes it?"
"Why shouldn"t he?" responded Mark, despairingly. "I cannot see any way out of it. The whole thing"s a dirty lie from beginning to end, but it makes a straight story when it is told, and I can"t disprove it."
"But I thought you said," cried Texas, "that you saw Benny himself cheating, or tryin" to, at the examinations right hyar."
"So I did," said the other. "But I cannot prove that. I know lots of things about him, but I can"t prove one of them. They"ve simply got me and that"s all there is of it. There are three of them, and it"s almost impossible to make the superintendent think they"re lying. Think of a rich old man like the squire"s doing a trick like that!"
"Perhaps he ain"t," suggested Texas, shrewdly.
"Perhaps not," admitted Mark. "Benny would not hesitate to lie to his own father. But all the same I have no proof. And what in Heaven"s name am I to do?"
Mark sat down upon the locker in his tent and buried his face in his hands. His wretchedness is left to the imagination. The whole thing had come so suddenly, so unexpectedly, right in the midst of his triumph!
And it was so horrible!