“I am glad to see, Merrill, that you have told a very modest and uncompromising story of the affair, for I have here a letter from a witness, and he is not as lenient toward the lads who assailed you,” and in a quick glance at a letter which the commandant turned back over a file to find, Mark saw the name of “Jack Judson.” Then the commandant continued: “I have received several other letters from your old home, all of them compromising, but as they were anonymous I simply retain them for reference, as only a coward will refuse to put his name to an accusation against one he maligns. You can go to your quarters now, to await further orders.” Mark saluted and departed from headquarters, when the commandant summoned an orderly and gave him the list of the cadets whose names he had taken down, ordering their presence before him. CHAPTER XXIX. THE ALTERNATIVE. So high is the standard of honor among Uncle Sam’s cadets that one’s word is as good as his bond in all things, and a man who would go wrong and do a despicable thing is despised and ostracised by his comrades at once. Instances are very rare in naval and military life where an officer goes wrong, though now and then one does hear that a paymaster, quartermaster, or commissary has gotten his accounts in a tangle, or that some officer has been guilty of a “shady transaction” to get out of debt; but, as I have said, the instances are so rare that when they do occur they come as a shock upon the whole service, afloat and ashore. In the little world, then, at the Naval School, the going wrong of Barney Breslin was a blow to the cadets which all keenly felt. It was like a disgrace upon them all to have one not only be guilty of theft, but to try and place the dishonor of his act upon a fellow cadet. The young sailors gathered about in knots and discussed the affair. Not the shadow of a cloud rested upon Mark Merrill, but sympathy was felt for him that he should have been the victim of the thief. Breslin had sent out an explanation of his act after going to his room. He had often borrowed the lucky coin and carried it for days, and that day he had found it on the floor, where Clemmons must have dropped it, and so had put it in his pocket, intending later to return it. Not seeing Clemmons until they had met in the gymnasium, and then learning about his supposed loss, he had said nothing about having it, and in a spirit of fun had put it in Merrill’s pocket, intending to explain the joke, as he called it, after it had been discovered who had it. But Merrill had accused him, Breslin, of being the thief, and so in his anger he had resented it. Such was Barney Breslin’s explanation, as written by him, and read to the cadets by Scott Clemmons, who was inclined to accept it as the truth. But the cadets were not so lenient as was Scott Clemmons.