"But Haynes would only lie out of it, of course," Dick concluded.
"As a cadet, his word would have to be accepted as being as good
as mine. So nothing would come of the charges."
A class meeting, unlike a court-martial, might not stand out for
legal evidence, if the moral presumption of guilt were strong
enough; but Cadet Prescott would not dream of invoking class action
unless he had the most convincing proof to offer.
Class action, when it is invoked at West Point, is often more
effective than even the work of a court-martial. If the class
calls upon a member to resign and return to civil life, he might
as well do so without delay. If he does not, he will be "sent
to Coventry" by every other cadet in the corps. If he has the
nerve to disregard this and graduate, he will go forth into the
Army only to meet a like fate at the hands of every officer in
the service. He will always be "cut" as long as he attempts to
wear the uniform.
"Its a shame to let this fellow Haynes stay in the service," Dick
muttered. "And yet my hands are tied. With my lack of evidence
I can't drag him before either a legal or an informal court.
The only thing I can do is to let matters go on, trusting to the
fact that, sooner or later, Haynes will overstep the bounds less
cautiously, and that he'll find himself driven out of the uniform.
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