"Aren't you anxious to hear the news, old ramrod?"

"Yes; very."

"I'm hanged if you look anxious!" muttered Greg, studying his
chum's face keenly.

"I fancy I've got to display a good deal of skill in masking my
feelings," smiled Dick wearily.

"Oh, I don't know," returned Cadet Holmes hopefully. "It may not
turn out to be so bad."

"Then a permanent silence hasn't been imposed?"

"Not yet," replied Greg.

"By which, I suppose, you mean that the length of the silence has
not yet been decided upon."

"It hasn't," Greg declared. "It was only after the biggest, swiftest
and hardest kind of campaign, in fact, that the class was swung
around to the silence. Only a bare majority were wheedled into
voting for it. Nearly half of the class stood out for you stubbornly,
pointing to your record here as a sufficient answer. And that nearly
half are still your warm adherents."

"Yet, of course, they are bound by the majority action?"