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erect and gazing coldly at the plebe. "Mr. Butler demands a fight with you, mister, and as early as possible." There was no mention of possible apology. Evidently Mr. Butler considered the affair one that could be remedied only by blows. "Mr. Haldane, I don't wish to ask much delay. But the two friends whom I shall want to represent me are on guard duty at present. May I ask that you see Mr. Prescott?" "Very good," acknowledged Mr. Haldane, and left the tent. "Now, I'm in for it," muttered Greg ruefully. "And the queer part of it is that I have to fight for a thing that I never did. But I'm not going to make any denials now, unless Dick advises it." It was evening, after the cadets had returned from supper, when Mr. Haldane appeared and asked for Prescott. The two stepped outside together, walking a little distance away to make the necessary arrangements. Dick was already in possession of the few facts that Greg had to tell him. Dick had advised against denying the prank, for the present, anyway. "It would look like playing the baby act," Prescott had explained to his chum, and in this view Anstey agreed. Mr. Haldane and Dick came to a speedy understanding. The fight was to take place the next morning, at the first peep of daylight. Promptly, however, the affair became noised about through camp. Butler was a considerably larger man than Greg, and looked in every way more powerful. Cadet Corporal Atwater, who was president of the yearling class, went to see Mr. Butler promptly. "At least, Butler, if you insist that the fight must be fought, let the scrap committee choose one of our class who is down nearer to the plebe's size," urged Mr. Atwater. "Under ordinary conditions, old fellow, I'd be tickled to do it," replied Mr. Butler. "But, in a trick of this kind, I couldn't get any satisfaction out of anyone else hammering the b.j. beast who put up such a tumble for me." "I'm thinking the scrap committee may interfere with your plans," rejoined Atwater, shaking his head. "We don't want fighting to degenerate into the appearance of bullying oppression of beasts." "I'll have to abide by the decision of the scrap committee, of course," admitted Butler. "But I hope the fellows won't interfere." Cadet Corporal Atwater promptly called the scrap committee together. Many newspaper writers, through ignorance, have condemned the existence of a scrap committee at West Point, claiming that it fome
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