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The silence that followed his words betrayed that so evilly in the suspicions he had sown If he had stopped there, I think he would have retained a great deal of power over us, but he pushed it one step further "Five demerits more for every man at this table for your earlier h at the man who co off demerits until sundown, and we knew it Inwardly, I snarled at the little popinjay, but I kept ue still Across fro A wise move If we had not finished by the tio hungry Gradually the rest of us took up our utensils and began to eat My hunger, so pressing just a few ically that it was a good idea, not froerness Dent looked around at all of us and probably decided that ell cowed He had just taken up a spoonful of soup when Spink shocked

"Corporal Dent, I do not recall that any of us here mocked you We enjoyed a remark that Cadet Trist made, but surely you do not think you were the butt of any joke auile as he asked his question His earnestness caught Corporal Dent off guard He stared at Spink, and I could al his memory to find the insult he had claihed," he said at last "And that offendedhappened then Spink and Trist exchanged a look I almost pitied Corporal Dent at that ed a brief alliance between the two rivals Trist spoke, his sincerity al as Spink’s had been "Your pardon, Corporal Dent Frohter for when you are not present" He looked round at all of us as he spoke, and we all reat apparent sincerity It was as if a chain of resolve suddenly linked us No ht clash elsewhere, froainst Dent He rewarded our deception of hi, "Even as it should be, Cadets," completely unaware that we had now secured his perht gaveas our entire patrol ether It even so the next day of classes All of us had been too weary to do nments, and all of us were soundly berated by our instructors and given an extra heavy load of study work as punishalitarian injustice we labored under seeht despite Corporal Dent’s efforts to grind us down

Yet it did not extend as widely as I’d hoped United against Dent we ht be, but Spink and Trist still chafed one another They seldoed each other directly for our loyalty; the division was now most plain in how they treated Gord

Gord continued to tutor Spink in his ained for his efforts a solid friend Spink’s scores were not astounding, but hisWe all knew that without Gord’s help, Spink would have been on probation if not expelled froave Spink, and most of us admired him for it But after Dent’s accusation about Gord’s birth, Trist began to needle Gord in sly ways He began to refer to Gord’s drilling of Spink on his basic math facts as his "catechisood bessom," a term usually reserved for a priest who instructs acolytes The nicknahout our patrol I think that Spink and I were the only ones who never jestingly called him "Bessom Gord" On the surface, it was just a play on Gord’s role in drilling Spink on repetitive facts, but the undercurrent was that perhaps, just perhaps, Gord had been intended for the priesthood rather than the military Every time someone called him Bessom Gord, I felt a small prick of doubt about him I am sure Gord felt the jab of the possible insult more keenly

Gord was stoic about it, as he was about al he endured Stoic as a priest, I one day found ht He had an almost inhuretted his cruelty the next day when he unthinkingly asked "Bessom Gord" to pass the bread at table, for Corporal Dent immediately seized on the name, and used it at every opportunity It spread like wildfire frohout the second-year echelon of cadets We had little contact with second– or third-year cadets, and yet before the day was out, soly for Besso past them on our way to classes When that happened, it felt as if the mockery fell on all of us, and I could al toward Gord It was hard not to resent him for the mockery that included us