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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point
+by H. Irving Hancock
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point
+       Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life
+
+Author: H. Irving Hancock
+
+Release Date: July 5, 2004 [EBook #12819]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECOND YEAR AT WEST POINT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jim Ludwig
+
+
+
+
+DICK PRESCOTT'S SECOND YEAR AT WEST POINT
+or
+Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life
+
+
+
+H. Irving Hancock
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTERS
+    I. The Class President Lectures on Hazing
+   II. Plebe Briggs Learns a Few Things
+  III. Greg Debates Between Girls and Mischief
+   IV. The O.C. Wants to Know
+    V. "I Respectfully Decline to Answer, Sir"
+   VI. Greg Prepares for Flirtation Walk
+  VII. The Folks from Home
+ VIII. Cadet Dodge Hears Something
+   IX. Spoony Femme--Flirtation Walk
+    X. The Cure for Plebe Animal Spirits
+   XI. Lieutenant Topham Feels Queer
+  XII. Under a Fearful Charge
+ XIII. In Close Arrest
+  XIV. Friends Who Stand By
+   XV. On Trial by Court-Martial
+  XVI. A Verdict and a Hop
+ XVII. "A Liar and a Coward"
+XVIII. The Fight in the Barracks
+  XIX. Mr. Dennison's Turn is Served
+   XX. A Discovery at the Riding Drill
+  XXI. Pitching for the Army Nine
+ XXII. Greg's Secret and Another's
+XXIII. The Committee on Class Honors
+ XXIV. Conclusion
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE CLASS PRESIDENT LECTURES ON HAZING
+
+
+Leaving the road that wound by the officers' quarters at the north
+end, turning on to the road that passed the hotel, a hot, somewhat
+tired and rather dusty column of cadets swung along towards their
+tents in the distance.
+
+The column was under arms, as though the cadets had been engaged in
+target practice or out on a reconnaissance.
+
+The young men wore russet shoes, gray trousers and leggings, gray
+flannel shirts and soft campaign hats.
+
+Their appearance was not that of soldiers on parade, but of the
+grim toilers and fighters who serve in the field.
+
+Their work that morning had, in fact, been strictly in line with
+labor, for the young men, under Captain McAneny, had been engaged
+in the study of field fortifications.  To be more exact, the young
+men had been digging military trenches---yes---digging them, for
+at West Point hard labor is not beneath the cadet's dignity.
+
+Just as they swung off the road past the officers' quarters the
+young men, marching in route step, fell quickly into step at the
+command of the cadet officer at the head of the line.
+
+Now they marched along at no greater speed, but with better swing
+and rhythm.  They were, in fact, perfect soldiers---the best to
+be found on earth.
+
+Past the hotel they moved, and out along the road that leads by
+the summer encampment.  The brisk command of "halt" rang out.
+Immediately afterwards the command was dismissed.  Carrying their
+rifles at ease, the young men stepped briskly through different
+company streets to their tents.
+
+Three of these brought up together at one of the tents.
+
+"Home, Sweet Home," hummed Greg Holmes, as he stepped into his
+tent.
+
+"Thank goodness for the luxury of a little rest," muttered Dick
+Prescott.
+
+"Rest?" repeated Tom Anstey, with a look of amazement.  "What
+time have you, now, for a rest?"
+
+"I can spare the time to stretch and yawn," laughed Dick.  "If
+I am capable of swift work, after that, I may indulge in two yawns."
+
+"Look out, or you'll get skinned for being late at dinner formation,"
+warned Greg.
+
+There was, in truth, no time for fooling.  These cadets, and their
+comrades, had reached camp just on the dot of time.  But now they
+had precious few minutes in which to cleanse themselves, brush
+their hair and get into white duck trousers and gray fatigue blouses.
+The call for dinner formation would sound at the appointed instant
+and they must be ready.
+
+Sound it did, in short time, but it caught no one napping.
+
+Nearly everyone of the young men in camp had just returned from
+a forenoon's work, and hot and dusty at that.
+
+But now, as the call sounded, every member of three classes stepped
+from his tent looking as though he had just stepped from an hour
+spent in the hands of a valet.
+
+Not one showed the least flaw in personal neatness.  Moreover,
+the tents which these cadets had just quitted were in absolute
+order and wholly clean.  At West Point no excuse whatever is accepted
+for untidiness of person or quarters.
+
+With military snap and briskness the battalion was formed.  Then
+at brisk command, the battalion turned to the left in column of
+fours, marching down the hot, sun-blazed road to cadet mess.
+
+Despite the heat and the hard work of the forenoon---these cadets
+had been up, as they we every day in summer, since five in the
+morning---spirits ran high at the midday meal, and chaffing talk
+and laughter ran from table to table.
+
+The meal over, the battalion marched back to camp.  There were
+a few minutes yet before the afternoon drills.  A few minutes
+of leisure?  Yes, if such an easy act as dressing in uniform appropriate
+to the coming drill, may be termed leisure.
+
+"Drills are going to be called off, I reckon," murmured Greg,
+poking his head outside the khaki colored tent after he had put
+himself in readiness.
+
+"What's up?" demanded Anstey, lacing a legging.
+
+"The sky is about the color of ink over old Crow's Nest," reported
+Greg.
+
+Just then there came a vivid flash of lightning, followed, in
+a few seconds, by a deep, echoing roll of thunder.  The summer
+storms along this part of the Hudson River sometimes come almost
+out of the clear sky.
+
+"I'm always thankful for even the smallest favors," muttered Anstey,
+with a yawn.
+
+"We'll have to make up this drill some other day, when it's hotter,"
+Dick observed, but he nevertheless dropped on to a campstool with
+a grunt of relief.
+
+Yes; each of these three cadets could now have a campstool of his
+own in quarters, for Prescott, Holmes and Anstey were all yearlings.
+
+And a yearling is "some one" in the cadet corps.  For the first few
+days after his release from the plebe class the yearling is quite
+likely to feel that he is nearly "the whole thing."  By degrees,
+however, the yearling in summer encampment discovers that there is
+a first class of much older cadets above him.
+
+There are no second classmen in summer encampment, until just
+before the time to break camp and return to barracks for the following
+academic year.  Members of the new second class---men who have
+successfully passed through the first two years of life at the
+United States Military Academy---are allowed two months and a half
+of summer furlough, during which time they return to their homes.
+
+Readers of the foregoing volume in this series, _"Dick Prescott's
+First Year at West Point"_, are already familiar with the ordeals,
+the hard work, the sorrows and the few pleasures, indeed, of plebe
+life at West Point.
+
+These readers of the former volume recall just how Dick and Greg
+reached West Point in March of the year before; how they passed
+their entrance examinations and settled down to fifteen months
+of plebedom.  Such readers recall the fights in which the new
+men found themselves involved, the hazing, laughable and otherwise,
+will be recalled.  Our former readers will recollect that about
+the only pleasure that Dick Prescott found in his plebedom lay
+in his election to the presidency of his class---position that
+carries more responsibility than pleasure for the poor plebe leader
+of his class.
+
+But now all was wholly and happily changed.  Dick, Greg and Anstey
+were yearlings, entitled to real and friendly recognition from the
+upper classmen.
+
+It is only seldom that yearlings are accused of b.j.-ety (freshness),
+for about all of that is taken out of the cadet during his plebedom.
+
+But the greatest sign of all to the new yearling is that now,
+instead of finding himself liable to hazing at any time, he is
+now the one who administers the hazing.
+
+It is rare that a first or second classman takes the trouble to
+haze a plebe.  A first or second classman may notice that a plebe
+is a little too b.j. If so, the first or second classman usually
+drops a hint to a yearling, and the latter usually takes the plebe
+in hand.
+
+So far, our young friends had been yearlings just three days.
+They had not, as yet, exercised their new function of hazing
+any plebes.  The first three days in camp had been too full of
+new and hard duties to permit of their doing so.
+
+As Greg looked out of the tent, the wind suddenly sprang up, driving
+a gust of big raindrops before it.  In another moment there was
+a steady downpour.  Cadet corporals in raincoats darted through
+the company streets, carrying the cheering word that drills were
+suspended until change of orders.
+
+"I hope it rains all afternoon, then," gaped Anstey, behind his
+hand.  "It's a rest for mine---you bunkies (tentmates) permitting."
+
+Anstey stretched himself on his bed and was soon sound asleep.
+
+In summer encampment, taps sound at 10.30, and first call to
+reveille sounds at five in the morning.  Six hours and a half
+of sleep are none too much for a young man engaged at hard drilling
+and other work.  The cadet, when his duties, permit, may, however,
+snatch a few minutes of sleep at any time through the day.  Cadets
+in camp quickly get the knack of making a few minutes count for
+a nap.
+
+"It's going to be a good one," declared Greg, as the rain settled
+down into a monotonous drumming against the shelter flap over
+the tent.
+
+"A long one, too," spoke Prescott hopefully.  "Greg, I actually
+believe that the wind is growing cool."
+
+"Don't speak about it," begged Greg.  "I'm superstitious."
+
+"Superstitious?"
+
+"Yes; if a rain comes up just after dress parade and guardmount,
+then it'll keep up the rest of the evening, when we might be enjoying
+ourselves after a strenuous day of work.  But if you get to exulting
+over the rain that is to get us out of a drill or two, or bragging
+about a cool breeze getting lost around here in the daytime, then
+the raindrops cease at once, the wind dies down, and the sun comes
+out hotter than it has been before in a week!"
+
+Dick took another look outside.
+
+"Then I won't say that this rain is going to last all afternoon, but
+it is," Dick smiled.
+
+"Now, you've spoiled it all!" cried Greg.
+
+"Say, Holmesy, old spectre!" hailed a laughing voice across the
+street.
+
+"Hullo!" Greg answered.
+
+"Haven't a cold, have you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Don't feel that you're marked for pneumonia?"
+
+"What are you driving at Furlong?" Greg called back.
+
+"Come along over, if you can brave the storm!" called yearling
+Furlong.  "You and the rest."
+
+"Shall we go over, Dick?" asked Greg, turning around.
+
+"Yes; why not?  If nothing else, we'll leave Anstey in peace for
+his big sleep.  Duck out.  I'll be on your heels."
+
+The flap across the way was thrown open hospitably as Greg entered,
+followed by Cadet Prescott.
+
+"Where's old Mason and Dixon?" demanded Furlong, alluding to the
+fact that Anstey was a Virginian.
+
+"He has turned in for a big sleep," Greg informed their hosts.
+
+"Great!" chuckled Furlong.  "Let's peep in and throw a bucket
+of water over him.  He'll wake up and think the tent is leaking."
+
+"Don't you dare!" warned Dick, but he said it with a grin that
+robbed his rebuke of offence.  "Old Mace (short for 'Mason and
+Dixon') has been tired out ever since being on guard the first
+night in camp.  He actually needs the big sleep.  I believe this
+rain is for his benefit."
+
+"Say that again, and put it slowly," protested Furlong, looking
+bewildered.
+
+Griffin and Dobbs, the other two yearlings who tented with him,
+laughed in amusement.
+
+"Now, that we've lured the class president in here," continued
+Cadet Furlong, "we'll call this a class meeting.  A quorum isn't
+necessary.  You've got my campstool, Mr. President, so we'll consider
+you in the chair.  May I state the business before the meeting?"
+
+"Proceed, Mr. Furlong," requested Prescott gravely.
+
+"Then, sir, and gentlemen-----" began Furlong.
+
+"The chair calls you to order!" interrupted Dick sternly.
+
+"Will the chair kindly explain the point of order?"
+
+"It is out of order to make any distinction between the chair
+and 'gentlemen.'"
+
+"I yield to the---the pride of the chair," agreed Furlong, with
+a comical bow.  "Mr. Chairman and other gentlemen, the question
+that I wish to put is-----"
+
+Cadet Furlong now paused, glancing solemnly about him before he
+continued:
+
+"What are we going to do with the plebes?"
+
+Dick dropped his tone of presiding officer as he answered:
+
+"I take it, Miles---pardon me, _Furlong_, that your question really
+means, what are we going to do to the plebes?"
+
+"Same thing," contended the other yearling.
+
+"Why should we do anything to them?" asked Dick gravely.
+
+"Why should we---say, did you hear the man?" appealed Furlong,
+looking around him despairingly at the other yearlings.  "Why
+should we do anything to the plebes?  And yet, in a trusting moment,
+we elected old ramrod to be president of the class!  Why should
+we---o-o-o-o-h!"
+
+Cadet Furlong made a gurgling sound in his throat, as though he
+were perishing for lack of air.
+
+"Prescott isn't serious," hinted Griffin.
+
+"Yes, I am," contended Dick, half stubbornly.  "Griffin, what
+did you think of yearlings---last year?"
+
+"What I thought, last year," retorted Cadet Griffin, "doesn't
+much matter now.  Then I was an ignorant, stupid, unregenerate,
+unsophisticated, useless, worthless and objectionable member of
+the community.  I hadn't advanced far enough to appreciate the
+very exalted position that a yearling holds by right."
+
+"We now know, quite well," broke in Dobbs, "that it is a yearling's
+sacred and bounden duty to lick a plebe into shape in the shortest
+possible order.  Though it never has been done, and never can be
+done inside of a year," he finished with a sigh.
+
+"Do you seek words of wisdom from your class president?" Cadet
+Prescott inquired.
+
+"Oh, yes, wise and worthy sir!" begged Furlong.
+
+"Then this is almost the best that I can think of," Dick went
+on.  It will never be possible to stamp out wholly the hazing
+of plebes at West Point.  But we fellows can make a new record,
+if we will, by frowning on all severe and needless forms of hazing.
+I had the reputation of getting a lot of hazing last year, didn't I?"
+
+"You surely did, old ramrod," murmured Furlong sympathetically.
+"At times, then, my heart ached for you, but now, with my increased
+intelligence, I perceive how much good it all did you."
+
+"I took my hazing pretty well, didn't I?" insisted Dick.
+
+"All that came your way you took like a gentleman," agreed Dobbs.
+
+"At that time," went on Prescott, "I made up my mind that I'd
+submit, during my plebedom.  But I also made up my mind---and
+it still my mind---that I'd go very slow, indeed, in passing the
+torment on to the plebes who followed me."
+
+Dick spoke so seriously that there was an awkward pause.
+
+"I don't want you to think that I'm going to set up as a yearling
+saint," Dick added.  "I don't mean to say that I may not put a
+single plebe through any kind of pace.  What I do mean is that
+I shall go very slowly indeed in annoying any plebe.  I shan't
+do it, probably, unless I note a case of such utter b.j.-ety that
+I feel bound to bring the plebe quickly to his senses."
+
+"You cast a gloom over us," muttered Furlong.  "So far we haven't
+done any hazing.  We were thinking of ordering a plebe in here, and
+starting in on him, so as to get our hands in.  We need practice
+in the fine art."
+
+"Don't let me interfere with your pursuit of happiness," begged
+Dick, with mock politeness.
+
+"But, seriously, old ramrod, are you as strong for the plebe as we
+have just been led to believe?  Are you prepared to take the plebe
+to our heart and comfort him---instead of training him?"
+
+"Do you believe we ought to take the plebe right into our midst,
+and condole with him until we get him over his homesickness?
+Do you feel that we should overlook all the traditional b.j.ety
+of the plebe, and admit him to full fellowship without any probation
+or instruction?"
+
+"No," spoke Dick promptly.  "I don't believe in patting the plebe
+on the shoulder and increasing his conceit.  When a candidate
+first comes to West Point, and is admitted as a cadet, he is one
+of the most conceited simpletons on earth.  He has to have that
+all taken out of him, I admit.  He must be taught to respect and
+defer to upper classmen, just as he will have to do with his superior
+officers after he goes from here out into the service.  The plebe
+must be kept in his place.  I don't believe in making him feel
+that he's a pet.  I do believe in frowning down all b.j.-ety.
+I don't believe in recognizing a plebe, except officially.  But
+I don't believe in subjecting any really good fellow to a lot
+of senseless and half cruel hazing that has no purpose except
+the amusement of the yearlings.  Now, I think I've made myself
+clear.  At least, I've said all that I have to say on the subject.
+For the rest, I'll listen to the ideas of the rest of you."
+
+There was silence, broken at last by Greg, who said:
+
+"I think I agree, in the main, with Prescott."
+
+"Oh, of course," grunted Dobbs, in a tone which might mean that
+Greg Holmes was but the "shadow" of Dick Prescott.
+
+Greg looked quickly at Dobbs, but saw nothing in the other's face
+that justified him in taking open offence.
+
+Somehow, though none of the others said anything to that effect,
+Cadet Prescott began to feel that he was a bit in the way at a
+conference of this sort.  He didn't rise to leave at once, but
+he swung around on his campstool near the door.
+
+Without throwing the flap open, Prescott peeped through a slit-like
+opening.  As he did so he saw something that made his eyes flash.
+
+The rain was pouring a little less heavily now.  Down the company
+street came a cadet with a pail of water.
+
+It was Mr. Briggs, a round faced, laughter loving, somewhat roly
+poly lad of the plebe class.
+
+Just as Mr. Briggs was passing the tent in which Anstey lay making
+up some needed sleep, a snore came out.
+
+Briggs halted, glancing swiftly up and down the company street.
+
+No upper classman being in sight, Mr. Briggs peeped into the tent.
+He saw Anstey, asleep and alone.
+
+Instantly raising the flap just enough, Mr. Briggs took careful
+aim, then shot half the contents of the pail of water over the
+chest and face of Yearling Anstey.
+
+Dick Prescott watched unseen by the b.j. plebe.  Mr. Briggs fled
+lightly, but swiftly four tents down the line and disappeared into
+his own quarters.
+
+From across the way, came a roar of wrath.
+
+Anstey was up, bellowing like a bull.  Yet, roused so ruthlessly
+from a sound sleep, it took him a few seconds to realize that
+his wetting must be due to human agency.
+
+Then Anstey flew to the tent door, looking out, but the chuckling
+plebe was already in his own tent, out of sight.
+
+"After what I've just said," announced Dick grimly, "I think I know
+of a plebe who requires some correction."
+
+"Listen to our preacher!" jeered Furlong.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PLEBE BRIGGS LEARNS A FEW THINGS
+
+
+"Anstey!" called Prescott softly across the company street.
+
+"Oh, was it you idiots?" demanded the Virginian, showing his wrathful
+looking face.
+
+"No," replied Dick.  "Come over as quickly as you can."
+
+It took Anstey a few minutes to dry himself, and to rearray himself,
+for the Virginian's sense of dignity would not permit him to go
+visiting in the drenched garments in which he had awakened.
+
+"Which one of you was it?" demanded Anstey, as he finally entered
+the tent of Furlong and his bunkies.
+
+"No one here," Dick replied.  "The other gentlemen don't even
+know what happened, for I haven't told them."
+
+So Anstey withdrew his look of suspicion from the five cadets.
+No cadet may ever lie; not even to a comrade in the corps.  Any
+cadet who utters a lie, and is detected in it, is ostracized as
+being unfit for the company of gentlemen.  So, when Dick's prompt
+denial came, Anstey believed, as he was obliged to do.
+
+"It was a plebe, Mace," continued Dick.
+
+"I'll have all but his life, then!" cried the southerner fiercely.
+
+"I wouldn't even think of it.  The offender is only a cub," urged
+Dick.  "If you accept my advice, Mace, you won't even call the
+poor blubber out.  We'll just summon him here, and make the little
+imp so ashamed of himself that the lesson ought to last him through
+the rest of his plebedom.  I'm cooler than you are at this moment,
+Mace, but none the less disgusted.  Will you let me handle this
+affair?"
+
+"Yes," agreed Anstey quickly.
+
+As for Furlong, Griffin and Dobbs, it was "just nuts" for them
+to see their class president, lately so stately on the subject
+of hazing, now actually proposing to take a plebe sternly in hand.
+The three bunkies exchanged grins.
+
+"Tell us, Mace," continued Dick, "have you had any occasion to take
+Mr. Briggs in hand at any time?
+
+"So it was Mr. Briggs?" demanded Anstey angrily, turning toward
+the door.
+
+"Wait!  Have you taken Mr. Briggs in hand at any time?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Anstey.  "When you and Holmesy were out, last
+evening, I had Mr. Briggs in our tent for grinning at me and failing
+to say 'sir' when he addressed me."
+
+"You put him through some performances?"
+
+"Nothing so very tiresome," replied Anstey.  "I made him brace
+for five minutes, and then go through the silent manual of arms
+for five more."
+
+"Humph!  That wasn't much!" grunted Furlong.
+
+"I guess that was why Mr. Briggs felt that he had to get square,"
+mused Dick aloud.  "But a plebe is not allowed to get square by
+doing anything b.j."
+
+Again Anstey turned as if to go out, but Dick broke in:
+
+"Don't do it, Mace.  Try, for the next half hour, to keep as cool
+as an iceberg.  Trust the treatment of the impish plebe to us.
+Greg, old fellow, will you be the one to go down and tell Mr.
+Briggs that his presence in this tent is desired immediately?"
+
+Plebe Briggs was alone in his tent, his bunkies being absent on
+a visit in another tent.  Mr. Briggs was still grinning broadly
+as he remembered the roar with which Anstey had acknowledged the
+big splash.
+
+But of a sudden Mr. Briggs's grin faded like the mist, for Greg
+was at the doorway.
+
+"Mr. Briggs, your presence is desired at once at Mr. Furlong's
+tent."
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the plebe meekly.  He got up with an alacrity
+that he did not feel, but which was the result of the new soldierly
+habit.  Mr. Briggs threw on his campaign hat and a raincoat, but,
+by the time he was outside of the tent, Holmes was just disappearing
+under canvas up the company street.
+
+"I guess I'm in for it," muttered the plebe sheepishly, as he
+strode up the street.  "Confound it, can a yearling see just as well
+when he's asleep as when he's awake?"
+
+He halted before Furlong's tent, rapping on the pole.
+
+"Mr. Briggs, sir."
+
+"Come in, Mr. Briggs."
+
+The plebe stepped into the tent, drawing himself up and standing
+at attention.
+
+For some seconds none of the yearlings spoke.  In fact, only Dick
+looked at the fourth classman.
+
+"Mr. Briggs," demanded Prescott at last, "where is your bucket?"
+
+"In my tent, sir."
+
+"You will fill it, and report back here with it at once."
+
+"Very good, sir."
+
+"Now, what on earth is coming?" quaked the plebe, as he possessed
+himself of his bucket and started for the nearest tap.
+
+In the shortest time possible the young man reported hack at the
+tent, his bucket as full of water as it would safely carry.
+
+"Set the bucket down, Mr. Briggs, at the rear of the tent."
+
+The plebe obeyed, then stood once more at attention.
+
+"Mr. Briggs," continued the president of the yearling class, "it
+was you who threw water over Mr. Anstey?"
+
+"I am not obliged to answer that, sir," replied the plebe.
+
+"You're quite within your rights there, mister," Dick admitted.
+"But I looked out of this tent just in time to see you do it.
+Have you any wish to deny it now?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Mister, you have given us the impression that you are altogether
+to b.j.-ish to amount to anything in the cadet corps.  Your sense
+of humor is bubbling over, but your judgment is so small that
+it would roll around inside the eye of a needle.  This is a serious
+condition, and we judge that your health will be sadly affected
+if the condition is not promptly cured.  One the first symptoms
+to be subdued is that of a swollen head.  The head needs reducing
+in size.  Take off your hat, and kneel in front of the bucket."
+
+This Mr. Briggs did, meekly enough, now.  There is never any sense
+in a mere plebe refusing to follow the commands of a yearling.
+"You will remain in that kneeling posture, mister, unless
+you are released from it.  Now, thrust your head down into the
+water, as far as you can without interfering with your breathing.
+Remain in that position.  Take your hands off the floor, sir,
+and do not rest them on the floor again.  Continue with your head
+in soak until you are directed to do otherwise."
+
+Even Anstey had to look grimly satisfied with this punishment.
+The unhappy plebe certainly did present a most laughable yet
+woeful appearance.  It seemed impossible to keep this position,
+without occasional steadying by the hands, but it had to be done.
+If the reader does not consider it a hard feat to kneel thus,
+with one's head immersed in the water, the reader can easily satisfy
+his curiosity on the point.
+
+Having thus put the plebe in soak, the yearlings all turned away
+from him, conversing among themselves on one subject and another.
+
+Yet, had the plebe ventured to raise his head somewhat out of
+the water, or to seek support from his hands, he would quickly
+have discovered that he was being effectively if covertly watched.
+
+Minute after minute the plebe remained "in soak." To him it seemed,
+of course, like hours.
+
+At last, when human endurance of the Briggs brand could last no
+longer, the plebe gave an expected lurch sideways, falling flat,
+upsetting the bucket and causing much of the water flow along his
+own neck and beneath his underclothing.
+
+"Mister, you are not on your knees, as directed," exclaimed Cadet
+Prescott.
+
+"I---I am sorry, sir, but I couldn't help falling over," replied
+crestfallen Mr. Briggs, standing at attention beside his overturned
+bucket.
+
+He wriggled slightly, in a way eloquently suggestive of the water
+that was trickling over his skin under his clothing.
+
+"Did you get wet, mister?" asked Dick.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Skin wet?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Now, that is really too bad, mister," continued Prescott in a
+tone that hinted at a great deal of sympathy.  "You mustn't be
+permitted to get chilled.  Exercise is what you need."
+
+Dick paused.
+
+"Poor, young Mr. Briggs stood mute, blinking back.
+
+"Milesy, may Mr. Briggs have the use of your piece for a few minutes?"
+
+"Why, surely," declared Cadet Furlong in a tone of great cordiality.
+
+"Mr. Briggs, take Mr. Furlong's piece, and go through the silent
+manual of arms," ordered the president of the yearling class.
+
+Mr. Briggs picked up the rifle that Furlong pointed out to him.
+Then, trying to look very grave in order to hide the extreme
+sheepishness that he really felt, Mr. Briggs brought the rifle up
+to port arms.
+
+"Proceed through the manual, mister," Dick counseled.  "And keep
+going until we decide that you have done it long enough to put
+you past the danger of pneumonia."
+
+Standing stiffly, the plebe started through the manual of arms.
+As soon as he had gone once through, with West Point precision
+in every movement, the plebe started in all over again.
+
+"Now, do this to the stationary marching, mister," added Dick
+gravely, as though prescribing something for the very immediate
+benefit of the luckless fourth classman.
+
+With that, Mr. Briggs began to "march," though not stirring from
+the spot on which he was stationed.  Left, right!  left, right!
+left, right! his feet moved, in the cadence of marching.  At
+the same time the victim was obliged to raise his feet.
+
+"Bring the feet up higher and more smartly, mister," directed
+Dick.
+
+Passing the rifle through every movement of the manual of arms,
+lifting his feet as high as he could, and yet obliged to bring
+them down noiselessly to the floor, Plebe Briggs quickly began
+to drip with perspiration.
+
+Yet his inquisitors sat by with the judicial gravity of drill
+sergeants.  For ten minutes Mr. Briggs continued this grotesque
+work.  He knew better than to stop; it would not be wise, even,
+to send any appealing glances at his inquisitors.
+
+"Halt!" called Prescott softly, at last.
+
+Briggs stopped, holding himself at attention after he had allowed
+the butt of the rifle to touch the floor noiselessly.
+
+"Mister, return Mr. Furlong's piece."
+
+The plebe obeyed, wondering what next was in store for him.  Prescott
+noted that Mr. Briggs's legs were trembling under him.
+
+"That is all, for the present, mister," announced the class sergeant.
+"But you will hold yourself in readiness, in case we call you out
+for a soiree this evening."
+
+"Yes, sir," assented the plebe.
+
+"You may go."
+
+Mr. Briggs judged that he had better salute the yearling class
+president very carefully as he passed out with his bucket.  This
+he did, then hastened down the company street.
+
+This time, when he had vanished behind his own tent flap, Mr.
+Briggs didn't indulge in any grimaces or chuckles.  Instead, he
+made haste to get off his dripping garments and to get out others,
+after he had enjoyed a rub down.
+
+"Serves me right!" muttered the plebe.  "I had been getting along
+first rate, with nobody bothering me.  Then I had to get that
+b.j. streak on this afternoon.  Now, I suppose I'm a marked plebe!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+GREG DEBATES BETWEEN GIRLS AND MISCHIEF
+
+
+"Considering that you are the noble class president, who had just
+made us feel so ashamed over our thoughts of hazing," muttered
+Mr. Furlong, "I must say, Prescott, that I don't look upon you
+as any tyro at hazing."
+
+"This case was very different," Dick answered quietly.  "This
+plebe, Briggs, was caught in a very rank piece of b.j.-ety.  We
+couldn't let his offence go by.  We hazed him for a straight cause,
+not merely for being a plebe.  What I object to is annoying plebes
+simply because they are green men."
+
+"But what about that soiree you mentioned to the plebe?" demanded
+Griffin eagerly.
+
+"I told him only to be ready if called," Prescott made reply.
+"I had no intention of bringing him over for a soiree this evening,
+unless the plebe does something else raw in the meantime."
+
+A "soiree" is an institution of the summer encampment.  The plebe
+who is in for a soiree may be either a man who has committed some
+direct offence against the upper classmen, or a plebe who has
+been observed to be simply too b.j. in general.  Mr. Plebe is
+directed to present himself at the tent of some upper classman.
+Several yearlings are here gathered to receive him.  He is taken
+in hand in no gentle way.  He is rebuked, scored "roasted."  He
+is made to feel that he is a disgrace to the United States Military
+Academy, and that he never will be a particle of value in the
+Service.  Mr. Plebe is hauled over the coals in a fashion that
+few civilians could invent or carry out.  Very likely, on top
+of all the lecturing, the man will be severely hazed.  He is also
+quite likely, especially if he show impatience, to be called out
+for a fight.
+
+The b.j.-est plebe, after a soiree by capable yearlings, is always
+afterwards observed to be a very meek plebe.
+
+The rain continued so long that not only were afternoon drills
+escaped, but dress parade as well.  It was not, in fact, much
+before supper time that the rain stopped and the sun came out
+briefly.  But the brief period of relaxation had been appreciated
+hugely throughout camp.  Three quarters of the cadets under canvas
+had found time for at least a two hours' sleep.
+
+When the battalion marched back from supper, and was dismissed,
+the young men turned to for their evening of leisure and pleasure.
+
+Over at Cullum Hall there was to be a hop for the evening.
+
+Not all cadets, however, attend hops at any time.
+
+Not long after supper many of the cadets began to dress carefully.
+
+"Going to the hop, old ramrod?" inquired Mr. Furlong, standing
+just outside his tent while he fitted a pair of white gloves over
+his hands.
+
+"Not to-night," returned Dick indifferently.
+
+"Why, do you know, you haven't shown your face at hop yet?" Furlong
+demanded.  "Yet when we were under instruction in the plebe class,
+you turned out to be one of our best dancers."
+
+"Oh, I'll be in at one of the hops, later on in the summer," responded
+Prescott.
+
+"One?" gasped Furlong.  "Oh, you wild, giddy thing!  You're going
+to do better, aren't you, Holmesy?" continued Furlong, as Dick's
+old chum came out, fitting on a pair of white gloves.
+
+"I'm going over and put my head in danger of being punched, I
+suppose," grinned Greg.  "I'm going to have the nerve to 'stag
+it' tonight."
+
+The man who "stags it"---that is, does not escort any young woman
+friend to the hop, must needs dance, if at all, with the girl
+some other cadet has "dragged." This sometimes causes bad feeling.
+
+"I'm going to drag a 'spoony femme' tonight," declared Furlong,
+contentedly.  "She's no 'L.P.,' at that."
+
+"Dragging a femme" is to escort a young woman to the hop.  If
+she be "spoony," that means that she is pretty.  But an "L.P."
+is a poor dancer.
+
+"Hotel?" inquired Greg.
+
+"Yes," nodded Mr. Furlong, turning to leave.  "Miss Wilton.  I
+don't believe you've met her.  Unless she dislikes your looks
+I may present you to her."
+
+"Do," begged Greg.  "I'd enjoy going through a few dreamy numbers."
+
+Mr. Furlong, having permission to go to the hotel for Miss Wilton,
+started off, moving at his best soldier's step.  After registering
+at the hotel office, in the book kept for that purpose, as every
+cadet is required to do, Mr. Furlong hoped for several minutes
+of talk with his pretty partner, either in a corner of the parlor,
+or on the veranda.  Only the parlor and the veranda are open to
+cadets having permission to call at the hotel.
+
+Greg, having no companion to go after, brought out his stool and
+seated himself beside Dick in front of the tent.
+
+"Why don't you go over to the hop tonight, Dick?" Greg asked.
+
+"Mainly because I don't wish to," replied Prescott, with a smile.
+
+"Granted.  But I am rather wondering why you don't wish to."
+
+"I think you can keep a secret, Greg," replied his old Gridley
+chum, looking quizzically at Holmes.  "Greg, I'm too awfully lonesome
+to trust myself at the hop tonight.
+
+"Eh?  Why, old ramrod, the hop ought to be the very place to lose
+that lonesome feeling."
+
+"Just what I'm afraid of," responded Prescott.
+
+"You---eh---huh! You're talking riddles now.
+
+"Greg, a cadet can't marry.  Or, if he does, his marriage acts
+as an automatic resignation, and he's dropped from the cadet corps."
+
+"I know all that," Holmes assented.
+
+"Now, here at West Point, with this nearly male-convent life,
+a fellow often gets so blamed lonesome that almost any girl looks
+fine to him, Greg.  First thing he knows, a cadet, being a natural
+gallant, anyway, goes so far in being spoons with some girl that
+he has to act like a gentleman, then, and declare intentions.
+A fellow can't show a nice girl a whole lot of spoony attentions,
+and then back off, letting the girl discover that he has been
+only fooling all summer.  You've heard, Greg, of plenty of cadets
+who have engaged themselves while here at the Academy."
+
+"Yes," nodded Greg.  "There's no regulation against a cadet becoming
+engaged to a girl.  The regulation only forbids him to marry while
+he's a cadet."
+
+"Now, a fellow like one of us either goes so far, in his lonesomeness,
+that he's grateful to a bright girl for cheering him and imagines
+he's in love with her; or else he finds that the girl thought
+he was in love with her, and she expects him to propose.  Greg,
+I don't want to make any mistakes that way.  It's easy for a cadet
+to capture the average girl's heart; it's his uniform, I suppose,
+for women always have been weak when uniforms enveloped fellows
+who otherwise wouldn't attract their notice.  Greg, I wonder how
+many cadets have been lonesome enough to propose to some girl,
+and afterwards find out it was all a mistake?  And how many girls
+fall in love with the uniform, thinking all the while that it's
+the fellow in the uniform?  How many cadets and girls recover
+from the delusion only in after years when it's too late.  I tell
+you, Greg, when a fellow gets into this cadet life, I think the
+practice of going too often to a hop may be dangerous for cadets
+and girls alike!
+
+"I'll get cold feet if I listen to you long," laughed yearling
+Holmes grimly.  "I wonder if I'd better pull these gloves off
+and stay where I am?"
+
+"I didn't have any idea of seeking to persuade you," Dick replied.
+"If you feel proof against the danger, run right over to Cullum
+and enjoy yourself."
+
+"I was just thinking," mused Greg, "of a promise you and Dave
+Darrin made some girls back in Gridley."
+
+"I remember that promise," nodded Dick.
+
+"You and Darrin promised Laura Bentley and Belle Meade that you'd
+each invite them to hops, you to West Point and Dave to Annapolis,
+just as soon as either one of you had a right to attend hops."
+
+"I know," nodded Prescott.
+
+Greg was silent.  After a few moments Dick ventured:
+
+"Greg, I kept that promise the day we moved into encampment---the
+first day that I was a yearling."
+
+"Oh!  Are Laura and Belle coming on West Point soon?" Holmes asked
+eagerly.
+
+"I don't know.  I'll be mighty glad when I do know.  But undoubtedly
+Darrin has invited them to Annapolis, too.  Now, it may be that,
+even if the girls can get away to travel a bit, they can't go
+to West Point and to Annapolis in the same season.  So the girls
+may be trying to make up their minds---which."
+
+"I hope they come here," murmured Holmes fervently.
+
+"So do I," Prescott replied promptly.
+
+"Dick---do you---mind if I ask a question," demanded Greg slowly.
+
+"No," smiled Dick, "for I think I know what it is."
+
+"Are you---is Laura---I mean-----"
+
+"You wonder whether Laura and I had any understanding before I
+left Gridley?  That's what you want to know?"
+
+"That is what I was wondering."
+
+"There is no understanding between us--not the least," Prescott
+replied.  "I don't know whether Laura would consent to one, now
+or later.  I don't know myself yet, either, Greg.  I want to wait
+until I have grown some in mind.  Laura Bentley is such a magnificent
+girl that it would be a crime to make any mistake either as to
+her feelings or mine."
+
+"Do you think good old Dave and Belle Meade had any understanding
+before Dave left Gridley?"
+
+"Dave went away after we did," Prescott answered.  "So I can't
+be sure.  But I don't believe Dave and Belle are pledged in any
+way."
+
+"Funny game, the whole thing!" sighed Greg, rising.  He had drawn
+off one of his white lisle-thread gloves, but now he was engaged
+in putting it on again.
+
+"Confidence deserves to be paid in the same coin, Greg," warned
+his chum.  "Did you leave any girl---back in Gridley---or elsewhere."
+
+"Dick, old ramrod," replied Cadet Holmes, frankly, as he finished
+drawing on his glove, "I'm unpledged, and, to the best of my belief,
+I'm wholly heart free."
+
+"Look out that you keep so for two or three years more, then,"
+laughed Dick, and Holmes, nodding lightly, strode away.
+
+Despite the hop, there were some visitors in camp that evening.
+Dick was presently invited over to join a group that was entertaining
+three college boys who had dropped off at West Point for two or
+three days.
+
+Greg spent an hour or so at the hop.  He was introduced to Miss
+Wilton, a pretty, black-eyed little girl, and danced one number
+with her.  He presently secured another partner.  But too many
+of the cadets were "stagging it" that night.  There were not feminine
+partners enough to go around.
+
+"My cue is to cut out, I guess," mused Greg, finding himself near
+the entrance to the ballroom.
+
+Once outside, Greg drew off his gloves, thrusting them in under
+the breast of his gray uniform coat.  He wasn't quite decided
+whether to go back to Cullum later.  But at present he wanted
+to stroll in the dark and to think.
+
+"I reckon I'll take Dick's line of philosophy, and cut girls a
+good deal," decided Greg.  "Yet, at West Point in the summer,
+it's either girls or mischief.  Mischief, if carried too far,
+gets a fellow bounced out of the Academy, while girls---I wonder
+which is safer?"
+
+Still guessing, Cadet Holmes wandered a good way from Cullum Hall,
+and was not again seen that night on the polished dancing floor.
+
+*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
+
+Anstey had gone visiting some other yearlings.  Dick, after leaving
+the college boys and their hosts, felt that a slow stroll outside of
+camp would be one of the pleasantest ways of passing the time until
+taps at 10.30.  Even after the rain, the night was close and sultry.
+
+"Don't you sing, Prescott?" called a first classman as Dick passed
+near the head of the color line.  "Some of our glee-club fellows
+are getting together to try some old home songs."
+
+But Dick shook his head.  Though he possessed a fair voice, the
+singing of sentimental or mournful ditties was not in his line
+that night.  He heard the strumming of guitars and mandolins as
+he left camp behind.
+
+Dick did not hurry, even to get away from the music.  He kept
+on up the road, and by the hotel, but was careful not to enter
+the grounds, though three or four yearlings called gayly to him
+from the hotel veranda.  He had no permission for tonight to visit
+the hotel.
+
+"I'm not going to get into a row with the K.C. for a stupid little
+violation like that," he muttered.
+
+Presently Dick's stroll took him over in the neighborhood of "Execution
+Hollow," the depression in the ground below where the reveille gun
+is stationed.
+
+Suddenly Dick halted, an amused look creeping into his face.
+
+"Now, who'd suspect good old Greg of getting into sheer mischief,
+all by himself?" the class president asked himself.
+
+For Holmes was bending a bit low, a hundred yards or so away, and
+stealing toward the fieldpiece that does duty as reveille gun.
+
+"It would be a shame to bet on what Greg's up to---it would be
+too easy!" muttered Prescott, standing behind a flowering bush
+at the road's edge.  "Greg is going to load the reveille gun,
+attach a long line to the firing cord, and rig it across the path
+here, so that some 'dragger,' coming back from seeing his 'femme'
+home, will trip over the cord and fire the gun. The dragger can't
+be blamed for what he didn't do on purpose, and cute little Greg
+will be safe in his tent.  But if Greg should happen to be caught
+it might mean the bounce from the Academy!  And, oh, wow!"
+
+Cadet Prescott's heart seemed to stop beating.  Glancing down
+the road he saw a man standing, there, in the olive drab uniform
+of the Army officer.  Captain Bates, of the tactical department,
+was quietly watching unsuspecting Cadet Holmes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE O.C. WANTS TO KNOW
+
+
+As has been said, Cadet Prescott felt as though his heart had
+stopped beating.
+
+In another instant mischievous Cadet Holmes would actually be
+slipping a shell into the reveille gun, if it were not already
+loaded, and then attaching a cord, to lay a trap for some other
+unsuspicious cadet.
+
+Captain Bates, who was quietly looking on, would have Mr. Holmes
+red handed.
+
+Charges would be preferred.  Undoubtedly Greg would soon be journeying
+homeward, his dream of the Army over.
+
+Dick could not call out and warn Greg.
+
+That would be a breach of discipline that would recoil surely
+upon Mr. Prescott's head, making him equally guilty with his chum.
+
+Yet, to see Greg walk unsuspectingly into the "tac.'s" hands in
+this fashion!  It was not to be thought of.
+
+For two or three seconds all manner thoughts played through Dick's
+mind.
+
+But, no matter what happened to him, loyalty would not allow him
+to stand by a mere mute spectator of Greg's downfall.
+
+Prescott felt sure that he himself had not yet been seen by the
+Army officer.
+
+Slipping out from behind the bush, Cadet Prescott stepped briskly
+along the path, bringing one hand sharply to his cap in salute.
+
+"Captain Bates, have I your permission to speak, sir?"
+
+Dick Prescott's voice, though not unduly loud, carried like a
+pistol shot to Greg's alert ears.
+
+Young Mr. Holmes did not immediately change his course, start
+or do anything else that would betray alarm.  Yet, ere Captain
+Bates's voice could be heard in reply, Greg had swung slowly around,
+and he came toward the path.
+
+"Permission is granted, Mr. Prescott," replied Captain Bates---but,
+oh, how coldly he spoke.
+
+The Army officer seemed trying to look Mr. Prescott through and
+through, for Bates thoroughly suspected Dick of a bold stroke
+to save his friend from watchful tac. eyes.
+
+"There was a question that came up among some of the yearlings
+in camp today, sir," Dick went on, very respectfully.  "I found
+myself ignorant, as were some of the others, as to the correct
+answer to the question.  As you are the officer in charge of the
+encampment, I have made bold, sir, to ask you the answer."
+
+"Is it a matter relating directly to military tactics or discipline,
+Mr. Prescott?" asked Captain Bates, speaking as coldly as before.
+
+"Indirectly, sir, I think."
+
+"Then state the question, Mr. Prescott."
+
+Greg, having reached the path, halted at attention several yards
+away from his bunkie.
+
+"The question that came up, sir," continued Dick, and he was speaking
+the truth, for the question had been discussed, "is whether there
+is any regulation, or any tacit rule that requires a cadet of
+the upper classes to attend any stated number of hops in the season,
+or during the year?
+
+"No cadet, Mr. Prescott, is required to attend any hop unless
+he so elects.  The single exception would be that any cadet, having
+once made an engagement to attend a hop, would be bound by his
+word to attend, unless he had received proper release from that
+engagement.  Such release, in nearly all instances, would come
+from the young woman whom the cadet had invited to attend a hop
+with him."
+
+"Thank you, sir." Again Dick saluted very respectfully.
+
+"Any other questions, Mr. Prescott?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+Dick saluted carefully.  Captain Bates returned the salute, and
+turned to go.
+
+Cadet Holmes, waiting until he found himself once more in range
+of the tactical officer's vision, raised his hand to his cap in
+very correct salute.  This salute, also, Captain Bates returned,
+and then strode on toward camp.
+
+"You came near missing me, Holmesy," Dick remarked carelessly
+and in a low voice, though he felt very certain that his tone
+overtook the departing tac.
+
+In silence, at first, Greg and Dick turned and walked in the opposite
+direction together.
+
+"Going to load the signal gun, eh, Greg!" chaffed Prescott.
+
+"Yes," confessed white-faced Holmes, a quiver in his voice.
+
+"It's a childish sport, and a dangerous one.  Better leave it
+to the fellows who are tired of being at West Point," advised
+Dick quietly.
+
+"Oh, what a debt I owe you, old ramrod!" cried Greg fervently.
+
+"Not a shadow of a debt, Greg.  You'd have done just the same
+thing for me."
+
+"Yes, if I could have been quick enough to think of it.  But I
+probably wouldn't have figured it out as swiftly as you did."
+
+"Yes, you would," Dick retorted grimly, "for it was the only way.
+What's that bulging out the front of your coat, Greg?"
+
+"The cord," Greg confessed, with a sheepish grin.
+
+"Better get rid of it right where you are.  Even a fishline is
+rope enough to hang a cadet when he gets into trouble too close
+to the reveille gun."
+
+Greg had barely tossed away the coil of cord when-----
+
+Bang!  bang!  bang!
+
+Bang!  bang!  BANG!
+
+The fusillade ripped out within a hundred yards of where they
+now stood.
+
+Dick and Greg halted in amazement.  They did not start, or jump,
+for the soldier habit was too firmly fixed with them.  But they
+were astounded.
+
+As they stood there, staring, more explosions ripped out on the
+night air, over by Battle Monument.
+
+Cadets Prescott and Holmes could see the flashes, also, close
+down near the ground, as though an infantry firing squad were
+lying prostrate and firing at will.
+
+Bang!  bang!  bang!  The fusillade continued.
+
+Behind the two cadets sounded running footsteps.
+
+"Hadn't we better duck?" demanded Greg.
+
+"No; it would look bad.  We had no hand in this, and we can stick
+to our word."
+
+Over at camp, orders were ringing out.  Though the two cadets
+near Battle Monument heard indistinctly, they knew it was the
+call for the cadet guard.
+
+Now the nearest runner passed them.  It was Captain Bates, on
+a dead run, and, as Bates was not much past thirty, and an athlete,
+he was getting over the ground fast.
+
+As he passed, Bates, without slackening speed, took Dick and Greg
+in with one swift glance.
+
+Back in Gridley Dick and Greg certainly would have dashed onward
+to the scene of the excitement.  As young soldiers, they knew
+better.  Their presence over by Battle Monument had not been officially
+requested.  Yet, as it was not time for taps, the cadets could
+and did stand where they were.
+
+Two different armed forces were now moving swiftly forward to
+reinforce the O.C., as the officer in charge is termed.
+
+Two policemen of the quartermaster's department---enlisted men
+of the Army, armed on with revolvers in holsters---ran over from
+the neighborhood of the nearest officers' quarters.
+
+Cadet Corporal Haynes and the relief of the guard, moving at double
+quick, passed Dick and Greg on the path.
+
+"Some fellows touched off firecrackers," whispered Greg to his chum.
+
+"Number one cannon crackers," guessed Prescott.
+
+They could see Captain Bates take a dark lantern from one of the
+quartermaster's police detail, and scan the ground closely all
+around where the cannon crackers had been discharged.
+
+"Nothing more doing," muttered yearling Prescott.  "We may as well
+be going back to camp, Greg.  But we'll lose a heap of that six hours
+and a half of sleep tonight."
+
+"Think so?" demanded Holmes moodily.
+
+"Know it.  The tac. saw us twice on this path, and he has us marked.
+The O.C. and the K.C. (commandant of cadets) will hold their own
+kind of court of inquiry tonight, and you and I are going to be
+grilled brown."
+
+"We didn't set the cannon crackers off; we didn't see anyone around
+the monument, and we don't know anything about it."
+
+"All true," nodded Dick.  "But we'll have to say it in all the
+different styles of good English that we can think of."
+
+Dick and Greg reached the encampment, and passed inside the limits,
+just before they heard the guard marching back.
+
+Then all was ominously quiet over at the tent of the O.C., Captain
+Bates.
+
+Tattoo had gone some time ago.  Now the alarm clock told the bunkies
+that they had just three minutes in which to get undressed and be
+in bed before taps sounded on the drum.
+
+"It's a shame, too," muttered Dick in an undertone.  "We won't
+be any more than on the blanket before the summons from the O.C.
+will arrive."
+
+"Here it comes, now," whispered Greg, nudging his bunkie.
+
+But it was Anstey, their tentmate, hastening to be undressed in
+time against taps.
+
+"What was the row?" asked the Virginian.
+
+"Cannon crackers over at Battle Monument," replied Dick.  "We were
+over there at the time."
+
+"You were?" asked Anstey quietly, but shooting at them a look
+of amused suspicion.
+
+So many cadets were now seeking their tents that our three bunkies
+did not notice that one footstep ceased before their door, for
+a moment, then passed on.
+
+The man outside was Bert Dodge, also of the Dodge was a former
+Gridley High School boy and a bitter enemy of Dick's.  The origin
+of that enmity was thoroughly told in the _High School Boys Series_.
+
+During the plebe year Dodge, who was a fellow of little honor
+or principle had done his best to involve Prescott in serious
+trouble with the Military Academy authorities, but had failed.
+Dodge, however, had succeeded in escaping detection, and had
+succeeded in passing on from the plebe to the yearling class.
+
+Anstey, however, who had been Dodge's roommate in the plebe year,
+was firmly resolved that he would not be roommate to Dodge when
+they returned to cadet barracks the next year.
+
+Dodge hated all three of the bunkies in this tent, but Dick Prescott
+he hated more than the other two combined.
+
+"Yes; we were near the spot," Dick said, answering Anstey's question.
+"But we didn't set off the crackers, or have anything to do with
+the matter.  We don't even know, or have a guess, as to who the
+offenders were."
+
+Though Dodge knew, in his soul, that he could believe Prescott,
+it was with an evil smile that Bert now hastened on, gaining his
+own tent.
+
+Taps sounded, and fifteen minutes more went by.  It began to look as
+though the Battle Monument affair would be allowed to go by until
+morning.  Greg was asleep, and Dick was just dozing off, when there
+came a sharp step in the company street.  The step had an official
+sound to it.  That step halted, suddenly, before the door of the tent
+of our three bunkies.
+
+"By order of the commandant of cadets," sounded the voice of Cadet
+Corporal Haynes.  "Mr. Prescott and Mr. Holmes will turn out with
+all due speed, and report at the office of the officer in charge."
+
+"Yes, sir," acknowledged Prescott, and nudged drowsy, half-awake
+Greg.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Holmes.
+
+Dick leaped up, lighting the candle.  Then he gave a slight kick
+that was enough to bring Holmes apart from his blanket.
+
+Hastily, though with soldierly neatness, the two yearlings dressed
+themselves, then stepped out into the night, prepared to face
+the rapid-fire gun of official curiosity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+"I RESPECTFULLY DECLINE TO ANSWER, SIR."
+
+
+"Mr. Prescott reports, sir."
+
+"Mr. Holmes reports, sir."
+
+Saluting, the two yearlings stepped into the tent of the O.C., then
+halted at attention.
+
+Two officers returned their salutes.  Captain Bates sat at his
+desk.  Lieutenant Colonel Strong, commandant of cadets, sat back
+in lower chair at the right of Captain Bates's desk.
+
+"Mr. Prescott," began Captain Bates, transfixing the yearling
+with his burning eyes, "you and Mr. Holmes were close to Battle
+Monument when the firecrackers were discharged there this evening.
+
+"Yes, sir," Dick admitted.
+
+"What do you know about the affair?"
+
+"Only this, sir: That, after passing you, we walked along the
+same path until we turned in not far from the monument.  We were
+walking toward it when we heard the discharges, and saw the flashes."
+
+"Had you been nearer to the monument at any time through the evening,
+Mr. Prescott?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+Dick answered with great promptness.
+
+"Mr. Prescott, have you sufficiently considered my question and your
+reply?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I will put a question of another kind.  Did you see, do you know,
+or have you any knowledge of any kind, of those who placed the
+firecrackers by the monument, or who set them off?"
+
+"Absolutely no knowledge, sir, on any point you mention," Dick
+rejoined promptly.
+
+"Did you have any knowledge that such a breach of discipline was
+being planned."
+
+"I did not, sir."
+
+"Mr. Prescott!"
+
+It was Colonel Strong who spoke.  Dick wheeled about, saluted,
+then stood at attention.
+
+"A serious offence against military discipline has been committed
+at Battle Monument tonight.  Have you any knowledge about the matter
+which, if in our possession, would aid in any way in clearing up the
+mystery surrounding this offence?
+
+"I have absolutely no knowledge of any form, sir, except that,
+as I stated, while Mr. Holmes and I were walking toward the monument,
+we heard the reports and saw the flashes."
+
+"You realize the full import of your statement, Mr. Prescott?"
+pressed the K.C.
+
+"I do, sir."
+
+"Then, on your honor as a cadet and a gentleman, you declare that
+your statement is true?"
+
+"I do, sir," Cadet Prescott replied.
+
+The pledge he had just given is the most solemn that is exacted
+of a United States military cadet.  Usually, the cadet's plain
+word is accepted as ample, for the sense of faith and honor is
+paramount at West Point.  A cadet detected in a lie would be forced
+out of the cadet corps by the ostracism of his own comrades.
+
+"That is all, for the present, Mr. Prescott."
+
+Dick respectfully saluted the K.C., then the O.C., next wheeled
+and marched out of the tent, going straight to his own tent.
+Prescott would gladly have remained, but he had been dismissed.
+
+It was twenty minutes later when Greg crept back into the tent and
+began to undress.
+
+"How about it?" whispered Prescott.
+
+"I was asked more questions, but all of the same import," Holmes
+answered in a whisper.
+
+"Did the O.C. make you tell on yourself, about being over by the
+reveille gun?"
+
+"No; I thought some of his questions led that way, but my other
+answers stopped him in that line.  As a last resort I would
+respectfully have declined to say anything to incriminate myself."
+
+As was afterwards learned, Dick and Greg were the only witnesses
+examined that night.  Captain Bates had followed the only trail
+at which he could guess, and had learned nothing.
+
+*    *   *    *    *    *    *    *
+
+"Mr. Prescott and Mr. Holmes both have the usual excellent reputation
+of cadets for truthfulness, haven't they, Captain?" asked Colonel
+Strong.
+
+"Yes, Colonel."
+
+"Then I am afraid we shall get no further in this investigation."
+
+"Unless, sir, my questions were so badly put as to give them a
+chance of shielding themselves without giving untruthful answers.
+I shall sleep on this matter tonight, Colonel.  I don't want
+these young men to think they can put such an easy one right over
+my head."
+
+"I wish you luck, Bates.  But I'm afraid you've shot off your
+only round of ammunition, and have found it a blank charge.  Good
+night."
+
+"Good night, sir."
+
+"Mr. Prescott was clever enough to prevent my pouncing on Mr.
+Holmes at the reveille gun tonight," mused the O.C. "I can hardly
+suspect Mr. Prescott of untruthfulness, but I wonder whether he
+has been clever enough to baffle me in this monument affair, without
+telling an absolute untruth?"
+
+For nearly a half an hour the O.C. lay awake, reviewing the method
+he had followed in questioning Cadet Prescott.
+
+In the morning, after breakfast, there were a few minutes of leisure
+in camp before the squads or platoons marched away for the first
+drills.
+
+"You were on the grill, last night, old ramrod?" asked Furlong, in
+a chuckling whisper.
+
+"Yes," Dick nodded.
+
+"You couldn't tell anything?"
+
+"I knew less than nothing to tell."
+
+"You didn't see us, last night, as we slipped away from the monu-----"
+
+"Shut up, you sun-scorched idiot!" cried Prescott sharply, under
+his breath.  "I don't want to know anything about it now."
+
+"Oh, that's all right, I suppose," said Mr. Furlong, looking furtively
+towards Bert Dodge, who was standing some distance off.
+
+The very thought that he was now practically certain, morally,
+at least, who one of the perpetrators of the monument affair was,
+made Dick uneasy.  He knew there was still a danger that he and
+Greg might be summoned again to the tent of the O.C.
+
+Bert Dodge saw, from a distance, the whispered talk between Dick
+and Mr. Furlong; he also saw the latter's quick, stealthy glance.
+
+Now, Dodge, from having tried to visit Furlong the night before,
+knew that the young man had returned from the hop, for he had
+seen Furlong go into his tent shortly after ten.  Dodge also knew
+that Furlong had been absent from camp at the time of the monument
+discharges.
+
+"Furlong is one of the offenders," thought Bert, "and Prescott
+is roasting him about it.  I suppose our highly conceited class
+president thinks it his place to lecture all the jokers in the
+class.  But how would it be possible, without getting myself into
+trouble, to pass on the hint that Prescott knows more than he
+is telling?"
+
+It didn't take a fellow with all of Cadet Dodge's natural meanness
+very long to invent a plan that looked feasible.
+
+Sauntering along near the guard tent, Dodge encountered a classmate
+with whom he was on fairly good terms, Mr. Harper, who was waiting
+to fall in when the next relief of the guard was called.
+
+"Prescott was on the grill last night, I hear," began Bert.
+
+"So I hear," nodded Harper.
+
+"I guess he dodged the O.C. cold," chuckled Dodge.
+
+"He denied any knowledge of the monument business, I've heard,"
+replied Harper.
+
+Bert chuckled.
+
+"That sounds like old Prescott," laughed Bert.  "And I'll bet
+he managed it without telling any lies.  I know Prescott of old.
+Our family once lived in the same town with him, you know.  Prescott
+was one of the biggest jokers in our High School.  And he never
+got caught in those days.  Prescott was always the artful dodger."
+
+"What do you mean by that!" asked Harper.  "You don't mean that
+Prescott is untruthful."
+
+"Oh, no, not at all," laughed Bert.  "But, if I could put him
+on the rack, and get the whole thing, unreservedly, out of Richard
+Prescott, I'd be willing to bet, in advance, that he knows just
+who set off the cannon crackers last night."
+
+Dodge was careful not to speak so that he could be overheard by
+Prescott or Furlong, yet he was certain that, on the still morning
+air around the guard tent, his voice was carrying sufficiently
+to penetrate to the other side of the khaki walls of the O.C.'s
+tent.
+
+"Prescott is the clever one, and the loyal one to all but tacs.,"
+laughed Bert to Harper, as he strolled away.  Dodge hoped that
+the O.C. was in his tent.
+
+It is true---Captain Bates was there.  Having drawn the flap,
+and being in the act of enjoying his morning newspaper, the O.C.
+heard.
+
+"Hang it, I felt last night that, while answering me truthfully,
+Mr. Prescott was proving the possession of sufficient cleverness
+to keep me off the monument trail, just as he foiled my catching
+Mr. Holmes," mused the O.C. "And I said as much last night to
+Colonel Strong."
+
+At that moment the flap of the tent was lifted and the K.C. returned
+the salute of his subordinate, who had promptly leaped to his feet.
+
+In a few swift, low words, Captain Bates repeated the conversation
+he had just overheard.
+
+"That bears out what you thought last night, Bates," rejoined the K.C.
+"I think there is nothing for it but to have Mr. Prescott in here and
+put him on the wheel again.  Rack him, Bates!"
+
+"I've just time, Colonel to catch Mr. Prescott before the drill
+squads go out.  Corporal of the guard!" hailed the O.C., looking
+out from his tent.
+
+In another moment a very erect young member of the guard was striding
+around the head of the encampment, and then down one of the company
+streets.  Dick, in front of his tent, in field uniform, received
+the summons and responded at once.
+
+"Caught him!" quivered Bert Dodge.  "No if that infernal humbug
+will get hot-headed and answer the O.C. rashly, there may be something
+good coming in the punishment line!  It would be a source of wild
+joy if I could get Dick Prescott on the wrong flank with the tacs.!"
+
+The instant that Dick reported, and found himself in the presence
+of his two inquisitors of the night before, he knew that some
+hint of his new knowledge must have reached the tactical department.
+
+"Mr. Prescott, last night," began Captain Bates, "you denied
+absolutely having any knowledge as to the persons who set off
+firecrackers near Battle Monument."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I have since gained good reason to think," went on the O.C., "that
+you know who at least one of the perpetrators was."
+
+Mr. Prescott remained silent.
+
+"Why do you not reply, Mr. Prescott?"
+
+"I didn't understand, sir, that you had asked me a question."
+
+Captain Bates flushed.  He hadn't asked a question, in question
+form, and he saw how neatly this cadet had "caught" him.  But
+that only served to increase the suspicion of both officers present
+that Mr. Prescott was a very clever witness who was successfully
+contriving to keep something back.
+
+"Mr. Prescott, do you now know who was responsible for the monument
+affair of last night?" insisted the O.C.
+
+"I don't know sir," replied Dick, putting all proper emphasis
+on the word.
+
+"Yet you suspect?"
+
+"I suspect one man, sir," Dick responded without attempt at concealment.
+
+"Is the one you suspect a cadet?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"His name?" broke in Lieutenant Colonel Strong.
+
+Dick Prescott whitened a bit.  He knew the chances he was taking now,
+but he replied, in a clear, steady voice:
+
+"I very respectfully decline to answer, sir!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+GREG PREPARES FOR FLIRTATION WALK
+
+
+"For what reason, sir?" demanded the K.C. sharply.
+
+Prescott opened his mouth, closed it again, without speaking,
+then at last asked slowly:
+
+"Sir, may I state my reasons in my own way?"
+
+"Proceed, Mr. Prescott."
+
+"My suspicion concerning a certain man, sir, does not cover a
+really direct suspicion that he had a hand in the affair.  His
+remark led me only to infer that the man was present."
+
+"That does not tell me, Mr. Prescott, why you have refused to
+answer the question that I put to you," insisted Colonel Strong.
+
+"My reason, sir, for respectfully declining to answer is twofold:
+First, I do not know whether I am legally required to state a
+suspicion only.  My second reason, sir, is that to state the name
+of the man I suspect would make me, in my own eyes, and in the
+eyes of my comrades, a tale-bearer."
+
+Since the K.C. had started this line of questioning, Captain Bates
+remained silent.  So, too, did the K.C. for some moments after
+Dick had finished.
+
+It was the first problem that faced the tactical officers---much
+harder one than it would considered in civilian life.
+
+In the first place, it is one of the highest West Point ideals
+never to treat a cadet with even a trace of injustice.  The young
+man who is being trained to be an officer, and who will, in time,
+be placed over other men, above all must be just.  In no other
+way can the cadet learn as much about justice as by being treated
+with it.
+
+As is the case with an accused man in the civil courts, no cadet
+may be forced to testify in way that would incriminate himself.
+When it comes to testifying against another the question has two
+aspects.
+
+The tale-bearer, the informer, is not appreciated in the military
+world.  He is loathed there, as in civil life.  Yet the refusal
+of one cadet to testify against another might be carried, insolently,
+to the point of insubordination.  So, when a cadet, under questioning,
+refuses to give evidence incriminating another cadet, his reason
+may be accepted; or, if it appear best to the military authorities,
+he may be warned that his reason is not sufficient, and then, if
+he still refuses to answer, he may be proceeded against as for
+disobedience of orders.
+
+It is a fine point.  The K.C. found it so at this moment.  Dick
+Prescott stood rigidly at attention, a fine, soldierly looking
+young fellow.  His face, his eyes, had all the stamp of truth
+and manliness.  Yet the suspicion had arisen with these two tacs.
+that Mr. Prescott was a young man who was extremely clever in
+giving truthful answers that shielded offending cadets.
+
+"You have stated your position unreservedly and exactly, Mr.
+Prescott?" inquired Colonel Strong at last.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You are certain that you have not more than the merest suspicion
+of the cadet off whom you have been speaking?
+
+"I am absolutely certain, sir."
+
+"How does it happen, Mr. Prescott, that you have this suspicion,
+and absolutely nothing more?"
+
+A cadet is not permitted to hesitate.  He must answer not only
+truthfully, but instantly.  So Dick looked the K.C. full in the
+eyes as answered:
+
+"A cadet, sir, started to say something, and I shut him up."
+
+"Because you did not wish to know more?"
+
+"Yes, sir," Prescott admitted honestly.
+
+Captain Bates fidgeted almost imperceptibly; in other words, as
+much as a military man may.  There were a few questions that he
+wanted to ask this cadet.  But it was Bates's superior officer
+who was now doing the questioning.
+
+The K.C. remained silent for perhaps half a minute.  Then he said:
+
+"That is all, at present, Mr. Prescott."
+
+Saluting the K.C., Dick next made a slight turn which brought
+him facing Captain Bates, whom he also saluted.  Both officers
+returned his salute.  Dick wheeled and marched from the tent.
+
+As he passed through the camp the cadet face had in it a soldierly
+inexpressiveness.  Even Bert Dodge, who covertly scanned Prescott
+from a distance, could not guess the outcome of the "grilling."
+
+"May I ask, Colonel, weather you agree with my opinion of Mr.
+Prescott?" inquired Captain Bates.
+
+"Your idea that he is an artful dodger?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"If he is," replied Lieutenant Colonel Strong, "then the young
+man is so very straightforwardly artful that he is likely to give
+us a mountain of mischief to handle before he is brought to book."
+
+"If I can catch him at anything by fair means," ventured Captain
+Bates, "then I am going to do it."
+
+"You are suspicious of Mr. Prescott?"
+
+"Why, I like the young man thoroughly, sir; but I believe that,
+if we do not find a means of curbing him, this summer's encampment
+will be a season of unusual mischief and sly insubordination."
+
+Perhaps there was something of a twinkle in Colonel Strong's eye
+as he rose to leave the tent.
+
+"If you do catch Mr. Prescott, Bates, I shall be interested in
+knowing the particulars promptly."
+
+Dick returned to his tent to find his bunkies gone to drills.
+The summons before the O.C. had relieved Prescott from the first
+period of drill.
+
+On Dick's wardrobe box lay two letters that the mail orderly had
+left for him.
+
+Both bore the Gridley postmark.  The home-hungry cadet pounced
+upon both of them, seating himself and examining the handwriting
+of the addresses.
+
+One letter was from his mother.  Cadet Prescott opened that first.
+It was a lengthy letter.  The young man ran through the pages
+hurriedly, to make sure that all was well with his parents.
+
+Now Dick held up the other letter.  This also was addressed in
+a feminine hand---as most of a cadet's mail is.  It was a small,
+square envelope, without crest or monogram, but the paper and
+cut were scrupulously good and fine.  It was the kind of stationery
+that would be used by girl brought up in a home of refined
+surroundings.
+
+Dick broke the seal with a consciousness of a little thrill that
+he had not felt in opening his mother's letter.  Dick did not
+have to look for the signature; he knew the penmanship.
+
+"My Dear Mr. Prescott," began the letter.  ("Hm!" muttered the
+reader.  "It used to be 'Dick'")
+
+"Your note came as a delightfully pleasant surprise," Dick read
+on ("Now, I wonder why it should have been a surprise?  Great
+Scott!  Now, I come to think of it, I hadn't written her before
+since last February!")
+
+"Of course we are going to drop all other plans for a flying visit
+to West Point," the letter ran on. "Belle is simply delighted
+with the idea.  She has heard from Mr. Darrin, but he suggests
+September as the best time for us to visit Annapolis.  So mother
+will bring Belle and myself to West Point.  We can spend two or
+three days there.  We shall arrive late on the afternoon on-----"
+
+As Dick read the date, he gave a start.
+
+"Why, they'll be here tomorrow afternoon," throbbed Prescott.
+
+Then and there Prescott stood up in the low-ceilinged tent and
+tossed his campaign hat up to the ridgepole.  That piece of headgear
+didn't have far to travel, but Dick accompanied it with an "hurrah!"
+uttered almost under his breath.
+
+"Won't Greg be the tickled boy!" murmured Prescott; joyously.
+"Some one from home---and folks that we both like!"
+
+Presently some of the drill squads returned to camp.  Greg and
+Anstey came in, warm and curious.
+
+"Did you get into any trouble with the O.C., old ramrod?" questioned
+Anstey in his soft voice.
+
+"I don't believe I did," Dick answered.
+
+Anstey nodded his congratulations.
+
+"Greg, old fellow, guess what's going to happen soon?" demanded
+Prescott.
+
+"I'd rather you'd tell me."
+
+"Folks from home!  Mrs. Bentley, Laura and Belle Meade will be
+here late tomorrow afternoon!
+
+"Great!" admitted Cadet Holmes, but to Dick's ear his chum's enthusiasm
+seemed perfunctory.
+
+"We'll drag femmes to the hop tomorrow night, eh, Greg?"
+
+"Anything on earth that you say, old ramrod," agreed Holmes placidly,
+then stepped out of his tent to visit across the way.
+
+"Spoony femmes?" inquired Anstey.
+
+"Spooniest ever!" Dick declared.
+
+"L.P.?"
+
+"Not on your coming shoulder-straps!" retorted Prescott, an eager
+look in his eyes.  "And say, Anstey, you're going to the hop tomorrow
+night, aren't you?
+
+"Hadn't thought so," replied the other quietly.
+
+"Anything else on?"
+
+"Nothing particular."
+
+"Then be at the hop, Anstey, old bunkie--do! I want you to meet
+both the young ladies, and dance at least a couple of numbers
+with each."
+
+"I reckon I'd go through fire or water for you, or Holmesy," murmured
+the Virginian quietly.
+
+"Oh, it isn't going to be anything like such an ordeal as that,"
+laughed Dick happily.  "Just wait until you've seen the young
+ladies.  That's all!"
+
+"As they-----" Anstey paused.  Then he went on, after considering:
+"As they come from home, old ramrod, I should think you and Holmesy
+would want them all to yourselves."
+
+"But don't you understand, you uncivilized being," demanded Dick,
+chuckling, "that we can't dance all the numbers with the girls?
+It would be a slight on the girls if only two men wanted to dance
+with them.  Besides, we want to show them all that's best about
+West Point.  We want them to meet as many as possible the very
+best fellows that are here."
+
+"My deepest thanks, suh, for the compliment," replied Anstey,
+with a deep bow.
+
+"Well, that describes you, doesn't it?" demanded Dick.  "We want
+these girls to carry away with them the finest impression possible
+of good old West Point!"
+
+When evening came, and Prescott and Holmes strolled through camp,
+listening to the band concert, Dick wanted to talk all the time
+about the coming visit of the girls.  Greg answered, though it
+struck his chum that Holmes was merely politely enthusiastic.
+
+"Say, Dick," whispered Greg presently, with far greater enthusiasm
+than he had been displaying, "look at that black-eyed, perfectly
+tinted little doll that is walking with Griffin!
+
+"Stroll around and meet them face to face presently, then," grinned
+Dick.  "Griff won't mind."
+
+"The deuce he won't" growled Greg.  "I'd have a scrap on my hands,
+besides being voted a butter-in."
+
+"Try it," advised Prescott, giving his chum a little shove.  "I
+tell you, Griff won't mind.  Her name is Griffin, too.  She's his
+sister."
+
+A moment later Prescott turned and tried to gulp down a great
+chuckle.  For Greg, without another word, had left him, and now
+was strolling along with an air of slight absorption, yet his
+course was so managed as to bring Mr. Holmes face to face with
+Griffin.  At least a dozen other gray and white-clad young men
+were also to be observed manoeuvring so as to meet Griffin casually.
+Thus it happened that Greg was but one of a group.  Observing
+this, Holmes increased his stride.
+
+"Hullo, Holmesy!" cried Griffin, with great cordiality.  "Glad
+to encounter you.  I've just been telling my sister about some
+of the best fellows.  Della, I present Mr. Holmes.  Mr. Holmes,
+my sister!"
+
+Greg lifted his cap in the most polished manner that he had been
+able to acquire at West Point, while a dozen other men scowled
+at Griffin, who appeared not to see them.
+
+Miss Adele Griffin was presently chatting most animatedly about
+her new impressions of West Point and the United States Military
+Academy.
+
+"Holmesy, you know so much more about things than I do," pleaded
+Griffin sweetly, "just be good to Dell for an hour, won't you?
+You're one of the best-informed men here.  Now, mind you, Dell!
+No fun at Mr. Holmes's expense.  Look out for her, Holmesy!"
+
+With that Griffin "slid away" as gracefully and neatly as though
+he hadn't been planning to do it all along.
+
+"Your brother has always been mighty pleasant to me, but he never
+was as downright good before," murmured Greg, looking down into
+the big black eyes that glanced laughingly up into is face.
+
+"Oh, if you are ordinarily observant," laughed Miss Griffin, "just
+keep your eyes on a level, and you'll be able, in five minutes,
+to understand why he is so good to you in the present instance."
+
+Nevertheless, it was fully ten minutes before they met Griff again.
+That young man was talking, with all animation, to a tall, rather
+stately blonde young lady.
+
+"My brother," remarked Miss Griffin, "is good boy, but he is
+calculating, even in his goodness.
+
+"I don't like to hear a word said against Griff," protested Greg,
+"for I feel that I'm under the greatest obligation of my life
+to him."
+
+Miss Griffin laughed easily, but she glanced up challengingly
+into the eyes of her tall escort.  Miss Griffin had heard of the
+gallantries of West Point's men, and didn't propose to be caught.
+
+"You must find the cadets a good deal below your expectations?"
+remarked Mr. Holmes inquiringly.
+
+"No; they're a wholly charming lot," replied the girl.  "Oh, that
+word 'lot' simply escaped me.  Yet it does seem rather apt.  Don't
+you think, Mr. Holmes, that the wearing of identical uniforms
+gives the young men rather the look of a 'lot'?"
+
+Greg felt just a bit crestfallen, but he wasn't going to show it.
+
+"Why, I don't know," he replied slowly.  "Some of the young ladies
+who come here seem able to distinguish units in the lot."
+
+"Differences in height, and variations in the color of hair and
+eyes?  Is that it?" asked Miss Griffin, with an air of mild curiosity.
+
+"Why, perhaps we're like Chinamen?" laughed Greg good-naturedly.
+"Pig-tailed and blue-bloused Chinese all look alike at first
+glance.  Gradually, however, one is able to note individual
+peculiarities of appearance."
+
+"Yes, I guess that's it, Mr. Holmes," replied the girl musingly.
+
+"Now, I won't ask you to tax yourself unpleasantly in distinguishing
+one cadet from another," Greg went on bravely.  "But I am hoping,
+with all my heart, that you'll know me the next time you meet me."
+
+"I can tell you how to make certain," responded Miss Griffin demurely.
+
+"Then I shall be your debtor for life!"
+
+"Wear a red carnation in your blouse, and carry a white handkerchief
+in your left hand."
+
+"You're cruel," sighed Greg.
+
+"Why?" demanded Miss Griffin.
+
+"Both tests that you suggest are against cadet regulations.  Let
+me suggest a better test?"
+
+"If you can?" challenged Miss Griffin.
+
+The band, at this moment, was playing a Strauss waltz.  The young
+people had strolled just a bit beyond the encampment, and now
+Greg compelled a halt under the added shadow of a big tree.
+
+"The test I long to suggest," replied Greg, "is so exacting that
+I hesitate to ask it."
+
+"My curiosity is aroused," complained Miss Griffin.
+
+"I had it in mind to ask you to look up into my face until you are
+certain that you will recognize it again."
+
+"Mercy!" gasped the black-eyed beauty.
+
+"I knew I was presumptuous and inconsiderate," admitted Greg meekly.
+
+None the less, Miss Griffin laughed and stood looking coyly up
+into Mr. Holmes's face.  But at last, feeling absurd, Miss Griffin
+shifted her glance.
+
+"I knew I was asking too much," remarked Greg in a tone of resignation.
+"You couldn't stand it, could you?"
+
+Laughing merrily, Miss Griffin turned her look upward again, meeting
+Greg Holmes's gray eyes.
+
+Then, after a few moments, she remarked thoughtfully:
+
+"My brother was over-solicitous in fearing that I would embarrass
+you in the least."
+
+"Are you going to be at the hop tomorrow night?" Greg asked.
+
+"I---would like to."
+
+"Can it be possible," queried Mr. Holmes, "that I am so fortunate
+as to be discreet in asking whether I may escort you there?"
+
+"If you care to be so charitable, Mr. Holmes."
+
+Greg had a moment's uneasy impulse to seize her hand by way of
+answer.  Fortunately, he restrained himself.
+
+"If I call for you at the hotel tomorrow evening, Miss Griffin,
+may I hope that you will recognize me?" he challenged.
+
+"I will take another look and make sure," she laughed softly,
+glancing up archly into Greg's face.
+
+As the concert drew to a close Greg had to make a decent show
+of trying to find Griffin, and he succeeded.  Griffin was still
+with the tall blonde.  Griffin had permission to go to the hotel,
+and Greg didn't.  So Greg strolled with Miss Griffin until near
+the hotel grounds.  Then he bade her a cordial good night, and
+Griff escorted both "femmes" to the hotel.
+
+"What do you think of Holmesy?" asked Griffin of his sister.
+
+"He's quite agreeable," replied Adele Griffin.  "Very soldierly, if
+I am any judge.  I wonder how he will look in a second lieutenant's
+uniform?"
+
+As our three bunkies prepared for bed that night Prescott remarked:
+
+"Tomorrow, Greg, we'll see the folks from home!  I hope you'll
+do nothing, though, to make Dave Darrin dislike you."
+
+"I won't," promised Greg solemnly.  Then: "Oh, great---Jove!
+I've-----"
+
+"Well?" demanded Dick.  "What have you done?
+
+"I've asked another femme to accept my drag to-morrow night!
+
+"Miss Griffin?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Anstey," continued Dick, turning quickly to hide a frown, "I shall
+have to draft you!"
+
+"I was bo'n and reared a gentleman, suh!" replied the Virginian,
+with cordial gravity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE FOLKS FROM HOME
+
+
+Two tall, superbly erect young men, showing the soldier in every
+line of bearing, stepped jauntily along the road leading to the
+hotel just before five o'clock.
+
+Each wore the fatigue cap of the cadet, the trim gray, black-trimmed
+blouse of the cadet uniform.  Their white duck trousers were the
+spooniest as to spotlessness and crease.
+
+Dick and Greg went straight to the hotel office.
+
+"The register, please," asked Prescott, for the clerk's back was
+turned over some work that he was doing.
+
+This was not a request for the hotel register but for the cadet
+register.  Understanding, the clerk turned and passed a small
+book known as the cadet register.  He opened it to the page for
+the day, while Prescott was reaching for a pen.
+
+In this register both young men inscribed their names.  Each had
+secured permission from the O.C. to visit the hotel.  At the close
+of every day, a transcript of the day's signatures by cadets is
+taken, and this transcript goes to the O.C. The clerk will send no
+cards for cadets who have not first registered.  The transcript of
+registry, which goes to the O.C., enables the latter to make sure
+that no cadets have visited the hotel without permission.
+
+Prescott laid down his visiting card.  Holmes laid another beside it.
+
+"Are Mrs. Bentley, Miss Bentley and Miss Meade here?" queried Dick.
+
+After consulting the hotel register the clerk nodded.
+
+"Our cards to Mrs. Bentley, please."
+
+"Front! Fifty-seven!" called the clerk to a bellboy.
+
+"Thank you," acknowledged Prescott.
+
+"Wheeling, the young men turned from the office, striding down
+the hotel veranda side by side.  They turned in at the ladies'
+entrance, then, caps in hand, stood waiting in the corridor.
+It is a rule that a cadet must enter no part of the hotel
+except the parlor.  He must see his friends either there, or on
+the veranda.  There is a story told that a general officer's wife
+visited West Point, for the first time, to see her son, a new
+cadet at West Point.  The plebe son called---with permission---sent
+up his card, and was summoned to his mother's room.  He went.
+A few minutes later there was a knock at the door.  The clerk
+stood there, apologetic but firm.
+
+"I am very sorry, madam, but the regulations provide that your
+son can visit you only in the parlor."
+
+"But I am the wife of Major General Blank!" exclaimed the surprised
+lady.
+
+"But, Mrs. Blank, your son is a cadet, and subject to the regulations
+on the subject.  He must either go to the parlor at once, or leave
+the hotel instantly.  If he refuses to do either I am forced to
+telephone to the tactical officer in charge."
+
+The general's wife was therefore obliged to descend to the parlor
+with her plebe son.
+
+No other room but the parlor!  This prohibition extends even to
+the dining room.  The cadet may not, under any circumstances,
+accept an invitation from a friend or relative to take a sociable
+meal with either.
+
+"Tyrannous" and "needlessly oppressive," are terms frequently
+applied by outsiders to the rules that hedge in cadets, but there
+is a good reason behind every regulation.
+
+Two or three minutes later a middle-aged woman came slowly down
+the staircase, gazing about her.  At last her glance settled,
+with some bewilderment on Dick and Greg, who were the only two
+cadets in the corridor.
+
+"Why, I believe you must be Mr. Prescott and Mr. Holmes!" exclaimed
+Mrs. Bentley, moving forward and holding out both hands.  "Yes;
+I am certain of it," she added, as Dick and Greg, bowing gracefully
+from the waistline, smiled goodhumoredly.  "Mercy!  But how you
+boys have grown!  I am not sure that it is even proper to call you
+boys any longer."
+
+"If we were boys any longer, Mrs. Bentley, I am sure you would
+be in doubt," laughed Dick easily.  "Yes; you see, cadets, under
+their training here, usually do shoot up in the air.  We have
+some short, runty cadets, however."
+
+Just then there was a flutter and a swish on the stairs.  Laura
+Bentley and Belle Meade came gliding forward, their eyes shining.
+
+"Yes; I know you both and could tell you apart," cried Laura,
+laughing, as she held out her hand.  "But what a tremendous change!"
+
+"Do you think it is a change for the better?" asked Dick, smiling.
+
+"Oh, I am sure that it is.  Isn't it, Belle?  A how wonderfully
+glad I am to see you both again."
+
+Dick gazed at Laura with pride.  He had no right to feel proud,
+except that she was from Gridley, and that she had come all the
+way to West Point to see him in his new life.
+
+Laura Bentley, too, had changed somewhat, though not so much as
+had her cadet friends.  She was but a shade taller, somewhat rounder,
+and much more womanly in an undefinable way.  She was sweeter
+looking in all ways---Dick recognized that much at a glance.
+Her eyes rested upon him, and then more briefly upon Greg, in
+utter friendliness free from coquetry.
+
+"Can't you get excused and take us over to dress parade?" asked
+Belle.
+
+Dick turned to look more closely at Miss Meade.  Yes; she, too,
+was changed, and wholly for the better as far as charm of appearance
+and manner went.  Both girls had lost the schoolgirl look.  They
+were, indeed, women, even if very young ones.
+
+"We can hardly get excused from any duty," Dick smiled.  "But
+to-day---a most unusual thing---there is no dress parade."
+
+"No parade?" exclaimed Mrs. Bentley in a tone of disappointment.
+
+"No; the officers are entertaining some distinguished outside
+visitors at Cullum Hall this afternoon, and the band is over at
+Cullum," Greg explained.
+
+"I am so sorry," murmured Mrs. Bentley.
+
+"But you will be here until the close of tomorrow afternoon?"
+asked Dick eagerly.
+
+"We had planned to go away about eleven in the forenoon," replied
+Mrs. Bentley.
+
+"Then you girls would miss a stroll along Flirtation Walk," suggested
+Cadet Prescott.  "It is a very strange thing for a young lady
+to go away from West Point and confess that she has not had cadet
+escort along Flirtation Walk."
+
+"Then we must stay until to-morrow afternoon; may we not, mother?"
+pleaded Laura.
+
+"Yes; for I wish you to see the most of West Point and its famous
+spots."
+
+"Then to-morrow afternoon you will be able, also, to see dress
+parade," Dick suggested.
+
+"Do you forget that tomorrow is Sunday?  asked Mrs. Bentley.
+
+"No; we have dress parade on Sunday."
+
+Mrs. Bentley looked puzzled.  To her it seemed almost sacrilegious
+to parade on Sunday!
+
+"Wait until you have seen our dress parade," Greg begged.  "Then
+you will understand.  It is really as impressive as a religious
+ceremony; it is the last honors of each day to our country's flag."
+
+"Oh," murmured Mrs. Bentley, looking relieved.
+
+By this time the little party had moved out on to the veranda.
+
+"As there is no dress parade this afternoon," urged Dick, "may
+we not take you over, and let you see our camp from the outside.
+Then, after supper, we may, if you wish, take you to the camp
+for a look before going to the hop."
+
+"As to supper," went on Mrs. Bentley, "you two young gentlemen
+must come to the hotel a take the meal with us.  Wait; I will
+send word to the office that we shall have guests."
+
+"If you do, you will give the clerk cause for a jolly smile,"
+explained Prescott, smiling.  "No cadet can possibly eat at the
+hotel.  There are many regulations that will surprise you, Mrs.
+Bentley.  I will explain as many as occur to me."
+
+Prescott walked between Mrs. Bentley and Laura, while Greg came
+along with Belle just behind them.
+
+"Are you taking me to the hop tonight, Mr. Holmes?" asked Belle
+with her usual directness.
+
+Poor Greg, seasoned cadet though he was, flushed uncomfortably.
+
+"I should be," stammered Greg, "but it happens that I am already
+engaged to drag---to escort a young lady to tonight's hop."
+
+"I like that word 'drag' better than 'escort'," laughed Belle.
+
+"But Mr. Anstey, our tentmate, is to escort you tonight," Greg
+made haste to explain.
+
+"That is the first I have heard of it," replied Belle, with an
+odd smile.  "Does Mr. Anstey know about it, either?"
+
+"Don't make fun of me," begged Holmes quickly.  "Miss Meade, there
+are many customs here that are strange to outsiders.  But they
+are very old customs."
+
+"Some of them, I suppose," laughed Belle, "so old that they should
+be forgotten."
+
+"All cadets are regarded as gentlemen," hurried on Greg.  "Therefore,
+any cadet may be a suitable escort for a young woman.  If one
+cadet has two young lady friends coming to the hop, for instance,
+he asks one of his comrades to escort one of his friends.  Why,
+a cadet who, for any reason, finds himself unable to attend a
+hop, after he has invited a young lady, may arrange with anyone
+of his comrades to call for the young lady in his place."
+
+"What if she should decline the unknown substitute who reported
+to fill the task?" teased Belle.
+
+"It would betray her unfamiliarity with West Point," replied Greg,
+with more spirit than Belle had expected from this once very quiet
+young man.  "Miss Meade, we look upon a our comrades here as gentlemen.
+We regard the man whom we may send in our place as being more
+worthy than ourselves.  Isn't it natural, therefore, that we should
+expect the young lady to feel honored by the substitution in the
+way of escort?
+
+"Wholly so," Belle admitted.  "If I have said anything that sounded
+inconsiderate, or too light, you will forgive me, won't you, Mr.
+Holmes?"
+
+"You haven't offended, and you couldn't," Greg replied courteously;
+"for I never take offence where none is meant, and you would be
+incapable of intending any."
+
+The young people ahead were talking very quietly.  Laura, indeed,
+did not wish to talk much.  She was taken up with her study of
+the changed---and improved---Dick Prescott.
+
+"Do you know, Dick," she asked finally, "I am more pleased over
+your coming to West Point than over anything else that could have
+happened to you."
+
+"Why?" Dick asked.
+
+"Because the life here has made such a rapid and fine change in
+you."
+
+"You are sure it has made such a change?" Dick inquired.
+
+"Yes; you were a manly boy in Gridley, but you are an actual man,
+now, and I am certain that the change has been made more quickly
+here than would have happened in any other life."
+
+"One thing I can understand," pursued Laura.  "The life here is
+one that is full of purpose.  It must be.  It takes purpose and
+downright hard work to change two young men as you and Greg have
+been changed."
+
+By this time the little party was close to the west, or road side
+of the encampment.
+
+"Isn't that Bert Dodge over there?" asked Laura, after gazing rather
+intently at a somewhat distant cadet.
+
+"That is Mr. Dodge, Laura."
+
+"Do you care to call him over to speak with us?" asked Mrs. Bentley.
+
+"If you wish it," Dick responded evenly.
+
+Laura looked at him quickly.
+
+"Are you and Mr. Dodge no better friends here than at Gridley?"
+she asked in a low tone.
+
+"Mr. Dodge and I are classmates, but we are thrown together very
+little," Dick replied quietly.
+
+"I do not think we care about speaking with Mr. Dodge, do we,
+mother?" inquired Laura.
+
+"There is no need to," replied Mrs. Bentley.
+
+At that moment Bert Dodge espied the little party.  After a short,
+but curious stare, Bert turned and came toward them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+CADET DODGE HEARS SOMETHING
+
+
+It was an embarrassing position.  So, at least, thought Laura
+Bentley.
+
+"Let us walk on," she suggested, turning as though she had not
+seen Dodge.
+
+"Humph!" muttered Dodge, turning his own course.  "The girls are
+showing their backs to me.  Humph!  Not that I care about them
+particularly, but folks back in Gridley will be asking them if
+they saw me, and they'll answer that they didn't speak with me.
+There's no use in running into a snub, out here in the open.
+But it's easy!  I'll stag it at the hop tonight, and I can get
+within range before they can signal me to keep away."
+
+Smiling grimly, Dodge went to his tent.
+
+After a while it was necessary for Dick and Greg to take their
+friends back to the hotel, for the cadets must be on hand punctually
+for supper formation.
+
+"Mr. Anstey and I will call for you at 7:30, if we may," said
+Dick.
+
+"We shall be ready," Laura promised.  "And that we may not keep
+you waiting, we'll be down on the veranda."
+
+And waiting they were.  Dick and Anstey found Mrs. Bentley and
+the girls seated near the ladies' entrance.
+
+Anstey, the personification of southern grace and courtesy, made
+his most impressive greetings to the ladies.  His languid eyes
+took in Laura Bentley at a glance, almost, and he found her to
+be all that Prescott had described.  Belle Meade won Anstey's
+quick approval, though nothing in his face betrayed the fact.
+
+At first glance, it appeared that both girls were very simply
+attired in white, but they had spent days in planning the effects
+of their gowning.  Everything about their gowning was most perfectly
+attuned.  Above all, they looked what they were---two sweet,
+wholesome, unaffected young women.
+
+"We have time now for a short stroll to camp," proposed Prescott.
+"If you would like it, you can see how we live in summer.  The
+camp is lighted, now."
+
+So they strolled past the heads of the streets of the camp.  At
+the guard tent, Dick and Anstey explained the routine of guard
+duty, in as far as it would be interesting to women.  They touched,
+lightly, upon some of the pranks that are played against the cadet
+sentries.
+
+Wherever Mrs. Bentley and the girls passed, cadet friends lifted
+their caps to the ladies with Prescott and Anstey, the salutes
+being punctiliously returned.
+
+Bert Dodge was in a rage.  He could not get so much as the courtesy
+of a bow from these girls whom he had known for years.  He was
+being cut dead and he knew it, and the humiliation of the thing
+was more than he could well bear.  A half hour later, he saw the
+party coming, and discreetly took himself out of sight.
+
+"I can play my cards at the hop," he muttered.
+
+The over to Cullum Hall, through the dark night, the little party
+strolled, one of many similar parties.
+
+Once inside Cullum Hall, Prescott and Anstey, looking mightily
+like young copies of Mars in their splendid dress uniforms, conducted
+the ladies to seats at the side of the ballroom.  Dick and Anstey
+next took the ladies' light wraps and went with them to the cloak
+room, after which they passed on to the coat room and checked their
+own caps.
+
+Laura and Belle gazed about them with well-bred curiosity---Mrs.
+Bentley, too---at the other guests of the evening, who were arriving
+rapidly.  The scene was one of animated life.  It would have been
+hard to say whether the handsome gowns of the young ladies, or
+the cadet dress uniforms, gave more life and spirit to the scene.
+
+As Prescott and Anstey returned across the ballroom floor the
+orchestra started a preliminary march.  Both young cadets fell
+unconsciously in step close to the door, and came marching, side
+by side, soldierly---perfect!
+
+"What splendid, manly young fellows!" breathed Laura admiringly
+to Belle.  Her mother, too, heard.
+
+"Be careful, Laura," advised her mother, smilingly.  "Don't lose
+your heart to a scrap of gray cloth and a brass button."
+
+"Don't fear," smiled Miss Bentley happily.  "When I lose my heart
+it shall be to a man!  And how many of them we see here tonight
+mother!"
+
+Nearly with the precision of a marching platoon the two young
+men halted before the ladies.  Yet there was nothing of stiff
+formality about either Prescott or Anstey.  They stood before
+their friends, chatting lightly.
+
+"Tell us about some of the other hops that you have attended before,"
+begged Belle Meade.
+
+"But we haven't attended any," Dick replied.  "Do you recall my
+promise in Gridley, Miss Bentley---that I would invite you to
+my first hop as soon as I was eligible to attend one?"
+
+"Yes," nodded Laura smilingly.
+
+"This is my first hop," Dick said, smilingly.
+
+"Mine, too," affirmed Anstey.
+
+"Gracious!" laughed Belle merrily.  "I hope you both know how
+to dance."
+
+"We put in weary lessons as plebes, under the dancing master,"
+laughed Dick.
+
+"But you danced well in Gridley," protested Laura.
+
+"Thank you.  But the style is a bit different at West Point."
+
+"You make me uneasy," pouted Belle.
+
+"Then that uneasiness will vanish by the time you are half through
+with the first number."
+
+"There comes Mr. Holmes," discovered Laura.  "What a remarkably
+pretty girl with him."
+
+"Mr. Griffin's sister," said Dick.
+
+"Isn't that Mr. Dodge?" murmured Laura.
+
+Dick only half turned, but his sidelong glance covered the doorway.
+
+"Yes; he appears to be stagging it."
+
+Bert presently disappeared.  As a cadet always claims the first
+number or two with the young lady whom he has "dragged" hither,
+"staggers" have to wait until later in the programme.
+
+Then, presently the music for the opening dance struck up.  Dick
+had already presented Furlong, a "stagger," to Mrs. Bentley, so
+that she was not left alone.  Furlong had asked the pleasure of
+a dance with Laura's mother, but Mrs. Bentley, with instinctive
+tact, realized that the older women did not often dance at cadet
+hops.  So she begged Mr. Furlong to remain with her and tell her
+about the cadet hops.
+
+As the music struck up, and Dick bent before her, he thrilled
+with the grace and unaffected friendliness with which Laura rose
+and rested one hand on his shoulder.  She was a woman, and a
+magnificent one!  Away they whirled, Anstey and Belle following.
+
+"I greatly enjoyed the High School hops of former days," sighed
+Laura, "but this is finer."
+
+"Same escort," murmured Dick.
+
+"Same name, but in many ways much changed," laughed Miss Bentley.
+"Dick, I am so glad you came to West Point."
+
+"So am I," he answered simply.
+
+The first two numbers they danced together, then changed partners
+for the third dance.  Between times, Greg had appeared with Miss
+Griffin and introductions had followed.  Dick's fourth number
+was danced with Miss Griffin, while Anstey led her out for the
+fifth.
+
+For that fifth dance Dick introduced one of his classmates to
+Laura, and, during that dance, Prescott stood and chatted with
+Mrs. Bentley.  He saw to it that Laura's mother was very seldom
+without company through the evening.
+
+The sixth dance Dick enjoyed with Laura.
+
+"I had a reason for waiting and asking for this dance," he murmured
+in her ear.
+
+"Yes?" challenged Laura.
+
+"I discovered that it is the longest number on the programme.
+I would dearly love the next number, also, but I must not make
+the evening too dull and prosy for you.  Will you trust me to
+select your partner for the next dance?"
+
+"I am wholly in your hands," smiled Miss Bentley.
+
+After Dick had conducted Laura to a seat beside her mother he
+stepped away to find Sennett, of the yearling class.
+
+"Sennett," murmured Dick banteringly, "I have seen you casting
+eyes at Miss Bentley."
+
+"I fear I must plead my guilt, old ramrod.  Are you going to present
+me?"
+
+"For the next dance.  I think, if you are very much on your guard,
+Sennett, you will pass for enough of a gentleman for a few minutes."
+
+"I'll call you out for that on Monday," retorted the other yearling,
+in mock wrath.  "But, for the present, lead me over that I may
+prostrate myself at the feet of the femme."
+
+So Dick stood beside Mrs. Bentley and watched Laura dance with
+one of the most popular fellows of the class.  As Sennett and
+Laura returned to Mrs. Bentley, Cadet Dodge suddenly slipped up
+as though from nowhere.
+
+"Miss Bentley," he murmured, bowing before Laura, after having
+greeted her mother, "I am presumptuous enough to trust that you
+remember me."
+
+"Perfectly, Mr. Dodge," replied Laura in her even tones.  "How
+do you do?"
+
+She did not offer her hand; within the limits of perfectly good
+breeding it was her privilege to withhold it without slight or
+offence.
+
+"How have you been since the old High School days?"
+
+"Perfectly well, thank you."
+
+"And you, Mrs. Bentley?" asked Dodge, again bowing before her
+mother.
+
+"Very well, thank you, Mr. Dodge," replied Mrs. Bentley, who subtly
+took her cue from her daughter.
+
+"Now, Miss Bentley, you are not going to leave a broken heart
+behind you at West Point?" urged Bert softly.  "You are going
+to let me write my name on your dance card---even if only once."
+
+"You should have spoken earlier, Mr. Dodge," laughed Laura.  "Every
+dance, if not already taken, is good as promised."
+
+Yearling Dodge could not conceal his chagrin.  At that moment
+Belle Meade returned with one of the tallest cadets on the floor.
+
+Bert greeted her effusively.  Belle returned the greeting as evenly
+and as perfectly as Laura had done---but nothing more.
+
+"Miss Meade, you are going to be tenderhearted enough to flatter
+me with one dance?" begged Dodge.
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry!" replied Belle, in a tone of well-bred regret
+that carried with it nothing more than courtesy, "but I'm promised
+for every dance."
+
+Cadets Prescott and Sennett had turned slightly aside.  So had
+Belle's late partner.  Dodge knew that they were laughing inwardly
+at his Waterloo.  And Anstey and Greg, who stood by at this moment,
+appeared to be wearing inscrutable grins.  Dodge made his adieus
+hurriedly, walking up the ballroom just ahead of Furlong, who
+also had observed.  Bert felt sure so many of his comrades had
+seen and enjoyed his plight that his fury was at white heat as
+he stepped just outside the ballroom.
+
+Furlong came after him, looking at him quizzically.
+
+"We staggers have a hard time of it, eh, Dodge?" grinned Mr. Furlong.
+
+"Are you referring to the two femmes I was just billing?" shot
+out Dodge impetuously.  "Oh, they're very inconsequential girls!"
+
+Mr. Furlong drew himself up very straight, his eyes flashing fire.
+
+"You dog!" he exclaimed, in utter disgust.
+
+Yearling Dodge turned ghastly white.
+
+"You---you didn't understand me.  Let me explain," he urged.
+
+"You can't explain a remark like yours," muttered Mr. Furlong
+over his shoulder, as he turned his back on Bert.
+
+To be called a "dog" has but one sequence in cadet world.  Bert
+Dodge had to send his seconds to Mr. Furlong before taps.  Though
+they must have loathed their task, had they known the whole story,
+the seconds made arrangements with Mr. Furlong's representatives.
+
+Before reveille the next morning Bert Dodge stood up for nearly
+two rounds before the sledgehammer fists of Mr. Furlong.
+
+When it was over, Dodge sought cadet hospital, remaining there
+until Monday morning, and returning to camp looking somewhat the
+worse for wear.
+
+Along with truth, honor and courtesy, tenderest chivalry toward
+woman is one of the fairest flowers of the West Point teaching.
+
+Fellows like yearling Dodge cannot be taught.  They can only
+be insulted to the fighting point, and then pummelled.  Cadet
+Furlong went to considerable inconvenience, though uncomplainingly,
+for two young women whom he had not the pleasure of knowing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+SPOONY FEMME---FLIRTATION WALK
+
+
+"So this is Flirtation Walk?" asked Belle Meade.
+
+The four young people---Anstey was one of them---had just turned
+into the famous path, which begins not far to the eastward of
+the hotel.  It was between one and two o'clock on Sunday afternoon.
+
+"This is Flirtation Walk," replied Mr. Anstey.
+
+"But is one compelled to flirt, on this stroll?" asked Belle, with a
+comical pout.
+
+"By no means," Anstey hastened to assure her.  "Yet the surroundings
+often bring out all there may be of slumbering inclination to
+flirt."
+
+"Where did the walk ever get such a name?" pursued Belle.
+
+"Really, you have to see the first half of it before you can quite
+comprehend," the Virginian told her.
+
+"I suppose you have been over this way times innumerable?" teased
+Miss Meade.
+
+"Hardly," replied Anstey seriously.  "I have been a yearling only
+a few days."
+
+"But is a plebe forbidden to stroll here?"
+
+"If a plebe did have the brass to try it," replied Anstey slowly,
+"I reckon he would have to fight the whole yearling class in turn."
+
+Laura caught some of the conversation, and turned to Dick.
+
+"Haven't plebes any rights or privileges?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed," replied Prescott gravely.  "A plebe is fed
+three meals a day, like anyone else.  If he gets hurt he has a
+right to medical and surgical attendance.  He is allowed to attend
+chapel on Sunday, just like an upper classman, and he may receive
+and write letters.  But he mustn't butt into upper-class privileges."
+
+"Poor plebe!" sighed sympathetic Laura.
+
+"Lucky plebe!" amended Dick.
+
+"Weren't you fearfully glum and homesick last year?
+
+"Some of the time, desperately so."
+
+"Yet you believe it is right to ignore a plebe, and to make him
+so wretched?"
+
+"The upper classmen don't make the plebe wretched.  The plebe is
+just on probation while he's in the fourth class---that's all.
+The plebe is required to prove that he's a man before he's accepted
+as one."
+
+"It all seems dreadfully hard," contended Laura.
+
+"It is hard, but necessary, if the West Point man is to be graduated
+as anything but a snob with an enlarged cranium.  Laura, you remember
+what a fuss the 'Blade' made over me when I won my appointment?
+Now, almost every new man come to West Point with some such splurge
+made about him at home.  He reaches here thinking he's one of
+the smartest fellows in creation.  In a good many cases, too,
+the fellow has been spoiled ever since he was a baby, by being
+the son of wealthy parents, or by being from a family distinguished
+in some petty local social circles.  The first move here, on the
+part of the upper classmen, is to take all of that swelling out
+of the new man's head.  Then, most likely, the new man has never
+had any home training in being really manly.  Here, he must be
+a man or get out.  It takes some training, some probation, some
+hard knocks and other things to make a man out of the fellow.
+He has to be a man, if he's going to be fit to command troops."
+
+Anstey, who had been walking close behind his comrade, added:
+
+"The new man, if he has been spoiled at home, usually comes here
+with a more or less bad temper.  He can't talk ugly here, or double
+his fists, or give anyone black looks---except with one invariable
+result."
+
+"What?" asked both girls eagerly.
+
+"He must fight, as soon as the meeting can be arranged," replied
+Anstey.
+
+"That sounds rather horrible!" shuddered Laura.
+
+"Does it?" asked Dick dryly.  "We're being trained here for fighting
+men."
+
+"But what do they fight about?" inquired Belle.
+
+"Well, one man, who probably will never be thought of highly again,"
+replied Anstey, "spoke slightingly of a girl at the hop last night.
+The cadet who heard him didn't even know the girl, but he called
+the cadet a 'dog' for speaking that way of a woman."
+
+"What happened?" inquired Laura.
+
+"The man who was called a 'dog' was, according to our code, compelled
+to call his insulter out."
+
+"Are they going to fight?" asked Belle eagerly.
+
+"The 'dog' was whipped at the first streak of daylight this morning,"
+the Virginian answered.  "That particular 'dog' is now in a special
+little kennel at the hospital.  Hasn't he learned anything?  He
+knows more about practical chivalry than he did last night."
+
+"This talk is getting a bit savage," laughed Dick.  "Let me call
+your attention to the beauty of the view here."
+
+The view was, indeed, a striking one.  The two couples had halted
+at a rock-strewn point on the walk.  The beauty of the woods was
+all about them.
+
+Through the trees to the east they could see the Hudson, almost
+at their feet, yet far below them.  Looking northward, they saw
+a noble sweep of the same grand river, above the bend.
+
+"Come forward a bit" urged Anstey of Belle.  "I want to show you
+a beautiful effect across the river."
+
+As they passed on, just out of sight, Greg Holmes came along,
+talking animatedly with Miss Griffin.  At sight of Laura, Greg
+halted, and the four young people chatted.  At last Holmes and
+Miss Griffin passed on to speak to Belle.
+
+"I feel as if I could spend an entire day on this beautiful spot,"
+murmured Laura contentedly.
+
+"Let me fix a seat for you," begged Dick, spreading his handkerchief
+on a flat rock.
+
+Laura thanked him and sat down.  Dick threw himself on the grass
+beside the rock.
+
+Then Laura told him a lot of the home-town news, and they talked
+over the High School days to their hearts' content.
+
+"I don't know that I've ever seen such a beautiful spot as it
+is right at this part of the walk," spoke Laura presently, after
+a few couples had strolled above them.  "And such beautiful wild
+flowers!  Look at the honeysuckle up there.  I really wish I could
+get some of that to take back to the hotel.  I could press it
+before it withered."
+
+"It is easily enough obtained," smiled Dick, rising quickly.
+
+"O-o-o-h!  Don't, please!" called Miss Bentley uneasily, for Dick,
+after examining the face of the little cliff for footing, had
+begun to scale up toward the honeysuckle.
+
+"Hold your parasol---open," he directed, looking down with a smile.
+
+In another moment he was tossing down the beautiful blossoms into
+the open parasol that Miss Bentley held upside down.
+
+"How would you like some of these ferns?"  Dick called down, pulling
+out a sample by the roots and holding it out to view.
+
+"Oh, if you please!"
+
+Several ferns fell into the upturned parasol.  Then Dick scrambled
+down, resuming his lounging seat on the grass, while Laura examined
+her treasures and chatted.
+
+"What a splendid, thoroughbred girl she has become!" kept running
+through Prescott's mind.
+
+Every detail, from the tip of her small, dainty boot, peeping out
+from under the hem of the skirt, up to the beautiful coloring of her
+face and the purity of her low, white feminine brow Dick noted in
+turn.  He had never seen Laura look so attractive, not even in her
+dainty ball finery of the night before.  He had never felt so
+strongly drawn toward her as he did now.  He longed to tell her so,
+and not lightly, either, but with direct, manly force and meaning.
+
+Though Cadet Prescott's face showed none of his temptation, he
+found himself repeatedly on the dangerous brink of sentimentality.
+Since coming to West Point he had seen many charming girls, yet
+not one who appealed to him as did this dainty one from his own
+home town and the old, bygone school days.
+
+But Dick tried to hold himself back.  He had, yet, nothing to
+offer the woman whom he should tell of his love.  He was by no
+means certain that he would finally graduate from the Military
+Academy.  Without a place in life, what had he to offer?  Would
+it be fair or honorable to seek to capture the love of this girl
+when his own future was yet so uncertain?
+
+Yet caution and prudence seemed more likely to fly away every
+time he glanced at this dear girl.  In desperation Dick rose quickly.
+
+"Laura," he said softly, "if we remain here all afternoon there
+is a lot that we shall fail to see.  Are you for going on with
+our walk?"
+
+Laura Bentley looked up at him with something of a little start.
+Perhaps she, too, had been thinking, but a girl may not speak
+all that passes in her mind.
+
+"Yes," she answered; "let us keep on."
+
+Dick, as he walked beside her, was tortured with the feeling that
+Laura Bentley might not wait long before making her choice of
+men in the world.  Some other fellow, more enterprising than he,
+might-----
+
+"But it wouldn't be fair!" muttered Prescott to himself.  "I have
+no right to ask her to tie herself for years, and then perhaps
+fail myself."
+
+Laura thought her cadet companion appeared a bit absent minded
+during the rest of the walk.  Who shall know what passes in a
+girl's innermost mind?  Perhaps she divined what was moving in
+his mind.
+
+As they passed by the coast battery, then came up by Battle Monument,
+and so to the hotel, they found Greg and Anstey leaning against
+the veranda railing, chatting with Belle and Miss Griffin.  These
+latest arrivals joined the others.  Mrs. Bentley at last came
+down and joined them.
+
+Thrice, in duty bound, Dick glanced at his watch.  The third time
+a sigh full of bitterness escaped him.
+
+"This is the meanest minute in my life," he declared.  "It is
+time to say good-bye, for we must get back to camp and into full-dress
+uniform for parade."
+
+"But shall we not see you after parade?  asked Laura, looking
+up quickly, an odd look flitting over her face.
+
+"No; we are soldiers, and move by schedule," signed Dick.  "After
+parade there will be other duties, then supper.  And you are going
+at the end of parade!"
+
+Bravely Prescott faced the farewells, though he knew more of the
+wrench than even Laura could have guessed.
+
+"But you will come again in winter?" he murmured in a low voice
+to Laura.
+
+"If mother permits," she answered, looking down at her boot tip,
+then up again, smiling, into his face.
+
+"Mrs Bentley, you'll bring the girls here again, this winter,
+won't you?" appealed Dick.
+
+"If Dr. Bentley and Belle's parents approve, I'll try to," answered
+the matron.
+
+Then came the leave-takings, brief and open.  With a final lifting
+of their caps Dick and the others turned and strode down the path.
+Laura and Belle gazed after them until the young men had disappeared
+into the encampment.
+
+But you may be sure the girls were over on the parade ground by
+the time that the good old gray battalion had turned out and marched
+over, forming in battalion front.
+
+It was a beautiful sight.  Mrs. Bentley wasn't martial, but as
+she looked on at that straight, inflexible wall of gray and steel,
+as the band played the colors up to the right of line, the good
+matron was thinking to herself:
+
+"What a pity that the country hasn't a thousand such battalions
+of the flower of young American manhood!  Then what fear could
+we know in time of war?"
+
+The girls looked on almost breathlessly, starting at the boom
+of the sunset gun, then thrilling with a new realization of what
+their country meant when the band crashed out in the exultant
+strains of the "Star Spangled Banner" and the Stars and Stripes
+fluttered down at West Point, to rise on another day of the nation's
+life.
+
+It was over, and the visitors took the stage to the railway station.
+
+What a fearfully dull evening it seemed in camp!  Dick had never
+known the time to hang so heavily.  He would almost have welcomed
+guard duty.
+
+Over in another tent near by a "soiree" was in full but very quiet
+blast, for that bumptious plebe, Mr. Briggs, had been caught in
+more mischief, and was being "instructed" by his superiors in
+length of service.
+
+Prescott, however, didn't even look in to see what was happening.
+
+*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
+
+"Isn't West Point life glorious, Belle?" asked Laura eagerly as
+the West Shore train carried them toward New York.
+
+"Fine!" replied Belle enthusiastically.  "But still---wait until
+we have seen Annapolis."
+
+At ten o'clock the next morning the young ladies and Mrs. Bentley
+were traveling in a Pullman car, on another stage of their journey.
+"I wonder what our young cadets are doing?" Laura wondered
+aloud, as she leaned forward.
+
+"Enjoying themselves, you may be sure," Mrs. Bentley replied promptly,
+with a smile.
+
+"That summer encampment seems like one long, huge lark," put in
+Belle Meade.  "It must be great for young men to be able to enjoy
+themselves so thoroughly."
+
+"I wonder just what our young men are doing at this moment?" persisted
+Laura.
+
+"Well, if they're not dressing for something," calculated Mrs.
+Bentley, "you may be sure they're moving about looking as elegant
+as ever and making themselves highly agreeable in a social way."
+
+Ye gods of war!  At that very moment Dick, in field uniform,
+and dripping profusely under the hot sun, was carrying a long
+succession of planks, each nearly as long and heavy as he could
+manage, to other cadets who waited to nail them in place on a
+pontoon bridge out over an arm of the Hudson.  Greg Holmes was
+one of four young men toiling at the rope by which they were
+endeavoring to drag a mountain howitzer into position up a steep
+slope near Crow's Nest, while Anstey, studying field fortification,
+was digging in a trench with all his might and main.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE CURE FOR PLEBE ANIMAL SPIRITS
+
+
+So the weeks slipped by.
+
+Up at five in the morning, busy most of the time until six in
+the evening, the cadets of the first, third and fourth classes
+found ample time to enjoy themselves between dark and taps, at
+10.30, except when guard duty or something else interfered.
+
+Much of the "idle" time through the day was spent in short naps,
+to make up for that short six hours and a half of regular night
+sleep.
+
+Yet all the young men seemed to thrive in their life of hard work
+and outdoor air.
+
+Hazing was proceeding merrily, so far as some of the yearlings
+were concerned.  Perhaps half of the class in all engaged in two
+or more real hazings through the summer.  A few of the third classmen
+became almost inveterate hazers.
+
+But Dick Prescott, true to the principles had stated at the beginning
+of the encampment, hazed a plebe only when he believed it to be
+actually necessary in order to keep properly down some bumptious
+new man.
+
+Dodge returned from hospital after a very short stay there.  Word
+had spread through the camp.  Though Dodge, who admitted frankly
+that his thrashing had been deserved, managed to keep a few friends,
+but was avoided by most of the yearlings.  Since he had taken his
+medicine so frankly, he was not, however, "cut."
+
+One afternoon, when Dick had been dozing on his mattress for about
+ten minutes, during a period of freedom from drill, the tent flap
+rustled, and Yearling Furlong looked in.
+
+"What is it?" called Dick.
+
+"Sorry if I've roused you, old ramrod," murmured the caller.
+
+"That's all right, Milesy.  Come in and rest yourself.  You won't
+mind if I keep flat, will you?
+
+"Not in training for sick report?" asked Furlong, glancing down
+solicitously.  But he saw the glow of robust health glowing through
+the deep coat of tan on Prescott's face.
+
+"My appetite doesn't resemble sick report," laughed Dick.  "But,
+while you don't really look ill, Milesy, it's very plain that
+you have something serious on your mind.  Out with it!
+
+"I guess that will make me feel better," assented Furlong, with
+a sigh.  "It's all that little plebe beast, Mr. Briggs."
+
+"Surely he hasn't been hazing you?" inquired Prescott, opening
+his eyes very wide.
+
+"No, no; not just that, old ramrod," replied Furlong.  "But Mr.
+Briggs is proving a huge disappointment to me.  I've done my best
+to make a meek and lowly cub of him, but he won't consent to fill
+his place.  Now, that little beast made a good enough get away
+with his studies during the three months before camp.  He mastered
+all the work of the soldier in ranks.  At bottoms Mr. Briggs is
+really a very good little boy soldier.  But he's so abominably
+and incurably fresh that he should have gone to Annapolis, where
+there's always some salt in the breeze.
+
+"What has Mr. Briggs been doing now?" asked Dick with interest.
+
+"What doesn't Mr. Briggs do?" sighed Furlong mournfully.  "Instead
+of sleeping nights, that beast must lie awake, devising more ways
+of being unutterably fresh.  But now he's contaminating his bunkie,
+Mr. Ellis."
+
+"Evil company always did work havoc with good manners," nodded Dick.
+"So Mr. Ellis has gone bad, has he?"
+
+"Do you know," continued Furlong severely, "that three mornings
+ago, when Jessup, of our class, was dressing at forty horsepower
+so he wouldn't miss reveille formation, that he stepped into two
+shoes full of soft soap, and had to go out sloshing into line
+in that shape, just because he couldn't spare the time to take
+his shoes off and empty them?
+
+"Yes," nodded Prescott.  "We suspected Haverford, of the first
+class, of that, because Jessup, on guard, challenged Haverford
+when Haverford was trying to run the guard after taps."
+
+"Haverford nothing," retorted Furlong.  "He's above such jobs.
+No, sir!  This afternoon Jessup ran plumb into Mr. Ellis when
+that little beast bunkie of the other beast, Mr. Briggs, was just
+in the act of dropping soft soap into the shoes that Aldrich will
+wear to dress parade today.
+
+"Where on earth did Mr. Ellis get hold of soft soap?" demanded
+Prescott, raising himself on one elbow.
+
+"You're entirely missing the problem, old ramrod!" grunted Furlong
+wrathfully.  "The question is, how can we possibly soak such habits
+out of Mr. Ellis and Mr. Briggs?"
+
+"Perhaps it can't be done," suggested Dick.
+
+"It must be done!" uttered Furlong savagely.
+
+"Well, I can't think of any yearling better suited to the task that
+you are, Milesy!"
+
+"One man?  or one tentful, isn't equal to any such gigantic piece
+of work!" retorted Furlong.  "Ramrod, you've got to appoint a class
+committee to take these two baboons in hand.  It ought to be done
+this very night, too.  Now, sit up, won't you, and get your
+thinking cap on?"
+
+"Have you talked with any of the other men?"
+
+"Yes; and they all agree that a soiree must be given to Mr. Ellis,
+and that you should be present."
+
+"What is the call for me, Milesy?
+
+"You are the class president."
+
+"But this is no affair that involves the honor of the class.
+Therefore, as president, I cannot see that there is any call for me."
+
+"It is the feeling with all the members of the yearling class that
+you should be present."
+
+Prescott looked at his visitor intently for a moment.
+
+Dick understood, now.  He had taken "too little" interest in the
+hazing of b.j. plebes, and the class did not want to see its president
+shirk any duties that might be considered his, either as yearling
+or as class president.
+
+"Very good, Milesy," replied Dick quietly.  "You may inform all
+anxious inquirers that I'll be on hand.  Where and at what hour?"
+
+"Eight o'clock, in Dunstan's tent."
+
+"Very good."
+
+Furlong arose with a satisfied look on his face.  He had, in fact,
+been deputed by others to make sure that Prescott would be on
+hand.  There is always a good deal of risk attendant on hazing.
+It may lead to discovery---and dismissal.
+
+"I wonder if some of the fellows think I keep away from hazing
+simply because I'm afraid of risking my neck?" yawned Dick.  "They
+practically insist on my sitting in to-night, do they?  Oh, well!"
+
+The hop took more men away from camp than usual that night.  Other
+cadets met friends from the hotel or officers' quarters at post
+number one.
+
+But over in Dunstan's tent a considerable group of yearlings gathered.
+A few, in fact, were obliged to stand outside.  This they did
+in such a way as not to attract the attention of the O.C. or any
+chance tac.
+
+Dick was there, and with him were Holmes and Anstey, to both of
+whom had been conveyed a hint as strong as that which had reached
+the class president.  Furlong, Griffin and Dobbs were in the tent.
+Jessup and Aldrich were there as a matter of fact.
+
+On the still night air came the clanging of eight on the big clock
+down in the group of barracks and Academic Building.  Just as
+the strokes were pealing forth Plebes Briggs and Ellis came up
+the street and stood at the front pole of Dunstan's tent.
+
+"Come in, beasties," summoned Furlong.  "We are awaiting you."
+
+Neither plebe looked over joyous as the pair entered.
+
+"Stand there, misters," ordered Dick, pointing to the space that
+had been reserved for the victims of the affair.  "Now, misters,
+there is some complaint that you have mistaken West Point for a
+theatrical training school.  The suspicion is gaining ground that
+you two beasties imagine you have been appointed here as comedians.
+Is that your delusion?"
+
+"No, sir," replied Mr. Briggs and Mr. Ellis in one solemn breath.
+
+"Then what ails you, misters?" demanded Dick severely.
+
+Both plebes remained silent.
+
+"Answer me, sirs.  You first, Mr. Briggs."
+
+"I think we must have been carried away by excess of animal spirits,
+sir," replied Mr. Briggs, now speaking meekly enough.
+
+"Animal spirits?" repeated Dick thoughtfully.  "There may be much
+truth and reason in that idea.  Camp life here is repressive of
+animal spirits, to be sure.  We who are your mentors to some extent
+should have thought of that.  Mr. Briggs, you shall find relief for
+your animal spirits.  Mr. Ellis, what is your defence?"
+
+"I thought, sir---thought-----"
+
+With the yearling President's eyes fixed on him in stern, searching
+gaze, the once merry little Mr. Ellis became confused.  He broke
+off stameringly.
+
+"That's enough, Mr. Ellis," replied the class president.  "You
+admit that you thought.  Now, no plebe is capable of thinking.
+Your answer, mister, proves you to be guilty of egotism."
+
+Then Dick, with the air of a judge, yet with a mocking pretence
+of gentleness and leniency sounding; in his voice, turned back
+to Plebe Briggs.
+
+"Mr. Briggs, you will now proceed to relieve your animal spirits
+by some spirited animal conduct.  The animal that you will represent
+will be the crab.  Down on your face, mister!"
+
+Flat on the floor lay Mr. Briggs.  The yearlings outside, at the
+tent doorway, scenting something coming, peered in eagerly.
+
+"Now, spread out your arms and legs, mister, just as any good
+crab should do.  Raise your body from the floor.  Not too much;
+about six inches will do.  Now, mister, move about as nearly as
+possible in the manner of a crab.  Stop, mister!  Don't you know
+that a crab moves either backwards or sideways?  It will not give
+enough vent to your animal spirits unless you move exactly as
+your model, the crab, does.  Try it again, mister, and be painstaking
+in your imitation."
+
+Mr. Briggs presented a most grotesque appearance as he crawled
+about over the floor in the very limited space allowed him by
+the presence of so many others.  The yearlings enjoyed it all
+in mirthful silence.
+
+"As for you, mister," continued Dick, turning upon the uncomfortable
+Mr. Ellis, "your self-conceit so fills every part of your body
+that the only thing for you is to stand on your head.  Go to the
+rear tentpole and stand on your head.  You may brace your feet
+against the pole.  But remain on your head until we make sure
+that all the conceit has run out of you!"
+
+Mr. Briggs was still "crabbing it" over the floor.  Every minute
+the task became more irksome.
+
+"Up with you, mister," Prescott admonished.  "No self-respecting
+crab, with an abundance of animal spirits, ever trails along the
+ground like that."
+
+After some two minutes of standing on his head Mr. Ellis fell over
+sideways, his feet thudding.
+
+"Up with you, sir," admonished Dick.  "You are still so full of
+egotism that it sways you like the walking beam of a steamboat.
+Up with you, mister, and up you stay until there is no ballast
+of conceit left in you."
+
+Crab-crab-crab!  Mr. Briggs continued to move sidewise and backward
+over the tent flooring.
+
+Mr. Ellis was growing frightfully red in the face.  But Prescott,
+from the remembrance of his own plebe days, knew to a dot how
+long a healthy plebe could keep that inverted position without
+serious injury.  So the class president, sitting as judge in the
+court of hazing, showed no mercy.
+
+Some of the yearlings who stood outside peering in should have
+kept a weather eye open for the approach of trouble from tac.
+quarters.  But, as the ordeals of both of the once frisky plebes
+became more severe, the interest of those outside increased.
+
+Crab-crab-crab! continued Mr. Briggs.  It seemed to him as though
+his belt-line weighed fully a ton, so hard was it to keep his
+abdomen off the floor, resting solely on his hands and feet.
+
+Mr. Ellis must have felt that conceit and he could never again
+be friends, judging by the redness of his face and the straining
+of his muscles.
+
+An approaching step outside should have been heard by some of
+the yearlings looking in through the doorway, but it wasn't.
+Then, all in an instant, the step quickened, and Lieutenant
+Topham, O.C. for the day, made for the tent door!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+LIEUTENANT TOPHAM FEELS QUEER
+
+
+Yearling Kelton barely turned his head, but he caught sight of
+the olive drab of the uniform of the Army officer within a few
+feet.
+
+Pretending not to have seen the officer, Cadet Kelton drew in
+his breath with a sharp whistle.  It was not loud, but it was
+penetrating, and it carried the warning.
+
+Swift as a flash Prescott caught upside-down Mr. Ellis, and fairly
+rolled him out under the canvas edge at the back of the tent.
+
+Greg instantly shoved the prostrate Mr. Briggs through by the
+same exit.
+
+Fortunately both plebes were too much astonished to utter a sound.
+
+"Crouch and scowl at me, Greg---hideously whispered alert-witted
+Dick."
+
+As he spoke, Prescott swiftly crouched before Holmes.  Dick's
+hands rested on his knees; he stuck out his tongue and scowled
+fiercely at Holmes, who tried to repay the compliment with interest.
+
+Although all the yearlings in the tent had been "scared stiff"
+at Kelton's low, warning signal, all, by an effort, laughed heartily,
+their gaze on Prescott and Holmes.
+
+"Yah!" growled Dick.  "Perhaps I did steal the widow's chickens,
+and I'll even admit that I did appropriate the pennies from her
+baby's bank.  But that's nothing.  Tell 'em about the time you
+stole the oats from the blind horse's crib and put breakfast food
+in its place."
+
+Everyone of the yearlings in the tent knew that trouble stood
+at the door, and that they must keep up the pretence.
+
+There was a chorus of laughter, and two or three applauded.
+
+"I did---admit it," bellowed Greg.  "But you stand there and admit
+the whole shameful truth about the time that you-----"
+
+"Attention!" called Kelton, turning, then recognizing Lieutenant
+Topham and saluting.  "The officer in charge!"
+
+On the jump every yearling inside turned and stood rapidly at
+attention.
+
+"Gentlemen, I'm sorry to have spoiled the show," laughed Lieutenant
+Topham.  He had seen the shadows of Briggs and Ellis on the canvas,
+and had expected to drop in upon a different scene.  But now this
+tac. was wholly disarmed.  He honestly believed that he had stumbled
+upon a party of yearlings having a good time with a bit of nonsensical
+dialogue.
+
+"Mr. Prescott!  Mr. Holmes!"
+
+"Sir?" answered both yearlings, saluting.
+
+"I will suggest that you two might work up the act you were just
+indulging in.  You ought to raise a great laugh the next time a
+minstrel show is given by the cadets."
+
+"Thank you, sir"---from both "performers."
+
+Lieutenant Topham turned and passed on down the company street.
+
+The two expelled plebes, in the meantime, had a chance to slip
+off silently.  Even had Briggs and Ellis been inclined to "show
+up" their hazers, they knew too well the fate that would await
+such a pair of plebes at the hands of the cadet corps.
+
+"That shows how easily a suspicious man's eyes may deceive him,"
+mused Lieutenant Topham as he walked along.
+
+Kelton now allowed his gaze to follow the retreating O.C., while
+the yearlings in the tent stood in dazed silence.  They were still
+panting over the narrow escape from a scrape that might have cost
+them their places on the roll of the battalion.
+
+"Safe!" whispered Kelton.  "You may thank your deliverers."
+
+Then, indeed, the other yearlings pressed about Prescott and Holmes,
+hugging them and patting them extravagantly.
+
+When Lieutenant Topham returned to his tent, he found Captain
+Bates there, with a visitor.  By the time that he had stepped
+inside, Topham also discovered the presence of the K.C. likewise
+engaged.
+
+"I've just had a good lesson in the pranks that a man's eyes and
+ears may play upon him," announced Topham, unbelting his sword.
+
+Then he related, with relish, the occurrence at Dunstan's tent.
+
+"Humph!" grunted Captain Bates.  "You say Mr. Prescott was there?"
+
+"Yes, Captain."
+
+"Then, Topham, you didn't really see very much of what happened,
+after all," half jeered Captain Bates.  "If Prescott was there,
+the crowd had a plebe on hand, depend on it."
+
+"But I would have seen the plebe."
+
+"Not when you have to contend with a man like Mr. Prescott!  If
+he had a tenth of a second's warning it would be enough for him
+to roll the plebe out at the back of the tent."
+
+"Now, I think of it," confessed Lieutenant Topham slowly, "I think
+I did hear a slight sound at the back of the tent."
+
+"You didn't investigate that sound, Mr. Topham?"
+
+"Why, no, sir.  I thought I was looking at the whole show."
+
+"Instead of which," chuckled Captain Bates, "you saw only the
+curtain that had just been rung down, and the author of the piece
+bowing to the audience."
+
+"Well, I'll be---switched!" ejaculated Mr. Topham, dropping into
+his chair.
+
+"Mr. Prescott has the reputation of being the cleverest dodger
+in the yearling class," declared the K.C., in a dry voice.  "It
+was Bates who first discovered that quality in Mr. Prescott, but
+I must admit that he has convinced me.  Tomorrow a new cadet corporal
+will be appointed, and the fact published in orders.  The new
+corporal takes the place of Corporal Ryder, who has been busted
+(reduced).  Mr. Prescott would have been appointed corporal, but
+for his reputation for dodging out of the biggest scrapes of his
+class.  So Mr. Dodge is to be the new cadet corporal."
+
+"Oh, you sly old ramrod!" Dunstan was murmuring ecstatically,
+back in that other tent.  "When I think of all the yearlings who've
+been dropped for hazing in past years!  If each class had only had
+a Prescott all of those yearlings would have been saved to the
+service!"
+
+But Dick, though he did not know it, had a reputation in the
+tac. department which had just prevented his attaining to the
+honor that he desired most---appointment as cadet corporal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+UNDER A FEARFUL CHARGE
+
+
+Cadet Corporal Dodge took his new appointment as a triumph in
+revenge.  Of late he had been growing even less popular.  He
+determined to be a martinet with the men in ranks under him.  He
+made the mistake that all petty, senseless tyrants do.  The great
+disciplinarian is never needlessly a tyrant.
+
+*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
+
+The summer in camp passed quickly after July had gone.
+
+In all, Miss Griffin made four visits to West Point that summer.
+Greg became her favored and eager escort, to the disappointment
+of fifty men who would have been glad to take his place.
+
+Both Cadet Holmes and Mr. Griffin's very pretty sister kept up
+their attitudes of laughing challenge to each other throughout
+the summer.  It was impossible to see that either had scored a
+deep impression on the other.
+
+Not even to his chum did Greg confide whether Miss Griffin had
+caught his heart.  Mr. Griffin, her brother, could hardly venture
+a guess to himself as to whether his sister cared for the tall
+and manly looking Holmes.
+
+But when Miss Griffin had reached the end of her last summer visit
+to West Point she told Greg that she would not be there again for
+some time to come.
+
+"At least," asked Greg, "you'll be here again when the winter
+hops start?"
+
+"I cannot say," was all the reply Miss Adele Griffin would make.
+
+"In three weeks she goes back to the seminary in Virginia," said
+Griff, when Greg spoke to him about the matter.  "Dell won't see
+West Point before next summer.  Our people are not rich enough
+to keep Dell traveling all the time."
+
+Whether Greg was crestfallen at the news no one knew.  Greg had
+never believed, anyway, in wearing his heart on his sleeve---"just
+for other folks to stick pins in it, you know," was his explanation.
+
+There came the day when the furloughed second class marched over
+to camp.  Very quickly after that all classes were back in cadet
+barracks, and the charming summer of Mars had given place to the
+hard fall, winter and spring of the academic grind.
+
+The return to studies found both Greg and Dick forced to do some
+extra hard work.  Mathematics for this year went "miles ahead"
+of anything that the former Gridley boys had encountered in High
+School.  Had they been able to pursue this branch of study in
+the more leisurely and lenient way of the colleges, both young
+men might have stood well.
+
+As it was, after the first fortnight Greg went to the "goats,"
+or the lowest section in mathematics, while Dick, not extremely
+better off, hung only in the section above the goat line.
+
+As the fall hops came on Greg went to about three out of every four.
+
+"A fellow can bone until his brain is nothing but a mess of bone
+dust," he complained.  "Dick, old chum, you'd better go to hops,
+too."
+
+Dick went to only one, in October.  He stagged it, whereas Greg
+often dragged.  But Prescott saw no girl there who looked enough
+like Laura Bentley to interest him.  His standing in class interested
+him far more than hops at which a certain Gridley girl could not
+be present.
+
+Laura had written him that she and Belle might be at a hop early
+in December.
+
+"I'll wait and look forward to it," decided Dick.  But he said
+nothing, even to Greg.  Holmes was showing an ability to be interested
+in too many different girls, Prescott decided.
+
+But it may be that Holmes, knowing that Griffin corresponded with
+his pretty, black-eyed little sister, may have been intentionally
+furnishing subjects for the news that was despatched to a Virginia
+seminary.
+
+"Come on, old ramrod," urged Greg one Saturday night, as he gave
+great heed to his dressing.  "You'll bone yourself dry, staying
+here all the time with Smith's conic sections.  Drop that dry
+math. rot and stag it with me over at Cullum tonight.  You can
+take math. up again after chapel tomorrow."
+
+"Thank you," replied Prescott, turning around from the study table
+at which he was seated.  "I don't care much for the social whirl
+while there's any doubt about the January exams.  It would be
+no pleasure to go over to Cullum.  There'll be real satisfaction
+if I can look forward to better marking this coming week."
+
+Dick spent his time until taps at the study table.  But when he
+closed the book it was with a sigh of satisfaction.
+
+"If I can only go through a few more nights as easily as I have
+tonight, I'll soon astound myself by maxing it" (making one of
+the highest marks), he told himself.  "I think I'm beginning to
+see real light in conic sections, but I'll have the books out
+again tomorrow afternoon."
+
+*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
+
+"Well?" challenged Holmes gayly, as he entered their room after
+the hop.
+
+"I believe I'm going to turn over a new leaf and max it some,"
+grinned Prescott.
+
+"Don't!" expostulated Greg, with a look of mock alarm.
+
+The daily marks were not posted until the end of the academic
+week, but Prescott knew, when Monday's recitation in mathematics
+was over, that he had found new favor in the eyes of Captain Abbott,
+the instructor.  On Tuesday again he was sure that he had landed
+another high mark.
+
+Greg caught some of the fire of his chum's example, and he, too,
+began to bone so furiously that he decided to drop the hops for
+the time.
+
+Wednesday again Dick marched back in mathematics section with
+a consciousness that he had not fumbled once in explaining the
+problem that he had been ordered to set forth the blackboard.
+
+"I hear that you're going to graduate ahead of time, and be appointed
+professor in math.," grinned Greg.
+
+"Well, I'm at least beginning to find out that some things are
+better than hops," laughed Dick happily.  "Greg, if I can kill
+math. to my satisfaction this year, I shan't have another doubt
+about being able to get through and graduate here!"
+
+It was the end of November by this time, and Dick, on Thursday
+of this successful week, received a letter to the effect that
+Laura and Belle would arrive at West Point on Saturday afternoon
+at one o'clock.
+
+The news nearly broke up Prescott's three hours of study that
+Thursday evening.  However, he fought off the feeling of excitement
+and hampering delight.
+
+When Dick marched with his section into mathematics Friday morning
+he felt a calm confidence that he would keep up the average of
+his fine performance for the week.
+
+"Mr. Furlong, Mr. Dunstan, Mr. Prescott and Mr. Gray, go to the
+blackboards," ordered Captain Abbott.  "The other gentlemen will
+recite from their seats."
+
+Stepping nimbly over to the blackboard, in one corner of which
+his name had been written, Dick picked up the chalk, setting down
+the preliminaries of the problem assigned to him.  Then his chalk
+ran nimbly along over the first lines of his demonstration.
+
+At last he stopped.  Captain Abbott, who was generally accredited
+with possessing several pairs of eyes, noted that Mr. Prescott
+had halted.
+
+For some moments the young man went anxiously over what he had
+already written.  At last he turned around, facing the instructor,
+and saluted.
+
+"Permission to erase, sir?" requested Prescott.,
+
+Captain Abbott nodded his assent.
+
+Picking up the eraser, Dick carefully erased the last two lines
+that he had set down.
+
+Then, as though working under a new inspiration, he went ahead
+setting down line after line of the demonstration of this difficult
+problem.  Only once did he halt, and then for not more than thirty
+seconds.
+
+Dunstan went through a halting explanation of his problem.  Then
+Captain Abbott called:
+
+"Mr. Prescott!"
+
+Taking up the short pointer, Dick rattled off the statement of
+the problem.  Then he plunged into his demonstration, becoming
+more and more confident as he progressed.
+
+When he had finished Captain Abbott asked three or four questions.
+Dick answered these without hesitation.
+
+"Excellent," nodded the gratified instructor.  "That is all, Mr.
+Prescott."
+
+As Dick turned to step to his seat he pulled his handkerchief
+from the breast of his blouse and wiped the chalk from his hands.
+All unseen by himself a narrow slip of white paper fluttered
+from underneath his handkerchief to the floor.
+
+"Mr. Prescott," called Captain Abbott, "will you bring me that
+piece of paper from the floor?"
+
+Dick obeyed without curiosity, then turned again and gained his
+seat.  The instructor, in the meantime, had called upon Mr. Pike.
+While Pike was reciting, haltingly, Captain Abbott turned over
+the slip of paper on his desk, glancing at it with "one of his
+pairs of eyes."
+
+Anyone who had been looking at the instructor at that moment would
+have noted a slight start and a brief change of color in the captain's
+face.  But he said nothing until all of the cadets had recited
+and had been marked.
+
+"Mr. Prescott!" the instructor then called Dick rose, standing
+by his seat.
+
+"Mr. Prescott, did you work out your problem for today unaided?"
+
+"I had a little aid, last night, sir, from Mr. Anstey."
+
+"But you had no aid in the section room today?"
+
+"No, sir," replied Dick, feeling much puzzled.
+
+"You understand my question, Mr. Prescott?"
+
+"I think so, sir."
+
+"In putting down your demonstration on the blackboard today you had
+no aid whatever?"
+
+"None whatever, sir."
+
+"At one stage, Air.  Prescott, you hesitated, waited, then asked
+permission to erase?  After that erasure you went on with hardly
+a break to the end of the blackboard work."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And, at the time you hesitated, before securing leave to erase, you
+did not consult any aid in your work?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"This piece of paper," continued Captain Abbott, lifting the slip,
+"fell from your handkerchief when you drew it out, just as you
+left the blackboard.  That was why I asked you to bring it to
+me, Mr. Prescott.  This paper contains all the salient features
+of your demonstration.  Can you explain this fact, Mr. Prescott?"
+
+The astounded yearling felt as though his brain were reeling.
+He went hot and cold, all in a flash.
+
+In the same moment the other men of the section sat as though
+stunned.  All lying, deceit and fraud are so utterly detested
+at West Point that to a cadet it is incomprehensible how a comrade
+can be guilty of such an offence.
+
+It seemed to Prescott like an age ere he could master his voice.
+
+"I never saw that paper, sir, before you asked me to pick it up!"
+
+"But it dropped from under your handkerchief, Mr. Prescott.  Can
+you account for that?"
+
+"I cannot, sir."
+
+Captain Abbott looked thoughtfully, seriously, at Cadet Richard
+Prescott.  The instructor had always liked this young man, and
+had deemed him worthy of all trust.  Yet what did this evidence
+show?
+
+In the meantime the cadets sat staring the tops of their desks,
+or the covers of their books.  The gaze of each man was stony;
+so were his feelings.
+
+Prescott, the soul of honor, caught in such a scrape as this!
+
+But there must be some sensible and satisfactory explanation,
+thought at least half of the cadets present.
+
+"Have I permission to ask a question, sir?" asked Dick in an almost
+hollow voice.
+
+"Proceed, Mr. Prescott."
+
+"Is the paper in my handwriting, sir?"
+
+"It is not," declared the instructor.  "Most of it is in typewriting,
+with two figures drawn crudely in ink.  There are three or four
+typewriting machines on the post to which a cadet may find easy
+access.  You may examine this piece of paper, Mr. Prescott, if
+you think that will aid you to throw any light on the matter."
+
+Dick stepped forward, lurching slightly.  Most of the silent men
+of the section took advantage of this slight distraction to shift
+their feet to new positions.  The noise grated in that awful silence.
+
+How Dick's hand shook as he reached for the paper.  At first his
+eyes were too blurred for him to make out clearly what was on
+the paper.  But at last he made it all out.
+
+"I am very sorry, sir.  This paper tells me nothing."
+
+Captain Abbott's gaze was fixed keenly on the young man's face.
+White-faced Prescott, shaking and ghastly looking, showed all
+the evidences of detected, overwhelmed guilt.
+
+Innocent men often do the same.
+
+"You may return the paper and take your seat, Mr. Prescott."
+
+As Prescott turned away he made a powerful effort to hold his
+head erect, and to look fearlessly before him.
+
+It was a full minute, yet, before the bugle would sound through
+the Academic Building to end the recitation period.  Dick was
+not the only one in this section room who found the wait intolerable.
+
+But at last the bugle notes were heard.
+
+"The section is dismissed," announced Captain Abbott.  Dunstan,
+the section marcher, formed his men and led them thence.  No man
+in the section held his head more erect than did Prescott, who
+was conscious of his own absolute innocence in the affair.
+
+Yet, when he reached his room, and sank down at his study table,
+a groan escaped Dick Prescott.
+
+His head fell forward, cushioned in his folded arms.
+
+Thus Holmes found him on entering the room.
+
+"Why, old ramrod, what on earth is the matter?" gasped Greg.
+
+A groan from his chum was the only answer.
+
+At that moment another step, brisk and official, was heard in the
+corridor.  There was a short rap on the door, after which Unwine,
+cadet officer of the day, wearing his red sash and sword, stepped
+into the room.
+
+"Mr. Prescott, you are ordered in close arrest in your quarters
+until further orders."
+
+"Yes, sir," huskily replied Prescott, who had struggled to his
+feet and now stood at attention.
+
+As Unwine wheeled, marching from the room, Dick sank again over his
+study table.
+
+"Dick, old ramrod," pleaded Greg terrified, "what on earth-----"
+
+"Greg," came the anguished moan, "they're going to try to fire me
+from West Point for a common cheat---and I'm afraid they'll do it,
+too!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+IN CLOSE ARREST
+
+
+Ever since Greg Holmes first came to West Point he had been learning
+the repose and the reserve of the trained soldier.
+
+Yet if ever his face betrayed utter abandonment to amazement it
+was now.
+
+Cadet Holmes gazed at his chum in open-mouthed wonder.
+
+"By and by," uttered Greg fretfully, "You'll tell me the meaning
+of this joke, and why Mr. Unwine should be in it, too."
+
+It was several minutes before Prescott turned around again.  When
+he did there was a furious glare in his eyes.
+
+"Greg, old chum! This is no joke.  You heard Unwine.  He was delivering
+an official order, not carrying an April-fool package."
+
+"Well, then, what does it all mean?" demanded Greg stolidly, for
+he began to feel dazed.  "But, first of all, old ramrod, aren't
+you going to get ready to fall in for dinner formation?"
+
+Mechanically, wearily, Dick obeyed the suggestion.
+
+As he did so he managed to tell the story of the section room
+to horrified Greg.
+
+"See here," muttered Cadet Holmes energetically, "you didn't do
+anything in the cheating line.  Every fellow in the corps will
+know that.  So you'll have to set your wits at work to find the
+real explanation of the thing.  How could that paper have gotten
+in with your handkerchief?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Dick, shaking his head hopelessly.
+
+"Well, you've got to find out, son, and that right quick!  There
+isn't a moment to be lost!  You didn't cheat---you wouldn't know
+how do a deliberately dishonest thing.  But that reply won't satisfy
+the powers that be.  You've got to get your answer ready, and
+do it with a rush."
+
+"Perhaps you can also suggest where the rush should start," observed
+Prescott.
+
+"Yes; I've got to suggest everything that is going to be done,
+I reckon," muttered Greg, resting a chum's loyal hand on Dick's
+shoulder.  "Old ramrod, you're too dazed to think of anything,
+and I'm nearly as badly off myself.  Say, did anyone, to your
+knowledge, have your handkerchief?"
+
+Cadet Richard Prescott wheeled like a flash.  His face had gone
+white again; he stared as though at a terrifying ghost.
+
+"By the great horn spoon, Greg-----"
+
+"Good! You're getting roused.  Now, out with it!
+
+"There were a lot of us standing about in the area, a little before
+time for the math. sections to start off."
+
+"Yes?  And some other fellow handled your handkerchief?"
+
+"Bert Dodge found himself without one, and asked me for mine, to
+wipe a smear of black from the back of his hand."
+
+"Which hand?"
+
+"The left."
+
+"It doesn't really matter which hand," Greg pursued, "but I asked
+to make sure that your mind is working."
+
+"Oh, my mind is working," uttered Dick vengefully.
+
+"But what else happened about that handkerchief?
+
+"Dodge used it, then started to tuck it into his own blouse.
+I grinned and reminded him that the handkerchief would fit better
+inside my blouse."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Just then the call sounded, and we had to jump.  Dodge handed
+me back the handkerchief with a swift apology, and raced away
+to join his section."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I tucked the handkerchief in my blouse."
+
+"Now, do some hard thinking," insisted Holmes.  "Did you take
+that handkerchief out again until the unlucky time just after
+you had turned away from the board after explaining in math.?"
+
+Dick remained silent, while the clock in the room ticked off the
+seconds.
+
+"I am sure I did not," he replied firmly.  "No; that was the next
+time that I took my handkerchief out."
+
+"Huh!" muttered Greg.  "We've got our start.  And it won't be
+far to the end, either.  Cheer up, old man!"
+
+At that instant the call for formation sounded.  The young men
+were ready and turned to leave the room on the jump.  As they
+did so, Greg muttered in a low tone:
+
+"Say nothing, but hold up your head and smile.  Don't let anyone
+face you down.  Not ten fellows in the corps will even guess that
+you could possibly be guilty of anything mean!"
+
+Wouldn't they?  West Point cadets have such an utter contempt
+for anything savoring of cheating or lying that the mere suspicion
+is often enough to make them hold back.
+
+As the cadets moved to their places in the formations scores of
+cadets passed Prescott.
+
+Short as the time had been, the news was already flying through
+the corps.
+
+Usually Dick had a score of greetings as made his way to his place
+in line.  Today dozen cadets who had been among his friends seemed
+not to see him.
+
+Dick recoiled, inwardly, as though from a stinging blow in the
+face.  None of his comrades meant to be cruel.  But most of them
+wanted to make sure that the seemingly reliable charge was not
+true.  They must wait.
+
+Utterly dejected, Prescott marched to dinner.  On his way back
+to barracks a new and overwhelming thought came to him.
+
+Laura Bentley and her mother, and Belle Meade were due at the
+hotel the next afternoon, and he and Greg had arranged to drag
+the girls to the Saturday-night hop.
+
+"Greg, I can't leave quarters," muttered Dick huskily, as he threw
+himself down at his desk and began to write rapidly.  "You'll
+have to attend to sending this telegram for me."
+
+"On the jump!" assented Greg,
+
+The telegram was addressed to Laura Bentley, and read:
+
+"Don't come to West Point tomorrow.  My letter will explain."
+
+"I'll send it before the drawing lesson," Greg uttered, and vanished.
+
+Confined to quarters in close arrest, Cadet Prescott put in more
+than two miserable hours endeavoring to get that letter written.
+But he couldn't get it penned.  Then a knock came the door, and
+a telegram was handed in.  It read:
+
+"Wife and girls have left for shopping trip in New York.  Don't
+know where to reach them."
+
+It was signed by Dr. Bentley.  The yellow paper fluttered from
+Prescott's hands to the floor.  Mechanically he picked it up and
+carried it to his study table.
+
+"I can't stop them," he muttered dismally.  "Nor shall I be out
+of close arrest by that time, either.  There's nothing I can do.
+I can't even see them---and I've been looking forward to this
+for months!"
+
+Again Dick Prescott buried his head in his arms at the study table.
+To have Laura come here at the time when he was in the deepest
+disgrace that a cadet may face!
+
+Greg came back to find his chum pacing the floor in misery.
+
+"Well, it can't be helped," muttered Holmes philosophically.
+
+"Of course you and Anstey can drag the girls to Cullum."
+
+"Surely," muttered Holmes listlessly, "if the girls would go at
+all under such circumstances."
+
+"I've made their trip a mockery and a bitter disappointment,"
+groaned Dick.
+
+"No, you haven't ramrod," retorted Greg.  "Fate may be to blame,
+but you can't be held accountable for what you didn't do.  Have
+no fear.  I'll see to the ladies tomorrow afternoon.  But I'm
+a pile more interested in knowing what is to be done in your case.
+The superintendent and the K.C. may see the absurdity of this
+whole thing against you, and order your arrest ended."
+
+"But that won't clear me, Greg, and you know it.  There would
+still be the suspicion in the corps, and---O Greg!---I can't endure
+that suspicion."
+
+"Pshaw, old ramrod, you won't have to, very long.  We'll bust
+this whole suspicion higher than any kite ever flew.  See here,
+Dodge is responsible for your humiliation, and we'll drag it all
+out of him, if we have to tie him up by the thumbs!"
+
+A knock at the door, and Anstey entered.
+
+"I really couldn't get here before, old ramrod.  But I'd cut you
+in a minute if I thought it really necessary to come here and
+tell you that I don't believe any charge of dishonor against you,
+Prescott, could possibly be true."
+
+"It's mighty pleasant to have every fellow who feels that way come
+and say so," muttered Dick gratefully, as he thrust out his hand.
+
+Another knock at the door.  Cadet Prescott must report at once
+at the office of the K.C.
+
+Down the stairs trudged Dick, across the area, and into the office
+of the commandant of cadets.
+
+"I want to know, Mr. Prescott," declared that officer, "whether you
+can throw any added light in regard to the occurrence in Captain
+Abbott's section room this morning."
+
+Dick had to deliberate, swiftly, as to whether he should say anything
+about having loaned Mr. Dodge his handkerchief briefly.
+
+"I reckon I must speak of it," decided the unhappy cadet.  "I
+mean to have Dodge summoned, if I'm tried, so I may as well speak
+of it now."
+
+That, and other things, Dick stated.  The K.C. listened gravely.
+It was plain from the officer's manner that he believed Prescott
+was going to have difficulty in establishing his innocence.
+
+"That is all, Mr. Prescott," said the K.C. finally.  Dick saluted
+and returned to his room.
+
+In the few minutes that had elapsed, Anstey had done much.  In the
+room were a dozen yearlings who were known to be among Dick's best
+friends.  All shock his hand, assuring him that nothing could shake
+their faith in him.  It was comforting, but that was all.
+
+"You see, old ramrod," muttered Greg, when the callers had left,
+"there are enough who believe in you.  Now, you've got to justify
+that faith by hammering this charge into nothingness.  Someone
+has committed a crime---a moral crime anyway.  In my own mind
+Dodge is the criminal but I'm not yet prepared to prove it."
+
+In the meantime Cadet Albert Dodge was over in the K.C.'s office,
+undergoing a rigid questioning.  Dodge freely admitted the episode
+of handkerchief borrowing but denied any further knowledge.
+
+When Bert returned to barracks he was most bitter against Dick.
+To all who would listen to him Dodge freely stated his opinion
+of a man who would seek to shield his own wrong-doing by throwing
+suspicion on another.
+
+"There were plenty who saw me borrow the handkerchief," contended
+Dodge stormily.  "Whoever saw me take it also saw me return it.
+I'll defy any man to state, under oath, that I returned more
+than the handkerchief."
+
+"How did the smear happen to be on your hand?" asked Dunstan,
+who, besides belonging to the same mathematics section with Prescott
+was also a warm personal friend.
+
+Bert hesitated, looked uneasy, then replied:
+
+"How about the smear?  Why---I don't know It may have come from
+a match."
+
+"Yes, what about that smear?  How did it come there?" cried Greg,
+when Dunstan repeated Dodge's words.
+
+Through Greg's mind, for hours after that, the question insistently
+intruded itself:
+
+"How about that smear?"
+
+Yet the question seemed to lead to nothing.
+
+The next morning, Saturday, it was known, throughout cadet barracks,
+that a general court-martial order for Prescott would be published
+that afternoon.
+
+On the one o'clock train from New York came Mrs. Bentley, Laura
+and Belle.  They entered the bus at the station, and were driven
+up, across the plain, to the hotel.
+
+After dinner, the girls waited in pleasant expectancy for Dick
+and Greg to send up their cards.
+
+Greg's card came up, alone.
+
+Anstey was back in quarters with Dick.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+FRIENDS WHO STAND BY
+
+
+"Well?" cried Dick, darting up, his eyes shining wildly when Greg
+finally threw open the door.
+
+"Oh, bosh!" cried Greg jubilantly.  "Do you think those girls
+are going to believe anything against you?"
+
+"What did they say?" demanded Dick eagerly.
+
+"Well, of course they were dazed," continued Greg.  "In fact,
+Mrs. Bentley was the first to speak.  What she said was one word,
+'Preposterous!'"
+
+"There's a woman aftah my own heart, suh," murmured Anstey.
+
+"Belle got her voice next," continued Greg.  "What she said was:
+"'You're wrong, Mrs. Bentley.  It isn't even preposterous.'"
+
+"Miss Meade surely delighted me, the first time I ever saw her,"
+murmured Anstey.
+
+"Laura looked down to hide a few tears," continued Greg.  "But
+she brushed them away and looked up smiling.  'I'm sorry, sorry,
+sorry for Dick's temporary annoyance,' was what Laura said.  'But
+of course I know such deceit would be impossible in him, so I
+shall stay here until I know that the Military Academy authorities
+and the whole world realize how absurd such a suspicion must be.'"
+
+"She's going to remain here?" faltered Dick.
+
+"All three of 'em are.  They couldn't be driven off the reservation
+by a file of infantry, just now.  But both of the girls insisted on
+sending you a note.  Which will you have first?"
+
+"Don't trifle with me, Greg," begged Prescott.
+
+Anstey rose to go.
+
+"Don't take yourself off, Anstey old fellow.  Just pardon me while
+I read my notes."
+
+Dick read Laura's note through, thrilling with the absolute faith
+that it breathed:
+
+"Dear Dick: Don't be uneasy about us, and don't worry about yourself,
+either.  I couldn't express what I think about the charges, without
+having a man's license of speech!  But you know all that I would
+write you.  Just keep up the good old Gridley grit and smile for
+a few days.  We are going to be here to attend that court-martial,
+and to give you courage from the gallery---but I don't believe
+you need a bit.  Faithfully, Laura."
+
+Belle's note was much shorter.  It ran:
+
+"Dear Dick: What stupid ideas they have of comedy here at West
+Point!"
+
+And, as Belle knew that she wasn't and couldn't be Dick's sweetheart,
+she had not hesitated to sign herself, "Lovingly, Belle."
+
+Dick passed each note in turn to Anstey.
+
+"Your town suhtinly raises real girls!" was the southerner's quiet
+comment.
+
+Dick felt like a new being.  He was pacing the floor now, but
+in no unpleasant agitation.
+
+"Did you impress the girls with the knowledge that I begged them
+to go to the hop tonight?" asked Prescott, stopping short and
+eyeing Greg.
+
+"Did you think I'd forget half of my errand, old ramrod?" demanded
+Holmes indignantly "I delivered your full request, backed by all
+that I could add.  At first Mrs. Bentley and Laura were shocked at
+the very idea.  But Belle broke in with: 'If we didn't go, it would
+look as if we were in mourning for some one.  We're not.  We're just
+simply sorry that a poor idea of a farce keeps dear old Dick from
+being with us tonight.  If we don't go, Dick Prescott will be more
+unhappy about it than anyone else in the wide world.'"
+
+"Miss Meade suhtinly doesn't need spectacles," murmured Anstey.
+"She can see straight!"
+
+"So," continued Greg, "I'm going to drag Laura tonight, and Anstey
+is going to do the same for Belle."
+
+"And we'll suhtinly see to it that they have, outside of ourselves,
+of course, the handsomest men in the corps to dance with!" exclaimed
+Anstey.  "If any fine and handsome fellow even tries to get out of
+it, I'll call him out and fight him stiff, suh!"
+
+"I'm glad you have persuaded the girls to go," nodded Dick cheerily.
+"That will give me a happier evening than anything else could
+do just now."
+
+"What will you do this evening, Dick?" asked Greg.
+
+"I?  Oh, I'll be busy---and contented at the same time.  Tell that
+to Laura and Belle, please."
+
+Yet it was with a sense of weariness that Dick turned out for
+supper formation.  There were more pleasant greetings as he moved
+to his place in ranks, and that made him feel better for the moment.
+At his table at cadet mess he was amiably and cheerily included
+in all the merry conversation that flew around.
+
+Then back to quarters Dick went, and soon saw Greg and Anstey,
+looking their spooniest in their full-dress uniforms, depart on
+the mission of dragging.
+
+Prescott hardly sighed as he moved over to the study table.  He
+read over a score of times the notes the girls had sent him.
+
+Then came an orderly, who handed in a telegram.  Dick opened this
+with nervous fingers.  His eyes lit up when he found that it came
+from Annapolis.  The message read:
+
+_"Dear old Dick!
+You're the straightest fellow on earth!  We
+know.  Don't let anybody get your goat!_"
+
+_"Darrin And Dalzell,
+Third Class,
+U.S. Naval Academy."_
+
+"Dear old Gridley chums!" murmured the cadet, the moisture coming
+to his eyes.  "Yes, they should know me, if anyone does.  Those
+who know me best are all flocking to offer comfort.  Then---hang
+it!---I don't need any.  When a fellow's friends all believe in
+him, what more is there to ask?  But I wonder how the news reached
+Annapolis?  I know---Belle has telegraphed Dave.  She knew he'd
+stand by me."
+
+It was a very cheery Prescott to whom Anstey and Holmes returned.
+Anstey could remain but an instant, but that instant was enough
+to cheer the Virginian, the change in Prescott was so great.
+
+In the few moments left before taps sounded, Greg told his chum
+all he could of the hop, and of the resolute conduct of Laura
+and Belle in refusing absolutely to be downcast.
+
+"Have you sent any word home?" asked Greg.
+
+"To my father and mother?  Not a word!  Nor shall I, until this
+nightmare is all over," breathed Dick fervently.
+
+"Laura wanted to know," Holmes explained.  "Of course Mrs. Bentley
+had to send some word to her husband, to account for their longer
+absence, but she cautioned Dr. Bentley not to let a word escape."
+
+To himself, as he reached up to extinguish the light, Greg muttered:
+
+"I believe that unhanged scoundrel, Dodge, will see to it that
+word reaches Gridley!"
+
+In this conjecture Holmes must have been correct, for, the next
+forenoon, there came a telegram, full of agony, from Prescott's
+mother, imploring further particulars at once.  Mrs. Prescott's
+dispatch mentioned a "rumor."
+
+"That's Dodge's dirty work," growled Holmes.  "So that fastens
+the guilt of this whole thing upon him---the dirty dog!"
+
+Yet how to fasten any guilt upon Dodge?  Or how force from him
+any admission that would aid to free Cadet Prescott from the awful
+charge against him that had now been made official?
+
+That Sunday, Greg, besides paying a long visit in the hotel parlor,
+and seeing to the dispatch of Dick's answer to his mother, also
+called, under permission, at the home of Lieutenant Topham, of
+the tactical department.  Prescott had decided to ask that officer
+to act as his counsel at the court-martial.
+
+Prescott's case looked simple enough.  Nor did the judge-advocate
+of the court-martial need much time for his preparation of the
+case.  The judge-advocate of a court-martial is the prosecuting
+officer.  Theoretically he is also somewhat in the way of counsel
+for the defence.  It is the judge-advocate's duty to prosecute,
+it is also his duty to inquire into any particulars that may establish
+the innocence of the accused man.
+
+Mr. Topham at once consented to act as Dick's counsel, and entered
+heartily into the case.
+
+"But I don't mind telling you, Mr. Prescott," continued Lieutenant
+Topham, as he was talking the matter over with Dick in the latter's
+room, "that both sides of the case look to me, at present, like
+blank walls.  It won't be enough to clear you of the charge as
+far as the action of the court goes.  We must do everything in
+our power to remove the slightest taint from your name, or your
+position with your brother cadets will never be quite the same
+again."
+
+"I know that full well, sir," Cadet Prescott replied with feeling.
+"Though the court-martial acquit me, if there lingers any belief
+among the members of the cadet corps that I was really guilty,
+then the taint would not only hang over me here, but all through
+my subsequent career in the Army.  It is an actual, all-around
+verdict of 'not guilty, and couldn't be,' that I crave sir."
+"You may depend upon me, Mr. Prescott, to do all in my power for
+you," promised Lieutenant Topham.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ON TRIAL BY COURT-MARTIAL
+
+
+Tuesday was the day for the court-martial.
+
+In the Army there is little patience with the law's delays.
+
+A trial must move ahead as promptly as any other detail of the
+soldier's life.  Nothing can hinder a trial but the inability
+to get all the evidence ready early.  In Cadet Prescott's case
+the evidence seemed so simple as to require no delay whatever.
+
+The weather had been growing warmer within a short time.  When
+Dick and Greg awoke at sound of reveille, they heard the heavy
+rain no sign of daylight yet.
+
+When the battalion turned out and formed to march to breakfast a
+more dispiriting day could not be imagined.  The rain was converting
+deep snow into a dismal flood.
+
+But Dick barely noticed the weather.  He was full of grit, burning
+with the conviction that he must have a full vindication today.
+
+It was when he returned to barracks and the ranks were broken,
+that Dick discovered how many friends he had.  Fully twoscore
+of his classmates rushed to wring his hand and to wish him the
+best kind of good luck that day.
+
+Yet at 7.55 the sections marched away to mathematics, philosophy
+or engineering, according to the classes to which the young soldiers
+belonged.
+
+Then Prescott faced a lonely hour in his room.
+
+"The fellows were mighty good, a lot of them," thought the accused
+cadet, with his first real sinking feeling that morning.  "Yet,
+if any straw of evidence, this morning, seems really to throw
+any definite taint upon me, not one of these same fellows would
+ever again consent to wipe his feet on me!"
+
+Such is the spirit of the cadet corps.  Any comrade and brother
+must be wholly above suspicion where his honor is concerned.
+
+Had Dick been really guilty he would have been the meanest thing
+in cadet barracks.
+
+At a little before nine o'clock Lieutenant Topham called.  To
+Cadet Prescott it seemed grimly absurd that he must now go forth
+in holiday attire of cadet full-dress uniform, white lisle gloves
+and all---to stand before the court of officers who were to decide
+whether he was morally fit to remain and associate with the other
+cadets.  But it was the regulation that a cadet must go to court,
+whether as witness or accused, in full-dress uniform.
+
+"I'm going to do my best for you today, Mr. Prescott," declared
+Lieutenant Topham, as they walked through the area together.
+
+Into the Academic Building counsel and accused stepped, and on to
+the great trial room in which so many cadets had met their gloomy
+fates.
+
+At the long table sat, in full-dress uniform, and with their swords
+on, the thirteen Army officers of varying ranks who composed the
+court.
+
+At one side of the room sat the cadet witnesses.  These were three
+in number.  Mr. Dunstan and Mr. Gray were there as the two men
+who had occupied blackboards on either side of Prescott the Friday
+forenoon before.  Cadet Dodge was there to give testimony concerning
+the handkerchief episode in the area of barracks before the sections
+had marched off to math.
+
+Captain Abbott, of course, was there, to testify to facts of his
+knowledge.  Never had there been a more reluctant witness than
+that same Captain Abbott, but he had his plain duty to do as an
+Army officer detailed at the United States Military Academy.
+
+Lieutenant Topham and Dick, on entering, had turned toward the
+table reserved for counsel.
+
+For a moment, Dick Prescott had raised his face to the gallery.
+There he beheld Mrs. Bentley, Laura and Belle, all gazing down at
+him with smiling, friendly faces.
+
+Dick could not send them a formal greeting.  But he looked straight
+into the eyes of each in turn.  His smile was steady, clear and
+full of courage.  His look carried in it his appreciation of their
+loyal friendship.
+
+Among the visitors there were also the wives of a few Army officers
+stationed on the post.  Nearly all of these knew Prescott, and were
+interested in his fate.
+
+Among the spectators up there was one heavily veiled woman whom
+Dick could not see from the floor as he entered the room.  Nor
+did that woman, who had drawn back, intend that he should see her.
+
+The president of this court-martial called it promptly to order.
+The members of the court were sworn, then the judge-advocate
+took his military oath.  It was then announced that the accused
+cadet wished to have Lieutenant Topham represent him as counsel.
+To this there was no objection.
+
+In a twinkling the judge-advocate was again on his feet, a copy
+of the charge and specifications in his hand.
+
+Facing the president of the court, standing rigidly at attention,
+his face expressionless, his bearing every whit that of the soldier,
+Cadet Richard Prescott listened to the reading of the accusation
+of dishonor.
+
+In an impressive tone the president of the court asked what plea
+the accused cadet wished to enter.
+
+"The accused offers, to the charge and specifications, a blanket
+plea of 'not guilty,'" replied Lieutenant Topham.
+
+Captain Abbott was first called and sworn.  In concise, soldierly
+language the instructor told the events of the preceding Friday
+forenoon.  He described the dropping of the slip of paper, and
+of his request that it be handed to him.  "The paper," continued
+the witness, "contained a crude, brief outline of the demonstration
+which Mr. Prescott had just explained so satisfactorily that I
+had marked him 2.9."
+
+"Which is within one tenth of the highest marking?" suggested
+the judge-advocate.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Had you noted anything in Mr. Prescott conduct or performance at
+the blackboard that indicated any uncertainty, at any time, about
+the problem he was demonstrating?"
+
+"When he had gone a little way with the writing down of the
+demonstration," replied Captain Abbott, "Mr. Prescott hesitated
+for some moments, then asked permission to erase, which was given."
+
+"Did he then go straight ahead with his work?"
+
+"To the best of my observation and remembrance, he did, sir."
+
+"Had Mr. Prescott been doing well previously?" asked the
+judge-advocate.
+
+"Only during the last week, sir.  During the last week he displayed
+such a new knowledge and interest in mathematics that I was prepared,
+on his last week's marks, to recommend that he ascend two sections
+in his class."
+
+"Is it not true, Captain, that Mr. Prescott, in the last week,
+showed such a sudden, new proficiency as might be accounted for
+by the possibility that he had then begun to carry written 'cribs'
+to the class?
+
+"His progress last week was such as might be accounted for by that
+supposition," replied the witness reluctantly.
+
+"That is all, Captain."
+
+Lieutenant Topham then took the witness in hand, but did not succeed
+in bringing out anything that would aid the cause of the accused
+cadet.
+
+"Cadet Dunstan!" called the judge-advocate.
+
+Dunstan stepped forward and was sworn.  He had testified that, during
+the blackboard work, he had stood beside Mr. Prescott.  Dunstan was
+positive that he had not seen any slip of paper in Prescott's hands.
+
+"Did you look his way often, Mr. Dunstan
+
+"Not directly, sir; I was busy with my own work."
+
+"Yet, had Mr. Prescott had a slip of paper held slyly in either
+hand, do you think you would have seen it?
+
+"I am positive that I would, sir," replied Cadet Dunstan.
+
+Under the questioning of Lieutenant Topham, Dunstan stated that
+he had witnessed Prescott's loan of his handkerchief to Dodge
+before the sections formed to march to mathematics section room.
+
+"In what condition, or shape, did Mr. Dodge return Mr. Prescott's
+handkerchief?" ask Lieutenant Topham.
+
+"The handkerchief was crumpled up, sir."
+
+"So that, had there been a paper folded in it, the paper very
+likely would not have been visible?"
+
+"The paper most likely would not have been visible, sir."
+
+"In what form was the handkerchief handed to Mr. Dodge by Mr.
+Prescott?"
+
+"I am almost certain, sir, that Mr. Prescott passed it holding
+it by one corner."
+
+"So that, had there been any paper in it at that time, it would
+have fallen to the ground?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"What did Mr. Prescott do with the handkerchief when it was returned
+to him."
+
+"My recollection, sir, is that Mr. Prescott took his handkerchief
+without examining it, and thrust it into his blouse."
+
+"Are you sure that he did so?"
+
+"I cannot state it with absolute certainty, sir.  It is my best
+recollection, sir."
+
+Bert Dodge had sat through this testimony trying to look unconcerned.
+Yet around the corners of his mouth played a slight, greenish
+pallor.  The testimony of the cadets had not been looked for to
+be very important.  Now, however, the president of the court regretted
+that he had not excluded from the room all of three cadet witnesses
+except the one under examination.
+
+Cadet Gray was next called.  He was able to testify only that,
+while at the blackboard, Mr. Dunstan had stood on one side of
+Cadet Prescott and the present witness on the other side.  Mr.
+Gray was strongly of the belief that, had Prescott been slyly
+using a written crib, he (Gray) would have noted the fact.  Mr.
+Gray had not been a witness to the handkerchief-loaning incident
+before formation of sections.
+
+"Cadet Dodge!"
+
+Dodge rose and came forward with a distinct swagger.  He was plainly
+conscious of the cadet corporal's chevrons on his sleeve, and
+plainly regarded himself as a superior type of cadet.  He was
+sworn and questioned about the handkerchief-borrowing incident.
+
+He admitted the borrowing of the handkerchief to wipe a smear
+of dirt from the back of his hand.  As to the condition of the
+handkerchief at the time of its return, Mr. Dodge stated his present
+belief that the handkerchief was very loosely rolled up.
+
+Then Lieutenant Topham took the witness over.
+
+"Would the handkerchief, when you handed it back, have held this
+slip of paper?" questioned Mr. Topham, holding up the slip that
+had brought about all of Prescott's present trouble.
+
+"It might have, sir, had the paper been crumpled as well."
+
+"Did you hand the handkerchief back with a paper inside of it?"
+
+"Not according to any knowledge of mine, sir."
+
+"Was there a paper in the handkerchief, Mr. Dodge, when Mr. Prescott
+passed his handkerchief to you?"
+
+"To the best of my belief, sir, there was not."
+
+"Now, pay particular heed, if you please Mr. Dodge," requested
+Lieutenant Topham, fixing his gaze keenly on the witness.  Dodge
+tried not to look apprehensive.  "Did you have any paper in your
+hand while you had Mr. Prescott's handkerchief in your own possession?"
+
+"No, sir," replied Dodge with emphasis.
+
+"Did you, knowingly, pass the handkerchief back to the accused
+cadet with any paper inside of it, or touching it in any way?"
+
+"No, sir!"
+
+Lieutenant Topham continued for some seconds to regard Mr. Dodge
+in silence.  The witness began to lose some of his swagger.  Then,
+abruptly, as though firing a pistol, Lieutenant Topham shot out
+the question:
+
+"How about that smear of dirt on your hand, Mr. Dodge?  How did
+it come to be on the back of your hand?"
+
+If Mr. Topham had looked to this question to break the witness
+down he was doomed to disappointment.
+
+"I do not know, sir," Dodge replied distinctly.  "I am of the
+opinion, sir, that it must have come from the blacking on one
+of my shoes as I put it on before leaving my room."
+
+There was no more to be gained from Dodge.  He was excused.  Now,
+Dick Prescott rose a was sworn, that he might testify in his own
+behalf.  Yet he could do no more, under the military rules of
+evidence, than to deny any guilty knowledge of the slip of paper,
+and to repeat the handkerchief-loaning recital substantially as
+Dunstan had given it.
+
+This closed the testimony.  The president of the court announced
+that a recess of ten minutes would be taken, and that the room
+and gallery would be cleared of all except members of the court
+and the counsel for the accused.
+
+As Dick turned to leave, he again turned his face toward the gallery.
+He saw his Gridley friends and looked bravely into their eyes,
+smiling.  Then he caught sight of a veiled woman up there, who
+had risen, and was moving out.  Dicks started; he could not help
+it, there was something so strangely familiar in that figure and
+carriage.
+
+The cadet witnesses had already left, and we returning to barracks.
+Lieutenant Topham touched Prescott's arm and walked with him to
+the corridor.
+
+"I shall do my best for you, you may be sure, Mr. Prescott," whispered
+the cavalry officer.
+
+"May I ask, sir, what you think of the chances?
+
+"Candidly, it looks to me like almost an even toss-up between
+conviction and acquittal."
+
+Dick's face blanched.  Then he turned, with starts The veiled
+woman was moving toward him with uncertain steps.
+
+"Lieutenant Topham, I did not know my mother was to be present,
+but I am almost positive that is she."
+
+Now, the veiled woman came a few steps nearer, looking appealingly
+at Dick.
+
+"I am told, sir, that my son is in close arrest," she called,
+in a voice that thrilled the cadet.  "But I am his mother.  May
+I speak with him a moment?"
+
+Mother and son were clasped in each other's arms for a moment.
+What they said matters little.  Then Cadet Richard Prescott
+returned to his bleak room in barracks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A VERDICT AND A HOP
+
+
+Then followed days full of suspense for many besides the accused
+cadet.
+
+Prescott went mechanically at his studies, with a dogged determination
+to get high markings in everything.
+
+Yet over mathematics more than anything, he pored.  He fought
+out his problems in the section room grimly, bent on showing that
+he could win high marks without the aid of "cribs."
+
+He was still in arrest, and must remain so until the finding of
+the court-martial---whatever it was---had been duly considered
+at Washington and returned with the President's indorsement.
+All this time Dick's mother and three faithful Gridley friends
+remained at the West Point Hotel.  Dick could not go to them;
+they could not come to him, but notes might pass.  Prescott received
+these epistles daily, and briefly but appreciatively answered
+them.
+
+Then he went back furiously to his studies.
+
+Grit could do him little good, except in his studies, if he were
+fated to remain at West Point.  Grit could not help him in the
+settling of his fate.  Either the court-martial had found him
+guilty, or had found him innocent, and all the courage in the
+world would not alter the verdict.
+
+In the section room in mathematics, Captain Abbott did not show this
+cadet any disfavor or the opposite.  The instructor's manner and
+tone with Prescott were the same as with all the other cadets.
+
+When going to formations some of the cadets rather openly avoided
+Prescott.  This cut like a knife.  But evidently they believed
+him probably guilty, and they were entitled to their opinions.
+He must possess himself with patience for a few days; there was
+nothing else to do.
+
+So the week rolled around again to Saturday.  Now here were two
+afternoons when the young cadet might have gone to his mother
+and friends at the hotel, had he not been in arrest.  There was
+to be a hop that night, but he could not "drag" the girl who had
+been so staunch and sweet.
+
+On this Saturday, when he need not study much, Dick found himself
+in a dull rage with his helplessness.  The day was bright, clear,
+cold and sunny, but the young cadet's soul was dark and moody.
+Would this suspense never end?
+
+Dinner was to him merely another phase of duty.  He had no real
+appetite; he would have preferred to sit brooding at his study
+table.
+
+The meal over, the battalion marched back, halting, still in formation,
+at the north side of barracks near the sally-port.
+
+The cadet captain in command of the battalion read some unimportant
+notices.  Dick did not even hear them.  He knew his fate was not
+to come to him through this channel.
+
+While the reading was going on the Adjutant of the Military Academy
+came through the sally-port leisurely, as soon as he saw that
+the men were still in ranks.
+
+Dick did not see the Adjutant, either.  If he had, he might hardly
+have heeded the presence of that Army officer, the personal
+representative of the superintendent.
+
+But, just as the cadet captain let fall the hand in which he had
+held the notices the adjutant called out crisply:
+
+"Don't dismiss, Captain!  Hold the companies!"
+
+Between two of the companies stepped the adjutant, then walked
+to the front of center.  Drawing, a paper from his overcoat, the
+adjutant began to read.  It was a "special order."
+
+Even to this Prescott listened only with unhearing ears---at first.
+
+Then, though he betrayed no more audible interest than did any
+of the other men in gray, Dick Prescott found his head swimming.
+
+This special order referred to his own case.  It was a report of
+the findings, these findings having been duly approved.
+
+Cadet Richard Prescott's head began to whirl.  The bright day
+seemed darkening before his dimmed vision, until he heard,
+unmistakably, the one word:
+
+"Acquitted!"
+
+What followed was a further order releasing him from arrest and
+restoring him to the usual cadet privileges.
+
+"That is all, Captain," added the adjutant, folding the order
+and returning it to his overcoat.  "Dismiss the companies when
+ready."
+
+"Dismiss the companies!" came from the cadet battalion commander.
+
+The separate commands of the various company commanders rang out.
+Ranks were broken---and friends in gray crowded about the yearling.
+
+Then the corps yell was called for and given, with his name added.
+Some of the cadets slipped in through the sally-port, sooner than
+join in the demonstration.
+
+"Thank you all---it's jolly good of you!" cried Prescott huskily.
+
+As soon as these comrades in arms would let him, he broke through
+and made for his room.
+
+"Hooray!" yelled Greg, turning loose.
+
+And Cadet Anstey thrust his head into the room long enough to add:
+
+"Hooray!"
+
+But Dick, half stripped above the waist, was at the washstand,
+making a thorough toilet, though a hurried one.
+
+Greg waited, his eyes shining.
+
+"It's mighty good of you all," cried Dick, as he was pulling on
+his cadet overcoat.  "I wish I could stop and talk about it---but
+there a duties that can't be hurried fast enough."
+
+"Give my regards," called Holmes jovially after Prescott.
+
+Crossing the barracks area, Dick strode into cadet guard-house,
+nimbly mounting the stairs to the second floor.  Here he stood
+in the office of the O.C.
+
+Saluting, he carefully phrased his request for leave to visit
+friends at the hotel.
+
+This being granted, Dick went down the stairs at the greatest
+speed consistent with military dignity under the circumstances.
+
+Out through the north sally-port and along the road running between
+officers' quarters and parade ground he hurried.
+
+By the time he had walked to the hotel he had cooled off his first
+excitement somewhat.
+
+He signed in the cadet register, then laid down his card.
+
+"To Mrs. Prescott, please."
+
+As ebony-visaged "front" vanished from the office, Dick turned
+and walked to the ladies' entrance, passing thence into the parlor.
+
+Dick's mother was found at the dining table.  So were her Gridley
+friends.  All were finishing a light meal without appetite when
+the card was laid by Mrs. Prescott's plate.
+
+"My boy, Dick---here?" she cried brokenly rising as quickly as
+she could.
+
+Mrs. Prescott passed quickly from the dining room, though her
+friends were close at her heels.  So they all rushed in upon the
+solitary young cadet standing inside the parlor by a window.
+
+As he heard them coming, Dick wheeled about.  There was a tear
+in his eye, which deceived them.
+
+Halting, a few feet away, these eager ones stared at him.
+
+Dick tried to greet them in words, but he couldn't at first.
+
+It was Laura who found her voice first.
+
+"Dick!  Tell us in a word!"
+
+But Belle Meade gave Miss Bentley a somewhat vigorous push forward.
+
+"Use your eyes, Laura!" rebuked Belle vigorously.  "In the first
+place, Mr. Prescott is here.  That means he's here by permission
+or right.  In the second place, you ninny---he still has the uniform
+on!"
+
+"That's right," laughed Dick.  "Yes, mother, and friends, the
+court-martial's finding was wholly favorable to me."
+
+"Humph!" demanded Belle scornfully.  "Why shouldn't it be?  Wouldn't
+you expect thirteen old West Point graduates to know as much as
+four women from the country?"
+
+Belle's hearty nonsense put an end to all tension.
+
+Mrs. Prescott met and embraced her son.  The others crowded about,
+offering congratulations.
+
+That night Dick and Greg "dragged" the Gridley girls to the cadet
+hop at Cullum, and Anstey was a favored one on the hop cards of
+both girls.  Mrs. Prescott and Mrs. Bentley looked on from the
+gallery.
+
+"It's the jolliest hop I've been to," declared Dick with enthusiasm.
+
+"Humph!" muttered Holmes.  "Of course it is.  You old boner, you've
+never been but to three hops!
+
+"I understand," teased Belle, "that you're much more of a veteran,
+Mr. Holmes, than your chum is."
+
+Cadet Dodge "missed" that hop.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+"A LIAR AND A COWARD"
+
+
+Long, indeed, did the memory of that hop linger with Cadet Dick
+Prescott.
+
+It had come as the fitting, cheering ending of his great trouble---the
+hardest trouble that had assailed him, or could assail him, at
+the United States Military Academy.
+
+"Well, you've been vindicated, anyway," muttered Greg cheerily,
+one day.  "So you needn't look as thoughtful as you do half of
+the time these present days."
+
+"Have I been vindicated, Greg?" asked Dick gravely.
+
+"What did the court say?  And you're still wearing the uniform
+that Uncle Sam gave you, aren't you?
+
+"Vindication, Greg, means something more that a court-martial
+verdict of acquittal."
+
+"What more do you want?"
+
+"Greg, the verdicts of all the courts-martial sitting between
+here and Manila wouldn't make some of the men of this corps believe
+that I innocent."
+
+"G'wan!" retorted Cadet Holmes impatiently.
+
+"I see it, Greg, old chum, if you don't."
+
+"You're morbid, old ramrod!"
+
+"Greg, you know the cheery greeting, in passing, that one man
+here often gives another when he likes and trusts that man.  Well,
+some of own classmates that used to give me the glad hail seem
+to be thinking about something else, now, when they pass me."
+
+"Who are they?" demanded Greg, his fists doubling.
+
+"You'd provoke a fight, if I told you," retorted Dick.  "This
+isn't a matter to fight about."
+
+"Then you don't know much about fighting subjects," grumbled Cadet
+Holmes, as he leaned back and opened his book of everlasting
+mathematics.
+
+"Let me see, Greg; have you any show to get out of the goats in
+math.?"
+
+"I'm in hopes to get out and step into the next section above,"
+replied Greg.  "I've been working hard enough."
+
+"Then you'd better waste no thoughts on pugilism.  Calculus will
+bring you more happiness."
+
+"Calculus was never designed to bring anyone happiness," retorted
+Greg sulkily.  "It's a torment invented on purpose to harrow the
+souls of cadets.  What good, any way, will calculus ever be to
+an officer who has a platoon of men to lead in a charge on the
+enemy?"
+
+This could not very well be answered, so Dick dodged the subject.
+
+"Remember the January exams., old fellow," warned Dick.  "And
+the general review begins Monday.  That will show you up, if you
+don't keep your nose in math. and out of books on the Queensbury
+rules."
+
+"Funny how Bert Dodge keeps up in mathematics, and yet takes in
+all the pleasures he can find," rumbled on Greg, as he turned
+the pages of his book, seeking what he wanted.  "Dodge is in the
+section just under the stars, and I hear he has dreams of being
+in the star section after the January ordeals."
+
+"Dodge always was a rather good student at Gridley High School"
+rejoined Prescott.
+
+"But he never led our class there in the High School mathematics,
+which is baby's play compared with West Point math."
+
+"Well, he gets the marks now," sighed Dick.  "I wish we could, too."
+
+The academic part of the cadet's year is divided into two halves.
+The first half winds up in January.  During the last few weeks
+before the period for the winter examination, there is a general
+review in some of the subjects, notably in mathematics.  This
+general review brings out all of a man's weak points in his subject.
+Incidentally, it should strengthen him in his weak points.
+
+Now, if, in the general review, a cadet shows sufficient proficiency
+in his subject, he is not required to take the examination.  If
+he fails in the general review in mathematics, he must go up for
+a "writ," as a written examination is termed.  And that writ is
+cruelly searching.  If the young man fails in the "writ," he may
+be conditioned and required to make up his deficiencies in June.
+If, in June, he fails to make up all deficiencies, he is dropped
+from the cadet corps as being below the mental standards required
+of a West Point graduate.
+
+Neither Dick nor Greg stood high enough in mathematics to care
+to go on past January conditioned.  Both felt that, with conditions
+extending over to the summer, they must fail in June.
+
+"I'd sooner have my funeral held tomorrow than drop out of West
+Point," Greg stated.
+
+Prescott, while not making that assertion, knew that it would blast
+his dearest hopes life if he had to go down in the academic battle.
+
+Dodge, who was so high in mathematics that he need have little
+fear, was circulating a good deal among his classmates these days
+before Christmas.
+
+"That hound, Prescott, made a slick dodge to drag me into his
+disgrace," Dodge declared, to those whom he thought would be interest
+in such remarks.  "It was a clever trick! couldn't put me in disgrace,
+for there is no breach of regulations in borrowing a handkerchief
+for a moment.  But Prescott made so much of that handkerchief
+business that it served his purpose and dragged him out safely
+before the court."
+
+"Do you think Prescott was really guilty of a crib?" asked one
+of Dodge's hearers.
+
+"I can't prove it, but I know what I think," retorted Dodge.
+"His effort to draw me into the row shows what kind of a fellow he
+is at bottom."
+
+"I'd hate to think that Prescott would really be mean enough for
+a crib."
+
+"Think what you like, then, of course.  But a fellow guilty of
+one meanness might not stop at others."
+
+Dodge talked much in this vein.  Cadets are not tale-bearers,
+and so little or none of this talk reached Dick's ears until Furlong
+came along, one day, in time to hear Dodge holding forth on his
+favorite subject.
+
+Yearling Furlong halted, eyeing Cadet Dodge sternly, keenly.
+
+"Well," demanded Dodge, "what's wrong?"
+
+"I don't know exactly," replied Furlong, with a quizzical smile.
+"I think, though, that the basic error lay in your ever having
+been born at all."
+
+Dodge tried to laugh it off as a pleasantry.  He had met Furlong
+once, in a fight, and had no desire to be sent to cadet hospital
+again with blackened eyes.
+
+"I don't want to mind other people's business, Dodge," continued
+Furlong coolly, "but you're going a bit too far, it seems to me,
+in what you say about Prescott.  Why should you seek to blacken
+the character of one of our best fellows, and the president of
+our class?"
+
+"Because he tried to blacken mine," retorted Dodge boldly.
+
+"He didn't.  All he did, at the court-martial, was to explain
+the adventures of his handkerchief just before that piece of paper
+fell to the floor of the section room."
+
+"Wasn't that an insinuation against me?" demanded Cadet Dodge.
+
+"Not unless your character here is on such a very poor foundation
+that it can't stand any suspicions," replied Furlong coldly.
+"Now, see here, Dodge, the general review is on, and Prescott
+can't spare any time on private rows.  After the general review
+is over, if I hear any more about your roasting Prescott, I'm
+going to call on you to go with me to Prescott's presence, and
+repeat your statements to his face.  I don't want to stir up any
+needless personal trouble, Dodge, but I declare myself now as
+one of old ramrod's friends.  Any slander against him must be
+backed up.  I trust you will pardon my having been so explicit."
+
+Furlong turned on his heel, striding away.  The cadets to whom
+Dodge had been talking bitterly looked at Bert curiously.  A good
+many men in the corps would have promptly resented such remarks
+as Furlong's, and to the limit, by calling him out.
+
+"Queer how many friends, of some kinds, a fellow like Prescott
+can have," laughed Dodge sneeringly.
+
+"Not at all," spoke up one of Dodge's listeners.  "Everyone always
+knows where Prescott stands, and he'll back up anything he says.
+Furlong is another man of the same stamp."
+
+With that the last speaker turned on his heel and walked away.
+
+For some days after that, Bert Dodge was more careful of his utterances.
+
+The general reviews came and passed.  By sheer hard, undistracted
+work, both Dick and Greg succeeded in pulling through without
+having to go up for writs.  For some reason Dodge did not do quite
+as well in the general review, and was forced to drop down a couple
+of sections.  He still stood well, however, in math.
+
+In the next week after the dangerous examination period Dick Prescott
+began to forge upwards in mathematics.  He was now in the section
+fourth removed from the goats, and Greg was up in the section
+next above the goats.
+
+On the afternoon of the Friday when the markings had been posted
+Dodge met Dennison, also of the yearling class.
+
+"Say, what do you think, Dodge, of Prescott beginning to shoot
+up through the sections toward you?  He'll soon be marching at
+your side when math. is called."
+
+"He'll bear watching," nodded Dodge sagely.
+
+"That's what I feel about it," replied Dennison.
+
+"Prescott isn't the kind of man who can climb high in mathematics,
+and do it honestly," continued Dodge.  "Either he has the old
+crib at work again, or has hit on a safer way of working crib."
+
+"Of course he has," nodded Dennison.  "We ought to post the
+class---especially Prescott own section comrades.  They can catch
+him, if they're sharp, and then pass the word through the class
+without bothering the authorities.  If Prescott is doing such things
+he must be driven from West Point."
+
+"He will be---see if he isn't," retorted Bert sullenly.  "I'm
+going to pass the word to the class."
+
+"And I'll post the men in the same section with him," promised
+Dennison.
+
+"Why not post Prescott first?" demanded a cold voice.  A cadet
+had halted behind the pair.
+
+"Oh, you, Furlong?" snarled Dodge, turning.
+
+"Yes," replied Cadet Furlong.  "And I told you, on a former
+occasion, what I thought about back-biters."
+
+"Be careful, Furlong!" warned Dennison angrily.
+
+"At your service, sir, any time," coolly replied Furlong, though
+he was a head shorter than Dennison, who was one of the big athletes
+of the yearling class.
+
+"But the class ought to know some truths," retorted Dodge harshly.
+
+"Here comes some of the class now," replied Furlong, as seven
+yearlings, on their way back from the library, turned in at the
+sally-port.  "Tell them for a start, Dodge, and I'll listen.
+Hold on there, fellows.  Oh, you there, Prescott?  That's lucky.
+Dodge has some 'facts' he thinks the class ought to know, and
+I want you to hear them.  Now, Dodge, turn around and repeat what
+you were just saying."
+
+There was no help for it.  Dodge had to speak up, or be considered
+a cur that bit only in the dark.
+
+So, with a show of defiance, Dodge spoke hotly giving a very fair
+repetition of what he had lately said.  Prescott stood by, his
+fists clenched, his face white, but without interrupting or making
+any move.
+
+"Now, state what you said, Mr. Dennison," requested Furlong coldly.
+
+Thus cornered, Dennison, too, had to state truthfully what he had
+just been saying.
+
+There was a pause.
+
+Some of the yearlings looked straight ahead.  Others glanced curiously
+at the principals in this little drama of cadet life.  None of
+them took Furlong to be anything more than the stage manager.
+
+"Have you said all you have to say, Mr. Dodge?" demanded Cadet
+Prescott.
+
+"Yes," flared Bert.
+
+"Have you anything that you wish to add, Mr. Dennison?" demanded
+Dick, wheeling upon his other foe in the corps.
+
+"Nothing more, at present," replied Dennison coolly.  He realized
+how much bigger and more powerful he was than Dick Prescott.
+
+"Then, as for you, Mr. Dodge," continued Prescott, fixing his
+old-time enemy with a cold eye, "you're a liar and a coward!"
+
+Dodge doubled his fists, springing forward, but two of the yearlings
+caught him and dragged him back, for old ramrod's back was already
+turned.  Dick was eyeing his other detractor.
+
+"You, Mr. Dennison," continued Prescott, "are a dirty scandal-monger,
+a back-biter and a source of danger to the honor of the cadet corps!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE FIGHT IN BARRACKS
+
+
+"Let go of me!" roared Dennison, as two men held him.  "Let me
+at that-----"
+
+"Any name that you would see fit to call me, Dennison, wouldn't
+sting," retorted Dick.  "You have forfeited the right to have
+your opinion considered a gentleman's."
+
+"Don't you ever call names?" hissed Dennison.
+
+"Only to the faces of the men to whom the names are applied,"
+retorted Dick.
+
+"And that's right," agreed Furlong heartily.  "We've been classmates
+nearly two years, and I've heard old ramrod say disagreeable things,
+once or twice, behind men's backs.  But it was never until after
+he had said the same thing to the man's face."
+
+"This isn't fair," fussed Dennison, "to hold me back after I've
+been insulted."
+
+By this time, half a dozen more cadets had stopped.  Three of
+the newest comers were yearlings, one was a second classman and
+two were first classmen.
+
+"Will you let me act as one of your friends, old ramrod?" asked
+Cadet Furlong.
+
+"I think you've proved your right, on this and other occasions,"
+laughed Dick quietly.  "Go ahead, please, Milesy."
+
+"This is not place for a fight," continued Furlong, "and this
+crowd had better break up, or we shall be seen and there'll be
+an inquiry from the tactical department.  As Prescott's friend,
+I will say that he is prepared to give full satisfaction to both
+men.  In fact, if they didn't demand it, he would."
+
+Before so many, Bert Dodge had to appear brave.
+
+"I demand the first meeting for satisfaction," Bert insisted.
+
+"And I think you may count on getting the first meeting," nodded
+Furlong coolly.  "Now, Mr. Dodge, to whom shall I look as your
+friend?"
+
+"Let me act!" begged Dennison hoarsely.
+
+"Go ahead, Dennison," replied Dodge, who felt that he would draw
+some comfort from having this big athlete of the class for a backer.
+"Now, break up, please, gentlemen," begged Furlong.  "We don't
+want and wind of this to blow to official quarters.  Dennison,
+I invite you to come to my room."
+
+Like soldiers dismissed from ranks, the sudden gathering in the
+sally-port dispersed.  Dick went on to his own quarters.
+
+"Now, that's what I call huge!" chuckled Greg Holmes, as soon
+as he heard the news.  "But see here, old ramrod, I'm to be your
+other second?"
+
+"Of course," nodded Dick.
+
+"Then I'm off for Furlong's room at once.  And again---hooray!"
+
+There being nothing to prevent a prompt meeting, it was arranged
+to take place that evening at 8.30. In the subdivision where Furlong
+lived there was an empty room up on the plebe floor.
+
+Sharp to the minute of 8.30 the men were at hand.  Packard, of
+the first class, had agreed to act as referee.  Maitland, second
+class, held the watch.  Dodge and Prescott were in their corners,
+stripped for the fray.  Nelson, of the third class, was Dodge's
+other second.
+
+Both men looked in fine condition as they waited for the referee
+to call the bout.  Both had received the same amount of bodily
+training, some of it under Captain Koehler at the gymnasium, and
+a good deal more of it in infantry, cavalry, artillery and other
+drills.  Over the chests and between the shoulder blades of both
+men were pads of supple muscles.  Both men were strong of arm,
+though neither too heavy with muscle to be quick and active.
+
+"Gentlemen," announced Referee Packard, "this fight is to be to
+a finish, with bare hands. Rounds, two minutes each.  Time between
+rounds one minute.  There will be no preliminary handshaking.
+Are you ready, gentlemen?"
+
+"Ready!" quivered Dodge.
+
+"Ready," softly replied Prescott, a smile hovering over his lips.
+
+"Time!"
+
+Dodge came forward nimbly, his head well down and his guards well
+placed.  Prescott was straighter, at the outset, and his attitude
+almost careless, in appearance.  Dick had been a clever fighter
+back in the old High School days.  Dodge, since coming to West
+Point, had vastly improved both in guard and in offence.
+
+It was Dodge who led off.  He was not by any means a physical
+coward, and possessed a good deal of the cornered kind of courage
+of the fighting rat.  Dodge's first two or three blows were neatly
+parried.  Then he began to mix it up in a lively way, and three
+heavy blows landed on Dick's body.  But Dodge didn't get back
+out of it unscathed.  One hard thump on his chest, in particular,
+staggered him.
+
+Then at it again went both men, fire in Dodge's eye, mockery in
+Dick's.
+
+The blows fell fast and furious, until the lookers-on wanted to
+cheer.  There was little of foot work, little of getting away.
+It was heavy, forceful give-and-take until failing wind compelled
+both men to draw back.
+
+They kept at it, but sparring for wind until the call of time came.
+
+Both men were then hustled back into their corners, sponged, kneaded,
+fanned.  A minute was mighty short time in which to recover fighting
+trim from such mauling as had been exchanged.
+
+"Time!"
+
+Biff, bump, pound!
+
+It was the style of fighting that Dodge was forcing, and it had
+to be met.  Yet all the time Dick was alert, watching for a chance
+to land a stinging blow somewhere except on the torso.
+
+Just before the close of the second round Prescott thought he
+saw his chance.  Feinting with his left, he drove in a hook with
+his right, aimed for Bert's nose.
+
+It touched, instead, on the lip, not a hard blow, but a tantalizing
+one.  As the men drew back at the call of time a blotch of red
+was seen on Bert's lower lip.  When he came back for the third
+round, that lip was puffing fast.
+
+"Third round, time!"
+
+Again Bert Dodge started in with his heavy body tactics.  But
+this time Dick himself changed the style.  With swift, clever
+foot-work he danced all around his now furious opponent.
+Dodge could follow the swift style, too, however, and defended
+himself, finally coming back with the assault.
+
+Half way through the round Dick received a sharp tap on his nose
+that brought the red.  Stung, Prescott became only the cooler.
+For some time he fought for the opening that he wanted, and got
+it at last, though Dodge's guarding left prevented the blow from
+landing with quite all the force with which it had been driven.
+
+Dick's middle knuckles raked that already swollen lip, but the
+lower knuckles landed against the tip of Dodge's jaw with a force
+which, while not complete, nevertheless sent Bert to the floor,
+where he lay on his side.
+
+"One, two, three, four-----" began Maitland, his gaze on the slipping
+second hand of his watch.
+
+"Take the full count, Bert!" warned Dennison.
+
+"Nine, ten!" finished Maitland.
+
+In that instant Dodge was on his feet again, head down and working
+with great caution.
+
+"Time!"
+
+The third round ended ere Prescott could put in any finishing
+touches.  Yet, under the skillful hands of his seconds, Dodge
+came up rather smilingly at the call for the opening of the fourth.
+
+There was almost murder in Dodge's eyes now.  He felt that he
+was the better man, and yet he had been getting slightly the worst
+of it so far.  But he would show them!
+
+Yet, after forty seconds of this work, when Dodge had just let
+fly a blow intended to land over Prescott's heart, his fist touched
+only air and he lurched forward.  In the same instant Dick swung
+a smashing blow on Bert's left ear.  Bert went down, lying there
+like a log.
+
+In the silence that followed the finish of the count, and the
+referee's awarding words, Dick Prescott's voice broke in, as soft
+and cool as ever:
+
+"In fifteen minutes, Mr. Dennison, I'll be ready for _you_!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+MR. DENNISON'S TURN IS SERVED
+
+
+Furlong sprang forward to protest.
+
+"See here, old ramrod, don't be foolish."
+
+"I can handle it as well tonight as at any time," Dick laughed
+as coolly as ever.
+
+"But you've taken a lot of punishment."
+
+"Fifteen minutes is all I need, with seconds like you and Greg."
+
+"Will it be fair to yourself, Prescott?" demanded Packard.
+
+"Wholly," replied Dick unconcernedly.
+
+"Let him alone," urged Greg.  "Old ramrod always knows what he's
+doing."
+
+"I'm not sure that we can get Dodge out of here and attended to,
+and be already for the start in fifteen minutes," replied Packard.
+
+"Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five," insisted Dick.  "Whatever time
+is necessary, so that we start in time to be through before taps."
+
+"What do you say, Dennison?" asked Packard.
+
+"I?  Oh, I'll be ready," grinned the athlete.
+
+"Will you serve Dennison?" asked Packard, turning to Nelson
+
+"Yes; of course."
+
+"Then, Nelson, confer with Dennison and see whom he wants to serve
+with you.  The rest of us will work over Dodge.  Whew! Look that
+ear puff up while you watch it!"
+
+"Beauty, isn't it?" asked Greg grimly.  "It will be a cauliflower
+decoration, all right."
+
+Nelson went scurrying, soon returning with Anderson.  Any yearling
+would gladly have served tonight, in order to see what doughty
+Dick Prescott would do against his second man in the same evening.
+With Nelson and Anderson came two other yearlings who had agreed
+to see Dodge safely to the door of cadet hospital.
+
+Bert Dodge had been brought around at last.  He was a bit dazed,
+but he grinned, as he went out, when Dennison murmured in his
+ear:
+
+"Never you mind, old man.  I'll take care of Prescott.  I'll twist
+the ramrod into a figure 8."
+
+"We must proceed as promptly as possible, gentlemen," rapped out
+Mr. Packard.  "We must be finished before taps."
+
+"Dennison will be finished, by that time," muttered Greg in a
+cheerful undertone.
+
+Holmes had never provoked a senseless fight.  He was good-natured
+almost to a fault.  Yet, when a fight became inevitable, Greg
+could act as principal or second with equal cheeriness.
+
+Nelson had brought back with him togs for Dennison, and that athlete
+was quickly ready.
+
+Every minute of the time had been utilized well in getting, Dick
+Prescott in condition for his second scrap of the evening.  His
+nose-bleed had been stopped, but it was wind and lung power that
+he wanted most.  He had taken some heavy body thumping, but rest
+and rubbing had worked out most of the soreness.
+
+"Get up and kick a bit.  See what you can do," advised Furlong.
+
+Dick went through a few irregular gymnastics.
+
+"There's one good thing about old ramrod," declared Greg, in a
+grinning undertone.  "He's always ready, every minute of the time!"
+
+Sharply, quickly, now, the combatants were brought face to face.
+
+At the call of time, Dennison sailed in; Dick leaped forward.
+Dennison was amused, more than half contemptuous over the easiness
+of the work that he thought had come to him.  But he felt in honor
+bound to make the thing short.  In the first place, he had to
+avenge Dodge.  In the second place, it would reflect upon himself
+if Dennison allowed Prescott to string the battle out.
+
+Some sharp cracks were given and taken, and many more dodged or
+struck aside, when, up close to the end of the first round, Prescott
+landed one between the big fellow's eyes that made him see stars.
+
+Right in close Prescott followed, before his opponent could recover.
+
+But the time-keeper's call prevented further doings.
+
+"He's a mosquito, that's all," growled Denison to Nelson, in the
+corner.
+
+"Go in and swat him, then," grinned Nelson.
+
+"Watch me!"
+
+"Remember, then, that skeeters are dodgers."
+
+"I'll saw him off, this time," grumbled the big fellow.
+
+The call of time brought both men forward.
+
+But Dick, the same quiet smile on his face, had planned new tactics
+with Furlong during that minute's rest.
+
+Now, Dick struck Dennison, not very heavily, on the right shoulder.
+The next time it was a tap on the right chest.
+
+Dennison strove to resent these indignities, but Prescott had
+a definite plan of sustained assault, and the big fellow could
+not read it in advance.
+
+Twice Dick got caught by swings, though he was not sadly troubled.
+He was lanching in, lightly, all over the less vital parts on
+his man now.  It did Dennison no harm, but the impudence of it
+stung the big fellow.
+
+"Time!"
+
+"That's the b.j.-est skeeter I ever saw," grinned Nelson, as he
+sprayed water over Dennison's biceps.
+
+"You quit, Nelse!"
+
+"All right.  Don't get mad at me.  Just catch Prescott on your
+face and mash him!"
+
+Again the men were called to the center of the room.  They eyed
+each other, "measured arms" in a few useless passes, then settled
+down to business.
+
+On Dick's part that business was to dodge about as before, touching
+lightly here and there.  Dennison's effort was to swing in one hard,
+sufficient blow.
+
+Just thirty-five seconds from the start of the round Dick found
+his opportunity, and took it.  His right smashed in fearfully
+on the end of the big fellow's jaw bone, just under the ear.
+
+Bump! Dennison's big, muscular body hit the floor like the falling
+of a tree.  Maitland counted, for he knew the big fellow couldn't
+rise in ten seconds after a blow like that.
+
+"Nine, ten," finished the time-keeper, and dropped his watch into
+his pocket.
+
+"I award the fight to Mr. Prescott," announced Packard.  "Now,
+what are we going to do with this big hulk?"
+
+That was a problem.  It would hardly do to take another cadet
+to hospital that night.  Anyway Dennison would need a stretcher,
+and four cadets to carry him, for he still lay on the floor in
+a stupor, from which the usual methods of reviving a man after
+a knockout failed to bring him.
+
+It was just ten minutes before taps when Dennison was finally
+brought around and helped to his feet.
+
+"Where's Prescott?" asked Dennison, after he had gulped down a
+glass of water.
+
+"Here," answered Dick, stepping forward.
+
+"Prescott, I don't suppose I'm very clear headed yet," rambled
+on Dennison.  "But I want to apologize for my words this afternoon.
+And---I'm glad you whacked me right tonight.  Perhaps I'll really
+learn something from it.  But my apologies, anyway."
+
+"Say no more," begged Dick, tendering his hand.  "It is all forgotten."
+
+Dick received hasty congratulations from the late officials of
+the fights.  Then they, and Prescott and his friends, disappeared
+quickly to quarters.  Dennison was helped to his room.  When the
+subdivision inspectors went through with their bulls-eye lanterns
+immediately after taps, they found all present save Cadet Albert
+Dodge.
+
+Dodge passed a painful couple of hours until opiates won out and
+he passed into drugged sleep.
+
+In one respect Dodge got far less out of the fight than had Dennison.
+Bert had not even learned, convincingly, that Prescott was a man to
+let alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A DISCOVERY AT THE RIDING DRILL
+
+
+Having once got a hard gait in mathematics, Dick went steadily
+on and up until he reached one of the middle sections.  There
+he stopped.  It was as high as he could go, with all this competition
+from the brightest young men in the country.
+
+Greg, too, managed to get well away from the goats, and so was
+happy.
+
+Through the winter the yearlings, in detachments, had attended
+the riding hall regularly during the afternoons.
+
+Most of the men, as spring came along, had proven themselves very
+good cadet horsemen, though all would have chance to learn more
+during the two years yet ahead of them.
+
+Dodge, who rode in the same detachment with Dick and Greg, was
+credited with being the poorest rider in the class.
+
+"When you get to be an officer, Mr. Dodge, you'll have to take
+the yearly walking test for three days.  You'll get over the ground
+quicker and safer than you would on a horse," remarked the cadet
+corporal.
+
+"Oh, well, sir, I'm going into the doughboys, anyway," grinned
+Dodge.  "It will be a good many years before I can get up far
+enough in the line to be called upon to ride a horse."
+
+The "doughboys" are the United States Infantry.  No company officer
+in the infantry mounted; only the field and staff officers of
+the doughboys are provided with mounts.
+
+One cloudy Friday afternoon Cadet Corporal Haskins marched a yearling
+detachment down to the riding hall.  Captain Hall, their instructor,
+was already in saddle.  He turned to receive the report of Haskins
+after the detachment had been halted at the edge of the tan-bark.
+
+"Stand to horse!" ordered Captain Hall.
+
+The men of the detachments sprang over, each leading out his mount
+for the afternoon.
+
+"Prepare to mount!"
+
+Instantly each young man stood with one foot in stirrup, one hand
+at the animal's mane, and one at saddle.
+
+"Mount!"
+
+In perfect unison the yearling cadets swung themselves up into
+saddle, their right feet searching for and then resting in the
+stirrup boxes.
+
+Then, at the command, Haskins led his men out in single file.
+Thus they circled the riding hall twice at a walk.
+
+"Trot!" came Captain Hall's command.
+
+A few rounds of this was followed by the command, "gallop!"  Around
+and around the hall the cadets rode, every man but one feeling
+the blood tingling with new life through his arteries.  It was
+glorious to stride a horse and to ride at this gait!
+
+Glorious, that is, for all except one man.  Dodge rode at the
+tail end of the line, on a fiend of a horse that had proven
+disastrous to more than one green rider.
+
+As the "gallop" was ordered, Dodge's mount showed a longing to
+bolt and dash up to the head of the line.  Dodge, throbbing uneasily,
+reined in hard.  His horse began to chafe as it found itself forced
+back.  In another moment Dodge was lagging behind.
+
+"Keep the pace, Mr. Dodge!  Keep the pace, sir!" called out Captain
+Hall.
+
+Bert obeyed, but in fear.  He did not know at what instant this
+uneasy animal would rear and unhorse him.
+
+At last the detachment was halted and the line faced about.  Now
+the detachment rode in reverse direction around the tan-bark.
+
+By this means Dodge became the leader.
+
+Through the walk and the trot, he managed to get along all right,
+though he was nervous.
+
+"Stick to your saddle, Mr. Dodge!" called Captain Hall.  "Don't
+bump it, sir.  Settle down and ride steadily."
+
+Then, an instant later, just as Dodge was beginning to feel secure:
+
+"Gallop!"
+
+Dodge's wild mount gave a snort, then bolted.
+
+"Whoa, you unruly beast!" roared Dodge.  Behind him rode the
+detachment, grimly merry, though with not a flicker of a smile
+showing.
+
+Bert's horse pulled away, and bolted, with Dodge tugging at the
+bridle.
+
+Greg, riding behind him, endeavored to bridge the gap.
+
+"Steady, Mr. Holmes!" shouted the cavalry instructor.  "You may
+set the pace until Mr. Dodge regains control of his mount."
+
+Straight around the tan-bark went Dodge and his mount, until the
+animal was in danger of colliding with Haskins' mount.
+
+"Hard on your off rein, Mr. Dodge!  Swing out into the center
+and bring your horse down!" ordered Captain Hall sternly.
+
+Bert managed to swing out of the line, but that was all.  He shot
+along on the inside, for the horse seemed to have a notion that
+it was racing the entire detachment, lap by lap.
+
+"Have you utterly lost control of your horse, Mr. Dodge?" shouted
+Captain Hall.
+
+Plainly enough the young man had, for, at that moment, the beast,
+its mouth sore from the continued tugging against the bits, slackened
+its pace, then plunged on its forefeet, throwing its heels high
+in the air.
+
+With a gasp of terror Dodge struck the tan-bark, one shoulder
+landing first.  But he still retained the bridle, and was dragged.
+The vicious animal wheeled, rearing, and its fore-feet came down
+aimed at Dodge's face.
+
+Dick Prescott was the nearest cadet horseman at this moment.
+Suspecting what might happen, Prescott had swung his own mount
+sharply out of line, riding straight after Dodge.
+
+"Drop your bridle!" called Dick sternly.
+
+Then, just as Dodge's horse was bringing its fore-feet down, Prescott
+rode against the angry animal, striking it against the flank and
+shoving it sideways and back.  The brute's forefeet struck the
+tan-bark, but more than two feet from Dodge's head.  Bert had
+presence of mind enough to roll to one side.
+
+In an instant Prescott was down out of saddle, holding his own
+splendidly disciplined mount by the bridle while he bent over
+his class-mate.
+
+Dodge lay on the tan-bark, his uniform awry and dirty, and his face
+blanched with fear of the horse.
+
+"Are you much hurt, Dodge?" asked Dick.
+
+"No, confound you!" muttered Bert under his breath.
+
+As if to prove his lack of injury, he sat up, then rose to his feet.
+
+"Mount, Mr. Prescott, and join the line," noting all with quick
+eyes.  "Mr. Dodge, recapture your horse, mount and fall in."
+
+That was the discipline of the tan-bark.  If a cadet falls from
+a horse and has no bones broken, or no other desperate injury,
+he must wait until his horse comes around, catch it and mount
+again.  If the horse be excited and fractious, all the more reason
+why the cadet should capture the beast and mount instantly.  A
+horse must always be taught that a cavalryman is his master.
+
+The riderless brute had fallen in at the tail of the line now,
+behind Cadet Corporal Haslins, and was going along peaceably
+enough---until Bert Dodge made a lunge for the bridle.  Then the
+beast shied, and got past.
+
+"Run after your horse, Mr. Dodge; catch him and mount him," called
+Captain Hall, fuming that this episode should steal away drill
+time from the other more capable young horsemen.
+
+"Mr. Dodge," rapped out the cavalry instructor sharply, after
+Bert had made two more efforts to get hold of the bridle, "are
+you waiting for a groom to bring your horse to you?"
+
+At this some of the pent-up merriment broke loose.  Half a dozen
+yearlings chuckled aloud.
+
+"Silence in ranks!" ordered the instructor sharply.  Then, patiently,
+though with more that a tinge of rebuke in his tone, the captain
+added:
+
+"Mr. Dodge, you've taken all the time we can spare you, sir.
+Catch that horse instantly and mount!"
+
+By sheer good luck Bert managed to obey.  But his nerve was gone
+for the afternoon.  He made a sad bungle of all the work, though
+he was not again unhorsed.
+
+There was bareback riding, and riding by pairs, in which latter
+feat one man of each pair passed his bridle to the comrade beside
+him, then rode with folded arms.  Then came riding by threes,
+with the center man holding the bridles from either side, while
+each of the outer men rode with folded arms.  Then, cautiously,
+the men were taught to stand on the bare backs of their horses
+and to move at a walk.  By and by they would be required to ride,
+standing, at a gallop.
+
+All through this drill, Dick Prescott rode with precision, power,
+and even grace.
+
+Yet never had his mind been further from the present work than
+it was this afternoon.
+
+Had Bert Dodge known more of what Prescott had seen as the former
+lay for that instant on the tan-bark, Dick's enemy would have
+fallen from his horse in a delirium of fear.
+
+For, as Bert fell in the center of the tan-bark the left sleeve
+of his coat had been pushed back, exposing the white linen cuff.
+
+From the inner hem of that cuff, up to the middle, Dick Prescott
+had gazed, for an instant only, on row after row of small, evenly
+lettered words or rows of numerals.  Prescott had not had time
+to bend close enough to see which.
+
+Yet no sooner had Dick vaulted back into saddle again than the
+remembrance of that cuff flashed upon him.
+
+"Dodge has been excelling in daily recitations, yet can't do as
+well at general review!" flashed hotly through Prescott's mind.
+"And Dodge, the high-souled one who loathes cribs!  If that writing
+on his cuff isn't a crib of today's math., then I'm a plebe!"
+
+The thought would not down, even for a moment.
+
+Dick became wilder in his thoughts the more he thought about it.
+
+"The cribber!  And he sought to blast me here on a false charge
+of cribbing.  For now I know in my soul that he put that paper
+crib in my handkerchief that Friday morning months ago!"
+
+Dick's indignation, as he rode, was more than personal.  True,
+he longed to show up the sneak who had nearly wound up another
+and honest cadet's career here at West Point.  But there was an
+even higher purpose in Prescott's mind at the same time.  The
+corps of cadets loathes a cribber as it does any other kind of
+cheat or liar.  It is justly regarded as a moral crime for any
+cadet, knowing another to be a sneak, stand by and silently allow
+that sneak to graduate into the brotherhood of the Army.
+
+"Dodge, you cur, every minute, now, is bringing you nearer your
+own merited disgrace," muttered Dick savagely.  "As soon as this
+detachment is dismissed at barracks I'll denounce you before all
+the fellows.  I'll insist that you expose that cuff---and you'll
+have to do it!"
+
+Once Prescott caught himself wondering whether he might not fail
+through being too hasty.  Was it barely possible that the writing
+on Bert Dodge's left cuff was wholly innocent?
+
+"No!  I'm not making any mistake, and I'll prove it to my own
+satisfaction!" throbbed this cadet who had waited patiently all
+these months for complete vindication before the corps.
+
+Never had Dick known such relief at being dismissed from riding
+drill.  The detachment formed under Haskins' orders, and marched
+up the road from riding hall, across the street to the Academic
+Building, and then, with Corporal Haskins still at the head, turned
+in at the east sally-port.
+
+But here, right at the entrance to the port, stood Chaplain Montgomery.
+
+"Corporal Haskins," called the chaplain, as he returned the cadet
+officer's smart salute, "will you excuse Mr. Prescott that I may
+speak with him?
+
+"Mr. Prescott, fall out!" came Haskins' command.
+
+With a feeling of horror and anguish Dick fell out, saluting Chaplain
+Montgomery, for the chaplain, though an ordained minister of the
+church, was also, by virtue of his post of chaplain, a captain
+of the United States Army.
+
+On moved the detachment, the feet of the cadets moving at a rhythmic
+beat as these perfect young soldiers moved on across the barracks
+area.
+
+And all Chaplain Montgomery had to say to Cadet Prescott was to
+tell him in which bound file of a magazine at the Y.M.C.A. could
+be found an article about which Dick had asked the churchman a
+fortnight before.
+
+Dick returned thanks, though he meant no disrespect to the kindly
+chaplain.  Then, saluting, he hurried on after the detachment.
+
+But more than a fatal minute had been lost at the sally-port,
+and now the detachment was dismissed.  The men had been in their
+rooms for at least forty-five seconds.
+
+"No use to go to Dodge now!" thought Dick despondently.  "Whether
+he knows that I saw that cuff or not, he has removed it and has
+it safely hidden by this time.  Oh, if Chaplain Montgomery could
+have been a hundred yards further away at that moment!"
+
+It was no use to lament.  Dick concluded to wait and bide his
+time.  The chance might yet come to catch Bert Dodge red handed.
+
+"Though, if he suspects that I saw his exposed cuff, he'll take
+pains that there is not further chance!" decided Cadet Prescott.
+
+After that he went to his room, where he told Greg what he had
+discovered.
+
+"It's suspicious---mightily so," declared Holmes.  "But it isn't
+proof---not yet!"
+
+Nevertheless, Greg, once he had heard, could not get the matter
+out of his mind either!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+PITCHING FOR THE ARMY NINE
+
+
+"Dick, old fellow, this is going to be a Gridley day for us!
+It will carry us back to the good old High School days!"
+
+Cadet Greg Holmes was radiant as he moved about their room in
+quarters that Saturday morning while preparing for the call to
+breakfast formation.
+
+Until one o'clock these young men of West Point would be busy
+in the section rooms, as on other week days.  But the afternoon
+of Saturday belonged to pleasure---on this Saturday to sport!
+
+Lehigh University was sending over the strongest baseball nine
+it could put up, in the effort to beat West Point on the Military
+Academy's diamond.
+
+"It'll seem just like good old Gridley High School days," repeated
+Greg.
+
+"Yes," smiled Dick darkly, "with the same rascal, Bert Dodge, to
+keep my thoughts going."
+
+"Dodge won't be in the game, anyway."
+
+"He wasn't much in Gridley, either," smiled Dick darkly.
+
+"Oh, well, forget him until the game is over."
+
+Morning recitations passed off as usual.  It was when the cadets
+came back from dinner,
+
+First, there was a brief inspection, after which cadets, with
+leave to visit the West Point Hotel, or officers' homes, strolled
+away to meet young women friends.
+
+"I'm due to be only a rooter today," sigh Greg, as he saw his
+roommate start off to the gym to meet the other members of the
+nine.
+
+"Your luck may change," rejoined Dick.  "You'd better go along
+to the gym.  You're the sub. shortstop, you know, and Meacham
+may not be on deck.  Better come along, now."
+
+"I will, then; I wasn't going over until just before time to get
+into togs and sit on the bench."
+
+Up to this time, neither Prescott nor Holmes had judged their
+academic standing to be good enough to make it safe for them to
+enter into sports.  This winter and spring, however, had found
+them "safe" enough for them to go into training with the baseball
+squad.
+
+Dick had tried for the position of pitcher, but Kennedy had been
+chosen, while Prescott had gone to second base.  Tatham was the
+sub. pitcher.
+
+"Say, have you seen the Lehighs?" demanded Furlong, as the chums
+joined the crowd at the gym.  "They're big fellows.  They weigh
+a ton and a half to our ton."
+
+"Lightness and speed count for more than beef in this game," smiled
+Prescott.
+
+"Lehigh has sent some huskies, all right, and they look as if
+they'd give us a tough battle."
+
+In baseball and football West Point plays college teams.  The
+college men are generally older and much heavier.  Besides, the
+college men, not having the same intense grind at their institutions,
+are able to devote four or five times as much actual time to the
+work of training.
+
+Despite these handicaps, the West Point team generally holds its
+own end up very well indeed.  The West Point men have one advantage;
+they are always in training, for which reason their bodily condition
+is always good.  It is in the finer points of the technique of
+the game that the United States military cadets suffer from less
+practice.
+
+Maitland, of the second class, was captain of the team this year.
+He was a much disturbed man when Dick and Greg reached the gym.
+
+"What ails Maitland?" Dick asked Furlong.
+
+"Haven't you heard?  Kennedy is a great tosser, but he has his bad
+days when his wrist goes stale.  And Tatham, the sub., fought his
+way through a poor dinner, but then he had to give up and go to
+hospital.  He's threatened with some kind of fever, we hear.  That
+leaves us without a sub. today."
+
+"Oh, does it?" thought Prescott.  With quick step and eager eye
+he sought Captain Maitland, who was also catcher for the nine.
+
+"Mr. Maitland, I understand you're without a satisfactory sub.
+pitcher for today?"
+
+"Confound it, yes; we're praying for the strength of Kennedy's
+wrist."
+
+"You may remember that I tried for pitcher."
+
+"I know you did," replied Maitland gloomily.  "But the coaches
+thought Kennedy and Tatham ahead of you."
+
+"If Kennedy should go bad today," pressed Dick eagerly, "I trust
+you will be willing order me in from second to the box.  I know
+that I won't disappoint you.  Ebbett and Dunstan are both good
+men at second."
+
+Captain Maitland looked thoughtful.
+
+"I'm afraid, Prescott, if Kennedy does happen to go stale, we'll
+have to call on you."
+
+"I won't disappoint you, if you do, Captain!"
+
+Then Maitland turned to regard Meacham, who was entering at that
+moment.
+
+"What on earth ails you, Meacham?" demanded the worried captain
+of the nine.
+
+"I was at a loot party last night," confessed Meacham miserably.
+
+"Overeating yourself---when you're in training, man?"
+
+"Honestly, Maitland, I didn't believe the little that I put down
+was going to throw me.  There wasn't a murmur until eleven this
+morning, and I felt sure that was going to work off.  But it won't,
+and, oh, my!"
+
+West Point's shortstop put his hands over his belt line, looking
+comically miserable.  But to Captain Maitland there was no humor
+in the situation.
+
+"You're a fine one!" growled Maitland.  "Oh, Holmesy!  Come over
+here, please.  You haven't been teasing your stomach, have you?"
+
+"I don't know that I have a stomach," replied Greg promptly.
+
+"You'll play shortstop today, then."
+
+Half an hour later, the Lehigh fellows were out on the field,
+going through some practice plays.  Below the center of the grandstand,
+the West Point band was playing its most spirited music.  The
+seats reserved for officers and their families, and for invited
+guests, were filling up rapidly.  At the smaller stand, over at
+the east side of the field, Lehigh had some two hundred friends
+and rooters.
+
+Now on to the field marched the corps of cadets, filing into the
+seats reserved for them, just north of the officers' seats.
+
+Now, the band began to play the U.S.M.A. songs, the cadets joining
+in under the leadership of the cheer-master.
+
+Then, amid a storm of West Point yells, the Army nine strode on
+to the field.  Things moved quickly now.  Lehigh won the toss and
+went to bat.
+
+Kennedy appeared to be in excellent form.  He struck out the first
+two Lehigh men at bat.  The third man, however, gained first on
+called balls.  The fourth man at bat drove a two-bagger, and now
+second and third were occupied.  As the fifth of the Lehigh batsmen
+stepped up to the plate, the Lehigh cheers resounded, and West
+Point's rooters sat in tense silence.  What was the matter with
+Kennedy?  But the Army pitcher struck out his man, and Lehigh
+went out to grass without having scored.  Lehigh's revenge, though,
+was swift.  Three West Point men were struck out almost as rapidly
+as they could move to the plate.
+
+In the second inning both sides got men to bases, but neither
+side scored.  In the third Lehigh took one solitary run, but it
+looked well on the score-board at the north end of the field.
+West Point, in the last half of the third, put men on first and
+second, but that was all.
+
+By the fourth inning, Kennedy was pitching a bit wildly.  Maitland
+gazed at his comrade of the battery with anxious eyes.  Lehigh
+began to grin with the ease of the thing now.  One after another
+men walked to bases on called balls, until all of the bags were
+occupied.
+
+Suddenly Kennedy, after taking a twist on the ball, signaled Maitland.
+The captain turned the umpire and spoke.
+
+"Kennedy's old trick!  He's gone stale and Tatham is down at hospital,"
+passed from mouth to mouth among the home rooters.  "Now, what's
+left for us?"
+
+After a brief conversation with the umpire Maitland signaled.
+Dick Prescott came bounding in from second, to receive the ball
+from Kennedy, while Ebbett was seen racing out to second.
+
+"Play ball!" called the umpire crisply.
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" called one of the cadets.  "In training season Prescott
+tried for pitcher and the coaches turned him down.  Now we're done
+for today!"
+
+Spirits were gloomy among the West Point rooters.  Yet, within
+a few moments, they sat up, taking notice.
+
+Dick, with his nerves a-tingle, his eye keen, measured up the
+Lehigh batsman and sent in one of his old-time, famous Gridley
+spit-balls.  It looked slow and easy.  The Lehigh man swung a
+well-aimed crack at the ball.
+
+"Strike one," announced the umpire.
+
+Again Prescott turned his wrist and twirled.
+
+"Strike two!"
+
+Then an outcurve.
+
+"Strike three! Out!"
+
+Lehigh began to look with some interest at this new, confident
+pitcher.
+
+The next Lehigh man to bat met a similar fate.  So did the third man.
+
+Now, the West Point yells went up with new force and purpose.
+
+The corps yell rose, loud and thunderous, followed by three cries
+of "Prescott!"
+
+In their half of the inning, West Point put men on first and second,
+but that was the best they could do.
+
+So it dragged along to the seventh inning.  Army rooters were
+now sure that West Point's star pitcher had been found at last,
+and that Lehigh would have rare luck to score again today.  But
+West Point didn't seem able to score, either, and Lehigh had the
+one needed dot.
+
+As Army went to bat Greg took up the stick and swung it expectantly.
+
+"Do something, Greg," Dick had whispered.  "I'm the second man
+after you, and I'll back you if you can get a start.  Remember
+the old Gridley days of victory.  Get some of that same old ginger
+into you!"
+
+Holmes, as he swung the stick over the plate, seemed to feel himself
+back on the old athletic field of Gridley High School.  And these
+stalwart college boys before him seemed to him to be the old,
+old Tottenville High School youngsters.
+
+One strike Greg essayed and lost.  At the second offer, he hit
+the ball a sharp crack and started.  He reached first, but as
+he turned, the ball fell into the hands of Lehigh's second baseman,
+and Greg fell back to safety at first.
+
+Ebbett, who followed, hit at the third offer, driving the ball
+almost under the feet of Lehigh's right-fielder.  As that man
+seized it he saw that Greg was within kicking distance of second
+bag, so he threw to first and Ebbett was out.
+
+Dick now stepped confidently forward.  He looked at Lehigh's tired
+pitcher with a challenging smile.
+
+At the first offer, Prescott struck the leather sphere---crack!
+In an instant Greg was in motion, while Dick raced as though
+bent on catching his chum.  The ball had gone out over the head
+of center, who was now faithfully chasing it across outfield.
+Greg came in and hit the plate amid a cyclone of Army enthusiasm.
+The band was playing in sheer joy.  Dick kicked second bag, then
+darted back as he saw the ball drop into the hands of the Lehigh
+catcher, who promptly sent it spinning straight into the third
+baseman's hands.
+
+Then Maitland gained first on called balls, and Furlong did the
+same, which advanced Prescott to third.
+
+Now Carson came up with the stick, sending out a slow grounder.
+
+In like an Apache runner came Prescott, kicking the plate just
+before the ball dropped.
+
+From the seats of the Army came the triumphant yell:
+
+"North point, east point, south point, West Point---_two points_!"
+
+The next Army man struck out, but West Point was breathing, now,
+with score two to one.
+
+"Don't let Lehigh put another dot on the card, Prescott, and you'll
+be our pitcher this year," promised Maitland.
+
+"Wait and see if the visitors can get any more from us," laughed
+Dick coolly.  He felt that he had his old Gridley winning gait
+on now.  He proved it by striking out three straight in the first
+half of the eighth.  But West Point did not score, either, in
+that inning.
+
+Then came Lehigh, grim and desperate, to bat for the ninth time.
+The first man Dick struck out.  But even his wrist seemed to
+be treacherous now.  The second Lehigh man offered at nothing,
+and went to first on called balls.  So did the second, and a third
+man, and the bags were filled.
+
+Maitland glanced appealingly at Dick.
+
+The new batsman, at the second offer, drove a slow grounder.
+Greg Holmes raced forward for it, like a deer.  As he caught it
+up there was no perceptible pause before he sent it straight into
+Maitland's hands, and the man headed for the plate was out.  But
+the three bags were again full.
+
+Another Lehigh man hit one of Dick's drives, but only faintly
+with the edge of his bat, and he went out on a foul hit.
+
+"Now, I'm going to strike this new man out," resolved Dick desperately,
+steeling nerves and muscles for the effort.
+
+"Strike one!" called the umpire.  "Ball one!  Ball two!  Strike
+two!  Strike three!  Out!"
+
+It was over, and Lehigh, covered with chagrin, gave up the contest,
+while a pandemonium of Army cheers went loose.  Two to one!
+
+"Prescott, I guess you're our pitcher here-after" called Maitland
+hoarsely.  "And you, Holmesy, for shortstop!"
+
+Dick Prescott found himself the center of a swift rush of cadets.
+Then he was hoisted aloft, and rushed off the field in triumph
+and glory, while the corps yell rang out for him.  Over in the
+gym.  Prescott was forced to hold an impromptu reception.  Greg
+got much of the ovation.
+
+Captain Verbeck, the head coach, came up to grasp Dick's hand.
+
+"Prescott, I don't understand how you ever got by us.  But Maitland
+wants you for our star pitcher after this, and you'll have to
+be.  It was the greatest Army game, from the box, that I've seen
+in many a year."
+
+"Say, you fellows," greeted Anstey, breaking into their room after
+the chums had returned to barracks, "you two had better go over
+today, and the men who are to drag the spooniest femmes tonight
+are all plotting to write you down on the dance cards of their
+femmes."
+
+"That's the best reason in the world for keeping away from Cullum,
+then," laughed Dick.
+
+"But I mean it seriously," protested Anstey.
+
+"So do I," replied Dick
+
+"I'm really a committee of one, sent here by some of tonight's
+draggers," protested the Virginian.
+
+"Tell them of your non-success, then, do," urged Dick.  "For I'm
+not going to Cullum tonight.  Are you, Greg?"
+
+"Ye-es," returned Holmes promptly.  Then, suddenly, he paused
+in his moving about the room.
+
+He now stood looking at his left hand, on which appeared a small
+smear of black.
+
+"No!" suddenly uttered Greg.  "I'm not going.  I've changed my
+mind---and for the best reasons possible."
+
+"Now, what on earth has made you so excited?" demanded Anstey
+wonderingly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+GREG'S SECRET AND ANOTHER'S
+
+
+"Are you going to the hop tonight?" asked Holmes, looking up with
+gleaming eyes from the smear on the back of his hand.
+
+"No," admitted Anstey.
+
+"Can you keep a secret?
+
+"Yes, suh; suhtinly."
+
+"Then come here at 8.15 to-night."
+
+"What are you talking-----"
+
+"I'm not talking, _now_," retorted Greg with a resolute tone in
+his voice.  "Like a wise man, I'm going to do some thinking first.
+But you call around this evening.  It'll be worth your while."
+
+Anstey looked and felt highly mystified.  It must be something
+both sudden and important to make Greg change his mind so swiftly.
+For Cadet Holmes, who, in his home town, had not been exactly
+noted for gallantries to the other sex, had, in the yearling class,
+acquired the reputation of being a good deal of a "spoonoid."
+This is the term applied to a cadet who displays a decided liking
+for feminine company.
+
+"I can see that it isn't any use to ask you anything now," went
+on Anstey.
+
+"It isn't," Greg returned promptly.  "I'm never secretive against
+you, Anstey, old man and the only reason I don't talk at once
+is that I don't know just what I want to say.  But remember---8.15.
+By that time I think I shall have solved myself into a highly
+talkative goat yearling."
+
+Rap-tap! at the door, and Furlong and Dunstan dropped in.
+
+"Want to tell you what I think about your pitching, old ramrod,"
+announced Furlong.
+
+"It's rotten!" glowed Dunstan cheerfully "And your shortstop work,
+Holmesy-----"
+
+"What kindergarten nine did you play with last?" insisted Furlong.
+
+"I was just making up my mind not to pitch again this season,"
+grinned Cadet Prescott.
+
+"Why not?" Furlong demanded.
+
+"Milesy," laughed Dick, "you should never go out on a kidding
+expedition until you're sure you're josh-proof yourself.  Do you
+think anything less than the coaches and the team captain could
+stop me from pitching?  But I sorry for Ken, if I'm to supplant
+him."
+
+"You needn't be.  Kennedy is glad.  He hopes to make the cavalry,
+and he says he wants to train that wrist for wielding a sabre."
+
+"Can you two near-plebes find time to drop in this evening, at
+just 8.15?" demanded Greg.
+
+"Certain idea! What's up, Holmesy?"
+
+"It isn't a feed," declared Greg.  "But I think you'd be sorry
+afterwards if you failed to come."
+
+"We'll be here," promised Dunstan.
+
+"Then I guess our party will be complete," mumbled the mysterious
+Greg.
+
+"Say, Holmesy," nudged Dunstan, "how did you get that smear on
+the back of your hand?  Do you know, it looks like the famous
+one that Cadet Dodge rubbed off with a borrowed handkerchief,
+once on a time."
+
+"Does it?" asked Greg innocently.  "Be good enough to loan me
+your handkerchief, then?"
+
+"Not much!" growled Dunstan, backing away.  "The loaning of personal
+linen seems on its way to becoming a court-martial offence."
+
+When the visitors had left, Dick turned on his chum, demanding
+curiously:
+
+"What's the game for tonight, anyway, Greg?"
+
+"You didn't see how I got this smear on my hand, did you, old
+ramrod?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I'm not going to tell you at present," replied Greg, going
+to his washbowl and pouring in water.  "But the way I got it set
+me to thinking.
+
+"About what?"
+
+"Well, about the way Bert Dodge got his hand smeared back in the
+days of ancient history.  And, old ramrod, I believe that following
+up the clue may lead to some other discoveries that will possess
+a vital interest for you."
+
+"But-----"
+
+"No more at present!  That's a special order," affirmed Greg.
+"Be good, like the rest, and wait until 8.15 to-night."
+
+At supper, in cadet mess hall, the talk all naturally turned to
+the diamond game with Lehigh that afternoon.  The Army, at the
+outset, had hardly expected to win against that year's Lehigh
+nine.  When the game was well under way, Army hopes had been still
+lower.  Now, the talk was all on how Prescott and Holmes had saved
+the game to the Army.  Even Maitland, without a trace of jealousy,
+conceded them most of the credit.
+
+"What has cherubic, spoonoid Holmesy got up his sleeve for 8.15?"
+asked Dunstan in an undertone of Anstey.
+
+"I reckon, suh, you'll have to apply for particulars to the Information
+and Security Service, suh," replied the Virginian.  "To the best
+of my belief, suh, the secret is all Mr. Holmes's."
+
+So no more questions were asked.  But at 8.15, to the second,
+Furlong and Dunstan tapped on the Prescott-Holmes door, and, as
+they did so.  Anstey turned at the head of the stairs.  Punctuality
+is one of the cardinal virtues of the soldier; to be a half minute
+late is a grave breach of etiquette; to be five minutes late amounts
+almost to a crime.
+
+"Now, Holmesy, we want light," insisted Furlong.
+
+"At first blush," returned Greg, "some of you may not like the
+job.  It is nothing more nor less than a visit to Dodge's room,
+while he and Blayton are absent at the hop."
+
+"It is an extreme measure, surely," murmured Dunstan.
+
+Anstey remained silent, waiting for further particulars.
+
+"What I would call to your attention," went on Greg, "is that
+my roommate, old ramrod, was nearly bounced out of West Point
+for something he never did.  I believe, and probably you all do,
+that Mr. Dodge played an evil and guilty part in what became nearly
+a tragedy."
+
+"I wouldn't put anything mean beyond Dodge," replied Furlong.
+
+"Now, I believe I can take you to Dodge's room.  Both he and Brayton
+are absent at the hop.  Brayton has always been a decent fellow,
+I don't believe he admires Dodge any too much, but he has to put
+up with his roommate.  Now, in that room I hope to find evidence
+which will prove that Dodge is not fit to be a member the corps
+of United States Military Academy cadets.  Will you come with
+me and look for the proof?"
+
+"I suhtinly will, suh," replied the Virginian promptly.
+
+"If Anstey will go on a job like that," muttered Dunstan, "then
+I guess it's a proper undertaking for gentlemen."
+
+"I thank you, suh," nodded the Virginian gravely.
+
+"Then come along, all hands," begged Greg.  "If we find anything
+of the sort that I expect to, then there will be witnesses enough
+to prove the find to the satisfaction of the class and of the
+corps."
+
+Feeling like so many conspirators, this committee of five moved
+along to Dodge's room.  Greg went a little ahead and tapped.
+Had Dodge been there it would not have interfered seriously with
+his plans.  But there was no answer, so Holmes pushed open the
+door, turning the gas half on and lighting it.
+
+"This afternoon," declared Greg, "I dropped a stub of a pencil
+in our room.  It fell on the bricks of the floor of the fireplace,
+and rolled into the space between two of the bricks.  In getting
+that pencil out I got on the back of my hand the smear that you
+all saw.
+
+"Fellows, I've been thinking for weeks and months about that smear
+on the back of Mr. Dodge's hand.  When I saw the one on the back
+of my own hand it occurred to me at once how Mr. Dodge might have
+got that black spot on his hand.  It came over me, all in a flash.
+I knew that Brayton and Mr. Dodge would be out of the way this
+evening at the hop.  Dodge has a hiding place somewhere in this
+room.  From the past history of the Academy we know that favorite
+hiding places have always been under the bricks of the fireplaces.
+For use in the winter time the hiding place must be in the outer
+edge of the brick flooring, close up to where it joins the boards.
+In such a hiding place the fire wouldn't harm the hidden objects.
+Now, some of you might help me to see what we can find."
+
+Anstey, with a gravely judicial air, knelt beside Holmes.  Together
+they tapped back and forth over the bricks with rulers taken from
+the study tables.
+
+"This is the brick that hides the place, I reckon, suh," announced
+the Virginian rather deliberately.
+
+"Let's pry it up, then," suggested Greg.
+
+But the brick resisted rather strenuous efforts.
+
+"That's odd, in itself," muttered Holmes.  "Almost of the bricks in
+these fireplaces come up as easily as a naval apprentice's dinner.
+Anse, we've got to work at this brick until we have loose.  It
+surely hides something."
+
+"We mustn't damage either the wooden or brick flooring," warned
+Furlong.  "If we did find anything, after all, think of the row
+Dodge could raise over the vandalism in his room."
+
+So the time slipped by, faster than any of them knew.  But these
+five cadets, now satisfied that the obdurate brick really did
+hide a secret toiled on with no thought of surrender.
+
+At last they struck the combination.  The brick back of the one
+that so resisted their efforts was finally pried up, after a good
+deal of effort.  This opening laid bare a neat but powerful spring.
+
+Had they had, at the outset, the whole secret of this spring,
+they could have raised the resisting brick in a second's time.
+
+"Get it up---must have a look!" cried Prescott hoarsely.
+
+It was Greg who raised the brick that had resisted their efforts
+for so long.  Underneath Cadet Holmes found a collection of things
+that chained the attention of all, as each took eager looks in
+turn.
+
+"Going to put the stuff back, for the present?" asked Anstey,
+with an odd quiver in his voice The honorable Virginian was upset
+by what he had seen.
+
+"Not never!" retorted Greg with ungrammatical emphasis.  "It won't
+be just the thing for old ramrod and myself to have it, either.
+Milesy, you and Dunstan take it along with you.  Now, old ramrod,
+just what had we better do?"
+
+"I don't see anything for it but to root out again after taps and
+the subdivision inspector's visit tonight," muttered Dick, who
+was alternately pale and flushed over the discovery, and all that
+it meant.  "Gentlemen, will you come softly to my room fifteen
+minutes after the sub-division inspector's official visit at taps?"
+
+Greg and Anstey restored the bricked flooring of the fireplace
+so that nothing indicated the late search.
+
+Then, Dunstan and Furlong carrying away the discovered stuff,
+the five prowlers turned out the gas and separated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE "COMMITTEE ON CLASS HONOR"
+
+
+At a few minutes after eleven, that same April night, five cadets
+fully dressed stole down the corridor, and the leader laid a hand
+on Dodge's doorknob.
+
+In another moment they had stepped inside and their arrival awakened
+Cadet Brayton.
+
+"Plebes' quarters next floor up, brothers," called Brayton in
+drowsy good nature.
+
+"I'm sorry to say, Brayton, we're on the right floor, and in the
+right room," responded Dunstan.  "But this visit won't bother you!"
+
+The noise of voices awoke Bert Dodge with start.  He awoke with
+a snort, then sat bolt upright, peering in the dark.
+
+"Wh---who's there?" he demanded hoarsely.
+
+"A committee on class honor, Mr. Dodge," replied Furlong, while
+Anstey added, with ironic politeness:
+
+"Don't be alahmed, suh.  We do not believe you to be possessed,
+suh, of any of the commodity of which we are in search."
+
+"Brayton" asked Greg, "will you be good enough to slip into your
+bathrobe and hang your blankets over the window?  Then we can
+have some light.  That's one thing we're going to need," he added
+significantly.
+
+"Don't you do it, Bray," broke in Dodge stiffly.  "As for you
+fellows, the best thing you can all do is to go back to your cradles.
+Bray and I want to sleep the night through.  And you've no business
+here, anyway."
+
+"I'm afraid you've missed the point, suh?" replied Anstey with
+bored patience.  "That is exactly why we're here, suh---because
+we have business here."
+
+Brayton had slipped into his bathrobe and was now crossing the
+room with blankets on one arm.
+
+"Chase 'em out, Bray; don't hang any blankets for them to run
+a light behind," begged Dodge.
+
+"I'm afraid I'd better," murmured Brayton, as he stood on a chair
+and reached up to put the blankets in place.  Didn't you hear
+the announcement that this is a committee of honor?  The class
+has a right to send one to any man, and Prescott, the class president,
+is here.  There, those blankets will hold and shut in all light.
+Turn on the gas, Holmesy, if you will."
+
+"You'd better get into robe and slippers, too, Mr. Dodge," hinted
+Dunstan strongly.  "Our business is with you, and I think you'll
+feel more at ease on your feet."
+
+"What is all this nonsense about, anyway growled Dodge, as he
+slipped out of bed and wrapped himself in his dressing gown.
+
+"That's what we'll ask you to explain," retorted Greg.  "But let
+us go about this in a regular manner.  In the first place, Brayton,
+please understand that you are not being investigated.  It is
+Mr. Dodge who is under suspicion."
+
+"Yes; under fine suspicion!" snarled Dodge.  "You mean I'm to
+be the victim of a plot hatched by my two old enemies back in
+the home town."
+
+But Greg, ignoring him, turned to his chum.
+
+"Dick, old ramrod, as you're the aggrieved one, I don't suppose
+you can exactly act as class president in this case.  But you
+can designate some other member of the class to act in your place."
+
+"Then I'll name Mr. Anstey," replied Dick.  "I believe he will
+be satisfactory to everyone."
+
+"Not to me!" snapped Bert Dodge, his uneasy gaze roving from one
+face to another.  "The class president can't name his own substitute."
+
+"Silence!" commanded Brayton, turning on his roommate.  "Of course
+the class president can delegate his duties, temporarily, to another."
+
+"Take this matter in charge, Mr. Anstey," begged Dick, turning
+to the Virginian.
+
+"Mr. Dodge," continued the Virginian, "be good enough, suh, to
+pay good heed to what I have to say.  That will be necessary,
+in fairness to yourself, suh.  I'll begin at the beginning."
+
+Anstey began with the handkerchief-borrowing episode in barracks
+area.  He dwelt upon the accusation against Cadet Prescott, the
+court-martial, and the further fact that even the verdict of acquittal
+had not, at first, been fully accepted by all members of the corps
+of cadets clearing Dick of the fearful suspicion against his honor.
+
+"What has all this to do with me?" snarled Dodge.  "Is Prescott
+trying to revive his old and infamous hints against me?
+
+"Wait a moment, Mr. Dodge," continued Anstey patiently.  "Now
+will now move along to the drill in the riding hall yesterday
+afternoon."
+
+Anstey then described the bared cuff that Prescott had seen on
+Dodge's left wrist.
+
+"That's a lie," rasped out Dodge.
+
+But Anstey heeded him not; Prescott merely smiled.  But the sight
+of that smile maddened Dodge, who sprang up, crying:
+
+"Yes!  You think you have it all cooked up against me, Dick Prescott!
+But you'll find that truth and right will win."
+
+Dick did not answer, but Anstey, looking impressively at the culprit,
+declared:
+
+"Mr. Dodge, tonight, while you were away, we pried up that brick!"
+
+Every vestige of color fled from Bert's face.  He seemed about
+to fall, but he clutched at the chair back and remained standing.
+
+"Of course, Mr. Dodge, you know what we found there.  Brayton,
+you don't so you will interested in seeing the things.  Milesy,
+be good enough to spread the collection on that table.  Here, you
+see, first of all, is the cuff of yesterday.  Even the writing,
+in India ink, remains on it.  And here are reddish stains, made
+by the impact of that cuff with the tan-bark of the riding hall.
+Here are slips of paper on which the main features of the hardest
+math. problems of each day have been noted down, ready for writing
+on a cuff.  Here is the water-proof ink and the pen with which
+the writing on the cuff was done.  And here are some other slips
+of paper, evidently older, on which other problems have been written
+out more fully.  These older slips of paper contain problems of
+last November and early December---the time when Prescott was
+in his deep trouble.  Now, these older slips are of paper just
+like the piece that fell from the handkerchief that Prescott took
+out of his blouse on that tragic day.  Somewhere in the files
+the authorities have that slip that figured in the charges at
+Prescott's trial by general court-martial.  I imagine, on comparison,
+that slip will be found to be on paper identical with these slips
+containing older problems.  And you will note that these older
+slips are written on with a typewriting machine, with crude figures
+drawn in, just as in the case of the slip that figured Prescott's
+trial.  Now, Mr. Dodge, isn't it plain to even the dullest mind
+that you have been systematically cribbing at math., and that
+it is to that fact you owe your present high standing in the yearling
+class?"
+
+"Now that I think of it," remarked Brayton, turning and fixing
+his roommate with a frigid, hostile stare, "I have, on at least
+two occasions, entered this room just in time to see Mr. Dodge
+spring up hastily from near the fireplace.  But I am a dull-witted
+fellow, I suppose, and I didn't suspect.
+
+"Have you anything to say, Mr. Dodge?" demanded Anstey.
+
+"Nothing," barely gasped the detected wretch.
+
+"Then I will say something instead, suh," continued the Virginian.
+"I would rather the task fell to someone else, but this work has
+been delegated to me, and I must see it through, suh. Mr. Dodge, we
+are all satisfied that you are a miserable, lying, sneaking hound,
+suh, not worthy to associate with gentlemen.  We are satisfied, suh,
+that you are without honor or principle, and that you will never be
+fit to become an officer of the Army."
+
+"Now, see here, fellows," broke in Dodge in a whining tone, "if
+you'll be generous and give me another chance, I can live this down."
+
+"Then you admit that which we have been stating against you, do
+you, suh?" questioned the Virginian.  "It will be best for you
+to be wholly honest, suh!
+
+"Yes---yes---I---admit---it," cried Dodge brokenly.  "But I didn't
+deliberately plan for Prescott's undoing---on my honor, I didn't!
+What happened was this: When I took Prescott's handkerchief with
+one hand, I had that crib in the other hand.  After using the
+handkerchief, I found that I couldn't pass it back without either
+letting the crib be seen, or else tucking the crib into the
+handkerchief.  So I had to do the latter thing.  But that was as far
+as I was guilty---on my honor, gentlemen!"
+
+"Then you expect us to believe in the honor of a cadet who dishonors
+himself by sneaking cribs into a section room?" demanded Anstey
+with mild but withering sarcasm.
+
+"Give me just one more chance, gentlemen!" faltered Dodge.  "I
+pledge you my word that, henceforth, I'll do everything that is
+creditable and honorable, and nothing that isn't!"
+
+"We have a somewhat different proposition for you, Mr. Dodge,"
+observed the Virginian.  "We want no more of your stripe.  We
+would degrade the entire Army, and the whole people of the United
+States of America if we allow you to remain here.  Tomorrow, at
+an early hour, you will hand in your resignation as a cadet, to
+take effect upon acceptance.  If you fail, we will lay before
+the superintendent and the commandant of cadets all the evidence
+that we have against you, including your own confession.  You
+will then have to face a general court-martial and be dismissed
+from the service in the deepest disgrace that can come to a cadet."
+
+Bert Dodge sank to his knees, holding his clasped hands up before
+him.
+
+"Don't insist on that, gentlemen!  Don't!  Spare me the disgrace!
+Spare my parents!
+
+"Mr. Dodge," replied Anstey sternly, "honor is the watchword in
+the United States Military Academy, and all through the Army.
+We couldn't spare a dishonorable wretch like you, suh, without
+sharing in your disgrace.  And I have not told you all that we
+require.  As soon as you have gone to your home you will write
+a letter to the superintendent, exonerating Mr. Prescott from
+all suspicion in that fearful affair.  You will admit that you
+alone were guilty.  According to custom, that letter will be read
+before the battalion in special orders and the entire corps will
+then know how fully Cadet Prescott is worthy of being one of us."
+
+"Write that letter?" demanded Dodge, leaping to his feet, but
+cowering.  "Never! You are taking an unfair, unmanly, ungenerous
+advantage of me!  You shall never have any such letter from me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+Still patiently Anstey turned to Greg.
+
+"Mr. Holmes, will you be kind enough to go to the room of Mr.
+Packard of the first class, also Mr. Maitland, of the second class,
+and present my very respectful compliments?  Will you ask both
+gentlemen if they can make it convenient to come here, forthwith,
+on a matter of corps honor?"
+
+Greg departed.  He was back within five minutes, simply nodding.
+Very soon Mr. Packard and Mr. Maitland appeared.  They listened
+silently while Anstey laid the story before them.  Then Packard
+glanced at the second classman.
+
+"Shall I speak for us both, Maitland?"
+
+"If you please."
+
+"Mr. Anstey, and gentlemen," continued Packard, "this is primarily
+a matter affecting your own third class, and should be settled
+by the members of your class.  But, in its broader scope, the
+conduct to which Mr. Dodge has confessed affects the entire corps.
+Mr. Dodge charges that you are abusing your power.  Maitland
+and I beg to differ with him.  Mr. Anstey, you have done the only
+thing that can be done in such a case of infamy and dishonor.
+Mr. Dodge will, of course, send in his resignation tomorrow;
+it will be much easier for him than facing disgrace of a more
+public kind through a published verdict of a general court-martial.
+As soon as Mr. Dodge has reached his home he will also write
+that letter exonerating Mr. Prescott; I am sure he will.  If he
+does not, the corps will then take steps to turn the evidence
+over to the representative of the Associated Press, and of the
+largest newspapers in the country.  In other words, Mr. Dodge,
+by refusing to write that letter, will face a vastly larger exposure
+all through the country.  Now, Maitland, as this is, first of
+all, a class matter, I feel that we have offered enough.  Gentlemen,
+if you have no further need of us, we will withdraw."
+
+The self-appointed committee of the yearling class withdrew a
+moment after, Furlong and Dunstan carrying with them the evidence.
+
+Bert Dodge tendered his resignation promptly.  Within a week the
+notice of its acceptance by the Secretary of War was published
+before the battalion, and Dodge skulked away, alone, unregretted
+and utterly crushed, to the railway station.  During the last
+few days he had been "cut" by every man in the corps.
+
+Three days after his departure the superintendent of the United
+States Military Academy received a letter that caused him much
+astonishment.  In this letter Dodge briefly confessed that he,
+and he alone, was the guilty party in that cribbing affair, and
+Dick Prescott had had no guilty share or knowledge in the incident.
+
+"Hm!" mused the superintendent, a grim smile passing over his
+face.  "This Dodge business has all the ear-marks of another affair
+of Army honor settled unofficially by the corps of cadets."
+
+Dodge's letter was published in a special order then read before
+the corps of cadets, and the affair was closed.
+
+Dick and Greg continued to play in the Army nine the rest of that
+spring.  It was one of the most brilliant of Army seasons on the
+diamond, and much of the credit was due to yearlings Prescott
+and Greg.
+
+Baseball was at last cut short by the arrival of the busy graduation
+season.
+
+Immediately after the proud and happy graduating class had left
+to take up its new life in the scattered Army of the United States,
+the yearling class dropped that designation and became the new
+second class at West Point.  As members of the new second class,
+these happy youngsters laid aside their uniforms for two and a
+half months, and, in citizens' clothes, made their rush away from
+the Military Academy to begin the summer furlough that comes but
+once in the cadet's more than four years of Academy life.
+
+That evening found Greg and Dick in New York City.  Happy as small
+boys, they looked at the great city in genuine glee.
+
+"I feel like rubbing my eyes, Greg, old chum!" laughed Dick.
+"Are we dreaming, or can such large cities actually be?"
+
+"It seems to me that I have a remembrance of large towns in some
+previous stage of existence, somewhere in the universe," sighed
+Holmes ecstatically.  "But this town is bigger, noisier, fuller
+of life and fun than anything I can recall."
+
+"We have until midnight before the home train leaves," pursued Dick.
+
+"Home!  Now, that is something of which I have a much keener
+recollection!"  cried Greg, his eyes moistening.  "Dick, I'm
+afraid that, if there were a train earlier than midnight, even
+the big town wouldn't detain me."
+
+"But there isn't an earlier train, Greg, and there are no taps
+or sub-division inspectors tonight.  What shall we do?"
+
+"First of all, then," proposed Greg gleefully, "let us see if
+there is a place in New York where they know the meaning of the
+big feed."
+
+"And then the theater!" chuckled Dick.
+
+"Which we'll reach in one of those wonderful vehicles that the
+natives call taxicabs!"
+
+They found a place without difficulty.
+
+"Then to walk along Broadway with its flashing lights; then the
+railway station!"
+
+"The train!"
+
+"Home in the morning!"
+
+"We'll start with a taxi," proposed Greg.  "Here's an empty one
+coming.  Here, chauffeur.  Yes!  The Waldorf!"
+
+What befell our cadets thereafter will be reserved for the next
+volume in this series, which is published under the title, "_Dick
+Prescott's Third Year At West Point; Or, Standing Firm for Flag
+and Honor._"
+
+This story will be a rare treat, one that will make the blood
+bound faster in the arteries of any real American boy.  A narrative
+of surpassing interest and thrilling adventures in the military
+cadet's life is promised.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dick Prescott's Second Year at West
+Point, by H. Irving Hancock
+
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