Dick Prescotts's Fourth Year at West Point Part 21

"I've been one of the sufferers through Mr. Prescott," commented Durville grimly. "As for me, I'll admit that I'd be glad to see the 'silence' lifted. I feel that Mr. Prescott has been punished enough, and that, if we now lift the 'silence,' he would be more careful after this. I think he has been chastened enough. If I could find any reason whatever for refusing to vote for the end of the Coventry, it would come from the question as to whether any one cla.s.s has the right to upset the traditions and establish a new precedent for such cases."

"There is the most of the case in a nutsh.e.l.l I am afraid," declared Cadet Dougla.s.s. "In our interior corps discipline we not only work from tradition, but we strengthen or weaken it for the cla.s.ses that are to follow us. Have we any right to weaken a tradition that is as old as the Military Academy itself?"

These simple remarks, made with an absence of bitter feeling, swung the tide against d.i.c.k. The meeting in Anstey's room lasted for more than an hour. When the meeting broke up Anstey and some of his advisers felt convinced that to call a cla.s.s meeting would be merely to bring about a vote that Prescott was to be kept in Coventry for all time to come.

Anstey told Greg the result of the meeting, but Holmes did not tell his chum.

"It's all settled as it ought to be," declared Cadet Jordan.

"You mean-----" asked Durville.

"Why, either Prescott will have to be 'found' in his exams., or else he'll be bound to resign as soon as he has proved that his departure from West Point was not due to poor scholarship. Which ever way he prefers to do it, the fellow will have to get out of the corps within the next few days!"

"Yes; I suppose so," almost sighed Durville.

"Why, hang you, Durry, you talk like a man whose good opinion can be won by a kicking."

"Do you" asked Durville, with a warning flash in his eyes.

"Oh, don't take me too seriously," protested Jordan. "But I cannot help marveling at your near liking for the man who landed you in such a sc.r.a.pe."

"I don't enjoy hitting a man who is down; that is all," returned Durville. "I've seen Mr. Prescott down for so many weeks and months that I'd like to see how he looks when he's a man instead of an under dog."

"Well, I'm glad to say the cla.s.s is plainly not of your way of thinking," growled Jordan. "The cla.s.s is for maintaining higher ideals of the honor of military service and true comradeship. So it's only a matter of what date the fellow selects for leaving here."

And truly that was the view that seemed to be pressing more and more tightly upon d.i.c.k Prescott. The pressure was becoming more than he could bear. He had followed Lieutenant Denton's advice, and had put up a good and a brave fight. But to be "the only dog in a cage of lions" is a fearful ordeal for the bravest---especially when the door is open.

Greg never seemed to notice the sighs that occasionally escaped d.i.c.k Prescott's lips. Holmes no longer tried to cheer his friend by open speech or advice. Yet not a thing that d.i.c.k did escaped the covert watchfulness of his roommate.

The semi-ans. over, and the results posted on the bulletin board in the Academic Building, it was discovered that Cadet Richard Prescott now stood number twenty-four in his cla.s.s---a rank never heretofore won by him.

Cadet Jordan was so furious that his face was ghastly white when he made the discovery.

"Will nothing ever drive that living disgrace Prescott out of the corps?" Jordan asked three or four of the men. "Why, the fellow is defying cla.s.s authority! He's making fools of us all.

He bluntly asks us what we think we can do about it!"

"We'll have to show Prescott, then," grimly replied one of the cadets with whom Jordan talked.

"But how?" demanded Cadet Jordan craftily. "Is there any possible way of making as thickheaded or stubborn a fellow as Prescott realize that he simply can't go on with us? That we won't have him with us?"

"Oh, I think there's a way," smiled the other cadet.

"Then I wonder why some one doesn't find it?" demanded Jordan wrathfully.

"We shall, I think."

Greg scented new mischief in the air, yet he was hardly the one to do the scouting.

Anstey, however, could look about for the news, and he could properly discuss it with Cadet Holmes.

With the beginning of the last half of the year the members of the first cla.s.s found themselves sufficiently busy with their studies.

d.i.c.k's affair was allowed to slumber for a few days.

Even Cadet Jordan, whose sole purpose now in life was to "work"

Prescott out of the corps, was clever enough to a.s.sent to letting the matter rest for a few days.

After another fortnight, however, the first cla.s.s, in its moments of leisure, especially in the brief rests right after meals, again began to throb over what was considered the brazen and open defiance of d.i.c.k Prescott in persisting in remaining a cadet at the Military Academy.

So many members of the cla.s.s, however, insisted on going slowly and with great deliberation that the Jordan faction did not make the mistake of rushing matters. At any rate, Prescott was in Coventry, and there he would stay.

Thus February came on and pa.s.sed slowly. To all outward appearances Prescott was as selfpossessed and contented as ever he had been while at the Military Academy.

Now, Army baseball was the topic. The nine and other members of the baseball squad were practising in earnest. Durville had been chosen to captain the nine.

Though there was some mighty good material in the nine, neither the coaches nor Durville were wholly satisfied.

"Holmesy," broached Durville plaintively one day, "you play a grand game of football."

"Thank you," replied Greg, with a pretense of mock modesty; "I know it."

"And you must play a great game of ball, too."

"I did once---pardon these blushes. d.i.c.k Prescott was my old trainer in baseball."

"Oh, bother Prescott! We can't have him."

"I don't play well without him," remarked Greg blandly.

"Come over to practice this afternoon, won't you?"

"Yes; but I don't believe I'll try for the nine."

"Come over and let us see your style, any way."

Greg turned up late that afternoon for practice. What he showed the captain and coaches had them fairly "rattled" with desire to slip Greg into the nine.

"I'm much obliged to you all," Greg insisted gently, "but I told you I wasn't going to try for the nine. I never played a game without Prescott, and I know I'd be a hoodoo if I did."

Though a great lot of pressure was brought to bear upon him, Holmes still held out. It was his privilege to refuse to play, if he so chose. Above all, the coaches, who were Army officers, could not urge him.

"That man Holmes is just the fellow we need to round out the team,"

complained one of the players to Durville.

"Yes," sighed the captain of the Army nine; "and Holmesy tells me that he's a tyro to Mr. Prescott."

"Then Mr. Prescott must be a wonder on the diamond," grunted the other cadet.

"I hear that he is," a.s.sented Durville. "By the way, you remember Darrin and Dalzell, who helped the Navy team to wipe the field up with us last year?"