At last they stood again by the gateway through the shrubbery at
the edge of the hotel grounds.
"Dick-----" began Laura hesitatingly.
"Yes?" asked the young cadet captain.
"Dick, no matter how far your classmates push this matter," begged
Laura, her eyes big and earnest, "don't let their acts force you
out of the Army. No matter what happens---stick!"
Cadet Prescott shook his head wearily. "I can't stick," he replied
firmly, "if I am shown that my presence in the Army is not going
to be for the good and the harmony of the service!"
Laura sighed. Another keen pang of disappointment, was hers.
She now believed that her influence over Dick Prescott was not
anywhere near as strong as she had hoped it would be.
A very wretched girl rested her head on a pillow that night, and
slept but poorly.
In the forenoon, while the corps was absent on an infantry practice
march, Laura, her mother and her friend went dejectedly away from
West Point.
CHAPTER VIII
FATE SERVES DICK HER MEANEST TRICK
The furloughed second class returned, the encampment ended and the
corps marched back into cadet barracks.
The new academic year had begun, with new text-books, new studies,
new intellectual torments for the hundreds of ambitious young
soldiers at the United States Military Academy.
By this time both Dick and Greg had acquired the habits of study
so thoroughly that neither any longer feared for his standing or
markings.
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