And
I don't reckon, suh, that I shall want anyone to talk to me while
I'm looking back from the stern of the boat."
"Same here," observed Greg, with what was, for him, a considerable
display of feeling.
Then the boat swept in, and the West Point party went silently
aboard. All made their way to the stern on the saloon deck.
That evening the class was to meet, for the last time as a whole,
at one of the theaters in New York. And the late cadets would
sit together, solidly, as a class.
Friends of graduates who wished would attend the theater, though
in seats away from the class.
Dick and Greg's relatives and friends were all to attend. More,
they were to stop at the same hotel. The next forenoon the ladies
would attend to some shopping. Then the reunited party would
journey back to Gridley.
A dozen or so West Point graduates stood at the stern of the swift
river steamer. The captain of the craft, a veteran in the river
service, knew something of how these young men just out of the
gray felt. For the first five miles down the river the swift
craft went at half speed. Then, suddenly, full speed ahead was
rung on the engine-room bell, and the craft went on under greatly
increased headway.
"Well, gentlemen," murmured Anstey, moving around and walking
slowly forward, "the United States Military Academy is the grandest
alma mater that a fellow could possibly have.
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