While Dick Prescott had been waiting, hoping and praying for the cadetship at West Point; Dave Darrin had been equally wistful for the chance to go to Annapolis.

“Our chances have come, old chum!” cried Dick, looking into the glowing face of Darrin.

“Yes; and of course an Army or Navy officer should be a brave man.  But now the chance has come, I find myself an utter coward,” confessed Dave.

“How so?”

“I’m in a blue funk for fear some other fellow will get it away from me,” confessed Darrin honestly.  “And if I fail in this great ambition of my life, I’m wondering if I’ll have the nerve to go on living afterwards.”

“Brace up!” laughed Dick protestingly.

“Now, honestly, old fellow, aren’t you just badly scared!” Dave demanded.

“Whisper, Dave!  I am,” Dick admitted.

“Well, there is nothing like having some one that you can confess everything to, is there?” muttered Darrin.

“I guess it has done us both good to own up,” laughed Dick.  “But see here!”

“Well?”

“I simply won’t allow myself to be scared.”

“Then you’re as keen for West Point as I am for Annapolis,” retorted Darrin suspiciously.

“Dave, old fellow, you know what the Gridley spirit demands?  You know how we and the rest of the fellows managed to win eternally in athletics?  Just because we made up our minds that defeat was impossible.”

“That’s fine,” laughed Dave.  “But we’ll probably have to buck up against more fellows than we do on an athletic field.  And probably dozens of them go in with the same determination.”

“I don’t care,” declared Prescott.  “I want that West Point cadetship.  I’ve wanted it for years, and now the chance has come.  I’m going to have it!”

Dave Darrin gradually succeeded in working himself into the same frame of mind.  Yet there were many moments when he was tortured by doubts as to whether the “Gridley spirit” would serve in bucking a long line of young fellows all equally anxious to get to Annapolis.

The first step taken by Dick and Dave was to get excused from the High School for the time.

Both boys had lists of the studies and standards required for entrance to the Military Academy or the Naval Academy.  Dick and Dave, each in his own room at home, spent the next few days in “boning” as neither had ever “boned” before.

“But we must get three hours in the open air each day, Dave,” Dick insisted.  “We mustn’t go up for the trial with our nerves shattered by moping all the time indoors.”

Only Dick & Co., and a very few friends, knew what Dick and Dave were planning.  It was kept a secret.

The date of the High School senior ball was set for December 17.

“Can you be back in time to go to the ball?” Laura Bentley asked Prescott.

“I’m afraid not, Laura.  Besides, when I get back from Wilburville, I’m afraid I’ll feel pretty well tired out.”