Readers of “Dick Prescott’s First Year at West Point” and of “Dick Prescott’s Second Year at West Point,” are familiar with the careers of the two chums, Prescott and Holmes, at the United States Military Academy.  The same readers are also familiar with the life at West Point of Bert Dodge, a former Gridley boy, but who had been appointed a cadet from another part of the state.  Our old readers are aware of the fact that Dodge had been forced out of the Military Academy for dishonorable conduct; that it was the cadets, not the authorities, who had compelled his departure, and that Dodge resigned and left before the close of his second year.

Readers of these volumes of the High School Boys’ Series know all about Bert Dodge in the course of his career at Gridley High School.  Dodge, back in the old days in Gridley, had been a persistent enemy of Dick & Co., as Prescott and his five chums had always been called in the High School.  Of those five chums Greg, as is well known, was Dick’s comrade at West Point.  Dave Darrin and Dan Dalzell were now midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.  Their adventures while learning to be United States Navel officers, are fully set forth in The Annapolis Series.  Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton had chosen to go West, where they became civil engineers engaged in railway construction through the wild parts of the country, as fully set forth in the Young Engineers’ Series.

Just after Mrs. Davidson left the bookstore there were no customers left, so Dick had a few moments in which to chat with his mother.

“What has become of the fellow Dodge?” asked the young West Pointer.

“Oh, haven’t I told you?” asked his mother.  A shade of annoyance crossed her face, for she well knew that it was Dodge who, while at West Point, had nearly succeeded in having her son dismissed from the Service on a charge of which Dodge, not Dick, was guilty.

“No, mother; and I haven’t thought to ask.”

“Bert Dodge is here in Gridley at present.  The Dodge family are occupying their old home here for a part of the summer.”

“Do people here understand that Dodge had to resign from West Point in order to escape a court-martial that would have bounced him out of the Military Academy?” Dick inquired.

“No; very few know it.  I have mentioned Dodge’s disgrace to only one person beside your father.”

“You told Laura Bentley?”

“Yes, Dick.  She had a right to know.  Laura has always been your loyal friend.  When she reached West Point, last winter, expecting to go to a cadet hop with you, she remained at West Point until you had been tried by court-martial and acquitted on that unjust charge.  Laura had a right to know the whole story.”

“She surely had,” nodded Dick.

“As to Gridley people in general,” went on Mrs. Prescott, “I have not felt it necessary to say anything, and folks generally believe that Bert Dodge resigned from the corps of cadets simply because he did not find Army life to his liking.”