Prescott saluted, received the officer’s acknowledging salute, turned and left the office.

A minute later he was allowing good old Greg to pump the details of that interview out of him.

“Say,” muttered Cadet Holmes, staring soberly at his chum, “an officer like Lieutenant Denton can put a different look on things, can’t be?”

“He certainly can, Greg.”

“I’m not going to be fresh, while I’m a cadet,” continued Holmes.  “But when I’m an officer I’m going to seek Mr. Denton and ask him to be my friend, too!”

CHAPTER XI

THE NEWS FROM FRANKLIN FIELD

Though Dick was firmly resolved on his new course, life none the less was bitter for him.

The Army football team was now being organized and drilled in earnest.  Douglass captained it this year, and was doing excellent work, though his material was not as good as he could have wished.

Anstey was developing speed and strategy in the position of quarterback, and, in football matters, was a close confidant of Douglass.

“This Prescott muss has given us a bad setback this year,” growled Douglass.

“It certainly has, suh,” agreed the Virginian.  “We’re certainly going to feel the loss of Prescott and Holmes when we come to face the Navy eleven with such men as Darrin and Dalzell.”

“Hang it, yes.  I’m shivering already,” growled Douglass.  “Now, of course, we can’t ask Prescott to join.”

“And he wouldn’t come in, suh, while in Coventry, if we asked him.”

“But Holmes, who is almost as good a man, ought not to hold back where the Army’s credit and honor are at stake.  Holmes ought to stand for the Army, asleep or awake!”

“If I were in Holmesy’s place, I wouldn’t come in,” rejoined the Virginian.  “I’d stay out, just as Holmesy is doing.”

“But you were one of Prescott’s thick friends, too.”

“I’m not his roommate, or his schoolboy chum, suh.  Holmesy is.

“It’s hard to lose either of them,” sighed Douglass, “and fierce to lose both of them.  We’ve worked like real heroes, but I can’t see any such team coming on as the Army had last year.  And the Navy eleven will undoubtedly be better this year than it was last.”

“The Army must stand to lose by the action of the first class,” insisted Anstey doggedly.

Though every man in the corps would have thrown up his cap at the announcement that Prescott and Holmes were to play again this year, the leaders of first-class opinion could see no reason to alter their judgment of Dick.  So he continued in Coventry.

The football season came on with a rush at last.  The Army won some of its games, from minor teams, but none from the bigger college elevens.

Then came the fateful Saturday when the corps went over to Philadelphia.  Dick and Greg were the only two members of the corps, not under severe discipline, who remained behind at the Military Academy.