“Gentlemen of the first class,” he said quietly, “I thank you all.  Little more need be said.  I am sure that mere words cannot express my great happiness at being here.  I will not deny that I have felt the injustice of the cloud that has hung over me for the last few months.  Anyone of you would have felt it under the same circumstances.  But it is past—–­forgotten, and I know how happy you all are that the truth has been discovered.”

There was a moment’s silence.  Then Dick asked, as he had so often done before: 

“Is there any further business to come before the class meeting?”

Silence.

“A motion to adjourn is in order.”

The motion was put, offered and carried.  Dick Prescott stepped down from the platform, a man restored to his birthright of esteem from his comrades.

CHAPTER XVI

FINDING THE BASEBALL GAIT

“Morning, old ramrod!”

Never had greeting a sweeter sound than when Dick strolled about in the quadrangle after breakfast the next morning.

Scores who, for months, had looked straight past Prescott when meeting him, now stopped to speak, or else nodded in a friendly manner.

Twenty minutes later, the sections were marching off into the academic building, in the never-ceasing grind of recitations.

“Prescott,” declared Durville, during the after-dinner recreation period, “we want you to come around to show what you can do at baseball.  We’ve some good, armor-proof material for the squad, but we need a lot more.  And we want Holmesy, too.  Bring him around with you, won’t you?”

“If he’ll come,” nodded Dick.

“He must come.  But you’ll hold yourself ready, anyway, won’t you?”

“I’d hate to go in without Greg,” replied Dick.  “He and I generally work together in anything we attempt.”

“That was just the kick Holmesy made when you—–­when things were different,” corrected the captain of the Army nine hastily.

“Well, you see, ‘Durry,’ we were always chums back in the good old High School days.  We always played together, then, in any game, and either of us would feel lonesome now without the other.”

“Oh, of course,” nodded Durville.  “Well, I’ll see Holmesy and try to round him up, if you say so.”

“I think I can get him to come around,” smiled Dick.  “But you may be tremendously disappointed in both of us.”

“Can you play ball as well as Holmesy?”

“Perhaps; nearly, I guess.”

“Then we surely do need you both, for we’ve seen Holmesy toy with the ball, and we know where he’d rate.  Do you think you play baseball at the same gait that you do football, old ramrod?”

“I think it’s possible that I do,” Dick half admitted slowly.

“Always modest, aren’t you?” laughed “Durry” good humoredly.  “Somehow, Prescott, it seems almost impossible to think of you heading a charge, or graduating number one in your class.  You’d be too much afraid that someone else wanted either honor.”