“What’s up?” asked more than one cadet.

“Lew Flapp and Dick Rover are going to try to beat each other at punching the bag,” was the report.

“Rover will have to do his best then.  Flapp is a prime one at bag punching.  It’s about the only thing he can do real well.”

“This isn’t a fair contest,” put in another student.  “Flapp took lessons from a man who used to do bag-punching on the vaudeville stage.”

“If that’s so I wouldn’t try to beat him, if I was Dick Rover.”

Dick heard some of this talk but said nothing.  He was soon ready for the trial, and stepping up to the punching bag he began to undo the top strap.

“That bag is all right,” blustered Lew Flapp.

“Yes—­for you,” answered Dick.  “But you must remember, I am not quite so tall.  I must have it an inch lower.”

“It seems to me you are mighty particular.”

“I have a right to be.  When you do your punching you can raise the bag as high as you please.”

“That’s the talk,” came from several standing near.

By this time Larry was on the floor again, and he came up to learn what Dick was doing.

“Dick, they tell me he is the best bag-puncher here,” whispered Larry.

“I can’t help it.”

“He will crow over you if you don’t do as well as he can do.”

“Let him.”

Dick began his punching exercise slowly, for he had not tried it for some time, and was afraid he was a little stiff.  But, it may be added here, there was a punching bag in the barn at the Rovers’ farm, so the youth knew exactly what he was doing.

“Oh, anybody can do that,” remarked Lew Flapp presently.  “That’s as simple as A. B. C.”

“Well, can you do this?” returned Dick, and branched off into something a trifle more difficult.

“To be sure I can.”

“Then what about this?” and now Dick settled down to some real work.  Clap! clap! went the bag, this way and that.

“Yes, I can do that, too,” answered the tall boy.

“I’d like to see you.”

Lew Flapp was only too anxious to show his skill, and having adjusted the bag to suit him, he went at the work once again, doing just what Dick had done.

“Now do this!” he cried, and gave a performance of his most difficult exercise.  It was certainly well executed and at the conclusion many of the cadets began to applaud.

“Dick Rover will have to hump himself to do that,” remarked one.

“I don’t believe he can touch it,” said another.

With care Dick fixed the bag and went at the exercise.  It was something he had not practiced for a considerable time, yet he did not miss a stroke, and he wound up with a speed fully equal to that exhibited by his opponent.

“Good for you, Dick!” cried Larry heartily.

“They’ll have to call it a tie,” suggested another cadet.

“I’m not done yet,” said Dick.  “Can you de this?” he asked of Lew Flapp, and then commenced an exercise he had learned some time before, from a boxing instructor.  It was full of intricate movements, all executed so rapidly that the eye could scarcely follow them.  The cadets looked on in wonder, Lew Flapp staring angrily at the performance.