Lew Flapp and his cronies were much disgusted and left the field almost immediately.

“He’s afraid to stay,” declared Dick.  “He doesn’t want Sam to challenge him,” and this was the truth.

The foot races were followed by some prize shooting, a race on the lake, and then by a tub race, and a race in sacks, which called forth much laughter, not only from the cadets, but also from the visitors.

“It was just splendid!” declared Alice Staton to Dick, when it was all over.  “I never had such a lovely time in my life.”

“Nor I,” added her twin sister.  “But your brother should have had that running race.  It was a shame to knock him down.”

“Never mind,” said Tom, who had come up.  “All the boys know he can run faster than the winner anyway.”

A luncheon was served to the visitors by Captain Putnam’s order and after that the cadets and their newly-made friends were allowed to go walking, boating, or driving, as they saw fit.  Swings had been erected in the grove close to the encampment and these were constantly patronized.

“It must be lots of fun to be a cadet,” said Alice Staton, when ready to depart.  “If I was a boy I should want to go to a military academy.”

“Oh, it’s not all play,” said Tom.  “We have to work pretty hard over our studies and sometimes a fellow doesn’t feel like drilling, but has to do it all the same.”

It can truly be said that the Flapp crowd were much disappointed over the results of the day’s contests.  Only two events had been won—­a boat race of small importance and the race in which Lew Flapp had come off victor, and the latter victory was dimmed by the knowledge that Sam Rover had cut down Flapp’s time over the course by eight seconds.

“We may as well sell out and go home,” said Pender, in deep disgust.

“But we can’t go home,” returned Rockley.  “We’ve got to stay right here and take all the taunts that come along.”

“Nobody shall taunt me,” cried Jackson.  “If they try it I’ll punch somebody’s nose.”

“And to think we lost our money, too,” said Ben Hurdy, after a pause.  “That’s what makes me sick.”

“Reckon you didn’t lose much,” said Lew Flapp, with a sickly grin.

“I lost all I had, and that’s enough.”

“Who won it?”

“Hans Mueller.  That crazy Dutch boy was yelling for Tom Rover and I took him up.”

The Flapp crowd did not feel like mingling with the visitors, and at the first opportunity Lew Flapp and his intimate cronies slipped away from the camp and hurried to the hermit’s den they had discovered.

“We’ll have a little jollification of our own,” said Rockley, and his plan was speedily carried into effect, in a fashion which would not have been approved by Captain Putnam or any of the teachers under him.

“We must get after Dick Rover,” said Flapp, while smoking a black-looking cigar.  “As a captain he stands pretty high.  If we can pull him down we’ll be striking a blow at the whole Rover family and also at their intimate friends.”