ingly.

"They must be."

"What a lot of unnecessary labor," laughed the West Point man.

"Why?" challenged Dave.

"Because the Army is going to win again." That "again" caused Dave
Darrin to wince. "We win almost every time, you know," Fields
explained.

"Almost every time?" challenged Dan Dalzell, joining the pair.
"Are you sure of your statistics?"

"Oh, I have the statistics, of course," Fields answered. "That's
why I speak so confidently."

At this point three more West Point men approached.

"Hey, fellows," called Fields good-humoredly. "Do you know of
an impression that I find to prevail among the middies to-day?"

"What is that?" inquired one of the gray-clad cadets, as the newcomers
joined the group.

"Why, the middies seem to think that they're going to take the
Army's scalp to-day."

"Is that really your idea of the matter?" asked one of the gray-clad
cadets.

"So Mr. Fields has said," Dave answered.

"But what do you say?"

"About the most that I feel like saying," Darrin answered as quietly
as ever, "is that the Navy prefers to do its bragging afterwards."

"An excellent practice," nodded one of the cadets. "You've acquired
the habit through experience, I presume. It has saved your having
to swallow a lot of your words on many occasions."

All laughed good-naturedly. Though there was the most intense
rivalry between the two government military schools, yet all were
gentlemen, and the fun-making could not be permitted to go beyond
the limits of ordinary teasing.

"What's your line-up?" broke in Dan Dalzell.

"Haven't you fellows gotten hold of the cards yet?" asked one
of the West Point men. "Then take a look over mine."

Standing together Dave and Dan eagerly glanced down the printed
line-up of the Military Academy.

"I know a few of these names," ventured Darrin, "and they're the
names of good men. Several of the other names I don't know at
all. And you've left out the names of the two Army men that we're
most afraid of in a game of football."

"It seems queer to think of an Army line-up without Prescott and
Holmes," Dan declared musingly.

Over the faces of the cadets there crept a queer look, but none
of them spoke.

"So you've boycotted Prescott and Holmes?" pursued Dalzell.

"Yes," replied one of the cadets. "Or, rather, Prescott is in
Coventry, and Holmes prefers to stand by his friend in everything.
Holmes, being Prescott's roommate, doesn't have to keep away