in charge.

With face flushed, Mr. Jordan walked over to the instructor, reporting
himself as directed.

"Dismissed from to-day's instruction," said the Army officer briefly.
"Wait and return with the detachment, however."

So Cadet Jordan, first class, saluted, turned on his heel, sought
the nearest shady spot and sat down to wait.

His body idle, the young man had plenty of time to think---about
Cadet Captain Dick Prescott.

"There's nothing to Prescott but swagger and cheap airs," decided
Mr. Jordan, idly tossing pebbles. "It's a pity he can't be taken
down a peg or two! And now I'm in for demerits before the academic
year starts. Probably I shall have to walk punishment tours, too!"

Somehow, Jordan had come along through his more than three years
in the corps without attracting much attention.

He had made no strong friends; even Jordan's roommate, Atterbury,
felt that he knew the man but slightly.

True, Jordan had not so far been strongly suspected of being morose
or surly; he had escaped being ostracized, but he certainly was
not popular. If he had made no strong friendships, neither had
he so deported himself as to win enmity or even dislike. He was
regarded simply as a very taciturn fellow who desired to be let
alone, and his apparent wish in this respect was gratified.

Dick Prescott was of an entirely different character. Open, sunny,
frank, manly, he was a born leader among men, as he had always
been among boys.

Dick was a stickler for duty. He was in training to become an
officer of the Regular Army of the United States, and Prescott
felt that no man could be a good soldier until the duty habit
had become fixed. So, in his earlier years at West Point, Dick
had sometimes been unpopular with certain elements among the cadets
because he would not greatly depart from what he believed to be
his duty as a cadet and a gentleman.

Readers of the _High School Boys' Series_ will recall that Prescott,
in his home town of Gridley, had been the head of Dick & Co.,
a sextette of chums and High School athletes. It was in his High
School days that young Prescott had developed the qualities of
manliness which the Military Academy at West Point was now rounding
off for him.

Readers of the preceding volumes in this series, _Dick Prescott's
First Year at West Point_, _Dick Prescott's Second Year at West
Point_ and _Dick Prescott's Third Year at West Point_, are already
familiar with the young man's