stonished as he felt.

"What?" he choked. Then a slight smile came into his face.

"Oh, I think I begin to understand, Mr. Prescott. You wish more
time for your studies, and so you are resigning your post as captain
of A company."

"This is my resignation, sir, from the corps of cadets."

Lieutenant Denton looked utterly nonplussed.

"Oh, very good, Mr. Prescott. If you are bent on leaving the
Military Academy, I presume I have no right to demand your reasons.
But---won't you sit down?"

The lieutenant pointed to a chair near his own.

"Thank you, sir," nodded Prescott. Taking off his fatigue cap,
he dropped into the chair, though he sat very erect.

"Now," smiled Mr. Denton, "perhaps we can drop, briefly, some
of the relation between officer and cadet. We may be able to
talk as friends---real friends. I trust so. May I feel at liberty
to ask you, Mr. Prescott, whether there are any urgent family
reasons behind this sudden move of yours?"

"None, sir."

"Then is it---but I don't wish to be intrusive."

"I certainly don't consider you intrusive, Mr. Denton, and I
appreciate your sympathy and friendship. But I am resigning from
the corps for the best of good reasons."

"May I question you, Mr. Prescott?"

"If you care to, sir."

"I do wish it, very much," rejoined Lieutenant Denton, "though
I have asked your consent because, in what I am now seeking to
do, I am going rather beyond my place as a tactical officer of
the Military Academy. If you are sure, however, that you do not
find me intrusive, and if you would like to talk this matter
over---not as officer and cadet, but as between a young man and a
somewhat older one, and as friends above all, then I am going to
ask you a few questions."

"Although I am certain that you cannot help me, Mr. Denton, I
am very grateful for every sign of interest that you may show
in me. It is something of balm to me to feel that I shall leave
behind some who will regret my going."

"Prescott," asked the officer abruptly, "you have been sent to
Coventry, haven't you? You needn't answer unless you wish."

"I have, sir," Dick assented.

"Twice it has happened, when I have been on duty, that you have
had to report classmates to me. Now, I'm not going to step over
the line by asking you whether those reports were the basis of
your being sent to Coventry. But, to please myself, I'm going
to assume that such is the case."

To this Dick made no reply. It w