nine.

"I'm much obliged to you all," Greg insisted gently, "but I told
you I wasn't going to try for the nine. I never played a game
without Prescott, and I know I'd be a hoodoo if I did."

Though a great lot of pressure was brought to bear upon him, Holmes
still held out. It was his privilege to refuse to play, if he so
chose. Above all, the coaches, who were Army officers, could not
urge him.

"That man Holmes is just the fellow we need to round out the team,"
complained one of the players to Durville.

"Yes," sighed the captain of the Army nine; "and Holmesy tells
me that he's a tyro to Mr. Prescott."

"Then Mr. Prescott must be a wonder on the diamond," grunted the
other cadet.

"I hear that he is," assented Durville. "By the way, you remember
Darrin and Dalzell, who helped the Navy team to wipe the field up
with us last year?"

"I reckon I do."

"Well, it seems that Prescott, Holmes, Darrin and Dalzell were
all members of the athletic squad in the same High School before
they entered the service."

"Darrin and Dalzell are going to make it possible for the Navy to
wipe us up again this year, too," continued the other cadet
plaintively.

"I don't believe they would, if we could put in Mr. Prescott and
Holmesy for this year."

"But we can't, Durry."

"No; I know it."

"So what's the use of talking." Nevertheless, there was a lot
of talking, and dozens waylaid Greg and tried to induce him to
reconsider. But he wouldn't, and that was all there was to it.
No one even thought of lifting the ban from Prescott in order
to gain either or both of these cadet athletes. West Point cadets
are consistent. They will never lift the ban, once they believe
it to have been justly laid, just in order to make a better athletic
showing. The Academy authorities demand that a team athlete shall
stand well in his studies and general discipline; the cadets themselves
demand also that the man who carries their athletic colors must
conform to cadet ideals of honor. And Prescott, being in Coventry,
surely was not to be regarded as a man of honor.

Washington's Birthday had come and passed, and Prescott still
lingered in the cadet corps. Indeed, he seemed as determined as
ever upon graduating.

There were limits, however, to class patience. It was Anstey who
got on the track of the news and brought it to Greg.

"A class meeting is to be called ten days hence," reported the
Virginian. "The meeting will be a