d its baseball gait!

CHAPTER XVII

READY FOR THE ARMY-NAVY GAME

In between times, in the strenuous hours that followed, Dick found
the time, somehow, to write two letters of moment.

One was to his mother, the other to Laura Bentley. In both he
told how the last bar to his happiness in the Army had been removed.
Yet Dick did not go very deeply into details. He merely explained
that the class had discovered, on indisputable evidence, that
he had been dealt with unjustly. He made it plain, however, that
he was now again in high favor with his class, and that he had
even been honored by reelection to the class presidency.

"Greg, you send Dave Darrin a short note for me, will you?" begged
Dick, as he toiled away at the missive to Laura. "Old Dave will
want only the bare facts; that will be enough for him. He'll
cheerfully wait for details until some time when we're all graduated
and meet in the service."

Dave Darrin's reply was short, but characteristic:

"Of course dear old Dick came through all right! He's the kind
of fellow that always does and always must come through all
right---otherwise there'd be no particular use in being manly."

No word came from the missing Jordan. Truth to tell, no one seemed
to care, outside of the young man's father. It is rare, indeed,
that a cadet deserts, and when he does, unless he has taken government
property with him, no effort is made to find him.

By the end of the week, Dick Prescott was the hope of the Army nine,
as he had once been of the eleven.

A cadet is always in condition. His daily training keeps him there.
So Dick had only to give his arm a little extra work, increasing
it some each day.

"Do you think I'm going to be in satisfactory shape, sir?" Dick
asked the Army coach Friday afternoon.

"If something doesn't happen to you, Prescott, you're going to
be the strongest, speediest pitcher I've ever seen on the Army
nine," replied Lieutenant Lawrence.

"Isn't that saying a good deal, sir?"

"Yes; but you're the sort of athlete that one may say a great
deal about," replied Lieutenant Lawrence, with a confident smile.
"And Mr. Holmes is very nearly as good a man as you are."

"I always thought him fully as good, even better," replied Prescott.

"There isn't much to choose between you," admitted coach. "I wish
we could always look for such men on our Army teams."

"You can one of these days, sir."

"When will that day come?"

"It