"It will never come," laughed Haynes harshly. "That is, your
time of triumph over me will never come. What else may happen
it is yet a little too early to say."

Cadet Prescott felt all the cold rage that was possible to him
surging up inside.

"Haynes," he went on, "it may seem odd of me to ask a favor from
you."

"Very odd, indeed!" sneered the turnback.

"It is a very slight favor," continued Prescott, "and it is this:
Don't at any time venture to address me, except upon official
business."

With that Prescott stepped resolutely around the cadet in his
path, and went forward at a stiff stride.

Haynes remained for some moments where he was, gazing after Dick
with a curious, leering look.

"Prescott is a coward---that's what he is!" muttered the turnback.
"If he weren't, I said enough to him just now to cause him to
leap at my throat. Humph! Anyone can beat a coward, and without
credit. Prescott, your days at the Military Academy are numbered!
You, an Army officer? Humph!"

Though it would be hard to understand why, Haynes felt much better
after that brief interview. Perhaps it was because, all along,
he had feared Cadet Prescott. Now the turnback no longer feared
his enemy in the corps.

How would the feud end? How could it end?

CHAPTER XIX

THE TRAITOR OF THE RIDING HALL

If Dick gave no further outward attention to Haynes, he was nevertheless
bothered about the fellow.

"Haynes isn't fit to go through and become an officer; to be set
up over other men," Prescott told himself often.

This slighting opinion was not on account of the personal dislike
that Prescott felt for the turnback. There were other cadets
at West Point whom Dick did not exactly like, yet he respected
the others, for they themselves respected the traditions of honor
and justice that are a part of West Point.

With Haynes the trouble was that he was certain, sooner or later,
to prove a discredit to the best traditions of the Army. Such
a fellow was likely to prove a bully over enlisted men. Now,
the enlisted men of the Regular Army do not resent having a strict
officer set above them, but the officer must be a man whom they
can respect. Such an officer, who commands the respect and admiration
of the enlisted men under him, can lead them into the most dangerous
places. They will follow as a matter of course; but an unworthy
officer, one whom the enlisted men know to be unfit to command
them, will demo