est Point_," are familiar with the careers
of the two chums, Prescott and Holmes, at the United States Military
Academy. The same readers are also familiar with the life at
West Point of Bert Dodge, a former Gridley boy, but who had been
appointed a cadet from another part of the state. Our old readers
are aware of the fact that Dodge had been forced out of the Military
Academy for dishonorable conduct; that it was the cadets, not
the authorities, who had compelled his departure, and that Dodge
resigned and left before the close of his second year.

Readers of these volumes of the _High School Boys' Series_ know
all about Bert Dodge in the course of his career at Gridley High
School. Dodge, back in the old days in Gridley, had been a persistent
enemy of Dick & Co., as Prescott and his five chums had always
been called in the High School. Of those five chums Greg, as
is well known, was Dick's comrade at West Point. Dave Darrin
and Dan Dalzell were now midshipmen at the United States Naval
Academy at Annapolis. Their adventures while learning to be United
States Navel officers, are fully set forth in The Annapolis Series.
Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton had chosen to go West, where they
became civil engineers engaged in railway construction through
the wild parts of the country, as fully set forth in the _Young
Engineers' Series_.

Just after Mrs. Davidson left the bookstore there were no customers
left, so Dick had a few moments in which to chat with his mother.

"What has become of the fellow Dodge?" asked the young West Pointer.

"Oh, haven't I told you?" asked his mother. A shade of annoyance
crossed her face, for she well knew that it was Dodge who, while
at West Point, had nearly succeeded in having her son dismissed
from the Service on a charge of which Dodge, not Dick, was guilty.

"No, mother; and I haven't thought to ask."

"Bert Dodge is here in Gridley at present. The Dodge family are
occupying their old home here for a part of the summer."

"Do people here understand that Dodge had to resign from West Point
in order to escape a court-martial that would have bounced him out
of the Military Academy?" Dick inquired.

"No; very few know it. I have mentioned Dodge's disgrace to only
one person beside your father."

"You told Laura Bentley?"

"Yes, Dick. She had a right to know. Laura has always been your
loyal friend. When she reached West Point, last winter, expecting
to go to a cadet hop wi