ime the girls had
entered Three Towers Hall, and the boys were as enthusiastic about their
academy as the girls were about their beloved school.

The head of Boxton Military Academy was Captain Shelling, a splendid
example of army officer whom all the students loved and admired. They did
not know it, but there was not one of the boys in the school who did not
hope that some day he might be like Captain Shelling.

Now, as the spring term was drawing to a close, there were great
preparations being made at the Academy for the annual parade of cadets.

The girls knew that visitors were allowed, and they were beginning to
wonder a little uneasily whether they were to be invited or not when one
afternoon the boys turned up and settled the question for them very
satisfactorily.

It was Saturday afternoon, just a week after the finding of Miss
Arbuckle's album, and the girls, Laura, Billie, Vi and Connie, were
wandering arm in arm about the beautiful campus of Three Towers Hall when
a familiar hail came to them from the direction of the road.

"It's Chet," said Billie.

"No, it isn't--it's Teddy," contradicted Laura.

"It's both of 'em," added Vi.

"No, you are both wrong," said Connie, gazing eagerly through the trees.
"Here they come, girls. Look, there are four of them."

"Yes, there are four of them," mocked Laura, mischievous eyes on Connie's
reddening face. "The third is Ferd Stowing, of course. And I wonder, oh,
I wonder, who the fourth can be!"

"Don't be so silly! I think you're horrid!" cried Connie, which only made
Laura chuckle the more.

For while they had been at the Academy, the boys had made a friend. His
name was Paul Martinson, and he was tall and strongly built and--yes,
even Billie had to admit it--almost as good looking as Teddy!

If Billie said that about any one it was pretty sure to be true. For
Billie and Teddy Jordon had been chums and playmates since they could
remember, and Billie had always been sure that Teddy must be the very
best looking boy in the world, not even excepting her brother Chet, of
whom she was very fond.

But Billie was not the only one who had found Paul Martinson good
looking. Connie had liked him, and had said innocently one day after the
boys had gone that Paul Martinson looked like the hero in a story book
she was reading.

The girls had giggled, and since then Laura had made poor Connie's life
miserable--or so Connie declared. She could not have forgotten Paul