for the cadets and their
visitors to take another stroll through camp.

Bang! Bang! Bang! A glow and a burst of red fire! There was a
bewildering maze of pyrotechnics. After five minutes of this the
fireworks ceased, and, though the camp lights still burned the
contrast seemed almost like darkness.

The members of the band rose. As the leader's baton fell the notes
of "The Star Spangled Banner" rose triumphant on the night air. It
was a glorious sight as a hundred Army officers and five hundred
United States cadets clicked their heels, stood instantly at
attention, uncovered their heads and stood with caps held over
their hearts.

As the strains died out there was an impressive pause. Then, in
lighter vein, the band rollicked out with the old, familiar, "Good
Night Ladies," and, laughing merrily, the visitors departed, their
cadet friends going with them only as far as camp limits.

Out on the plains beyond the visitors again halted for a brief
instant.

In front of the guard tent a drummer sounded "taps"--three strokes
on the drum. All but the authorized lights in guard tent and O.C.'s
tent were extinguished.

The summer encampment was over.

"Oh, dear!" sighed many a fair visitor as she returned to a
sheltering roof. "The summer's fun is over. To-morrow these
splendid young men will be back in barracks, grilling and boning
for their very lives!"

CHAPTER XVII

MR. DODGE GOES CANVASSING

Yes, the good old summer time was over. Bending over study
tables in cadet barracks the young men pored over books and
papers of their own making.

The first few days seemed fearfully hard. To the young men who
had been for weeks away from their books it seemed for a while
all but impossible to pick up the threads of study in a way that
would anything like satisfy the Army officers who acted as their
relentless instructors.

"Relentless?" To the average boy in grammar or high school it
does not seem like a hardship to be required to make a percentage
of at least sixty-six and two-thirds per cent. in all studies. In the
public schools it seems rather easy to reach that kind of an
average.

At West Point the markings are on a scale of three, with decimal
shadings. A man who secures in any study a marking of two is
deemed proficient. If his average marking in a term is 2.6, he is
rather highly proficient in that study. A marking of two on a scale
of three is equivalent to sixty-six and two-thirds per cent., a