y!
All your friends are with you as much as ever they were."

Dick was a good deal affected.

"Believe me, Greg, whatever I decide on doing won't be in the
line of running away. Whatever I decide upon will be what I finally
believe to be for the best good of the service."

"Humph!" muttered Greg, looking wonderingly at his chum.

In the closing period of the next forenoon Dick's section did not
recite. Greg's did. So Prescott was left alone in the room with
his books.

Despite himself, Greg was so worried, during that recitation, that
he "fessed cold"---that is, he secured a mark but a very little
above zero.

As soon as the returning section was dismissed Cadet Holmes, his
heart beating fast, hurried to his room.

There sat Dick, at the study table, as Greg had left him. But
Prescott had pushed his textbooks aside. Before him rested only
a sheet of paper. With pen in hand Prescott wrote something at
the bottom just as Holmes entered the room. Then Dick looked
up with a half cheery face.

"I've done it, Greg," he announced simply, in a hard, dry voice.

"Done it?" echoed Cadet Holmes. "What?"

"I have written my resignation as a member of the corps of cadets,
United States Military Academy."

"Bosh!" roared Cadet Holmes in a great rage. "The resignation
is written, signed, and---it sticks!" returned Dick Prescott
with quiet emphasis.

CHAPTER X

LIEUTENANT DENTON'S STRAIGHT TALK

"Let me have that paper!" demanded Greg, darting forward.

There was fire in Cadet Holmes's eyes and purpose in his heart
as he reached forward to snatch the sheet from the desk.

Yet Dick Prescott stepped before him, thrusting him quietly aside
with a manner that was not to be overridden.

"Don't touch it, Greg!" he ordered in a low voice that was none
the less compelling.

"But you shan't send that resignation in!" quivered Greg.

"My dear boy, you know very well that I shall!"

"Have you no thought for me?" Cadet Holmes demanded.

"My going may put you in a blue streak for a week, old fellow,
but it will put me in a blue streak for a lifetime. Yet there's
no other way for me. What's the use of being an ostracized officer
in the service? With you, Greg, old chum, it is different. You
will, after a little, be very happy in the Army."

"Happy in the---nothing!" exploded Greg. "I told you, weeks ago,
that if you quit the service, I would do the same thing."

"But you won't," urged Dick. "In