n to two," grumbled Holmes.

"I'm heartily sorry," cried Dick, and he spoke the truth.

"Well, it's our class's fault," growled Greg. "The Army can thank
our class."

"We might not have been able to save the game," argued Prescott.

"We could have rattled Dave and Dan a lot," retorted Greg. "My
own belief is we could have saved the day."

"You might have played, Greg. I wouldn't have resented it."

"No; but I'd have felt a fine contempt for myself," retorted Cadet
Holmes scornfully. "Besides, Dick, though I have done some fairly
good things in football, I don't believe I'd be worth a kick without
you. It was playing with you that made me shine, always."

Late that evening the cadet corps returned, in the gloomiest frame
of mind.

"I can just see the blaze of bonfires at Annapolis," groaned Douglass.
"Say, the middies just fairly tore our scalps off. I always had
an ambition to captain the Army eleven, but I never thought I'd be
dragged down so deep under the mire!"

The details of that sad game for the Army need not be gone into
here. All the particulars of that spiritedly fought disaster
will be found in the fourth volume of the Annapolis Series, entitled
"_Dave Darrin's Fourth Year At Annapolis_."

A lot of the cadets who felt sorry for "Doug" came to his room.

"I haven't altogether gotten it through my weak mind yet," confessed
the disheartened Army football captain. "I can't understand how
those little middies managed to treat us quite so badly."

"I can tell you," retorted Anstey.

"Then I wish you would," begged "Doug."

"Go ahead!" clamored a dozen others.

"I don't know whether you fellows believe in hoodoos?" asked Anstey.

"Hoodoos?"

"Yes; the Army is under one now."

"Pshaw, Anstey!"

"Explain yourself, Anstey!"

"There is a man in this class," replied the Virginian solemnly,
"who has been treated unjustly by the others. Lots of you won't
see it, and can't be made to reason. But that injustice has put
the hoodoo on the Army's athletics, and the hoodoo will strut
along beside the present first class all the way through this
year. You'll find it out more and more as time goes on. Just
wait until next spring, and see the Navy walk away with the baseball
game, too."

"Stop that, Anstey!"

"Put him out!"

"Give him soothing syrup."

"Wait until June, gentlemen," retorted the Virginian calmly.
"Then you'll see."

"What rot!" sneered Jordan bitterly.

"Well, of cour