tt will have to be 'found' in his exams., or
else he'll be bound to resign as soon as he has proved that his
departure from West Point was not due to poor scholarship. Which
ever way he prefers to do it, the fellow will have to get out
of the corps within the next few days!"

"Yes; I suppose so," almost sighed Durville.

"Why, hang you, Durry, you talk like a man whose good opinion can
be won by a kicking."

"Do you" asked Durville, with a warning flash in his eyes.

"Oh, don't take me too seriously," protested Jordan. "But I cannot
help marveling at your near liking for the man who landed you
in such a scrape."

"I don't enjoy hitting a man who is down; that is all," returned
Durville. "I've seen Mr. Prescott down for so many weeks and
months that I'd like to see how he looks when he's a man instead
of an under dog."

"Well, I'm glad to say the class is plainly not of your way of
thinking," growled Jordan. "The class is for maintaining higher
ideals of the honor of military service and true comradeship. So
it's only a matter of what date the fellow selects for leaving
here."

And truly that was the view that seemed to be pressing more and
more tightly upon Dick Prescott. The pressure was becoming more
than he could bear. He had followed Lieutenant Denton's advice,
and had put up a good and a brave fight. But to be "the only
dog in a cage of lions" is a fearful ordeal for the
bravest---especially when the door is open.

Greg never seemed to notice the sighs that occasionally escaped
Dick Prescott's lips. Holmes no longer tried to cheer his friend
by open speech or advice. Yet not a thing that Dick did escaped
the covert watchfulness of his roommate.

The semi-ans. over, and the results posted on the bulletin board
in the Academic Building, it was discovered that Cadet Richard
Prescott now stood number twenty-four in his class---a rank never
heretofore won by him.

Cadet Jordan was so furious that his face was ghastly white when he
made the discovery.

"Will nothing ever drive that living disgrace Prescott out of
the corps?" Jordan asked three or four of the men. "Why, the
fellow is defying class authority! He's making fools of us all.
He bluntly asks us what we think we can do about it!"

"We'll have to show Prescott, then," grimly replied one of the
cadets with whom Jordan talked.

"But how?" demanded Cadet Jordan craftily. "Is there any possible
way of making as thickheaded or stubborn