E-text prepared by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point Or Two Chums in the Cadet Gray By H. Irving Hancock The Saalfield Publishing Company Akron, Ohio New York Made in U. S. A. MCMX CONTENTS CHAPTER I. "TWO TINY SPECKS OF NOTHING" CHAPTER II. THE TYRANNY OF THE CADET CORPORAL CHAPTER III. THE "LUCKY" ONES TAKE UP THE NEW LIFE CHAPTER IV. GREG'S CASE OF "BLUES" CHAPTER V. CANDIDATE DODGE IS CRITICAL CHAPTER VI. IN THE HANDS OF THE YEARLING HAZERS CHAPTER VII. A SUDDEN GRIND AT MATH CHAPTER VIII. DICK BONES TROUBLE CHAPTER IX. PLEBE PRESCOTT'S FIRST FIGHT CHAPTER X. THE "BEAST" WHO SCORED CHAPTER XI. HOW CADET DODGE HELD POST NUMBER THREE CHAPTER XII. PRESCOTT GETS NUMBER THREE CHAPTER XIII. THE SENTRY MAKES A CAPTURE CHAPTER XIV. POOR GREG CAN'T EXPLAIN CHAPTER XV. GREG OVERHEARS A PRETTY GIRL'S TRIBUTE CHAPTER XVI. TAPS SOUNDS ON SUMMER CHAPTER XVII. MR. DODGE GOES CANVASSING CHAPTER XVIII. THE PLEBE CLASS CHOOSES ITS PRESIDENT CHAPTER XIX. THE PROWLER IN QUARTERS CHAPTER XX. CONCLUSION DICK PRESCOTT'S FIRST YEAR AT WEST POINT CHAPTER I "TWO TINY SPECKS OF NOTHING" "How do you feel, Dick! As spruce as you did an hour ago!" Candidate Greg Holmes put the question with a half-nervous laugh. He spoke in a whisper, too, as if to keep his agitation from reaching the notice of any of the score or more of other young men in the room of Mr. Ward, the aged notary at West Point. "I'll be glad when I see some daylight through the proceedings," Dick Prescott whispered in answer. "I'm glad they allow us to talk here in undertones," pursued Greg. "If we weren't allowed to do so, some of us would go suddenly crazy, utter a whoop and spring through one of the windows," grinned Dick. For the tenth time he thrust his hands into his pockets--then as quickly drew them out again. All of the young men now gathered in the room were candidates for cadetships at West Point; candidates who had been appointed by the Congressmen or Senators of their home districts or states, and who must now pass satisfactory physical and mental examinations, after which they would be enrolled as cadets in the United States Military Academy. Those of the cadets who thus passed the preliminary examinations, and who maintained good health and good standing in their classes during the following four years and three months would then be graduated from the Military Academy and forthwith be appointed second lieutenants in the Regular Army of the United States. Hived in this room, awaiting their turn, a spirit of awe had gripped all these nervous young men. Some of them dreaded a failure in the coming bodily tests before the keen-eyed, impartial surgeons of the United States Army. Probably half of the boys in the room feared that they would fail in the academic examinations.