On the way back with the cadets, Dick insisted that he could go alone, and did not need help. "Orders are orders," replied Graham with a smile. "Dutton might make a fuss if we didn't do as he said." "It was all his fault," added Paul Drew. "He deliberately collided with you, Dick." "Oh, no; I hardly think he would do that!" "But he did," insisted Butler. "He didn't need to gallop in front of you that way. I looked just as if he wanted to unseat you, didn't it, fellows?" "That's right," added Paul. "I'd report him if I were you." "Oh, no," answered Dick quickly. "There's no use making trouble. Even if he did do it on purpose, I wouldn't gain anything by reporting him. I'm no squealer." "But you might have been badly hurt," said Butler. "I wasn't though, and a miss is as good as a mile." "That's a good way of looking at it," commented Paul. "I'd feel like fighting him, if he did that to me." "Say, I'm all right. There's no need for you fellows to come back with me," went on Dick. "If we don't Dutton may make a row," objected Butler. "We'd better do it." Not wanting to get his fellow cadets into trouble, Dick allowed them to accompany him to the hospital, which was maintained by the academy. There the surgeon in charge, a grizzled war veteran, felt of our hero's bones, and announced, gruffly, that he was all right, but that he had better rest a while. Which Dick was glad enough to do, as his head was beginning to ache. "Dutton must want to get rid of me," he thought, as he stretched out on the bed in his room. "If he keeps on I shall certainly have a clash with him, and then I s'pose there'll be trouble. I don't want to fight, but I'm not going to submit to his meanness. I certainly am under a handicap here. I wish I could ask dad to send me to some other school. No, I don't either. I'll fight it out here, and I'll win, too, or I'll know the reason why!" Major Webster, when he returned from the drill, inquired how Dick felt, and received the assurance that the lad was all right. "We must give you a quieter horse," he said with a smile. "Oh, no, I can manage him all right," said Dick. "Captain Dutton--er--he and I happened to collide, or it never would have happened." "Strange, Dutton is an excellent rider," commented the major as he walked away. A slight headache the next day was all the ill effect that Dick experienced from his tumble. He appeared at chapel, and took part in all the day's duties. For a week or more life went on rather uneventfully at the academy. Dick had a letter from his father, stating that business was likely to keep him abroad longer than he expected. Dick also got a letter from Henry Darby, giving some news of Hamilton Corners, and telling how Dick's chums missed him. The letter closed with this: "Grit misses you very much. He doesn't eat hardly anything, and he lies in his kennel all day." "Poor Grit," said Dick to Paul, and he told of his bulldog. "I wish I could have him here with me."