CONCLUSION
The graduating exercises at West Point had finished. The Secretary
of War, in the presence of the superintendent, the commandant
and the members of the faculty of the United States Military Academy,
flanked by the Board of Visitors, had handed his diploma to the
last man, the cadet at the foot of the graduating class, Mr. Atterbury.
Dick had graduated as number thirty-four; Greg as thirty-seven.
Either might have chosen the cavalry, or possibly the artillery
arm of the service, but both had already expressed a preference
for the infantry arm.
"The 'doughboys' (infantry) are always the fellows who see the
hardest of the fighting in war time," was the way Dick put it.
Now the superintendent made a few closing remarks. These finished,
the band blared out with a triumphal march, to the first notes
of which the first class rose and marched out, amid cheers and
hand-clapping, to be followed by the other classes.
Five minutes later the young graduates were laying aside the gray
uniform for good and all. Cit. clothes now went on, and each
grad. surveyed himself with some wonder in attire which was so
unfamiliar.
Out in the quadrangle, for the last time, the grads. met. There,
too, were the members of the classes remaining, but these latter
were still in the cadet gray, and would be until the close of their
own grad. days.
Hurried good-byes were said. Warm handclasps sounded on all sides.
Few words were said, but there were many wet eyes.
Then some of the grads. raced for the station to board the next
city-bound train.
Greg remained behind with Dick. After quitting the quadrangle,
they bent swift steps toward the hotel, where awaited Mrs. Prescott,
Mrs. Bentley, Laura and Belle.
Something else waited, too---a carriage, or rather, a small bus, for
Dick and Greg were no longer cadets and might ride over the post
in a carriage if they chose.
"It was beautifully impressive, dear," whispered Laura, referring
to the graduating exercises.
"But, thank goodness, it's over, and I have my diploma in this
suit case," murmured Dick grimly. "No more fearful grind, such
as we've been going through for more than four years. No more
tortured doubts as to whether we'll ever grad. and get our commissions
in the Army. That is settled, now. And think, Laura, if I hear
a bugle in the city to-morrow morning, I can simply turn over
and take another nap."
"You lazy boy!" laughed Laura half chidingly.
"You spend four years and three months here, and see if you don't
feel the same way about it," smiled Dick. "But I love every gray
stone in these grand old buildings, just the same. West Point
shall be ever dear in my memory!"
Greg's mother now came out and joined the ladies on the porch.
A moment or two later Mr. Prescott and Mr. Holmes stepped out
and grasped their sons' hands.
"We haven't a heap of time left if we want to catch the down-river
steamboat," suggested Dick, with a glance at his watch.
So this happy little home party entered the bus, and the drive
to the dock began.
They passed scores of cadets, who carefully saluted these grads.
Everyone in the party knew of the betrothal of Dick and Laura.
Greg had had to stand a good deal of good-natured chaffing from
his parents because he had not fared as well.
"The next girl I get engaged to," sighed Greg, "I'm going to insist
on marrying instantly. Then there'll be no danger of losing her."
At the dock, Anstey, Durville, Douglass and other grads. waited,
though the majority of the members of the late first class were
already speeding to New York on a train that had started a few
minutes earlier.
"I couldn't bear to go down by train, suh," explained Anstey
in a very low voice. "I want to stand at the stern of the steamer,
and see West Point's landmarks fade and vanish one by one. And
I don't reckon, suh, that I shall want anyone to talk to me while
I'm looking back from the stern of the boat."
"Same here," observed Greg, with what was, for him, a considerable
display of feeling.
Then the boat swept in, and the West Point party went silently
aboard. All made their way to the stern on the saloon deck.
That evening the class was to meet, for the last time as a whole,
at one of the theaters in New York. And the late cadets would
sit together, solidly, as a class.
Friends of graduates who wished would attend the theater, though
in seats away from the class.
Dick and Greg's relatives and friends were all to attend. More,
they were to stop at the same hotel. The next forenoon the ladies
would attend to some shopping. Then the reunited party would
journey back to Gridley.
A dozen or so West Point graduates stood at the stern of the swift
river steamer. The captain of the craft, a veteran in the river
service, knew something of how these young men just out of the
gray felt. For the first five miles down the river the swift
craft went at half speed. Then, suddenly, full speed ahead was
rung on the engine-room bell, and the craft went on under greatly
increased headway.
"Well, gentlemen," murmured Anstey, moving around and walking
slowly forward, "the United States Military Academy is the grandest
alma mater that a fellow could possibly have. I'm glad to be
through, glad to be away from West Point, but I shall journey
reverently back there any time when I have any leisure in this
bright part of the good old world."
How sweet the joys of the great metropolis! Yet these joys would
have palled had our travelers remained there too long. The following
afternoon they were again journeying toward what is, after all,
the one real spot on earth---home!
Gridley well-nigh went wild over its returning West Pointers---though
now West Pointers no longer.
One of Dick Prescott's first tasks was to go proudly to Dr. Bentley,
to state that he had had the wonderful good fortune to win Laura's
heart, and to ask whether her father had any objection.
"Objection, Dick?" beamed the good old physician. "Why, lad, for
years I've been hoping---yes, praying that you and Laura would
have this good fortune. Wherever you may be stationed in the world,
you'll let our daughter come back to us once in a while, I hope."
Dick solemnly promised, whereat Dr. Bentley smiled.
"That's all nonsense, Dick," laughed Laura's father. "I know,
in my own heart, that you're going to be as good a son to mother
and me as you have been to your own parents. God bless you both!"
A new lot of High School boys Dick and Greg found in Gridley,
but the new crop seemed to be fully as promising as any that Dick
and Greg could remember in their own old High School days when
Dick & Co. had flourished.
A fortnight, altogether, Dick and Greg enjoyed in the good old home
town, hallowed to them by so many memories.
Then one morning each received a bulky official envelope bearing
the imprint of the War Department at Washington.
How their eyes glistened, then moistened, as each young West Point
grad. drew out of the envelope the parchment on which was written
his commission as a second lieutenant of United States infantry.
More, their request had been granted. They had been assigned
to the same regiment---the forty-fourth.
Their instructions called for them to start within forty-eight
hours, and to wire acknowledgment of orders to Washington.
The Forty-fourth United States Infantry was at that time in the far
West, in a country that at times teemed with adventure for Uncle
Sam's soldiers.
Here we must take leave of Lieutenant Dick Prescott and of Lieutenant
Greg Holmes, United States Army, for their cadet days are over
and gone.
Readers, however, who wish to meet these sterling young Americans
again, and who would also like to renew acquaintance with two
former members of Dick & Co., Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton, will
be able to do so in Volume Number Five of the _Young Engineers'
Series_, entitled: "_The Young Engineers On The Gulf_."
In this very interesting volume the young engineers and the young
Army officers will be found to have some very startling adventures
together.
Readers will also be able to learn more of the careers of Dick
Prescott and Greg Holmes, as Army officers, in the "_Boys Of The
Army Series_." Some of their campaigns will be described very
fully, for these splendid young officers served as officers and
instructors of the "_Boys of the Army_."
THE END