The Would-Be Candidates
The big stir came earlier than it had been expected.
Every boy who has followed such matters in his own interest will
appreciate what the "big stir" means.
Congressman Spokes, representing the district in which Gridley
lay, had a vacant cadetship at West Point within his gift, and
also a cadetship at Annapolis.
_"On December 17, at nine A.M., at the town hall in Wilburville,
I will meet all young men who believe themselves to possess the
other proper qualifications for a cadetship at either West Point
or Annapolis."_
So ran the Congressman's announcement in the daily press of the
district.
Every young man had to be of proper age, height, weight and general
good bodily condition. He must, of course, be a citizen of the
United States.
Every young man was advised to save himself some possible trouble
and disappointment by going, first of all, to his family physician
for a thorough examination. If serious bodily defects were found,
that would save the young man from the trouble of going further
in the matter.
But at the Wilburville town hall there was to be another physical
examination, which every young man must pass before he would be
admitted to the mental examinations, which were to last into the
evening.
Dick Prescott read this announcement and thrilled over it.
For two years or more he had been awaiting this very opportunity.
Every Congressman once in four years has one of these cadetships
to give to some young man.
Sometimes the Congressman would give the chance to a boy of high
social connections, or else to the son of an influential politician.
A cadetship was a prize with which the Congress man too often
paid his debts.
Good old General Daniel E. Sickles was the first Congressman to
formulate the plan of giving the cadetship to the brightest boy
in district, the young man proving his fitness by defeating all
other aspirants in a competitive examination.
Since that time the custom had grown up of doing this regularly.
It is true, at any rate of most of the states of the Union.
In some western and some southern states the cadetship is still
given as a matter of favor.
The young man who receives the appointment goes to the United
States Military Academy at West Point. He is now a "candidate"
only. At West Point he is subjected to another searching series
of physical and mental examinations. If he comes out of them
successfully he is admitted to the cadet corps, and becomes a
full-fledged cadet.
The candidate must report at West Point on the first of March.
If he succeeds in entering the corps, and keeps in it, four years
and three months later the young man is graduated from the Military
Academy. The President now commissions him as a second lieutenant
in the Regular Army. Thus started on his career, the young man
may, in later days, become a general.
While the cadet is at West Point he is paid a salary that is just
about sufficient for his needs and leaves enough over to enable
him to buy his first set of uniforms and other equipment as an
army officer.
West Point is no place for idlers, nor for boys who dislike discipline.
It is a severe training that the cadet receives, and the education
furnished him by the United States is a magnificent and costly
one. It costs Uncle Sam more than twenty thousand dollars for
each cadet he educates and graduates from the United States Military
Academy.
The same general statement is true regarding the United States
Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. In the latter institution,
however, the cadet learns how to become an officer in the United
States Navy.
Now, here were both grand opportunities, offered together.
While Dick Prescott had been waiting, hoping and praying for the
cadetship at West Point; Dave Darrin had been equally wistful
for the chance to go to Annapolis.
"Our chances have come, old chum!" cried Dick, looking into the
glowing face of Darrin.
"Yes; and of course an Army or Navy officer should be a brave
man. But now the chance has come, I find myself an utter coward,"
confessed Dave.
"How so?"
"I'm in a blue funk for fear some other fellow will get it away
from me," confessed Darrin honestly. "And if I fail in this great
ambition of my life, I'm wondering if I'll have the nerve to go
on living afterwards."
"Brace up!" laughed Dick protestingly.
"Now, honestly, old fellow, aren't you just badly scared!" Dave
demanded.
"Whisper, Dave! I am," Dick admitted.
"Well, there is nothing like having some one that you can confess
everything to, is there?" muttered Darrin.
"I guess it has done us both good to own up," laughed Dick. "But
see here!"
"Well?"
"I simply won't allow myself to be scared."
"Then you're as keen for West Point as I am for Annapolis," retorted
Darrin suspiciously.
"Dave, old fellow, you know what the Gridley spirit demands?
You know how we and the rest of the fellows managed to win eternally
in athletics? Just because we made up our minds that defeat was
impossible."
"That's fine," laughed Dave. "But we'll probably have to buck
up against more fellows than we do on an athletic field. And
probably dozens of them go in with the same determination."
"I don't care," declared Prescott. "I want that West Point cadetship.
I've wanted it for years, and now the chance has come. I'm going
to have it!"
Dave Darrin gradually succeeded in working himself into the same
frame of mind. Yet there were many moments when he was tortured
by doubts as to whether the "Gridley spirit" would serve in bucking
a long line of young fellows all equally anxious to get to Annapolis.
The first step taken by Dick and Dave was to get excused from
the High School for the time.
Both boys had lists of the studies and standards required for
entrance to the Military Academy or the Naval Academy. Dick and
Dave, each in his own room at home, spent the next few days in
"boning" as neither had ever "boned" before.
"But we must get three hours in the open air each day, Dave,"
Dick insisted. "We mustn't go up for the trial with our nerves
shattered by moping all the time indoors."
Only Dick & Co., and a very few friends, knew what Dick and Dave
were planning. It was kept a secret.
The date of the High School senior ball was set for December 17.
"Can you be back in time to go to the ball?" Laura Bentley asked
Prescott.
"I'm afraid not, Laura. Besides, when I get back from Wilburville,
I'm afraid I'll feel pretty well tired out."
"You're not afraid of failing?" asked Laura anxiously.
"I'm not going to allow myself to fail. Yet, even if I win, I
shall be tired out after the ordeal. Wish the ball could come
a couple of days alter the ordeal. I wanted to go to it and to
dance with you, Laura."
"I'm sorry you can't go," sighed the girl.
Darrin, too, had given up all thoughts of attending the senior
ball, and this was the first time that either lad had "skipped"
the class ball.
"It seems too bad to be away," grumbled Dave. "But I know how
I'll feel on that night. If I carry off the honors for Annapolis,
no mere ball could hold me! I'll need air and space. I'll be
lucky if I don't get arrested on that night for building bonfires
in the streets."
Dave next sighed dismally and continued:
"If I don't carry off the Annapolis prize, I'll feel so disappointed
that I won't look anybody in the face! Dick, Dick! It's fearful,
this waiting---and wanting!"
"It won't seem like the class ball a bit without you two boys,"
declared Belle Meade, pouting, the next afternoon.
"But if we get through," muttered Dave, "think of the gay, splendid
times to which we can invite you at Annapolis and West Point."
"Indianapolis and Blue Point are far away," murmured Belle, purposely
misnaming both famous places.
"_Ann_-apolis!" flared Dave
"_West_ Point!" protested Dick hotly.
"Don't mind Belle," begged Laura quietly. "She's the worst tease
I know."
"If I get the appointment to Annapolis," continued Darrin, "you'll
be asking me, next, if I expect to be promoted, after a while,
to he helmsman, or fireman, on some cruiser."
"Well, would you expect to be!" asked Belle, with an appearance
of great innocence.
"Don't, Belle," pleaded Laura. "The boy are too much in earnest.
It isn't fair to tease them, now. Wait until they've been at
West Point and Annapolis a couple of years. Then ask them."
"What would be the use then?" asked Belle dryly. "By that time
our young cadets will have met so many girls that they would have
to think back quite a while before they could remember our names."
Laura's pretty color lessened for an instant.
"Don't you believe it," broke in Dick promptly. "Just as soon
as I have a right ask for cards for a West Point hop I'm going
to ask for cards for Miss Bentley and Miss Deane, and their chaperon."
"The same here, for Annapolis," promised Dave solemnly. "So you
see, girls, you'll have to be prepared to do some traveling in
the near future.
"But you won't get to Annapolis, anyway, until June," replied
Belle, a bit more gently. "So you won't have any Annapolis hops
until next fall, will you?"
"Probably not," Dave admitted.
"But you won't go to Annapolis, anyway," suggested Laura, turning
to Prescott. "There may be some West Point hops between then
and June."
"I feel pretty sure there will be," nodded Dick cheerily. "And
you girls may be sure of my keeping my promise."
"And I'll keep mine for the very first hop that comes off at Annapolis
after I get there," Darrin assured them.
The laugh was on both young men, though neither they nor their
fair young companions knew it.
The poor "plebe," as the first year's man at either West Point
or Annapolis is known, would be in for a terrible experience at
the hands of his comrades if, during his "plebe" year, he had
the "cheek" to seek to attend a cadet hop. He must wait until
he has entered his second year before he has that privilege.
This is a wise regulation. In his first year the poor "plebe"
has so bewilderingly much to learn that he simply couldn't spare
any time for the cultivation of the graces of the ballroom.
In his first year, he has dancing lessons, but that is all that
comes his way.
Greg Holmes came to Prescott with a wistful, rather sad face.
"How are you coming on, Dick?" Greg asked.
"Meaning what?"
"Are you going to be well prepared for the examinations?"
"As far as being able to pass with a decent percentage," Dick
answered, "I am not all uneasy. All that worries me is the fear
that some other fellow may have a slightly better percentage.
That would ditch me, you know."
"Oh, you'll win out," predicted Greg loyally. "And I just wish
I had a chance like yours!"
"Why don't you go in and try for it, then?" urged Dick generously.
"No use," uttered Greg, shaking his head. "You can beat me on
the scholastic examination, and I know it, Dick. The best I could
hope for would be an appointment as your alternate. And your
alternate to West Point isn't going to stand any show for a cadetship,
Dick Prescott!"
Besides the candidate each Congressman may appoint one or more
"alternates." These alternates also report at West Point. If
the "principal" fails there, the alternate is given a chance to
make good for the cadetship.
But Greg Holmes, though he was wildly anxious to go to West Point,
felt certain that it would be useless to go there as Dick Prescott's
alternate.
"I hate to see you not try at all, Greg," declared Dick. "Why
don't you try? If you beat me out there won't be any hard feelings."
"I couldn't beat you out, and I don't want to, either," responded
Greg. "But wait! I may have something to tell you later on."
Dan Dalzell had much the same kind of a talk with Dave Darrin.
Dan felt the call to the sailor's life, but hadn't any notion
that he could slip in ahead of Darrin.
"Even if I could, Dave, I wouldn't try it," declared Dan earnestly.
"I want badly enough to go to Annapolis, and I admit it. But
I believe you're just about crazy to get there."
"I am," Dave admitted honestly. "But the prize goes to the best
fellow, Dan. Jump in, old fellow, and have your try at it."
Dalzell, however, shook his head and remained silent on the subject
after that.
To both Dick and Dave it seemed as though the next few days simply
refused to budge along on the calendar. Certainly neither of
them had ever known time to pass so slowly before.
"I hope I'll be able to keep my nerve up until the seventeenth,"
groaned Darrin.
"Surely, you will," grinned Dick. "You've got to!"
"I've been studying until all the words on a page seem to run
together, and I don't know one word from another," complained
Dave.
"Then drop study---if you dare to!"
"I'm thinking of it," proposed Darrin seriously. "Actually, I've
been boning so that the whole thing gets on my nerves, and stays
there like a cargo of lead."
"Let's pledge ourselves, then, not to study on the fifteenth or
the sixteenth," urged Dick.
"I'll go you, right off, on that," cried Darrin eagerly.
"And we'll spend those two days in the open air, roaming around,
and trying to enjoy ourselves," added Prescott.
"Enjoy ourselves---with all the load of suspense hanging over
our heads?" gasped Darrin.
"Well, we'll try it anyway."
To most people in and around Gridley the world, in these few days,
seemed to bob along very much as usual. Dick and Dave, however,
knew better.
At last came the evening of the sixteenth! Both anxious boys
turned in early, though neither expected to sleep much. Both,
however, were soon in the land of Nod.
But Dick awoke at half-past four on the morning of the fateful
seventeenth. By five o'clock he knew that he wasn't going to
sleep any more. So he got up and dressed.
Dave Darrin was in his bath, that same morning, before four o'clock.
Then he, too, dressed, and wondered whether every other fellow
who was going into the contest to-day felt as restless.
The mothers of both boys were astir almost as early. Mothers
can't take these examinations, but mothers know what a son's
suspense means.
Dick and Dave met at the station a full twenty minutes before
train time.