CHAPTER XXV
Conclusion
One evening about a week after these events Dick and Dave weresitting in the former's room chatting, when Greg Holmes and DanDalzell, apparently in great good humor, broke in upon them.
"When do you go to West Point, Dick?" queried Greg.
"I'm ordered to report to the adjutant there on the first of March,"Prescott replied.
"Mind my running up there with you?" demanded Greg.
"Why, I'd be tickled to pieces, if you can afford the trip, Greg."
"Oh, I guess I can," laughed the other boy. "Dad is going topay my freight bill."
"See here, you fellows, you can't have been reading the newspapersmuch, since you two were appointed," broke in Dan Dalzell.
"What have we missed?" challenged Dave.
"Why, didn't you know a thing about Senator Frayne and hisappointments?" went on Dan Dalzell. "The Senator doesn't appointfrom a single district. He appoints at large from the whole state.Senator Frayne announced, a while ago, two appointments-at-large, onefor West Point, the other for Annapolis."
"And we went up to the state capital yesterday," rattled on Greg."We went through the examinations. The winners weren't nameduntil this morning. You'll find it in the evening papers, laterto-day. I go to West Point, and Dan goes to Annapolis."
"What?" yelled Dick, leaping as high as he could jump.
"Tell it to us again!" begged Darrin huskily.
"Oh, it's all a fact, straight and right enough," Greg assuredthem happily.
Then and there the four chums executed a war dance. It seemedtoo wonderful to believe.
"But isn't Gridley the whole show?" demanded Dave presently."Four cadetships in the same year to one little city!"
"Well, we had to win 'em from other comers," retorted Greg. "Andnone of us are out of the woods yet. We've got to pass at WestPoint and at Annapolis.
"This is great!" quivered young Prescott. "But wouldn't it begrand if only Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton had gotten in line,too, and gone along into the service with us? Then all of theold Dick & Co. would have been enrolled under the battle flag."
"But you know what Tom told us," put in Darrin. "He said he wouldn'tlive at West Point, and he wouldn't be caught dead at Annapolis.Tom is all for becoming a great civil engineer---a builder ofrailroads and all that sort of thing."
"Well, Harry Hazelton is just as bad," said Greg. "He's all fordoing engineer stunts in the wilderness, too."
"Here they come now," announced Dan Dalzell.
Tom and Harry were heartily glad, of course, to hear of the luckthat had befallen Greg and Dan.
"We were just wishing that you two had fallen into the same kindof luck, and that you were going into uniform with us," declaredDick.
Reade glared at Prescott.
"Humph!" muttered Tom. "I thought you were a friend of mine!"
"I judge it's a mighty good thing we don't all hunger for thesame careers," laughed Harry. "For instance, all young fellowscan't go into the United Service. There aren't jobs enough togo around. The United States Army is just about big enough tofind with a good magnifying glass. As for the Navy-----"
"Be careful," warned Darrin touchily.
"As for the Navy," continued Hazelton, "Congress has a lot ofofficers trained and then seems to think that one new battleshipevery other year or so ought to keep the country patient."
"You fellows are going to be downright happy, I know," resumedTom. "But so are Harry and I. We finish out our High Schoolwork, and then our chance is ahead of us."
"To _find_?" queried Dave.
"No, sir! We've _got_ it," retorted Tom. "It came to us onlyrecently, and Harry and I have been keeping a bit quiet, but nowit is time to tell the news---just in the circle of Dick & Co."
By dint of great hustling, and backed by recommendations fromthe local civil engineer, Reade and Hazelton had secured a chance,beginning in the coming July, to join as rodmen the engineeringparty that was laying a new railroad over the Rockies, in Colorado.
Just before the first of March, Dick Prescott and Greg Holmesslipped quietly away, and reported at West Point.
But what further happened to Dick and Greg---and there was a lotof it---must be reserved for the volumes of the new West Pointseries.
The first volume will appear under the title, "_Dick Prescott'sFirst Year at West Point; Or, Two Chums in the Cadet Gray_."
Later on Dave Darrin and Dan Dalzell left Gridley and home forAnnapolis. Their adventures will be followed up in the new Annapolisseries.
The first volume in this series will be entitled: "_Dave Darrin'sFirst Year at Annapolis; Or, Two Plebes at the Naval Academy_."
Nor did Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton fail of some very extraordinaryadventures in their chosen career of engineering. Their careerled them into some of the wild spots of the earth. It will allbe told in the Young Engineer series.
The first volume in this series will appear shortly under thecaption: "_The Young Engineers in Colorado; Or, at Railroad Buildingin Earnest_."
How about the other Gridley folks whose acquaintance has beenso enjoyable? Fred Ripley? Well, as to Fred---when we firstmade his acquaintance, he was anything but an agreeable fellow,but he learned his lesson in time, and, under the wholesome influenceof Dick & Co., but especially of Dick Prescott himself, Fred hadbecome a different boy. Such is the effect of good example.
As to the rest, many of them are bound to appear again, as wefollow the fortunes of our Gridley boys through the tales of WestPoint, the annals of Annapolis and the doings of the Young EngineerBoys.
So here we will leave them all for the moment, soon to renew theacquaintance of all who had any future share in the lives or thoughtsof the six splendid young Americans who were once known to theirclassmates as Dick & Co.
THE END
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