Dick Prescotts Third Year at West Point | Page 8

go forth into the Army,
you'll get your first station down in Arizona," teased Tom.
"I don't," retorted Greg, "if it will make us look like you two."

"Oh, it won't," broke in Harry mockingly. "You see, we have to work
down in Arizona. But you fellows wouldn't. We've seen some thing of
the soldiery down in that part of the world, and they're the laziest crowd
you ever saw. Why, the Army officers in Arizona sleep all day and
grumble about the heat all night. They have tame Apaches to do their
work for them. Oh, no, you wouldn't suffer down in Arizona!"
"But how do you fellows come to be home at this time?" asked Dick.
"Homesick!" sighed Tom. "The fellows in our engineer corps are
entitled to some leave. So Harry and I waited until we had enough
leave piled up, and then we started back for Gridley."
"Well, it's hot on this corner," muttered Greg, "and there's an ice cream
place down the block, where the electric fans are going. Let's make a
raid on the place. Do you fellows remember when we were happy if we
could buy a ten-cent plate and then get by ourselves with six spoons to
dip into the ice cream? Come on! Let's get good and square for those
days."
"Yes; it is hot here on this corner," assented Dick.
"Hot?" demanded Reade impatiently.
"Humph! Harry and I were just regretting that we hadn't worn our top
coats today. We came to Gridley to cool off, and this old town seems
like a heaven of coolness after the baked-brown alkali deserts of
Arizona."
"Double orders for each one of us," explained Harry, after the quartette
of one time High School chums had seated themselves under a buzzing
fan.
Now, the chums of old days had time to look each other over more
closely.
Tom and Harry were taller than in the old High School days, but they
had not quite reached the height of Dick and Greg. Both of the young

civil engineers, besides being heavily bronzed, were thin and sinewy
looking. Thin as they were, both looked the pictures of health. Though
Tom and Harry did not "advertise" their tailors as well as did the two
West Point cadets, nevertheless the pair of young civil engineers
looked prosperous. They had the general air of being the kind of young
men who are destined to succeed splendidly in life.
Before the ice cream---the first double order, that is---reached the table,
all of the young men were plunged into stories of their adventures
during the last two years. Readers of these two series are familiar with
the adventures that the young men discussed.
"You've been getting a heap more excitement out of life, you two,"
Prescott admitted frankly. "Still, from my point of view, I wouldn't
swap with you."
"Just as bughouse on West Point and the Army as ever, are you?"
quizzed Hazelton.
"Just as much, and always will be," Dick nodded, beaming.
"I can't share your enthusiasm," laughed Hazelton. "We've seen the
Army in the West, and they're a lazy, little-account lot."
Instead of getting angry, however, Dick and Greg laughed outright.
"I wish we had you at West Point for forty-eight hours, right in
barracks and Academic Building," declared Greg, his eyes dancing.
"Whew! But you'd be able to view real world from a new angle!"
"Oh, maybe at West Point," nodded Hazelton teasingly. "But
afterwards, in the Army, it's just one dream of indolence."
"Well, what do the Army officers actually do, out your ways"
challenged Greg.
"Why, they---well, they-----"
"You don't know a blessed thing about it, do you?" dared Greg. "I

thought not. You see, we do know something about what Army officers
do with their time. That's what we're learning at West Point."
"Don't let's fight," pleaded Tom pathetically. "Fellows, we may never
meet again. Before another year rolls around Hazelton and I may have
been scalped and burned by the Apaches, and you fellows may have
died at West Point, from nervous prostration brought on by overeating
and lack of exercise. So let's be good friends during the little time that
we may have together."
"When you get time," put in Dick dryly, "you might as well tell us
when you reached Gridley."
"After ten o'clock last night," supplied Harry. "Of course, we had to go
home first. But this morning we set out to find you. We knew, of
course, that any place would be likelier than your homes, so we tried
Main Street first."
"Many folks were glad to see you?" asked Tom.
"Too many," sighed Dick. "That remark doesn't apply to any old
friends, but there are a good many who always turned up their noses at
us in the old days. Now,