“His papers are perfect; I have marked him one hundred.”
“Good! none can beat that.”
“Some, however, may equal it. Let me look through these, which are very neatly prepared.”
Sure enough, those papers also were perfect as were the third. Mr. Willard began to feel uneasy.
“The questions are comparatively easy; the real test will be in mathematics, which is the favorite branch at West Point. That is the last subject and will occupy two hours this afternoon.”
It proved to be as the examiner had stated. Although six candidates held their own in all other studies, yet in the severest test of all, mathematics, James Decker drew away from them and came out ahead of every one else.
It will be understood with what pleasure Mr. Willard sent in the name of Decker to the secretary of war, as his nominee for the vacant West Point cadetship.