Then, turning on his heel, the captain marched away, not answering Tom’s parting salute. The old army officer was very insulting in tone and manner, but Tom was not going to let that annoy him.
“Welcome home!” exclaimed Sam, as his chum came in. “It’s good to see you back again!”
“It’s good to be back,” Tom replied, with a smile, as they shook hands. “You’re all decorated in honor of my return,” he went on whimsically, as he glanced at the bare walls of the room.
“Good joke!” laughed Sam. “Oh, I’d have decorated all right, if ‘tac’ would stand for it. But you know how it is here.”
“I sure do!” agreed Tom.
For Tom, matters soon resumed their normal sway at West Point. He had to make up what he had lost in his lessons, but he managed to do this, and soon he was back in the saddle again, literally as well as figuratively, for he was riding once more, though a different steed from the one that had figured in the accident.
All the while Tom was trying to plan how to find out more about his father’s property. He had drawn up a letter to be sent to Mr. Blasdell, the lawyer, but the young cadet was not quite satisfied with his epistle, and was going to rewrite it.
He was on his way to call on young Blasdell, to get a few points in this matter, when, as Tom passed the room of Captain Hawkesbury, he saw, standing near the open window of the quarters of the old army officer, Sam Leland. The latter seemed to be looking at a scrap of paper that he had picked up from the ground.
“Hello, Tom!” he exclaimed. “This just came fluttering by, and I picked it up. It’s part of a telegram, but the address is torn off, and I don’t know to whom it belongs. It’s been thrown away, evidently. Take a look.”
“A telegram?”