Certain it was that Tom was relieved from guard duty, and nothing was said about further punishment. He went to his tent worn out and weary, but his spirit was not broken, and he had not told.
“But he’ll be more my enemy than ever,” mused Tom, for he felt that the old army officer would be chagrined that he could not inflict some punishment on the guilty ones.
However, those taking part in the frolic, were never officially known, and the matter passed into West Point history, with other similar cases.
Meanwhile, the drill work at the camp went on, and Tom was beginning to feel that he was slowly getting on to the road which would lead him to his place as an officer in the United States army. From time to time he wondered how his mother was getting on. He had letters, of course, and they seemed to be bright and cheery ones. But Tom knew that even if she suffered she would write that way.
“Hang it all!” he would exclaim. “If I could only get hold of some money for her—some of the money I feel sure father must have left. But where is it?”
Then would come the memory of that letter in the tent of Captain Hawkesbury.
CHAPTER XIII
ACROSS THE RIVER
The Fourth of July was looked forward to by all the cadets, the plebes no less than the upper classmen. To all it meant a day when most of the duties were suspended, and to the “plebes” it marked the time when some of them, for the first time, would be chosen to go on guard. Not all the plebes would be selected for this, but Tom learned that he and Sam would be. Harry and Chad had to wait a while for the coveted honor.
On the morning of Independence Day, following an old-time custom, the West Point band marched through the streets of tents at reveille. After this all duties were suspended for the day. A patriotic concert was given in the morning, with the firing of a national salute at noon, and then came an extra good dinner served in honor of the occasion.
Few and far between were the privileges accorded the plebes, those most lowly of the West Pointers. But in some manner, on this Independence Day, unusual permission was given to the lowest division of cadets to go, with certain restrictions, where they pleased in the afternoon, provided they were back by a certain hour.