"Don't you want to see the redoubtable Prescott shoved into the middle of next year?" challenged Midshipman Page.
"Oh, yes; of course. Yet that's not because he's Prescott, for good old Dick is one of the most precious friends I have in the world," Dave answered earnestly. "I want to see Prescott beaten this year, and I want to have a hand in doing it—-simply for the greater glory of the Navy!"
"Well," grunted Page, "that's good enough for me."
"We'll trail Soldier Prescott in the dust!" was a gleeful boast that circulated much through the Naval Academy during the few succeeding days.
Even Dave became infected with it, for he was a loyal Navy man to the very core. He began to think much of every trick of play that could possibly help to retire Dick Prescott to the background—-all for the fame of the Navy and not for the hurt of his friend.
Dave even dreamed of it at night.
As for Dalzell, he caught the infection, proclaiming:
"We're out, this year, just to beat old Prescott and Holmes!"
Yet readers of the High School Boys' Series, who know the deep friendship that had existed, and always would, between Prescott and Holmes on the one side, and Darrin and Dalzell, on the other, do not need to be told that this frenzied feeling had in it nothing personal.
"If you two go on," laughed Midshipman Farley, one evening after release, "you'll both end up with hating your old-time chums."