CHAPTER V
DAN HANDS HIMSELF BAD MONEY
As the season went on it was evident that Dave Darrin was slowly getting back to form.
Yet coach was not wholly satisfied, nor was anyone else who had the triumph of the Navy eleven at heart.
Three more games had been played, and two of them were won by the Navy. Next would come Stanford College, a hard lot to beat. The Navy tried to bolster up its own hopes; a loss to Stanford would mean the majority of games lost out of the first five.
True, the news from West Point was not wholly disconcerting to the Navy. The Army that year had some strong players, it was true; still, the loss of Prescott and Holmes was sorely felt. Word came, too, in indirect ways, that there was no likelihood whatever that the Coventry against Cadet Dick Prescott would be lifted. It was the evident purpose of the Corps of Cadets, for fancied wrongs, to ostracize Dick Prescott until he found himself forced to resign from the United States Military Academy.
November came in. Stanford came. Coach talked to Dave Darrin steadily for ten minutes before the Navy eleven trotted out on to the field. Stanford left Annapolis with small end of the score, in a six-to-two game, and the Navy was jubilant.
"Darrin has come back pretty close to his right form," was the general comment.
For that Saturday evening Dan Dalzell, being now "on privilege" again, asked and received leave to visit in town—-this the more readily because his work on the team had prevented his going out of the Yard that afternoon.
Dave, too, requested and secured leave to go into town, though he stated frankly that he had no visit to make, and wanted only a stroll away from the Academy grounds.