"Oh, pshaw, no! They don't either one amount to as much as the fellow I'm talking about thinks he amounts to."
"Whom did our Senators appoint to the Academy?" asked Prescott after a pause.
"Me," admitted Greg, again turning red.
"Well, whom did the other Senator appoint!"
"A fellow named Spooner, who came here and 'fessed out' cold (failed badly) on the academic exam," Greg responded.
"Who was Spooner's alternate!" persisted Dick.
"I don't believe I remember," Greg replied slowly.
"No; and that was because neither you nor I ever knew. Spooner's alternate was—Bert Dodge!"
"What? Bert Dodge, of Gridley?" demanded Cadet Holmes astonished.
"That very chap," Prescott admitted. "When Spooner went home, after 'fessing out' here, Bert Dodge, who hadn't appeared, was ordered by wire to report at once, or have his name stricken out. Bert's physician wired the War Department that the young fellow was ill, though the illness would not delay him more than a few days. So Bert was given a brief grace. Well, sir, I've just learned that Dodge reported at the adjutant's office this morning. He got by the surgeons bounding, and to-morrow he sits down at his 'writs.' (written examinations) in the Academic Building."