Around the north end Dick passed, just as the brilliant music of the Military Academy orchestra was drawing to its close. In his misery the young cadet leaned against the face of the building, behind an angle in the wall.
As he stood there Dick saw the figure of a man flit, by him. The stranger was dressed in citizen's clothes. There was nothing suspicions in that, since there is no law to prevent citizens from visiting the Military Academy. But there was something stealthy about this stranger's movements.
"It is a wonder he didn't see me," mused Dick. "He went by within eight feet of me."
Dick was about to make his presence known by stepping out into sight, when the stranger halted.
"Perhaps it may be as well not to show myself just yet," flashed through Prescott's mind. "If the fellow is up to any mischief probably I can prevent it."
A cold, biting breeze swept up from the Hudson River below. It was chilling in the extreme, here at the top of the bluff, but Dick, in his misery, had been proof against weather.
Not so with the stranger. He stamped his feet and struck his hands against his sides. Then, after some moments, as though angry at some one within Cullum Hall, the stranger wheeled and shook one clenched fist at the windows overhead.
"Whom has that fellow a grouch against?" Dick wondered in spite of himself.
Just an instant later he heard a quick step coming around the north end of the building.
A cadet was coming, beyond a doubt, and very likely to meet this impatient or angry stranger.