"I thought you would be, sir," Durville replied.
"We have a line-up, after these two men have been trained into shape, that will make one of the strongest Army nines in a generation."
"We'd have tanned the Navy last year, sir," ventured Durville, "if we had known what material we had in Prescott and Holmes, and had been able to get them out."
At cadet mess that evening the talk ran high with joy. West Point was sure it had found its baseball gait!
CHAPTER XVII
READY FOR THE ARMY-NAVY GAME
In between times, in the strenuous hours that followed, Dick found the time, somehow, to write two letters of moment.
One was to his mother, the other to Laura Bentley. In both he told how the last bar to his happiness in the Army had been removed. Yet Dick did not go very deeply into details. He merely explained that the class had discovered, on indisputable evidence, that he had been dealt with unjustly. He made it plain, however, that he was now again in high favor with his class, and that he had even been honored by reelection to the class presidency.
"Greg, you send Dave Darrin a short note for me, will you?" begged Dick, as he toiled away at the missive to Laura. "Old Dave will want only the bare facts; that will be enough for him. He'll cheerfully wait for details until some time when we're all graduated and meet in the service."
Dave Darrin's reply was short, but characteristic: