Cadet Holmes sketched out, on the back of an envelope, the demonstration of a short problem.
Tom and Harry looked on laughingly, at first. Then their eyes began to open.
"Do you really have to dig up that sort of stuff at West Point," demanded Reade.
"Yes," nodded Dick. "And now I'll show you another easy one, belonging to descriptive geometry."
The two young engineers looked on and listened for a few moments.
"Stop!" commanded Hazelton, at last. "My head is beginning to buzz!"
"If that's the sort of gibberish you have to learn, I'm more than ever glad that I didn't go to West Point," proclaimed Reade.
The old-time chums had eaten their fill of ice cream some time before, but they still sat about the table, chatting gayly.
"There's one thing you never really told us about in your letters," muttered Tom. "You wrote us that Bert Dodge had resigned from the Military Academy, but you didn't tell us why. Now, that fellow, Dodge, never gave up anything good that he didn't have to give up. Was he kicked out of the Academy?"
"That story isn't known in Gridley," replied Prescott, lowering his voice. "Dodge tells people that he left because he didn't like the crowd or the life there. We haven't changed the story any since our return. We'll tell you fellows, for we never used to have any secrets from you in the old days. But you mustn't pass the yarn around."