"Hash and baked beans!" added another.
"Pickled pigs' feet!" was a third contribution.
"If I can't have quail on toast, stuffed with horse chestnuts and snowballs I'll not play!" howled a fourth.
"Here they come," said Paul, significantly.
"I hear 'em," replied Dick, with a grin.
The door flew open, and in rushed a crowd of the cadets of Dick's company. At the sight of their captain, they stopped momentarily, and several hands rose in salute.
"Drop it!" cried Dick, warningly. "We're here to have fun. The book of rules and military tactics has been burned at the stake. We're all alike, now."
"That is, we're all hungry," added Perkins, with a laugh. "Say, but this is going some; eh, fellows?"
"Talk about a grand spread!" exclaimed Ball. "This puts it all over anything I've been to since my sister had a surprise party."
"Glad you like it," remarked Dick, simply. To do him credit the banquet was really quite an elaborate affair, and he had spared no money to have it just as his cultured taste told him it should be, even if it were an informal affair.