Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point Part 31

"Very well, Mr. Dodge. I don't think anything serious has a.s.sailed you, but we'll keep you under observation for a day or two."

Captain Goodwin completed the record of the case, then pressed a b.u.t.ton. A sergeant of the hospital corps entered.

"Steward, Mr. Dodge is to be put to bed. Full hospital diet and rest.

Further instructions will be given to you later."

"Very good, sir."

Dodge followed the sergeant to a bathroom, there to undress and bathe. When he had finished he was handed some pajamas.

"Where is my regular clothing?" asked Dodge of the private who gave him the pajamas.

"Sergeant Eberlee locked them up in a locker, sir, until you're discharged."

Bert Dodge, in a furious temper, followed the private to the bed a.s.signed to him. His clothing locked up! That clothing had figured largely in his plan in coming to the hospital.

"Now I have played the fool!" thought the cadet. "I'd planned to get out on the sly tonight, while in here officially. Now I can't get out except in pajamas in which I'd be spotted before I'd gone ten feet!

Hang the fool regulations of this hospital!"

All day Dodge lay fuming. Lieutenant Doctor Herman visited him twice, still unwilling to say nothing was wrong. For one thing, Bert was so angry that he could not eat, and that in itself is unusual in a healthy cadet who lives a very strenuous life. Anger also gave him a flushed face and an exceptional look about the eyes. Yet, there was nothing apparent to make a physician believe there was anything serious the matter.

Bert had the ward to himself, being the only patient in the building. It was eight o'clock when a man in the uniform of the hospital corps came in to turn the lights low.

"Benton!" exclaimed Dodge. "What brings you here?"

"Is that you, Mr. Dodge?" asked Private Benton, approaching Bert's bed. "I'm sorry to see you sick, sir."

"I'm not sick, Benton. But, again, what are you doing here?" Benton was an enlisted man who, for pay, had been accustomed to serving Dodge more or less surrept.i.tiously.

"My enlistment ran out last week, sir. So I quit the cavalry to try a three-year term in the hospital corps."

Here was Cadet Dodge's opportunity! He bribed Benton to bring him his clothes and to promise silence.

"It would be time in a military prison for me if I told, sir; so you can be sure I'll keep still," was Benton's remark as he let the cadet out of a back door.

As he went softly in through the east sally port, Dodge noted with joy that almost n.o.body was around.

"I can get by without detection," he chuckled. He did get just inside the doorway of the subdivision in which Cadets Prescott and Holmes dwelt before he attracted attention. There he pa.s.sed two yearlings.

"Is that you, Mr. Dodge?" rather sharply demanded one of these yearlings.

"No, sir," Dodge replied in a strained voice and sped on upstairs.

"Queer," muttered one of the yearlings. "I was almost positive that was Mr. Dodge."

Dodge was by this time in d.i.c.k Prescott's darkened room. He stole over to the fireplace where he worked quickly.

"I've fixed your career here, d.i.c.k Prescott!" gloated the treacherous youth.

CHAPTER XX

CONCLUSION

d.i.c.k Prescott and a dozen other plebes who had football hopes had a spent a delightful evening in Lieutenant Pierson's quarters. They left rather early, nevertheless.

"Come to my room and talk things over, Anstey," urged d.i.c.k.

"We've time before taps."

d.i.c.k ran ahead to turn on the light while Anstey mounted the stairs slowly. As he entered the room, Prescott could see from the light that entered from the corridor some one crouched over by the fireplace.

"Have I a visitor?" said d.i.c.k pleasantly. "Wait till I get a look at you."

To have run from the room would have been a confession of guilt.

Moreover, Dodge heard the mounting steps of Anstey outside. So he stayed while d.i.c.k turned on the light.

"It's Dodge!" exclaimed d.i.c.k. "At last accounts you were in hospital. I'm glad you're better," the cadet went on coldly.

"I slipped out of hospital," whispered Dodge. "Don't give me away, Prescott. I'd like to get back without being seen by any one else."

"What's up?"

"Don't keep me," said Bert nervously.

"What were you doing in this room?" asked d.i.c.k, becoming suspicious.

"I forgot that Holmes was away and came to see him."

"When you found the room dark did you still think Greg was here?"

"Don't keep me now. You don't want to see me skinned, do you?"

"What were you doing by the fireplace?"

"Why--why--"

"Were you aware that in days past plebes who occupied this room had pried up two of the bricks from the base of the fireplace and had a hiding cubby there?"

"Of course not! What do you take me for?" Anstey had come to the doorway, but stayed there, blocking the pa.s.sage. Prescott stepped to the fireplace and stooped as though to look under the loose bricks. Dodge, in a panic, got there before him and pulled out some papers.

"I was trying to play a prank on you and Holmes. As you've forestalled it, I don't think I'll let you know what it was," and Dodge struck a match and set the papers on fire, throwing them into the fireplace.

"Perhaps you don't mind letting me enjoy your int'resting joke with you, Mr. Dodge," drawled Anstey, coming into the room.

"It wouldn't interest you, Mr. Anstey. Its foundation lies in by-gone days back in Gridley," floundered Dodge.