The High School Captain of the Team Part 28

In the winter's basket ball they did not intend to take part.

For the baseball nine, that would begin practice soon after the new year, there was plenty of fine material in the lower cla.s.ses.

"I feel almost as if I had been to a funeral," snorted Darrin, when he came away from the gym. after having turned in all his togs and paraphernalia.

"It's time to give the younger fellows a show," sighed d.i.c.k.

"You talk as though we were old men," gibed Dave.

"In the High School we are," laughed d.i.c.k. "We're seniors. In a few short months more we shall be graduates, unless-----"

There he stopped, but Darrin didn't need to look at his chum.

Both knew what that pause meant.

CHAPTER XVIII

The Would-Be Candidates

The big stir came earlier than it had been expected.

Every boy who has followed such matters in his own interest will appreciate what the "big stir" means.

Congressman Spokes, representing the district in which Gridley lay, had a vacant cadets.h.i.+p at West Point within his gift, and also a cadets.h.i.+p at Annapolis.

_"On December 17, at nine A.M., at the town hall in Wilburville, I will meet all young men who believe themselves to possess the other proper qualifications for a cadets.h.i.+p at either West Point or Annapolis."_

So ran the Congressman's announcement in the daily press of the district.

Every young man had to be of proper age, height, weight and general good bodily condition. He must, of course, be a citizen of the United States.

Every young man was advised to save himself some possible trouble and disappointment by going, first of all, to his family physician for a thorough examination. If serious bodily defects were found, that would save the young man from the trouble of going further in the matter.

But at the Wilburville town hall there was to be another physical examination, which every young man must pa.s.s before he would be admitted to the mental examinations, which were to last into the evening.

d.i.c.k Prescott read this announcement and thrilled over it.

For two years or more he had been awaiting this very opportunity.

Every Congressman once in four years has one of these cadets.h.i.+ps to give to some young man.

Sometimes the Congressman would give the chance to a boy of high social connections, or else to the son of an influential politician.

A cadets.h.i.+p was a prize with which the Congress man too often paid his debts.

Good old General Daniel E. Sickles was the first Congressman to formulate the plan of giving the cadets.h.i.+p to the brightest boy in district, the young man proving his fitness by defeating all other aspirants in a compet.i.tive examination.

Since that time the custom had grown up of doing this regularly.

It is true, at any rate of most of the states of the Union.

In some western and some southern states the cadets.h.i.+p is still given as a matter of favor.

The young man who receives the appointment goes to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is now a "candidate"

only. At West Point he is subjected to another searching series of physical and mental examinations. If he comes out of them successfully he is admitted to the cadet corps, and becomes a full-fledged cadet.

The candidate must report at West Point on the first of March.

If he succeeds in entering the corps, and keeps in it, four years and three months later the young man is graduated from the Military Academy. The President now commissions him as a second lieutenant in the Regular Army. Thus started on his career, the young man may, in later days, become a general.

While the cadet is at West Point he is paid a salary that is just about sufficient for his needs and leaves enough over to enable him to buy his first set of uniforms and other equipment as an army officer.

West Point is no place for idlers, nor for boys who dislike discipline.

It is a severe training that the cadet receives, and the education furnished him by the United States is a magnificent and costly one. It costs Uncle Sam more than twenty thousand dollars for each cadet he educates and graduates from the United States Military Academy.

The same general statement is true regarding the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. In the latter inst.i.tution, however, the cadet learns how to become an officer in the United States Navy.

Now, here were both grand opportunities, offered together.

While d.i.c.k Prescott had been waiting, hoping and praying for the cadets.h.i.+p at West Point; Dave Darrin had been equally wistful for the chance to go to Annapolis.

"Our chances have come, old chum!" cried d.i.c.k, looking into the glowing face of Darrin.

"Yes; and of course an Army or Navy officer should be a brave man. But now the chance has come, I find myself an utter coward,"

confessed Dave.

"How so?"

"I'm in a blue funk for fear some other fellow will get it away from me," confessed Darrin honestly. "And if I fail in this great ambition of my life, I'm wondering if I'll have the nerve to go on living afterwards."

"Brace up!" laughed d.i.c.k protestingly.

"Now, honestly, old fellow, aren't you just badly scared!" Dave demanded.

"Whisper, Dave! I am," d.i.c.k admitted.

"Well, there is nothing like having some one that you can confess everything to, is there?" muttered Darrin.

"I guess it has done us both good to own up," laughed d.i.c.k. "But see here!"

"Well?"

"I simply won't allow myself to be scared."

"Then you're as keen for West Point as I am for Annapolis," retorted Darrin suspiciously.

"Dave, old fellow, you know what the Gridley spirit demands?

You know how we and the rest of the fellows managed to win eternally in athletics? Just because we made up our minds that defeat was impossible."

"That's fine," laughed Dave. "But we'll probably have to buck up against more fellows than we do on an athletic field. And probably dozens of them go in with the same determination."