Dick Prescott's Third Year at West Point Part 24

The whole progress of the corps across the field was accompanied by l.u.s.ty cheering, by applause and by the mad waving of the gray, black and gold Army pennants. Most of the spectators who carried the Navy's blue and gold pennants so far forgot their partisans.h.i.+p as to cheer and wave for the Army's young men.

Hardly was the corps of cadets seated when another loud strain of joyous music was heard. The brigade of mids.h.i.+pmen, from Annapolis, behind the Naval Academy Band, was now entering the field. All the cheering and all the other frantic signs of approval were repeated, the corps of cadets from West Point lending heavy additional volume to the rousing send-off.

In the meantime rival football squads had been hustled off to dressing quarters.

As the Army squad made quick time to the dressing rooms, d.i.c.k and Greg had their eyes on the alert for even the briefest glimpse of any of the Navy eleven. It was two years and a half since d.i.c.k and Greg had had even a glimpse of Dave or Dan. How the two West Pointers yearned for even an instant's look at the chums of old days!

But no such exchange of glimpses was possible at this time. The Army players and subst.i.tutes got into their togs, then waited.

"All ready?" called Brayton at last. "Then fall in and out on to the field in double time!"

Another wild outburst of cheering was let loose when the Army eleven trotted in into view. The Military Academy Band began playing. An instant later the Naval Academy Band fell in, playing the same air by ear.

The ball was turned loose, and after it went the players. The practice work was brisk and warm.

Hardly had the combined bands stopped playing when another great yell broke loose. Young men in the blue and gold striped stockings of the Navy were trotting on to the field. The Navy band turned itself loose, followed in an instant by the Army band.

The din was something bewildering. Those in the further seats could not hear the music of the bands at all.

d.i.c.k and Greg watched covertly as they saw the Navy team come on at the other end of the field. Which was Dave, and which was Dan? Hang it, how disguising these football suits were!

Both teams went on with their practice. There came a moment when the Army and Navy teams came closer to each other.

Then the eager spectators saw something that was not on the programme.

The chums of the old Gridley days had made each other out in the same moment. There was a rush. In mid-field d.i.c.k Prescott and Dave Darrin gripped hands as if they could never let go again.

Across their outstretched arms Greg and Dan found each other in a right-hand clasp.

So delighted were the old chums that they fairly hugged each other.

Over it all, while the spectators gazed in silent wonder, came the strains from the Army band, for the leader, more with a sense of the fitting than from any knowledge of facts, waved his men into the strains of "Auld Lang Syne."

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot-----"

The band was playing softly. As the spectators took up the fine old words the band music died down. There came a rolling rattle from the drum section of the Navy band, and then high over all the voices rose the triumphant measures of "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean."

That crowd forgot to cheer. It was a moment for song, as thousands, catching the full spirit of the air, gave voice to---

"The Army and Navy forever!"

Not a word, so far, had been spoken by any one of the chums.

They had not intended to bring about a scene like this, making themselves the central figures in the great picture. But it was too late to retreat.

"It seems as though an age had gone by, Dave," spoke Cadet Prescott.

"It surely does, d.i.c.k," returned Mids.h.i.+pman Darrin.

"And we've got to beat you today, too," said Mids.h.i.+pman Dalzell dolefully.

"What? Beat the Army?" gasped Cadet Holmes.

"The Navy is the only crowd that can really do it," admitted Dalzell.

"Foes in sport today, Dave!" declared Prescott ardently. "But in nothing else, ever!"

"Never mind either the Army or the Navy, just for the minute,"

begged Dave Darrin. "But it's great, isn't it, just to be in the service at all?"

Then, becoming suddenly aware that they had demoralized the practice work of both elevens, cadets and mids.h.i.+pmen parted.

"But do your best to beat me today, Dave!" begged d.i.c.k.

"I surely will!" came back the retort. "And don't you falter for the Army, d.i.c.k!"

"Old friends, Prescott?" demanded Brayton as the two cadets ran back to their own forces.

"We four learned football together, on the same team," confessed d.i.c.k.

"Is that man Darrin as big a wonder as we've heard?" queried Brayton.

"Bigger, I'm afraid," returned Prescott.

"He opposes you today. Can he get away with you?"

"He may be able to batter me down. But I'll give him all the trouble I can, Brayton. Darrin is for the Navy, but I'm equally for the Army!"

"It will be all right, as long as friends.h.i.+p doesn't break up your work," warned Brayton.

"That very friends.h.i.+p will make all four of us fight harder than ever we did in our lives before," spoke Prescott seriously.

At almost the very same moment Dave Darrin was saying about the same thing to the captain of the Navy team.

"Humph! Do those fellows think they're posing before a moving-picture machine?"

The one who uttered that remark was turnback Haynes. He had come on to the field with a scowling face, and the scowl was likely to deepen steadily.

Anstey, from his seat, had been "all eyes" for the pair whom he now knew to be the heard-about Darrin and Dalzell.

All Anstey's further speculation was cut short.

The Army and Navy elevens were lining up to start play.

CHAPTER XV

HEROES AND A SNEAK