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Dick Prescott's Third Year at West Point, a fiction by H. Irving Hancock |
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Chapter 14. For Auld Lang Syne |
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_ CHAPTER XIV. FOR AULD LANG SYNE After that Dick and Greg turned out every day for practice with the team. Both Lieutenant Carney and Team Captain Brayton speedily learned that they had made no mistake in getting Prescott and Holmes on to the line. A number of smaller colleges were defeated, and with rattling good scores. Dick and Greg seemed to improve with every game. True, Yale walked off with the honors, though the score, ten to six, had been stubbornly contested throughout. Harvard was played to a tie that year; Princeton was beaten by six to two, the two standing for a safety that Princeton forced the Army to make. Lieutenant Carney was one of the happiest men on the station. From having a team rather below the average, he had produced an Army eleven that was destined to go down as famous in American military life. As Thanksgiving drew near all interest centered in what was, after all, to be the real game of the year---that between the Army and the Navy, which is always played the Saturday after that holiday. Haynes, during the season's good work, had not been able wholly to keep his tongue back of his teeth. He had made several disparaging remarks. For of these remarks Lewis, of the Army eleven, chose to take he turnback to account. Hot words followed, ending in a fight. Haynes, roundly beaten, withdrew altogether from the eleven. "That fellow Prescott has wonderful luck, or he'd have had his neck broken long ago, considering all the hard packs that he has bumped into in the games," growled the turnback disgustedly to himself. In fact, Haynes was forced to do a large share of his talking with himself. He hadn't been "cut" by the other cadets, but he had succeeded in making himself generally unpopular through his too evident dislike of Prescott. "Funny, but that's the man who wanted me to resign the class presidency so that he could run for it," laughed Dick to his chum. Dick had told Greg of that laughable interview, but it had gone no further. Greg could be trusted not to talk too much. "Going over to Philadelphia to see the Navy anchored to a zero score, Haynes?" asked Carter, of the second class. "Yes; I reckon I'm going over," replied Haynes. "But I'm not so sure that we'll see the Navy sunk," replied the turnback. "I know you don't care much for Prescott," smiled Carter. "Yet how can you be blind to the wonderful work that he and Holmes are doing? Is it because Prescott is playing the position for which you were cast?" "No, it isn't," retorted Haynes, his face red with passion "If our team wants Prescott, let it have him. I don't care. But I've a notion Prescott won't be strutting about with such lordly airs-----" "Prescotts? Lordly airs?" broke in Cadet Carter, grinning broadly. "Whew, but that would make a hit with the fellows! Why, Prescott is anything but a lordly chap. He's one of the most modest fellows in the corps. He had to be fairly dragged on to the eleven. He believed it would be better off without him." "So it would, sure!" rasped the turnback. "Now, see here, Haynes, don't get so sore as to warp your own judgment," expostulated Carter. "Well, you just wait and see how much we do to the Navy! Have you heard about the Navy's new, lightning right end?" "Darrin, you mean?" "Yes," nodded Haynes. "A friend of mine, who saw Darrin play the other day, writes me that Darrin is an armor-clad terror on the grid iron. If he is, he'll pulverize Prescott, unless Brayton shifts Prescott to some other position." "Pooh! I'm not afraid," laughed Carter, turning to walk away. "Darrin, no doubt, is good, but he can't do anything to Prescott." Neither of the speakers was aware that Dave Darrin, midshipman, United States Navy, was one of the oldest and dearest friends that Dick Prescott had. Few at West Point knew that Darrin and Prescott had ever met. "Am I going over to Philadelphia to see the game?" muttered Haynes to himself, as he strode away from the game. "I want to see Prescott go up against the real star Darrin, and get his neck broken!" Anstey was one of the few at West Point who knew anything about the friendship between Prescott, Holmes, Darrin and Dalzell. Dan Dalzell had also made the Annapolis eleven, playing right tackle. That was bound to bring him into hard grip with Greg. "Anstey, I hope there's time for you to make the acquaintance of Dave and Dan," Dick said earnestly while the Virginian was visiting Greg and himself. "Dave and Dan are two of the real fellows, if there are any left in the world. "They must be, old ramrod," replied the Virginian quietly, "if they hold such place in your affections, and in old Holmesy's." Great was the rejoicing, on the eventful morning, when the two "Army specials" pulled out from the station down by the river's edge. The first section of the train pulled out ahead, carrying the officers of the post, their families and closest friends. On the second longer section traveled the corps of cadets---with the exception of a few of the young men who, under discipline, were not allowed to take this trip. With the cadets went the tactical officers and the coaching force. At Jersey City the first real stop was made. Then the journey was resumed to Philadelphia. Franklin Field was crowded with somewhere between thirty and thirty-five thousand people when the corps of cadets, headed by the band, marched on to the field and thence to the seats reserved for the band and the corps. The whole progress of the corps across the field was accompanied by lusty 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 partisanship 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 midshipmen, 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, Dick 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 Dick 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 substitutes 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. Dick 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 Dick 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, Dick," returned Midshipman Darrin. "And we've got to beat you today, too," said Midshipman 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 midshipmen parted. "But do your best to beat me today, Dave!" begged Dick. "I surely will!" came back the retort. "And don't you falter for the Army, Dick!" "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 Dick. "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 friendship doesn't break up your work," warned Brayton. "That very friendship 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. _ |
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