Dick Prescotts's Fourth Year at West Point Part 18

"Nothing whatever, sir."

"Mr. Prescott, aren't you wholly satisfied with your conduct?"

"I don't quite know how to answer that, Mr. Denton,"

"Have you done anything that you wouldn't repeat if the need arose?"

"I have not, sir," replied d.i.c.k with great earnestness.

"Do you feel, in your own soul, that you have done anything to discredit the splendid old gray uniform that you wear?"

"I do not, sir."

"Answer this, or not, as you please. Don't you feel wholly convinced that your cla.s.s has done you an injustice which it would reverse instantly if it knew all the circ.u.mstances?"

"I feel certain that my cla.s.smates would restore me at once to their favor, if they knew the full circ.u.mstances."

"Have you felt obliged to refuse them any information for which a cla.s.s committee had asked, Prescott?"

"Yes, sir."

"Let me do some hard thinking, my lad. Ah, now, as I look back to the night when you were obliged to report Mr. Jordan for being outside the guard lines, I had myself that night a.s.signed you to official duty near the guard lines. You were to intercept plebes who might try to run the guard, and to send them back to their tents."

"Yes, sir."

"That was special duty," resumed Lieutenant Denton. "Now, if you had been asked, by a cla.s.s committee, to explain how you happened to be out there at the right time to catch Mr. Jordan, you would have felt bound to refuse to reveal your orders from me?"

"I certainly would have felt so bound, Mr. Denton."

"Ah! Now I think I understand a good deal, Prescott. Then, at another time, very recently, you forgot, until late, to turn in an official report to me. You started to hurry over here, and, in so doing, you must have accidentally encountered a certain cadet returning in "cit." clothes. As his company commander, you surely felt bound to report him for so flagrant a breach of discipline. Yet, if your cla.s.s did not fully understand or credit the fact that only an oversight of yours had thrown you in that cadet's way, it would make the cla.s.s feel that you had deliberately trapped the man, after having spied on his actions earlier in the evening."

d.i.c.k remained silent, but Lieutenant Denton was a clear headed and logical guesser.

"In my cadet days," smiled the lieutenant, "such a suspicion against a cadet officer would certainly have resulted in ostracism for him."

"Now, Prescott," asked the officer in charge, leaning over and resting a friendly hand on the cadet's arm, "you feel that you have been, throughout, a gentleman and a good soldier, and that you have not done anything sneaky?"

"That is my opinion of myself, Mr. Denton."

"And yet, feeling that your course has been wholly honorable, you are going to throw up your career in the Army, and waste some twenty thousand dollars of the nation's money that has been expended in giving you your training here?"

"It sounds like a fearful thing to do, Mr. Denton, but I can see no way out of it, sir. If I am to go on into the Army, and be an ostracized officer, I should be of no value to myself or to the service. Wherever I should go, my usefulness would be gone and my presence demoralizing."

"Now, if that ostracism continued, your usefulness would be gone, Prescott, beyond a doubt, and the Army would be better off without you. But if justice should triumph, later, you would be restored to your full usefulness, and to the full enjoyment of your career.

Now, Prescott, my boy"---here the officer's voice became tender, friendly, earnest---"you have been attending chapel every Sunday?"

"Yes, sir."

"You have listened to the chaplain's discourses, and I take it that you have had earlier religious instruction, also. Prescott, do you or do you not believe that there is a G.o.d above who sees all, loves all and rights all injustice in His own good time?"

"a.s.suredly I believe it, sir."

"And yet, in your own case, you have so little faith in that justice that, though you feel your course has been honorable, you cannot wait for justice to be done. Prescott, isn't that kind of faith almost blasphemy?"

d.i.c.k felt staggered. Although his lot had been cast with Army officers for more than three years, he had never heard any of them, save the chaplain, discuss matters of Christian faith.

Yet he knew that Denton, who sat beside him, smiling with friendly eyes, was talking from full conviction.

"You've made me see my present predicament in a somewhat different light, sir," d.i.c.k stammered.

"Prescott, I have knocked about in a good deal of rough life since I was graduated from here, but I have full faith that every upright and honorable man is ultimately safe under Heaven's justice.

So have you, or I am mistaken in you. Why not buck up, and make up your mind to go through your hard rub here firm in the conviction that this is only a pa.s.sing cloud that is certain to be dispelled?

Why not stick, like a man of faith and honor? Now, as officer in charge, I will inform you that you should take a letter of resignation to the adjutant's office, and hand it to that officer in person."

As your friend, I suggest that you give me your letter, with your permission to destroy it."

"Here is the letter, Mr. Denton."

"Thank you, my boy. You may see what I do with it."

Rising, Lieutenant Denton crossed to an open fire that was burning low. He laid the envelope across the embers.

Prescott, too, rose, feeling that the interview was at an end.

"Just a moment more of friendly conversation, Prescott," continued the lieutenant, coming forward and taking the cadet's hand. "I want you to remember that you are not to write or send in any other letter of resignation until you have first talked it over with me. And I want you to remember that a soldier should be a man of faith as well as of honor. Further, Prescott, you may feel yourself wholly at liberty to explain, at any time, what your orders from me were that led to your catching and reporting Mr. Jordan."

"Thank you, sir; but I'm afraid I shan't be asked for any further explanations."

"Seek me, at any time, if there is anything you wish to ask me, or anything that puzzles you."

"Yes, sir; thank you."

d.i.c.k had again placed his fatigue cap on his head, and was standing rigidly at attention. They were once more tactical officer and cadet.

"That is all, Mr. Prescott, and I am very glad that you came to see me," continued the officer in charge.

Prescott saluted, received the officer's acknowledging salute, turned and left the office.

A minute later he was allowing good old Greg to pump the details of that interview out of him.

"Say," muttered Cadet Holmes, staring soberly at his chum, "an officer like Lieutenant Denton can put a different look on things, can't be?"

"He certainly can, Greg."

"I'm not going to be fresh, while I'm a cadet," continued Holmes.

"But when I'm an officer I'm going to seek Mr. Denton and ask him to be my friend, too!"