H. Irving Hancock

“ After his host had gone inside, and Harry Hazelton slept on, Tom, who had risen—to bow to Senor Montez, remained on his feet, pacing slowly and thoughtfully up and down the porch.
"Now that I've seen my new employer," mused Tom, under his breath, "I wonder just how much I really like him. He's a polished man, and a charming fellow from the little that I've seen of him. But his talk of ruling these hills, even in life and death—does that speak well for him. Is he a knave, or only a harmless braggart? Is he a man against whom one should be seriously on his guard? ”

“ In war time, or during any great national disaster or calamity, the Americans who do things always seem to rise to the occasion. We're a truly great people, all right. But I don't make that claim because I consider myself ever likely to be one of the great ones."
"Why are we a great people?" pursued Prescott.
"We are the richest nation in the world," argued Reade. "That must show that we are people capable of making great successes."
"Is our greatness due to ourselves, or to the fact that the United States embraces the greatest natural resources in the world?" demanded Dick Prescott. ”

“ Harry, don't you long to do some of the big things that are done by engineers? Don't you want to get into the real—-the big performances of our profession?"
"Of course," nodded Hazelton. "For that reason, aren't we doubly wasting our time here?"
"That's just as it turns out," Reade went on, with a vehemence that astonished his chum. "Harry, what's our office address? Where are our assistant engineers—-where our draftsmen? Where are our foremen that we could summon to great undertakings? Where is the costly equipment that we would need as a firm of really great engineers? ”

“ I have pledged my honor, as a gridiron specialist, that Gridley H.S. shall lug away all the points of the game from Cobber Second. If we fail, then may everyone who espies me mutter: 'There goes a dub!' May the word 'dub' haunt me in my waking hours, and pursue me, mounted on the nightmares of slumber! May my best friends ever afterward refer to me only as a 'dub.' For if I fail the school, then am I truly a 'dub,' and there is no help for me. If I fail, then may I never, so long as life lasts, be permitted to lose sight of the patent fact that I am a 'dub'! ”

“ Harry, "we can resign and get out of this business altogether."
"We won't resign, and we won't knuckle down to any lot of swindlers either, Harry!" cried Tom. "Some one is fighting us, and this wreck of a sea-wall is the first proof. All right! If any one wants to fight us he shall find that we know how to fight back, and that we can hit hard. Harry, from this minute on we're after those crooks, and we'll make them realize that there's some sting to us!"
"Good enough!" cheered Hazelton. "I like that old-time fight talk! But are you going to do anything to protect the wall to-night, Tom?" ”

“ The Navy line hit the Rustlers hard and tried to bump through. Dan Dalzell devoted every ounce of his strength and every turn of his energy to boosting Darrin through—and Dave himself was not idle. There was an instant of sullen, hard resistance. Then, somehow, Dave was shot through the opposing line. Like a deer he sped, Dan hanging to his flanks. It was up to the Rustlers' halfback now, and that bulky young midshipman leaped to the fray, cleverly barring the way.
At least, the Rustlers' halfback thought he had Darrin blocked. It is never wise to take too much for granted. ”

“ Greg was as jaunty as though he had not an unkind thought toward anyone in the world.
Cadet Prescott did not betray a sign of any thought save to do his duty perfectly.
Yet, every time that his horse was brought close to Haynes's, Prescott had his eyes open for any foul play that might be attempted by the turnback.
"If the young men do as splendidly to-morrow before the Board of Visitors," thought Captain Albutt, "I shall feel that my year of work here has been a grand success. Jove, what a born trooper everyone of these young fellows seems to be!" ”

“ It was the business of the Rustlers to harry the Navy team all they could—-to beat the Navy, if possible, for the Rustlers received their name from the fact that they were expected to make the team members rustle to keep their places.
Just the same the Rustlers were delighted to find themselves beaten by a trick so simple and splendid that it fairly took their breath away. For it was the Navy team, not the Rustlers, who met the enemy from the colleges and from West Point. Rustlers and team men alike prayed for the triumph of the Navy in every game that was fought out. ”

“ You don't think of calling Mister Darrin out again, do you?" demanded Tyson, with a gasp.
"Yes; if he can be made to fight fair!" snarled Farley.
"He fought fairly this time, mister," replied Second Class Man Tyson, almost with heat. "You're a fast, heavy and hard scrapper for your age, mister, but the other man simply out-pointed you all through the game. If you call him out again, and he meets you, he can kill you if he sees fit." ”

“ Cowardly advantage!” Dalzell repeated, in disgust. “We destroyed your craft. But did you not try to destroy ours? Cowardly advantage? Of what use would submarines be to your people if you scorned taking cowardly advantage? Sparnheim, you are paid as a German officer?”
“To be sure,” admitted the other.
“Then you are making your living as an assassin—as a cowardly murderer. And the nation that employs you is no better than you are, but a partner in your crimes.”
“It is not true! We are not murderers, not criminals!” raged the prisoner. “We fight that Germany may live!” ”

“ El gobernador (the governor) has, at times, even kindly lent me his troops to make sure that an enemy of mine doesn't travel too far. No! I tell you, Senor Tomaso, I am over lord here. I am the law in these mountains."
"It must be a great comfort, Don Luis—if you have many enemies," suggested Tom Reade smilingly.
"Ah, no! I have no enemies to-day," cried the Mexican. "Why should I? I am generous and indulgent, and the soul of honor. No one has just reason to disagree with me. Here I give all men the round trade—no, what in your country you call the square deal. ”

“ Dave responded gravely.
"Then do you work?"
"More hours a day than any laborer does," Darrin answered promptly. "I am a naval officer."
"Ah, but that is a career of honor—of glory!" cried the stranger.
"And so is any honest job of work that a man takes up in earnest and carries through to the best of his ability," Dave Darrin returned with warmth.
"But you see, sir," argued the stranger, though now he was smiling, "you have been trained to a profession. I never was so trained." ”

“ Don't forget the name, Willie—Armageddon. It's going to be the biggest fight the world ever saw—the only real fight in history, as we'll look back at it afterwards."
"But what has all this got to do with what I was reading from the paper?" insisted Private Green.
"Why, don't you see, if we're making the biggest and finest guns, and Armageddon comes on, it'll be just like robbing a baker's wagon for us to win Armageddon. On the other hand, if millennium runs in first, and we don't need the guns, then we win, too. ”

“ Tom Reade was now submerged to his waistline in the engulfing sand.
Unless rescued within five minutes the young chief engineer was plainly doomed to be swallowed up in the treacherous sands of the Man-killer. Only a few seconds below the shifting level of the sand would be enough to smother the life out of him. Scores of strong men, powerless to help, watched hopelessly within a few yards of the two whose lives were being slowly but surely snuffed out. ”

“ In an impassioned yet deliberate and logical speech Anstey declared that great injustice had been done Cadet Richard Prescott, and by the members of his own class.
"Every man within reach of my voice knows Mr. Prescott's record," declared the Virginian warmly. "When we were plebes, who stood up most staunchly as our class champion? Why, suh, why did we choose Mr. Prescott as our class president? Was it not because we believed, with all our hearts, that in Richard Prescott lay all the best elements of noble, upright and manly cadethood? ”

“ It isn't the easiest thing in the world for a fellow to pick up silver quarters, Greg."
"Don't I know!" muttered Holmes.
So Greg went on his way.
"Say, wouldn't that be a great way to put in the afternoon?" sighed Dave. "These fine September days get into a fellow's blood and make him itch for the river and the fields."
"Don't tempt me," begged Dick Prescott plaintively. "I'm trying to do the square thing by mother, and I do want to go with Greg!"
"Oh, well, a fellow can't always act on the square and have a good time, too," philosophized Dave. ”

“ Do you so thoroughly object to fighting that you would see a free world ground under the heel of the despotic Kaiser sooner than help kill his soldiers and thus prevent such a world-wide tragedy? Are you men, or are you dish-rags? Are your consciences so important that you would put the world in cruel bondage rather than violate your own little personal ideas of what is moral? Are you men so sure you're right that you'd dodge a slight wrong—-if wrong it be—-and allow the greatest wrong ever attempted to triumph? ”

“ I don't suppose you have the least idea, sir, of what a grave offense you have committed to-day?"
"I expected to be praised, sir," replied Algy almost testily, "for having been highly humane to the men under my command."
"Humane!" exploded Colonel North. "Bah! Mr. Ferrers, do you imagine that our regulars are so many weaklings, that they have to come in when it rains, or stay in when the sun shines? Bah! You have been guilty of gross disobedience of orders, and you are an officer, sir—supposed to be engaged in teaching obedience to enlisted men. That is all, sir—you may go to your quarters!" ”

“ Dan was exuberant during the first hour of the journey, Dave unusually silent.
"You need a vast amount of cheering up, David, little giant!" exclaimed Dalzell.
"Oh, I guess not," smiled Dave Darrin quietly, adding to himself, under his breath:
"I carry my own good cheer with me, now."
Lightly his hand touched a breast pocket that carried the latest, sweetest likeness of Miss Belle Meade.
One journey by rail is much like another to the traveler who pays little heed to the scenery.
At the journey's end two well-rested midshipmen joined the throng of others at Crabtown. ”

“ There was a short, panting struggle, after which the young skipper was bent over. He lurched to the earth, face downward, while his yet unseen assailant fell heavily upon him.
“Fight fair, can’t you?” growled the captain of the “Rocket.”
“This isn’t a fight,” retorted the voice of the newcomer. “It’s a matter of self-preservation. Lie still, can’t you. I don’t want to have to club you out of your senses. It isn’t a gentleman’s kind of work.”
“You’re right it isn’t,” gritted Halstead, though he now lay more quietly, for the auburn-haired Rexford had thrown himself, also, upon him. ”

“ The glance of the newcomers did not rest upon the face of Reuben Hinman, for Prescott had gently spread a blanket so that it effectually concealed the little old peddler.
"What have you men been doing?" asked Dick, straightening up and eyeing them coldly, steadily.
"Drowning in the woods," replied the boss, "for we knew we couldn't find a house or barn within two miles, and the road is like a river you need a boat for travel to-night. When the storm came we men made a brush lean-to and kept as dry as we could under it. ”

“ It is a delight to be a High School student. There are no really dark sides to the life."
"But some sides are much brighter than others," Dick insisted. "I like study, and am glad I have a chance to go further in it than most young people get. Yet these class dances give us something that algebra, or chemistry, or geometry can't supply us."
"This is the brightest spot of the year," put in Tom Reade, in a low voice. "It must be the brightness of the girls' eyes that fill this part of the room with so much radiance."
"Bravo!" laughed Laura and Belle together. ”

“ But Dick Prescott knew his boys!
"Kill yourselves!" he shouted out again, as he saw the two canoes running neck and neck. "For the honor of Gridley High School!"
Right noble was the response, though flesh and blood could not stand this new and savage grilling for long.
"Wake up, Trentville!" shouted Ted Pascal, when he saw the
"Scalp-hunter" gaining. "Wake up! Let out all of your steam!
Push!"
Dick Prescott said no more. His straining gaze was now fixed on the finish line. Not one of his chums even glanced at the imaginary line. ”

“ For, despite his former apparent indifference to the trick Gage had played on them, Tom Reade would have staked his professional reputation on the richness of the ridge claim.
"It's gold, Harry—-gold!" he exclaimed, hoarsely, in his chum's ear. "It's gold enough to last us through life if we work it hard from the start."
"We'll have to kill a few men before we can get Gage off that ridge, though," Hazelton predicted.
"It's gold, I tell you, Harry. When the gold-craze gets into a fellow's blood nothing but gold can cure it. We won't kill any one, and we'll hope not to be killed ourselves. ”

“ Hazelton began to share his chum's suspicion as to the utter breakdown of his nerves and powers of vision.
"It was nothing, of course," said Harry, shamefacedly, but Tom vigorously took the other side of the question.
"See here, Harry, it must have been something," insisted Reade. "You're not dreaming, and you're not crazy. It would take either one of those conditions to make you see something that didn't really exist. No mere nervous tremor is going to make you see something as tall as a man, standing right over you, when no such thing exists." ”

“ The first class men were dreaming of their commissions in the more real Army beyond West Point; the present third classmen were looking forward with intense longing to the furlough that would begin as soon as they had stepped over the line into the second class. The new plebes were looking forward to summer encampment with a mixture of longing and dread—-the latter emotion on account of the hazing that might come to them in the life under the khaki-colored canvas. ”