CHAPTER IV.
DAVE'S WORK GOES STALE "Aye, you're not---not joking ?" demanded Dan Dalzell half piteously.
"Do you see any signs of mirth in my face ?" demanded Dave Darrin indignantly.
Rap-tap! Right after the summons Midshipman Farley and Page entered the room.
"Say, who's dead ?" blurted out Farley, struck by the looks of consternation on the faces of their hosts.
"Tell him, Dave," urged Dan.
"Prescott and Holmes won't play on this year's Army team," stated Darrin.
"Whoop!" yelled Farley gleefully.

"And that was what you're looking so mighty solemn about?
Cheer up, boy! It's good news." "Great!" seconded Midshipman Page with enthusiasm.
"I tell you, fellows," spoke Dave solemnly, "it takes all the joy out of the Army-Navy game." "Since when did winning kill joy ?" demanded Farley aghast.

"Why, with Prescott and Holmes out of it the Navy will get a fit of crowing that will last until after Christmas!" "It makes the victory too cheap," contended Darrin.
"A victory is a victory," quoth Midshipman Page, "and the only fellow who can feel cheap about it is the fellow who doesn't win.
Cheer up, Davy.

It's all well enough to wallop a stray college, here and there, but the one victory that sinks in deep and does our hearts good is the one we carry away from the Army.

Whoop! I could cry for joy." "But why won't Prescott and Holmes play this year ?" asked Farley, his face radiant with the satisfaction that the news had given him.
"Because the corps has sent Prescott to Coventry for something that I'm certain the dear old fellow never did," Darrin replied.
"Lucky accident!" muttered Farley.
"But the corps will repent, when they find their football hope gone," predicted Page, his face losing much of its hitherto joyous expression.
"No! No such luck," rejoined Midshipman Darrin.