CHAPTER XVI.
A VERDICT AND A HOP Then followed days full of suspense for many besides the accused cadet.
Prescott went mechanically at his studies, with a dogged determination to get high markings in everything.
Yet over mathematics more than anything, he pored.

He fought out his problems in the section room grimly, bent on showing that he could win high marks without the aid of "cribs." He was still in arrest, and must remain so until the finding of the court-martial---whatever it was---had been duly considered at Washington and returned with the President's indorsement.
All this time Dick's mother and three faithful Gridley friends remained at the West Point Hotel.

Dick could not go to them; they could not come to him, but notes might pass.

Prescott received these epistles daily, and briefly but appreciatively answered them.
Then he went back furiously to his studies.
Grit could do him little good, except in his studies, if he were fated to remain at West Point.

Grit could not help him in the settling of his fate.