CHAPTER V
AN ODD CHARACTER
It was evening when Dick arrived at Kentfield, which, from the scenes about the station, he judged to be quite a town of little importance. There were few signs of life, scarcely anyone being at the depot, and only a few passengers alighting.
"I wonder if I can get a carriage to take me out to the academy?" mused Dick, as he looked about. "This doesn't strike me as being much of a place, but the catalogue dad got showed quite an academy. I wonder where it is?"
He saw a rather dilapidated hack standing near the platform, and, walking up to it, addressed the driver.
"Can you take me out to the military academy?" he asked.
"Sure," replied the man, "but there's nothing to see. It isn't open yet. Term doesn't begin until next week."
"I know," replied Dick. "But I'm going to attend there."
"You?"
The man seemed much surprised, but there was a noticeable change in his manner.
"Going to be a student there?" he asked respectfully.
"Yes. I had to come on ahead of time."
"All right. Take you out there in a jiffy," went on the hack driver briskly. "Got any baggage?"
Dick handed over his checks, and the man soon returned with his trunk and suitcase.
"This doesn't appear to be a very lively place; not as much so as I expected," remarked the young millionaire as he got into the vehicle.
"Oh, bless your heart, sir, you just wait until next week," said the man. "Then this town will sit up and take notice. This is our off season, when the military school is closed. But when the boys arrive—wow! Say, then's when you got to look out. My! Oh my! But it's fierce!"
"Do they—do they cut up much?" asked Dick, secretly glad that he was to have a hand in it if the students did.
"Do they? Say, young man, when I start to drive a party of them cadets anywhere I don't never know if we're going to arrive. Never can tell when a wheel is coming off, or when my horses will start up, and leave the coach behind. That's why I always use quiet animals. Them cadets has life enough and to spare. Cut up? Say, jest you wait!"
"Well, maybe it won't be so bad after I get started, and make the acquaintance of some of the boys," thought Dick.
But he little knew what was ahead of him.
"Is the academy far out?" asked Dick, for, as the hack was an open one, he could converse with the driver.
"About a mile. We'll be there in a jiffy."
A "jiffy" must be quite a period of time, or else the driver's estimate of a mile was different from the accepted five thousand two hundred and eighty feet, for dusk changed to darkness before the hackman turned in between two big, stone pillars, and the man announced:
"Here we are."
"I don't see anything," objected Dick.
"It's too dark. But the buildings are right ahead of you."
Then the lad was able to make out the dim forms of a number of structures located in a sort of park.
"Where's the lake?" asked Dick. "I thought the academy was on a lake."
"So it is. That's on the other side. We're sort of coming in from the back, but that's the shortest road from the depot. I'll take you right to Colonel Masterly's quarters. He's the one you want to see, I guess, being as you're a new cadet, and he's the superintendent."
"I suppose so," answered Dick.
A little later he alighted in front of a large brick structure, and the hackman lifted down his trunk and suitcase.
"Do they expect you?" asked the driver.
"I think so," replied our hero, hoping that some arrangements had been made for him.
A moment later a door opened, and a flood of light streamed out from a broad hall. A man in semi-military uniform appeared.
"Who's there?" he asked, and, having spoken he began to whistle a few bars from "Marching Through Georgia," ending up with a bugle call.
"Got a cadet for you, Toots," replied the hackman.
"A cadet?" and once more the man in the hall whistled a martial air.
"That's what I said, Toots. Give me a hand with this trunk, will you, and tell Colonel Masterly that he's going to have company."
"My name's Hamilton," began Dick. "I believe my father arranged"
"Oh yes, the colonel told me to look out for you," said the man who looked like a soldier. "Come right in. The colonel will be here directly. I'll take your baggage."
"Thank you—er Mr." and Dick hesitated, for he did not just know how to address the person in the hall, and wanted to make no mistake in bestowing a military title.
"Me? Oh I'm Sam Sander," said the man in the blue suit, apparently surprised that his identity was not known.
"Yes, that's Sam," went on the hack driver, with easy familiarity, "but nobody calls him that; do they, Toots?"
The other, who was helping to carry in Dick's trunk did not answer. Instead he whistled the bugle call for "Taps," or lights out.
"Do they, Toots?" repeated the hack driver.
"Do they what?" inquired the soldier, who seemed to be rather absent minded.
"Do they call you anything but Toots?"
"Nope. That's what they call me. I don't mind. I've almost forgotten what my real name is. Toots is good enough I expect."
"He's a queer chap," whispered the hackman to Dick, as our hero paid him. "Queer, but all right. He's a sort of general helper around the grounds. Well, good night. I'll see you again maybe, when some of the other lads begin to arrive. And then won't there be lively times! Wow! My! Oh my! But them students certainly know how to have fun!"
The hackman appeared to relish the prospect, and Dick could hear him chuckling to himself as he drove off in the darkness.
"Right this way, Mr. Hamilton," said Toots, which name we shall adopt for him. "I will find the colonel for you"
He stopped suddenly, straightened up, in spite of the suitcase which he was carrying, and gave a stiff military salute.
"Mr. Hamilton has arrived, sir," he said, and at that Dick caught sight of a tall thin man, with an iron gray moustache and imperial, coming down the broad, well-lighted hall.
"Ah, Hamilton, glad to see you," said the soldierly-looking gentleman, extending his hand. "I'm Colonel Masterly. You are a little early, but I understand the case. Have you had dinner?"
Dick had not, and said so.
"Then you can dine with me," went on Colonel Masterly. "Sam, take Mr. Hamilton's baggage to the room I told you to get ready for him. I'll quarter you here for the present," he added, "until the boys arrive, and then you will have a roommate. How is your father?"
"Quite well," replied Dick, and then he followed the superintendent into a reception room. There two other military-looking men sat reading books. They looked up at the entrance of Dick and the colonel, who introduced them to the new student as Major Henry Rockford, commandant of the academy, and Major Franklin Webster, U. S. A., retired, who was in charge of military tactics at the school.
"That's the man of whom I must inquire about Captain Handlee's missing son," thought Dick, as the two instructors shook hands with him. "But I guess I'll wait a few days."
Dinner was rather a formal affair, and our hero did not in the least enjoy it. The three men talked of matters connected with the prospective opening of the school, occasionally addressing a question to Dick, or making some general remark.
The academy more than came up to Dick's expectations when he saw it the next morning. The school was made up of several buildings, consisting of a main barracks, which was where he had spent the night, and which contained the executive offices and class rooms, two other barracks, a gymnasium, a large mess hall, a riding hall, a small hospital and other structures.
They were grouped on a large plain, that lay at the foot of quite a mountain range, but, what pleased Dick more than anything else, was a large lake that came right to the edge of the academy grounds. It was a beautiful sheet of water, and, from the appearance of a large boathouse near at hand, Dick guessed rightly that the cadet-students spent considerable time rowing and sailing.
After breakfast, under the guidance of Toots, who was detailed by Colonel Masterly for that purpose, Dick was taken on a tour of the grounds. He was particularly pleased with the big stable, which contained a fine lot of horses.
"Are those for the cadets to use?" he asked Toots.
"Of course. Do you know how to ride?"
"A little," replied Dick, who did not believe in boasting, though, in reality, he was a fine horseman.
"I'll certainly have a swell time here," he thought, as he strolled about. He obtained permission to row out on the lake, and then was left to his own resources.
After the first novelty of seeing the buildings had worn off, Dick began to feel a little lonesome, and he wished that the week was up, and that the other students would begin to arrive. But he found much to interest him, and made friends with Toots, who told him many and various stories of student life.
"Why do they call you Toots?" asked Dick one day.
"Well, I s'pose it's because I've got in the habit of tooting my whistle all the while. I'm always whistling war tunes or bugle calls, the boys say."
"That's so. What makes you?"
"I don't know, except that I'm fond of a military life. Some day I'm going to war."
"Well, I hope you don't get shot," said Dick, as Toots left him, still whistling.
It was a few days after this that Dick saw a new student arrive. The lad, for reasons similar to those affecting our hero, had been sent to the academy in advance of the opening of the term. Dick soon made his acquaintance, and he found the newcomer rather an odd character. His name was William Schoop, but he was called "William the Silent" by the other cadets, so Major Webster said, from the fact that he did not talk much. He used only single words where others would take a sentence, and he often made gestures answer for words.
Dick and Will soon became friends, and the latter, who had spent a previous term at the school, showed the young millionaire about the buildings and grounds.