A West Point Treasure; Or, Mark Mallory's Strange Find — Themes and Context

“Hey, there, you fellows, I’ve got a letter to read to you.”

He was a tall, handsome lad, with a frank, pleasant face, and a wealth of curly brown hair. He wore a close-fitting gray jacket and trousers. The uniform of a West Point “plebe,” as the new cadet is termed. He was standing in front of one of the tents in the summer camp of the corps, and speaking to half a dozen of his classmates.

The six looked up with interest when they heard what he said.

“Come in, Mark,” called one of them. “Come in here and read it.”

“This is addressed to me,” began Mark Mallory, obeying the request and sitting down. “But it’s really meant for the whole seven of us. And it’s interesting, as showing what the old cadets think of the tricks we bold plebes have been playing on them.”

“It’s from Wicks Merritt, the second classman I met here last year. He’s home on furlough for the summer, but some of the other cadets have written and told him about us, and what we’ve been doing. And this is what he says about it. Listen.

“DEAR MARK: Whenever I sit down to write to you it seems to me I can think of nothing to say, but to marvel at the extraordinary rumpus you have kicked up at West Point. Every time I hear from there you are doing still more incredibly impossible acts, until I expect to hear next that you have been made superintendent or something. However, in this letter I really have something else to tell you about, but I shall put it off to the last and keep you in suspense.

“Well, I hear that, not satisfied with defying the yearlings to haze you, and actually keeping them from doing it, which is something no plebe has ever dared to dream of before, you have gone on to still further recklessness. They say that you have gotten half a dozen other plebes to back you up, and that, to cap the climax, you actually dared to go to one of the hops. Well, I do not know what to say to that; it simply takes my breath away. I should like to have been there to see him doing it. They say that Grace Fuller, the girl you saved from drowning, got all the girls to promise to dance with you, and that the end of the whole business was the yearlings stopped the music and the hop and left in disgust. I fairly gasp when I picture that scene.

“I hesitate to give an original person like you advice. You never heeded what I gave you anyway, but went right ahead in your own contrariness to do what you pleased. I guess you were right. But I want to warn you a little. By your unheard-of daring in going to that hop you have incurred the enmity of not only the yearlings, whom you have beaten at every turn, but also of the powerful first class as well. And they will never stop until they subdue you. I don’t know what they’ll try, but it will be something desperate, and you must stand the consequences. You’ll probably have to take turns fighting every man in the class. When I come back I expect to find you buried six feet deep in court-plaster.”

Mark looked up from the letter for a moment, and smiled.

“I wish the dear old chump could see me now,” he said.

Wicks’ prediction seemed nearly fulfilled. Mark’s face was bruised and bandaged; one shoulder was still immovable from a dislocation, and when he moved any other part of himself he did it with a cautious slowness that told of sundry aching joints.

“Yes,” growled one of the six listeners, a lad from Texas, with a curious cowboy accent. “Yes, hang it! But I reckon Wicks Merritt didn’t have any idea them ole cadets’d pile on to lick you all together. I tell you what, it gits me riled. Jes’ because you had the nerve to defy ’em and fight the feller that ordered you off that air hop floor, doggone ’em, they all had to pitch in and beat you.”

“Never mind, Texas,” laughed Mark, cheerfully. “They were welcome. I knocked out my man, which was what I went out for. And besides, we managed to outwit them in the end, leaving them deserted and scared to death on the opposite shore of the Hudson. You’ve heard of clouds with silver linings. I’m off duty and can play the gentleman all day, and not have to turn out and drill like you unfortunate plebes. And, moreover, nobody offers to haze me any more while I’m a cripple.”

“It’d be jes’ like ’em to,” growled Texas.

“That’s got nothing to do with the letter,” responded Mark. “There is some news in here that’ll interest you fellows, if Texas would only stop growling at the cadets long enough to give me a chance. Too much fighting is spoiling your gentle disposition, Texas.”

“Ya-as,” grinned the Southerner. “You jes’ go on.”

“I will,” continued Mark. “Listen.

“I got a letter from Fischer yesterday. Fischer is captain of your company, I think. He tells me that that rascally Benny Bartlett, the fellow from your town who tried to cheat you out of your appointment, but whom you beat at the examinations, turned up a short while ago with a brand-new plot to get you into trouble. It reads like a fairy story, what Fischer told me. He had a printer’s boy hired to accuse you of bribing him to steal for you the exam. papers. The superintendent believed him and you were almost fired.

“Fischer says he went out at night with that wild chum of yours, Texas, and the two of them held up the printer’s boy and robbed him of some papers that showed his guilt. Well, Mr. Mallory, I certainly congratulate you on your luck. You owe a debt of gratitude to Fischer, who ought to be your enemy really, since he was one of the hop managers you riled so.

“And now for the news I have. I write to tell you--and I know it will surprise you--that you are not yet through with that troublesome Master Bartlett.”

“Wow!” echoed Texas, springing up in surprise. “What does he know ’bout it?”

“Wait,” laughed Mark, by way of answer. “Wait, and you’ll see. Wicks is quite a detective.

“As you’ll notice by the postmark of this letter, I am in Washington, D. C., at present. And what do you think? I have met Benny Bartlett here!

“I can hear you gasp when you read that. I knew him, but he didn’t know me, so I made up my mind to have some fun with him. I picked up an acquaintance with him, and told him I was from West Point. Then he got intimate and confidential, said he knew a confounded fresh plebe up there--Mallory, they called him. Well, I said I’d heard of Mallory. And, Mark, I nearly had him wild.

“In the first place, you know, he hates you like poison. I can’t tell you how much. This paper wouldn’t hold all the names he called you. And, oh, what lies he did tell about you! So I thought to tease him I’d take the other tack. I told him of all your heroism, how you’d saved the life of the daughter of a rich old judge up there, and were engaged to marry her some day. I threw that in for good measure, though they say it is a desperate case between you and her--upon which I congratulate you, for she’s a treasure.”

“I wonder what he’d say,” put in one of the six, “if he knew she’d joined the Banded Seven to help fool the yearlings?”

“I told him,” continued Mark, reading, “all about how you’d prevented hazing and were literally running the place. Then I showed him Fischer’s letter to cap the climax. And, Mark, the kid was crazy. He vowed he was coming up there to balk you, if it was the last thing he ever did on earth.

“His father has a big pull with the President, and is using it with a vengeance. He pleads that his son did magnificently at the congressman’s exams, and only failed at the others because he was ill. And so Benny expects to turn up to annoy you as one of the plebes who come in when camp breaks up on the 28th of August.

“Having warned you of this disagreeable possibility nothing now remains for me to do but wish you the best possible luck in your quarrel with the first class, and so sign myself,

“Sincerely yours, “WICKS MERRITT.”

The Seven stared at each other as Mark folded up the letter.

“Fellows,” said he, “we’ve got just one month to wait, just one month. Then that contemptible fellow will be here to bother us. But in the meantime I say we forget about him. He’s unpleasant to think about. Let’s not mention him again until we see him.”

And the Parson echoed, “Yea, by Zeus.”

The Parson was just the same old parson he was the day he first struck West Point. Frequent hazings had not robbed him of his quiet and classic dignity; and still more frequent battles with “the enemy” had not made him a whit less learned and studious. He was from Boston, was Parson Stanard, and he was proud of it. Also, he was a geologist of erudition most astoundingly deep. He had a bag of most wonderful fossils hidden away in his tent, fossils with names as long as the Parson’s venerable and bony legs in their pale green socks.

The Parson was not wholly devoted to fossils, for he was member No. 3 in our Banded Seven, of which Mark was the leader. No. 4 was “Indian,” the fat and gullible and much hazed Joe Smith, of Indianapolis. After him came the merry and handsome Dewey, otherwise known as “B’gee!” the prize story-teller of the crowd. Chauncey, surnamed “the dude,” and Sleepy, “the farmer,” made up the rest of that bold and valiant band which was notorious for its “B. J.-ness.” (B. J., before June, means freshness.)

Master Benjamin Bartlett having been laid on the shelf for a month, the Seven cast about them for a new subject of conversation to while away the half hour of “recreation” allotted to them between the morning’s drill and dinner.

“I want to know,” suggested Dewey, “what shall we do this afternoon, b’gee?”

That afternoon was Saturday (“the first Saturday we’ve had for a week,” as Dewey sagely informed them, whereat Indian cried out: “Of course! Bless my soul! How could it be otherwise?”) Saturday is a half holiday for the cadets.

“I don’t know,” said Mark. “I hardly think the yearlings’ll try any hazing to-day. They’re waiting to see what the first class’ll do when I get well enough to fight them.”

The Parson arose to his feet with dignity.

“It is my purpose,” he said, with grave decision, “to undertake an excursion into the mountainous country in back of us, particularly to the portion known as the habitation of the Corous Americanus----”

“The habitation of the what?”

“Of the Corous Americanus. You have probably heard the mountain spoken of as ‘Crow’s Nest,’ but I prefer the other more scientific and accurate name, since there are in America numerous species of crows, some forty-seven in all, I believe.”

“It is my purpose,” continued the Parson, blinking solemnly as any wise old owl, “to admire the beauties of the scenery, and also to conduct a little cursory geological investigation in order to----”

“Say,” interrupted Texas.

“Well?” inquired the Parson.

“D’you mean you’re a-goin’ to take a walk?”

“Er--yes,” said the Parson, “that is----”

“Let’s all go,” interrupted Texas. “I’d like to see some o’ that there geologizin’ o’ yourn.”

“I shall be delighted to extend you an invitation,” said the other, cordially.

And thus it happened that the Banded Seven took a walk back in the mountains that Saturday afternoon. That walk was the most momentous walk that those lads ever had occasion to take.

It was a strangely accoutered cavalcade that set out from this West Point camp an hour or so later. The Parson, as guide and temporary chief, led the way, having his beloved “Dana’s Geology” under his arms, and bearing in one hand an “astrology” hammer (as Texas termed it), in the other a capacious bag in which he purposed to carry any interesting specimens he chanced to find. The Parson had brought with him to West Point his professional coat, with huge pockets for that purpose, but being a cadet he was not allowed to wear it.

Chauncey and Indian brought up the rear. Chauncey was picking his way delicately along, fearful of spoiling a beautiful new shine he had just had put on. And Indian was in mortal terror lest some of the ghosts, bears, tramps or snakes which the yearlings had assured him filled the woods, should spring out upon his fat, perspiring little self.

The government property at West Point extends for some four miles up the Hudson, and quite a distance into the wild mountains to the rear. The government property is equivalent to “cadet limits,” and so the woods are freely roamed by the venturesome lads on holiday afternoons.

The Parson was never more thoroughly in his element than he was just then. He was a learned professor, escorting a group of patient and willing pupils. The information which he gave out in solid chunks that afternoon would have filled an encyclopædia. A dozen times every hour he would stop and hold forth upon some newly observed object.

But it was when on geology that the Parson was at home. He might dabble in all sciences; in fact, he considered it the duty of a scholar to do so; but geology was his specialty, his own, his pet and paragon. And never did he wax so eloquently as when he was talking of geology, “That science which unravels the mysteries of ages, that reads in the rocks of the present the silent stories of the years that are dead.”

“Behold yon towering precipice,” he cried, “with its crevices torn by the winter’s snows and rains! Gentlemen, I suppose you know that the substances which we call earth and sand are but the result of the ceaseless action of water, which tore it from the mountains and ground it into the ever-moving seas. It was water that carved the mountains from the masses of ancient rock, and water that cut the valleys that lead to the sea below. A wonderful thing is water to the geologist, a strange thing.”

“It’s a strange thing to a Texan, too,” observed the incorrigible cowboy, making a sound like a popping cork.

“This cliff, all covered with vegetation,” continued the Parson, gazing up into the air, “has a story to tell also. See that scar running across its surface? In the glacial era, when this valley was a mass of grinding, sliding ice, some great stone caught in the mass plowed that furrow which you see. And perhaps hundreds of miles below here I might find the stone that would fit that mark. That has been done by many a patient scientist.”

The six were staring at the cliff in open-mouthed interest.

“In the post-tertiary periods,” continued the lecturer, “this Hudson Valley was an inland sea. By that line of colored rock, denoting the top of the strata, I can tell what was the level of that body of water. The storms of that period did great havoc among the rocks. This cliff may have been torn and burrowed; I know of some that had great caves and passageways worn in them.”

The six were still staring.

“We find many wonderful fossils in such rock. The seas then were inhabitated by many gigantic animals, whose skeletons we find, completely buried in stone. I have the foot of a Megatherium, the foot being about as broad as my arm is long, found in some shistose quartz of this period. If you will excuse me for but a few moments I should like to examine the fragments at the bottom of the cliff and see----”

“I think I see a foot there!” cried Mark, excitedly.

“Where?” demanded the Parson, no less so, his eyes flashing with professional zeal.

“It’s the foot of the cliff,” responded Mark. “Do you see it?”

The Parson turned away with a grieved look and fell to chipping at the rock. The rest roared with laughter, for which the geologist saw no cause.

“Gentlemen,” said he at last, “allow me to remind you of a line from Goldsmith’s ‘Deserted Village’:

“‘And the loud laugh that shows the empty mind.’”

Whereupon Dewey muttered an excited “B’gee.” Dewey had been so awed by his companion’s learning that he hadn’t told a story for an hour; but here the temptation was too great.

“B’gee!” he cried. “That reminds me of a story I once heard. There was a fellow had a girl by the name of Auburn. He wanted to write her a love poem, b’gee, and he didn’t know how to begin. That poem--the ‘Deserted Village’--begins:

“‘Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain.’

“So, b’gee, this fellow thought that would do first rate for a starter.

“‘Sweet Auburn, loveliest of the plain,’ an’ b’gee, she wouldn’t speak to him for a month!”

Every one joined in the laugh that followed except the Parson; the Parson was still busily chipping rocks with his “astrology” hammer.

“I find nothing,” he remarked, hesitatingly. “But I see a most beautiful fern up in that cleft. It is a rhododendron, of the species----I cannot see it very clearly.”

“I’ll get it,” observed Texas, gayly. “I want to hear the rest of that air name. Don’t forget the first part--romeo--romeo what?”

While he was talking Texas had laid hold of the projecting cliff, and with a mighty effort swung himself up on a ledge. Then he raised himself upon his toes and stretched out to get that “rhododendron.”

The Parson, gazing up anxiously, saw him lay hold of the plant to pull it off. And then, to his surprise, he heard the Texan give vent to a surprised and excited “Wow!”

“What’s the matter?” cried the others.

Texas was too much interested to answer. They saw him seize hold of a bush that grew above him and raise himself up. Then he pushed aside the plants in front of him and stared curiously.

“What’s the matter?” demanded the rest again.

And Texas gazed down at them excitedly.

“Hi, you!” he roared. “Fellers, it’s a cave!”

“A cave!” cried the others incredulously.

By way of answer Texas turned, faced the rock again, and shouted a mighty “Hello!”

And to the inexpressible consternation of the crowd an echo, loud and clear, responded:

The excitement which resulted from Texas’ amazing discovery may be imagined. If he had found a “Megatherium,” feet and all, there could not have been more interest. Texas was dragged down by the legs, and then there was a wild scramble among the rest, the “invalid” excepted, to see who could get up there first and try the echo.

The entrance, it seemed, was a narrow hole in the rock, completely hidden by a growth of bushes and plants. And the echo! What an amazing echo it was, to be sure! Not only did it answer clearly, but it repeated, and muttered again and again. It took parts of sentences and twisted them about and made the strangest possible combinations of sounds.

“It must be an enormous cave!” cried Mark.

“It has probably fissures to a great distance,” observed the geologist. “The freaks of water action are numerous.”

“I wonder if there’s room for a man to get in,” Mark added.

“Ef there ain’t,” suggested Texas, “we kin force Indian through to make it bigger.”

Indian shrank back in horror.

“Ooo!” he cried. “I wouldn’t go near it for a fortune. Bless my soul, there may be bears or snakes.”

This last suggestion made Dewey, who was then peeping in, drop down in a hurry.

“B’gee!” he gasped. “I hadn’t thought of that. And who knows but what a live Megatherium preserved from the tertiary periods may come roaring out?”