On Guard Mark Mallory's Celebration   By: Upton Sinclair (1878-1968)

Or

Mark Mallory's Celebration

by

LIEUT. FREDERICK GARRISON, U. S. A.

Author of "Off for West Point," "A West Point Treasure," "A Cadet's Honor," etc.

[Illustration: Boy's Own Library]

Philadelphia David Mckay, Publisher 610 South Washington Square

Copyright, 1903 By Street & Smith

On Guard

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I. A Letter from a "Furlough Man" 7 II. Mark's Idea 15 III. A New Ally 22 IV. A Surprise for the Seven 31 V. The Scheme Succeeds 36 VI. What Mark Overheard 46 VII. Mark's Counterplot 57 VIII. The Attack on Mark 65 IX. Three Discomfited Yearlings 74 X. Texas Runs Amuck 80 XI. Texas Raids West Point 91 XII. The Cause of a Friend 103 XIII. The Reformation of Texas 110 XIV. A Plot of the Yearlings 118 XV. The Plebes Plot, Too 128 XVI. Setting the Trap 133 XVII. The Result at the Hop 141 XVIII. A Strange Announcement 149 XIX. Texas Turns Highwayman 160 XX. Two Midnight Prowlers 167 XXI. Benny is Exposed 178 XXII. Mark Receives a Committee 183 XXIII. A Fight, and Other Things 199 XXIV. Six to the Rescue 208 XXV. Mark in the Hospital 216 XXVI. Texas Has an Interview 224 XXVII. A Plot to Beat "the General" 232 XXVIII. "Bull" Finds an Ally 241 XXIX. Strange Conduct 250 XXX. A Surprise for Murray 256 XXXI. The Plot Succeeds 265 XXXII. Triumph Conclusion 277

ON GUARD.

CHAPTER I.

A LETTER FROM A "FURLOUGH MAN."

"A letter for me, did you say?"

The speaker was a tall, handsome lad, a plebe at the West Point Military Academy. At the moment he was gazing inquiringly out of the tent door at a small orderly.

The boy handed him an envelope, and the other glanced at it.

"Cadet Mark Mallory, West Point, N. Y.," was the address.

"I guess that's for me," he said. "Thank you. Hello in there, Texas! Here's a letter from Wicks Merritt."

This last remark was addressed to another cadet in the tent. "Texas," officially known as Jeremiah Powers, a tall, rather stoop shouldered youth, with a bronzed skin and a pair of shining gray eyes, appeared in the doorway and watched his friend with interest while he read.

"What does he say, Mark?" he inquired, when the latter finished.

"Lots," responded Mark. "Lots that'll interest our crowd. They ought to be through sprucing up by this time, so bring 'em over here and I'll read it."

"Sprucing up" is West Point for the morning house cleaning in the summer camp. A half hour is allowed to it immediately after breakfast, and it is followed by "the A. M. inspection."

In response to Mark's suggestion, Texas slipped over to the tent in back of theirs in "B Company" Street, and called its three occupants. They came over and joined those in Mark's tent; and then Mark took out the letter he had just received.

"I've got something here," said he, "that I think ought to interest all of us. I guess I'll have time to read it before inspection. We are a secret society, aren't we?"

"That's what we are," assented the other six.

"But what's that got to do with it?" added Texas.