Frank Merriwell's Return to Yale

CHAPTER XVII

THE TEST OF NERVE

Frank felt really worried about it, although it did seem to him that the marking was absurdly unfair.

"These fellows haven't any reason to complain of a professor's marking of examination papers," he thought, "if this is the way they treat a fellow student."

"It's nearly time for the test of nerve," remarked Baker, "and we'd better have the essay read before this neophyte gets so many black marks that his case will be hopeless. Get up on that table, Merriwell."

Frank started to climb up on the table, but as soon as his knee was upon it a half dozen of the seniors yanked the table from under him and he fell to the floor.

There was a great roar of laughter at this, but Merriwell kept his face straight and did not so much as grunt.

"No black mark that time!" he thought.

"I told you to get on the table!" roared Baker.

Frank obeyed this time by making a sudden jump that brought him squarely upon the center of the table before it could possibly be yanked from under him.

There was a roar of applause at this, and the students gathered around to listen to the essay.

Frank took his manuscript from his pocket.

"What was the subject you were told to write on?" asked Baker.

Frank looked at the paper and read:

"Why is a Hen?"

The four other juniors exchanged winks; each one of them had been told to write upon the same topic.

Just then there was a knock at the door, and, after a moment, Bruce Browning was admitted.

Browning was already a member of the order, although he was a classmate of Frank's. He had become so by being dropped at the end of his freshman year, as already related in this series of stories.

When that happens a popular student keeps up his society relations with his former classmates, so that Bruce, although he was a junior in the standing of scholarship, was a senior when it came to society matters.

The fact that he was still a classmate of Merriwell's had led him to decide that he would take no part in the initiation. The students, therefore, were surprised to see him enter.

"I thought you weren't to be here!" exclaimed Baker.

"I wasn't," Browning answered, "but I've got something important to say to you."

He spoke in such a serious tone that Baker at once went over to him, and after a few whispered words they shut themselves into Baker's bedroom, which adjoined the study.

"You remember Miller?" asked Browning.

"You mean the tough customer that sells cigars?"

"Yes."

"I do remember him; what of him?"

"He's got a grudge against Merriwell. I think Frank at some time or other interfered in some dirty work he was up to, and so he's laying for Frank."

"Well, what of it?"

"He's heard that Frank has been elected to the 'Pig,' and he declares that he'll take advantage of the initiation to raise hob with him."

"Huh!"

"I thought I ought to let you know about it."

"Well, yes, but I don't see what Miller can do."

"Nor I, either, but it'll be just as well to be on your guard, you know."

"All right, and we'll try and look out for it."

"How's Merriwell getting on?" asked Browning.

Baker grinned.

"He's standing it like a man," was the reply, "just as we supposed he would, but he'll get black marks enough to sink a ship before the night's over."

Browning chuckled.

"I'll bet he takes those black marks seriously," he said.

"Well, why shouldn't he?" returned Baker. "It's the last time we'll get the chance to roast a good fellow like Merriwell, and we're going to make it hot for him, I tell you."

"Go ahead, he'll stand it," said Bruce.

Having delivered his message of warning, Bruce left the room. Then Baker returned and ordered Frank to begin his essay.

"Speak up loud and clear," he said, "for when you're told to talk, we expect you to talk."

Frank unfolded his manuscript and began to read:

"The problem of the hen is one of the most interesting subjects in ornithology."

"Hi! hi! hi!" yelled the seniors, rapping the floor with their clubs, umbrellas, brooms and so on.

"It seems to me very appropriate," continued Frank, reading from his paper, "that this subject should be discussed by a 'Pig' – "

This word was a signal for the most terrific uproar that the room had yet witnessed. All the seniors made a dash at Frank with their clubs, brooms, umbrellas and so forth, raised in the air.

They brought them down in great whacks upon the table; he stood as still as a statue. If he had attempted to dodge he would certainly have been hit.

"The idea of a neophyte using that word!" they cried. "Give him a black mark!"

Accordingly, the memorandum books came out and down went another black mark.

It then flashed upon Frank that it must be a rule of this order that no neophyte should refer to it as the "Pig," and unhappily in his essay he had done so a dozen times or more.

He quickly decided to pretend to read, but really to speak offhand and so avoid using the troublesome word, but there came another knock at the door.

This time it was Prof. Adler, whose room was in the building, and who called to protest against so much noise.

"You see what it is, professor," said Baker, throwing the door wide open. "You were once a 'Pig' yourself, I believe."

"Yes, I was," the professor answered, trying hard to repress a smile as he looked at Merriwell and the four solemn juniors, "but really it's getting late, gentlemen, and I think you ought to take your initiation elsewhere."

"Well, perhaps we have gone far enough at this stage," said Baker. "At any rate, professor, we won't trouble you any more to-night."

"I hope you won't," said the good-humored professor, "for I should hate to report you."

With that he went away, and the next stage in the initiation began immediately.

Each of the five neophytes was blindfolded with a towel tied around his head; his hands were then bound behind his back, and a long cord attached to them; then they were sternly ordered to remember the rule of obedience.

"If you obey you'll come to no harm," said Baker, earnestly, "but the slightest act of disobedience may run you into serious trouble."

When the blindfolding and binding had been completed the neophytes were taken out to the campus and so to the street; there three or four seniors went with each neophyte in different directions about the city.

The seniors kept hold of the rope and walked several yards behind the neophyte, telling him when to turn to the right or the left.

In this way Frank was made to pass close to moving wagons, and to go to the very edge of embankments where if he had taken another step he would have had an unpleasant fall.

For more than an hour he was kept moving about in this way, completely baffling the efforts of the seniors to rattle him. He did everything they told him promptly, and never a word escaped his lips.

He had made up his mind that come what would he would not get another black mark. At last as he was crossing a street he was told to halt. He did so, feeling under his feet at the moment the rail of a street car track.

Then his "mentors," as his companions were called, gathered around him, threw the loose end of the rope over his shoulders and told him to stay where he was.

"Remember, neophyte," said one of them, slowly, "the command is to stand still, no matter what happens."

Frank made no response, but it was evident that he understood them.

A moment later the mentors went away, where, or how far, Frank could only guess.

It was late in the evening, and the street was very still, but somewhere in the distance Frank could hear the rumbling of a car; it drew nearer and nearer, and at length he could hear the buzzing of the trolley wire. It seemed directly over his head.

"I see what this is," he thought; "they have put me between the double tracks of the line so that I'll think that a car is going to run me down.

"Of course, these fellows are not going to injure me, and so if I stand perfectly still the car will pass close beside me. If I should move I might get run over. I can imagine that some fellows might be completely unnerved by this test."

The rumbling of the car became louder and louder; then there was a single clang of a bell and it stopped a short distance away; some passenger evidently was getting out. The bell rang again, and the car started.

The motorman kept up a loud clanging of his footbell as he approached Frank; the latter, remembering his instructions, stood perfectly still, confident that the car would rush past him without touching him.

Suddenly, just as the car was upon him, Frank was pushed violently and fell face forward in front of it!

CHAPTER XVIII

FRANK WANTS MORE

The car was going at full speed when Frank fell. On the instant the motorman reversed the current and applied the brake hard, but although the wheels immediately began to turn in the other direction, it was impossible to check the advance of the car completely.

It slid for a few yards along the rails, sending up a shower of sparks, and pushing Frank's body along ahead of it.

Frank's first impression was, when he felt the push, that it was a part of the initiation. The mind acts with marvelous quickness under such circumstances, and what he thought was that, instead of being placed beside the car tracks, he was really directly upon them and thus in the way of the car, and that this push had been given him at the very last minute in order to knock him out of the way.

It was but the fraction of a second, of course, before he realized his mistake, for he received a severe blow from the car platform.

Knowing then that this was either a mistake in the initiation, or something not on the programme, and that at all events he was in serious danger, he made the most desperate effort to help himself.

Naturally this was no easy matter, for his hands were tied behind his back and his eyes were blindfolded.

The knots had not been tied with the greatest skill, but the line was a stout one and in the short time he had to make the effort, Frank could not release his hands.

He was more than half stunned by the collision, but he kept his wits sufficiently to roll over and over in front of the moving car, trying the best he could to kick himself out of its way. Meantime the car was rapping him repeatedly.

It was all over in a second or two, but the time seemed terribly long to the neophyte.

He was only half conscious of what happened, but he knew that the noise of the wheels upon the rails had ceased, and that he was picked up in strong arms and carried somewhere; then his brain whirled and everything became a blank.

That was the way the event seemed to Frank. The way it appeared to his mentors was this:

Following the usual custom of such initiations, they had stood Frank close to the car tracks, but not so close that the passing car would have so much as brushed him.

Such events were not so uncommon in New Haven as to make them dangerous when conducted in the ordinary way. Motormen get used to the pranks of students and accordingly send their cars past blindfolded figures at full speed, oftentimes clanging the footbell furiously in order to help out the joke by alarming the neophyte as much as possible.

Sometimes a motorman who is new to the business gets so disturbed at the sight of the blindfolded figure near the rail that he stops the car just short of him.

In any event no trouble had arisen before this from this feature of "Pig" initiation.

Having left Frank beside the track, as we have stated, the mentors withdrew and stood in the shadow of a big elm from where they could see the result of the test without being observed by the motorman or anybody else in the vicinity.

They were watching the affair with great interest, although pretty well convinced that Merriwell's nerve was so strong that he would stand the test without trouble.

They were disappointed when the car stopped to let off a passenger, but were satisfied when it proceeded again and rapidly gained full speed.

Then they were amazed to see a figure dart rapidly out from the shadow of another tree not far away and make straight toward the neophyte.

They wondered at it, but were not alarmed, for their first impression was that it was some man who was unfamiliar with students' doings, and who believed that the blindfolded figure was in real danger.

They rather expected, therefore, to see this stranger catch Merriwell up and drag him aside. Their horror may be better imagined than described when they saw the stranger push Merriwell in front of the car and then leap across the tracks just missing the car himself, and disappear.

The alarmed and indignant seniors dashed from their hiding place and ran with all possible speed to Merriwell's assistance. They came up to him just as the car stopped sliding forward, and began to move back under the force of the reversed current.

The excited motorman was jabbering curses upon the foolish conduct of students generally, and altogether too busy with his apparatus and too rattled to get down from the platform.

The conductor and the few passengers in the car, disturbed by the slight collision, were moving toward the platform to see what was the matter.

Rowe, who was in charge of the party of seniors, immediately picked Frank up and carried him toward the sidewalk.

"Get a move on, boys!" he exclaimed, under his breath. "We must get Merriwell out of sight as quick as possible."

"Shan't I go for a doctor, Dick?" asked one of them.

"Yes," answered Rowe, hurriedly; "bring him to my room, but keep mum."

One of the seniors sped away down the street, another took hold of Frank with Rowe to help carry him, while the last member of the party fell in behind his companions, determined if they were followed to beat off pursuers.

This action on the part of the seniors might seem rather peculiar to those who are not wholly familiar with secret society matters.

They did not stop to discuss it, for each one of them knew in a flash just what must be done.

Secret societies at Yale are very powerful organizations. In past years there were some efforts to disband them and prevent the students from organizing them.

All these efforts failed; the more the faculty tried to suppress the Greek letter orders, the more firmly the students clung to them, until at last the faculty had to let the societies alone.

The students knew, however, that there were plenty of men in the government of the college who would be glad of any excuse to suppress the societies and no better excuse could be found than the fact that a student had been injured in the course of an initiation.

Therefore, when Frank was knocked in front of the car, Rowe and his companions knew that it would not do at all to let the accident become a matter of public knowledge. So, before the people on the car half realized what had happened, they had carried Frank across the street, got over a fence into the grounds surrounding a private house, and were rushing along toward a thick clump of shrubbery.

When they were concealed in this they paused for an instant to get their breath and make a hasty examination of the neophyte.

By that time Frank was wholly unconscious. There was a red spot upon his forehead, his clothing was torn and his hands were bleeding a little from scratches.

The wounds and bruises would not have disturbed the seniors particularly, but Frank's unconsciousness gave them genuine alarm.

"We must keep moving!" exclaimed Rowe.

"Let me take my turn at carrying, then," said the one who had been acting as rear guard.

This was done. They proceeded across the lawn, climbed another fence into a garden and, having crossed this, came to another street.

They were now fairly safe from pursuit by the passengers on the trolley car, who, as a matter of fact, gave the matter no further thought when they were told by the motorman that the affair was a lot of students' nonsense.

As it was now very late in the evening the streets were almost deserted and by acting cautiously the seniors succeeded in getting Frank to Rowe's room without interference.

There they laid him upon a bed and hastened to apply restoratives as well as they knew how.

"It would be simply awful if it should prove that he was dead!" exclaimed Rowe, with a groan.

"He isn't dead," said one of the others; "we'll fetch him around – "

At this moment the student who had gone for a doctor burst into the room bringing the physician with him.

The doctor laid a case of instruments upon the table as he passed and bent over the bed where Frank lay. At that moment Frank opened his eyes and, seeing a strange face above him, said in a surprised tone:

"Hello, what do you want?"

"Humph!" muttered the doctor, "I thought I was going to have a fine chance to set broken limbs or do some other clever job in surgery. I guess you've cut me out of an operation, young man."

"Hey?" said Frank, trying to sit up.

His bones ached and he gave up the attempt.

"What's the matter, anyway?" he asked.

"How do you feel, Merriwell?" asked Rowe, anxiously.

"Kind of sore," returned the neophyte. "I should think I'd been in a football scrimmage. Oh!"

His eyes brightened as he remembered what had happened to him.

"Something went wrong with the – " he began, intending to say "with the initiation," when he caught sight of the doctor's face.

Seeing that a stranger was present and remembering his instructions to keep the initiation a secret, Frank hesitated an instant and then said:

"Machinery."

"Yes," answered Rowe, understanding the point, "the machinery broke down, but it wasn't our fault."

"I took that for granted," Frank remarked. "How did the car get along?"

The seniors laughed. This question showed them better than anything else could that Frank was not dangerously injured.

"The car seemed to stand it pretty well," Rowe answered. "How is he, doctor?"

"Well," answered the physician, who had been making an examination, "I don't see any evidence of broken bones, and what is more surprising still, the young man's brain doesn't seem to have suffered under the strain to which you have subjected him."

"I can stand more than that!" muttered Frank.

"There's nothing for me to do here," said the doctor. "I should advise him to go to bed and lie still for the rest of the night. If he feels badly in the morning you can send for me."

With this the doctor took himself off. Frank then slowly sat up.

"There are some aches about me," he said, with a wry grimace, "but I suppose the more I talk of them the more black marks I'll get."

"Oh, hang the black marks!" exclaimed Rowe. "There's been initiation enough for you, old fellow, and there isn't a doubt that when the matter is explained to the rest of the 'Pigs,' that you'll be excused from any further test."

"No, siree!" exclaimed Frank, emphatically.

"Eh, what's that?"

"If you think," responded Frank, "that I'm going to do the baby act and crawl out of the rest of the circus you're mistaken."

"But – "

"There's no 'but' about it! I've been through worse things than this and if you fellows don't put the initiation through just as if nothing had happened, I'll be hanged if I'll join the society."

CHAPTER XIX

THE LEAP INTO THE RIVER

"That's the right kind of talk anyway!" said Rowe, "and it's just what we might have expected from you, but really, Merriwell, this was the last thing on the programme for to-night, and even if that scoundrel hadn't pushed you in front of the car we should have made you go to bed at this time."

"Well, I'm bound to obey you in any case," said Frank, "but speaking of that, am I at liberty to talk?"

"Of course, for you're in the presence of members of the Pi Gamma in good standing."

Rowe grinned when he said this, for he thought of the black-mark nonsense and realized that Frank took it in earnest. He added:

"Out of consideration for this accident, Merriwell, I shall ask the president to score off the black marks already entered against you and let you begin with a clean record."

"Well, I can't object to that," said Frank, "for I must say it struck me that some of those marks were chucked on rather harshly."

"You'd better not make any criticisms of the way this society is run," declared Rowe, sternly.

"That's so; I take that all back, but what I wanted to say was that it seemed to me as if somebody had interfered with the game."

"That was it exactly, Merriwell, and it was something that we shall have to take a hand in before long."

"How did it happen?"

The others told Frank what they had seen. He listened thoughtfully and remarked:

"Some fellow evidently had a grudge against me."

"It looks that way," responded Rowe.

"Who do you suppose it could be?"

Before Frank could answer there was a knock at the door and Baker hurried in.

"Ah!" he said, in a tone of relief, "I see you've got through all right. There was something I meant to tell you, Rowe, and I forgot all about it."

"What was it?" asked Rowe.

"Why," answered Baker, "Browning came in, you remember, just before we started in on Merriwell's essay?"

"Yes. I wondered what he wanted."

"Well, he came in to say how he had heard that Miller, the cigar dealer, had it in for Frank, and that we'd better look out lest Miller take advantage of the initiation to put up some dirty job. Of course I meant to tell you about it before you took the neophyte to the street, but Prof. Adler's interruption drove it clean out of my mind. I didn't think of it until I was half through with Rattleton, who was the neophyte in my party.

"I see you've got through to-night all right, but it'll be just as well to look out – "

Baker stopped, for there was something in the expression of the faces before him that aroused his curiosity.

"What's the matter?" he asked, suddenly.

They told him and he listened with growing indignation.

"It must have been Miller!" he exclaimed, at last. "Didn't any of you fellows recognize him?"

Now that Miller's name was mentioned the students thought that they did recognize him, but they could not be sure of it.

"We must find out about it!" said Baker, earnestly. "This thing has not only endangered a student's life, but it has put all secret societies at Yale in danger of their existence.

"If Frank had been seriously hurt the faculty would surely hear of it and nothing would convince them that we weren't to blame for it. Miller must be prevented from doing anything of this kind again."

"Probably he won't try it again," Frank remarked, "for if he saw how successful his trick was, he must be convinced at this minute that I was maimed for life, if not killed."