Frank Merriwell at Yale E-Book

Burt L. Standish

• Herausgeber: Ktoczyta.pl
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Frank Merriwell is the perfect protagonist. He leads a healthy lifestyle, courageous and cheerful. Frank just radiates vital energy. Merriwell excelled at football, baseball, crew, and track at Yale while solving mysteries and righting wrongs. The book is written in a simple form, it is easy to read, thanks to all understandable slang.

Leseprobe

Contents

CHAPTER I. TROUBLE BREWING

CHAPTER II. CHALLENGED AND HAZED

CHAPTER III. THE BLOW

CHAPTER IV. THE FIGHT

CHAPTER V. THE FINISH

CHAPTER VI. A FRESH COUNCIL

CHAPTER VII. A SURPRISE

CHAPTER VIII. THE "ROAST" AT EAST ROCK

CHAPTER IX. THE DUEL

CHAPTER X. AT MOREY'S

CHAPTER XI "LAMBDA CHI!"

CHAPTER XII. FRESHMAN AGAINST SOPHOMORE

CHAPTER XIII. JUBILANT FRESHMEN

CHAPTER XIV. THE RUSH

CHAPTER XV. ON THE BALL FIELD

CHAPTER XVI. TO BREAK AN ENEMY'S WRIST

CHAPTER XVII. TALKING IT OVER

CHAPTER XVIII. MERRIWELL AND RATTLETON

CHAPTER XIX. WHO IS THE TRAITOR?

CHAPTER XX. A HOT CHASE

CHAPTER XXI ROAST TURKEY

CHAPTER XXII. A SURPRISE FOR FRANK

CHAPTER XXIII. THE YALE SPIRIT

CHAPTER XXIV. GORDON EXPRESSES HIMSELF

CHAPTER XXV. THE TRAITOR DISCOVERED

CHAPTER XXVI. THE RACE

CHAPTER XXVII. A CHANGE OF PITCHERS

CHAPTER XXVIII. THE GAME GROWS HOTTER

CHAPTER XXIX. THE END OF THE GAME

CHAPTER XXX. RATTLETON IS EXCITED

CHAPTER XXXI. WHAT DITSON WANTED

CHAPTER XXXII. DITSON IS TRAPPED

CHAPTER XXXIII. "PLAY BALL!'"

CHAPTER XXXIV. A HOT FINISH

CHAPTER I

TROUBLE BREWING

  “Here’s to good old Yale–drink it down! Here’s to good old Yale–drink it down! Here’s to good old Yale, She’s so hearty and so hale– Drink it down! Drink it down! down! down!”

From the open window of his rooms on York Street Frank Merriwell heard the distant chorus of a rollicking band of students who had been having a merry evening in town.

Frank had passed his examinations successfully and had been admitted as a student at Yale. In order to accomplish this without taking a preparatory course at Phillips Academy, he had found it necessary to vigorously “brush up” the knowledge he had acquired at the Fardale Military Academy which was a college preparatory school.

Professor Scotch, Frank’s guardian, had been of great assistance to him, for the professor knew just about what would be required at the entrance examination, and he had kept the boy digging away away at the propositions in the First Book of Euclid, had drilled him in Caesar, caused him to spend weary hours over Virgil and the Iliad, and made him not a little weary of his Xenophon.

As he passed without a condition, although he had been told again and again that a course at Phillips Academy was almost an absolute necessity, Frank was decidedly grateful to the professor.

Professor Scotch’s anxiety had brought him to New Haven, where he remained “till the agony was over,” as Frank expressed it. The little man bubbled over with delight when he found his protégé had gone through without a struggle.

Having secured the rooms on York Street, the professor saw Frank comfortably settled, and then, before taking his departure, he attempted to give the boy some wholesome advice.

“Don’t try to put on many frills here the first year,” he said. “You will find that freshmen do not cut much of a figure here. It doesn’t make any difference what you have done or what you have been elsewhere, you will have to establish a record by what you do and what you become here. You’ll find these fellows here won’t care a rap if you have discovered the North Pole or circumnavigated the globe in–er–ah–ten days. It will be all the better for you if you do not let them know you are rich in your own name and have traveled in South America, Africa, Europe, and other countries. They’d think you were bragging or lying if you mentioned it, and–”

“You know well enough that I am not given to boasting about myself, professor, and so you are wasting your breath,” said Frank, rather resentfully.

“Hum! ha! Don’t fly off the handle–keep cool. I know you have sand, and you’re made of the right kind of stuff; but you are the greatest hand to get into scrapes I ever saw, and a little advice won’t do you any harm. You will find that in many things you cannot do just as you would like, so you must–”

“I’ll get into the game all right, so don’t worry. You will remember that I did fairly well at Fardale, and you should not worry about me while I am here.”

“I will not. You did well at Fardale–that’s right. You were the most popular boy in the academy; but you will find Yale is far different from Fardale.”

So the professor took his departure, and Frank was left to begin life at college.

His roommate was a rollicking, headstrong, thoughtless young fellow from Ohio. Harry Rattleton was his name, and it seemed to fit him perfectly. He had a way of speaking rapidly and heedlessly and turning his expressions end for end.

Frank had been able to assist Harry at examination. Harry and Frank were seated close to each other, and when it was all over and the two boys knew they had passed all right, Harry came to Frank, held out his hand, and said:

“I believe your name is Merriwell. Mine is Rattleton and I am from Ohio. Merriwell, you are a brick, and I am much obliged to you. Let’s room together. What do you say?”

“I am agreeable,” smiled Frank.

That was the way Frank found his roommate.

Harry was interested in sports and athletics, and he confided to Frank that he was bound to make a try for both the baseball and football teams. He had brought a set of boxing gloves, foils, and a number of sporting pictures. The foils were crossed above the mantel and the pictures were hung about the walls, but he insisted on putting on the gloves with Frank before hanging them up where they would be ornamental.

“I’ve taken twenty lessons, old man,” he said, “and I want to point you a few shows–I mean show you a few points. We’ll practice every day, and I’ll bet in less than ten weeks I’ll have you so you’ll be able to hold your own with any fellow of your age and weight. Ever had the gloves on?”

“A few times,” answered Frank, with a quiet smile.

“That’s all the better. I won’t have to show you how to start in. Here, here–that hand goes on the other glove–I mean that glove goes on the other hand. That’s the way. Now we’re off. Left forward foot–er, left foot forward. Hold your guard this way. Now hit me if you can.”

Almost like a flash of lightning Frank’s glove shot out, and he caused the glove to snap on Harry’s nose.

“Whee jiz–I mean jee whiz!” gasped the astonished boy from Ohio. “You’re quick! But it was an accident; you can’t do it again.”

He had scarcely uttered the words before Frank feinted and then shot in a sharp one under Harry’s uplifted guard.

“Great Scott! You do know some tricks! I’ll bet you think you can box! Well, I’ll have to drive that head out of your notion–I mean that notion out of your head. Look out for me now! I’m coming!”

Then Harry Rattleton sailed into Frank and met with the greatest surprise of his life, for he found he could not touch Merriwell, and he was beaten and hammered and battered about the room till he finally felt himself slugged under the ear and sent flying over a chair, to land in a heap in one corner of the room. He sat up and held his gloved hand to his ear, which was ringing with a hundred clanging bells, while he stared astounded at his roommate.

“Wow!” he gurgled. “What have I been up against? Are you a prize fighter in disguise?”

That experience was enough to satisfy him that Frank Merriwell knew a great deal more than he did about boxing.

As Frank sat by his window listening to the singing, on the evening that this story opens, he was wondering where Harry could be, for his roommate had been away since shortly after supper.

Frank knew the merry singers were sophomores, the malicious and unrelenting foes of all freshmen. He would have given not a little had he been able to join them in their songs, but he knew that was not to be thought of for a moment.

As he continued to listen, a clear tenor voice struck into that most beautiful of college songs when heard from a distance:

  “When the matin bell is ringing,  U-ra-li-o, U-ra-li-o, From my rushy pallet springing,  U-ra-li-o, U-ra-li-o, Fresh as the morning light forth I sally, With my sickle bright thro’ the valley, To my dear one gayly singing,  U-ra-li-o, U-ra-li-o.”

Then seven or eight strong musical young voices came in on the warbling chorus, and the boy at the window listened enchanted and enraptured, feeling the subtle charm of it all and blessing fortune that he was a youth and a student at Yale.

The charm of the new life he had entered upon was strong, and it was weaving its spell about him–the spell which makes old Yale so dear to all who are fortunate enough to claim her as their alma mater. He continued to listen, eagerly drinking in the rest of the song as it came through the clear evening air:

  “When the day is closing o’er us,  U-ra-li-o, U-ra-li-o, And the landscape fades before us,  U-ra-li-o, U-ra-li-o, When our merry men quit their mowing, And along the glen horns are blowing, Sweetly then we’ll raise the chorus,  U-ra-li-o, U-ra-li-o.”

The warbling song died out in the distance, there was a rush of feet outside the door, and Harry, breathless and excited, came bursting into the room.

“I say, old man,” he cried, “what do I think?”

“Really, I don’t know,” laughed Frank. “What do you think?”

“I–I mean wh-what do you think?” spluttered Harry.

“Why, I think a great many things. What’s up, anyway?”

“You know Diamond?”

“The fellow they call Jack?”

“Yes.”

“I should say so! It was his bull pup that chewed a piece out of the leg of my trousers. I kicked the dog downstairs, and Diamond came near having a fit over it. He’s got a peppery temper, and he was ready to murder me. I reckon he thought I should have taken off my trousers and given them to the dog to chew.”

“He’s a Southerner–from Virginia. He’s a dangerous chap, Frank–just as lief eat as fight–I mean fight as eat. He’s been in town to-night, drinking beer with the boys, and he’s in a mighty ugly mood. He says you insulted him.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s just so, and he’s going to dallenge you to a chewel–I mean challenge you to a duel.”

Frank whistled softly, elevating his brows a bit.

“What sort of a duel?” he asked.

“Why, a regular duel with deadly weapons. He’s awfully in earnest, Frank, and he means to kill you if you don’t apologize. All the fellows are backing him; they think you will not fight.”

“Is that so? Looking for me to show the white feather, are they? Well, I like that!”

“But you can’t fight him! I tell you he’s a fire eater! I’ve heard that his father killed a man in a duel.”

“And that makes the son dangerous! No, Harry, I can’t afford to–What’s all that racket?”

The sound of voices and of many feet ascending the stairs could be heard. Harry turned pale.

“They’re coming, Frank!” he exclaimed. “It’s the whole gang, and Diamond is with them. He means to force you to fight or squeal!”

CHAPTER II

CHALLENGED AND HAZED

The voices were hushed, the feet halted in the hall, and then there was a sharp knock on the door.

Before Harry could reach the door Frank called out:

“Come in.”

Open flew the door, and there stood the tall, straight, dark-eyed Southerner, with half a dozen other fellows behind him.

“Mr. Merriwell,” said Diamond, stiffly, “I have called to see you on a very important matter, sir.”

“Walk right in,” invited Frank, rising to receive them. “Bring your friends in. State your business, Mr. Diamond.”

The party came trooping in, and Frank was not a little astonished to observe among them Bruce Browning, a big, strong, lazy sophomore, a fellow who was known to be a great hand to plan deviltry which was usually carried into execution by his friends. As for Browning, he was not given to exerting himself when he could avoid it.

That a soph should associate with a party of freshmen seemed but a little short of marvelous, and Frank instantly scented “a job.” Believing he had been singled out for the party to “jolly,” his blood was up in a moment, and he resolved to show them that he was not “easy.”

Jack Diamond drew himself up, his eyes fastened threateningly on Frank, and said:

“Sir, you had the impudence to kick my dog, and when I remonstrated with you, you insulted me. I demand an apology before these gentlemen.”

Frank held himself in check; he appeared as cool as an iceberg.

“Sir,” he said, “your confounded dog spoiled a pair of ten-dollar trousers for me, and I demand another pair–or satisfaction.”

Harry Rattleton caught his breath. Was Merriwell crazy? He started forward, as if to intervene, but Diamond, his eyes blazing, motioned him back.

“Very well, sir,” said the Southerner, addressing Frank, “you shall have all the satisfaction you desire. Mr. Ditson will represent me.”

Roland Ditson pressed forward. He was a loud-voiced youth who wore loud clothes and sported a large amount of jewelry.

“Name your second, Merriwell,” he said in an authoritative way. “We want to settle this matter as soon as possible.”

Frank named Harry, and the seconds conferred together.

Merriwell sat down and coolly awaited the result, with his hands in his pockets. Diamond drew aside, his friends gathering about him. Bruce Browning interested himself in what was passing between Rattleton and Ditson, and it was plain that he was urging them to do something.

After a few minutes Harry approached Frank, a troubled look on his face.

“It’s an outrage!” he indignantly exclaimed. “Ditson insists that it be a degular ruel–I mean a regular duel with rapiers. He says you gave the challenge, and so Diamond has the right to name the weapons. Such a thing can’t take place!”

“Oh, yes, it can,” said Frank, coolly. “Accept the proposition and have the affair come off as soon as possible.”

“But, Frank, think of it! I’ll bet Diamond is an expert swordsman, and he’s just the kind of a chap to lose his head and run you through the body! Why, it would be dimply serrible–I mean simply terrible!”

“I’ll have to fight him or take water. Now, Harry, old man, you don’t want me to show the white feather, so go back and complete the arrangements.”

“But there ought to be some other way of settling it. If you could fight him with your fists I know you’d beat him, but you don’t stand a show this way.”

Frank looked his roommate squarely in the eye.

“Go back and accept every proposition Ditson makes,” he commanded, and Rattleton felt the influence of Merriwell’s superior will.

Back he went, and it did not take the seconds long, with Bruce Browning’s aid, to settle matters. Browning said he knew a nice quiet place where the duel could take place without danger of interruption, and in a short time the entire party was on the street, following the lead of the big sophomore.

Harry was at Frank’s side and he was greatly agitated.

“If you are counting on Diamond backing down you’ll be dadly–I mean sadly disappointed,” he whispered. “That fellow doesn’t know what it is to be afraid, and he’ll stand up to the end.”

“Keep cool,” directed Frank. “He’ll find there are others.”

Harry gave up in despair.

“This is a terrible affair!” he muttered to himself. “It’s likely to mean arrest, disgrace, imprisonment for the whole of us, if those blamed hot-headed fools don’t kill each other!”

But he decided to stand by his roommate, no matter what came.

Browning led them away from the vicinity of the college buildings and down a dark street. At length they came to an old brick structure, in which not a light was to be seen. Down some slippery stone steps they went, and the big soph let them in by unlocking a door.

It was dark inside. Browning closed and locked the door, after which he conducted them along a narrow passage, opened another door, and ushered them into a room.

The smell of cigarette smoke was strong there, and Frank knew the place had been lately occupied by smokers.

A match spluttered, and then a lamp was lighted.

“Get ready for business,” directed Browning. “I will bring the rapiers and another light.”

Then he vanished beyond a door that opened into another dark room.

Frank looked around and saw a table, upon which were cards and empty beer bottles. There were chairs and some copies of illustrated sporting papers. The walls were bare.

It was warm down there, and Frank immediately discarded his coat.

Diamond was about to follow Merriwell’s example, when there was a sudden rush of feet and the room filled in a twinkling with masked youths, who flung themselves on the astonished freshmen and made all but Frank a prisoner in a moment.

Frank instantly understood that they had been trapped and he knocked down four of his assailants before they could bear him to the floor and overpower him.

His hands were securely bound, and then he was lifted to his feet.

“Well, fellows, that was a pretty slick trick,” he half laughed, as he coolly looked around. “You sophs have been trying to corral a gang of us for a week, and with the aid of the smooth Mr. Browning you succeeded very finely this time.”

“Silence!” roared a deep voice, and a tall fellow in a scarlet Mephisto rig confronted Frank. “You have intruded upon forbidden ground. None but the chosen may enter here and escape with life.”

“Not one!” chorused all the masks in deep and dismal unison.

Mephisto made a signal. Once more the freshmen were seized.

“Away with them!” shouted the fellow in red.

In another moment all but Frank had been hustled out of the room. Then Frank was suddenly held fast and blindfolded. He was dragged along to some place where the opening of another door brought to his ears the sound of horns and shouts of fiendish glee. He was made to mount some stairs and then his feet were kicked from beneath him, and he shot down a steep and slippery incline into the very midst of the shouting demons. He dropped through space and landed–in a vat of ice-cold water. Then he was dragged out, thumped on the head with stuffed clubs, deafened by the horns that bellowed in his ears, and tossed in a blanket till his head bumped against the ceiling. Then he was forced to crawl through a piano box that was filled with sawdust. He was pushed and pulled and hammered and thumped till he was sore in every part of his body.

All through this ordeal not a word or murmur escaped his lips. His teeth were set, and he felt that he had rather die than utter a sound that betrayed pain or agitation.

This seemed to infuriate his assailants. They banged him about till he could scarcely stand, and then, of a sudden, there was a great hush, while a terrible voice croaked:

“Bring forth the guillotine!”

There was a bustle, and then the bandage was stripped from Frank’s eyes, he was tripped up, and a second later found himself lying helpless with his neck in the socket of a mock guillotine. Above him was suspended a huge gleaming knife that seemed to tremble, as if about to fall. At his side was a fellow dressed in the somber garments of an executioner.

It was really a severe strain upon his nerves, but still his teeth were clinched, and not a sound came from his lips.

“The knife is broken,” whispered the mock executioner in Frank’s ear, “so it may accidentally fall and cut you.”

“Have you any last message, fresh?” hoarsely whispered the mock executioner. “There might be a fatal accident.”

Frank made no reply save to wink tauntingly at the fellow.

The next instant, with a nerve-breaking swish, the shining blade fell!

A piece of ice was drawn across Frank’s throat and a stream of warm water squirted down his back.

It was most horribly real and awful, and for a moment it seemed that the knife had actually done the frightful deed.

Despite his wonderful nerve, Frank gasped; but he quickly saw that the knife had swung aside and his head was still attached to his body.

Then he forced a derisive laugh from his lips, and seemed not the least disturbed, much to the disgust of the assembly.

“Confound him!” growled a voice, which Frank fancied he recognized as belonging to Browning. “There’s no fun in him. Let’s try another.”

Then Frank was lifted to his feet and assisted to don his coat.

“If you want to stay and see the fun, put on a mask,” directed Mephisto. “You must not be recognized by the other freshies.”

He was given a mask and he put it on as directed.

A moment later the masked youths began to howl and blow horns. A door opened, and Diamond, blindfolded and bound, was led into the room.

The young Virginian stood up haughtily, and he was seen to strain and struggle in an effort to free his hands.

“I protest against this outrage!” he cried, angrily. “I want you to know that my father–”

The horns and the shouts drowned his words. He was forced to mount the steps to a high platform, and an instant later he found himself shooting down a slippery incline of planed and greased boards.

The racket stopped as Diamond scooted down the slippery surface. He dropped sprawling into the vat of icy water. Several hands caught hold of him, yanked him up, and thrust him down again.

“Oh, somebody shall suffer for this!” gurgled the helpless freshman, spluttering water from his mouth.

He was dragged out of the vat, and then he was forced to endure all the hustling, and thumping, and banging which Frank Merriwell had passed through. His protests seemed to fall on deaf ears.

It had been reported that Diamond had declared that the sophomores would not dare to haze him, as his father would make it hot for them if they did. The report was remembered, and he was used more severely than Frank had been.

Hazing at Yale was said to be a thing of the past, but Frank saw it was still carried on secretly.

“Make a speech, fresh!” shouted a voice.

“Speech! speech!” yelled the masked lads.

Diamond was placed on a low table.

For a moment he hesitated, and then he fancied he saw his opportunity to make a protest that would be heard.

“I will make a speech,” he declared. “I’ll tell you young ruffians what I think of you and what–”

Swish! a sponge that was dripping with dirty water struck him square in the mouth. Some of the water went down his throat, and he choked and strangled.

The table was jerked from beneath his feet, and he fell into the waiting arms of the masked sophomores.

“He called us ruffians! Give it to him!”

Then the unfortunate freshman was used worse than ever. He was tossed in a blanket, given a powerful shock of electricity, deafened by the horns, pounded with the stuffed clubs, and hustled till there was scarcely any breath left in his body.

Then the bandage was torn from Diamond’s eyes and he was confronted by the guillotine, over which fresh red ink had been liberally spattered. The blade of the huge knife was dripping in a gory manner, and it really looked as if it had just completed a deadly piece of work.

Despite himself, the young Virginian shivered when his eyes rested on the apparently blood-stained blade.

“Be careful!” some one distinctly whispered. “We do not want to kill more than one freshman in a night.”

Some one else spoke of the frightful manner in which the knife had cut Merriwell, and then, despite his feeble struggles, Diamond was placed upon the instrument of torture.

“The other fresh died game,” muttered the executioner. “Of course we didn’t mean to kill him, but the knife is out of order and it slipped by accident. We haven’t time to fix it properly, but there are only about nine chances out of ten that it will fall again.”

“Oh, you fellows shall pay for this!” feebly gasped Diamond.

Despite himself, although he knew how unlikely such a thing was, he could not help wondering if a terrible accident had really happened. If not, where was Merriwell. He looked around, but saw nothing of Frank, who was keeping in the background.

And then, when his nerves had been quite unstrung, the knife fell, the ice and warm water were applied, and Diamond could not choke back the cry of horror that forced itself from his lips.

A roar of laughter broke from the masked students.

When Diamond was lifted to his feet he was almost too weak to stand. He clinched his teeth, vowing over and over to himself that he would find a way to square accounts.

“If it takes me a year, I’ll find out who the leaders in this affair are, and they shall suffer for it!” he thought.

“Give him a chance to see the others put through the mill,” said Mephisto, and Diamond’s hands were released.

The Virginian looked around, seeming irresolute for a moment. Not far away he saw a masked lad whose clothes were wet and bedaubed with dirt and sawdust.

In an instant Diamond sprang toward this person and snatched the mask from his face.

“It’s Merriwell!” he triumphantly shouted, “and he has helped to haze me! His career at Yale will be suddenly cut short!”

CHAPTER III

THE BLOW

There was a sudden hush. The students saw that Diamond was really revengeful, and his words seemed to indicate that he intended to report any one whose identity he discovered.

The Virginian was pale and he trembled with anger.

“You don’t mean to say that you will blow, do you?” asked one.

“That’s exactly what I do mean, sir!” came resolutely from the lips of the infuriated freshman. “I am a gentleman and the son of a gentleman, and I’ll never stand it to be treated like a cur. Hazing is said to be no longer tolerated here, and an investigation is certain to follow my report of this affair.”

A little fellow stepped out.

“You claim to be a gentleman,” he said, distinctly, “but you will prove yourself a cad if you peach.”

“I had rather be a cad than a ruffian, sir!”

“If you were a gentleman you would take your medicine like a gentleman. You’d never squeal.”

“You fellows are the ones who are squealing now, for you see you have been imposing on the wrong man.”

“Man!” shot back the little fellow, contemptuously. “There’s not much man about a chap that blows when he is hazed a little.”

“A little! a little! Is this what you call a little?”

“Oh, this is nothing. Think of what the poor freshies used to go through in the old days of Delta Kappa and Signa Epsilon. Why, sometimes a fellow would be roasted so his skin would smell like burned steak for a week.”

“That was when he was burned at the stake,” said a chap in the background, and there was a universal dismal groan.

“This is some of the Delta Kappa machinery here,” the little fellow explained. “Sometimes some of the fellows come here to have a cold bot and hot lob. You freshies walked right in on us to-night, and we gave you a pleasant reception. Now, if you blow I’ll guarantee you’ll never become a soph. The fellows will do you, and do you dirty, before your first year is up.”

“Such threats do not frighten me,” haughtily flung back the lad from Virginia. “I know this was a put-up job, and Bruce Browning was in it. He got us to come here. Frank Merriwell knew something about it, or he’d never been so ready to come. And I know you, too, Tad Horner.”

The little fellow fell back a step, and then, with a sudden angry impulse, he tore off his mask, showing a flushed, chubby, boyish face, from which a pair of great blue eyes flashed at Diamond.

“Well, I am Tad Horner!” he cried, “and I’m not ashamed of it! If you want to throw me down, go ahead. It will be a low, dirty trick, and will show the kind of big stuff you are!”

The masked lads were surprised, for Tad had never exhibited such spirit before. He had always seemed like a mild, shy, mother-boy sort of chap. He had been hazed and had cried; but he wouldn’t beg and he never squealed. After that Browning had taken him under his wing, had fought his battles, and had stood by him through the freshman year. Anybody who was looking for trouble could find it by imposing on Horner; and Browning, for all of his laziness, could fight like a tiger when he was aroused.

Some of the students clapped their hands in approbation of Tad’s plain words, and there was a general stir. One fellow proposed that everybody unmask, so that all would be on a level with Horner, but the little fellow quickly cried:

“Don’t do it! You’d all be spotted, and the faculty would know who to investigate if anything should happen to Diamond. If I’m fired, I want you fellows to settle with him for me.”

“We’ll do it–we’ll do it, Tad!” cried more than twenty voices.

Diamond showed his white, even teeth and laughed shortly.

“Perhaps you think that will scare me,” he sneered. “If so, you will find I am not bluffed so easily.”

“We are not trying to scare you,” declared another of the masked students, “but you’ll find we are in earnest if you blow.”

“Well, you will find I am in earnest, and I do not care for you all.”

The boys began to despair, for they saw that Diamond was determined and obstinate, and it would be no easy thing to induce him to abandon his intention of reporting the hazing. If he did so, Browning and Horner would find themselves in deep trouble, and others might become involved during the investigation. It was not probable that the consequences would be serious for Merriwell, who would be able to prove his innocence in the matter.

What could be done?

The boys fell to discussing the matter in little groups, and not a few expressed regret that Tad Horner had unmasked, as an alibi could have been arranged for him if he had not done so. Now he would be too proud to permit them to try anything of the sort, and he would tell the truth about his connection with the affair if the truth were demanded of him.

“We’re in a bad box,” said one fellow in one of the little groups. “Diamond is mad enough to do as he threatens.”

“Sure,” nodded another. “And that breaks up this joint. No more little lunches here–no more games of penny ante.”

“It’s a howling shame!” exploded a third. “It makes me feel grouchy.”

“I move we strangle Diamond,” suggested the first speaker.

“It seems that that is the only way to keep his tongue still,” dolefully groaned a tall chap. “This is a big horse on us.”

“That’s what,” sighed a boy with a face like a girl’s. “The whole business puts me in a blue funk.”

Then they stood and stared silently at each other through the eyeholes in their masks, and not one of them was able to propose anything practicable.

The rest of the assembled sophomores seemed in quite as bad a plight, and some of them were inclined to indulge in profanity, which, although it relieved their feelings for the moment, did not suggest any way out of the scrape.

At this point Merriwell spoke up, addressing Diamond.

“Look here, old man,” he said in a friendly way, “you’ve only taken the same dose they gave me. It’s nothing when you get used to it.”

Diamond gave him a contemptuous look, but did not speak.

“Now, I don’t propose to make a fuss about this little joke,” Frank went on. “What’s the use? I’m not half killed.”

“Perhaps you think you can hoodwink me!” cried Diamond. “Well, you cannot! You were in the game all the time. That’s why you were so ready to meet me in a duel–that’s why you came here.”

“I assure you on my word of honor that you are wrong.”

“Your word of honor!”

“Yes, my word of honor,” he calmly returned. “See–look at my clothes. You can tell that I have been through the mill.”

“You may have had them fixed that way on purpose to fool me.”

“Oh, you must know better than that! Be reasonable, Diamond.”

The Virginian made a savage gesture.

“If you are so pleased to be made a laughingstock of it’s nothing to me,” he flashed. “Keep still if you want to. I’m going to tell all I know.”

“That would make a very large book–full of nice clean, blank pages,” said some one in the background.

Frank’s manner suddenly changed.

“Look here, Diamond,” he said, “you won’t tell a thing.”

The Southerner caught his breath and his eyes stared.

“Eh?” he muttered, surprised at the other’s manner. “I won’t?”

“Not on your life.”

“Why not?”

“Because it will mean expulsion for you as well as myself if you do.”

Every one was listening. They gathered about the two freshmen, wondering not a little at Merriwell’s words and manner.

“Expulsion for me?” slowly repeated Diamond. “How is that?”

“It’s straight goods.”

“Explain it.”

“Well, I will. We came here to fight a duel, didn’t we?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You admit that?”

“I do, sir.”

“That is all that’s needed.”

“How? Why? I don’t understand.”

“Duels are not countenanced in the North, and nothing would cause a fellow to be fired from Yale quicker than the knowledge that he had had anything to do with one while here. Do you twig?”

There was a moment of silence and then a stir. A deep sigh of relief came from the masked lads, and some of them showed an inclination to cheer Merriwell.

Diamond seemed nonplused for the moment. He glared at Frank, his hands clinched and his face pale.

At last he slowly said:

“A duel is something no gentleman can blow about, so if you are a gentleman you will have to remain silent, sir.”

“That’s the way you Southerners look at it, but yon will excuse us Northerners if we do not see it in the same light. A hazing is something we do not blow about, but you seem determined to let out everything, for all that it would be a dirty thing to do. In order to even the matter, these fellows are sure to tell that you came here to fight a duel with deadly weapons, and you’ll find yourself rusticating in Virginia directly.”

“‘Way down in ole Virginny,” softly warbled one of the delighted sophomores. “That’s the stuff, Merry, old boy!”

Diamond trembled with intense anger. He tried to speak, but his voice was so hoarse that his words were unintelligible. A blue line seemed to form around his mouth.

“Merriwell’s got him!” Bruce Brown lazily whispered in Tad Horner’s ear. “See him squirm!”

Tad was relieved, although he endeavored not to show it; but a satisfied smile crept over his rosy face, and he felt like giving Frank Merriwell the “glad hand.”

Diamond’s anger got the best of him. He strode forward, looked straight into Frank’s eyes, and panted:

“I hate you, sir! I could kill you!”

And then, before he realized what he was doing, he struck Merriwell a sharp blow on the cheek with his open hand.

CHAPTER IV

THE FIGHT

The blow staggered Frank. It had come so suddenly that he was quite unprepared for it. His face became suddenly pale, save where Diamond’s hand had struck, and there the crimson prints of four fingers came out quickly, like a danger signal.

With the utmost deliberation Merriwell removed his coat.

“Come, sir!” he said to Diamond as he passed coat and hat to a ready sophomore.

“I–I can’t fight you that way!” protested the Virginian. “Bring the rapiers.”

“This time I claim the right to name the weapons, and they will be bare fists.”

“Right! right!” cried several voices. “You’ll have to fight him that way, Diamond.”

“I will fight him!” grated Jack, furiously. “It is the prize fighter’s way, but I’ll fight him, and I will lick him!”

He tore off his coat and flung it down. The boys quickly formed a ring, and the freshmen foes faced each other.

Then the door of the room where the other freshmen were confined was thrust open, and Harry Rattleton excitedly cried:

“Whee jiz–I mean jee whiz! what do you fellows think? Do you imagine we are going to stay penned in here while there is a scrap going on? Well, I guess not! We’re coming out!”

Harry came with a rush, and the other freshmen followed at his heels, the party having been abandoned by the sophs who had been placed on guard over them.

“Hold on! hold on!” commanded Harry, forcing his way toward the fighters. “I am Merriwell’s second, and I’m going to see fair play, you bet!”

“And I am Diamond’s second,” said Roland Ditson. “Just give me a chance in the ring there.”

The appearance of the freshmen caused a brief delay. There was some talk about rules and rounds, and Diamond said:

“If I must fight with my fists, I’ll fight as I please. I don’t know about your rules, and there will be but one round–that will finish it.”

“How does that suit you, Merriwell?” asked Tad Horner, who seemed to have assumed the position of referee.