Frank Merriwell's Return to Yale Part 33

"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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.senger 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 pa.s.sing 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 pa.s.senger, 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 a.s.sistance. 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.