Frank Merriwell's Return to Yale Part 38

"You are now going to ascend," said Baker, solemnly, "to the mystic regions of Pi Gamma. It is becoming that a neophyte should enter there in a modest att.i.tude, therefore you will go on your hands and knees until commanded to rise. Proceed."

Frank immediately began to climb the steps upon his hands and knees. The moment he began to move his ears were fairly deafened with a hideous uproar.

It seemed as if a tribe of demons had been let loose around him. There was an infernal clatter, made, as he afterward learned, by beating upon tin pans and shaking large squares of sheet iron.

There was a chorus of savage yells and shrieking. The air was foul with the odor of firecrackers that were exploded close to his ears. Every kind of barbaric noise that student ingenuity can invent was brought into play.

"By the bones of Caesar!" thought Frank. "If I hadn't been pretty well seasoned by adventures before this, I believe I should be scared."

As it was, far from being scared, he shook with laughter as he slowly and patiently climbed up the stairs. It seemed as if they would never end.

It was a winding stairway, and went from the ground clear to the top of the high building.

Later he learned that this was a back stairway built expressly for the students, whose society rooms were in the top of the building.

It seemed to him as if he had climbed higher than the top of the Washington monument when at last he found no steps in front of him, and the diabolical racket ceased as suddenly as it had begun.

He was told to rise, and he did so with a sigh of relief. He was then led two or three paces and ordered to sit down.

He did so, and felt that he was in something like a swing. There were chains at each side of him, holding the seat. He was told to grasp these chains tightly, and hang on, lest he be dropped the entire distance to the ground.

"That would be a pretty long fall," thought Frank, who at the moment really believed that there was a well beneath him that extended clear to the bottom of the building; so he gripped the chains and heard the voice of Baker crying:

"All ready, send him up."

"I'd like to know how much farther up I can go," thought Frank.

He heard the creaking of a windla.s.s and knew that he was rising. As he went up his seat swung back and forth a little, making him feel all the more how important it was that he should hang on securely.

This journey was as long, and in one sense as trying as the climb upstairs had been. There was no noise in connection with it, except the constant creaking of the windla.s.s.

Blindfolded as he was, it really seemed as if he had been hauled up at least a hundred feet when at last the creaking ceased and he was lifted from his seat.

Then he was laid upon an inclined plane, feet downward. It seemed steep, too, and when his fingers accidentally touched the little rail at the side he noticed that it was well greased.

He did not need to be told then what was to happen, for he knew that he would be sent whizzing down this plane to land--somewhere.

"Is the tank all ready?" asked somebody, who was holding Frank by the shoulders and thus keeping him from sliding down.

"Yes," came a m.u.f.fled voice that seemed far, far below. "Let him go!"

The hands on Frank's shoulders were released, and he promptly began to rush down the plane.

In less than a second his feet had come in contact with a mattress, and as the force of his fall brought him to an upright position, a gla.s.s of water was flung into his face.

At the same instant the bandage was torn from his eyes, the hood raised, and he found himself standing in a well-lighted room surrounded by a group of laughing and interested seniors.

He turned with an expression of the utmost amazement to the plane down which he had slid. He saw that the distance up which he had been slowly raised by the windla.s.s was less than ten feet.

CHAPTER XXI.

MAKING THINGS INTERESTING FOR MILLER.

"It's funny," remarked Frank, with a smile, "how far a man seems to be going when his eyes are shut."

There was a chorus of laughter at this, in which Rattleton and the other neophytes, who were present, joined.

Order was quickly restored by Baker, the president, who announced that there was yet one more step in the initiation to be taken. What this step was cannot be described here.

It must be remembered that the order of Pi Gamma is a secret society, and every member of it is sworn to keep its secrets sacredly. Among the things that they are not allowed to tell are the very tests which have already been narrated, but such secrets are really common property in New Haven.

So much of the initiations are conducted upon the public streets and in a public manner that there has been no violation of the rules of the order in telling of Frank Merriwell's experience.

What followed in the rooms of the society, however, must be omitted out of respect to the serious character of the proceedings and the fact that the members of the order regard them all as of considerable importance.

It is proper to say that no further tests were required of the candidates; they had pa.s.sed their week's ordeal successfully, and the other proceedings were conducted with their eyes open.

The end of it all was conducted with vociferous cheering on the part of the old members of Pi Gamma, and each of the new members came in for a lot of hearty handshaking and congratulations. Then the whole affair wound up with a supper in the society's largest room.

At this there were not only the seniors who had initiated the first block of juniors, but also a number of graduates who had paid a visit to New Haven for the sole purpose of taking some part in an initiation ceremony.

Two or three college instructors, who had been members during their student days, were present, and no one there appeared to enjoy the occasion more than did Prof. Adler, the one who had warned the boys that they must conduct their initiation more quietly as long as it took place in a college room.

On such an occasion as that the students and professors are pretty much on the same terms. The professors, to be sure, are addressed by their t.i.tles, and spoken to respectfully, but there is none of the restraint of the cla.s.sroom, and no fear whatever that any of the professors present will report unpleasant things to other members of the faculty.

The supper was a good one, and naturally enough it was thoroughly enjoyed by the new members, the more so as a part of their trial during the week of initiation was the fact that they had been compelled to limit their eating to the plainest articles of food.

All pies and cakes had been forbidden, and in fact nothing that could be called a luxury was allowed to pa.s.s their lips. Those who smoked had been deprived of that habit also.

Now the seniors who had been the most severe in compelling an obedience to these rules fairly overloaded their new a.s.sociates with attention.

They made a point of heaping the junior's plates with more good things than they could possibly eat, and a plentiful supply of cigars and tobacco was placed before them.

After the eating was finished speeches were in order. Pres. Baker called upon one after another of the older members, and eventually each one of the new members had to make remarks.

Prof. Adler spoke briefly but with undoubted sincerity of the pleasure it gave him to be a.s.sociated with the students' society in this way, declaring it as his belief that they were helpful to the college and that it was a mistake to try to suppress them.

This from a member of the faculty was especially interesting to the boys, and it brought out thunders of applause.

The younger members got through their speeches very well, being greeted with loud cheers whether they said anything of consequence or not.

As was to be expected, Rattleton twisted his words hind side forward a good many times, and at last sat down, blushing and feeling that he had never made such a fool of himself.

The older members apparently thought differently, for they applauded long and heartily until the abashed student had to rise and bow.