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!