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."