THE BLOW FALLS.
The next afternoon the Westerner received this note, which was delivered
at his room by a boy, who went away before Badger had a chance to
question him:
"MR. BUCK BADGER: Certain facts have come to my knowledge which
show that you are not the man I supposed you to be. I find that you
are not only a drinking man, but that you often become grossly
intoxicated, and that you were so when lured aboard the _Crested
Foam_ by Barney Lynn. Under these circumstances, you cannot expect
that I will longer permit your attentions to my daughter. I ask
you, therefore, not to try to see her again, and not again to call
at my house, where you are most unwelcome. If there is any spark of
manhood or gentlemanliness left in you, you will respect my wishes
and commands in this matter. Yours,
"FAIRFAX LEE."
The Kansan stared at the paper as if he could not believe his eyes,
while a flush of hot displeasure crept into his dark face.
"Who has been telling him that?" he growled, jamming the note down on
his table, and then picking it up to read again. "I'll break the neck of
the man that did that. 'Not try to see her again?' Well, I don't think!
I allow I shall see her every chance I get, and whenever I choose, and
I'd like to tell Lee so. Why, what----"
He got up from the table and began to walk back and forth like a caged
tiger. He was sure that some enemy had struck at him in this way.
Suddenly he halted, and the pupils of his eyes contracted.
"Ah!" he snarled. "I reckon that was the work of Don Pike. He said he'd
strike me in a way that would be worse than if he hit me with his fist,
and this is what he meant! Well, I'll settle with you, Pike, for that,
and don't you ever forget it! You won't forget, either, I allow, when
I'm through with you. That's whatever!"
He crumpled up the note, hastily stuck it into a pocket, jammed his hat
on his head, and left his room hurriedly, locking the door. He did not
stop in the campus. It was filled with Yale fellows, and the fence in
front of Durfee Hall was crowded. He saw here and there men whom he knew
well, and who nodded to him. He hardly took time to return the
greetings.
"What's the matter with Badger now?" rumbled Browning. "He is charging
along like a blind bull at a fence."
"Why do you ever notice what the fellow does at all?" Bart Hodge
grumbled.
"Well, even cranks are interesting," said Dismal Jones, also looking
curiously after Badger.
"Curiosities likewise," remarked Danny Griswold, puffing at his
cigarette. "And since our dear Merry has just about adopted this wild
bull from the plain, my interest in him as a curiosity has increased."
"As a guess, I should say he is hunting somebody to fight," said
Diamond.
"Then he will be accommodated in mighty short order," Browning
prophesied. "I never yet saw a fellow go after trouble and return
without finding what he sought. Mr. Badger is not the only fellow who
goes pawing round with his hair standing and blood in his eye."
"Speaking from experience, Browning?" mildly inquired Bink Stubbs,
scratching a match to light a cigarette. "You have gone in search of
trouble a few times, to my knowledge."
"And you're searching for it now!" grunted Browning, giving the little
fellow a warning look.
All unaware of the fact that his rapid transit across the campus had
occasioned unusual comment, Badger hurried on, and finally entered a car
which took him to the office of Fairfax Lee.
"Is Mr. Lee in?" he asked of the clerk in the outer room.
"Yes."
"Will you give him my card, please, and tell him I should like to see
him a few minutes?"
The clerk took the card and disappeared. He was back immediately.
"Mr. Lee says that he cannot see you, sir!"
"Did he say that he is engaged?"
"No, sir. He does not care to see you!"
The Westerner's dark face burned, and he bit his lip to keep the hot
words from rushing out in a torrent. He stood for a moment, hesitating.
But a door separated him, he believed, from Mr. Lee. He was almost ready
to push open that door and confront Lee and demand an explanation of the
letter forbidding him to see Winnie again. But he got the better of
himself, and walked out of the office.
"If he thinks he can bluff me out, or freeze me out, he don't know me!"
he grated, as he turned away. "I shall see Winnie as often as I can.
Hanged if I don't go up there right now!"
With the Kansan, to think was to act. And in a few minutes he was in
another car speeding toward the home of the Lees.
"If I don't get to see her, perhaps I can find out something about this
mess from Inza or Elsie. They may be able to clear away the mystery. I
allow I never was in so horrible a snarl in my life. But I'll punch
Pike's head for this, and don't you forget it! That's whatever!"
But the Westerner met quite as chilling a reception at Lee's home as at
the office. The servant who met him at the door had received her
instructions.
"You are not to be admitted to the house," she said sharply.
"Is Miss Lee in?" he persisted.
"No."
"Is that true, or is it one of the society lies which declares that a
lady is out when she is in?" he bluntly demanded.
To this there was no answer. The servant began to close the door. Badger
stopped this by taking hold of the knob.
"What do you want?" asked the girl, who was somewhat frightened by the
Westerner's violent manner.
"I want to see Miss Winnie Lee."
"She is not at home."
"Then I want to see Miss Inza Burrage."
"She is not in."
"Then I should like to see Miss Elsie Bellwood."
"She is not in."
Badger suddenly changed his tactics. Bluster would not do, he saw. He
put his hand into a pocket and drew out a five-dollar note, which he
held up alluringly.
"If you will take a note for me to Miss Lee, I will give you this five
dollars."
The servant shook her head and again tried to close the door.
"If you will take a note to either Miss Burrage or Miss Bellwood, I will
give you the five dollars."
Once more the servant sought to close the door.
"I have my orders, Mr. Badger. I cannot afford to lose my place for five
dollars or fifty dollars. And I wouldn't do what you ask, anyway. If you
do not let me close the door, I shall call for help."
"All right!" said Badger gruffly, releasing the door. "But I will see
those young ladies, just the same."
To accomplish this he remained in the vicinity of the house until long
after nightfall. But he was wholly unrewarded for his vigil, and at
last, distressed, humiliated, and angry, he took a car for the college
grounds, raging like a lion against Donald Pike. Even an enemy of Badger
must have pitied him that night.
The campus was filled with Yale men and their friends, and there were
excitement and sport, fun and laughter, music and merriment galore. But
Badger could enjoy none of it. He had no thought for anything but Winnie
Lee and the treatment he had received from her father. He wondered if
she were at home, and was half of the opinion that Lee had spirited her
out of the city. His disappointment in not seeing either Elsie or Inza
was bitter, for somehow he felt that if he could see them they would be
willing to help him.
With this feeling, he now began to look for Merriwell and his friends,
but they were not to be found. He went to Merry's room, and then from
room to room, even venturing finally to knock on Hodge's door. Later he
learned that Hodge and Merry had called at the home of Fairfax Lee,
after he had given over his vigil, and had been cordially admitted, and
had accompanied Inza and Elsie to a banquet, which was attended by the
whole Merriwell set.
The Westerner was more successful in his search for Merriwell the next
day, though he did not get a chance to speak to Frank until the
afternoon.
Badger was looking haggard and distressed as he came up to Merry. They
were in the campus, and Yale's famous "slapping" ceremony was soon to
begin. The campus was filling with men, and the members of the junior
class were out in full force, for out of that junior class, by the
"slapping" process, forty-five men were to be selected as members of
"Bones," "Keys," and Wolf's Head.
"I looked everywhere for you last night," said Badger; and Frank told
him of the banquet.
"Let's go somewhere where we can talk," the Westerner invited, not
relishing the throngs. "The air in here chokes me."
Merry took him by the arm, and they pushed out of the crowd.
"Now, what it is?" Frank asked.
Badger could have made a long story of it, but he cut it down to narrow
limits, acquainting Merriwell, in as few words as possible, with the
trouble that had come upon him. Frank looked grave.
"This is serious, Badger," he said, not caring to conceal from the
Kansan his true feelings concerning it. "But I'm ready to help you in
any way I can."
"My fool jealousy was at the bottom of the whole thing!" Badger
admitted. "Just because I was jealous of Hodge, I went on that drunk and
let Barney Lynn fool me into going aboard the boat and in drugging me.
Jealousy and whisky. That's what did it."
"I think you are right there."
"But, of course, Don Pike is the fellow that peached. And I'll smash his
face for it! I allow that everything would have gone on as smooth as
silk but for that."
"Now, what are you going to do?"
"Hanged if I know, Merriwell! I'll be driven to something desperate,
soon. Tell me what the girls said about it."
"I don't think they knew anything about it. They reported that Winnie
had been sick in her room, and the doctor had instructed that they were
not to see her or disturb her."
"Is she in the house, then?"
"I can't tell. She may be, and she may not be. One thing is sure, Buck.
Her father is not going to let you see her again. And that makes me
think it possible he has spirited her out of the city. If she is in the
house, the pretense that she is sick cannot be kept up long."
"I don't know about that," said the Kansan dubiously. "I allow that
likely she is sick. The thing has almost sent me to bed, and the effect
on her might be as bad."
"Worse, probably."
"If she is sick in that house, I'm going to see her, if I have to fight
my way in."
"And be arrested. No, that's not the way, Badger. I'll see Elsie and
Inza this evening, and we'll find out something definite."
"You have helped me before in this matter, Merry!" the Kansan gratefully
exclaimed.
"And am ready to do so again. I feel more certain now than I did then
that Winnie is not in danger of throwing herself away on you. Pardon me
for speaking so plainly."
"Oh, it's all right!" the Westerner admitted, though his face colored.
"I used to be a dog when I boozed round, and that's what Fairfax Lee has
against me now, of course. He thinks I am the same. But I've sworn off
on the stuff, and you know it."
"I'll have a talk with the girls, and well see then how the land lays,
and what can be done."
"It will be a favor--the biggest favor, I reckon, that any man ever
received."
A number of voices were shooting Merriwell's name in the campus.
"You'll have to go, I allow," said the Westerner, gripping Merriwell's
hand. "But the first news you get send it to me. Don't stop for expense,
or anything else. Send it along--cab, telephone, telegraph, special
messenger, or a dozen, if there's danger one may not reach me--anything,
just so you whoop the news to me. I'll be walking barefooted on cactus
spines every minute from now until you make some kind of a report."
Merriwell returned to the campus, where Yale tradition was gathering the
members of the junior class back of the fence, near Durfee Hall.
The ceremony of "slapping" is peculiar in many respects. No official
announcement is made of the fact that this formal and queer manner of
announcing elections to the senior societies is enacted. No announcement
of the coming event is given to the public. The members of the junior
class are not notified by any one that they are expected to appear on
that spot by the fence at a certain time to be ready to be "slapped," if
they have been lucky enough to be chosen for membership in the great
senior societies. Nevertheless, the entire junior class, with half the
college, and hundreds of spectators from the city, gather there on the
third Thursday afternoon in May, between the hours of four and six
o'clock, and witness or participate in the spectacle.
"Slates" had been made up weeks before, and shrewd guesses given as to
who would be chosen to this society and to that, though it was all mere
guesswork. Nearly every one had agreed, however, that Merriwell would go
to "Bones," as the leading society is called, and that "Bones" would be
glad to get him, and would be receiving an honor as well as conferring
one. Buck Badger, restless as a wolf, stood back and gloomily watched
this gathering, and heard the buzz of talk and conjecture without really
comprehending a word. Often he was not aware that he saw the things that
were transpiring directly under his eyes.
But at length he aroused himself. Elsie and Inza had suddenly come
within the range of his vision, and the sight of them stirred him out of
his moody trance. He moved in their direction, but before he could come
up with them, to his great disappointment, the pushing crowd swallowed
them. Then he went in search of Merriwell, whom he found without
trouble, for Merriwell was with the expectant juniors.
"Which way did they go?" Frank asked.
"Toward that building--I mean in that direction. But I lost them in the
crowd."
"I thought they might come down this afternoon! Winnie wasn't with
them?"
"No."
Frank was about to start away to find the girls, if he could, and
question them in the interest of Badger and Winnie, but at that moment
he was approached by Jack Diamond, one of the seniors.
Diamond walked up to Merriwell with all the dignity of the Great Mogul
of Kuddyhuddy, and gave him a resounding slap on the back. Diamond
belonged to "Bones," and the slap was a notification that the society
had chosen Merriwell.
"I can't go now, Badger," said Frank, a bit regretfully.
Then he left the campus for his room, as each man slapped is expected to
do, followed by Diamond, where he was notified formally of his election
and told to appear for initiation at the society hall on Friday evening.
Of what that initiation consists no one not a member ever knows, and no
member will ever tell. Its mysteries are more impenetrable than Free
Masonry.