LITMIR.BIZ

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nerve, Frank gasped; but he quickly saw that the knife had swung aside and his head was still attached to his body.

      Then he forced a derisive laugh from his lips, and seemed not the least disturbed, much to the disgust of the assembly.

      "Confound him!" growled a voice, which Frank fancied he recognized as belonging to Browning. "There's no fun in him. Let's try another."

      Then Frank was lifted to his feet and assisted to don his coat.

      "If you want to stay and see the fun, put on a mask," directed Mephisto. "You must not be recognized by the other freshies."

      He was given a mask and he put it on as directed.

      A moment later the masked youths began to howl and blow horns. A door opened, and Diamond, blindfolded and bound, was led into the room.

      The young Virginian stood up haughtily, and he was seen to strain and struggle in an effort to free his hands.

      "I protest against this outrage!" he cried, angrily. "I want you to know that my father—"

      The horns and the shouts drowned his words. He was forced to mount the steps to a high platform, and an instant later he found himself shooting down a slippery incline of planed and greased boards.

      The racket stopped as Diamond scooted down the slippery surface. He dropped sprawling into the vat of icy water. Several hands caught hold of him, yanked him up, and thrust him down again.

      "Oh, somebody shall suffer for this!" gurgled the helpless freshman, spluttering water from his mouth.

      He was dragged out of the vat, and then he was forced to endure all the hustling, and thumping, and banging which Frank Merriwell had passed through. His protests seemed to fall on deaf ears.

      It had been reported that Diamond had declared that the sophomores would not dare to haze him, as his father would make it hot for them if they did. The report was remembered, and he was used more severely than Frank had been.

      Hazing at Yale was said to be a thing of the past, but Frank saw it was still carried on secretly.

      "Make a speech, fresh!" shouted a voice.

      "Speech! speech!" yelled the masked lads.

      Diamond was placed on a low table.

      For a moment he hesitated, and then he fancied he saw his opportunity to make a protest that would be heard.

      "I will make a speech," he declared. "I'll tell you young ruffians what I think of you and what—"

      Swish! a sponge that was dripping with dirty water struck him square in the mouth. Some of the water went down his throat, and he choked and strangled.

      The table was jerked from beneath his feet, and he fell into the waiting arms of the masked sophomores.

      "He called us ruffians! Give it to him!"

      Then the unfortunate freshman was used worse than ever. He was tossed in a blanket, given a powerful shock of electricity, deafened by the horns, pounded with the stuffed clubs, and hustled till there was scarcely any breath left in his body.

      Then the bandage was torn from Diamond's eyes and he was confronted by the guillotine, over which fresh red ink had been liberally spattered. The blade of the huge knife was dripping in a gory manner, and it really looked as if it had just completed a deadly piece of work.

      Despite himself, the young Virginian shivered when his eyes rested on the apparently blood-stained blade.

      "Be careful!" some one distinctly whispered. "We do not want to kill more than one freshman in a night."

      Some one else spoke of the frightful manner in which the knife had cut Merriwell, and then, despite his feeble struggles, Diamond was placed upon the instrument of torture.

      "The other fresh died game," muttered the executioner. "Of course we didn't mean to kill him, but the knife is out of order and it slipped by accident. We haven't time to fix it properly, but there are only about nine chances out of ten that it will fall again."

      "Oh, you fellows shall pay for this!" feebly gasped Diamond.

      Despite himself, although he knew how unlikely such a thing was, he could not help wondering if a terrible accident had really happened. If not, where was Merriwell. He looked around, but saw nothing of Frank, who was keeping in the background.

      And then, when his nerves had been quite unstrung, the knife fell, the ice and warm water were applied, and Diamond could not choke back the cry of horror that forced itself from his lips.

      A roar of laughter broke from the masked students.

      When Diamond was lifted to his feet he was almost too weak to stand. He clinched his teeth, vowing over and over to himself that he would find a way to square accounts.

      "If it takes me a year, I'll find out who the leaders in this affair are, and they shall suffer for it!" he thought.

      "Give him a chance to see the others put through the mill," said Mephisto, and Diamond's hands were released.

      The Virginian looked around, seeming irresolute for a moment. Not far away he saw a masked lad whose clothes were wet and bedaubed with dirt and sawdust.

      In an instant Diamond sprang toward this person and snatched the mask from his face.

      "It's Merriwell!" he triumphantly shouted, "and he has helped to haze me! His career at Yale will be suddenly cut short!"

      CHAPTER III.

       THE BLOW.

       Table of Contents

      There was a sudden hush. The students saw that Diamond was really revengeful, and his words seemed to indicate that he intended to report any one whose identity he discovered.

      The Virginian was pale and he trembled with anger.

      "You don't mean to say that you will blow, do you?" asked one.

      "That's exactly what I do mean, sir!" came resolutely from the lips of the infuriated freshman. "I am a gentleman and the son of a gentleman, and I'll never stand it to be treated like a cur. Hazing is said to be no longer tolerated here, and an investigation is certain to follow my report of this affair."

      A little fellow stepped out.

      "You claim to be a gentleman," he said, distinctly, "but you will prove yourself a cad if you peach."

      "I had rather be a cad than a ruffian, sir!"

      "If you were a gentleman you would take your medicine like a gentleman. You'd never squeal."

      "You fellows are the ones who are squealing now, for you see you have been imposing on the wrong man."

      "Man!" shot back the little fellow, contemptuously. "There's not much man about a chap that blows when he is hazed a little."

      "A little! a little! Is this what you call a little?"

      "Oh, this is nothing. Think of what the poor freshies used to go through in the old days of Delta Kappa and Signa Epsilon. Why, sometimes a fellow would be roasted so his skin would smell like burned steak for a week."

      "That was when he was burned at the stake," said a chap in the background, and there was a universal dismal groan.

      "This is some of the Delta Kappa machinery here," the little fellow explained. "Sometimes some of the fellows come here to have a cold bot and hot lob. You freshies walked right in on us to-night, and we gave you a pleasant reception. Now, if you blow I'll guarantee you'll never become a soph. The fellows will do you, and do you dirty, before your first year is up."

      "Such threats do not frighten me," haughtily flung back the lad from Virginia. "I know this was a put-up job, and Bruce Browning was in it. He got us to come here. Frank Merriwell knew something about it, or he'd never been so ready to

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