CHAPTER XXII
MILLER'S NERVES
There is no need to give an account of the long discussion held by the committee; what they did in the matter is of more importance.
A good many wild plans were suggested; hot-headed Rattleton was in favor of severe measures that would have given Miller pain if they had not produced serious injuries.
Jack Diamond, too, who had lost his temper more than once in the course of his initiation, argued in favor of giving Miller a punishment something like a flogging at the stake.
Frank resolutely sat down on all propositions of this kind.
"I don't care to have any hand in it," he said, "if it comes to taking this man when he's only one against a good many and giving him a drubbing. If that was the question I'd tackle him single-handed and give him a chance to defend himself.
"What we want to do is to give him an experience that he won't forget as soon as he might a licking."
It took some argument for Frank to bring his loyal friends around to his view of the case, and they were not fully satisfied until he himself had mapped out a plan that promised good sport and success.
In accordance with this plan Frank did not leave his room on the following day. There were lectures and recitations to be attended to, but he cut them and did not even show his face at the window.
Meantime the other fellows were busy in making preparations for the serious work of the night.
Most of these preparations were done in one of the rooms of the society, but a little took place elsewhere; for example Baker and Diamond arranged to meet as if by accident in front of Miller's cigar store.
They chose an hour when Miller was certain to be behind the counter. He was there, and after the two students had said good-morning, as if they had just met for the first time during the day, Baker remarked, in a loud voice:
"I got up so late this morning that I had to run to lectures after breakfast without a smoke and I haven't had time for one since. I guess I'll burn a cigar. Will you join me?"
"Thanks," responded Diamond, in the same tone, "I will."
Accordingly they entered the store and Baker called for cigars. Miller set a couple of boxes on the counter while the students made their selection.
"I never smoked this brand," remarked Baker, "but it looks pretty good."
"It'll do if it will burn," responded Diamond, biting off the end and turning to the alcohol lamp for a light.
"How's Merriwell getting on?" asked Baker, as he handed out a bill for Miller to change.
Diamond's back was toward the cigar dealer, but he was facing a mirror, and in it could keep careful watch of Miller's face. Meantime, Baker was studying Miller also.
The cigar dealer's face was very grave, and if any one not interested in the matter that was weighing upon the students' minds had been present, he would probably have noticed nothing.
Both students, however, were convinced that Miller was greatly interested in the question and anxious for the answer.
Diamond drew a long breath.
"He's in a mighty bad way," he said.
"Why!" exclaimed Baker in surprise, "I thought the doctor reported that he was doing very well?"
"You forget," said Diamond, "that the doctor always said that he was doing very well under the circumstances."
"Oh! and I suppose that under the circumstances meant that the situation was very serious, eh?"
"Serious! Why, man alive, you don't seem to realize that Merriwell narrowly escaped death outright!"
"Huh! I hadn't thought it was as bad as that."
"Well it was!" continued Diamond, and it seemed to take him a long while to get his cigar lighted, while Baker was slowly counting his change.
Miller was fussing with the cigar boxes with his head bent down.
"If Merriwell's muscles hadn't been as tough as steel," continued Diamond, "he would have croaked before this."
"Oh, no! Oh, no!" returned Baker, as if incredulous. "I'm sure you're exaggerating the matter, Diamond, on account of your interest in your friend."
"Exaggerate nothing!" retorted Diamond, indignantly. "I guess I've spent hours enough with Merriwell to know his condition."
"And you say he's worse this morning?"
"Decidedly! The critical stage in his trouble has come on and the doctor has cleared the students out of his room. That was why I was out for a walk instead of watching by his bedside. I'm going back there now, for I can't bear the thought of being so far away."
"Well, it would be simply awful," remarked Baker, with long breath, "if he should – "
"Why don't you say die and have it out!" blurted Diamond. "That's what he's in danger of, poor chap."
"Well, if he should die," added Baker, "there ought to be a lot of trouble for the chap who pushed him in front of the car."
"Ah! if we only knew who that was!" said Diamond.
"I suppose that will always be a mystery," said Baker, and with this both left the shop.
"The miserable scoundrel!" exclaimed Diamond, under his breath, as soon as they were well outside. "There isn't any doubt that he was the fellow that did it."
"Of course there isn't," responded Baker, "but what makes you so emphatic in saying so now?"
"Why this! If Miller had had a spark of manhood in him he would have made some inquiry about Merriwell while we were talking about him. The very fact that he kept his mouth shut showed that he was afraid to speak for fear of giving himself away."
"Oh, he's the one, sure enough," Baker declared, "and I don't think there's any doubt that we've given him a good bit of fright for a starter. Now if he doesn't skip the town – "
"Rattleton and the others will look out for that," interrupted Diamond.
At that moment they saw Hodge idling in a doorway across the street and they knew that Rattleton must be loafing in a similar way in some other spot.
These two had been detailed to keep watch of Miller, dog his footsteps wherever he went, and if he made any attempt to leave town, keep him back by force if necessary.
Miller did not attempt to leave town. Probably he was too cautious to do so, for that might have been the means of bringing suspicion upon him.
Baker and Diamond in his shop had declared that the attack on Merriwell would probably remain a mystery; therefore it is likely that Miller reasoned that it would be safer for him to stay where he was as if he were entirely ignorant of the whole matter.
Although Rattleton and Hodge kept their watch on him faithfully throughout the day, no other of the students interested in the case went near him until early in the evening.
Then Rowe and Henderson dropped in. Rowe went in first and bought a box of pipe tobacco. While he was waiting for his change Henderson came in with a very gloomy face.
He nodded silently to Rowe, laid a coin on the counter and asked for a cigar.
"Why! Henderson," exclaimed Rowe, jocosely, "what's gone wrong with you? Has the faculty suspended you, or is it simply stomach ache?"
"Oh! don't joke about it!" responded Henderson, dismally.
"Joke about what?"
"Haven't you heard?" asked Henderson, in the same melancholy tone.
"Heard what?"
"About Merriwell."
"No. That is, nothing since morning. Has he – "
"Yes. He's gone!"
The two students looked at each other as if in great consternation. Rowe drew a long breath and remarked:
"Great Scott! that's awful."
Henderson sighed too, and both went out together without another word. Then they got around the nearest corner and burst into a perfect fit of laughter.
"Say! but he looked as if he'd seen a ghost," chuckled Henderson.
"Gee whiz!" returned Rowe, "but he was blue. How will he look to-night, eh?"
"I'm just burning up to have the fun begin," answered Henderson, "and we shall have to wait until midnight."
"Yes, later than that if he shuts up at the usual late hour, but perhaps he'll start home earlier."
"I shouldn't wonder," remarked Henderson, "if this should work on his nerves through the evening and cause him to try to skip the town."
"We shan't lose him," returned Rowe, in a satisfied tone, "and the only thing we've got to do now is to kill time until the hour comes for business. Let's play billiards."
Accordingly they went to a billiard hall and knocked the balls around until they were tired of walking about the tables. For the others interested, as well as those, the time passed slowly.
A number of students, including Merriwell, who were to take part in this affair, assembled at the society rooms about the middle of the evening, thinking that possibly Miller might take fright and shut up his shop earlier, but the hours passed and Miller still stuck to his counter.
Hodge and Rattleton, who, now that it was dark, stood nearer to the cigar store, could see that Miller was growing nervous as the time passed.
He paced restlessly up and down back of his counter and occasionally shifted the position of boxes and did other things to indicate that he was suffering from extreme anxiety.
When customers came in he greeted them gruffly and had little to say, whereas his usual custom was to talk freely.
After eleven o'clock, when the store happened to be free from customers for a moment, the boys saw him empty his cash drawer into his pockets and also take what money there was in his safe and stow that in his clothes, too.
From that time on he put whatever money came in into his pockets instead of into the drawer. They judged from this that he had made up his mind that he must leave town, and that he was taking all the money that he could lay his hands on with him.
Finally, a little before midnight, he seemed to feel that he could stand the strain no longer, and prepared to shut up the shop.
He turned the lights down hastily, as if he feared that some customer might enter and detain him longer. He went out, locked the door behind him, and started rapidly toward his lodgings.
He lived at some distance from his shop, and had to pass through a long, quiet street to get there. Even in the daytime few persons were usually stirring upon this street, and at this hour it was entirely deserted.
Miller went along part of the time with his head down, and part of the time turning his eyes in every direction.
He was just approaching an intersection with another street when two figures in long, black robes with hoods drawn over their heads seemed to rise from the ground in front of him.
As a matter of fact, they had simply stepped from behind a tree, but Miller's mind was in no condition to take things as they were.
He gasped with fright the minute he saw them, stopped short and then tried to run back. The figures leaped after him, and clutched him by the arms, while one clapped a hand over his mouth. "It'll be safer for you," said one of them, sternly, "to make no resistance, for if you do you'll be beaten to a pulp in less than no time."
Miller chattered with fear. In spite of this threat he might have tried to break away, but he saw other figures apparently rising from the ground.
He was quickly surrounded by not less than a dozen, all in black cloaks and hoods. He could not see the faces of any of them clearly.
CHAPTER XXIII
TRIED BY THE "PIGS."
If Miller had not been guilty of the assault upon Frank, he might possibly have had faith that no Yale student would do him a serious injury, though that is doubtful, for he had the idea which many ignorant people hold that students are nothing short of young barbarians when they get to playing pranks.
As it was, he was fully convinced that he was in for the most horrible tortures, even if he were permitted to escape with his life.
He was in such an agony of fear that if he could have done so he would have disregarded the threats of the leader and yelled at the top of his lungs, but his very fear prevented this, to say nothing of the fact that one of the students kept his hand ready to close over Miller's mouth.
The cigar dealer was so paralyzed with terror that he could only chatter. A few disjointed words came out which seemed to be to the effect that he hadn't done it purposely.
If the students had needed any further proof that he was the guilty party, this would have settled it.
They were sufficiently satisfied, however, before they began their operations, and this partial admission merely stimulated them to more active work.
The dozen or so who had come out in hoods to capture the man, surrounded him and walked him rapidly toward the building in which the Pi Gamma had its rooms.
In so doing they passed more than one person on the streets, but no more than a little curious attention was paid to them.
Whoever saw them supposed that some process in a secret society initiation was going on, and if they caught sight of the unhooded figure in the middle of the group, they undoubtedly supposed that it was a neophyte.
Miller longed undoubtedly to cry for help whenever the party met anybody, but with a student clinging to each arm and hands raised to choke his voice, he dared not so much as whisper.
So at length he was brought without interruption to the back entrance of the building, where he was hustled into the doorway and blindfolded. There, strangely enough, he found his tongue for a moment.
"You fellers let me alone, or you'll all go to jail for it," he muttered.
A chorus of hoarse, long-drawn "ahs!" was the answer to this.
The outer door was closed then, and Miller was told to kneel.
"I won't do it!" he protested. "I'm not going to have my head struck off with an ax – "
"Kneel, you scoundrel!" cried the voice of Baker, who was the leader of the party.
They did not wait for him to kneel, but pushed him to his knees. He found himself as the neophytes did, at the bottom of a stairway; then they told him to mount, and prodded him in the back and legs to make him start on.
Miller started, for he could not help himself. His journey upward then was like that described in the case of Frank during his initiation.
What he felt cannot be described, for Miller, so far as is known, never told anybody about it.
He arrived at the top of the long, winding flight of stairs in a state of almost complete collapse. The noise had been more deafening and hideous than ever had been endured by any neophyte.
The whole force of the Pi Gamma were out to make the thing a success, and every kind of racket that ingenuity could devise was added to the usual programme.
When at last Miller found that there were no other steps ahead of him to be climbed, he stumbled forward, face downward, and lay upon the floor gasping and groaning.
The noise suddenly ceased, for Baker had held up his hand and the students who understood the programme obeyed his silent command immediately.
"The mystic gates have been passed," remarked Baker, in a solemn tone. "It is understood that the person who has thus entered within the circle of Pi Gamma is not a member and that he has been permitted to come here simply that he may defend his own life.
"We will, therefore, proceed to try him at once. Set the prisoner on his feet."
A couple of students lifted Miller up, and obeying another sign from Baker, took the bandage from his eyes.
Miller looked around then with a stare of fright and surprise. The hooded figures had disappeared and in their places were students dressed just as he was accustomed to seeing them.
The room was a large one, but what it contained besides the students he was too frightened to notice. His knees were shaking and his lips quivered, although in the presence of these rather familiar faces he tried to pull himself together and look cool.
"Miller," said Baker, sternly, standing squarely in front of him, "you are in a very serious situation, and it is necessary for your safety that you should have as good control of yourself as possible. We intend to give you every chance for your life."
"I ain't done nothing!" muttered Miller.
"That will be found out later," was the stern reply; "meantime you're in no condition to defend yourself. We'll give you a bracer so that you may be able to understand what goes on and take part in it the best way you know how."
With this Baker nodded to a senior, who immediately came forward with a glass filled with some kind of liquor.
"Drink this," said Baker.
He held it out to Miller, who took it with a trembling hand.
"You're going to poison me," he stammered.
"In the presence of all these witnesses?" returned Baker, sharply. "Hardly. The stuff will not harm you; if you don't drink it you'll be worse off."
Miller still hesitated. He looked doubtfully at the liquor, smelled of it and then stared helplessly at the faces around him.
Baker raised his hand. At the signal every student seized a club of some kind and got in a circle around Miller, holding the clubs up.
"We don't want any nonsense about this," said Baker then. "You can either drink that dose now or the clubs will fall."
The instant he had spoken every student brought his club down hard upon the floor close to Miller's feet. The man fairly danced in an agony of fear, and a part of the liquor fell from the glass.
"Drink!" thundered Baker.
The cigar dealer then put the glass to his lips and poured it down with one gulp. Baker nodded in a satisfied way.
"Now put him in the prisoner's chair!" he said.
Two of the students then led Miller trembling and more than half convinced that he had taken deadly poison, to the swing in which the neophytes had been drawn up to the ceiling.
Miller was seated in the chains and told to grip the chain and then the windlass was worked, and he was raised three or four feet from the floor.
The students grouped themselves in front of him, seated on chairs; Baker alone remained standing.
It seemed to Miller then as if everybody moved very slowly. He thought he could count a hundred between every two words that were uttered. Before many minutes had passed it seemed to him as if he had been a year in this place.
This sensation on his part was due to the liquor he had drunk. It was a harmless preparation of hasheesh, a well-known Indian drug that, taken in sufficient quantities, is poisonous, but in small doses produces simply a half dream-like effect upon the mind that causes the time to seem intolerably long.
It is a dangerous drug to fool with, but the preparation of it in this instance had been made by a senior who was the best student in college in the department of chemistry.
He knew just how to put it together so that the effect on Miller's brain would not endure for more than two hours and would leave him entirely uninjured. As he expressed it:
"It won't do him half as much harm as an ordinary jag, and he'll remember everything that occurs during the time that he's drugged, and everything that's done will impress him most seriously."
Taking his fear and the influence of the drug together, therefore, Miller was in very ripe condition for the trial that then took place.
It was really very brief, for knowing that the time was passing slowly to the victim, the students hurried through the proceeding in order to get more quickly to the climax.
"Miller," said Baker, sternly, "you are accused of pushing Frank Merriwell in front of a moving car. What have you to say for yourself?"
"I – I – I – " stammered Miller, very slowly.
"If you're going to tell the truth," interrupted Baker, "you can take less time about it. We know the facts, for you were seen by four of us and recognized. We should have let the matter pass if it hadn't resulted fatally."
"I didn't go for to do any real harm," answered Miller, the perspiration breaking out upon his face.
"But you admit that you did do it?"
"I just thought I'd give him a scare."
"Very well, gentlemen," said Baker, calmly, "what's your verdict?"
"Guilty!" thundered the students in chorus.
Miller trembled so that the chains to which he was clinging rattled.
"See here," he said, feebly, "I don't see how it could be fatal, for I heard that Frank Merriwell was seen around on the streets day before yesterday."
"Then you doubt, do you, that your cowardly trick has proved fatal?"
"How could it," asked Miller, "if he was going around just as usual? I think this is some infernal trick of you students – "
"You'd better speak respectfully."
"Well," stammered Miller, "I don't want to cause no offense, but you told me I could defend myself, and I ain't going to believe that Frank Merriwell was seriously hurt. I'm sorry for it if he was, and I won't do it again."
"Take him down and let him see the body of his victim!" said Baker, in a solemn tone.
Miller started so when he heard this that he almost fell out of the chain loop. The windlass creaked, and he was set down on the floor.
Baker's command had set his fears going afresh, and he trembled so that he could hardly stand upright. A couple of students caught him by the arms and pushed rather than led him to one of the small rooms of the order.
A door was opened and Miller was forced inside. He gave a loud gasp when he entered, fell upon his knees, and beat his hands helplessly upon the floor.