Frank spoke easily and quietly. He made no attempt at oratorical effects, but declared that he felt it an honor to be a member of Pi Gamma, and a.s.sured them that he should look forward to the time when he could get even for the miseries he had endured for a week in inflicting the same tortures upon another fellow.
This was the spirit that the members appreciated best, and of course they cheered tremendously.
The most effective part of Frank"s speech, however, and the one that created the greatest interest, was not applauded at all.
"Perhaps you don"t all know it," he said, "but some of you will remember that there was an incident connected with my initiation that was not on the programme."
The room became very quiet. All the seniors had been informed of Miller"s attempt to do Frank an injury, and the only ones there who did not know it were the graduates and a few members of the faculty.
"I think my friends know me well enough," Frank continued, "to believe me when I say that I haven"t the slightest desire to be revenged upon the man who put me in such danger of my life. It was a low-down, dastardly trick and the work of a coward."
There was a low murmur of a.s.sent at this.
"A man who would do such a thing as that," Frank went on, "is really unworthy the contempt of a Yale student and so from one standpoint it might be well enough to let the matter drop.
"On the other hand, we are bound to consider the possibility of such a thing happening again. If the man who did the trick escapes without any sort of punishment, he may attempt it again, or he may boast of it to some companion as cowardly and mean as himself, and the result may be that at some future time a student may be treated in a similar way and not have the luck to come out of it as well as I did."
Frank paused a moment, for the deathly silence with which his hearers listened was a little embarra.s.sing.
"I have said that I didn"t care for revenge," he said, in a moment, "but now that I am a full-fledged member of Pi Gamma, I feel that I have a right to look at it as an offense against the society rather than against me as an individual."
"Right!" exclaimed one of the seniors, in a low tone. Others nodded approval.
"I think it would be dignified and proper," Frank continued, "for the society to take some kind of action on the matter, and if it is allowable I should like to make a suggestion."
"Go ahead," said Baker, promptly; "there is no member from whom a suggestion on this matter would be more fitting. What do you think we should do?"
"I"m not thinking," Frank answered, "of pa.s.sing any vote to do one thing or another, but it strikes me that in a perfectly harmless way we can take the law into our own hands a bit and fix Miller, for there"s no doubt that he was the guilty one, so that he will never molest a student again as long as he lives.
"You see," and he smiled good-humoredly, "I"m fresh from my experience with the tortures of Pi Gamma."
All the listeners smiled broadly.
"It is one thing," he added, "to endure these tortures with a feeling that you are in the hands of your friends, but quite another, I should think, to go through such an ordeal with a feeling that the fiends and demons surrounding you are hostile.
"I can tell you frankly that for my own part, during the worst parts of the initiation, I felt always that you were friends of mine and that I was perfectly safe to trust myself in your hands no matter what extravagant things you seemed to be doing.
"I think that if Miller should be put through some such proceeding it would--well, it would likely tear what little nerve he has into tatters."
Frank hesitated a moment and then sat down. The room was perfectly still while the members of the order looked at one another doubtfully.
"I don"t quite see," remarked Baker, presently, "how the society of Pi Gamma can put a man who is not a student through an initiation."
"Oh, I didn"t mean to suggest that," responded Frank, hastily, but without rising. "I was only thinking that the society has such means for terrifying a man that it ought to be easy for us to devise a plan for giving Miller a good scare."
"Yes, that"s the scheme!" exclaimed Rowe, earnestly. "I wouldn"t favor putting him through anything like the farce with which we treat neophytes, but it does seem to me that we might give him a dose in earnest somehow."
Other members gave their a.s.sent to this suggestion and then somebody asked:
"But what can you do about it if you can"t find Miller?"
"That"s a damper!" responded Rowe, gloomily. "I understand that he"s skipped."
"He"s come back," said another senior.
"So?"
All eyes were turned upon the speaker.
"I saw him in his shop on my way to the rooms this evening," said the senior.
"Then he"s got over his scare. Probably he may have heard that Merriwell wasn"t seriously injured and so thinks the thing"s blown over."
"We"ll show him the contrary!" growled Baker.
"But how shall we do it?"
After a moment of thought Baker rose and said:
"I think as Merriwell has suggested that it is just as well that the society should not pa.s.s any vote on this matter, but with your permission I"ll appoint a committee to take the matter in charge.
"They can meet after the ceremonies of this evening are over and decide what to do about it. It is probably too late to undertake anything to-night."
"Miller keeps open until after midnight," somebody suggested.
"Yes, but it"s after midnight now and we don"t want to act without being thoroughly prepared. Unless there is some objection I will appoint the five new members with Rowe and myself to act as a committee to consider this matter and take such steps as we think best."
There was no objection to this and so the matter was considered settled, but the interest of the students in it was so great that they had little desire to talk of other matters, and before long the meeting adjourned for the night and the members of the committee a.s.sembled in one of the smaller rooms to lay plans for Miller"s punishment.
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."