CHAPTER XXXI.
RECKLESS DARING.
“In!”
Browning growled the word.
“Chuck him!”
Rattleton hissed the exclamation.
“Lively!”
Merriwell gave the command.
Flop—thump! The half-smothered proctor was flung into the cab.
“After him!”
The words came from Frank.
In went Browning on top of the proctor. Diamond followed him with alacrity, and Griswold scrambled in instantly, then Rattleton forced himself in without delay.
Slam—the door shut.
The policeman had seen something of the struggle, and he broke into a run.
“Hold on there!” he cried.
“Can’t stop!” panted Frank.
A spring took Merriwell up beside the driver. Before that person could say a word he had snatched the reins and whip.
Crack!—the whip fell on the backs of the astonished horses.
Unfortunately, the animals were headed toward the approaching officer. They leaped forward.
“Stop!” cried the policeman, springing from the sidewalk to the street.
“Couldn’t think of it!” flung back Merry. “Get out of the road!”
The officer waved his club, and then, seeing the horses were snorting beneath the blows of the whip and badly frightened, he attempted to catch them by the bits. He made a miscalculation, slipped and fell.
Frank Merriwell’s heart leaped into his mouth, for it seemed that the wheels of the cab must go over the policeman. With all his skill it did not seem possible Merry could avoid the man’s fallen body.
He reined sharply to the right, hearing a cry of horror break from the lips of the driver. He bent to the left and looked down, although he was nearly flung from the seat.
What Frank saw brought a prayer of thankfulness and relief from his pale lips.
The policeman was not slow to realize his peril, and he rolled over once, getting far enough out of the way so that the wheels did not pass over him, although they brushed his clothes.
“All right!” laughed Frank, with a great burst of relief. “Close call, old chap; but a miss is as good as a mile.”
It was one of the desperate adventures of Frank’s life, as he well knew, for to be caught and stopped then meant certain disgrace and expulsion for all connected with the affair. Frank had realized this as soon as the policeman started toward them, and for that reason he had made the hustle of his life to get away with the kidnaped proctor.
On leaped the horses.
The driver began to demur.
“What in blazes does this mean?” he demanded. “Why are you snatching the reins from my hands? I can drive me own cab.”
“Steady, my friend,” said Frank. “I haven’t a doubt of it, but the case was desperate. Keep cool and it will be all right. Just give me the pleasure of driving, and it will be an extra ten dollars in your pocket.”
Ten dollars! That meant something to the driver, but still he was afraid, as well as angry.
“I don’t care about gettin’ into no scrape with the cops,” he said. “What kind of business are you chaps up to?”
“It’s all right, don’t let that worry you. If that cop doesn’t catch us, you won’t get into any trouble. Listen! There goes his call for aid!”
“Are you a student?” asked the driver.
“Sure.”
“Hazin’ some feller, I reckon?”
“You are a good guesser, old man.”
The driver was relieved. If it was no more than a case of hazing, it was not so very serious. More than once his cab had been hired to assist students in some hazing scheme.
“But I’ll take the reins,” he said, as he took them from Frank’s hand; “and I want to warn you not ter snatch ’em from me again. If you do—well, something will hit you hard. As it was, I came near throwin’ you off. Would, too, if I hadn’t been so scared for fear you’d run down the cop.”
“Then it was a good thing for me you were scared,” laughed Frank, who seemed remarkably at his ease now that the danger of the moment was over.
He turned to look back.
“Cop is running after us,” he said. “Turn to the right at the next corner. Hope he won’t stir up any chap who will try to stop us. We can’t afford to be stopped now.”
“You student chaps are a fast gang,” said the driver, and Frank could not tell if the man’s voice expressed admiration or contempt.
“Oh, I don’t know!” said Merry, easily. “I presume we are pretty rapid.”
The cab was rattling over the stones at such a pace thattalking was not easy, so they dropped it here for a time. Few words passed between them save when Frank gave the driver directions.
It seemed possible the policeman had been injured somewhat by his fall, for he did not pursue them far, for they did not encounter another officer.
Finally they approached the river and the railroads which cross the drawbridge.
Frank had been there before, and he remembered his experience on that occasion with some amusement.
“The water is warmer now than it was then,” he thought; “and we’ll give the proctor what I did not get—a genuine ducking.”
He told the driver to stop, paid him well, as agreed, and then sprang down and opened the door for the others to get out.
Diamond, Rattleton and Griswold sprang out hastily, and then Browning passed out the captive, being himself the last to step to the ground.
“Shall I wait for you, young gentlemen?” asked the driver, with great politeness, as he was feeling in a softened mood since receiving his money.
“No,” answered Frank. “We shall not want you again.”
Although he was ready to wait if wanted, it seemed to afford the driver some relief to be able to depart at once.
“Them chaps may be initiatin’ the chap they’ve caught to some secret order, or they may be hazin’ him,” muttered the driver, when he was on his way from the vicinity. “Either thing is bad enough, and I don’t want to be mixed in it. Nobody can tell what’ll happen.”
It is true that a few accidents have happened to students in New Haven. Sometimes those students were being hazed, sometimes they were being initiated into a secret order. In the old days of the freshmen societies,Sigma Ep, Gamma Nu and Delta Kappa, there were far more accidents than happen now that the faculty stand by the decree that abolished everything in the form of a recognized society for freshmen.
The “old grad.” mourns the death of the old customs and tells with pride of the “hot times” that took place in the “good old days.” He insists that Yale society is degenerating and becoming insipid. In his time there were a hundred pitched battles where now there is one mild skirmish. In those days freshmen fought freshmen for the possession of a new arrival, and when the “candidate” was captured he was run through a wild and horrible initiation ceremony that left his nerves in a shattered condition and his entire system in a state of collapse. Sometimes the reckless freshmen carried this too far, with the result that the candidate received an injury of more or less seriousness. One or two injured victims “peached” on the whole business, and the outside world was shocked and horrified. It seemed to the ignorant that a state of semi-barbarism existed there at Yale, and the effect of this belief was felt by those who had the best interest of the college at heart.
Then the freshmen societies were abolished. There even has been talk of abolishing the sophomore societies, but it is not at all probable that this will happen.
Of the leading junior and senior societies little is actually known, save that they exist and have quaint, curious and handsome society houses. A member never talks about the society to which he belongs. The pin which he wears in its proper place tells that he is a member, and no more than that can he reveal to an outsider. This badge is supposed never to leave his person, even during a bath, at which time he must hold it in his mouth. If you ask him questions, he will receive them in absolute silence.
These societies have never brought censure on the collegeby carelessness or recklessness. Of them all Skull and Bones is the richest and most respected. Every year it takes in fifteen men from the incoming senior class, and he is not a Yale man who would prefer any scholarship honors or prizes to membership in “Old Bonesy.” The ones chosen for membership stand head and shoulders above the rest of the class in distinction, literary, scholastic, athletic, social or otherwise.
The other two top-notch societies are Scroll and Key and Wolf’s Head. “Keys” is rated next to “Bones,” and Wolf’s Head comes third in order. Instances are not unknown where a man unnoticed by “Bones” or “Keys” has refused to join Wolf’s Head.
It was generally believed in Yale that Merriwell was sure of making “Bones.”
When the daring kidnapers had removed their captive from the cab and the driver had driven away, Frank produced a stout piece of rope. This was small, but seemed strong enough to support the weight of a man.
“Here,” whispered Frank, motioning to Harry, “tie it about his waist, and make it fast. Be sure of that.”
Rattleton obeyed hurriedly.
“Now, fellows,” came in a whisper from Merriwell, “we have no time to waste. He must be nearly smothered. We’ll souse him, release the blanket and get away. We can do it here in the darkness without the least danger that he will recognize us.”
There was a sudden movement beneath the blanket, which was fiercely flung aside, and the hoarse voice of the proctor uttered a cry for help.
Swift though the movements of the proctor were, Frank Merriwell was quite as quick. He caught the blanket and again drew it about the head of the man, hissing:
“Tie his hands, fellows! Make them fast this time!”
The proctor’s cry had been cut short and smothered.He had a short battle, but his spirit seemed broken, and he easily succumbed, his hands being tied behind his back.
“Wheejiz!” panted Harry, looking round fearfully. “S’pose anybody heard him?”
“Not likely,” said Diamond.
“Can’t tell,” admitted Frank.
“Let’s get the job over in a hurry,” urged Griswold, who seemed to be growing nervous and apprehensive.
Then they made the proctor march blindly onto the bridge. Frank held fast to the rope that was tied about the man’s waist.
They came to a halt at last. On the bridge below a light gleamed brightly. They were in the shadow.
“Are you ready, fellows?” asked Browning, as he took hold of the captive.
“Get onto the line here,” ordered Merriwell, and Diamond, Rattleton and Griswold took hold at once.
The water gurgled below with a sound similar to that once heard by Frank in the throat of a drowning man. Somehow a cold chill crept over Merry, and of a sudden he felt like backing out. It was true that he had no love for the proctor, who was something of a sneak and therefore cordially disliked by most of the students, but Frank believed in giving a man a fair opportunity to fight for himself, and Rudge had been given no such opportunity this night.
But for the fact that it would have seemed cowardly to back out at this stage of the game, Frank would have abandoned the whole project then and there. He was a person who seldom felt presentiments, but now a warning of coming evil seemed to oppress him. All his life he had observed that first impulses and first impressions were best, and now it seemed that something bade him stop at this point and wash his hands of the affair.
Frank refused to heed this warning.
“Come,” whispered Diamond, “what are you waiting for, Merry?”
“Nothing.”
Again the water gurgled chokingly. The shadow was deep down there below the bridge. Distant lights made glimmering streaks like wavering pencil marks upon the bosom of the river.
Frank looked down. For a single instant his imagination pictured a dark form floating on the water.
“We can’t stay here long,” said Bruce. “It must be near time for a train.”
“Ready!”
The word came from Merriwell’s throat, but it was husky, and he choked a bit. He was angry at himself and gave himself a savage shake.
The captive seemed to realize that something unpleasant was before him, and he shrank back.
“In with him!”
Bruce lifted the proctor in his strong arms and dropped him into the river.
“Hold fast!”
Splash!—the man struck the water.
“Ha! ha!” laughed Danny Griswold. “Bet that was a shock for his nerves!”
Somehow his laughter sounded hollow and ghastly.
“Pull in!”
Just as the word was given Danny Griswold uttered a low cry of warning:
“Look, fellows! Somebody is coming toward the bridge! See—right over there!”
They looked in the direction indicated, and dark forms were seen approaching.
“It won’t do to be caught!” cried Frank. “Pull in lively, fellows! We must have Rudge out in a minute!”
Pull they did in the greatest haste. The proctor was lifted from the water, and then——
Snap—splash!
The rope seemed to part, and down went the boys who were pulling. There was a splash as the body of the helpless proctor fell back into the river!
Frank started to scramble up, but some one caught hold of him and dragged him back in an effort to rise first.
“Let go!” he grated. “The proctor is in the river, and he will drown if some one does not pull him out in a hurry!”
“Right!” came from Rattleton. “Oh, murder! what an awful scrape! What if Rudge should drown?”
“We would be murderers!” quavered Griswold.
“Those fellows are coming!” sibilated Diamond, as he got upon his feet. “Jove, fellows, they are police! We are pinched if we do not run for it!”
“Can’t run!” came firmly from Frank, as he also scrambled to his feet. “Got to get Rudge out of the river at any cost!”
“It means disgrace, expulsion, shame if we are caught!” fluttered Diamond.
“It means murder if we do not save the proctor!” came back from Frank, as he tore off his coat.
“What are you going to do?” hoarsely demanded Browning.
“Pull Rudge out or go to the bottom with him!” was the retort.
“Stop!” Bruce caught Frank by the shoulder. “You are mad!”
“Let go, Bruce Browning!” said Frank, swiftly. “You are my friend, and you will have no one but yourself to blame for what follows if you do not let go!”
“I’m not going to see you drown yourself, Merriwell! Go slow!”
“This is no time to go slow. Last warning, Browning! Let go!”
Bruce did not obey.
Smack! Frank Merriwell’s fist struck Browning fairly between the eyes. The big fellow was not prepared for the blow, and it dropped him instantly.
Then Frank turned and plunged headlong from the bridge into the dark Quinnepiac River!