CHAPTER VIII.
THE "ROAST" AT EAST ROCK.
A strange and remarkable scene was being enacted in the peaceable andcivilized State of Connecticut--a scene which must have startled anaccidental observer and caused him to fancy for a moment the hand oftime had turned back two centuries.
Near a bright fire that was burning on the ground squatted a band ofhideously-painted fellows who seemed to be redskins, while close athand, bound and helpless, were a number of palefaces, plainly thecaptives of the savages.
That a council of war was taking place seemed apparent. And still thesavages seemed waiting for something.
At length, out of the darkness advanced a tall, well-built warrior, thetrailing plumes of whose war bonnet reached quite to the ground. Ifanything, this fellow was more hideously painted than any of the others,and there was an air of distinction about him that proclaimed him agreat chief.
"Ugh!" he grunted. "I am here."
The savages arose, and one of them said:
"Fellow warriors, the mighty chief Fale-in-his-Hoce--I meanHole-in-his-Face--has arrived."
Then a wild yell of greeting went up to the twinkling stars, and everysavage brandished a tomahawk, scalping knife, or some other kind ofweapon.
"Brothers," said Hole-in-his-Face, "I see that I am welcome in yourmidst, as any up-to-date country newspaper reporter would say. You havereceived me with great _eclat_--excuse my French; I was educatedabroad--in New Jersey."
"Go back to Princeton!" cried one of the captives.
"Fellow warriors," continued Hole-in-his-Face, without noticing theinterruption, "I am heap much proud to be with you on this momentousoccasion."
"Yah! yah! yah!" yelled the savages.
"And now," the chief went on, "if you will proceed to squat on yourhaunches I will orate a trifle."
Once more the redskins sat down on the ground, and then the late arrivalstruck an attitude and began his oration:
"Warriors of my people, why are we assembled together to-night?"
"Because we couldn't assemble apart," murmured a voice.
"We are assembled to avenge our wrongs upon the hated paleface," thechief declared. "It was long ago that the proud and haughty paleface gotthe bulge on the red man, and we have not been in the game to any greatextent since then. Every time we have held two pairs he has come in withone pair of sixes or a Winchester and raked the pot. He has not given usany kind of a show for our white alley. Whenever we seemed to be gettingalong fairly well and doing a little something, he has wrung in a colddeck on us and then shot us full of air holes, purely for the purpose ofventilation in case we objected. Warriors, we have grown tired of beingsoaked in the neck."
"That's right," nodded a savage, "unless we are soaked in the neck withfire water."
"At last," shouted the orator--"at last we have arisen in our wrath andour war paint and we are out for scalps. We have decided that the joy ofthe red man is fleeting. To-night a flush mantles your dark cheeks, butto-morrow it will be a bobtail flush. What have we to live for butvengeance on the white man and a little booze now and then? Nothing! Oursquaws once were beautiful as the wild flowers of the prairie, but nowthe prize beauty of our tribe is Malt Extract Maria, whose nose is outof joint, whose eyes are skewed, whose teeth are covered with fine-cuttobacco, and who lost one of her ears last week by accidentally gettingit into the mouth of her husband.
"My brothers, we are not built to weep. It is not the way of the noblered man. A few more summers and we will be no more. We will have kickedthe stuffing out of the bucket and wended our way up the golden stair.But before we cough up the ghost it behooves us to strike one last blowat the hated paleface. When we get a chance at a paleface it is our dutyto do him, and do him bad. Are you on?
"We have been successful in capturing a few of our hated foes, and theyare bound and helpless near at hand. Shall they be fricasseed, broiled,fried, or made into a potpie? That is the question before the meeting,and I am ready to listen to others. Let us hear from Squint-eyedSausageface."
"It doesn't make a dit of bifference--I mean a bit of difference to mehow I have my paleface cooked," said the one indicated as Squint-eyedSausageface. "Perhaps it would be well enough to cook them at thestake."
"I think that would be the proper mode," gravely declared anotherwarrior; "for I have heard that they boast they are hot stuff. Theyshould not boast in vain."
"Warriors," said Hole-in-his-Face, "you have heard. What have you tosay?"
"So mote it be," came solemnly from one.
"Yah! yah! yah!" yelled the others.
"That settles it, as the sugar remarked to the egg dropped into thecoffee. Prepare the torture stakes."
There was a great bustle, and in a short time the stakes were preparedand driven into the ground, one of the savages hammering them down witha huge stick of wood.
Then the captives were bound to the stakes and a lot of brush wasbrought and piled about their feet.
Some of the sophs actually looked scared, but Browning kept up acontinual fire of sarcastic remarks.
"Ugh!" grunted Hole-in-his-Face. "This paleface talks heap much. Removehis outer garments, so the fire may reach his flesh without delay."
Then Browning was held and his clothes were stripped off till he stoodin his under garments, barefooted, bareheaded, and still defiant.
"Oh, say!" he muttered, "won't there be an awful hour of reckoning!Merriwell will regret the day he came to Yale!"
At this Hole-in-his-Face laughed heartily, and Browning cried:
"Oh, I know you, Merriwell! You can't fool me, though you have got thebest makeup of them all."
When everything was ready, one of the savages actually touched a matchto the various piles of brush about the feet of the unfortunatesophomores.
As the tiny flames leaped up the painted band joined in a wild war danceabout the stakes, flourishing their weapons and whooping as if they werereal Indians. Some of their postures and steps were exact imitations ofthe poses and steps taken by savages in a war dance.
"Say, confound you fool freshmen!" howled one of the captives. "Thisfire is getting hot! Do you really mean to roast us?"
"Yah! yah! yah! Hough! hough! hough!"
Round and round the stake circled the disguised freshmen, and the firekept getting higher and higher.
Puss Parker fell to coughing violently, having sucked down a largequantity of smoke. Some of the others raved and some begged. But stillthe wild dance went on.
"Merciful cats!" gasped Tad Horner. "I believe they actually mean toroast us!"
"Sure as fate!" agreed another. "They won't think to put out the firestill we are well cooked, if they do then!"
"This is awful!" gurgled Parker. "Browning, can't you do something?"
"Well, I hardly think so," confessed the king of the sophomores. "But Iwill do something if I ever get out of this alive! You hear me murmur!"
"Say!" cried Tad Horner. "I can't stand this much longer. The fire isbeginning to roast me."
"It's getting warm," confessed Parker. "But it seems to keep burningaround the outside edge."
"Keep cool," advised Browning.
"What's that?" yelled Horner. "Who said 'keep cool?' Oh, say! That'stoo much!"
"Just look at the wood," directed the king of the sophomores. "You willnotice that all the wood about our feet is water soaked, and there'sonly a little dry wood out around the edges. That's all that isburning."
This they soon saw was true, and it gave them great relief, for it hadbegun to seem that the crazy freshmen actually meant to roast them.
At the very moment when the uproar was at its height there came a suddenloud cry, like a signal, and out of the darkness rushed at least twentylads.
They were sophomores who had somehow followed them out there to EastRock, having been aroused and told of the capture of Browning and hismates by the soph who escaped.
One fellow on a bicycle had followed them till he felt sure of theirdestination, and then h
e had turned back and told the others, whohastily secured teams and flew to the rescue.
"'Umpty-seven! 'Umpty-seven! 'Rah, 'rah! 'rah!" yelled the rescuers asthey charged upon the freshmen.
"'Umpty-eight! 'Umpty-eight! 'Rah! 'rah! 'rah!" howled the painted ladsin return.
Then for a few moments there was a pitched battle.
The battle did not last long, for the freshmen saw they wereoutnumbered, and at a signal from their leader they broke away and tookto their heels.
By rare good luck every man was able to get away, for, not knowinganything about the water-soaked wood piled about the feet of thecaptives, the rescuers nearly all stopped to scatter the burning brush.
"Oh, say!" grated Browning, as he was released. "But this means gore andbloodshed! We'll never rest till we have squared for this roast, and wewill square with interest! Merriwell's life will be one long, lingeringtorture from this night onward!"
"What's all this racket and cheering?" asked one of the rescuers."Listen, fellows! By Jove! it seems to come from the place where we leftour carriages!"
"That's what it does, and it's the freshman yell," cried another. "Comeon, fellows! If we don't get a move on we may have to walk back."
They started on a run, but when they arrived at the place where theteams had been left not a team was there.
The freshmen had captured the teams, drivers and all, together with thehack, and far along the road toward the city could be heard a cheering,singing crowd. As the disgusted and furious sophs stood and listened thesinging and cheering grew fainter and fainter.
"Fellows," said Chop Harding, "I am sorry to leave Yale, but I amcertain to be hanged for murder. After this, whenever I see a freshman Ishall kill him instantly."
It was a doleful and weary crowd of sophs that came filing back intotown and sneaked to their rooms that night.
Of course the sophs would have given a great deal could they have keptthe story quiet, but on the following morning it seemed that everystudent in the college knew all about it.
The juniors laughed and chaffed the sophomores, who were sullen andsulky and who muttered much about getting even.
The freshmen were jubilant. They were on top for the time, and they allknew they might not have long to crow, so they did all the crowing theycould in a short time.
And still nobody seemed to know just who was concerned in the affair,save that Merriwell and Browning must have been.
When Browning was questioned he was so blankly ignorant of everythingthat it seemed as if he had slept through the whole affair. He had a wayof turning every question off with another question, and it was soondiscovered that no information could be obtained from him.
Still it was passed from lip to lip that the great and nighty king hadbeen found by the rescuers, stripped to his underclothes, and tied to astake, while the smoke arose thickly around him and nearly choked him.
Some one suggested that Browning's complexion seemed to have changed ina remarkable manner, and then the students fell to asking him if hereally enjoyed a smoke.
Browning seemed subdued; but those who knew him best were tellingeverybody to hold on and see what would happen.
"This is just the beginning," they said.
However, several days passed and still nothing occurred. It began tolook as if the sophs had decided that they were outgeneraled and werewilling to let the matter drop.
Frank Merriwell was not deceived. He knew the sophs were keeping stillin order to deceive the freshmen into a belief that there was no danger,and he continued to warn all his friends to "watch out."
In the meantime Diamond had recovered and was in evidence among thefreshmen. It was said that he went down to Billy's, a favorite freshmanresort, and spent money liberally there almost every night.
The result of this soon became apparent. Diamond was surrounded by acrowd of hangers-on who seemed to regard him as a leader. He was workingfor popularity, and he was obtaining it in a certain way.
Now, Frank Merriwell was no less generous than Jack Diamond, but hewould not drink liquor of any kind--he would not touch beer. It did nottake him long to discover that this peculiarity caused many of thestudents to regard him with scorn. He was called the Good Templar andwas often derisively addressed as Worthy Chief.
The very ones who were first to apply the name in derision afterwardcame to call him Worthy Chief in sincere admiration.
Frank went around to Billy's occasionally, and although he would notdrink, he treated frequently, paying for anything his companions wantedto take, from beer to champagne.
One evening Frank, Harry and Dismal Jones went into Billy's and foundDiamond and a large crowd there. Jack had been drinking somethingstronger than lemonade, and he was holding forth to a crowd of eagerlisteners.
One look at Diamond's flushed face did Merriwell take, and then he knewthe fellow was open for anything. The high color in the cheeks of theVirginian was a danger signal.
Merriwell and his two friends ordered drinks, Frank taking ginger ale.Harry and Jones lighted cigarettes.
Frank examined the pictures around the walls. There were ballet dancerswho were standing on one toe, famous trotters, painted pictures ofcelebrated fighting cocks, hunters in red coats leaping five-barredfences, and so forth.
As he looked over the pictures he became aware that Diamond was sayingsomething that was intended for his ears.
"Southerners never fight with their fists," the Virginian declared."They consider it brutal and beastly, and so they do not learn theso-called 'art.' They are able to fight with some other weapons, though.There is a man in this college who is trying to be a high cock of thewalk, but he will never succeed till he shows his right by meeting meface to face with weapons of which I have knowledge. I have met him withhis weapons, and if he is not a coward he will give me a show. But Ithink he is a coward and a sneak, and I--"
That was more than Frank could stand. He did not pause to think thatDiamond had been drinking and was utterly reckless, but he whirled andadvanced till he stood squarely in front of the Virginian.
"I presume, Mr. Diamond, that you are referring to me," he said, coldlyand steadily, although he could feel the hot blood leaping in his veins.
Diamond looked up insolently, inhaled a whiff of his cigarette, and thendeliberately blew the smoke toward Frank.
"Yes, sir," he said, "I presume I did refer to you. What are you goingto do about it?"
"You called me a coward and a sneak."
"Exactly, sir."
"If I had not already left the marks of my knuckles on you I would slapyour face. As it is, I will simply--pull your nose!"
And Frank did so, giving Diamond's nose a sharp tweak.
Up to his feet leaped the Virginian, his face white with wrath. Hepicked up a glass of champagne as he arose, and then he dashed it intoFrank's face.
In a twinkling friends were between them, keeping them apart.