s made
it seem to the smothered boy that they were tearing around in a circle.

Suddenly the vehicle came to a sharp standstill. During the ride his
ankles and wrists had been tightly corded, and no sooner had the
carriage halted than several pairs of hands carried him swiftly up a
flight of stairs into a house and along a carpetless hall.

When the cloth was removed from his head, Frederick was in the presence
of two sophomores, Mathew Armstrong and Paul Howe.

"Hard luck," said Armstrong, looking at Frederick with a grin.

"Rather," he replied, glancing about. "But what can't be cured must be
endured. If I am to stay here, I hope I am to be fed."

"Not with banquet cake, Freddy," laughed Howe; "you'll have plain
bread--until after the banquet. Now just give us your coat and vest, old
chap, and your collar and tie."

Frederick's ready obedience made Armstrong exclaim jovially:

"That's the right attitude, isn't it, Howe? No one would think to look
at you, Graves, that you were so docile. You knew what you were saying
when you said, 'what couldn't be cured must be endured,' and I say,
'all's fair in love and war,' so you stay here until after that grand
supper."

Without answering, Frederick turned his eyes gloomily about his prison.
The room was almost bare. In one corner was a bed, in another a cot with
some blankets upon it. A long window ran nearly to the floor, minus a
blind on one side while on the other a green shutter hung by one hinge,
making a creaking noise as the wind swung it back and forth. Frederick
reasoned that the window faced the street for he could hear crunching
footsteps in the hard snow as pedestrians passed.

A wagon rolled squeakingly by and all was quiet.

In the night Frederick endeavored to plan his escape. He believed the
house to be within the city limits, but during the long, dark drive he
had lost all sense of direction. Through the flickering of the smoky
lamp he saw Armstrong with a revolver in his hand, watching him
intently. So the darkness passed and the daylight came in at the window,
throwing long slant rays upon the dusty floor and lighting the faded
paper on the wall.

CHAPTER XXII

Dominie Graves had a consultation with Dan Jordan over the disappearance
of his son, and then climbed the University hill to Professor Young's
office.

"I feel sure that Frederick has not been harmed," said Graves after
greeting the professor, but there was question in his voic