azing at Yale was said to be a thing of the past, but Frank saw it was
still carried on secretly.

"Make a speech, fresh!" shouted a voice.

"Speech! speech!" yelled the masked lads.

Diamond was placed on a low table.

For a moment he hesitated, and then he fancied he saw his opportunity to
make a protest that would be heard.

"I will make a speech," he declared. "I'll tell you young ruffians what
I think of you and what--"

Swish! a sponge that was dripping with dirty water struck him square in
the mouth. Some of the water went down his throat, and he choked and
strangled.

The table was jerked from beneath his feet, and he fell into the waiting
arms of the masked sophomores.

"He called us ruffians! Give it to him!"

Then the unfortunate freshman was used worse than ever. He was tossed in
a blanket, given a powerful shock of electricity, deafened by the horns,
pounded with the stuffed clubs, and hustled till there was scarcely any
breath left in his body.

Then the bandage was torn from Diamond's eyes and he was confronted by
the guillotine, over which fresh red ink had been liberally spattered.
The blade of the huge knife was dripping in a gory manner, and it really
looked as if it had just completed a deadly piece of work.

Despite himself, the young Virginian shivered when his eyes rested on
the apparently blood-stained blade.

"Be careful!" some one distinctly whispered. "We do not want to kill
more than one freshman in a night."

Some one else spoke of the frightful manner in which the knife had cut
Merriwell, and then, despite his feeble struggles, Diamond was placed
upon the instrument of torture.

"The other fresh died game," muttered the executioner. "Of course we
didn't mean to kill him, but the knife is out of order and it slipped by
accident. We haven't time to fix it properly, but there are only about
nine chances out of ten that it will fall again."

"Oh, you fellows shall pay for this!" feebly gasped Diamond.

Despite himself, although he knew how unlikely such a thing was, he
could not help wondering if a terrible accident had really happened. If
not, where was Merriwell. He looked around, but saw nothing of Frank,
who was keeping in the background.

And then, when his nerves had been quite unstrung, the knife fell, the
ice and warm water were applied, and Diamond could not choke back the
cry of horror that forced itself from his lips.

A roar of laughter broke from the masked s