Ann Arbor (Mich.) -- Fiction; Short stories, American
He was _persona non grata_ to the sophomore class as represented by the
fraternity contingent and that contingent had simply done away with him
temporarily. When he _did_ return it was a wan and haggard figure that
he presented. The belief gained currency that his people had known his
whereabouts, but no one ever knew to a certainty. As for Cleaver
himself, he would not--or perhaps could not--tell what had been done to
him or who had planned and carried out the adventure of his
disappearance. The faculty was nonplussed. No one else had been missed.
Who, then, could have accompanied Cleaver to his dungeon, if dungeon had
been his residence for two months? No one, to this day, has solved the
mystery. As for Cleaver, he was given his credits and permitted to
graduate in due time. And to-day whenever he speaks of a certain
individual--now a lawyer in Syracuse--who was a sophomore during his own
freshman days, it is with a twinkle in his eyes. But he still keeps a
sacred silence.
Ann Arbor was shaken to its foundations by the incident. Shaken, too,
has it been by circus riots; but it is doubted if ever within the period
of the University's establishment has it been so tremendously excited,
for a little period, as it became over the case of Catherwood.
In the first place Catherwood had incurred the enmity of no one. A
student of fair attainments and average record who, during his three
years in the University, had taken but small part in undergraduate
activities, he found himself, of a sudden, standing in the blinding
lime-light of an official investigation. And an official investigation
at the University of Michigan is not to be considered lightly. All over
this broad land are men who have the questionable privilege of looking
back upon a time when they were the unwilling subjects of such
investigations.
Catherwood's case, to be sure, was different in that he was the sufferer
from others' depredations, but the odium of participation rested upon
him nevertheless, and so delicate and shrinking was his nature that he
was known to suffer miserably from the publicity of his position.
For three days he was conscious that every man's eye was upon him; that
every finger pointed at him, that every tongue discussed him. An attempt
was made to heroize him, but he withdrew to the seclusion of his room
and would see no one. His, indeed, was a case to defy, in its solution,
the most subtle reasoner, the most invincible logician on the faculty.
In detail it was as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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