Tony listened patiently to this speech, with an expression of contempt upon his face that it was fortunate his captors could not see. “Oh, all right, Carroll,” he said in reply, “go ahead, if you want to. I tell you frankly, the four of you may be able to beat me into a pulp, but you are not going to haze me.” “No?” with an air of incredulity. “No.” The irritable member of the party poked Tony in the ribs at this point, and for his pains got a stinging blow on the ear. This youth, whose name was Chapin, was exceedingly angry at this, and Tony’s fate doubtless would have been settled then and there, had not the other three interposed, and restrained Chapin’s efforts to enforce an immediate punishment, protesting if there was a fight now he would spoil the fun. After an exciting altercation, which nearly resulted in the hazing party itself engaging in a civil war, peace was restored and the five proceeded toward the beach. They walked some distance along the sands, which the ebbing tide had left damp and firm, to a point a little on the nether side of a deep stream, perhaps twenty yards wide, which divided the beach from a rocky bit of coast on the farther side. There was a rocky formation along the shores of this stream in the shelter of which Chapin soon indicated the mouth of a natural cave by thrusting his arms deep into the crevice, and then bringing forth one after another several large tin boxes and armfuls of fuel. One boy quickly started a fire in the lee of a rock, the flame of which was shielded from the view of the school by the neighboring dunes. The other three, leaving Tony for the moment to his own devices, though they kept a watch on him, made preparations for a feast. From the tin boxes they produced various canned stuffs, biscuits, sweets, and the like, while the others began to fry some sausages in a skillet over the fire. It was probably near midnight, and so thrilling and so interesting were these proceedings, that for the moment Tony forgot that he too was not one of them out for a lark and began to enjoy himself hugely. Suddenly Chapin took a seat on a rock, and calling to him sharply, reminded him on what a different status he was there—a despised new boy to be hazed for freshness. He wondered, not without some alarm, what they proposed to do to him. At length, just as Carroll handed up to Chapin a nicely done sausage, Tony’s principal tormentor turned to him. “Well, Deering, suppose you get up on that rock there, and give us a sample of your beautiful southern voice. We’ll have ‘Louisiana Lou,’ if you please.” Tony felt a cold shiver run down his back, but nevertheless he braced himself against the rock, instead of mounting it, and faced Chapin. Thorndyke and Marsh drew near, and Carroll looked up from where he was kneeling at the fire.