"Well, why shouldn't he?" returned Baker. "It's the last time we'll get the chance to roast a good fellow like Merriwell, and we're going to make it hot for him, I tell you." "Go ahead, he'll stand it," said Bruce. Having delivered his message of warning, Bruce left the room. Then Baker returned and ordered Frank to begin his essay. "Speak up loud and clear," he said, "for when you're told to talk, we expect you to talk." Frank unfolded his manuscript and began to read: "The problem of the hen is one of the most interesting subjects in ornithology." "Hi! hi! hi!" yelled the seniors, rapping the floor with their clubs, umbrellas, brooms and so on. "It seems to me very appropriate," continued Frank, reading from his paper, "that this subject should be discussed by a 'Pig'----" This word was a signal for the most terrific uproar that the room had yet witnessed. All the seniors made a dash at Frank with their clubs, brooms, umbrellas and so forth, raised in the air. They brought them down in great whacks upon the table; he stood as still as a statue. If he had attempted to dodge he would certainly have been hit. "The idea of a neophyte using that word!" they cried. "Give him a black mark!" Accordingly, the memorandum books came out and down went another black mark. It then flashed upon Frank that it must be a rule of this order that no neophyte should refer to it as the "Pig," and unhappily in his essay he had done so a dozen times or more. He quickly decided to pretend to read, but really to speak offhand and so avoid using the troublesome word, but there came another knock at the door. This time it was Prof. Adler, whose room was in the building, and who called to protest against so much noise. "You see what it is, professor," said Baker, throwing the door wide open. "You were once a 'Pig' yourself, I believe." "Yes, I was," the professor answered, trying hard to repress a smile as he looked at Merriwell and the four solemn juniors, "but really it's getting late, gentlemen, and I think you ought to take your initiation elsewhere." "Well, perhaps we have gone far enough at this stage," said Baker. "At any rate, professor, we won't trouble you any more to-night." "I hope you won't," said the good-humored professor, "for I should hate to report you." With that he went away, and the next stage in the initiation began immediately. Each of the five neophytes was blindfolded with a towel tied around his head; his hands were then bound behind his back, and a long cord attached to them; then they were sternly ordered to remember the rule of obedience. "If you obey you'll come to no harm," said Baker, earnestly, "but the slightest act of disobedience may run you into serious trouble." When the blindfolding and binding had been completed the neophytes were taken out to the campus and so to the street; there three or four seniors went with each neophyte in different directions about the city.