A couple of students lifted Miller up, and obeying another sign from Baker, took the bandage from his eyes. Miller looked around then with a stare of fright and surprise. The hooded figures had disappeared and in their places were students dressed just as he was accustomed to seeing them. The room was a large one, but what it contained besides the students he was too frightened to notice. His knees were shaking and his lips quivered, although in the presence of these rather familiar faces he tried to pull himself together and look cool. "Miller," said Baker, sternly, standing squarely in front of him, "you are in a very serious situation, and it is necessary for your safety that you should have as good control of yourself as possible. We intend to give you every chance for your life." "I ain't done nothing!" muttered Miller. "That will be found out later," was the stern reply; "meantime you're in no condition to defend yourself. We'll give you a bracer so that you may be able to understand what goes on and take part in it the best way you know how." With this Baker nodded to a senior, who immediately came forward with a glass filled with some kind of liquor. "Drink this," said Baker. He held it out to Miller, who took it with a trembling hand. "You're going to poison me," he stammered. "In the presence of all these witnesses?" returned Baker, sharply. "Hardly. The stuff will not harm you; if you don't drink it you'll be worse off." Miller still hesitated. He looked doubtfully at the liquor, smelled of it and then stared helplessly at the faces around him. Baker raised his hand. At the signal every student seized a club of some kind and got in a circle around Miller, holding the clubs up. "We don't want any nonsense about this," said Baker then. "You can either drink that dose now or the clubs will fall." The instant he had spoken every student brought his club down hard upon the floor close to Miller's feet. The man fairly danced in an agony of fear, and a part of the liquor fell from the glass. "Drink!" thundered Baker. The cigar dealer then put the glass to his lips and poured it down with one gulp. Baker nodded in a satisfied way. "Now put him in the prisoner's chair!" he said. Two of the students then led Miller trembling and more than half convinced that he had taken deadly poison, to the swing in which the neophytes had been drawn up to the ceiling. Miller was seated in the chains and told to grip the chain and then the windlass was worked, and he was raised three or four feet from the floor. The students grouped themselves in front of him, seated on chairs; Baker alone remained standing. It seemed to Miller then as if everybody moved very slowly. He thought he could count a hundred between every two words that were uttered. Before many minutes had passed it seemed to him as if he had been a year in this place.