Two of the students seized Mapleson by the arms, and he was forced from the room, muttering threats of vengeance as he passed out. When Geoffrey was at length left alone, he closed and locked his door, and then sat down and fell into troubled thought. He was sure that he had made a bitter and lasting enemy of the young man, and he regretted it, for Geoffrey Huntress was one who loved to be at peace with all mankind; but he could only wait patiently to see how the matter would end, and having reached this conclusion, he resumed his interrupted studies. But he could not put his mind upon them, for all at once the remarkable resemblance between himself and the young Southerner began to haunt him. Could it be possible that any of the same blood flowed in their veins? If so, how? Why was Everet Mapleson the favored son of a proud and wealthy father, while he had been a poor, demented outcast, abandoned in the streets of a large city and left to his fate. CHAPTER IX. A STRANGE ENCOUNTER. Several days went by, and Geoffrey heard nothing more either of or from the sophomores who had attempted to haze him. Neither did he happen to meet any of them on his way to or from his recitations, and he hoped that the occurrence would gradually be forgotten and occasion no more trouble. He did not mention it to any one, and he bore none of the actors any ill-will, for he well knew that hazing had been an established custom in many colleges, and that every freshman was liable to be subjected to the ordeal. But the affair was destined to be more serious, eventually, than he imagined an occurrence of that kind could ever become. Young Mapleson realized, as soon as his passion began to cool somewhat, that he should be obliged to relinquish all thoughts of retaliation for a season, for none of his comrades would bear him out in any plan for revenge; but he vowed in his heart that there should yet come a day of reckoning between himself and Huntress for the indignity to which he had been subjected before his companions. He was furious with them for not having come to his release, and he raved over the affair all the way back to his room after leaving Geoffrey’s. But they made light of it, and tried to pass the whole thing off as a joke. This only enraged him the more, although he began to see the wisdom of keeping still about it, since he could get no sympathy from them. There is no telling what rash act he might not have committed if he had been allowed to go and come as usual while this fierce mood lasted. But he had wrought himself into an excessive perspiration, and then going out into the chill night air afterward, he had taken a violent cold, and for three weeks he was confined to his room with a threatened fever.