He went to Connelly's that
night--or rather, the evening before--filled himself up on the vilest
decoctions, and went out from there as drunk as a fool. He has been
there before many times. Connelly knows him well."

All this was so circumstantial that Fairfax Lee was alarmed and moved.
He knew that Connelly's was one of the worst dens of the city, and he
felt sure that unless there was something in the story Pike would not
give names in this way. He resolved to learn the whole truth about the
matter.

"If what you say is true, Buck Badger is not fit to associate with any
girl," he asserted.

"Especially not with a girl as innocent and unsuspecting as your
daughter, Mr. Lee. I have seen that for a good while, and it has been a
fight with my conscience to keep from coming here with this story. I
couldn't delay it longer. I trust you see that I can have no hope of
gain, and nothing but right motives in bringing you this story--which
you will find fully substantiated by a course of inquiry."

Fairfax Lee was flushed and silent.

"All of Badger's friends, or most of them, I am sure, know that he was
drunk, and not drugged, when he went aboard the _Crested Foam_. Some of
them might admit this knowledge."

"You are a sophomore?"

"Yes."

"And Mr. Badger is?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you were recently his friend and roommate?"

"Yes."

"I have your card, which I will put by for reference. I presume, if I
call on you, you will be willing to repeat anywhere what you have said
to me here?"

This was unexpected, and Pike hesitated.

"I don't care to get myself into trouble with Badger. He is of the
bulldog, pugilistic type, and the first thing he would do would be to
assault me like the bully he is. I have given you the warning. You can
get all the proof you want. Probably you would never have heard of this
until too late, if I had not voluntarily brought you the story."

"You are right," Lee admitted. "Perhaps that would be asking too much."

"I have struck the blow, Badger," Donald Pike muttered, as he left the
handsome home of the Lees. "You will find it more of a knock-down, I
fancy, than if I had hit you between the eyes with my fist. Nobody ever
walks roughshod over Don Pike and gets off without suffering for it. You
will hear something drop pretty soon."

And so, chuckling, he took his way to the street-car line, and returned
to the campus and the Yale jollification.

The Kansan had accompanied Winnie Le