search for Merriwell the next
day, though he did not get a chance to speak to Frank until the
afternoon.

Badger was looking haggard and distressed as he came up to Merry. They
were in the campus, and Yale's famous "slapping" ceremony was soon to
begin. The campus was filling with men, and the members of the junior
class were out in full force, for out of that junior class, by the
"slapping" process, forty-five men were to be selected as members of
"Bones," "Keys," and Wolf's Head.

"I looked everywhere for you last night," said Badger; and Frank told
him of the banquet.

"Let's go somewhere where we can talk," the Westerner invited, not
relishing the throngs. "The air in here chokes me."

Merry took him by the arm, and they pushed out of the crowd.

"Now, what it is?" Frank asked.

Badger could have made a long story of it, but he cut it down to narrow
limits, acquainting Merriwell, in as few words as possible, with the
trouble that had come upon him. Frank looked grave.

"This is serious, Badger," he said, not caring to conceal from the
Kansan his true feelings concerning it. "But I'm ready to help you in
any way I can."

"My fool jealousy was at the bottom of the whole thing!" Badger
admitted. "Just because I was jealous of Hodge, I went on that drunk and
let Barney Lynn fool me into going aboard the boat and in drugging me.
Jealousy and whisky. That's what did it."

"I think you are right there."

"But, of course, Don Pike is the fellow that peached. And I'll smash his
face for it! I allow that everything would have gone on as smooth as
silk but for that."

"Now, what are you going to do?"

"Hanged if I know, Merriwell! I'll be driven to something desperate,
soon. Tell me what the girls said about it."

"I don't think they knew anything about it. They reported that Winnie
had been sick in her room, and the doctor had instructed that they were
not to see her or disturb her."

"Is she in the house, then?"

"I can't tell. She may be, and she may not be. One thing is sure, Buck.
Her father is not going to let you see her again. And that makes me
think it possible he has spirited her out of the city. If she is in the
house, the pretense that she is sick cannot be kept up long."

"I don't know about that," said the Kansan dubiously. "I allow that
likely she is sick. The thing has almost sent me to bed, and the effect
on her might be as bad."

"Worse, probably."

"If she is sick in that house, I'm