ay!_"

The outraged chairman was wholly at a loss how to deal with the
"unprecedented situation"--so he defined it, quite truthfully; and he
continued to pound upon the desk, while other clamours began to rival
Linski's; shouts of "Put him out!" "Order!" "Shut up, Freshman!" "Turn
him over to the sophomores!"

"This meeting is _adjourned!_" bellowed the chairman, and there was a
thronging toward the doors, while the frothing Linski asseverated: "I'm
a-gunna git my say, I tell you! I'll have my say! I'll have my _say!_"

He had more than that, before the hour was over. A moment after he
emerged from the building and came out, still hot, upon the cool, dark
campus, he found himself the centre of a group of his own classmates
whom he at first mistook for sophomores, such was their manner.

...As this group broke up, a few minutes later, a youth running to
join it, scenting somewhat of interest, detained one of those who were
departing.

"What's up? What was that squealing?"

"Oh, nothing. We just talked to that Linski. Nobody else touched him,
but Ramsey Milholland gave him a _peach_ of a punch on the snoot."

"Whoopee!"

Ramsey was laconic in response to inquiries upon this subject. When
someone remarked: "You served him right for calling you a boob and a
poor fish and so on before all the society, girls and all," Ramsey only
said:

"That wasn't what I hit him for."

He declined to explain further.

Chapter XII

"The way I look at it, Ramsey," Fred Mitchell said, when they reached
their apartment, whither the benevolent Colburn accompanied them, "the
way I look at it, this Linski kind of paid you a compliment, after all,
when he called you a fake. He must have thought you anyway _looked_ as
if you could make a better speech than you did. Oh, golly!"

And as Ramsey groaned, the jovial Mitchell gave himself up to the divan
and the mirth. "Oh, oh, oh, _golly_!" he sputtered.

"Never you mind, Brother Milholland," Colburn said gently. "The Lumen is
used to nervous beginners. I've seen dozens in my time, just like you;
and some of 'em got to be first rate before they quit. Besides, this
crazy Linski is all that anybody'll ever remember about to-night's
meeting, anyhow. There never was any such outbreak as that in _my_ time,
and I guess there never was in the whole history of the society. We'll
probably suspend him until he apologizes to the society--I'm on the
board, and I'm in favour of it. Who is th