he gasped and came down with a crash, to go up
again an instant later. Then up and down went the boy, turning over and
over, until he was all but dazed.

"Stop! Murder! Fire! Robbers!" he roared. "Let me owid, kvick! I vos
turning outsides in alretty! Oh, stop, von't you, blease!"

"Will you join the Order of Black Skulls"? he was asked again.

"_Yah, yah!_ Anydings, so long as you lets me town kvick!"

"And you will not breathe a word about what has taken place here"?

"I say me noddings, upon my honor, ain't it!"

"Then let him go, fellows," and a moment later Hans was lowered.

"Now you are one of us," said another student, and handed him a mask,
skull-cap and pair of horns, the latter made of stuffed black cloth.
"Do you promise to help us"?

"Anydings vot you vonts."

"Then come with us, and don't dare to open your mouth."

CHAPTER XVIII

HAZERS AT WORK

William Philander Tubbs was dreaming of a fashionable dance he had once
enjoyed when he suddenly found himself bound and gagged and being
carried he knew not where.

"This is awful!" he thought. "What in the world does it mean?"

Then he remembered that some of the cadets had spoken about hazing, and
the cold perspiration came out on his forehead.

The gag in his mouth was made of nothing more than a knot in a clean
towel, but it worried him a good deal and he was afraid he would be
choked to death by it. But nothing of the sort happened, and soon the
gag was removed.

"What does this mean?" he asked, as many cadets had done before him.

He received no answer, and tried to break away from his tormentors. But
their hold on him could not be shaken, and before he was set down he
found himself well out of sight and hearing of Camp Putnam, as the spot
had been named.

"This is a beastly shame," he murmured. "Why do you dare to break into
my night's rest in this fashion?"

He had heard of the mysterious society of Black Skulls before, but so
far had never been hazed by the members. He looked curiously at the
masked cadets, wondering if he could recognize any of them.

"Are you prepared to meet your doom?" he was asked.

"I am prepared to go back to my tent," he answered.

"Away with him!" was the cry.

"Where are you going to take me?" he asked anxiously.

There was no reply, but in a twinkling his hands were caught and bound
tightly behind him, and a bag was thrust over his head and fastened
around his throat. The bag was so thick