“Yes,” laughed Frank. “As a rule, I am not easily startled, but——”
“Some things that have happened to-night made you nervous, eh? Well, you will be more nervous before I am through with you. I’ll see that you are disgraced and driven from college, sir! I tell you this to your face.”
So that was the proctor’s game. He knew Rudge would not hesitate at anything to make good his threat.
“All right,” said Frank, quietly. “Go ahead. But it seems to me you are not as crafty as usual, or you would not give me this warning. Now I shall be on the watch for you.”
“I’ll fix you, just the same!” vowed the man.
“All right; go ahead. Good-night, Mr. Rudge. Pleasant dreams!”
Frank ran up the steps and disappeared, leaving the proctor to fume with fury.
In his room Frank knelt down and uttered a thankful prayer, for a great load was lifted from his soul. He felt that the adventure of that night had taught him a lesson that he could never forget. Then he remembered the temptation that had assailed him while he was in the water. When he remembered all his thoughts and despair, he believed he had been “tried as by fire,” and it seemed that he had come forth from the trial better in every way. Experience had been his teacher that night, and the lesson was wrought upon his brain in lines of fire. It would live there as long as life lasted. In the future it would serve as a blazing warning to hold him in check whenever he was tempted to do anything in the least unmanly.
The load had been lifted from his soul, but he remembered that there were four fellows who still were tortured by the belief that they had aided in cutting short the life of a human being. It was his duty to carry the joyful news to them and relieve their feelings as soon as possible.
He waited till he felt sure the proctor had departed from the steps, and then he slipped down and out into the cool night air again. How grateful that air was to him now! How sweet it seemed! He drew it in by deep draughts, as if it were wine. For the time he forgot the peril that menaced him—he forgot the shadow of disgrace that hovered over him.