"Why is a Hen?"
The four other juniors exchanged winks; each one of them had been told to write upon the same topic.
Just then there was a knock at the door, and, after a moment, Bruce Browning was admitted.
Browning was already a member of the order, although he was a classmate of Frank's. He had become so by being dropped at the end of his freshman year, as already related in this series of stories.
When that happens a popular student keeps up his society relations with his former classmates, so that Bruce, although he was a junior in the standing of scholarship, was a senior when it came to society matters.
The fact that he was still a classmate of Merriwell's had led him to decide that he would take no part in the initiation. The students, therefore, were surprised to see him enter.
"I thought you weren't to be here!" exclaimed Baker.
"I wasn't," Browning answered, "but I've got something important to say to you."
He spoke in such a serious tone that Baker at once went over to him, and after a few whispered words they shut themselves into Baker's bedroom, which adjoined the study.
"You remember Miller?" asked Browning.