The rumbling of the car became louder and louder; then there was a single clang of a bell and it stopped a short distance away; some passenger evidently was getting out. The bell rang again, and the car started.
The motorman kept up a loud clanging of his footbell as he approached Frank; the latter, remembering his instructions, stood perfectly still, confident that the car would rush past him without touching him.
Suddenly, just as the car was upon him, Frank was pushed violently and fell face forward in front of it!
CHAPTER XVIII.
FRANK WANTS MORE.
The car was going at full speed when Frank fell. On the instant the motorman reversed the current and applied the brake hard, but although the wheels immediately began to turn in the other direction, it was impossible to check the advance of the car completely.
It slid for a few yards along the rails, sending up a shower of sparks, and pushing Frank's body along ahead of it.
Frank's first impression was, when he felt the push, that it was a part of the initiation. The mind acts with marvelous quickness under such circumstances, and what he thought was that, instead of being placed beside the car tracks, he was really directly upon them and thus in the way of the car, and that this push had been given him at the very last minute in order to knock him out of the way.
It was but the fraction of a second, of course, before he realized his mistake, for he received a severe blow from the car platform.