"Kind of sore," returned the neophyte. "I should think I'd been in a football scrimmage. Oh!"
His eyes brightened as he remembered what had happened to him.
"Something went wrong with the——" he began, intending to say "with the initiation," when he caught sight of the doctor's face.
Seeing that a stranger was present and remembering his instructions to keep the initiation a secret, Frank hesitated an instant and then said:
"Machinery."
"Yes," answered Rowe, understanding the point, "the machinery broke down, but it wasn't our fault."
"I took that for granted," Frank remarked. "How did the car get along?"
The seniors laughed. This question showed them better than anything else could that Frank was not dangerously injured.
"The car seemed to stand it pretty well," Rowe answered. "How is he, doctor?"
"Well," answered the physician, who had been making an examination, "I don't see any evidence of broken bones, and what is more surprising still, the young man's brain doesn't seem to have suffered under the strain to which you have subjected him."