Badger was looking haggard and distressed as he came up to Merry. They were in the campus, and Yale's famous "slapping" ceremony was soon to begin. The campus was filling with men, and the members of the junior class were out in full force, for out of that junior class, by the "slapping" process, forty-five men were to be selected as members of "Bones," "Keys," and Wolf's Head.
"I looked everywhere for you last night," said Badger; and Frank told him of the banquet.
"Let's go somewhere where we can talk," the Westerner invited, not relishing the throngs. "The air in here chokes me."
Merry took him by the arm, and they pushed out of the crowd.
"Now, what it is?" Frank asked.
Badger could have made a long story of it, but he cut it down to narrow limits, acquainting Merriwell, in as few words as possible, with the trouble that had come upon him. Frank looked grave.
"This is serious, Badger," he said, not caring to conceal from the Kansan his true feelings concerning it. "But I'm ready to help you in any way I can."
"My fool jealousy was at the bottom of the whole thing!" Badger admitted. "Just because I was jealous of Hodge, I went on that drunk and let Barney Lynn fool me into going aboard the boat and in drugging me. Jealousy and whisky. That's what did it."
"I think you are right there."
"But, of course, Don Pike is the fellow that peached. And I'll smash his face for it! I allow that everything would have gone on as smooth as silk but for that."