“Does Frank Watson and his crowd belong?” Ned demanded.
“Oh, yes,” was the reply.
“They’ll never vote to let us in.”
“It’ll take more than their votes to keep you out, though, as a rule, the elections have been unanimous. But it takes ten black ballots to turn a candidate down, and at best Frank and his crowd number nine.”
At the next meeting of the Bang-Ups the names of our friends were proposed. And Frank Watson, Bart Haley, Bill Hamilton and several others opposed them.
But George Fitch, Chet Randell, Lem Ferguson and, best of all, Ted Newton, the football captain, championed the cause of our friends to such advantage that they were elected, only seven votes against them—not the necessary number.
“Of course, I’d like to have had it unanimous,” said George, in telling Jerry about the matter afterward. “But don’t let that worry you, and perhaps Frank will change his tactics toward you.”
“I don’t care much whether he does or not,” Jerry remarked. “I wish there weren’t any feeling against us, especially as I know there is no cause for it, but the Bang-Ups is worth getting into, even if we didn’t make it unanimously.”
“Glad you think so,” remarked George. “And now comes the initiation.”