Parmenter paused, and Van Loan replied:
“I think I know what you mean. I propose to keep the knowledge I have obtained here to-night sacredly to myself.”
“Do you solemnly promise me, and each of us, that you will never reveal my identity, nor disclose to anybody at any time anything of what has happened here to-night?”
“I make you that solemn promise.”
Van Loan’s voice certainly had in it the ring of sincerity. His captors could ask no more of him than he had promised. The agreement was definite, and both parties thoroughly understood the situation.
Then they took Van Loan back to the college. He was still bound, bandaged, and blindfolded. They led him down the forest path, across the fields, and through the college grove, and loosening his hands, they left him in the middle of the campus.
By the time he had freed himself, and could look around, not one of the hazers was in sight; and before he reached his bed the men who had dragged him from it less than an hour before were locked safely in their rooms.
The next day Parmenter and Van Loan met each other face to face on the walk between the colleges. There was a nod of recognition on the part of each, but no word was spoken. The same thing occurred the next day and the next.
It leaked out after a time, as such things will, that some sort of hazing had been done, and that Van Loan was the victim of it; but who the hazers were no one except those who had participated in the affair appeared to know.
The origin of the rumor could not be traced to Van Loan; there was nothing to indicate that he was not keeping his promise.