“Huh! Nothing like this contraption—” began the husky fellow, advancing and laying his hand on the top cross wire.
“Not even for a little thing like this?” queried Bill, reaching the wall button.
“Ow! Blazes! Quit! Don’t! Oh, darn! Stop! Turn—it—off! E-e-e-e-e-! Help!” And the instant the stabbing current ceased, Fatty fell back from it and glared at Bill.
“You really can’t blame them for quitting, can you?” asked Bill, and for answer the husky soph turned and fled from the room, followed by the jeering laughter of the crowd.
And that ended it. After Bill had asked the crowd if any or all of them wanted to test the “convincer,” as he called the electrical rigging, he bade the onlookers who filled the hallway a pleasant au revoir, and Gus again pulled the strings that closed the door.
CHAPTER V
FAME AND FINANCES
Nothing could have taken place to put the lads from Freeport on the pedestal of fame more noticeably than this experiment. They had easily and modestly staged a complete breakdown of the hazing habit at Marshallton Tech. Strangely perhaps there was no blame nor suspicion put upon Bill and Gus for the subsequent edict from the faculty forbidding it. That seemed to be considered a natural aftermath to the news of the electrical reception of the hazers.