square himself with the students, alleged “intimidation.”) A youth whom we may describe as Jones was mentioned, and later, in the august private office, was invited to tell what he knew of the disorder.  Henceforward accounts vary.  Jones declared to the end that the president promised a light punishment for all concerned if he would make a clean breast.  West asserted—­and who would doubt his statement?—­that he had made no promise, or even a suggestion of a promise, of any kind.  Be that as it may, Jones proceeded, though declining to mention any other name than his own.  He declared positively that the idea of hazing the freshman had not originated with him, but that he had taken a culpable part in it, for which he was heartily sorry.  Asked whether he considered himself or his colleague principally responsible for the injury to the freshman’s health, he said that he preferred not to answer.  To West this seemed a damaging admission, though perhaps not everybody would have so viewed it.  He sent Jones away with no intimation of what he proposed to do.

There was the situation, plain as a barn at noonday.  All that was needed was tact, judgment, and a firm hand.  The young president hesitated.  Ordinarily he would have taken a quiet hour in the evening to think it all over carefully, but as it happened—­like Lord George Germaine and the dispatch to Burgoyne—­social engagements rushed forward to occupy his time.  Next morning his mail brought several letters, urging him to set his foot ruthlessly on the serpent-head of hazing.  His telephone rang with the same firm counsel.  The Post, he saw, had a long leading article insisting that discipline must be maintained at all hazards.  It was observed that this article thundered in the old Colonel’s best style, and this was the more noteworthy in that the article in question happened to be written by a young man of the name of Queed.

West would have preferred to let the matter stand for a day or so, but he saw that prompt and decisive action was expected of him.  Denying himself to callers, he shut himself in his office, to determine what was just and fair and right.  The advice of his correspondents, and of the Post, tallied exactly with what the trustees had told him in the beginning about the traditions of old Blaines.  Hazing was not to be tolerated under any circumstances.  Therefore, somebody’s head would now have to fall.  There could hardly be any occasion for expelling nice young Brown.  For a minor consideration, it would be decidedly awkward henceforward, to have to offer salt to Mrs. Brown at dinner, as he had done only last week, with the hand that had ruined her son’s career.  Much more important, it seemed clear enough to West that the boy had only been weak, and had been tempted into misbehavior by his older and more wilful comrade.  West had never liked young Jones.  He was a rawboned, unkempt sprig of the masses, who had not been included in any of the student