“Let up, my head isn’t on a hinge!” he cried.  “Cut it short, for I’m sleepy.”

“Make him drink the poison and at once!” put in another of the masked cadets.

The speaker tried to disguise his tones, but the voice sounded much like that of Lew Flapp and instantly Dick was on the alert.

“How much do you want me to drink?” he asked cheerfully.

“Only one glass, if you drink it without stopping to sneeze,” put in another voice, and now Dick was certain that he recognized Rockley.

“These are no friends,” he thought.  “They are enemies and they intend to play me foul.”

“How can I drink with my hands tied behind me?” he asked.

“We will hold the glass for you,” said another, and Dick felt almost sure it was Gus Pender who uttered the words.

“It’s the whole Flapp crowd,” he mused.  “I’m in a pickle and no mistake.  I suppose they’ll half kill me before they let me go.”

“Will you drink?” asked another.  He was small in size and Dick put him down as being Ben Hurdy.

“I want you to untie my hands.”

“Very well, let the prisoner hold the glass,” said Flapp.

“Thank you, Flapp.”

“Who said I was Flapp?” growled the tall boy, in dismay.

“I say so.”

“My name is Brown.”

“All right then, Brown let it be,” said Dick, not wanting to anger the bully too much.

The prisoner’s hands were untied and a glass containing a dark-colored mixture was handed to him.  Dick had heard of the “glass of poison” before, said glass containing nothing but mud and water well stirred up.  But now he was suspicious.  This glass looked as if it might contain something else.

“They’d as soon drug me as not,” he thought.  “For all I know this may be a dose strong enough to make an elephant sick.  I don’t think I’ll drink it, no matter what they do.”

“Prisoner, drink!” was the cry.

“Thanks, but I am not thirsty,” answered Dick, as coolly as he could.  “Besides, I had my dose of mud and water a long time ago.”

“He must drink!” roared Rockley.

“Get the switches!” ordered Lew Flapp, and from a corner a number of long, heavy switches were brought forth and passed around.

Things began to look serious and it must be confessed that Dick’s heart beat fast, for he had no desire to undergo a switching at the hands of such a cold-hearted crowd, who would be sure to lay on the strokes heavily.

“Don’t you strike me,” said Dick, thinking rapidly.  “I’ll drink fast enough.  But I want to know one thing first.”

“Well?”

“What are you going to do with me next?”

“Make you take the antidote for the poison,” said Flapp.

“And what is that?”

“Another drink.”

“They are going to drug me as sure as fate,” reasoned Dick.  “How can I outwit them?”

While he was deliberating there was a noise outside, as a night bird swept by the entrance to the hermit’s den.