Pagina 284 van 439

Nobody wasted any compliments on him. After the fashion of their

kind, they guyed the Norwegian about the bath he had taken.

Nevertheless, Fraser knew that he had won the liking of these

men, as well as their deep respect. They began to call him by his

first name, which hitherto only Dillon had done, and they

included him in the rough, practical jokes they played on each

other.

One night they initiated him--an experience to be both dreaded

and desired. To be desired because it implies the conferring of

the thirty-second degree of the freemasonry of Cattleland's

approval; to be dreaded because hazing is mild compared with some

features of the exercises.