Black Foxe Military Institute - Adjutant Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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Here is the Senior Class, some of the craziest guys that could ever be brought safely under one root, much less asked to spend a year together. But they did spend a year in company, and it was a successful one, they even studied a little. Certainly they can look back on their years at Black- Foxe with happy memories and a great deal of pride. SENIGR

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SENIOR CLASS The note arrived three weeks before my one hundred and fifth birthday, and I still re- member the clap of thunder that rumbled across the sky as I opened it. It had no post- mark, only my name and address, and all it said was: Be at the castle of His Maiesty Aladdiin the night of August 30, 2042. Don't faiI. There was no signature. I was old and of course not accustomed to traveling the continents, though I had trav- eled my share in my youth. Nevertheless I was drawn by some almost irresistable force to the land of Arabia, where, many years before, the castle of Aladdin had been uncovered, still standing and very little damaged. On the appointed day, which was also my birthday, I stood before the ancient castle walls. No reconstruction or occupation of the castle had occured since its recovery, due to wars and more modernistic exploration, and entrance was easily gained. The time was late at night when I arrived and as I approached the castle itself light- ning lit the huge doorway through which I was to pass and revealed to me in huge letters the inscription: PALACE OF HIS MAJESTY ALADDIN. The doorway was rotted and split and I entered at the very instant the clouds opened and the wind and rain began to lash the cold stone walls. The light of my flashlight was assisted by intermittant atmospheric flashes as I crossed a huge entrance hall and went down a narrow corridor, somehow knowing where to go but not knowing why I was going there. In the corridor the lightning no longer reached me, but I still walked on, drawn by some force I could not name. I passed through cor- ridors and passages in an endless maze, some cluttered with old armor, some even littered with human bones, and all covered with heavy layers of dust that rose as I passed, block- ing the passage behind me. Suddenly I came upon a room of considerable length and height, but no more than fifteen yards wide. It was clear of dust and was adorned by a long table and twenty five chairs, in the fashion of a banquet and in good condition. Being tired I sat down to rest at one end of the table and surveyed the room. There were several passageways leading out of it similar to the one I had come through, and far above was a skylight through which the flashes of lightning could aagin be seen. I turned out my flashlight to rest the batteries. No sound could be heard. Then before me appeared ci tall, thin, apparition, rising from the chair at the other end of the table. It was of a luminous white and took the shape of a man. It spoke in an intangible voice which seemed not to be there but which, I felt, could have been heard in the strongest wind, and which echoed down the passageways and up to the high ceil- mg. Speak not, Thorne Gray, and listen to what I must say, it said to me. I am the Genii of Aladdin's Lamp up from the deep and cold damp to tell you of death to a man like you who has been good all his life but who must go too. When a good soul leaves its earthly home and passes on it does not roam, but instead is ioined with the souls of the friends with whom the happiest years of his life he did spend. Lightning illuminated the room for an instant, and there was no vision at the other end of the table. But in the dark again it reappeared, this time seated, and this time ioined by twenty three other figures of similar appearance who filled the remaining chairs. Spoke the Genii, These are those classmates of Black-Foxe School where you trained as a leader instead of a fool. Those were the happiest years of your life, filled with fun and lacking strife. And I saw that each face was one I knew, young again the way they had been then, although all had lived to a ripe old age.