Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

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s .THE SPECTATOR It was no time to meditate, it was the time for action. Up went one dumbell above his head, it shot thru the air in the direction of the door. Smash! Then came the tinkle of falling glass. He had missed the door and hit a large framed picture of the football team hanging on the wall. Once more he heaved the weight, this time a little to the left. Another crash, followed by the splintering of wood. The two lower panels had given way. lt did not take long to ,squeeze into the hall. There for the second time the white army met him, this time in- quiring if an earthquake had rendered the building useless. Two distinct shocks werefelt, they said, followed by the thunder of falling brick. Puck was in a rage. Earthquake? he yelled. You poor fools! There is tire, smoke, and plenty of it in my room. You dreamer, go home, your mamma wants you, darling, teased one Whimp Brown, l'll tix you, Whimp, in the morning, growled Puck. Down the corridor came the dignified Doctor, wearing riding trousers and a top-coat. The boys scattered, for he carried a lantern. Take me to your room, Reed. There is no Hre, Rob- son says. You are ill, boy, said the Doctor, very kindly. Then he saw the battered door. His tone changed at once. He snapped: Reed, the next time any such fool- ishness happens, into the intirmary you go- he pushed the lantern thru the opening and peered in- moreover, there is not a thing in your room beyond a nasty smell. Now all go to bed. You shall receive the penalty to-mor- row, Reed. The lantern glimmered far down the hall-way. Puck squeezed into his room, tearing his night clothes as he did so, tumbled into bed and slept for the third time that night. I I I I- Before and between the Ere incidents our friend Whimp Brown sat in his room, directly below Puck's, burning mid-night oil Ca four inch Christmas candle.J Poor Whimp, as usual, was in desperate financial straits. Hav- ing paid his last fiver for expressage on a mysterious box he had received that afternoon from his brother, an engineer

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THE SPBCTATOR 7 No smoke from your door, started one wide-awake fellow, when up stepped Dobson, a master. Have you boys found the fire? he inquired. 1 turned in the alarm, sirg lam sure there is smoke in my room. Come and see for yourselves, answered Puck, a little miffed at not finding smoke in the corridor. Accordingly the white procession marched to Puck's room, where others from the floors below and above met them. A series of sniffing, sneezing, coughing, took place, That was all. Poor Puck's heart sank. To arouse the house on a fake alarm at one o'clock was beyond a mere joke. Dobson spoke up first. See here, Reed, this is no time for pranks. Report to the Doctor's ofnce at eight- thirty in the morning. Yes, sir, came the solemn answer. The procession then melted quickly away, leaving Puck to do the only thing that could be done at the time, go to sleep again. -I I 1 I It was but a half hour later that Puck leaped out of bed once more. Surely there was smoke in his room. He was suffocating, histeyes bulged and burned, he must do something quickly or- Groping his way to the wash- stand, he wet a towel, then tied it over his nose and mouth. He tried the electric light, but no illumination greeted him. ln his disgust he remembered that all connections were broken after eleven o'clock. Then he started toward the door, bumping and bruising himself on two chairs. lf he only had light, but the inky night shut out the faintest glimmer from his room. At last he found the door, then the knob. To his horror the key was not in the lock. After the first incident he had carelessly thrown it aside after locking. He searched for it in vain. Shortly his hands alighted on two heavy iron dumbells. A bright idea struck him. He would smash the door panels thru, That was the only escape out. He could not jump three stories to a concrete walk below, he would not lie there and die like a rat in a trap. What peculiar smoke it was! There was no crackling of flames beneath him, he felt no heat. But the horrible suffocating stuff still remained.

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THE SPECTATOR 9 in Arizona, he was now engaged in figuring how he could live until vacation on nothing. That mysterious box, clearly labeled Do not tease, contained nothing else but a small Gila monster, a venomous reptile-like animal of the desert. Why in theworld his brother should send such a dangerous, good-for-nothing brute by expensive expressage, the receiver did not know. As a result of the expressage, Whimp was forced to offer the connie two cents and three postage stamps for car fare on the way home from the village with his box, thereby finding himself very gently deposited on the track, to trudge two miles to school with an animal cage, just for fun, as he afterwards said. By one o'clock he had seen his way clear for two bucks ln disgust he picked up a baseball bat and dug the beast thru the crating of the box. A thick, smoky cloud issued thereupon from the animal's nostrils, floated toward the ceiling, and disappeared slowly. Nlost of it went thru a small secret passage thru the ceiling connect- ing Puck's and Whimp's rooms. The boys used it fre- quently to pass down or up eats, books, or matches. Soon he heard Puck jump from his bed and arouse the house. He himself ran out and joined the procession, all the time knowing what the trouble was. After the excite- ment of the first alarm had quieted down, the financier crept back to his room, lit the seventh candle of the even- ing, and started again on his accounts. But he could not compute an additional cent with all his figuring. After an- other half hour had elapsed, he again seized his ball bat, and viciously punched the defenceless Gila. The smoke act was repeated, this time the cloud being so large and dense that he himself had to run from his stuffy room to breathe. Hardly was he in the hall, when the shocks from the iron weights above came. Chuckling to himself, the highly elated animal trainer ran upstairs to join the second fun of the night. This the Doctor cut short, Whimp run- ning back to his room, bent on involving poor Puck deeper in trouble. But ten minutes later, the Gila was punched again. Whimp bounded up the stairs and waited. In asurprisingly short time, the now almost frantic Puck came loping down the hall like a pursued deer. Shouts of Fire! Fire! rang