Martinsville High School - Artesian Yearbook (Martinsville, IN)

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I I sight which greeted her. The delighted Jake, who was outside the harn, his eye applied to a convenient crack which commanded a view of the house saw her gasp for breath. For the house which she had left on the upper side of the state road and further down now rested on a level foundation. In front of it was the wide porch, and from turret to foundation stone glistened with all the glory of three new coats of white paint-that is, as much as Sallie could see. She darted around the corner of the house. At the hack she stood one long moment looking up at the fresh red paint with Mnf aoorren 1917 .5 which the former was decorated. Finally her face relaxed. Her eyes crinkled down at the corners and her mouth curved up to meet the crinkles as she disappeared inside the hack door. Then and not till then did Jake, his eyes dancing, saunter out and aid the stage driver with the two trunks and suit case, the shoe-string hag and the hasket of cats. The process completed, he turned to meet his sister in the front doorway, looking ahout the heautified home with a happy proprietary air: the while she felt a family pride in the fact that no Marvin had ever gone hack on his or her word. A CLOSE SHAVElQH3B1s1HftC5P?1, 11.3, 'I Iny Carter pulled a large hickory armchair hack into the corner hy the stove and after putting. some coal on the tire, tilted his chair hack to a comfortahle angle and curled up into it. Iny was a very important husiness man in the sleepy little town of Creighton. He was railroad and express agent and postmas- ter, hesides having the reputation of heing the laziest young man in town. As the traffic of Creighton was very small it did not take all of lny's time to carry on his husiness, and he spent his spare time in reading detective stories and novels of the ten cent sort. On this particular morning the novel was in Inyls hands as he crawled up into the chair. hut it did not interest him very much, and as it was tolerah-ly warm in Iny's corner he soon he- came drowsy and stopped reading. He was scarcely settled com- fortahly in his chair when the whole scene seemed to change. Iny was sitting at the hattered desk in the front of the depot exam- ining a small hrown express parcel which the train had just left. On the top of this parcel was printed in large hlack letters: Value Five Thousand Dollars. After turning the package over and looking at the address. Iny turned in his chair and locked the package in a small safe hehind the desk. As he turned from the safe and hack to the desk a true story-hook villain entered the room. He was a tall, well huilt 1 Page I4 nian, with very dark eyes and a long hlack mustache. He wore a large, broad-hrinimed hat, a heavy overcoat and heavy leather hoots. A cigarette was held carelessly in the corner of his mouth, adding to his look of hravado. Hello, there, he greeted Iny, I'd like to examine that package that you were just locking up. Sorry, sir, hut I can't accommodate you, Iny answered, rememhering the courage of some of his novel heroes. I would, huth- - The stranger interrupted Iny with: Now look here. young man. let's git right down to husi- ness. I don't want to have to he violent with you hut you come across with that package. I don't want to open the safe myself, although I could if I wanted to. I want you to open the safe and give nie the package and then I will let you go. But if you don't open it I will take you and the safe hoth up in the mountains and I guess you will ,come across then. If you don't I will hlow your lzrains out. I'd rather do that than hlow the safe anyway. This business-like speech somewhat shook Iny's courage, hut he remained Firm in his resolution to hecome a hero hy refusing to open the safe. 'KThere's no use in running your hluff any further on me. he answered, whenever you get ready to pull off your kidnapping scheme just come along. l'm not married to this spot and I don't

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ff Mnr soofren 1911 l An all-fired fuss over nothing, he burst out finally, And if Sarah Beasley Marvin expects 'l'm going to give in and paint this side white. she'll wait until llleasant Valley changes places with Marvin llill-which won't he today nor tomorrow. . Stutling his hands more deeply into his pockets he made a slow tour around the house. It was set on the side hill, conse- quently was three stories high on the down hill side, two and a half on the up slope and two in the front-or, rather, at the back. The sides and former front were painted white, Sallie's favorite house color. Across the former front ran a side porch, the widest in l leasant Valley, shaded by a fragrant honeysuckle vine and facing a little square of leveled yard filled with shell bordered Hower beds. ln front of the yard was the hed of the now unused dirt road. .Ns .lake turned his gaze downward to the new state road he scowled darkly, and wished heartily that in the years gone by he had painted the fourth side white--red had been the original color of the entire house. c Ilaving finished his view on the outside of the house, Jake went into the basement kitchen-now the front room, and began to get his dinner, a calainity which had not befallen him before in years. ,Ns he journeyed from jar to jar and from cake-box to bread- box he whistled to keep up his spirits, but between whistles swal- lowed frequently. Sallie had remained up half the night, baking and cooking. Presently jake sat down to a cold dinner, consisting of cake, cookies. pie, bread and boiled meat, while out of the oven came an ill smelling smoke, harbinger of scorched potatoes and burned ham. Beside him sat his favorite cat, occasionally mewing mournfnlly for its two mates. It was a solitary meal as were many others, as three desolate months went by. Loneliness, baker's stuff and an uneasy mind were all responsible for the change which took place in lake. The Hesh fell away from his round face and the ruddiness left his face. The laughter died out of his eyes and his shoulders began to sag. Ile no longer gossined daily at the post ofiice because of the in- quiries concerning Sallie's absence, and he was ashamed to own that all which stood between the end of Sallie's protracted visit Page IJ and home was a surface of ugly dull red. Still the idea of chang- ing the red did not occur to him, for had he not said that that side of the house would never be touched with white paint as long as he lived? And his word was the word of a Marvin. But had not Sallie said she would never set foot in that house again until it had a white front? Aml Sallie's word was also the word of a Marvin. One day, the latter part of August, ,lake hitched his horse to the buekboard, and, tying a lamb securely behind the seat, started for the butcher's beyond llleasant Valley. Suddenly a turn in the road brought him on a scene noisy with the creaking of ropes, the sudden tightening of trace chains, the sharp word of command. lt was a scene which electrified .lake with a wonderful idea, the solution of all his trials and the return of domestic peace. lt was supper time before he returned to his own hill-side, vhistlfng as he jogged along. When hc climbed down from his seat in front of the barn door he was astonished to see the lamb eyeing him meekly from the back of the buckboard. Ile had quite forgotten his real intention to dispose of it to the butcher. He untied it and drove it into the barnyard. lt's the last one in the flock, he muttered. and Sallie 'll want to raise it ,-for so soon was he counting on Sallie's return as the result of his idea. Three weeks he gave over to the completion of that idea. He had never worked so hard before, and yet, despite the heat and the work and the baker's stuff , the Hesh returned to his face and the laughing good nature to his eyes. .Nt the end of the three weeks he laboriouslv indited a letter addressed to Miss Sarah Beasley Marvin. The letter merely said: . l have just given the front ofthe house a brand new coat of white paint. Come along home. Two days later around the curve came the stage. and out of the stage. as it drew up outside of the gate, stepped Sallie, the handle of the cat basket grasped firmly in one hand. She looked eagerly toward the house with its front white, but with a glance a startled change came over her. She stopped short in the dusty road. staring, her mouth slightly ajar, at the

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if Mnf soofren 1917 -5 think that the safe is either. Instead of the stranger talking ahead as Iny had expected him to do he came around the desk and before Iny could resist he was gagged and the stranger was holding him tightly in the chair while he was being bound, hand and foot, with a rope which the stranger produced from his pocket. The stranger never spoke during the tying process and when Iny was tied securely he car- ried him to the wagon which stood outside the door and placed him in the bed. An instant later the safe was placed in the wagon with him and the stranger got on the wagon seat and started the team toward the mountains, The depot was in the edge of town nearest the mountains and there was small hope of escaping or being rescued by any of the townspeople. They traveled until nearly sunset with only an occasional rest for the horses, always going farther up into the mountains by an old trail that was scarcely ever used by the people of that neighborhood. The stranger niaintained his silence throughout the journey, only speaking to Iny once to ask if he was cold and to cover him with a blanket. They finally stopped at an old log cabin and here the stranger got down and began unhitching. Be- fore he had the horses unhitched the door of the cabin opened and another man, short and heavy set, but no less villainous look- ing than the other, came out. Hello, Pete, he called to the man at the wagon. Have any luck P I got an express package and the man that knows how to open it, in the wagon there. Bill, Peter answered. XfVhat did you bring that fellow up here for? the man called Bill growled, coming around the wagon and pulling the blanket off of Iny. XVhat can we do with him? Turn him loose and let him go back and blow on us when we could have opened that little safe by ourselves P Yes, we could do that, Bill, Ieter answered, but if I had left him there he would have started an alarm and the whole county would have been after us in a little while. Now, with him up here he can open the safe and give us the package and we wonlt be criminals for safe-blowing or stealing. Then we can leave him here while we make our get-away and send somebody back after him. 7 Page 15 This argument seemed to convince the other man and he was silent while Iny and the safe were unloaded and carried into the cabin. Iny found himselfcin a small dark room, partly lighted by a fire which was burning in the fireplace at one end of the room. There was nothing in the room except some cooking utensils and a large roll of blankets. The mud had fallen out of the cracks in the walls and was scattered over the rough board tioor, while the wind whistled through the cracks. Iny's captors pushed the safe up in front of the fireplace and 'then began untying his hands and feet. Iny saw that they were going to try to make him open the safe and he said: You might as well lcave me tied up for I won't open that safe for you no matter what you do, XfVcll. Bill answered, you can take your choice of either opening the safe or being shot. As Bill spoke he took a large automatic pistol out of his pocket and began examining it. But Iny still thought it was a bluff and laughed at his captors. However, he soon saw he had carried it too far. Pete took him by the collar and stood him up against the wall while Bill stepped l'ack toward the other end of the room. Now, this is your last chance, Bill said. Wliicl1 do you want Pi' I told you that I wouldn't open the safe, Iny answered in a shaking voice. t Bill raised the pistol and pointed it squarely at Iny's head. Iny could see the large round hole in the muzzle and shuddered slightly as he wondered how the bullet would feel when it hit him. Bang! - The next Iny knew he was sitting on the floor of the depot holding his head between his hands. The air was thick with smoke from the stove which had exploded and furnished the report for Iny's dream pistol. Either the force of the explosion or the fright had caused him to fall off his chair and his novel lay near him on the floor. As soon as Iny had recovered somewhat from his surprise and fright he remarked: lVell, I guess that was a pretty close shavef'