Monterey High School - El Susurro Yearbook (Monterey, CA)

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EL SUSURRO pulled out a stick of dynamite. Then, hunting among the bombs, he finally found one that had a fulminate cap in it. Very gently he extracted 'the cap from its position and set it in the dynamite. Next, taking a fuse from one of the rockets, he fixed it onto the cap. He then, with the greatest care. set the stick back in its box. Leaving the door open, he moved to another door that he knew opened into the playground a short distance from the woods. Opening this door very slowly, he saw a German standing close to him. Carr stepped back away from the door. And in doing so his foot hit a short bar that lay there. He stooped and picked it up. i , Then he did that which was most to be avoided. He sneezed! But, step- ping quickly to the side of the door, he raised the bar over his head. The German stepped to the door and opened it, putting his head inside to get a better view. Before he could draw it away, Carr brought the bar down with crushing force on his helmet. As the German hit the floor, Carr was already at his makeshift bomb. It was the work of an instant to hold a match to the end of the fuse. A second later he had sprung to the door, while back of him the fuse was burning with a faint crackle. 1 He stooped over the dead sentry and. as he arose again, he .had a pistol in his hand. A moment later he was racing across the playground. He was about fifty feet from the belt of trees when he saw little spurts of dust Hy up around him. Turning, he raised his pistol and emptied it into the group of Germans that were running toward him. Three of them fell and threw the rest of them into confusion. A second later Carr was hid by the friendly branches of the trees. One minute, two minutes Carr ran. Had his fuse failed? Had somebody discovered his work? Had all his work been in vain? His brain was in a whirl with doubt and fear. He stopped in a little clearing where he could see the red-tiled roof and cream walls of the school. Then slowly, gently, gracefully, the walls fell outward: the roof was lifted up, up, like a ball on a stream of water. Then they were dissolved in a great flame, a flame that mounted above the tallest pines around it, and disappeared in a cloud of black and white smoke that billowed up and, spreading, blotted out the whole sky like a blanket. ' Carr could not hear, but he saw and felt the pieces that fell around him. Goodbye, he whispered huskilyg I have learned a great deal within your walls and I am sorry that it had to be. But you have served your country even more in this way. For we can now beat back the Germans, who have lost their scant supply of shells. You have helped defeat Germany. Farewell, dear old Monterey High, farewell. And, turning, he stumbled toward his own lines. 28

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EL SUSURRO during the last two weeks he hadbeen in the center of the terrific battle and had grown used to the roar of the strife. They have been repulsed, he said to himself. But have they ? he asked. lily the faint moonlight he saw that he was among the broken branches of the old oak tree that had stood by the drawing-room window. Parting the branches in order to crawl. out. he saw below him a line of Germans carrying small. heavy boxes and baskets into the ruined courtyard of the school. Their ammunition dump, he said to himself. . lle noted that they were silent. Their feet made no noise as they stumbled over the shambles of the yard. liven the shell that burst close to them did not make a noise. The realization came to him. He was deaf! The shell that had stunned him had destroyed his ear drums. . L'ndaunted by the knowledge that he could not hear, he began to think of something that he could do to hold back the Germans. He reached back to touch the wall. but his hand encountered nothing but air. Turning. he saw that he was in front of a hole made by a shell. and that he could enter the basement through it. ' ,. Crawling in through the hole was hard work, but he at last stood up on the Floor with a sigh of relief. It was even darker in there than outside and he had to grope his way over the broken cement that had fallen in. When his eyes became used to the darkness, he saw that he was in the old cafe of the school. Opening a door at one end of the room, he stepped into the engine room. b A . Walking on tiptoe. he opened another door softly and saw before him row on row of boxes of shells and dynamite, piles of shells. bags of powder. all kinds of explosives and powder. Ry portable lights that were strung up here and there he saw the Germans busy bringing more and more boxes and bales of shells. Gently closing the door, he crowded in back of the furnaces and fell asleep. lle knew that he could not do his work well if he did not have any sleep. And he knew that the shells would be there when he awoke. lt was late in the afternoon when he opened his eyes. Instant remembrance of all that had happened came to him. The cut on his head had now stopped bleeding and the dizziness had gone. ' lle stealthily opened the door again and saw that the room was empty of all Germans. lfeelmg in his pockets. he pulled out a penknife and a box of matches. ' Ile looked more closely at the boxes around him and saw that they were all full of dynamite except one that held signal rockets and a few bombs. He could not open the boxes of dynamite with his hands. so he started to cut through the side of one with his knife. -llalf an hour later he'bent back the board that he had cut through and 27 '

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