Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

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6 THE ORACLE The Will of Allah (As told by Richard Borden, Winner of the First Babcock Prize) Ali Ben Khan drew up the hood of his dirty white burnoose and leaped viciously on his camel. His wiry form was tense with anger and his nut-brown face twisted in an angry snarl. As the camel stumbled to his feet and shambled forward over the hot gleam of the sands, Ali Ben Khan’s teeth gleamed in an expression of fiendish rage. ‘ Accursed of Allah,’’ he growled, ‘“‘he thinks to best Ali Ben Khan—- the dog of an Osmanli.”’ On all sides were the sands of the desert, steaming in the morning sun. Ridges, slopes, wave-ruffled hills of yellow sand, twisted and fur- rowed by the wind, met the troubled gaze of the Arab. The night before, he and Omar Ibn Kasim had encamped together. When the morning had come, Omar was gone; gone also were Omar’s camel and both water-skins; but above all—the gold they had stolen from the crafty Persian at Okaba had also disappeared with Omar. As the fiery day wore on, Ali commenced to growl again. ‘ Would that I had never met the accursed Osmanli! May Allah do battle with him; may he be burned in the flame. I swear upon the Koran that the dog dies !”’ Ali’s thirst grew unbearable toward sundown, his throat was parched and his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth. The setting sun bathed the plain in golden radiance and sent a flood of yellow sunshine over the arid waste, till it broke in masses among the violet shadows of the hills be- yond. Ut. eet by a The sun dropped with orient swiftness over the rim of the world, in all directions the untracked desert stretched, yellow and crimson and dun. Altho a full moon was shining, and, like many desert-bred Arabs, Ali detested to travel by moonlight, desperation forced him to continue his swift journey across the sands. Far, far ahead, a lone man urged his camel forward at a terrific rate. It was Omar Ibn Kasim. Now and then he would turn in the high backed Arab saddle and gaze anxiously behind. Fear rode constantly with him and death came behind, and Omar knew it. But if he could only

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THE ORACLE 5 Valedictory Address Ellen Shjarback Classmates: Tonight, as we are saying goodbye to dear old P. H. S. and are about to enter a much broader life, there could be no better wish for us than that some of these visions should stay with us; for surely we could learn no more valu- able lessons than to have sym- pathy for others, to be optimis- tic, to control our ambitions, to show respect to every man, and to let our deeds shine out in the world as the beams of a eandle gleam forth in the darkness. We are about to leave the schoolboy and schoolgirl part of life and enter into the scenes of manhood and womanhood. Let us, as we go on to the larger stage, play our part well and so bring honor, not only to ourselves, but to our Alma Mater.

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THE ORACLE 7 reach the coast in safety, he could embark on one of the ships for Turkey, and, carrying the gold with him, escape the wrath of Ali Ben Khan, who, deprived of his water skin, would probably perish of thirst in the desert. Omar had obtained a good start and was in high hopes. Having veered far off to the east, he thought Ali could never follow him. But Allah had willed otherwise, for Omar stopped that night, and Ali did not. It was deep in the night as Ali’s camel pitched along under the full moon of the Orient. The stillness of the tomb lay over the vast desert ; save the steady crunch of the camel’s feet in the sand and the whispering of the night wind among the dunes, no sound broke the silence. Ali Ben Khan, white-faced and exhausted, clung to the saddle as he plunged forward thru the night, his brain dulled by terrible suffering. ‘‘TInshallah!! May the devils of Eblis be let loose on him!’’ The rasping words came with difficulty from Ali’s parched throat. How he had managed to survive that day is a mystery, for it is said that twelve waterless hours under the desert sun is enough to kill any living man. Suddenly Ali brought his camel to an abrupt stop. He stared forward in unbelievable joy. He swayed in his saddle spring of cool, bubbling water lay a camel; and by the camel, Omar Ibn Kasim ! for there, asleep by a Trembling and swaying with weakness, Ali dismounted and quietly lurched forward toward the unsuspecting Omar. At first he could hardly refrain from throwing himself on the treacherous thief as he lay there, but he conquered this mad desire, and, leaning over the sleeping camel, lifted up the two water skins that hung from the saddle. One was empty ; the other contained four or five cupfulls of water. With a sobbing sigh of relief, Ali put the skin to his mouth, and, crouching down, slowly drained it to the last drop. Trembling with eagerness, he crossed over to the spring and partly refilled the water skin. He took one more gulp from this and then, unable to control his rage any longer, tossed the skin forward so that it landed full on the upturned face of the sleeping Omar, at the same time drawing a revolver from the folds of his burnoose. ‘‘ Awake,’’ he snarled, as Omar, suddenly aroused, sat up, throwing aside the blanket that had covered him. A sudden light of horror ap-