Richmond High School - Shield Yearbook (Richmond, CA)

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The Lost Ring (pees sat there side by side, neither speaking. A crow lighted somewhere above their heads with a raucous ery. ‘About as much harmony in that crow’s song as between just now, eh, Marjory?’’ Tom Hollis leaned forward you and me, to look close into the face of Marjory West. She was silent. ‘‘Only been here a month and has taken you out four times. Do you think that’s fair to me?”’ Marjory looked up at him. ‘‘ Would you have me give up all my pleasures just because I’m engaged to you? If you were here to take me out anywhere yourself it would be different.’’ ‘‘T wish I could be.’ There was another short pause. ‘I thought Mr. Kelly had been merely kind.’’ Marjory spoke quizically. ‘“‘But four times in one month! That’s more than kind.’’ ‘“Yes, but remember, you haven’t been home for three months.”’ Tom gazed down the gentle slope of the hill below them. It came to him for the first time that perhaps he had been unjusi, that he had thought only of himself. He felt he would rather sacrifice anything than be unjust to the girl beside him. A wave of contrition surged over him. ‘‘T have been a selfish beast,’’ he said at last. ‘‘In the first piace, it was selfish to ask you to wait so jong for me—over a year.’ Another pause. Then in an elaborately, careless voice, ‘‘Sup pose we eall it off?’’ Oh, Comet? “It’s the only way to be fair to you, Marjory, and give me back my self respect.’’ They sat for some time in silence. Marjory fingered the ring she wore. At last she held out her hand toward Tom, the diamond on her finger sparkling like a dew drop on a May morning. ‘You gave it, so you must take it back.’’ she said. Tom shook his head. ‘‘I don’t want it.’’ Marjory tried to smile. ‘‘Why, Tom, I can’t keep it after this. What shall we do with it?” “IT don’t know.”’ ‘Shall we bury it?’’ she suggested. “No, not bury it. I’m not going to put a tomb stone over our love. It isn’t dead. At least mine isn’t. Let’s lose it.’? But how?’’ é Tom gazed up into the tree thoughtfully. Suddenly he turned. I have it. We’ll pull that down, put the ring on the end and let the branch fly back.’’ “All right. But won’t it be lost?? 10

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nt Reyes , threw it ad silence the towel ners Wh lent an his pip thought rou coll the win y Ol th father sea. al on I he ral pokes | dow, take ! {welll yor a part tl a shea asteltl ; yy oro howl wnt at tng 0s you nd 18 in the the same man. I wish to God I’d gone down with the old boat, but life seems a fine thing sometimes, especially when you’re the last one off!’’ At that, the captain stopped, staring again moodily out into the whiteness. Ding, dong, dong went the old bell in the tower. ‘“Where did she sink, Captain?’’ I asked. ‘‘Aecording to the chart, she hes six fathoms off Port Har- ford.’’ We talked over the question for some time. Urged by an in- stinct that no landsman can understand, the Captain longed to see the old ‘‘Belle,’’ just once, he said, so to humor him, I agreed to go with him to the spot where the vessel had gone down. In a few days’ time we were off, leaving an assistant in charge of the lght. As each throb of the engine brought us nearer our destination, the man grew happier and joilier. He greeted the engineer and deck- hands each morning with a smile and every now and then we could hear his infrequent laugh. We arrived at the locality and spent some time taking sound- ings, the captain always holding the lead. Once we were startled by a faint sound as of a bell under water. But it was not repeated, and we went on with the work. At length, after noting much vari- ation in the depth, we finally found one place slightly over six fathoms. This, then, we decided, must be the spot. The diving suit. was brought out and after much vain arguing and pleading on our part, we finally gave in and let the Captain go down first. [ can see him now as he stood there on deck in that rubber out- fit, just before placing on the iron helmet. ‘Well. Jim,’’ he said, ‘‘if I don’t come up, remember I’m ful- filling the old man’s wish.”’ He gave an odd little laugh, then bade us put on the helmet. Slowly he descended the slimy ladder, we paying him out foot by foot, until he signalled us to stop. The minutes dragged by. The men at the pump became rest- less. I looked at my watch; he had been down nearly thirty min- utes. Suddenly the great air hose rose to the surface writhing and wriggling like a huge serpent. We knew that something must ‘kly so I donned the emergency suit and be dore and done qui started below. The men paid out the line very slowly. It seemed to take me an eternity to reach the bottom. Presently the heavy shoes touched the soft mud, and | looked around for the vessel. Somewhere cut of those black depths came the faint ding, dong, dong of a bell. I walked in the direction o1 the sound and soon came to the hull of a vessel. The bow had been torn away and a number of large holes had been made amidships, through which, as I eame near, I could see the fish playing hide and seek. I made my way up the slimy si des of the old hull and walked toward the cabin. Entering the doorway [I beheld a man gripping the wheel with one hand while in the other he grasped a small knife with which he had evidently severed the air hose. At last he was down with his ship. Ding, done, dong, went the bell again—a ghostly sound—as the current rocked it two and fro. However, I did not wait to see more of the phantom ship, but made my way to the surface aa aniekly as possible and was soon speeding for home. ROY ROGERS, ’15.

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‘‘T suppose so.”’ So Tom pulled the branch down to let Marjory hang the ring on a little twig, then Tom left it fly. Just a twinkle as the branch fiew up and the ring was gone. Tom glanced at Marjory. Her eyes were on the ground. ‘‘Shall we go back?’’ he asked. She nodded and they started down the slope. They didn’t say much on the way back, but when they reached her gate, Mar- jory held out her hand. ‘‘Good-bye, Tom,’’ she said with tears in her voice. Tom took her hand. ‘‘Good-bye, little Marjory. I want you to know that I love you now and always shall and in a year I’m coming back to tell you this again if Kelly’’—he broke off and his tone changed. ‘‘I hope you have a good time this year.”’ Marjory looked up into his face reproachfully, ‘‘Why, Tom.” But Tom dropped her hand, raised his hat and turning, hastened down the street before she had time to finish. Three days passed and Tom made no effort to see Marjory again, three days in which he had tried to eonvince himself that in breaking the engagement he had thought only of her happiness. ile longed for something of hers, something symbolic of their broken bond. Always came the thought of the ring. Where had it fallen? On the fourth day, he walked out toward the tree determined to search for it. It would be some comfort at least to have some- thing she had once loved. He strolled along with his eyes on the ground until he was almost at the tree and suddenly he saw Marjory. She, too, was walking with her eyes on the ground, evidently in search of something. It was the ring, of course. Tom was taken by surprise and, making sure she had not seen him, he turned and hurried back the way he had come. When he was out of sight he sat down on a log to rest and think. Was she looking for the diamond because ‘+ was a diamond? She did so love jewels. But could she be so heartless? And then he wondered if she could be looking for the ring for the same reason he was, for what it symbolized. Was she unhappy, too? Still wondering he went home. Next morning the first question that came to him was, ‘‘l wonder if she found the ring.’’ Curious to know whether she had found it or not, he hastened to the tree half expecting to see her there before him, but she was no where about. He left relieved and immediately began to search. He looked over every foot of eround where he thought the jewel could have fallen, but no ring was to be found. Recalling one of the diversions of his boyhood, he drew down the branch from which they had thrown the ring and tying a small stone loosely on the little twig, let it fly and throw back the stone in the same direction it had thrown the ring. He went to where it had fallen. It was quite a different direction from the one in which he had been searching. He looked all around the place and had almost given up hope, when his eye was attracted by a little gleam of sunlight in the grass. 11