Stadium High School - Tahoma Yearbook (Tacoma, WA)

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THE TAHOMA 27 The frail form on the bed stirred, and a faint smile curved the thin, pale lips. A whisper hardly more than a breath said, Pan, you have come back at lastg dear Pan, you are so gooclf, i The crisis passedg soon the Boy began to grow in strength of body and minclg but always, even to manhood, he had a listening attitude, as if always waiting to hear again the pipes oi Pan. ff, v, , f to f Q55 24-NN ui JMX Rf MXSQYXIII ff WKTTTLIH W A G51 f- 55-angie FN 5 S10L3iiTfTiiiTTTJR :N 1 E Eli? 75-4?-ieiff K

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T26 THE TAI-IOMA Pipes oi Pan LORNA GALER 'I9 453 E WAS a strangely quiet Vg il and handsome boy, his skin tanned by the desert sun. I-lis deep blue eyes, and his hair very light and streaked with gold, were the only marks that distinguished him in appearance from his Arab com- panion. l-le had been born on the great desert under the shadow of the Sphinx: this accounted, people said, for his queer ways. For the boy loved wild flowers, but would not pick them from their stems, as other children did. Also, he seemed to have the power to commune with the timid wild animals and birds. l-le had no playmates, for his quiet retiring manner did not win him many youthful friends. His mother, his Arab servant, the woods and his books, made up his little world. ' When only six years old he had come with his mother to the great forest country of Maine. I-lis delicate health kept him from school, so his mother and the Arab servant were his only tutors. The education given him might have been frowned upon by some teachers of today, for he was taught only that which interested him most. The best liked of his studies was the Myths of Greece and Rome. I-Ie knew every story that was associ- ated with the name of each god and goddess. l-le thought of them, ,dreamed of them, and played with them until they seemed human com- panions. But the god beloved above all others was Pan, the joyous, the irresponsible, the maker of sweet, plain- tive music, the god who never grew old. The Boy as he wandered through the forests wished with all his young heart that Pan would come and to- gether they would skip and dance far into the heart of the forest. In imag- ination he could see Pan dancing over leafy hill and dale, 'his slim goat legs keeping perfect time to the music of his two pipes. l-lis long curly hair was wreathed in fresh, fair flowers. A low tender melody came from somewhere near, it rose and fell, and was silent. The Boy listened intently, then started forward calling eagerly, Oh Pan, wait for me, l'm coming! He ran and the melody seemed just ahead. on, on, down hills, over dales, and across brooks and through green tangles th-e music led him, until ex- hausted he fell murmuring the name of Pang then all was blackness. A tiny brown bird on a limb near by ruffled its feathers and its throat swelled with a low, joyous rippling song full of melodious chords. Months had passed since the Boy had followed the notes of a hermit thrush, thinking it the music of Pan. Months, and still he lay pale and al- most lifeless on his white bed, where the Arab servant had brought the un- conscious boy from the heart of the forest. The doctor looked at him and gravely shook his head. l-le will surely die if we cannot arouse him from that stupor. The words had hardly left his lips when a song of infinite beauty and plaintiveness floated quivering thru the air. Again and again it was repeated.

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28 THE TAI-IOMA The lnventofs Safe SANFORD MARTIN The tall lnspector stood staring fixedly at the body as it half sprawled on the desk, where it had relaxed when its life was snuffed out. ln the side of the head was the hole of a thirty- eight caliber bullet, but from where it had come no one could tell. The other detective examined for the third time the locks on the four windows of the laboratory and workshop, but with little satisfaction. That they had been locked from the inside could not be doubt-ed and probably by the inventor himself as he prepared to work on the plans of a new invention. Finally the Inspector spoke. Pro- fessor Girardf' he said, was shot from inside this room, but how the murderer escaped, heaving the win- dows and doors locked on the inside, seems an unsolvable mystery. The other detective said nothing, but con- tinued his examination. The jani- tor, the Inspector went on, said posi- tively that there was a key in the lock which he had to push out before he could unlock the door, which means that the door also was locked from the insidef, That morning Prof. N. E. Girard, the inventor, had been found dead by the janitor of the office building. On going to the inventor's iaboratory to perform his duties he had noticed the light burning, an uncommon occurrence so early in the morning. Receiving no response to his knock he had let himself in with his pass key. The professor's assistant, Frank Nichols, was known to be out of the city on business, but he was practically known to have no connection with the pro- fessor's death, because of the intimate relations between the two. Inspector Furnow aroused himself from his deep thought and took a general survey of the room. At the far end was a work table stretching the width of the room and above which were numerous rows of shelves lined with unlimited chemical and elec- trical apparatus. At the opposite end was the inventor's desk, at which he now lay just as he had fallen. Across from the desk on the side of the room was a safe, not a large one, raised on a pedestal so as to be reached more conveniently. This practically com- pleted the furnishings besides a few pieces of small machinery. here and there. A second door led to an ad- joining room frommthe end where the desk was, but this was locked and the key still in it. The Inspector stepped to the desk, emptied the waste basket on the floor and carefully sorted over the contents. There was nothing but a few pieces of crumpled paper. One of these he smoothed out. It was a telegram dated the day before and read, Will return at eleven-thirty Wednesday. Nichols. - The Inspector looked at his watch. It was a quarter to eleven. ln three- quarters of an hour Nichols would be there and throw what light he could, if any, on the mystery. The detective again went over the case from the beginning. The light had been found burningg the doors and windows all locked from the inside, no signs of a scuffle: no weapon found in the roomg and no place could be found where a bullet could have en-