Arcata High School - Advance Yearbook (Arcata, CA)

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The man above leaned closer over his rifle, but did not fire. Sam's gone crazy, he observed. With hands upraised above their heads the two others had stumbled out from behind their breastworks, and with dry, horrible mouthings, announced their capitulation. Not for an instant shifting his eyes, the man above bade them halt, then waited while at his direction the woman scrambled down and brought back the arms and cartridges of all three. Searching out a pencil and a bit of paper in which coffee had been wrapped, she then wrote several lines thereon and presented it to the captives. Without pausing to read, they aflixed their signatureg and then at last, lowering his weapon, the conqueror saw them drag their thirst-maddened companion to the pool, and with him fling them- selves face downward at its brink. Then carefully folding up the paper they had signed, the sheep-man put it with the wallet in an inner pocket. Of course, he observed to his wife, as they turned toward their horses, I don't reckon this'd hold in a court of law, but it don't need to. Because if I know 'em, they'd rather lose the money than have it come out that they'd got held up this way and sent home afoot, without their guns. Now let's get out of this-quick. LAURA MYERS, '13, T 42? X i,a i 6 Lflilw vl ll Twenty-nine

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The sheepman's voice, full of sarcasm, answered: You will? Oh, you will? Do you think I can't shoot? And therelll be a moon, too. just you try it. Hours passed in .an absolute silence-tense, ominous, terrifying. Like a ball of molten metal, the sun at last dropped down below the horizon. The faint breeze of evening blew in across the plains, the flame faded from the sky, and the long shadows that fell from the rock and cactus and yucca melted into the one deepening gloom of night. Now, also, the three behind the lower rock began to test the screen of the darkness. A hat raised on a gun-muzzle dropped instantly, bullet-torn, an attempt to retreat back into the desert was likewise frustrated. And be- fore the last reflected glow of the sunset had quite faded away, the moon rose over the desert like a watchful eye. The night passed on. Once the cattlemen tried the vigilance of their captor by a second attempt to creep upon him around the rim of the crater. At daybreak the game was yet unfinished. It was two hours after dawn, when already the cruel heat of the sun lay like a brown Hame against the black rocks of the crater, that a strange voice, like that of one stifling, burst forth in a confused babble of invective. Ah, d- you! d- you! the voice cried, rising in a fury of anger. What's the good of keeping up a play like this ? The man above moved his rifle slightly. Oh, youlre suffering now, ain't you ? he pursued. But what do you think I suffered all the years you men had the upper hand of me? When, because there was a dozen of you and only one of me you tried to shut me off from all the water-holes? When you tried to run me off the range that was as much mine as it was yours? When you tried to shoot me in the back for fear I'd give away that you were fencing government land? Vlfhen I didn't dare leave my well alone for fear you'd poison it, nor my house for fear of what would happen there ? Ah-you suffer now, and you've camped on my trail because you think it was me that blew open the safe of your bank and got away with a little of your money? What if I did? Who was it that came in the night and drove my five thousand sheep over the cliff into the canyon? That took from me all I had in the world, that I'd worked for all my life? What do you think I suffered then, and my wife that's stood by me through it all? Tell me that, will you, tell me that. For a moment no one answered him, and there was no sound except an echo. Then the strange voice from below spoke again. Yes, yes, I know all about that, Howard. But what's the use of going over it now? What is it you're trying to do? Trying to do? just what you said you'd do to me-starve you out, only for water. When you're ready to sign a paper giving me that money you lost from your bank in payment for my sheep that you killed, then you can put your hands up and come out and I'll let you get to the water. Savy ? Yes, we savy. But we ain't all in yet, 'and we reckon we can stand it as long as you can. Go on with your starving. Once again stillness resumed dominion of the desert. From time to time now the woman relieved her husband at his post. They drank the last of the water in the canteen and ate the last of their food. Over all the sun rose high, an implacable vampire whose clinging lips sucked the moisture from their bodies insatiably. Noon came-one-two o'clock, that moment of the sun's uttermost vio- lence. And like a sudden blow upon the calm face of the silence, a frenzied, beast-like scream echoed across the crater, and from behind the lower rock a man plunged out into the desert, clutching at his throat, and, with the spasmodic movement of a madman, tearing off his clothing. Twen t y-ei gh!

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Thirty Qmnaiu, The Tliruz King Arthur's friend, Sir Gans of Tintagel, Father of ten brave sons, nay, more by one, But that the youngest born, was dreamer called, Though tall and mighty framed, the fearless Gans Stood, far gazing o'er the western sea. With hopeless eyes. For a dragon monstrous-sized, Had seized upon his pleasant kingdom fair, And, blowing fire through hundred mouths agape, Had brought a famine on the land, had slain A hundred knights famed e'en in Arthur's Court, Who met their death full well and worthily, And still the dragon fierce made by their blood, O'er all the land of Gans held reign supreme, A bloody sway. O'er all the dense fog hung, Cut only by the gleams of blood-red sun, Which, shaped by magic's hand, formed mystic words The which no man could read, save young Owain The youngest born, the dreamer. To him they said, Keep thou thy faith, and thus he read the sign. The while Owain did muse on these strange words And half-formed purpose in his soul did dwell, The king, his aged father, to him turned Driven by plaints of subjects homeless made, Grieved at the loss of ten brave sons, and now The youngest also doomed, or so he thought, And thus did speak: O, thou! for whom the fates In form of Merlin did fortell fair fame! Oh, thou! whom I thy father love full well, Thou, yea, even thou, tho' all unskilled In arts of war, must undertake this quest, Must risk thy life in vain. Yet take my sword And go! 'Tis I, thy father, bid thee go! At this, his father's word, the young Owain Full-armored, by his side the clanging sword, Rode forth. Five days he rode and neither man Nor beast he saw. For thus the dragon worked, That all around the fertile fields were bare. So 'lone he went his way, and wearied, came At length to the fair mount of Aramath. Far up that mountain high a castle wall Dark glooming o'er the vale, cast fear on all. For in that castle grim lived Pelleas, if A man of might and magic. Old he was, And well he knew that Death had named him For his own. One child he had, a daughter, Fairer than the fair Queen Guinivere, And many knights did woo her, but in vain, For she did dream of gentle knight and true,