Butler High School - Magnet Yearbook (Butler, PA)

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12 THE SENIOR MAGNET into cold water. Feeling like a new man. he hurried from the temple and without once looking back, made his way to his hotel. ------------B.-H. Had Wilks been driven by a troubled conscience to restore the stolen idol, or had Buddha really forced him to yield to his divine will? ,-s.------------ THE DECOY Rosamond Whiteside William Wooster Kelly was wandering aimlessly about. Why couldn’t he make friends as easily as Fred Miller did? He had been in the city for more than a month and hardly knew anybody. He unconsciously went toward a school for young men, where he had often watched them come out arm in arm, having such a good time. It was about six-thirty and almost everybody was at his dinner, but Bill didn’t realize that he was hungry. He didn’t even realize that he himself was living until a very attractive young girl passed him. She had stopped short when she saw him, and looked at him with wide, frightened eyes, which seemed to be begging for help. “Now why in the world did she look at me like that?” he wondered. But he didn’t have to wonder long, for as he stood staring after her, a large, ugly tramp almost pushed him off the walk and hurried after the girl. Just then the girl ran up the steps of a large dimly lighted building. The tramp was close behind her and Bill a short distance back of the tramp. When Bill entered the building, he heard a loud piercing scream. He rushed into the room from which the scream seemed to come. Everything was in total darkness. The door which he had left slightly ajar was slammed shut and he was grabbed and held tightly by something. “Oh! we’ve got him now.” “I want his right ear,” growled a big voice. “I want his right hand,” screamed a little rasping voive. Silence,” spoke an authoritive voice, “the officers will join me in the corner till we decide what part or parts of him we will keep.” Bill heard muffled footsteps and low murmuring voices. Where was he, and what were they talking about? Was this a civilized world ? and yet they seemed to be talking of cutting him to pieces. Put him on the table,” said the authoritive voice. Bill was placed on a long, narrow table and securely tied. A thick bandage was tied over his eyes and forehead. “We have decided to take his left hand off at the wrist and the toes of his right foot at the first joints. We will now proceed.” A moan of agony escaped Bill’s stiffly set lips when he felt the sharp knives begin to cut his hand and toes off and he could feel the blood lying in a small puddle on the table. There were still two more toes to come off. Could he live through it? Finally it was over. With several sighs of satisfaction, they turned off the lights which they had turned on after bandaging his eyes, and untied him. As Bill lay there thinking, his arm

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THE SENIOR MAGNET 11 man had lost his mind from thinking about the vengeance of Buddha, another had risen from bed in the middle of the night, cut his wife’s throat, and jumped from a high window, killing himself. So it went, everyone who dared to retain the idol being punished by Buddha. The shopkeeper had just procured the idol the day before, and of course did not believe the stories concerning it, but he was willing to dispose of it at a very reasonable price. So, interested in the idol, both on account of the wonderful perfection of the carving, and on account of its strange history, Wilks had bought it, and now as he placed it on the mantle in his Xew York apartment, many thousand miles from its original resting place, he wondered with a queer smile, if this small gold image had had anything to do with his experience of the night before. However, Wilks was not the kind to brood over events of this kind, and without glancing again at the image, he finished arranging his curios and then went to his club for dinner. It was rather late when he got home so he went to bed immediately and before long was fast asleep. But again he awoke in the middle of the night with that strange feeling of fear. It was nothing tangible, just a queer sense of foreboding. Again and again he suffered this same experience, always at the same time of night and often he was disturbed by bad dreams. At first these dreams assumed no special form, but gradually they began to depict different ways in which Buddha would punish an enemy. Was he, Wilks, to be another victim of the golden idol? He laughed at the idea. But althought he might laugh at the idea of a small trinket of gold having anything to do with dreams, neverthe- less these dreams recurred again and again, and Wilks dreaded to go to sleep at night. He became so nervous that the least sound startled him, and his friends, noticing his haggard appearance, were continually asking what ailed him. Finally, when he could stand it no longer, he decided to take another trip, hoping the change would help him, so he packed up and started upon another curio gathering tour. Wilks traveled continually for six months; touching many out of the wav-places of the world, but wherever he was, no matter how interesting his surroundings, he was haunted by horrible dreams at night, and, since he was unable to forget them during the day, he became morbid, the dark form of Buddha seeming to overshadow him whaever he might be doing. At last he decided to yield, and to restore the idol to the Chinese temple from which it had been stolen. Up to ibis time lie had retained the idol solely on account of his obstinacy. He believed in one God and only one, and thought that this idea of the punishment of Buddha was only a product of an overworked imagination. But now he was willing to stoop to anything to gain peace, so without a moment’s delay, he started toward China. He traveled with all possible speed, chafing at every delay, and at last reached his goal. Trembling with expectation, he entered the temple, and waiting until he was unobserved, he took the small idol of Buddha from an inside pocket where some strange force had compelled him to carry it during all his travels, and placed it upon one of the jewelled altars. Immediatelv a great sense of relief swept over him. It was as if he had been consumed by a great fire for many months, and had at last been permitted to plunge himself

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THE SENIOR MAGNET 13 and foot almost stopped aching, but he didn’t have the courage to move them. Suddenly the door opened with a bang and the big tramp came in, standing in the path of light which came in from the door. After attempting to smother several snickers, he burst out laughing. He came over to the table and gave Bill a few light punches. This was too much for Bill. He forgot that he had only one hand and that one foot was crippled. He was almost mad with fury and his one thought was to choke that horrid tramp. Chairs, tables and everything were kicked aside as Bill and the tramp wrestled. A scuffle of hurrying feet was heard outside. The room was flooded with light and Bill and the tramp were dragged apart. A tall, athletic looking boy was staring at Bill. “Ye gods. Sis, this isn’t Skinny Beggs.” “Heavens,” “Jimminy Christmas” and other similar expressions came from the doorway. Bill turned. 'i here stood “The Girl and behind her were the fellows that he had often watched come out of school together. Bill looked inquiringly at the tall boy who addressed “The Girl” as Sis. Oh, er—er,—er, his collar seemed too small for him. We’re all mighty sorry. I hope that you ain’t hurt. You, your aren’t nervous are you? We’re mighty sorry, but you see Skinny Beggs wanted to join our bunch, but we all considered him rather faint hearted. So we decided that if he couldn’t stand a real stiff initiation, when he didn’t know that he was to be initiated we would prove this. “Siss is a pretty good actress, and neither she nor Skinny knew each other. We described him to her. Skinny always was crazy about pretty girls. So we decided that Fat Cooper dressed as a tramp, would follow Sis and Sis would lure Skinny to follow them here and then we would finish it. “For nine days in succession Skinny has come past here at about seven o’clock. Luck seemed to be with us, so we set tonight for the initiation. “In her excitement Sis didn’t realize that she had the wrong fellow. We sure are sorry, I—I—.” “Yes, we are sorry,” Fat Cooper said, “but let’s shake hands and be friends.” In a few minutes Bill had met everybody and the reserve which he had acquired when he came to the city left him and he became the same old Bill that everybody in Mercersville, his home town, likie so well. -----B.-H.-S.----- THE BOHEMIAN GIRL Ruth Heineman From the window of his club, James Morris watched the gay scene below. It was Hallowe’en and the streets were filled with the usual gay crowd of merry makers, witches, clowns, cowboys, and all manner of strange looking per- sons, jostled one another and laughingly dodged the well aimed balls of confetti. The spirit of revelry was in the air and everywhere was happy confusion. Bells tinkled, horns tooted, bands played and from the doors of the