Erie Community High School - Cardinal Yearbook (Erie, IL)

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THD CARDINAL A Midnight Alarm Max, the hero of my story, is a Civil War veteran, who was awarded a medal for his unusual bravery during that conflict. This is how it came about that he received the distinction. On a dark and rainy night in the spring of f62, he was ordered on guard duty. Poor Max heartily dreaded this assignment at all times, and especially so, on a dreary night such as this. However, at the specified hour, he threw his musket resolutely over his shoulder, and marched off to his post. No more had he started, than he heard an unfamiliar rustle in the underbrush. He covertly drew his coat collar closer in an attempt to silence his chattering teeth. Every stir that his widely alert ears now detected, he thought came from a lurking spy who was creeping upon him. At these thoughts, his blood turned cold. To add to his alarm, an owl began its eerie hooting in a distant tree. P Then followed hours of merciless terror and suspense, for it was not until midnight that his expectations were fulfilled. Suddenly, the uncanny silence of the night was broken again by a distinct rustling in the bushes nearby. Tremb- ling with fear, he threw his gun to his shoulder and Cin a very thin voicel called out, 'Halt! The noise stopped for a short while, then suddenly began again, this time more closely at hand. Max uttered a second Halt, more feeble than the first. As before. sounds ceased for a moment, only to begin once more, a moment later. That spy will kill me if I don't shoot first, he thought, as in desperation he closed his eyes and weakly pulled the trigger upon which his finger nervously rested. Max was grossly startled by the report of his own gun. The next instant he heard a groan, and something fell heavily in the bushes. Picking up his lantern, he started with much reluctance and alarm to identify the spy. Other soldiers came rushing up to ascertain the cause of the shot. What they saw was Max holding a lantern high above his head, and staring, white-faced and with mouth agape, clown upon his victim, a poor old mule that had been turned into the pasture to roam during the night. Needless to say, the medal which Max received from his comrades for his bravery was a brass one. -Nettie Dobers. A LITERARY GEM Mrs. Rodler wanted the Seniors to use their vocabulary words in sentences. Look at Lucy's version! I pfrognosticated that Paul Kratzer's integrity was not to be trusted, as I have a feeling of antipathy for him. So being instigated by Fate, I went to the Assembly. There I found him with my Diary. He was aware of the imminent danger, because of the heinous crime he had committed, and a spontaneous thought as to a manner of escape rushed into his mind. By that time I was in a vindictive mood. I made an impetuous attack, upon him, after which I gave him a grandiloquent speech, which he reciprocated. At length, the fateful archive was returned to its rightful owner. 46

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THE CARDINAL our adventurers to make the final plunge which was to solve the mystery that had frightened people for so long. Just outside a window of the room, stood a gnarled tree which rocked back and forth with the slightest breeze. The moonlight, striking the tree, east on the opposite wall of the room, a grotesque shadow resembling a human form, whieh stalked nervously back and forth with each movement of the tree, whereas the dancing moonbeams playing amid the swaying branches, threw upon the floor and wall, fantastic illusions of terrifying figures. An unnerving sereech followed bv mysterious swishes as of the rustling of robes, unmanned--t-hefii J 41 boys: An instant later, however, they realized that a sudden gtmt of wind l1aclxLg,..e caused the stiffer limbs to grate along thekrough sideboar , a d I e leafier branches to brush lightly by. A-ny-furtherphenimenil -'-' ' i ' i i i n ESih nd n..,a.J.-1 gg could be at- tributed only to well-developed imaginations. Suddenly the tension of the boys snapped, and simultaneously they burst into loud laughter. Composing themselves, they lost no time in returning to relate to the nerve-racked the story of the now unhaunted mill. Naturally our heroes were not believed at Hrst, and many of the villagers had to be shown more than once before they would accept the explanation. In this way, the cnig-1-nanfff of the haunted mill came to be a mystery of days gone by. -Robert Pfundstein. 45

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