Franklin High School - Molecule Yearbook (Franklin, VT)

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11. Blue, feeling thirsty, had asked hin for cone water, which he had. brought her. Frank woe arrested, because he had supposedly poisoned Miss Blue, Janes felt that Frank was not guilty and , even though they were such bitter rivals, he decided to help Frank all ho could. He wondered who would have wanted to kill Miss Blue, Everyone liked her. He - fait quite cure that it must have been Tonny, licc, or Nancy - they being the only oncs£ besides Miss Blue, Frank, and him- self; who were in the building at the tine of tie death. Searching for a motive, he ran through the names of the suspects. First he took JJLice. She doesn't have any grudges against anybne as far as I know, he thought. She liked Miss Blue, and was a very good friend of both Frank and himself. Next he took Nancy. Nancy ,too, liked Frank, but that wouldn't make her want to kill Miss Blue. Finally he took Tonny• He was a quiet fellow who never seemed to have any en- emies, but ho could have had some secret quarrels. After running through the names previously mentioned without finding a clue, James hit uoon an idea. It was a long chance but it might work. The scheme was to call together the suspects,and tell then ho knew who the guilty party was but ho would give hin another chance to confess. This he did; then he dismissed them, after having announced that he knew who the murderer was and would name him in the morning. That night after James had gone to bod he still thought of the murder. Then he heard a faint squeak of his bedroom door. he lav tense in the dark , waiting. This visit had been expected. Su Hendly a moonbeam lit the room, and its light gleamed from a long pointed knifopoisod ever him. He reached up, grabbed his assailant'c wrist, and twisted. His opponent, screaming in pain, dropped the knife, James snapped on the lights, and to his surprise the murderer was a girl. t was Nancy. Why did you do it? demanded James. I didn't mean to kill anyone, far less Miss Blue',1 sobbed Nancy shakily. Tell log Just how it happened, urged James. Well, began Nancy, you know that Frank and I are real good friends, or I should saw 'were' good friends before -ALice cane along. During the game yesterday I put a weak, slow acting,poison in the chalk, not strong enough to injure fatally. I didir t know then that when a larsc quantity of cold water was added the wSak poison became deadly. That poison was meant for Alice, I didn't intend to kill her, but only to scare her a little and punish her for stealing Frank. How did you know that Alice would get the poison, not some- one else? questioned Janes,

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lc . THE MURDER OF MISS BLUE It was a warn day in the latter part of May - a perfect day for a baseball game Everyone was looking forward to the la st game or the season, scheduled for three o'clock that afternoon - Shadyside versus Kingston. That afternoon when Janes was going dovm the stairs, heading for the baseball field, ho saw Frank, a rival shortstop , talking to his (Janes' c )girl ; and he also sav; him hand her ocnct ing , probably his wallet,to keep until after the game, Janes was jealous of Frank , • and war coon seen combing hin out because of that little incident. Frank only laughed and told hin to think nothing of it. as I previously mentione I,Janos and Frank were rival short- stops for Shadyaide High School. For this reason and James's jealousy they never were very good friends. When the gone started Frank was playing short , while Janes sat on the bench. Early in the game,how- ever, when Frank was hit on the ankle by a swift ba.ll and had to be taken out of the game, Janes took hi3 place. In th.; last of the ninth, with the tying and winning runs ort bases, Janes walked up to bat. He could see everyone making a great fuss over Frank because he had hurt his ankle on the playing field. James thought that if he could drive in those runs he would get some atten- tion too. Janos, hovcvr, didn't drive in the runs, but he did walk to''land the s aede ? After a few extra in.ings .Shadyside beat Kingston with a score of eight to seven. The next day Mis a Blue, the geometry teacher was very kind to the boys because they had played so hard the day before. Instead of making them go to the blackboard and draw geometric figures, she went herself, asking questions on the proofs . Miss Blue was an elderly , gosd-naturod woman. Her hair had streaks of white, and her face was somewhat wrinkled by the years; but, nevertheless,there was a twinkling in her eyes , ohe had a smile for all. Miss Blue was nervous and had a habit of chewing the end of her pencil, pen, or whatever she might bo writing with. diftcr scho 1 everyone left but James, Nancy, Frank, and Tom- my. Frank went into Miss Blue's room to pick out a book to read, for the library was at the back of Miss Blue's room too, while the others were playing games in the main rocm. Suddendly, in the midst of joy anl laughter, the merry-makers hoard a terrifying scream. It cone from Miss Blue's room. They all jumped to their feet and hurried toward the s aund. As they entered Miss Blue's room they found her lying on the floor near her desk; and Frank stoid there,staring down at her . The 1-etor, who was summoned immediately, examined Miss Blue and announced hat she had been poisoned. They questioned Frank and found that Miss

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 Ynu ’-no-’ o ■ cc -c a L t it of cutting chalk or the end Mice Blue did go: so she got the poison instead of 11cq, because sne too put the chalk into her mouth. Janes was glad that Frank was not the murderer, but he waa sad that Nancy was. Yet this being her first offense an the poifloni: 6 being partly accidently, he thought that she woidU get off with a light sentence. Leo West ’49 AFTER I JUMPED I took a long bre. th, hold ny nose and jumped. This was the -oot 1 hadn’t thought the map would lead me anywhere. When I xouna it dd th t s' rb''dv had made it up end planted it for a joke. Yet, when I£had followed it a little and found the lay of the land just as it was on the map. I changed my mind. The “JP had been t°m ana had looked old; that was the only reason I hau follower it t -ii, $ov here I was, eight feet under, and I hadn’t hit bottom yet. It said 5n the map th .t it was only 3ix feet deep, I thought, a little scared. Suddenly I struck something hard.Then I felt myself gliding alonfr in an unknown river, at le st it was unknown to me. On one bank areat trees loomed up and on the other a geeat wall of rock came right up to the water. Oh! I exclaimed as I turned from gazing at the rock wall and noticed a clearing at the edge cf the river. There were many thatched roof huts and several Indians in the clearing. Some of the Indians were cooking meals over small fires outside the huts, some were weaving rugs, and some were making pottery. Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a couple of canoes down the river. I saw thern about the same time Jthat the Inuians saw me. Wahoo! Heap big stranger come down river, makum good feast, one of them called, pointing his finger at me. That made all of the Indians, (both on shore and in the canoes) look at me. Several of the ones on shore came down to the water and climbed into the canoes. TheJ all had great long spoars. As they paddled towards me, spears in hand and yelling at the ton of their lungs, I realized that they wore cannibals. When they got within range of mo, and spears hit the water all around, I figured Ghat I had bettor start swimming for the raft didn't float fast enough 'or me. I swam about a hundred feet to a bend in the river and came nr-a some rapids! It was too late. Down I went, right into a mass of rocks with water swirling every which way.