Petersburg High School - Missile Yearbook (Petersburg, VA)

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tourist would have been completely justified in thinking that he was going to the Temple of N aida, as he was walking toward it, and the temple was the only attraction to sightseers in that direction. The Temple of Naida was constructed directly at the termination of the cobbled street. At least it would seem so, but the street was the re- sult of the templeg for centuries the natives had gone to this obscure temple from miles around to worship the huge idol that it sheltered. Gradually they had settled along the sides of this path until a small com- munity had been established. They named this community Jaipur. The man's quick and deliberate steps gave evidence of the fact that he was well aware of what he wanted to do. After the lapse of a very few minutes he stood on the steps of the great temple, whose whole structure shimmered in the terrific heat. The man stood there for a moment mopping his brow, from which exuded moisture which flowed freely. The huge temple blended harmoniously with the similar buildings which en- closed either side of the narrow street. He stopped short in his mental appraisal of his surroundings as if he were in a hurry, then found him- self, after taking several steps, within the great hall of the Temple of Naida, the temple which housed the protecting god of the Jaipur ascetics. In the center of the great hall the immense idol immediately arrested his attention. It was the only inanimate object in the hall. A ponderous bronze masterpiece of Indian craftsmanship, approximately twenty feet high and seemingly nearly as wide, entirely dominated the room by the grotesque features of its physiognomy. The idol sat upright on its haunches, its legs crossed Turkish fashion. The misshapen arms were folded across its massive chest in grim defiance of all who entered. About two inches below a mass of serpentine curls there was set the object of all that the tourist population of Jaipur came to see. Emitting an incredible, greenish radiancy, imbedded in the bronze forehead was an oriental emer- ald. Its beauty and size alone were enough to attract the attention of even a novice in the knowledge of rare gems. The man stood motionless within a few feet of the entrance, awed. It was not the beauty or size that held his gaze thus, but an estimate of the mercenary advantages a stone that size could afford fiashed through his mind. Before the seated idol paced a native guard, on whose shoulder there rested an unusually modern rifle for such an obscure locality. The highly polished metal barrel reflected the rays of the sun that shone through the many holes in the ceiling, on whose shafts of light the dust particles slowly floated up and down. With apparent effort the man drew his eyes away from the hypnotic Pasesirteen THE MISSILE

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The Emerald By Edward Spiers I. INDIA - 1885 6,539 VER Jaipur, far in the interior of mysterious l India, a relentless sun l beat upon an indigent ' population of natives, the greater number of whom lay about in the shaded places taking their noonday nap as had been the custom of their race for innumerable genera- tions. The aborigines seemed in no way prejudiced in the means of escape from the broil- ing sun. They were perfectly content to curl up in the filthy corners of the low, dingy abodes l or beneath any other protection that served to lessen the nearly unbearable heat which sapped every spark of vitality from their sweltering bodies. Although the tortuous streets were usually infested with tourists, itinerant musicians, and soldiers of fortune, today they surrendered their appearance in lieu of their respective dwellings to evade the penetrating rays of the sun. Thus making himself conspicuous by only his presence, a man wended his way through the numerous vegetable wagons and trinket stalls that obstructed his progress, causing him to make a somewhat circuitous route before reaching his destination. The pace that he assumed would also have been noticeable, for his steps were too long and too rapid for anyone having been in the locality of Jaipur for any length of time. He was a White man, dressed as any other civilized traveler would have been, having on the customary White suit, white shoes and a large, white tropical helmet. Any native who might have had the energy to glance twice at this THE MISSILE Pageiifteen

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gleam of the green gem. He cast them about the room and for the first time was aware that only the guard and he were in the room. Ostensibly pleased, he approached the guard as if to speak to him. The guard halted, ready to answer any question that the man might hap- pen to ask him. Ah, sighed the visitor, beautiful-just like a gargantuan ca.t's eye,-oh, I say, I should like to take a few notes. He reached into his pocket and extracted a small black notebook. As he did so the guard tightened his hold on his riiie, but seeing only a writ- ing pad, he momentarily relaxed his vigilance. . And my pen, said the man in white, taking one slowly from his coat pocket. Holding it in his hand so that the end of the pen pointed toward the guard, he made a deft movement with his fingers on the lip of the pen. From the end of the pen shot a spray of nitric acid, hitting the guard full in the face. The surprised guard, dropping his gun from his grasp, stiifled his own cries by attempting to relieve the agonizing pain by in- stinctively throwing his hands over his face and mouth. The stranger, drawing back his fist, swung forward with all his weight, knocking the already half-insensible guard to the fioor, letting him lie there, the nitric acid slowly disfiguring his features. Now en- tirely unconscious from the last assault of his assailant, the guard was forgotten as the invader sprang nimbly toward the idol. Experienced hands, whose controlling body stood on the folded arms of the idol, dex- terously removed the verdant gem from its setting. Putting the stolen treasure into his pocket he leaped from the arms to the crossed legs and then to the fioor, and from there he sped to the door and stopped. Immediately resuming his pace, he walked out into the front yard of the temple, going even more slowly than before he had entered it. The stranger retraced his steps down the labyrinthian street, disap- pearing somewhere into the maze of squalid houses. Behind him- thousands of miles behind him-he left an idol, a bleak, bare, sombre idol whose only attraction was a forehead in which was a hole, that, the natives say, once held an oriental emerald, whose value was worth a king's ransom. II. NEW Yom: - isss Among the numerous gambling-dens and saloons in the Bowery, one particularly was noted for being a little better class than the average. Possibly it was because it was a well-concealed concern, possibly because smaller odds were required on the roulette wheels. This place was known throughout the underworld as the Dead Sol- THE MISSILE Page seventeen