Potter School - Shield Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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THE POTTER SHIELD B tl l e told me this afternoon that the formula was completed and he had y .ic way, 1 . . I f d ' 't t .t 'mdv for Commercial appllcgmong but I suppose he s alrea y given 1 0 ygu, 1 I ' d th lace was in darkness. Then a .. Il dasnapan CP Q .. J ust as I ieached the stePS, 5E the Steps on the Opposite Slde of the buddmg, - S- . ed and a man ran , , . . dom elemm h ther side just in time to see someone , , L .f , I otaroundtot eo . . I enum In the blick earl, etginto a roadster and drive off, speeding as if de Palma P 1 tl t 03 g . ' ' 1 aiecieliiim elrwerit in and turned on the lights and-well, sir, nothing s been touched. Stanley nodded his head. n . 4 I haven't the formula, he said quletly- The foreman stiffened and let out an oath. l You see, that's what they came for-the formula. But who could it be? None of our rivals are dirty enough for a job like that, andlyet-Oh, h-ll With Mal, he returned to where Dave lay and examined the face and head closely. Finally he straightened up and strode to the end of the room where, out of a case, he took a bottle of aluminum powder and a spatula. He carefully sifted a little of the powder on the space just between the temple and the ear, then blew it off. It stuck in streaks but with no definite pattern. Stanley shook his head. f'Too clever, he said. Even erased his finger prints. See that slight bluish spot there, just a little to one side of the temple? The scoundrel, whoever he was, probably waited and watched Dave for some time, hoping to see if he could find where Dave kept the formula. Then, when he was discovered, he jumped on him and pressed these two arteries, one on each side of the head. It shuts off the blood supply to the brain, causing instant unconsciousness and then death. Have you notified the coroner? No-o-o, slowly responded Mal. I thought I had better wait for you. Well, send for him now and ask him to try to keep the affair as quiet as he can. I am going to town right away. Stanley knew it was no use to hunt for the formula, because when Dave wanted to hide anything it took more than brains to find it. And besides, he had absolutely nothing to work on. Two days later, in the morning, the telephone again brought startling news. Someone had visited the laboratory during the previous night and had apparently started to wreck the sink. One of the night-shift men in passing had entered, engaged in a fight with the intruder, and got knocked Out, th tstanley 'Ullgought for a .moment and then smiled grimly. He rang up a firm a were ma ers of scientific instruments, placed an Order and then drove down to the 1ab0f3t01'Y, Where he spent the rest of the afternoon. That night, under cover of darkness, and with Mal's help he strung a bunch of Wires '50 31 Shafflk SQIIIG eight hundred feet distant, burying them for the most part about three inehes in the gF011I1d. The next day, on a table in the shack, he put 13 ' - . PP e T range mlxtufe Of TCMYS, batteries and electric bulbs. Two detectives work- mg 2L.'06I'11ately, were hired to watch the thing constantly from early evening to morning. Th k t , , out of existeneeivor Wen on as usual end Stanley Fofdme Seemed to have dI'0PPed After two weeks of watchful and tedi - , d t t. . n ous waiting, at about three in the morn- bllenkein e -ec We Sew one ef the little heme glow UP and in a minute th ere all 3 lfrcgularly. A little later th ' - ey W GY steadied and blinked rhythmically and Forty A

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L- hvv-E n' Z II-'l' , ,,.1Qmn.. I , v- hx ,L,l 1 ..ll, u . V. I A ',-h 1 lI 'ipl. .19 --uirg N-L , 'ii iii iw 'I- T, hflilitll . ,A t . moat' it 1 Sr.-itzner. P 1- 'Ili'- ' alll ... , - YIQPYP' !lfll V4 .3 , .. ...-mil 4. -' IDLE' p 1 . ,,'.T ,..- L-r ' fa o . 'l 'iw' . 1 vs n ' zu 2' fl 'I firm' limits: .' f xiii- 1.-rumli .1 , 1, .4 u ,.. luudi 1. vi i Lsl-'f' uf' li pil' V iwilf i 1, nf Fllme' rl ff. In HUIP' ' to THE POTTER SHIELD The Twentieth Century The telephone bell rang insistently from a table in Stanley Fording's apart- ment. He crossed to answer it. Hello. Oh, yes, Mal. What's the matter? What in the deuce! Come down? Say, man, do you think I'm a horse? Eh! Damnation! I'll be down right away. With a mind half dazed Fording rushed across the room, got into an overcoat, and a few minutes later was breaking all the speed laws in the state. As he got out on the highway his mind began to readjust itself. Dave killed? No 5 it couldn't be. Why, only yesterday he had been watching the final test of Dave's new insu- lation and listening, for the two hundred and tenth time, to the explanation of its purpose and possibilities. Murder-that was it. The formula would be of immense value to any of the rival concerns, but which of these could it be? There wasn't a single one that would dare to stoop to such a dastardly act 5 but the fact was there- Dave was killed. ' He turned down a side road and about a mile from a little town came into sight of a cluster of factory buildings with a smaller white edifice set off nearer the road. In front of this he stopped and a minute later was met by the plant foreman, who, without a word, led him into a large room. It was a typical research laboratory such as are being invested in more and more by concerns of the present day. Completely equipped down to the smallest detail with electrical, chemical, and mechanical appliances, it regularly formed the work- ing place for a staff of scientists whose sole object was to turn out a more efficient and more perfect product. A The room which Mal, the plant foreman, and Fording entered was oblong in shape and equipped principally for chemical research. At both ends were cases containing many varieties and forms of chemical apparatus and chemicals. A table running down the center of the room had on it an electrical furnace and several other bulky pieces of apparatus. But down the other two sides of the room were long tables, each having a large sink in it. In front of the left of these, Fording's eye fell on the still form of Dave Mowbly, his college companion and co-worker for six years. It was Stanley who possessed the keen scientific insight, but Dave -a chemist-was the genius. For years it had been his dream to succeed in per- fecting a suitable insulation for a lighter and better storage battery. And now, just at the point of success-+death. Stanley's hand trembled and he swallowed hard as he stooped and gently lifted off the rough blanket that had been thrown over the body. Dave lay with his head on his arm, as if he had suddenly grown very tired and gone to sleep. At any rate, Stanley thought death had come easily and without pain. He got up abruptly and, with the foreman, walked into the outer ofiice. He looked up questioningly, and the latter began his story. About half an hour before I rang you up and just after I had dismissed the vat-house crew, at about ten, one of the men told me he wanted to turn up some work on the lathe, so I came over here for the new cutting tools. I also wanted the quotations on that lot of hard-rubber sheeting you ordered last Week: From where I was I could see the light in that room there?-he pointed to the room from which they had just come- where Dave said he was going to worknlate tonight. Tlmty-nine

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.., fx N v. lv X x I Y ,Mu wlltt my v iillxgilvighi hm lh e,. V - K l 5. I UDXQ T- -. , 2 D - hw J . ,I-, ' s' Hz :IHA lx . N. ., llll' iuniii I Ffwiltngx ' 'lin -- X iii- -. A5 de PPL' ., str . ... llufhmais uld it ig 4 I hslpu ui 'ti ' l . t..v into imdb? . n in v , vi . . .i. llf' l'1lI'Pfu1l5. Sift? ' f .1111 Uh Q'-gr' then bk? .zlllvy Sllfnlli lltlll. vw el.. 51' that slight blip -lfrl. Wliocver he 2 '-- ww- if he couldtf 'F-'-5. iw junipedoufi Ii shutsoiitheblc-1-f fri -hizith. Harry-31 '--'tm wait for yoi' affair as quiet :elf . svhcn Dave waht .N 'Y ah 'Q . hs. he had ahsoluief Hugh! stzlflllllg nel' 2212 and had aipplffllf amassing had enters .Xt fi Zu' llc ning upadlr '. ' . fi, If :md then dw' J +L fl .u hafk hit . in the r img, 2,Z. , ' ' '6:. 'I' to tlfqecm X ' i' I . ewulng fm!!! wr? , ' . :I if if-in mr ihf' mo' P, I I dfop -Wm,.1 to hate ff ' th61l ' ,infill lhreetlgevwfili i It rillnute hmicilh' iuliffl thy! THE POTTER SHIELD almost simultaneously. He reached forward and quickly threw two switches, then hurried out and blew a whistle. - Immediately eight dark forms rose apparently out of the ground and sur- rounded the building. There was a commotion inside the laboratory and a man dropped on all fours like a cat from one of the windows, only to be immediately arrested by three of the guardsmen. 1 Five minutes later, Stanley Fording again came into existence and the mystery looked as if it were about to be solved. The murder of poor Dave puzzled me a great deal, he began, especially in view of the fact that none ofthe apparatus had been touched. I couldn't imagine a motive for the murder when there was no sign of a search. It might have been a personal grudge, but the event of two nights later clinched matters. The villain had been scared off by Mal before he had had time for a hunt, consequently when he learned the place was unguarded he returned. There could be only one explanation for his immediately beginning to wreck the sink-that he knew the formula was concealed there. Also, the fact that one of the night-shift men caught him made me suspect that he was right here in the plant. At any rate, I ordered four geo- phones and the necessary relays and wire. Mal and I placed these around the laboratories so that the 'chem' room was just about inthe center. Geophones have been used throughout almost the entire war to detect sapping operations of the enemy. They are so sensitive that they will detect the footsteps of a. person who is walking fifty or seventy-five feet away-and with the right kind of ground even further. They are a very modified form of microphone or ordinary telephone transmitter. When the rascal got in the 'chem' room the 'goe's' naturally indicated it by blinking all together. To guard against the possibility of the man's escaping without leaving any evidence, I drilled a hole in the wall and put in a camera with a 'fish-eye' lens. The idea is as old as the ages but seldom heard of. It is merely a lens that has a refracting power of about a hundred and seventy-four degrees. In other words, the whole room was taken in without the use of a panoramic camera. The flash-light powder was set off by a switch in that shack. At this point Mal came back. We've got him safe and tidy in the county jail, he reported. It was Remy Johnson, head of the vat department. I-Ie confessed, and it seems that he was just working for his own interests. But he hasn't the formula, he says-couldn't find it. No, I know that, responded Fording dryly. I got that myself the day I put in the geophones. It was concealed in one of the boards the fellow took up that night. In the meantime I've been staying here in Downston waiting for the climax. I CEDRIC EDWARD HESTHAL, '20, Forty-one