Roosevelt High School - Round Up Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

Page 30 text:

ffYes, mother, do let her, chimed in Nancy. So it was settled, and soon everyone except Betty Lou was searching for secrets. Suddenly Betty Lou piped up, 'fLet me look, too. Are you hunting for kitty, 'cause sheis downstairs by the stove. I saw her. UNO, darling, answered Nancy, we're not hunting for kitty, but you can crawl around on the floor with us if you wish. Five minutes later Betty Lou let out a little scream and cried, 'fOh, look, daddy, what I found. And she pushed her little hand right through a hinged panel in the wall. CHAPTER XI 'fWhy, look,', exclaimed Stan, f'there's an opening in the wall, and sure enough there was, though it wasn't very large. f'Oh, gasped Nancy, there's something in there! l' Stan thrust his hand into the opening, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. It read: Dear Children: If you like surprises, examine the under side of the old table in this room. Uncle Ben. Before anyone could turn around, Stan was under the table. UOh boyll' he cried, f'There's a lock here-the table must be hollow. The lock without a key, mur- mured Nancy. Well, it's a lock with a key now, answered Mr. Lawrence, passing the golden key under the table to Stan. f'Lookll' cried Stan, and he held up a hand- ful of greenbacks. 'fjust feast your eyes on thisf' When every bill had been taken from the hollow table, and had been counted again and again by the excited family, it was found that there was 35,000 in the secret horde. 'fAnd to think, said Nancy, ffwemight have thrown this ugly old table away. Soon the whole town knew of the Lawrences' wonderful discovery. There was enough to send Stan and Nancy to college when the time came, to buy a car, and oh, lots of other things. The following morning a detective called on the Lawrences and told them that Von Burgen had been working for an unscrupulous real estate company, which in some way had received a tip that Uncle Ben had a lot of money concealed in the hoiise when he died, so they were trying to frighten the Lawrence family into leaving the house, so they could buy it cheap, and secure the money. Von Burgen had an added interest in getting possession of the house, as the attic was full of very valuable antiques. The Lawrence family later sold these for a very substantial sum. So all was well that ended well, and the Lawrences are never tired of telling the story of The Key Without a Lock to their friends. And Betty Lou always says, f'It was my rag doll that was the cause of it allf' l28l

Page 29 text:

replied that he did not wish to prosecute the boy, since the case had been recovered, and the policeman withdrew. It was now after one o'cl0ck, and Mrs. Lawrence insisted that everyone go to bed and try to get a little rest. The next morning, breakfast was scarcely over before the Lawrence family again stood before the locked room. Betty Lou was excited, too, because all the others were, and was hopping from one foot to another. Stan again slipped the key into the lock. 'tTurn it! 'I cried Nancy. CHAPTER IX He turned it, and the lock clicked. Stan slowly and cautiously pushed open the door, as if he were afraid something was going to jump out at him. Oh! Nancy let out a startled cry. 'KTherels nothing here but one table and a chair, both covered with dust. I'm so mad I could scream. The idea of Uncle getting us all excited over nothing. The whole thing is a joke, I bet. Now, Nancy,,' said her father, let's leave everything alone for a while, at least. I admit the puzzle is certainly hard to understand. Oh, dadf' broke in Stan, could there be secret panels or anything like that in this room? 'tThere must be somethingj remarked Mrs. Lawrence. 'fUncle was a queer man, but he was a kind one, and I don't think he would be so mean as to play a trick like that. Nancy, Stan, and Mr. Lawrence fell to work looking at and feeling every crack in the walls. Do you know what's missing? suddenly burst out Nancy. 'tIt's the golden key we saw on the table. Where is it? As she spoke, she swung suddenly on her heel to face her family, and as she did so, her knee hit a. little button on the table leg. Before the astonished group, there shot open a little drawer. There in the drawer lay a piece of paper. Stan opened it and read: Dear Children: By this time you must have decoded the message in the doll, and discov- ered that the key to this room was in the fuse box. This is only one of the secrets this small room contains. Remember, if you fail once, try again and again. You'll not be sorry. Love, UNCLE BEN. HI knew it, cried Mrs. Lawrence. 'tl knew he wouldn't fool us.'l CHAPTER X It was an excited family that sat down to dinner that night. Everyone was noisy except Mrs. Lawrence. She was busy thinking. Suddenly she said, Please be quiet a minute. I have something important to ask you. The family quieted down, for they knew their mother had something important to ask them. What I want to ask you, continued Mrs. Lawrence, is where is the golden key we saw when we looked through the pane of glass in the door? She had no sooner gotten these words out of her mouth than Nancy sprang to her feet with, Come on, everybody,'l and away they went up the stairs, Mrs. Law- rence and Betty Lou bringing up at the rear. Everybody got down on their knees and searched the floor for the lost key. 'Finally Stan spied it in a crack by the table. I suppose one of us knocked it off, remarked Nancy, but where is the lock to fit it? Well, we're here now, why don't we look for it?', asked Mr. Lawrence. I'm sure it must be in this room, he continued. You look for it while I put Betty Lou to bedf' answered Mrs. Lawrence. Please, mama, let me stay with daddy, begged Betty Lou. l27l

Page 31 text:

THE AIR MAIL MYSTERY It was just sunset when a huge tri-motored plane was pulled out of Hanger No. 3 at the Municipal Airport at Denver, Colorado. Three mechanics wearing greasy overalls began to look the plane over. After a few minutes the motors were started and the head mechanic inspected and O Kid the plane. A few minutes later two strong muscular built men in flying togs appeared on the field each carrying a mail bag over his shoulder and dragging one along behind him. The door of the plane was opened and the mail bags were piled neatly in the rear of the cabin. t'How is she? exclaimed one of the men. Couldn't be betterf' replied the mechanic. At that the two men got in the plane and in a few minutes the huge plane was headed west toward the Rockies. It was ten minutes past eleven when the airport radio operator phoned Bill Ryan, the airport manager falso known as the chiefj, What is it, exclaimed Bill. Whatl the seven iifteen mail plane robbed, Mack killed, 'fSlim Anderson uncon- scious, plane wrecked in dead stick landing at Oakland Airport one hour over due. f'Thanks 'Red,' so long. Four days had elapsed since the air mail robbery. No clues or any information had yet been received about the robbery. Slim had died a few hours after landing without coming to his senses. The 1'Chief had been working and studying on a plan to solve the mystery for three days when at last it came to him. The following Monday a very valuable load of mail was to be sent out, and somehow the newspapers had gotten the news and everyone for miles around knew all about it. Somethings got to be done,'l exclaimed Sweden Johnson to Bill Monday morning as they were eating breakfast in the Airport cafe. I think I've got an idea that will knock the whole bunch of them air mail robbers silly? Spill it, said Swede. I've got a plane down there in my private hangar all equipped with a machine gun, dual control and a high speed motor? HWhat good is the machine gun, when those dirty thieves will probably have one on their plane too? Wait a minute, that's not what I've got in mind. You and Hank take the mail out at the usual time, but about an hour before Sam and I will go out for a little ride in my plane and ily around up in the air at an altitude of about 3,000 feet and wait for you to take off and follow right above you, but out of sight and when any of those crooks go horsin' around we'll drop 'em right in their tracks. 'fSwell idea Bill, bet you've been planning that out for weeks. That night the air mail took off as calm as ever at the usual time and headed towards San Francisco. There was a long deserted stretch between the Rockies and the Sierras. As the plane soared smoothly along at a sepeed of 90 miles per hour a faint roaring sound was heard in the distance. Could it be the chief or was it some other plane? It only took a few minutes to tell the tale for it was not long until a small sinister appearing plane without a number, was seen roaring above the mail plane trying to force it down. Bill and Sam were soon on the mystery ship's tale and shattered its propellor with a few shots from the machine gun which meant a forced landing. And that was not all-the mysterious mail robbery had been solved. KENNETH JACKSON . l29l