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

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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

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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

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MAY, THE FAIRY PRINCESS May, was a beautiful fairy princess of the forest. Her parents named her May, because of the month she was born. Princess May, I am sorry to say, was very vain and proud. Because of her beauty all the forest folks loved her. She was very proud of this too. One day the news spread around that there was a huge animal now living in the forest. It was said to be very cruel. VVhen Princess May heard this, she said, Watch me make friends with him. It was a sunny morning when she started out to meet this animal, I do not know how but this certain animal knew of her vainness and sought to cure her. So when Princess May visited him he did not make friends, but sprang upon her and tore at her flesh. He did not hurt the Princess's beauty but cured her vanity. She learnt that everyone did not think that beauty could always win. CHARLOTTE BALLANTYNE UNCLAIMED GOLD When the family of five reached the other side of Panama, they expected to have a ship waiting for them to take them to California, but there wasn't any. Mr. Caros quickly built, a shelter as everyone else was doing this expecting to stay only for the night. While he is busy with this occupation, I winn introduce to you the other members of the family. First is Mother Caros who was busy preparing the evening meal, next is sister Nancy or Nan, then there was Gilbert, and last but not least, was baby Virgil or just Vergy. This family, as most others at the time, was going to California in search of gold. Almost all of the sailors and their captains were in search of gold, therefore ships were scarce. It was the third day at camp and still no ship in sight. The people were getting impatient. The McFarins was an old Scotch family that had lived next door to the Caros and being they were friends Gilbert who was 11 years old went over to play with his friend james McFarin. Gilbert found many bad tidings in the McFarin family. The grandmother was ill and Mrs. McFarin wanted to go back to Illinois in order to nurse her sick mother. The youngest baby in this unfortunate family was also ill and not fit for the rough travel of that time. james and Gilbert could not play amid sorrow so they went in search of ad- venture alsewhere. The boys had been warned not to go out of the clearing be- cause of the wild beasts, but you know boys, thinking they are so brave and all of that. They pushed their way through the tangles of the swamp. After they had gone a good distance from the clearing, they began their play. When they became tired, the boys decided to go home, but where was it? Try as they may they could not find the trail back to the clearing. They slept that night in a tree and the next morning continued their search. To- ward the end of that day they found the trail. There was much hurrahing and hooraying, but to their astonishment when they came to camp, it was deserted. Not a soul in sight and not a ship as far as the eye could see. james who was 9 years old almost cried out, you see, he was really too big. Gilbert, who considered him- self a big boy, began to make plans, as it was plain to see that a ship had picked up the people at the camp. Toward noon the two boys, with a few provisions, began their journey northward by foot. Little did they know of the dangers before them. As you know there were four different routes to California. The Caros family had chosen the route so that after having got to the eastern side of Central America, they went by foot to l30l