Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

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SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR 5 formed that most spectacular of plays—lie had blocked the kick, gathered the ball off the ground, and was headed for the enemy's goal-line with a clear field in front of him. ()h, you Jim-boy! Come on. Jim, come on! You're the kid! Come on! Keep---------- Ratten suddenly came to a full stop, with the sound of a shrill voice two rows down filling his brain to the exclusion of all else. The girl below was jump- ing insanely up and down, waving her crimson pennant, and screaming words of encouragement to the flying youth on the field. Keep it up, Jimmy! she urged. You can do it! He crossed the line and planted the ball be- hind the goal-posts. “Oh, my dear old Jim! You're a wonder! —and so on. hysterical little terms of endearment and adoration. Batten sat down heavily. Of course, they were ahead, and Jim was a hero, and all that. Rut “Jimmy and My dear old Jim! What did it mean? Again her voice, quieter and filled with pride, reached his ear. She was talking to a girl sitting beside her. Yes, she was saying enthusiastically. He is a wonder, isn’t he? He wrote that lie would probably play to-day. so 1 came on without letting liim know. I simply adore Jim. You see. we’ve known each other quite awhile. She laughed. I should say you had. agreed the other. Ratten did not ordinarily jump at conclusions, but he saw only one way to interpret what he had just heard, and in reflecting on the interpretation lie lost all interest in the game. He was not. of course, angry with Jim, only hurt—hurt to think that his chum, his room-mate, with whom he had boned. and flunked, and scrapped, and—and everything else, had kept secret from him the fact of his friendship with this girl, absolutely the most beautiful and wholly lovable specimen of femin- inity he had ever beheld. He knew it now. and he couldn’t blame Jim for loving her—or her for adoring Jim, either. Rut Jim had deceived him. deliberately and intentionally. He had declared vehemently, time after time, that when it came to the opposite sex he “couldn’t see anything but a blonde. “Brunettes!” lie had exclaimed disgustedly. “Good-night! Why, there are so many brunettes right in my own family that a blonde would be a decidedly welcome acquisition. My father is dark, my mother is dark, and my kid sister is darker still. They say she’s going to be a peach when she grows up’’-—here he had laughed at something or other—“but I can’t see it. You might be able to. It’s funny, he went on, but she’s crazy to meet you. I’ve had your photo at home, you know, but I’ve never had one of hers. Rut Ratten had not been sufficiently interested in Jim’s kid sister even to inquire her age. or how soon she’d be in high school. Kid sisters were bothersome little nuisances, anyway. He had one himself. ()f course. Jim’s aversion to brunettes had been a blind. Jim simply hadn’t wanted anybody to know in just what direction his affections actually did lie. Ratten wondered when the engagement was going to be announced. Probably not just yet. lie smiled a bit grimly. It was queer, wasn t it. that it should be his best friend, his college chum, who should demolish his suddenly built ambitions, who should be the cause of bringing before him the perfect realization of what had always been his ideal, onlv to snatch her away and claim her as his own. What a fickle world this was. Well, it was up to him to make the best of it. He’d go up to Jim after the game and. congratu- late him. wish him everlasting happiness, and all that sort of thing, and then never look at her again except to gratify his sense of the beauti- ful. to admire her much as he would admire a wonderful painting. Cheerful prospect, wasn’t it? Well------- Suddenly the cheering burst out all around hin. wildly, exultantly. Was the game over? Ratten stood up. Evidently it was. for the crim- son supporters, thousands of them, were swarm- ing on to the field. One touchdown had won the game. Ratten climbed slowly down and joined the mob. In a moment lie caught sight of Jim. triumphantly riding on the shoulders of yelling undergraduates, being borne in the direction of the locker-building. A bit of color in the midst of that throng caught Batten’s attention. A girl—the girl—was waving her crimson pennant violently, trying to get the hero's eye. Suddenly Jim saw her. and instantly began to kick and struggle to get down. Ratten turned away, lie didn’t wish to witness the greeting which followed, lie started to walk slowly off, but was arrested by a shout. Jim was calling to him. In spite of himself, he began to turn around. Jim was standing with an arm over her shoulder, and was yelling something unintelligible, waving his hand imperatively at the same time. And then his voice reached Ratten. Rilly! he yelled. Rilly, come on over here and take care of my kid sister while I go in and gel dressed, will you? It was an evening in springtime nearly two years later. Canoes, hundreds of them, floated lazily along the historic Charles. ()ne. detach- ing itself from the rest, was propelled silently (Continued on page 7.]

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4 SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR IBis “IRib Sister” JS jfranl? C 2Dat te, T3 TTEX noticed her on the car. There was nothing’ strange about that, for a particularly pretty girl is always noticeable, if not conspicuous. But Batten was exceedingly loath to let her go with merely passing notice, so he looked, and looked again, until at length his look became a gaze, and his gaze became a stare. Finally the girl seemed to feel the effect of such interested scrutiny; or perhaps some par- ticular psychic wave from him attached itself to a sympathetic psychic wave from her. or some- thing of that sort. At any rate she suddenly and unexpectedly turned round and looked him full in the eyes, with a little perplexed wrinkling of her forehead. Immediately, and for the first time in his long and sophisticated career. Batten did a strange thing, lie blushed—yes. actually! —and shifted his glance out the window. The girl scrutinized him curiously for a moment, but he was apparently intensely absorbed in the slowly moving stream of automobiles outside, crawling jerkily ahead, stopping, then pushing forward impatiently through the swirling, eddying m..dstrom of humanity. Shortly, but after what seemed to him like many minutes, the receding of the hot blood from his cheeks told him that she had ceased her inspection. Whereupon he immediately forsook the automobiles and re- sumed. somewhat more cautiously, his study of her. And indeed lie found her worth the study— one of the kind to cause any artist, and all men are artists to a certain extent, at least to turn and look a second- time. She was dark-haired, dark-eyed, dark-skinned; hair as black as Minnehaha's, violet eyes of extra- ordinary depth, and an attractive tan which har- monized perfectly with eyes and hair. She carried a crimson pennant with a bold white II” upon it. He noted that she was apparently unescorted, and wondered. He had determined to keep her in sight, but in the immense throng which struggled and jostled its way across the bridge and up to the gates of the stadium, he lost her. But he worried not in the least, for he had a presentiment, a “hunch. that fate would bring them together again. And. sure enough, as he passed through the great iron entrance his eyes met hers. She was just ahead, and almost at the same instant that lie caught sight of her a crimson pennant, with .1 large white ' ll on it. fell to the ground at her feet, lie sprang forward, and reached to pick it up. but an insipid youth with an ingratiating smiic just beat him to it. and extended it to her with as elaborate a bow as the cramped quarters would permit. She thanked him coldly, and then, for a fleeting instant, her eyes met Batten's again, lie returned the gaze impersonally enough, until-------- Had he imagined it. or had there really been something of disappointment and half-humorous reproof way down in the depths of those expres- sive eyes? ()f course it was till imagination. She couldn't have dropped that pennant intentionally, but still---- He observed, with inward exultation, that she was headed for the same section as he, and when the ushers had seated them, he found her directly beneath him. two rows down. She kept her eyes on the field, however, where the two elevens had already appeared, and were running through signal practice. Batten, while noticing all these things, was not particularly impressed. 111 the two years of college life which he had already been through he had not missed a single big game, so that even the crowds, large as they were, seemed ordinary enough to him. Indeed, his thoughts were com- pletely centred about two persons, his room- mate. Jim Holden, with whom he had chummed all through his college career, and who was to-day to get his first chance for his II. and the girl two rows down. Ah. that girl! Through two periods the two teams, evenly matched, fought up and down the field without a score being registered. At the beginning of the third Jim Holden went in for “Hank Willett, the veteran guard, whose ankle the coaches had known all along would not hold him after the first half. Batten observed with satisfaction that Jim was holding his own. and that gains through him were small and infrequent. Finally, as the period neared its close, the ball was in the centre of the field, when, after three successive failures to gain, the opposing fullback stepped back to punt. He opened his hands, the ball was passed, he drew back his right leg to kick. At the same instant a massive figure broke through the line and leaped into the air. There was the impact of ball against body, and then Batten was on his feet with the rest, shouting and yelling. Jim Holden had per-

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6 SOM ICR VILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR H IDangetrous Experiment 36 pbiltp 36. Xewfs, '14 EFORL. during, and since Albert Pres- ton's college career, he had con- , stantly taken huge interest in Scien- tific Research as to the Origin of Human Life. This novel study was one of the chief reasons for his en- tering upon a chemical line of work after gradu- ating from college. For eight years he had worked in his laboratory, a secluded building, located two miles from any other habitation of human beings; for eight years he had toiled on. ever encouraged by his firm be- lief that human life might be created by some scientific process as yet undiscovered. At last, having procured with great difficulty the tour elements which he considered essential t this creation of life.—even when all was ready, he still hesitated. Two of these elements the chemist was certain were explosives of unknown strength. He wondered whether the explosion of these elements would be slight r terrific. On the evening of the last day of the month of August, he lay down for a short nap before making the final experiment. In deep meditation he kicked lazily the afghan at the foot of the lounge. On the floor, by his side, lay several cur- rent magazines, while the evening paper waved uncertainly in the hand of the sleepy chemist. At length the hand fell relaxed, and the paper slipped from its grasp. A sigh escaped the reclining figure as the senses dimmed in anticipation of a refreshing nap. Put what was this that plucked at Preston's coat sleove? What horrible little fiend was this who, with beady eyes and bullet-like head, blew a cold, clammy breath in the face of the drowsv young man. climbed like a pet kitten over his blanketed figure, grinned at last a little ape-like grin, as with arms akimbo, it sat at the foot of the couch?. Preston caught up a magazine, which he hurled viciously at the squatting figure. To his surprise the creature had vanished. He sat up. There, near the foot of the couch, lay the magazine, partly ripped from its binding, with its cover slowly rising and falling in the gentle breeze ■from the open window. I»v degrees, he realized he had been asleep. The hideous little creature had existed only in his lively imagination. Preston slowly rose, yawned, and stretched his cramped arms. He ’.lien moved toward the door of his laboratory. The chemist was fully awake bv the time he had surrounded himself with rows upon rows of bottle-covered shelves. Above the acid-stained sink glowed a small in- candescent bull), whose feeble light made the rows of filled shelves resemble a miniature catacomb. The chemist placed four bottles upon a nearby shelf, while lie attached a test tube to an arm over the sink. Into this tube he poured measured quantities from each of these four bottles. While this solution was mixing, he bound a taper to one end of a six-foot pole. He then moved his electric lamp away from the sink, and placed wire screens around and on top of the framed test tube. When all was ready, the lighted taper was thrust between the side screens. There was a momentary silence, broken suddenly by a dull, smothered explosion, accompanied by the tinkle of breaking glass. Preston rushed to the sink and swept away the screens. There, on the bottom of the sink, crouched a figure scarcely larger than a young kitten. There, before him. were the same familiar pair of evil eyes: there, too. the singular bullet-like head with pointed ears set high upon its hairless surface; that little spherical body, from which weak, rope- like. elastic limbs sprung, was certainly that of a previous acquaintance. The chemist could not bring himself to touch the hideous object, so he poked it gently with a glass tube. An impression remained where the body was touched. Again he pressed it, and a second impression resulted. The chemist rolled the figure over upon its ugly little face, and stood watching it intently. Soon a wee hand stretched out along the bottom of the sink, followed by a slender, snaky arm with a bony elbow. Slowly the little figure raised itself to a sitting posture, and just as slowly the beady, squinting eyes sur- veyed the surroundings. At length they met the steady gaze of Preston, who gasped slightly as he viewed the hideous face that bore those eyes. He noticed, too, the gray-green body which every minute was adding to its proportions and won- dered when the sinister little object would cease to grow. Somehow, the chemist wished to kill the ex- panding figure, but it so resembled a human being that he could not bring himself to commit so ap- parent a sin. Then, again, the creature was so 'mall, though it was growing with visible rapidity. hen, at last, it had attained a height of fifteen inches, it seemed to have accumulated its normal measure of strength—and stood up. It was then that Preston became convinced (if he had entertained any uncertainty) that this new creation of his was supplied with vocal organs.