Strong High School - Mussul Unsquit Yearbook (Strong, ME)

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2O THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT our camp, devoured our lunch, and began to unpack our supplies. VVhile we were lying around the camp, resting and talking over our wild experi- ence of the night before, our nerves were shattered suddenly by a horrible, blood- curdling shriek as if some one were in mortal pain. At that instant a man ran across the clearing at a short distance from our camp. His hair was long and white, his beard gray and unkempt, and he wore scarcely any garments. At equal intervals he would suddenly leap off the ground and utter a terrorizing shriek. We sat paralyzed with fear and horror for a short time, but collecting our wits, we de- cided that he must be an old hermit, who had lived so many years in solitude, that it had driven him crazy. We saw no more of the mad hermit that day, but neverthe- less we were on the lookout for the old lunatic because we did not know what he might be capable of doing. The next morning, after a sleepless night, we started out to look for minerals. We went over the summit of the mountain and down on the opposite slope, where we found several specimens of mineral rock. About noon we came upon a cave, and thinking that we were not rushed for time, desired to inspect it. By crawling through the small opening, we were soon inside a fairly good-sized room with rough dirt walls, on one of which, down near the dirt floor, was a small aperture large enough to admit a man's body into the unknown depths beyond. We had a thirst for further adventure so we squeezed through the aperture and found ourselves in a room, somewhat larger than the first. We looked around us and saw a roughly constructed table, a few clay dishes, an old shotgun, a fur garment of some kind, and to our hor- ror, a pile of bones in a corner. The room was too dark for us to determine whether they were the bones of a human being or those of an animal. We had no matches with us and so were unable to find out whether the unfortunate was man or beast. On further investigation we discovered that the room branched off into a dark, un- penetrable, and maybe endless, passage leading further into the bowels of the earth. Then it dawned upon us that we were in the habitation of the old lunatic and the realization caused a prickly feeling to steal up our backs. At that minute we heard a terrible rumbling not unlike that of thun- der. When we looked for the mouth of the cave we were frozen with horror and dismay to find that the place where it had been a few minutes previous was now buried under hundreds of feet of Old Mother Earth. For some unknown reason the steep slope of old Eagle Mountain had desired to slide, with the result of trapping us in a strange and unknown cave, with our most dreaded and feared of all visitors, the old lunatic. All the food we possessed was that which we had in our lunch-boxes, intended for our dinner, only this meager supply of food to last, we knew not how long. We had no hope of being rescued, for the near- est place of civilization was fifty miles to southward and the endless wilderness stretched away to the northward. Hence, we were buried alive. Worst of all was to be compelled to die in terror with the old lunatic lurking somewhere in that vast depth of blackness and gloating over our death. We were unarmed because we had not had foresight enough to bring our guns with us. We collected our scattered wits some- what and made our way back to the room of the dark passage, determined to take what might come, as best we could. Our determination was suddenly forced from us, however, by the blood-curdling shrieks, heard far down the passage, every second coming nearer. Cold fear gripped my senses, my heart came to my mouth, and I believe my hair grew gray in those awful moments of waiting. John's hair fairly stood on end and I could plainly see the ashy whiteness of his face and his pro-

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THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT 19 trembling, he opened the door to gaze down into the cellar. As he looked he became stiff and seemed glued to the spot. Then he turned and fied, and didu't stop until he reached his hotel, where he threw himself on the bed, remaining there too frightened to move, until late in the forenoon. The next evening he went to tl1e club, where the fellows asked him to tell his story. I-Ie told them, but when he came to the part where he looked down into the cellar, he hesitated. They urged him to go on, but he said, HI can never tell what I saw in the cellar, and to this day no one can get Mr. :Xi to tell what he saw in the cellar of the haunted house. J. V. S., 24. EAGLE MOUNTAIN CAVE CEnglish IIIJ T was one day in the summer of 1851 that I received a letter from a college chum, John Daven, who was much inter- ested in miueralogy. The letter stated that he was about to explore for minerals and desired me to accompany him. That night I showed my father the letter and the de- sired permission was given me. Three days after receiving the letter I was speeding toward Dayton, where my friend was going to join me. I passed through rich farming lands, and large cit- ies, and at last arrived at Dayton. Imme- diately on getting off the train, I found john, whom I was very glad to see. We then boarded the train for the backwoods. John told me that it was on Eagle Moun- tain where he intended to search for min- erals. I learned that this mountain was lo- cated far back in a wild, sparsely settled country, and that we should have to leave tl1e train fifty miles this side and hike the remaining distance. We rode all that night and exactly at noon of the next day we arrived in a small lumber town, which certainly lived up to its name of Shack Center . There was no street in the villageg the shacks just seemed to be dumped in a cluster. On waking up a near-by lounger and asking him where we could obtain some- thing eatable, that worthy, slowly shifting his plug from one side of his mouth to the other, at his leisure, replied, Reckon old man Kimpton up at the saloon will give you enough to keep you from starving and also a dose of good manners. After we had eaten our sumptuous meal of canned pork and beans, sourdough bis- cuit, dried apple pie, a11d black coffee, we bought some supplies, made up our packs, and set off in the direction of Eagle Moun- tain. The next night we camped at the foot of the,mountain in a wild and desolate place. About nine in the evening we crawled into our blankets and soon fell asleep on our beds of spicy spruce boughs, but being rather nervous, we slept with one eye open, expecting any minute to be a meal for some wild beast. About midnight, I was awakened by s11arls and growls near-by. Lifting my head, I could see a row of green eyes all around the camp fire. Cold sweat stood out on my forehead, but gathering my courage I gripped my rifle and was about to shoot, when John, who possessed a keener presence of mind than I, fired a volley of shots in the direction of those weird, green eyes. With snarls and shrieks of anguish and rage they disap- peared into the depth of gloom surrounding the camp Ere. We slept no more that night but remained on guard expecting a return of our savage visitors. In the morning we set out up the slope of the mountain, eager to leave our wild camping place behind. At noon we reached our destination, the summit of Eagle Mountain, which was more strange and much wilder than the foot, and we be- gan to think that minerals would have to be very plenty to keep us long on this weird mountain. Nevertheless, we made

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THE MUSS truding eyes, there in the inky blackness. VVe could distinctly hear the rapidly ap- proaching footsteps. A shriek, a rumble, and the sounds would die away. This was repeated several times, adding more and more to our terror. The last time the steps came much nearer. The terrorizing shriek sounded at the mouth of the passage and the old luna- tic was in the room with us. I heard a chuckling and rubbing of hands close to my ear, and a cold, bony hand upon my arm, this completely crazed meg I jumped clear of the earth, uttered a terrified yell, and made off down the dark passage with john following at my heels. The old lunatic brought up not far in the rear. I ran on and on till I came abruptly upon a roaring, tumbling, subterranean river. I hesitated, John ran into me alld we both fell headlong in the plung- ing foam. I landed easily, but a pro- truding and jagged rock hit johnys head, rendering him unconscious. I pulled him onto my back and began to swim. The terrific current soon carried us far away from the lunatic. In some places through which we passed, I was obliged to swim under water with my burden, so low was the roof of the cave above the raging river. I continued in this way for a seemingly endless time. Suddenly I perceived a small patch of light far in the distance. I redoubled my efforts. Would I ever reach it? I thought not. A roaring above the river filled my ears, I fought for life as I had never fought before. Then- darkness closed around me. . . On awakening I found myself and my burden calmly floating around in a placid pool, while the river rushed on as before. Birds were singing, and bright sunlight Hooded the earth. I dragged myself from the river, still carrying my burden. The fresh air soon revived John and he became himself again. The subterranean river, while it had nearly drowned us, had yet saved our lives. A. R. M., '23. UL UNSQUIT 21 THE NEW FIND fEnglish IIJ HE little village of Milton was very proud of its academy, and well might it be. It was not very large but accom- modated nearly two hundred students. Some of the students belonged there in Milton, others came from 'neighboring towns. There were several towns not far from Milton and together they formed a league. Baseball being the national sport, there was much rivalry and they all liked to win the cup. Whichever team won it twice had it to keep. The Milton Academy boys had won the cup last year, and Dover had won it the year before that. Both schools had a fine team and both were anxious to win the championship this season. Milton Acad- emy got a bad start early in the spring. Their easiest games were at the beginning of the season, too. But their best pitcher, Lefty XValton, had broken his arm in the first game. So all they had now was Brick Mullen, a tall, red-headed fellow, and a second string pitcher named McDonald. Brick won most of l1is games but they had to use McDonald part of the time, and be- ing a rather nervous chap, he would pitch part of a game in top notch style and then go all to pieces. The season was getting pretty well ad- vanced and Milton Academy was in third place. They were in despair. VValton's arm was not well enough so that he could use it much and he was afraid to use it too soon, as the doctor had advised against it. Nobody seemed to notice or pay much attention to Robert Matthews, a rather good looking fellow from a neighboring town. It had been the custom of the Acad- emy coach to take most of the boys that be- longed in Milton to play on the teams. Once in awhile if a fellow showed up ex- ceptionally well he could get on the team. Bob, as he was called, had been sick when the team was called out for practice in the spring and by the time he had made