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

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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

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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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22 THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT up his studies the team was all chosen and they had played one game. Some boys would have gone to the coach and told what wonders they had done on the dia- mond, but not so with Bob. He was no bragger and was a little backward. After he had made up his studies and was out in the schoolyard one afternoon passing ball with another fellow, the captain of the ball team, who was also the catcher, named Dick Gibson, and their star first baseman, jake Merkle, were walking by discussing their outlook for the cup. They stopped close by where Bob was pass- ing. VVell, said Dick, unless we have more pitching than Brick, who is pitching his head off, can do, the cup will go to Dover. VVho is that chap there, passing with Holbrook? He seems to be a likely look- ing fellow and he throws as natural as a big leaguer, said Jake. I guess he must be a freshmang I never happened to notice him around much. I wonder, said Jake, if he can pitch. Let's ask him, said Dick, he must be as good as McDonald. Did you ever play ball any. asked Dick, addressing Bob. Bob turned and was surprised to see the captain of the ball team addressing him. I have played some, said Bob. What position do you play? I used to pitch for the grammar school at home, he said, but we didn't have much of a team. Can you throw any curves? A fewg my uncle used to pitch for Harvard and he comes down home every summer. He showed me how, and he said that he expected to time in that line. 'fWell, said Dick, why don't you re- port for practice this afternoon? that Bob got his pu hear from me some So it came about chance. Dick tried him out, himself, and he seemed to be better than Dick had dared to hope. And Bob was no slouch of a hit- ter either. They tried him under fire that Saturday and he proved to be as cool headed as Brick. Time and again with a man on second base and the head of the batting order up, he turned them back. The season was drawing to a close and Milton Academy was but a half game be- hind Dover. This was due mostly to the superb pitching and batting of Bob, al- though Brick had done his share. Bob was played in every game on account of his hitting power. When he was not pitching, they played him in the field. At last the day of the big game arrived with Dover. If Milton Academy won they would be the champions and get the cup. Dick and the coach were undecided whom to use in the box. Dick thought that Bob was the better. The coach thought that Brick ought to pitch as he was a senior and this would be the last time that he could wear the blue and gray for Milton. The game proved to be a pitchers' battle, between Brick and the Dover pitcher. In the eighth inning Dover got a cheap run. The first man up got a free pass, the first man that Brick had passed during the whole game. He stole second and went to third on the overthrow by Dick. The next man up drove the ball like a bullet and hit Brick on the arm. Merkle picked it up, threw it home, but too late. The Dover fans were overjoyed. They had great con- fidence in their pitcher. Brick was unable to continue. Bob was taken out of right field, and after throwing the five balls that he was allowed, he took up the burden. Bob put all the stuff that he had on the ball, and turned back the Dover sluggers, one, two, three. Milton Academy couldn't seem to score in their half of the eighth and Dover was unable to solve tl1e delivery of Bob. In the Hrst half of the ninth jake Merkle and Joe Graney could not do anything with the Dover pitcher's slants. Dick got a scratch nit through short, and then Bob