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

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1? THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT the door and gently tested the latch. .Xs he did so the door opened and a man leaped upon jimmy with upraised knife. The two men went down in a writhing heap. jimmy had discarded his pack back of the cabin and was free for action. The murderer was quick as a weasel. He drove his knife at .limmy's throat. and the latter promptly jammed his clenched fist into the horrible face above him. The confiict went faster and faster. lloth were big men and in the prime of life. They fought in the snow and rose leaving bloody stains. All civilized methods of lighting were cast aside and the two fought with hands, teeth and feet. jimmy had been wounded in the beginning and began to grow weaker. As they rolled near the cliffs edge he gave his opponent a push and they hung balanced on the prec- ipice. jimmy tried to free himself but Long Knife fastened his hands in an un- breakable hold and they both crashed on the rocks below. Carewe lay dazed a moment and then staggered to his feet. He glanced at Long Knife and turned away. Mor- daunt was avenged. G. R. H., ':4. THE DYNAMITE RAFT H HICY 'I.I. meet, said Kern Rodman. VVhich means trouble. answered Dan Farley. the river boss. .Ns Farley had been working for the Rod- mans for so many years it made him seem old to count them, he ought to know. and the boy, Kern, who was only eighteen. considered that he did know. Almost the last words of his father before he died were. Trust Farley. Kern found that he needed someone to trust. and was glad to find the trust he put in Farley well placed. For about fifty miles on both sides of the river on which they were standing, the lumber belonged to the Branch Lumber fompany, a corporation whose motto was. Multiply and profit. For many years there had been a feud between the Rodmans, and the PJI'3.l1Clll Lumber Company. This trouble had cost Kern's father his life. At various points along the river dams had been constructed. These were usually just below certain bad spots where run- ning logs were inclined to stick. W'hen there was any danger the gates of the dam could be closed. and the water setting back would deepen the rapids so the big logs would ride them. The dams were the cause of the trouble between the companies be- fore Mr. Rodman's death and were in- tending to do so now. The Rodmans that year had cut on tract No. Six. They were not forest hogs that like to get rich quick by cutting everything in their path, but were the kind of men who pick out the right trees. Near No. Six were two dams. It was at the upper one that Kern and his river boss were now looking. The gates were closed, and the drive coming in be- hind it. To keep the logs from bucking the dam, a string of booms cabled together had been run across just above it. This caught the logs and enabled the men to check and Corral them. Three miles abou-, the drive of the Branch Company was com- ing down. If it should come in on top of the smaller Rodman drive it would all but swamp it. The big drive had the power to put things over the smaller one and did it. That was why the Rodmans did not like it, but they did like fair play. and did not stop it. VVell son. said Farley, what are you going to do about it? Let 'em out. answered Kern. A' They have shown us what it will cost us if we don 't. And strand their logs? If I have to. yes. The old man's eyes glistened their ap- proval. He was an old graduate of the river men. and liked to see a fighting man. If you strand them. they 'll bring suit. he said. VVe 're in the right. They have no busi- ness on this stretch until we get our logs out. True, but a good lawyer can make black appear white. and they 've got money for good lawyers. They 'll make it appear that we gave them a raw deal even if we are within our own rights. We can 't afford lawsuits. The court will say we ought to have stretched a point and let them in.

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'l'Hli Ml'S5L'1. t'NSQl'l'l' ll 1-,f .fy E THE LONG KNIFE llli man was rugged in figure and a two weeks' growth of heard covered his tirni jaw. lle sat tracing figures with a short peneil and gazing into the stone fireplace that warmed the rude calvin. tlut- side, the first snowfall was covering the tianadian harrens with a deep niantle. .Xs the nian sat in silenee he thought to himself. lle. -linnny Liarewe, must stay there and keep law and order until he was relieved in the spring hy a fellow eonstahle of the Northwest l'oliee. llis thoughts were rudely interrupted hy a hanimeriug at the door. ,Iinnny sprang to his feet and threw hack the har. The door flew open and in staggered what had heen a nian. .Xeross his face was a knife eut and hlood dripped from his hody to the floor. The policeman stared. llere hefore him was his nearest neighhor who lived ten miles helow and who never quarreled with others. llut farewe stopped staring and began to ask questions. The neighhor. Klordaunt hy naine, hlurted out a story of horror. In the early evening a man had asked him for shelter and Mor- daunt had let him in. .Xfter supper the visitor had suddenly drawn a knife and killed Klordaunt's wife. llefore he could he stopped, their daughter had also lieen killed. ltlordaunt had grapple-d with the strangeia and had heen thrown off hacked and bleed- ing. llaving heen left for dead he had saddled his horse and rode to the nearest poliee post which was -limniy's. at re When the man had nnished his terrihle story he fell from the Chair in which he w as sitting and hefore Aliinniy eould reach hun he died. tarewe laid limi on a hunk and started to get a hlanket w'he'i a sparkle Caught his eye. lle looked again. ilihert caught in the hack of Klordaunt's lieaxy shirt was a hlood stained knife. .linnny seized it and compared it with .inotlier that hung on the eahin wall. They were exactly the same. The Long Knife was at his old work. liiglit o'eloek the next morning found .Iiinmy on his way north heading for a eahin that he knew of on the shore of a lake. two hundrul miles away. llere he knew he would find the l.ong Knife in his winter home. Strange tales had -linuny heard of inen who had gone on this sanie duty and never eonle haek. .Xniong the Indians horrihle tales were told of people lured to the Long Knife eahin. lint duty was duty and ,linuny strode on with thoughts on the foul deed of the night hefore. On the fifth day of his travels he sighted a cliff that he knew as the end of the trail. llere was where all the people of the North Country changed trails, kept away from the terrihle death awaiting them in the eahin on the cliff. 'lirayeliug faster, .Iinuny de- toured the cliff and eaine within four lnin- dred yards of his quarry's eahin. Nearer and 'nearer he Caine. The l.ong Knife was prohahly away from his eahin and jinuny grew holder. lle crept around hy

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THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT 13 Stretched a point! After what we've been through with them before? They 'll smooth that over. But we're big enough to fight and by thunder Farley, we will fight! Eh? blinked the old man. I say we 'll fight. Open the sluiceway, Dan. just then a shout made Kern turn his head up the river. An exclamation escaped his lips. Down through the foam came a plunging raft. There came a crash in the bushes behind him, and another man, hatless, coatless and breathless came running to them. Dynamite! lie gasped, Dynamite! In the name of life, save him! It's dyna- mite! At a glance one could see that the man was no riverman. Stop it, he shrieked, Stop it! He 'll be killed! It's dynamite! He stopped and the river boss shook him, saying, Speak up, man! What is it? ' The raft! Dynamite! He 'll be killed! That was enough. Kern was speeding for the shore. Farley swung on the men be- low. Off the logs, boys! he shouted. Off the logs! just before the dam the water was quieter than up above, and it was in this stretch that the raft was moving. Toward it. to stop it, Kern was now swimming. The details of the affair the boy did not know, but enough and too much he guessed at. They had intended to blow up his logs. They had sent down a dynamite raft such as was sometimes used for blasting out boulders when the current was too swift to get at them any other way. They were usually guided by ropes. but this one was free. and the person on it was fated to go up with the explosion. The men had reached the shore and were watching the boy. Sometimes it seemed that he would reach it in time, and at other times they thought that he would 11ot. Kern, now very near the raft, feared that he could not overtake the raft in time to save the logs, but with one more spurt he reached the raft and threw himself flat across it. He wrenched the wire clear from the dynamite. The day was saved by the disconnecting of that little wire. The man from the woods, now surrounded by the men from the river, broke down and confessed openly. He had seen the dyna- mite raft constructed, and afloat. He had seen the electric current adjusted to await the impact of the standing logs below. Only one man had been instructed to do this work. He had been setting the charge when the swift water had caught him, and bore him away. In making his desperate leap to reach the shore his foot caught in the logs, and he was unable to free it on his downstream flight. VVell, said Kern, VVhat do you think? This thing has been going on for a long time, You have seen it now with your own eyes, not as it looks from a city desk. I think, Rodman, answered the man, that it ought to be stopped. And stopped it was. R. i'l1UCD. S.. '27. DECEITFULNESS U DEAR, thought pretty Mary Dun- stan, as she pushed back her red- dish, bobbed hair, it 's to-morrow that we have to pass in the themes, and I haven't mine written. What shall I do? I can 't think of a thing to write. Now Mary usually had good themes and naturally got good rank, but now her imagination seemed to have gone back on her. Neither could she think of a true story to write up. She was a junior, very ambitious, a good scholar and disliked deceitfulness, but as she sat thinking about her to-morrow's English lesson, a thought came to her about a story in an old newspaper that her aunt had sent from California. Surely, she said to herself, no one has ever seen a paper like that. The blood surging to her ashamed look- ing face, she hunted for the- paper. Still more self-consciously she copied it, changed the characters' names and to a certain ex- tent, the plot. There, after it was finished, I 'm sure no one will know that story. And, trying to excuse herself, 'II couldn't think of a thing to write about.