Walnut Grove High School - Yearbook (Walnut Grove, MO)

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'III 'II' 'Il' IIIUII' 'IIUII' 'H' P 'II' 'il' B Qffllll E 5 A 4- E a foreigner, being a tall, heavy, fellow with iron-gray mustache and hair and eyes shadowy and dark lit up by gleams like smoldering hres. At the sight of this newcomer Professor Rodgers turned pale and grasped the desk before him to keep from falling. He was terribly frightened. YVith a quick movement of his hand he drew a paper from his inside coat pocket and clutched it fiercely while he looked defiance toward the man in the door. Professor Andrew did not notice this and rising he walked across the room to interview the second man. In this short moment Professor Rodgers seeing that he was unnoticed glanced about him for some means of escape from the room. As he did so he noticed an overcoat lying on the desk before him. Stooping he thrust the paper he held in his hand into a pocket of the coat. Then Prof. Andrew, having finished his conference with the second man, turned again to Mr. Rodgers. That evening, Rodgers gave a demonstrative lecture on the mathematical facilities of the VVoodland Business College to a congregation of students in the Assembly Hall. It was given in the rapid, jerky manner of a man who was laboring under some great nervous strain. The library of the YV. G. H. S. is in the rear of the Assembly Hall. After the lecture when all had gone and the room was quiet, a shade of a window in the library suddenly stirred and from be- hind it stepped a tall, heavy looking man with iron-gray mustache and hair. Just then, Uncle Billy, the janitor, was heard coming up the stairs to lock the doors for the night and the tall man fled down an opposite flight of steps and left the building, unseen. It was night, dark and gloomy. After the sun had disappeared, clouds, dull gray, heavy and somber gathered swiftly along the lifeless sky of the north and threatened a night of storm and rain. A wind of fitful gusts sprang up, mourning of the lost souls of the dead as it swept along. It was a night such as thieves, vag- abonds and evil-doers delight in. Along a back alley near the school house, at midnight crept three men. They all stooped and hurried along as if pursued by a phantom. The man in front carried a bundle over his shoulder, while the other two carried a ladder between them. Straight to the building they hurried. Here they first tried all the doors but E. E QIUII' ull' Ill' 'll' 'IIUII' 'IIUII' 'II' 'll' III' 'IIUIW

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FU' 'Il' 'ell' 'll' !llFll' ILQII.' Ulf Ill' 'll' 'UW III EI ifuzst Qinw uiil. - One day at noon a stranger entered the Waliiut Grove High School building. This man was, from all appearances, an English- man, for his dress and manner did not betoken a native American. He was nervous and probably being a little excited he kept con- tinually glancing about him as if seeking some one, yet dreading to see them. The Englishman first stopped in the hallway after entering the building but the noise of the grade pupils here seemed to annoy him and he began to ascend the stairs to the rooms of the High School. He walked across the upper hall until he came to the Professor's room and all the time he was looking swiftly about him searching every face. At the moment the Englishman appeared in the door of the room the Professor was busy grading some notebooks that lay piled on the desk before himg and he did not look up. He was interrupted in his work by the sound of a voice saying, Pardon me but this is Professor Andrew: is it not? Receiving a reply in the affirmative, the stranger introduced him- self. I am Professor Rodgers of the VVoodland Business College. I am making a tour of all the classified High Schools in Southwest Missouri in the interest of my college. I want to give before the pupils of these schools a practical demonstration of what may be accomplished in ours. And I would like to give a lecture to the pupils of your school this evening if you can spare me the time. This request had been delivered in a nervous, explosive fashion and it was a full half minute before Andrew could reply. As he was about to do so there was a noise in the hall and a second stranger appeared in the door of the room. He was also evidently 'II' 'll' 'll' 'IIUII' 'IIUII' 'II' 'll' 'Il'

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Qllillll 'II' 'II' 'II' 'HUII' 'IIUII' 'll' 'll' 'll' El EL 4... i, finding them locked, they gathered in a group beneath the bell tower and began to consult each other. After a few moments they again appeared and, raising the lad- der, they placed it at one of the windows of the upper story and the man with the bundle ran up the ladder, while the other two remained below. Arriving at the top, the man opened the bundle and brought forth a short, rounded contrivance which was fashioned like a piece of piping. He turned this toward the window in front of him and soon a light began to glow. This light grew stronger and strong- er, varying in color as it increased in intensity. It became so bright that the man was forced to turn away his head to save his eyes. By the light you could see that his mustache and hair was iron- gray. Then the glass began to crumple with the heat and the pane of the window burned away until nothing was left. Seeing this, the man shut off the light of the tube and reaching through the hole, he released the fastening. Raising the window, he stepped inside. Here he replaced the tube in the bundle and drew forth a piece of glass which accurately fitted the broken pane in the window. After this was replaced, it could not be told that the window had ever been tampered with. Just at midnight Professor Andrew issued from a store down town where he had been attending a meeting of the board of directors and started to return home. As he emerged from the shelter of the awnings over the sidewalk, a chilly wind began to blow on him and he shivered. He was wishing for his overcoat when he chanced to remember that he had left it lying on his desk at the school house. As it would not be out of his way, he de- cided to go by and get it. The school house was dark and deserted yet Proff. was not afraid. Although he was not a timorous man, he would have sworn that as he was ascending the stairs to his room, he heard something fall outside and the sound of men running swiftly away. Going to his room, he walked to his desk and struck a match. The desk was bare and the overcoat was gone. At the same instant there was a crashing sound in the basement, followed by a faint, mufiied cry. Witli silent steps Professor left the build- ing and hurried home. The next day Professor made inquiries about his coat, but it gllillll 'III 'll' 'll' 'IIUII' 'IIUII' 'Il' 'll' 'IIEIIIP IIE