Watsonville High School - Manzanita Yearbook (Watsonville, CA)

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this. Always between the two there had been complete understanding. Finally they decided that the only alternative was for Kay to leave the island. They alone knew how much this decision would cost them, the heartaches, and dreariness of a future in which they were pledged never again to meet. They had planned one last tryst before the day on which Kay was to leave the island for ever. They had talked together this night for the last time. The great moon had looked down upon them in silent benediction. and the whole wild life of the island seemed to be hushed in the solemness of this parting. She was gone! These words kept ringing through Kay's brain like the tolling of a deathknell. He gazed after the running Hgure as long as he could see it: then slowly his eyes swept to the ground until they fell on a single red blossom lying at his feet. He stooped and picked it up, and turning, he walked with slow tread to his cabin, where he sat the long night, staring with unseeing eyes into the darkness, a tiny flower pressed close in his hand. The next day Kay bade farewell to everything he had grown to love and enjoy during his sojourn on the island. The day was unusually hot. The blueness of the sky was overcast with a dull copperish glare. The breeze was as though it had come from off some giant furnace. Leaving the village behind, he entered the jungle. A narrow twisting path led him to a smooth clearing in the luxuriant growth about him. He thought of the many times Ula and he had followed this same path, and wished himself dead. All at once his eyes were transfixed with horror. Before him in a coiling mass, ready to spring, lay a snake. Its fangs were widespread, and a hissing tongue darted from its mouth. Suddenly a slender white form flashed before him. The snake sprang! But, instead of burying its poison in him, its curved fangs had sunken deep into the white arm of Ula, who had seen Kay, devined his destination, and followed him to give up her life that he might live. That night Kay stood beside Ula, as she lay upon a coffin of carved teak-wood and gold. She had been placed there by her people, who after her death yet paid their homage. Her father, Omm, on hearing of her death. had crumpled like a withered leaf. Three hours later he had regained con- sciousness, and since had remained calm as a carven image. All was silent. Only the eternal lapping of the waves broke the stillness of the night. With a sob that Hed across the gleaming sands like the cry of a lost soul, Kay fell to his knees beside her as she lay white and still in the moonlight. He could endure it no longer. He ran from the hut down to the beach, as though he could escape his thoughts in that way. All night he kept on. When morning came he was standing on a huge cliff. Straight and towering it rose from the deep, dark waters below. ln the east. a great round ball of living fire was rising. lt came with a crash of flaming orange and livid streaks of burning red and yellow, a sunrise of the South Seas. Kay's eyes were upon it. It seemed to fascinate and hold him. He held out his arms and walked toward it. His steps were firm and true: his glance did not falter. When he came to the edge of the cliff his eyes did not move. and as he fell his arms were still raised to the glory before him. It seemed that the very waters opened gently to embrace him, closed placidly, and became calm again: yet, who knows whether in his death there were not before him slender white hands and great dark eyes beckoning him to an eternal peace and happiness? ?EX7ELYN BIDDLE. Page Thzrzu

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The second night about twelve o'clock Kay had strolled down the beach for a last breath of air. before retiring. The glory of an island night had always thrilled him with a queer sensation of delight: that night it seemed as if the whole enchanting setting had been placed for some scene of revelry or splendor. He half expected the fairies of his childhood to run out and dance upon the glistening sands. Instead, a white goddess had come tripping toward him. That goddess had been Ula. She had just come from lighting the altar Hres. which burned each night before the altar of the deity that the island people worshiped. As a child she had been educated far beyond the average island women. She knew that there was a great world beyond her small island home. and in her heart there had grown a great longing to know something of those other people and customs so different from her own. With the intent of some day questioning the big stranger who had come to live for a time with her people, she spoke to him. He smiled and answered her in her native tongue, giving the greeting he knew to be customary: then she had passed him swiftly and entered a large hut nearby. That night it seemed to Kay that something new and wonderful had come into his life: the stars seemed brighter and the air more sweet. The next day a messenger had brought him an invitation from Omm. the high priest. to visit him in his hut. Kay went. and was surprised at the beautv and taste with which it was adorned. Woven silks hung from the walls, Fantastically carved tables of rich woods inlaid with ivory and silver. were laden with dainties and sweets. the like of which Kay had never seen before. Omm and Ula received him graciously. They were seated in state. Behind them stood the men in uniform costumes of silk. ready to do their slightest bidding. Around them were seated the lesser priests and officials of the tribe. It was not difficult to see that Omm was the ruler of this kingdom of the South Seas. XVhen Kay left, an hour later. he extended to the priest and his daughter a hearty invitation to visit him: the invitation was accepted the next day. In the days that followed Ula and Kay talked with each other many times. He answered her every question of the world in which he lived. To her, some of his customs seemed queer and foolish: in her simple mind there was no place for the veneer and sham which appeared to her to constitute a great part of the lives of her more civilized sisters, In turn she disclosed to him secrets of the lives of her people. The beauty of the place grew more exquisite as he saw it through the eyes of one who was an integral part of it: as much a part of it she was as the flowers which sprang from its earth, or the palms whose fronds kissed the blue waters which laved their feet. Slowly there grew in Kay a great love for this entrancing island girl. He tried to stifle it, but to stop the rains in their descent from heaven would have been easier, and in the depths of her eyes and the melody of her voice he saw that his love was reciprocated. To Kay this love was a great shame. He could not marry an island girl: he could not take to wife a native. Never! Kay loved Ula, but he Uloved honor more. It would be better for a Thornston to turn traitor to his country than to dishonor his family, a family which could trace its blood back to the time of the crusades. Many a night he had writhed in the mental agony of the combat which was going on within him. Each time it seemed as if he must yield to his longing for the girl. but each time his better nature had conquered, and only the tired look in his eyes and the thin stern line of his lips showed how much he had suffered. With Ula there was no less of conflict. She was the petted idol of her people, the ruling priestess of their religion. To marry any man was forbidden her: to marry this stranger of another land was deathf Ula knew Page Twentuenine

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No I-Tooling T XVAS a clear. sunny day in August, the day of the championship fight baseball game between the Oklahoma XVildcats and Tuscon Tigers. F. W. Tompson, baseball enthusiast and owner of the pros- perous Tompson Farm Machinery factories. sat in his sunny breakfast room placidly munching his shredded-wheat. Nice day for the game, he remarked to his wife. who sat across the table: I wouldnt miss it for a thousand. About ten o'clock, Timmie I-Iogan, Tompson's diminutive office boy and more of a baseball fan than Tompson. advanced haltingly to his em- ployer's desk and asked. lVlr. Tompson, may I have the afternoon off? My grandmother died and I want to go to her funeral, At this time-worn alibi. F. W. started. With the same shrewdness that had put the F. W. T. tractor at the top of the market, he replied. Sure, Timmie. What's more, I'll go with you. I-Ie thought he would kill two birds with one stone-catch Timmie shirking and see the game. too. At two o'clock. half an hour before the game was called, Timmie met his boss. Tompson smiled to himself as, they headed for the ball grounds. His surmise appeared to be correct. To his surprise, and somewhat to his horror. Timmie soon led him down a side street at right angles to the course to the baseball grounds. Soon they entered a shabby, grey cottage. the door of which was decorated with a crepe bow. There. in the same room with the deceased, stuffy and permeated with that waxy. sickening sweetness of flowers and perfume that always accom- panies a funeral. Tompson sat sweating profusely. listening to a dry sermon delivered in a sonorous monotone by a withered. old preacher. His agony was made complete by the distant sounds of shouting from the ball-grounds. some three blocks distant. That evening, as he entered his bungalow, his wife asked. Well, how was the game? GreatT was his sarcastic reply as he stalked out of the room. For the rest of the evening he was silent. -ARTHUR RoDoERs. GNMVD Rain I love to hear the raindrops tap On the silvery window-pane. And watch them. like a mist, obscure The nearby willow-lane. They fall like showers of tinkling glass, With a sweet harmonious sound: And everywhere I look, the rain. Like God. is all around. -DoRis Witsox. '28. Page Thirty-one