Westbrook High School - Blue and White Yearbook (Westbrook, ME)

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Westbrook High School My friend,-this note is borne to you by my son, Robert, who is a grandson of the Gil- bert Lawso.n you knew. He is in search of the gold believed to have been buried in that vicinity just before the disappearance of Gil- bert, who had a share in it. Please tell him all you know concerning his disappearance and help him fRobertj in every way possible. You will be rewarded. God bless you! You are his only hope. Signed, Robert M. Lawson. Anson regarded the missive long enough to have read and reread it several times. Finally he sighed heavily, carefully folded the paper in its original creases and put it back into the envelope. This .he handed to Lawson and said after due deliberation, Lad, l'm gittin' old, over ninety year, an' my eyes are gittin' dim. or I'd have known you in a minute. Yore the exact image of yore grandad, eyes an' all. I thought at hrst I'd seen you before som'eres, that's all. Of course I'll help you, tell me what you want. Tell me everything, all I know is that he never reached home, and that he carried a small fortune with hfm. Father believed he was still living. The old man paused a moment in sober con- templation, then :- It's a strange story, laddy, passing strange. Listen! 'twas nigh onto seventy year ago, back in '51, Your Grandad and I were just young wild pups, like the rest of them. VVell, we struck it rich up back here- ' Lawson, his clear shaven face making him five years younger, drank in the words atten- tively. The old man went on to tell how he and three others, the elder Lawson included, had set out for the East, where two of them lived and where the other two intended to, with high hopes and plenty of gold. He told how on the third day of their journey they had met a party of seven other men tested that they were ygoing the suggesting that theyjoin parties, as by doing their safety who all at- same route, so they would greatly increase should they meet any hostile Indians. The argument was reasonable and for another day they shared their fortunes each I7 with each. Then, on the second night, they having decided to put the gold together under the guard of one of the men, since they were now in hostile territory, the others betook themselves to sleep. just after midnight they were awakened by volleys of shots and loud war whoops. They rallied to the defense and were directed dow.n a narrow gulch by one of the new men of the party. Not meeting the Indians they expected to, they returned to camp, thinking it was all a joke. They fthe four of the original party and one of the othersj were met by commands from the other six to vamoose, they weren't wanted. The truth of the situation burst upon them. The men were outlaws who intended to steal their gold and make away with it. A fight e.nsued, and the outlaws were driven from the camp long enough for the others to secure the gold and cart it away some dis- tance. The night was dark and most of the shorts fired went wild. No one was seriously wounded and the only two as yet touched were both outlaws. Lawson was delegated to cache the gold while the other four fthe other out- law had remained loyal to his new bed-fellowsj held off an impending rally. He did so, bury- ing it under the sandy bottom of a shallow stream .near the camp, marking the spot by a line of boulders, L shaped, the vertex of which pointed to the cached gold only fifty yards distant. Even as he bent over to place a rock over the cache, waist deep in water, a stray shdt struck Lawson on the head at the base of the skull, knocking him senseless. His comrades hastened to his rescue, though fearing him dead. Burdened by his weight they managed to beat a safe retreat to a town some fifteen miles distant, without their horses. At this time it was a replica of the gambling hells of Dodge City and Benton, and had been dubbed Aftermath by an author who had come here for an inspiration for his new story, and who had regarded it as an aftermath of the heyday of these camps. In time Lawson had seemingly recovered from his wound and they all contemplated a return for the treasure. It proved, however,

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7.6 The Blue and VVhite f LITERARY 'EWR' up-g . i 12952 ' -ai L. ia -ig - e ' gii v f ' THE MISSING LINK It was noon in the small town of Aftermath, California, but its arrival was unheralded ex- cept by a loud yawn emitted from somewhere under a heavy and tangled crop of whiskers which. completely camouflaged the face of the oldest inhabitant of the town. The yawn was followed by a thump, as the front legs of the chair in which he was rather precariously sitting, came to the floor. Well, boys, them days won't never come no more, no use talkin'. His audience real- ized this was but the introduction to another long spiel on the merits of the soldier of '63, compared with those of '18. They settled themselves back in their chairs or on boxes which were allotted to them daily by the pro- prietor of the only store in town. With one exception there was .not a man under sixty, and each day for two years now this subject had never been passed up when there was a chance for the older man to get a word in edgewise. But he was destined to go no farther today, for as he lit his pipe to get the effect of stirring up the interest he desired, the doorway admit- ted a slim girl of about fifteen who proclaimed to the world in general: Ma wants you to come right straight home, and don't you dare to forget them beans-and come right off, too, or - The sentence was unfinished, but the possibilities were potent. Aw, I'm comin', said one of the younger, to whom the manner of address was all too familiar. She kin wait a few minnitsf' But the minnits were shortened to a few seconds, as he immediately got up, made the purchase suggested, and left the store. The move was a signal for all to disperse, evidently they, too, had Ma's. In a few moments the store would have been deserted but for the' intervention of the one exception, a young man of about twenty-five years of age. 'fjust a minute, here, he said, does any of you gentlemen know a 'George Anson' who used to live hereabouts ? The migration stopped. Wal, I reckon, asserted the eldest, 't least I hearn tell of him. Be you wantin' him ? Yes, if you would be so kind as to- just a minute, young feller, them words won't get you nowhar, ef you wants to speak ter me, spiel on. VVhy,-you-l Yep,-used ter be called that, just 'Pop' now. But c'mon inside hyar whar we kin talk.', The young man followed him in, to sit in a dilapidated chair by the stove-while the pro- prietor hovered conveniently near. Now, young feller, what's your name? he asked bluntly. The young man smiled. Well, he said slowly, I'm called Robert, back East, Robert Lawson. He looked up at the man as he said it. If he expected any dramatic emotion at this announcement, he was dis- appointed. Beyond a swift appraising glance and a loud Humph, the old man's face was expressionless. ' Son of Gilbert Lawson, back in Maine, I s'pose? Grandson, corrected young Lawson, so- berly, my father was Robert M., he passed out only a month ago. USO? Too bad. I He left this,- he passed out an unsealed envelope bearing the name George Anson. It read:

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I8 that the bullet had affected his brain and that he could remember nothing of his preceding life. The others' conception of the location of the cache was not near enough to make its recovery probable, since they had not dis- covered his body until it had alternately rolled -over the shallow places-and floated down- stream to them, some hundred yards below. Doctors were summoned, but to no availg al- though not violent they declared him to be beyond hope of recovery. Several random attempts to recover the gold were made, but were unfruitful. T-hus the fortunes of eleven men, for the outlaws' gold was included, seemed destined to remain forever in the soil from whence it had come. More than fifty years later, Lawson, now seventy-five years old, had left with one of his friends, Philip Byrne by name, and the re- formed outlaw, to make another attempt for its recovery. Lawson had apparently recov- ere-d his memory when he had received a sec- ond blow on the head in an accident. Equipped with three days' provisions, although the distance was short, they had gone out of the town one 17th days of April, never to return. Thar's an old hermit livin' somewhar' 'long the trail yore grampa took, en people says as how that's him gone crazy agin. But whar's the other fellers, Jim and Phil? Don't take much stock in that 'ere story nohow, but whar be they, then P Has anyone been there since? asked Law- son, to whom the story had been a revelation. Nope, 's too long to go round thar now to get anywheres, short cut quite some south o' there. What would you advise me to do, think of it, man! Here I am penniless, with a fortune just out of my reach,-and yours too! What can I do ? he cried, in his excitement jumping up and hurriedly racing the worn floor of Nicholas R. Pratt, General Store. Do? VVhy, nothing son, nothing. Might's well hunt fer a pepper seed in a box of coal dust. 'S no use. But ef you really need money, why- Need money! God man! I had to sell , The Blue and White the only watch I ever had, and a birthday present at that, to get money to come out here! And now-l Now-now, you sit right down while I sor- ter think it over. Three days later an outf-it consisting of two saddle horses and their ri-ders, both young men in their twenties, and two pack horses with light packs climbed slowly up the side of a steep hill and disappeared over its crest just as the sun set over the ridge behind them. result of thinking it over. base of the hill they entered a narrow arroyo to camp for the night. They seemed to be in no hurry and leisure was the very essence of in the nearby supper. They were up the next morning before the sun, i.n fact as the sun rose between the two hills immediately before them, they were al- rea-dy breaking camp. Lawson and young Anson, for it was the old manis grandson, spent that day in hunting for the location of the Fight which had taken place seventy years earlier. Not being successful they returned to their new camp, not far from their first one, but in a more secret location. As they waded up the shallow brook, its narrow banks over- hung with interlacing bushes, forming a na- tural pathway to their camp, a shadowy form coming down the brook suddenly dove into the foliage bordering it and disappeared. This was the Arriving at the their bearing. They washed brook and prepared to get Suspecting it to be a camp marauder they gave chase, but to no avail. They returned to the camp expecting to find it ransacked, but nothing seemed amiss. In one corner of the tent, however, the saddle bags belonging to the two men had been opened, and on the ground near one of them was a small note- book, which proved to be Anso.n's diary, with one page torn out. It contained the last item written and concerned the mission of the two young men in the mountains. Anson, who was a good trailer, immediately suggested a systematic pursuit of the marauder. Lawson consented, and armed with rifles and kits they set out in pursuit. To Anson the trail was as an open book, and