Page 4 - 1952 VES Meteor
P. 4
SHORT STORY Inclosure
By Jack Boyer
He wos olone in the heovy dorkness. Dork- ness; domp ond infinitely still hung over the underground dungeon.
Imprisoned in this voult wos o forgotten prisoner of the French revolution.
It hod been neorly three weeks since Hofez Jocquet hod eoten ond possibly o yeor since he hod seen the world on the surface. Hofez's mind wos in o stupor of weakness from hunger. He holf mumbled ond thought words, which if heord by ony eor but his own, would hove been unintelligible.
"Why don't they bring me food ... cold ... weok ... got to hove food."
He felt o domp, furry, creature scurry over his 11iling body.
"R11ts! . . . they 11re food , I c11n catch one, if I keep still ... very still ... don't bre11the." It seemed hours before he heord on in- quisitive squeok 11nd o slight movement in
the corner of his dungeon.
"Keep very still .. . curiosity killed o rot
... moke him come closer ..."
The r11t kept still until Hofez wos sure he
hod imagined the sounds. It moved closer then until he could heor its short breathing 11lmost 111 orm's length. As it moved o little neorer, he grobbed it with on iron grasp. It's piercing shriek echoed through the hollow tomb ond its lost gurgling cough occurred while the shriek w11s still ringing in his eors.
"Here is my food ... I won't storve . .." he chuckled.
As his teeth sonk into the dank smelling fur the limp body quivered. He picked the skeleton cleon ond threw it 11side, now much stronger thon before his feost.
He wiped the worm blood from his beord with the b11ck of his hond 11nd licked his f i n g e r s w i t h 11 r e l i s h s i m i l 1 1 r t o t h 1 1 t o f 11 s11voge.
The ch11mber in which he wos inclosed wos (he estimoted) obout seven by ten feet ond lined with swe11ting squ11res of stone. Rusty iron bors obviously sep11r11led him from the long corridor.
Hours 11fter his polluted repost he felt the desire for occup11tion of his renewed strength. He bec11me 11wore of the skeleton of the rot. He begon toying with its shope in the dorkness. Hofez dismembered \·he bones ond suddenly when his hond felt the m11ssive construction of the shoulder blade on ideo struck him with sickening excite- ment.
"Escope! from rotting owoy with this cen- tury-old dungeon in the d11rkness."
The shoulder blode of the rot wos thin enough to scr11pe 11woy the hord cf11y, which held the stones together, until they could be dislodged.
He estimoted it os being two d11ys before h e h 1 1 d d o n e 1111 h e c o u l d o n d u s e d f o u r bl11des in the process. He could shoke the stone now, which w11s fully " foot obove the floor in the Willi. He worked with untiring energy to dislodge it.
His diet being chiefly r11ts, it wos not long before he bec11me we11k og11in, due to un- sufficent drinking w11ter 11nd extreme fotigue. The short rest periods he took were usually sleep. During these periods he would dreom
The Meteor
Volume XXXVI February, 1952 No. 4
Issued by the students of the Virginio Episcopo! School, Lynchburg, Yirgini11, monthly during the school term.
Entered 11s second-doss molter September 28, 1928, ol the Postoffic11 11! Lynchburg, Virginio, under the Act of M11rch 3, 1879.
Subscription for one school session-2 dollors.
4
THE METEOR
(Continued on poge 5, col. 3)
JAMES
PHI LI PS
EDITORIAL BOARD
BRAXTON - J O H N TA BS HEYWARD, JR.
Co-Editors-in-Chief
BARCLAY BONDURANT ..................................•...............Sports Editor JOSEPH LYLE ....................................•..............Assist11nt Sports Editor JOSEPH KEMP HOUCK . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ........................ Alumni Editor MR. W. S. CATHERWOOD .........................•................... Faculty Advisor
GEORGE BARLOW ERNEST SIBLEY
ARTISTS FRANK CARRINGTON
N. SHAW SMITH
REPO RTE RS
PHOTOGRAPHER DR. G. L. BARTON CHARLES ANTRIM
BARBOUR FRYE NICK STIEGLITZ
TYPISTS PETE MILLER
BILL LYNN
BUSINESS BOARD RICHARD DONOVAN - BILL HUDGINS
Co-Business Managers
BlLL PETERSON ....................... ............................Circul11tion M11n11ger
BlLL STOKES
.. ......... .................•.........Assistont Circulotion Monager
CLOTHES FOR YOUNG MEN
W. D. CAMPBELL &SON
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Peoples National B11nk Bldg. lynchburg, Va.
THE
VIRGINIAN HOTEL LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA
C. S. HUTTER CO. ANYTHING IN
BUILDING SUPPLIES
THE LYNCHBURG NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY
Ninth and Main Streets LYNCHBURG'S OLDEST BANK
DRIVE-IN BRANCH- Ninth and Commerce Streets
Member F. D. I. C.
