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Show beckoned Myles to follow him to the door. "See that monument over ther?" said the clerk. "We put that up last year in memory of George Snyder." "In his memory?" cried Myles. "That's right. He brought more honor to this town than all the rest of us put together. Joined the air forces and went to France and was cited for bravery a half dozen times. Got more medals than it would take to fill a bushel basket. He was killed in action the day before be-fore the Armistice. We're proud of him." The clerk paused. "He left a wife and two kids. Pity. His wife was a girl from Maple Valley Val-ley named Mable Smith. She's living here now. If you're a friend of George's maybe you'd like to see her?" IN HIS BLOOD (A Short Story) By Richard Hill Wilkinson Everybody hated schoolmaster George Snyder. Or at least his pupils did. They hated him with a fierceness that threatened at times to result in violence. But it never did. Schoolmaster Snyder stood over six feet and weighed 200 pounds. He was a young man in 1910 when he first took over the Maple Valley School; a young man with thin sandy hair and cold blue eyes and a cruel mouth. Fearing him most- and hating him most was young Myles Osmund. Os-mund. Myles was rather small, rather delicate. He had dreamy eyes and a girlish mouth. His last year at school he fell in love with pretty Mabel Smith. One day Snyder caught him passing Mabel a note. The schoolmaster yanked Myles from his seat and made him read the note before the class. It was rather a mashy. bit of literature. Myles flushed to the roots of his hair. Everyone laughed. After the reading Snyder threshed the boy until he lay unconscious on the floor. An example for the others. ' Myles never forgot. It wasn't so much the bodily injuries. It was the humilation. The youth then and there swore revenge. Following his schooling in Maple Valley, Myles attended the high school in Mendere. Later he went to college and studied law. During college he went out for football. Not because he liked the game, but because he wanted to develop himself him-self for the time when he would come back to Maple Valley and beat up George Snyder. He grew rapidly. By the time he reached his junior year he was six feet tall and muscularly developed. He figured that that summer he'd have a crack at Snyder. The thought of it made his eyes gleam. But Myles didn't get back to Maple Valley that summer. Instead he went to France with the A.E.F. He spent 15 months on he battlefields battle-fields and then was sent home with his lungs full of gas. Myles spent six months in a sanitarium. Then he went up country coun-try and got a job on a farm. He brought his law books with him. He stayed there a year, working outdoors, eating health - giving food, studying his law. When the year was up he felt fit. The damage dam-age done to his . lungs was now negligible except under the most unfavorable conditions. He felt well and strong. His muscles bulged beneath his loose fitting clothes. He thought of George Snyder and the old gleam came into his eyes. He left the farm one bright spring day. In Boston he took the state bar examination, and hung around long enough to learn that he'd passed them. While he was waiting he visited a gymnasium daily. On the first day of June, Myles boarded a train for Mendere. All day he sat with his chin in his hand, staring from the window. That night he put up at the Mendere Men-dere hotel and the next day went by bus down to Maple Valley. Josh Weatherbee, proprietor of the general store, who remembered Myles, told him that George Snyder Sny-der had quit the school and had gone back to his home town. His home town was a place called Le-land, Le-land, located 200 miles up state. Myles left that morning for Le-land. Le-land. He hoped that Old Josh had not seen the burning light in his eyes. It was late when ha reached his destination. He spent the night in the local hotel. The next morning he asked the hotel clerk where he could find George Snyder. The clerk stared at him. Then he came around from behind his desk and |