Show 0 Adventurers Adventurers' t J w t i. i ti Club i Yi f ki 4 1 tJ t f a. a The Iron Claw By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter HERE'S HERES H ERES ERE'S a yarn with more than a touch of the sinister in it I Fiction writers go a long way to make their villains seem evil and menacing but the villain of today's yarn doesn't have to give an inch to any of them In fact he might have stepped right out of the celluloid of one of those old-fashioned old serial thrillers we all used to follow so religiously in inthe the days when the motion picture industry was young and rough-and-ready rough and a good show could be seen for a nickel with three cases of heart-failure heart thrown in free with every reel But first lets let's introduce the hero of the story Boys and girls step up and meet John L. L Dumont of Little Falls FaUs N. N J. J John gets the degree of Distinguished for telling us this tale talc of his eerie encounter with our villain on a dark lonely road in Nova Scotia in August 1926 John was just a youngster of sixteen at the time lie fie was in Nova Scotia visiting some friends who lived Jived in the little town of 01 Baddeck There he met another lad Jad Dolph Rogers who was work- work working working working ing for lor the Canadian government and Dolph introduced him to two young ladies Ja ies from Washington D. D C. C who were spending the summer in the north They Went Vent to a n Dance in Sydney The four of them started to pal around together and one night they decided to go to a dance at the nearby town of Sydney One of the girls had a car and they went to Sydney in that They spent the evening dancing dancing dancing ing and started back about 1230 12 30 John was driving the car The girl who owned it sat in front beside him The other two were in the back seat It was a dark night and the gravel roads of Nova Scotia are narrow About ten miles out of Sydney John saw another car approaching from the opposite direction I I Traffic is never heavy on the Nova Scotia roads This was almost the first car they had met since leaving Sydney And since the quarters were sort of cramped on that narrow road John pulled over to one side and slowed down almost to a stop to let the other machine pass As the he other car came closer John noticed that it was zig zig- zigzagging zigzagging zigzagging zagging back and forth across the road He jammed on his brakes but that did no good The weaving car roared toward them ca ca- careening careening ca- ca careening to right and left Jeff It crashed into the left side of the ma ma- machine machine machine chine John was driving crumpled a fender and shot past them coming to a stop some seventy five five or eighty feet beyond Then the Excitement Started John Joh didn't know what the etiquette of the road was in Nova Scotia but back home in New Jersey where two cars collided the thing to do was get the other fellows fellow's license He climbed out of the damaged car carThe carI I The Blow Caught Him Dim in the Back of the Neck and started walking back As he did he noticed a set heavy-set man getting out of the other machine and also another man who was still sitting in the car Dolph Rogers in the meantime had climbed out of the back seat and followed John John walked up to the set heavy-set man who was standing in the middle of the road and said Let me see your drivers driver's license And then suddenly the melodrama was on The burly man shouted Ill show you my drivers driver's license you and he lashed out suddenly with his right arm John had just time tune to turn turn then then the blow caught him It caught him on the back of the neck and he heard a tearing sound Suddenly in the dark he was conscious that his coat was hanging from rom his two arms its arms its tails flapping at the front of his thighs It had been ripped completely in half haU in the back from top to bottom And while John was pondering this strange phe- phe 11 x ji he be saw Dolph running up heard up-heard beard him cry out LOOK LOOKOUT LOOKOUT OUT THE HOOK RUN J His Right Hand Was Vas a Steel Claw Then John saw it In the reflected glow of the cars car's head lamps he got a glimpse of the burly fellows fellow's right hand It wasn't a hand at all but buta a STEEL CLAW strapped to the end of his arm It must have been razor sharp he knew to cut his coat in half haU at one sweep of the thick-set thick fel fel- fellows fellow's fel- fel fellows fellow's lows low's arm And at the same time he realized that the man was danger danger- dangerously dangerously dangerously drunk If there ever was a man to fit the character of the sinister villain of the movie movie serials this fellow was it Thrown into a panic by his very appearance John started to run To his dismay he could hear the burly fellows fellow's footsteps pounding along in hot pursuit I HI was just sixteen says John and in fair condition I still believe that if it Id I'd been timed I would have lowered by a comfortable margin all the existing records for the mile run I dont don't know how bow far the man chased me mc but the next time I looked back he had given up upI upI upI I was alone on the dark road and a good many miles away from town Presently I saw the lights of a car coming my way and as it came nearer I recognized it as that of my friends The girl who owned it had driven it up the road while the man was chasing me had passed him and had finally found me Ruffian Was Vas Killed in a Brawl They drove back to Baddeck and next morning they learned that the man with the claw hand was a notorious gentleman around that section The police went to look for him but he had skipped out of his usual haunts and wasn't to be found Before John left Nova Scotia how how- however however however ever he had news of him The fellow was killed in a brawl in a saloon near Sydney Ive never been able to think of that steel claw without wincing wincing wincing ing says John If It he had been a little closer he probably T would have ripped my neck open C Service |