tad adventurers CLUB HEADLINES frojm THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 1 death in the H HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY A fisherman takes his living out of the water and at times the water is pretty generous but its a treacherous element when it wants to be and there are times when it takes az back more more than it has given sometimes it drives a mighty hard bargain judd of hartford conn made his living for eight or nine months by wheedling it from the saco river in maine judd take any too much from the river darned little more than he needed to live on but when the river came around to collect it wanted judds life in payment for those few months of subsistence it was in the spring of 1929 when judd started to wrest a living from the river he was digging clams and fishing for eels down at the mouth of the stream eel fishing took quite a bit of equipment one set line alone cost about eight dollars for material and a days work putting it together A set line is a long rope with weights on it every 20 feet to k keep beep it down at the bottom of the river and three or four hundred shorter lines attached to it at intervals the shorter lines are baited to catch the eels which swim along near the bottom of the stream on their way out cut to sea with the ebbing tide set line anchored by concrete blocks judds set line stretched clear across the river it was anchored by concrete blocks a few feet out from either shore and at one end there was a foat that told judd where he could find it when he be wanted it you never take a set line entirely out of the water when you want to gather your catch you yon haul the line up at the buoy and work your way along it in a rowboat pulling the line up in front of you and letting it fall back in the water behind one morning judd and his friend george croft were rowing out to some mud flats for bait on their way they passed one of judds set lines and stopped to see if there was a stray eel or two on it judd n george was hauling him down not up baug caught ht the line at the buoy pulled it up and started working along it toward the other side of the river he worked along until he was about half way across and then the line stuck judd figured it was caught on a snag on the river bottom try as he would he pull it up so the two men gave up and rowed on to get their bait but on the way back judd began thinking that he want to lose a new eight dollar set line and decided to have a try at diving for it the river was only about 14 feet deep at low tide and all the clothes judd had on were his boots and a pair of old pants with legs cut off at the knees he took off his boots and then tied the boats anchor rope to his waist and gave the other end to george croft to hold that rope was for safe tys sake the waters on the maine coast are ice cold even in june and ii if judd got a cramp he wanted george to be able to haul him up judd finds where his line Is snagged judd dived he found his line and began working his way toward where it was snagged he found the place an old waterlogged water logged tree s stump t ump rolled downstream by the current had lodged on top of it judd budge the stump his lungs were bursting so he rose to the surface the only thing he could do now was to cut the line on each side of the stump and save as much of it as possible taking his fishing knife he dived again lie he reached the bottom out cut the line on one side and then after rising to the surface for another breath of air he went down again but this time he be miscalculated his distance he reached bottom on the wrong side of the stump and had to work his way around it that took a few precious seconds says judd because now the current was becoming stronger and it was getting increasingly hard to hold my feet on the bottom but at last I 1 found the line I 1 cut it quickly doubled my knees under me and shot toward the surface anchor rope caught on bottom but judd reach the surface he shot up about five feet and then stopped with a jerk that took the air out of his lungs that jerk scared judd the first thing I 1 thought he says was that a large squid had me to this day I 1 dont know why I 1 should have thought that for the largest squid I 1 have ever seen weighed only a pound and a half then I 1 looked down and saw that it was the anchor rope tied to my waist that was holding me I 1 knew it must be caught on the bottom so I 1 grasped it and hauled myself downward hand over hand judds lungs were aching now the air was gone out of them and he knew it would be a long time before he could untangle that rope and get to the surface would he make it well he was doing his best that 10 feet of rope seemed like his heart was beating and his head was spinning at last he reached the point where the rope was snagged and then calamity As he reached the snag the rope suddenly tightened drawing him up close against the stump up in the boat george croft had picked that moment to become alarmed and try to haul judd out of the water and with the rope caught in the snag george was hauling him down instead of nf un down to tn his death judd began to struggle but the rope only pulled him closer to the stump it was so tight that judd possibly free it from the snag and there many more seconds left in which hed be able to free it his lungs were bursting and his stomach felt as if it were turning inside out he began swallowing water and at that moment he thought of the knife he had brought down to cut the set line it was in his belt lie he got it out cut the rope and that was the last judd remembered when judd woke up he was lying in the bottom of the boat and george was giving him artificial respiration george had had the scare of his life when the rope suddenly went slack and judds body had come to the surface and then started to go down again he had fished judd out W with ith a gaft gaff and then worked over him until he brought him around again released by western newspaper union