| Show r P AA tt Its f- f ADVENTURERS ADVENTURERS' CLUB tj HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF A Swim in the Ocean By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter HELLO H ELLO EVERYBODY Heres Here's the story of an adventure that almost ruined a girls girl's career That's the way Grace Stoner of New York City looks at it anyway And since Grace is the girl in question question well well well- she ought to know hadn't she But if you ou left it up to me Id I'd put it a little more strongly than Grace put it Id I'd say that adventure came doggone near ruining Grace I wouldn't say it was only her career she was in danger of losing It seems to me she stood a mighty good chance of losing her life in that little epi episode epi- epi episode sode in the harbor at Corinto Nicaragua in July 1922 Maybe in mentioning her career Grace was talking about the thing that mattered most Grace is a dancer and Ive I've heard it said sa d that t at dancers take their careers mighty seriously But the point is that Grace risked her career and her lire life too loo matter because a couple of birds made a couple of sneering remarks about her sex It Happened in Corinto Harbor Grace was off of on a cruise when it happened The ship was anchored in Corinto harbor about a mile from shore It was late afternoon just afternoon just before sundown sundown and and a more peaceful picture you never saw in in your life There wasn't a breath of wind blowing The sea was like glass Off in inthe inthe inthe the distance the beach was bathed in shadow and the sun was sinking behind the towering peaks of the Central American Sierras A bunch of the young folks aboard the steamer were splashing around in n the the tiny improvised pool rigged up out of wooden work frame-work and waterproof canvas on the afterdeck There was a bunch of young Span Span- Spanish Spanish Spanish ish students aboard going home from the University of California to their homes in Panama and San Salvador They made up most of the crowd The rest of it was Grace In a nice cool bathing suit and with half a dozen handsome young fellows around her Grace ought to have been happy But the canvas pool was so small you could hardly turn around in it and Grace was casting longing eyes on the placid inviting waters of the harbor It would be swell fun she thought to dive right off the deck and swim to shore Grace Wouldn't Take a Dare Grace mentioned her idea to the young Central American students And that's what started all the tho trouble The boys laughed at her One of them said You A girl Why you wouldn't have the nerve to swim ashore And another one wanted to bet her ten bucks she wouldn't have the nerve to try it It made Grace see sec red They couldn't talk like that to her just because she was a girl Without another word she ran to the rail dived overboard and struck out for shore Behind her the boys crowded to the rail shouting and gesticulating Grace Gra e wondered what they were making all the fuss about It was only a to shore and that wasn wasn't t much of a swim swan swim even if she was a girl Grace knew lots of girls who could swim twice that distance She smiled to herself as she rolled along through the cool calm water Shed She'd show those birds what a girl could do She was halfway across when she noticed a commotion ashore A bunch of the people had formed in an excited knot there They were waving waving waving ing and shouting Finally two men in uniforms launched a canoe and began paddling wildly toward her Now what was the matter with those fellows anyway Hadn't they ever seen a girl who could swim be be- before before before fore Or were they customs officers seeing to it that she didn't smuggle any grand pianos into the country in the folds of her bathing suit Swimming Toward the thc Shark Grace decided to have some fun with them When the canoe was about two-hundred two yards away she put on a sudden spurt swerved and swam away from it Cries came from the canoe behind her but the themore themore themore more they shouted the faster she swam And then then she she saw it Ahead of her a dark triangular fin was cutting the water coming straight for her A SHARK 1 Instantly all the stories she had ever heard about those man-eating man monsters of the deep flashed through her mind Here was one of them coming toward her herand her her- herand herand and what was worse she herself was swimming toward IT Now she knew the meaning of all the shouting and gesticulating of of the commo commo- commotion commotion commotion tion on the beach and the two men in the canoe Why hadn't she re re- remembered remembered re- re remembered that these weren't the northern waters she was used to swim swimming swimming ming in These were tropical seas infested with sharks barracudas and all sorts of other aquatic dangers For a second or two Grace was paralyzed with fright She was closer much closer much closer closer to to that shark than to the canoe And that ominous fin was steadily diminishing the distance between them Then suddenly Grace collected her wits again She lit out for that canoe with a speed that would have shamed an Olympic champion No time to look behind behind and and no reason to Either she won that race or she Her life l e was at stake but strangely enough it was her career she was thinking of most What if that shark bit off a leg or two There just wasn't any such thing as a legless dancer One Yard Between Her lIer and Death When she reached that canoe the shark was just ONE YARD be be- behind behind hind her One man hauled her hastily into the boat while the other beat the shark off with a paddle The passengers and crew were hanging anxiously over the side of the steamer when at last the canoe brought her back and then there was a first-class first brawl The officers in the canoe bawled out the captain of the ship for allowing Grace to go swimming in the harbor and then the captain turned around and bawled Grace out The only ones who didn't have anything to say were the boys who hadn't thought much of a girls girl's swimming ability and especially the one who bet her ten bucks she wouldn't l have the nerve to try it And And incidentally says Grace I collected that ten p Service |
