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Show ADVENTURERS CLUB "Guns in tlie Night" By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter. YOU know, boys and girls, when a guy gets in trouble, generally gen-erally his first thought is: "Boy, I wish there was a cop around to get me out of this." And if there is a cop around, the chances are he can get you out of almost any sort of jam in the world. The police are called on at all hours of the day and night, to do everything from straightening out a family argument, to catching a cat that's crawled up a tree and won't come down. But here's the story of a bunch of boys who couldn't call on the cops when they got into trouble. In fact, it was the cops who were making all the trouble for Frank Zappala, and for his three pals. Not that Frank had done anything to deserve all that attention from the New York police department. All he was doing was trying to get to .New Jersey. There are some funny laws on the statute books, I'll admit, but there Isn't any against going to New Jersey, so Frank was entirely within his rights when he tried to dig up the half buck he needed to get through the Holland tunnel. But things were happening around New York, that night, that Frank and his friends didn't know about Old Lady Adventure was setting the stage for big doings and she used the cops for actors In the drama she staged with Frank In the leading role, Frank and his friends started out one September evening for a ride In a car that belonged to one of the fellows' dads. They had the ear-but ear-but doggone little money. There was only twenty cents In cash In the whole crowd, and they wanted to go over to New Jersey to see some friends they had over there. Boys Would Rather Be in Jersey So Watch. Going to Jersey, though, cost fifty cents the price of admission to the Holland tunnel So Frank suggested that one of the other lads a fellow named Jim sell an old dollar-and-a-half watch that he carried. Jim was agreeable, and handed over the watch. Frank got out of the car and went looking for a customer for It. The car was parked at the foot of Wall street and It was round 10:30 at night Prospective watch-buyers were few and ','ar between. As a matter of fact there was only one man In jight, and all the dough he had was twenty cent. The boys needed thirty cents, so It was Just no sale. They drove the car down to the Battery and tried again. A street cleaner was working there, and they offered the watch to him. He didn't want It, but he talked to the boys for a while. And then suddenly things began to happen. Police Speed After Some Wrong-Doer. A pollc or shot around the corner, siren screaming, and sped off down the street going about sixty-five miles an hour. About ten seconds later, another one followed it, going even faster than the first Both cara disappeared around another corner before the boys even bad a chance to get a good look at them. The street cleaner ran for the corner to get a last look at them, and the four boys climbed back into their own car. . - "Don't Shoot, Mister Don't Shoot" Jim got In front and took the wheel. Frank was In the back seat with a lad named Charlie. While Jim was starting the motor, Frank turned to Charlie and said: "What luck we've got We can't even sell a watch 1" And then he saw Charlie's hands go up In the air heard him cry out: "Don't shoot, mister don't shootl" Frank sat gazing, spellbound, past Charlie and out Into the Btreej. Two men were standing theredetectives, they looked like pointing sawed-off police rifles Into the back seat of the car. Two uniformed police came up then, and one on the detectives opened the door and yanked Charlie out of the car. Another poked a rifle into Frank's midriff and told him to climb out, too. And np ahead, the two boys in the front seat were also being pulled out onto the pavement It Begins to Look Like They're Public Enemies. By this time there were eight policemen and detectives clustered around the car. A couple more were inside, going through it with a fine-toothed fine-toothed comb. "Where are the guns?" they asked Frank. "Where are the other two fellows?" All four boys said they didn't have any guns didn't know anything about any two other fellows but they couldn't convince the cops. A robbery had been committed In the neighborhood, and these lads answered the description of the men. They were carted off to the station house fingerprinted, questioned. They hadn't been there long before they realized that they were In trouble likely to be put on trial for a crime they had no hand In. Where were they when the robbery was committed? That's the question the police kept asking them. And their answer: "Parked on a corner down by the Battery" was not good enough. Street Cleaner Cleans Up Their Slate. , Then Frank thought of the street cleaner. If the cops could only find him, he could back their story. Frank told the detective captain, and the captain sent a man out to bring him In. He got there about fifteen minutes later. "Did you ever see these boys before?" the detectives asked him. "Sure I did," he replied. "I was talking to them for twenty minutes, just before the police cars came shooting around the corner." And that was all the cops wanted to know. But for a half hour or so, It sure looked to Frank as though four guys were going to Jail for the heinous crime of trying to get to Jersey City. C WNU 8ervic. |