Show kyd Q ADVENTURERS ADVENTURERS' CLUB HEADLINES H E A D L I N ES FROM FRO M THE LIVES L I V E S S OF PEOPLE LIKE A Bag of 0 Caramels By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Deadline Headline hunter ELLO EVERYBODY HELLO H Shove over and make room for for for-a a new adventurer Meet George Verges o ot Brooklyn N. N Y George says its it's a yarn about the Dark Continent Or at least he says its it's a yarn about what people call the Dark Continent Person Person- Personally Personally Personally ally he found it just as light over there as any place else hes he's ever been in But then George was born bom In Cairo Egypt Maybe its it's just the old town home home town spirit that makes him take up the cudgels for Africa George was brought up In Africa too and educated according to the best African tradition By the time Ume he was twenty seven years old he spoke not only Greek his native language but Arabic English Italian and md Turkish as welL Well sir if it he talks all those other ollier languages as aswell aswell aswell well as he writes In English George must be one swell linguist linguist and and no mistake about it After Arter he had had finished his education George wandered about Africa for Cor a few Cew years and finally landed down In the Interior where he be had the adventure of the Candy That Saved a Life Lire He Carried Candy for His Laborers It was in a place called that George settled He got a Job as employment manager In a road construction camp and was so successful that people wondered how he did it George gives us the secret right here and a great scheme it was too Instead of beating the natives who worked for him George followed the advice of ot an old African trader who once told him that If it you gave a native a piece of ot candy when he had done a good bit of ot work he would remember it longer than a beating given him for bad work George never forgot that bit of ot advice and he always carried around a paper bag full fuli of caramels for his laborers Well lets let's put the candy away now while we tell Georges George's story It was about the middle of September 1911 that George took a notion to to 4 err I jj 0 j 1 y S 1 A Huge Boa Constrictor Was in the Tree go hunting He took his rifle and had gone only a few hundred yards away from camp when he spied a beautiful ul antelope walking toward a brook which was a few feet teet ahead to his left Antelope steaks are mighty good eating but George hated like the devil to shoot such a beautiful u animal He stood watching it a long time undecided as to what to do Then his taste for fresh tresh meat got g t the better of him and he began to stalk the graceful beast After Antelope but Found a Boa The antelope was in such a position that he he hec couldn't c get a very good goodshot goodshot goodshot shot at it from where he was standing He started to move forward- forward slowly slowly cautiously cautiously heading for a huge tree only a few feet from the brook He got there raised his gun and was just applying pressure to the trigger when all of a sudden he heard a strange whistling sound The tree under which he was standing shook as if ii lightning had struck it itI itI itI I lifted my eyes ces upward George says and what I saw frightened me so that my feet Ceet seemed to take root in the ground A HUGE BOA CONSTRICTOR of oC tremendous size had been coiled in that tree waiting for Cor some animal to prey on And just as asI asI asI I looked up it leaped down on me mc meTo meTo To save my life I couldn't couldn t move Shivers ran up and down my spine as the thing came hurtling toward me I 1 knew then what a bird feels like when a snake fixes it with its hypnotic eye and charms it into complete immobility while it moves forward to eat it I stood there for what seemed ten minutes but which could not really have been more than a second while the big snake was descending A black mist came up before my eyes I felt the constrictor hit me And then giving one loud shriek I lost my senses When George came to again he found himself lying on the straw straw- covered floor of a cave surrounded by black native women who imme immediately Immediately fell down on their knees before him Told Why hy They Saved Him HimI S I couldn't understand it he says I thought I was dreaming until I saw my personal servant was a midget boy who could speak my language and he explained everything told everything told me what had happened And what a moving tale told told the the story of how a bag of caramels had saved the life of the man who dispensed them to those who had I done well vell with their work I had followed George when he left camp Also had a pistol Few whites in that territory will let their servants carry arms but George had entrusted with an old gun and a very go d thing he had too For when he saw that boa constrictor wrapping its I coils around his master had shot the snake and then called to the other natives for help I The natives came running the minute they realized why wanted them Natives dont don't like boa constrictors very well w II Its It's dog dog- doggone dOg I doggone gone seldom you can get them to tackle one But they went after fter this one and soon had George out of its clutches They took George to their cave wondering if he were alive or dead When had finished it was all clear to 0 George except how bow had managed to get those blacks to go within a mile of a aboa aboa 5 boa constrictor But explained c that too Master laster die he said with ingenuous frankness rankness we get no more caramels Copyright Service |