Show f FLOYD GIB GIBBONS ONS 4 Adventurers Club JIA Ciu y frd f 1 r f I- I The Man llian an From the W West WestBy cst By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter YOU OU know boys and girls somewhere in these United States theres there's a big soft voiced Texas cowboy and if you know anybody like that tell him that Winifred McEvoy is looking for him lim No No-don't No don't dont get me wrong now Winifred isn't looking for that guy to collect a bill or to bawl him out for that tough cut of Texas beef she got from the butcher shop last week She wants to thank that cowpuncher for a n little favor he did her once once once-a a little favor that she will never forget et ns as lon long as ns she lives JIves And back of that favor lies Iles a story story-an stor story an an adventure nd story tory of or the first water This yarn yar goes back to 1924 when Winifred with her husband husband husband hus hus- band and her year three year old baby boy was living In England At that time a bunch of American cowboys were staging a rodeo at atthe atthe atthe the Crystal Palace in London and they had the whole doggone conservative town talking about the capers they cut up and the they did dd at hours when the show was all over and they were supposed to be In bed for the night Those cowpunchers rode down the busiest streets In London on horseback horseback horse horse- back at full gallop letting out yips and until the Londoners Londoners' ears rang They lassoed the hats hata of off of London cops and dropped their larIats on the necks of London gentlemen wrinkling their Immaculate collars and discomposing them most horribly bah Jove Joret I l Winifred McEvoy thought they were a n bunch of roughnecks roughnecks and and so they were I mean menn It takes a n to reason with n a regiment of cows Few college professors proCessors professors pro pro- have ha ever er made a success of or It Cowboys Were Wild and Fearful Creatures to Her Winifred never expected to meet one of ot these cowboys face to face It If f one of them hn had come up nn and run rung her front door bell shed she'd have ha run screaming for the police That's how scare scared she was of those wil wild rin and woolly westerners But ut one day she did meet one one and and she has never had any cause to re regret ret It ft Now it so happened that the whole McEvoy family were pretty keen on aviation Winifred's husband had been an officer in the Royal Air Force and had flown a sky buggy all through the World war And after this thing Im I'm going to tell you about had happened he said that hed he'd often been scared during the war but hed he'd never run across anything In the line of fright like the terror he felt just a second or two before that big that big Texas cowboy went Into action There Thele was wag a big aeronautical exhibition staged ed at Hendon In July 1924 and the o s 's went up to see it At that time Hen Hendon on was jusa Just jus Justa t a big fIel field with no modern facilities for safeguarding ing the crowds that tha t ts came to see the exhibition Nothing but a rope separated the spectators spectator s from the fiel field and rind Winifred and her bel husband were standing at nt that rope well up In the front of the crowd Doin's Take Their Minds From Baby The They bad had their little boy with them too too WInifred's Winifred's husband was wa s holding him in his arms The little fellow didn't like Uke that very much t J l i I T uhl r i. i pilot I Saw a Rope Settle Down Around That Baby Form though He kept saying Want to sit down own and after a while WInifred's Winifred's Wini WIni- f freds fred's eds ed's husband set him on the ground between him and his wife Then he became absorbed in the exhibition again Winifred was absorbed In that exhibition too She herself had been attached to a flying unit during the war and she was wasas wasas wasas as Interested In aviation as her husband Planes were zooming and stunting all over the fiel landing and taking off so fast you could hardly keep count of them And the next thing Winifred knew she looked down to where her baby should have been been been- he well was and well he wasn't where she could have sworn was Just there lirI Frightened Winifred cast a quick glance out across the field And there she Bhe saw something that fairly made her heart stop beating A plane had bad Just lust landed nn and was taxiing to a n stop fifteen or twenty feet away from tl the e ropes behind which she was standing And toddling across the field right into the path of the plane was her was her little boy Youngster Wanders Into Jaws of Sudden Death Says Winifred I hI was terrified In one horrible second I could see that tiny b beloved loved figure cut to pieces by the whirling propeller blades I knew i I couldn't get to my baby In time to do any good and good and the roar of the plane w would uld prevent even my voice olce from reaching him Crying my husbands husband's name I attempted to clamber clamber- under the ropes when I heard a quietly compelling voice that even reached my hysterical understanding The voice said Dont get excited Maam Ma'am and then J I saw something happen that I didn't think possible I felt a Jerking movement beside me heard hear a swishing sound and saw a rope settle down own around that baby form In a fraction of ot a u second he was pulled to the ground and dragged to safety out from under the whirling blades of the propeller A Line Life-Line Floats in From Heaven It all nIl happened so swiftly that the crow crowd who were craning their necks at nt a n particularly daring e exhibition up above dI didn't nt realize what bad had occurred As I reached for tor my baby the rope was deftly flicked from around his bo body y He was slightly disheveled but quite unhurt And by the time my husband and I realized that we really had bad a son our cowboy friend frIen was goneI gone I had a hazy recollection of a very large Stetson strong hands on a rope and a a wonderful voice voice but but we were never able to find our baby's rescuer I hope hope If If this story Is ever published that that that quiet voiced man will see It It and I know that he has haa the constant prayers and gratitude of a widowed mother who has now only the son he saved for her So 0 boys and girls if you run across that Texas cowpuncher Just give him that message from Winifred Service |