Show Adventurers Adventurers' Club ic 0 The Thin Edge o of Doom A By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter Bunter Tj FREDERICK REDERICK of New York city walks away T with the blue ribbon today with a yarn that will curdle 1 your blood make your hair stand up and bring ring you up out I of bed in the middle of the night in a cold sweat And Freds Fred's adventure is another one of those yarns that goes to show how the real hot adventures dont don't come to the birds you'd expect them to come COlne to Fred served as a soldier with the British army In France and Belgium He got himself into many a a. a tight spot during the war But the big adventure adventure adventure ad ad- venture of his career came to him while he was working at th the comparatively comparatively comparatively com com- peaceful job of medica medical technician It was on September 9 1932 that Fred received a call from a prominent physician summoning him to a case in nn an apartment building on on Park avenue When Fred got there he was met by a woman the widow of a wealthy New York merchant merchant mer mer- chant who told him that her son had hod been suffering rr from m a mental mental men menn tal tat disorder and needed to be taken care of Patient Had Homicidal Tendencies The woman took Fred to her sons son's room He was sitting silting by a a window window window win win- dow looking out at the street He paid no attention to Fred and when Fred spoke to him he got no reply but a vague mumble and a furtive look Fred pretended to be interested in things around the room He sort of hoped the young fellow might respond to that sort of treatment But the l lad just sat in his chair and sulked and paid no attention to Fred at all About thirty six-thirty that evening the doctor arrived He looked over his patient and then he warned Fred to watch him closely Hes developing developing developing de de- de- de homicidal tendencies the Doc said and its it's hard to tell what hell he'll do But he may become dangerous at any minute So Fred decided hed he'd have to watch his step that night The evening wore on and on-and and still the young fellow rellow sulked About midnight Fred persuaded him Wm to go to bed A cot had bad been setup set setup setup up In the room for Fred but before beCore he lay down on It he locked the door from Crom the inside and put the key in his Ws pocket He Be waited until he be was sure his patient was asleep and then he lay Jay down himself That Doze Was Vas Almost Fatal Says Fred I I was very tired having just finished a strenuous case case that same morning and I must have dozed off That doze nearly cost me my life lie I awoke suddenly with a nameless feeling that all was not well and there not two feet from the foot of my cot creeping toward me was my patient Fred says no words no-words words that he knows could describe the demoniacal fury of at the young lads lad's distorted features And he says in his right hand was an OPEN RAZOR To say that I went cold with horror wouldn't be telling the half hall of ot it But that feeling only lasted a second or two Then I managed to pull myself together again The urbe young fellow must have sensed that I was awake for forwith with a bound he was at m my side His Bis arm went up and started to come down again He meant to decapitate me with that razor But my left hand shot out and seized his right and I 1 got a death grip on his Ws wrist t to stop the murderous swing But now the madman's left hand was reaching for Freds Fred's throat and there in that locked room began a terrible battle The young fellow fought with all of ot a maniacs maniac's superhuman strength He was armed with witha a razor and Fred thought that fuat sure enough this was going to be his finish Still he hc struggled and still the maniac fought on Nearly Split by the Razor He made no sound to Fred says but kept spitting in my face as though to blind me Finally with a furious heave he flung me to the floor and tore loose his right arm the arm the one with the razor in it The arm went up and 1 I could see the razor gleam in the light that filtered in through the window Emitting a grunting sound like a woodchopper swinging an axe on a block of wood he brought that razor down to split me in two And then something else happened Fred says its it's a strange thing the way a mans man's mind and body will ordinate co-ordinate in a moment of or stress He put every ounce of st strength he had into one great effort of pitching himself away away- out from under that descending razor He rolled d violently toone to toone toone one side and as he did his right hand landed on one of his shoes Fred doesn't even remember thinking his Ws next move out He thinks he must have acted almost entirely by instinct But he clutched at the shoe as a drowning man would a straw sprang to his feet whirled around and swung the heel at the mad young fellows fellow's temple He did that all in one and motion and did it so swiftly that it was wa's was all over before his mind half halt caught up with what he was doing The heel of the shoe la landed right landed right where Fred wanted it to land The young fellow slumped to the floor and lay stilL stilLFred Fred struck him again with that shoe He looked as though the first blow had bad knocked him Wm unconscious but he be might have been playing possum and Fred wasn't taking any chances And then the fight was was over Fred stripped the sheets from the young fellows fellow's bed and tied him h hand nd and foot root He u unlocked locked the door and there outside were the young lads lad's mother and the maid both of or them almost frantic They had heard the sounds o of or the thc c struggle but couldn't get through the locked door They took the young fellow to a sanitarium the next day Fred never found out how he managed to get hold of that razor Fred grabbed that razor by the way and kept it for a souvenir of a ghastly nights night's ex ex- ex- ex But Ill I'll bet a lot of money he doesn't sh shave ve with it p 0 Service |