Show d 41 adventurers CLUB H HEADLINES E A D LINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 1 lIosI hospital ital horror ky ily FLOYD GIBBONS aan famous ous headline hunter H HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY you know lots of adventures have happened because som someone cone did tho the wrong thing somewhere along the line but heres one that resulted from saying the wrong thing its the story of george T parker of brooklyn N Y and its as line fine an example of a horrible experience as ive como coma acro across s in many a day it that george talked out ot of turn or tried to start an argument no theres nothing like that in this yarn what little georgo george did a soy ny ho he sold said with tho the best and most peaceful intentions in tho the world As a matter of fact george was just out ot of the operating room on a hospital bed when he sold it birds tit in that ox fix dont go around looking tor for flights fights and you end and I 1 know it but just tho the same george sure talked himself into a siz sizable able lot of trouble trouble that probably caused one death and canto mighty near causing georges it was april ot of 1017 1917 tho the united had just entered tho the world war and maybe you remember how wo used to guard our bridges and railroad yards in those days well what georgo was doing ho was a private in the seventy arst regiment and his company was sent to kingston N Y to guard a bridge over tho the Iton rondour rondout dout creek thoy they had put a couple of freight cars on a siding and built bunks in them to house the men and it Is in one ot of those freight cars that acor georges gos story starts it was twelve midnight and george was just leaving to take his turn at guard duty when ho he began to feel terrific pains tho the doctor said it was appendicitis and lie ho flogged flagged a train loaded george on oi the baggage car and took him into the kingston city hospital hospit nL bearded old man in next bed they held him in a ward tor for a day tor for observation there were some same twenty other patients in tho the room and one ot of them was a bedridden bed ridden fellow named tony ile ho had been there fifteen years poor devil with a broken spine but helpless as ho he was tony is tho the hero of this yarn it was ho he who saved georges georgoa life while george was still under tinder observation they brought in another patient a bearded old man with a case of mood blood poisoning in ills his lief left I 1 arm they put him in a bed right in front of Cle georges orges and aldwen weh somehow or other that old fellow gave george tho the creeps every time he looked at him in tho the morning they took georgo george out to the operating room and the sawbones took out his appendix they brought him back and put him vi V jal I 1 ff where Is that fifteen cents cent ile he hissed in the same bed lie he had had before right next to the old follow fellow with the beard who gave him the willies for two days after his operation george was a pretty prett y sick C man what with the other ether lie he had swallowed and the shock of being cut up by the surgeon on the second day the old follow fellow with the beard beca became MO delirious and started to rave and that help georges frame of mind any george pretended to be lenny he was talking about some one named lenny george says and ho he kept it up until everyone started to complain I 1 thought it would be all right to try and pacify him so when he called tor for lenny again I 1 answered him the trick seemed to wor work k the old follow fellow actually thought ho fie was talking to lenny what did you do with that junk in the attic ho he asked and george answered 1 I sold it ii how much did you got get tor for it the old fellow wanted to know and george told him fifteen cents after that the old fellow was quiet at ten the lights were put out and george dozed off and then suddenly george woke up at the sound tit a foot step beside his bed 1 looked up he be says and there staring 1 down at me was theold the old fellow ills eyes seemed to bo be popping out of his head and ills his good hand was reaching down for my throat and in a low voice lie hissed where Is the fifteen cents it might have been funny that situation it 11 it been so pathetic too but to io george there was neither humor nor pathos in it nor anything else but just plain terror there he be lay helpless two days butof out of the operating room and hardly able to lift a finger in his own defense and over him stood a man out of his mind and plainly bent on violence strangling him to death 1 I was petrified with fright says george perspiration began running off me like water from a faucet the old man was in a long white nightgown with his long hair hanging down over his shoulders and his white beard cowing over his chest the moonlight was shining full on him and the very picture of him was enough to scare a man to death 1 I c find my voice utter a word I 1 put up my hand to protect myself but it was weak and shaking the old man grasped me by the throat and began to io squeeze ills his hand was strong and it ita lucky for me he have two of them that the other one was crippled with blood or ho he might have strangled me then than and there As it was that one hand any too gentle george wondered it anyone in the room was awake if lie he could only but with the old mans fingers tightening on his throat it was too late tor for that now he wondered it he was going to die there inthe in the ap parent safety safely of 0 a hospital bed and then suddenly the lights came on nurses and attendants came running to the rescue tony the poor fellow with the broken spine had brought help he had awakened seen what was happening and pushed the buzzer that summoned the nurse the old man was taken away to it a padded cell and on the follow teg morning he was dead the exertion had been too much for him C service C |