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Show "rFLOYD GIBBONS f; -1 Adventurers' Club "The Man From the West" By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter. t-XOU know, boys and girls, somewhere in these United States , A there's a big, soft voiced Texas cowboy, and if you know anybody like that, tell him that Winifred McEvoy is looking for him. No don't get me wrong now. Winifred isn't looking for that guy to collect a bill, or to bawl him out for that tough cut I of Texas beef she got from the butcher shop last week. She "wants to thank that cowpuncher for a little favor he did her once a little favor that she will never forget as long as she lives. And back of that favor lies a story an adventure story of the first water. This yarn goes back to 1924, when Winifred, with her husband hus-band and her three-year-old baby boy, was living in England. At that time, a bunch of American cowboys were staging a rodeo at the Crystal Palace in London, and they had the whole doggone conservative town talking about the capers they cut up and the monkeyshining they did, 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, horse-back, at full gallop, letting out "yips" and "whoopees" until the Londoners' ears rang. They lassoed the hats off of London cops, and dropped their 'Janata on the necks of London gentlemen, wrinkling their immaculate collars, and discomposing them most horribly, bah Jove I Winifred McEvoy thought they w'ere a bunch of roughnecks and so they were. I mean. It takes a roughneck to reason with a regiment of cows. Few college pro-i pro-i fessors have ever made a success of it Cowboys Were Wild and Fearful Creatures to Her. ' Winifred never expected to meet one of these cowboys face to face. Jf one of them had come up and rung her front door bell, she'd have run 1 screaming for the police. That's how scared she was of those wild and woolly westerners. But one day she did meet one and she has never had any cause to regret it 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 I'm going to tell you about had J - happened, he said that he'd often been scared during the war, but he'd never run across anything in the line of fright like the terror he felt just a second or two before that big Texas cowboy went Into action. There was a big aeronautical exhibition staged at Hendon, In July, 1924, and the McEvoys went up to see It At that time, Hendon was just i i big field, with no modern facilities for safeguarding the crowds that Jame to see the exhibition. Nothing but a rope separated the spectators from the field, and Winifred and her husband were standing at that rope, iwell up in the front of the crowd. Interestin' Doin's Take Their Minds From Baby. They had their little boy with them, too Winifred's husband was holding him in his arms. The little fellow didn't like that very much, " Sawa Rope Settle' Down Around That Baby Form." a, though. He kept saying: "WanVto sit down," and after a while,-Winl-i fred's husband set him on the ground between him and his wife. Then i ie became absorbed in the exhibition again. Winifred was absorbed in that exhibition, too. She, herself, -i had been attached to a flying unit during the war, and she was A as interested in aviation as her husband. Planes were rooming and stunting all over the field, landing and taking off so fast you ij could hardly keep count of them. And the next thing Winifred .:! knew, she looked down to where her baby should have been i where she could have sworn he was and well he just wasn't there. . I FnVhtonpii Winifred cast a ouick glance out across the field. And there is she saw something that fairly made her heart stop beating. A plane had ise Jnst landed and was taxiing to a stop fifteen or twenty feet away from the ropes behind which she was standing. And toddling across the field : tight Into the path of the plane was her little boy. ' Youngster Wanders Into Jaws of Sudden Death. I i Says Winifred : "I was terrified. In one horrible second, I could see that tiny, beloved figure cut to pieces by the whirling propeller blades. I I'jj ! knew I couldn't get to my baby in time to do any good and the roar of ' the plane would prevent even my voice from reaching him. a "Cryijrr "my husband's name, I attempted to clamber under the rope's, when I heard a quietly compelling voice that even m . reached my hysterical understanding. The voice said: 'Don't get U 'excited, Ma'am,' and then I saw something happen that I didn't think possible. l i "1 felt a jerking movement beside me, heard a swishing sound and d saw a rope settle down around that baby form. In a fraction of a second, Wo( he was pulled to the ground and dragged to safety, out from under the prJ. whirling blades of the propeller. fcir A Life-Line Floats in From Heaven. H; "It all happened so swiftly that the crowd (who were craning their liiA' tecks at a particularly daring exhibition up above) didn't realize what Sis' had occurred. As I reached for my baby, the rope was deftly flicked yi ! from around his body. He was slightly disheveled, but quite unhurt 5iBI ; ind by the time my husband and I Teaiized that we really had a son, o4W onr cowboy friend was gone. ii tt! "I" had a hazy recollection of a very large Stetson, strong ,ot t , hands on a rope, and a wonderful voice but we were never able if- , to find our baby's rescuer. I hope if this story is ever published sll that that quiet voiced man will see it, and I know that he has oil' the constant prayers and gratitude of a widowed mother, who has now only the son he saved for her." So, boys and girls, if you run across that Texas cowpuncher, just give Mm that message from Winifred. WNU Service. ia ft |
