Show r F Adventurers Adventurers' za Club rj I Asleep at the Wheel Dy By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter Hinter ERES ERE'S Fred Bock whose address Is Brooklyn but H HERES HERE'S whose home is Route 34 or Route 36 or maybe some other route altogether Fred you see drives one of those big transportation trucks that move between one city and another Those lads might get back to their houses once in a while but a good part of the time they do their sleeping sleeping sleep sleep- ing on the big front seat of a truck parked at the side of the road That's the sort of lad you have to catch on the thc fly But Ive I've nabbed Fred and heres here's his story On a Thursday morning In November Fred and hs partner Charlie were delivering furniture at various houses in Brooklyn They went out with a load delivered It it and finished up about one o'clock in tho the afternoon They had some lome lunch and pulled into the office at two hoping they were through for the day But no such luck for Fred lie He still sWI had a sized man-sized job to do that day day and and besides that there was wasa a little adventuring to be taken care of At that stage of the game though he didn't know anything about adventuring Taking a Load to Washington After Arter Fred had settled up his Ills accounts the manager called him Into loto his office and told him the bad news There was an Immediate delivery to 13 ba made In Washington D. 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C and Fred had been elected to do the job They loaded the truck and were on their way Route 1 was to be their home this time Urne They picked it up in Jersey City and rolled into Philadelphia along about nine o'clock in the evening Fred and Charlie knew a good lunch wagon In Philly and they went there for dinner Back in the truck again Fred suggested a nap They Tiley had been up since early morning and both of them were pretty tired They la lay down on the seat set and started to snooze but not for far long After Atter a brief interval they were awakened by a cop who told them that the main drag of the Quaker City was no lodging house and suggested that tha t they take their big truck out of there So they started to move Fred Was Getting Sleepy They threaded their way through the city and once more they ther were bowling bowline along the open road through a cold bleak November night The wind swept across the fields In fitful gusts and the road ahead seemed to darken Fred drove e on through the night The hours rolled by and he was totting getting more and more sleepy Along about midnight filmy haze base began beran to cloud his vision Says Fred The feeling was nothing new to me It came from staring ahead over long periods and had happened to me many times before I knew that the best thins thing thin for me to do was pull over to the side of the r road ad for a short r rest st st. I began looking for a convenient parking space but the minutes fled by without a sign of at a place to stop The road was getting narrower and more gloomy My eyes seemed to be begetting begetting begetting getting heavy as lead We began to roll down hill hUt Flickering fantastic shadows danced across the path of the headlights and the road ahead suddenly inclined in In- cUned In a long steep tortuous grade I looked at Charlie and saw him curled up in the corner of the seat fast asleep Ills peaceful repose seemed to tempt me And then then then- Running Wild Toward a Wall And then suddenly Freds Fred's eyes were shut shot and the truck was running wild lIdl Fred doesn't know how long his eyes were shut or how the truck managed to keep on the road But something in the back of his brain brain- some drivers' drivers instinct instinct brought brought him wide awake as suddenly as he had fallen asleep s As s his eyes came open he saw in the beam bum ot of the headlights a sharp narrow turn in the road and just Jut at af the beginning ol the bend a white concrete wall The headlights brought that scene to his eyes with startling clear clear- ness It didn't take me long to realize what that meant says FredA FredA FredA Fred A narrow bridge spanning spanning spanning-spanning spanning what what was was the question 3 I didn't know and for tor a minute it looked as if I never would know I In 10 the few seconds Fred had been asleep the speedometer had cUm climbed bed to forty A glance told him that that and and then theu he jammed on the brakes lint But even as I did so he says sas I 1 knew It would be useless The bend In the road was too narrow to permit a quick turn with a large truck I couldn't couldn saie save myself from crashing Into the wall Steep Cliff Clift Just Ahead of Them Fred fred took a lightning glance to right and left searching for a way out out There was a clear space at the beginning of the wall How long it was what was what obstructions he might find In it it-he it he didn't know but he determined to take a chance and trust to luck that he didn't run into a tree and pile pUe up lie He turned his wheels and headed for the clear space Then just as his wheels heels left let the road the headlights showed him what was ahead There were no trees in his way There was noth noth- ing The car car was plunging toward a steep cliff clift at the bottom of ot which ran the river I IFred's Freds Fred's hand tightened on the wheel The top of the bank was wasa a scant ten feet ahead and he be knew he would never be able to stop that car With his ils Is whole hole body tense he waited for the sickening sickening sick sick- ening plunge over the bank bank and and the end And then Fred got the surprise of his life Suddenly the truck slowed down as the wheels struck something soft and mushy It moved another two or three feet and came to an abrupt stop Fred climbed out of the cab and jumped to the ground and heaved a sigh of re relief and gratitude The wheels had run into a pile of sand left by the highway patrol And Fred says As I stood there listening to the swish of water far below it certainly seemed to me as if Providence were rid rid- ing jag with us that night For if that pile pUe of sand had been six feet to right or left we would have bave shot over that clearing and dropped into the river dver below C C Service |