OCR Text |
Show ADVENTURERS' CLUB j HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES V '-J OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF1 s "Two Wanted Men" HELLO EVERYBODY: You know, boys and girls, in some of these adventure adven-ture yarns I've been telling you, everything seems to happen hap-pen all in a split second. Just one two three and it's all over, with action every doggone minute. Then there are other yarns in which there's darned little action, and the suspense of the story lies in the fact that some poor devil has to stand still while death comes creeping creep-ing up on him. That sort of adventure drags out for a long time. But the yarn I'm going to tell you today is like both of those above-mentioned types of adventures. It went on for a long time, and every doggone minute of that time was packed with danger and suspense. And at the same time, it was so full of action that you'd have a hard time packing another single movement into it. It's one of the most thrilling tales I've come across in quite a while, and the honors today go to a Chicago policeman police-man Albert Rickert of Chicago. It was a cool September afternoon in 1927. Al was off duty, and with time on his hands, he went over to the home of his pal, Emmett Hartnett, for a visit. After he'd been there awhile, they decided it would be a good idea to go for a ride. Emmett got a car and they drove around for about two hours. They were on their way to a restaurant when things began to happen. As they drove along a small sedan passed them. There were two men in the car, and Al recognized them both as automobile auto-mobile thieves! Thieves Recognize Al as Policeman. Al told Emmett to turn around and follow that car. They were catching up to it when the thieves spotted the auto behind them and recognized Al as a policeman. They stepped on the gas and the chase was on! The car in front of them leaped ahead. Emmett stepped on it and followed. The faster they went, the faster the smaller car ahead traveled. Al pulled out his gun and fired one shot. But the car ahead didn't stop. Both those gas buggies were tearing along down the street at close to top speed. The scenery was fairly whizzing past, and people along the way stopped to stare at a race they had never seen the like of outside of a race track. Gun in hand, Al opened the door and climbed out on the ' And then he was being dragged along behind the fleeing car. running board to get a better shot at his quarry. As Emmett drove and the car careened along the wide street he fired again and again. Still the car ahead sped on! Now, Al could see that they were gaining on the crooks. .The small car didn't have speed enough to outdistance the big one in which they were riding. Al continued to fire until his revolver was empty. Al's Car Nosed Alongside the Thieves. The big car had almost caught up to the little one now. Bit by bit they gained until at last Al's car was nosing up beside the one in which the two thieves were riding. They were running almost hood to hood now, and Al could have reached out and touched the other auto, when suddenly the front car turned sharply. Al saw the crooks' car swerving toward them, but before he had a chance to do anything about it, there was a crash. The crooks side-swiped side-swiped them, knocking them over to the side of the street. There was another crash as the car lurched into a telephone pole, but Al wasn't inside the car when it hit. As the two cars came together he was caught between them and knocked down on the running board. Then, as the smaller car veered away again, his right leg was pinched between its rear fender and the bumper. He felt a tug at that leg felt himself falling to the pavement and then he was being dragged along behind the fleeing car. The car was out of control now. The crook at the wheel was trying to keep it going straight, but it shot up over the ourb on the other side of the street. It crossed the sidewalk and plunged on over a stretch of bare, water-soaked prairie. Dragged along behind it, Al felt a terrifio bump as his body was pulled over the curb. There was a terrible pain In his imprisoned im-prisoned leg where the tire was scraping the flesh away. His back and sides were being bruised and lacerated. The car traveled a hundred feet through the prairie and by that time Al was numb from pain and shock. Then the car bogged down in the mud and came to a stop. Al's clothes had been literally torn from his body by then, but he still had his gun clutched tightly in his band. He Struggled to Get His Leg Out of the Trap. "There was no chance to use it," he says, "but as soon as the car came to a halt, I began struggling to get my leg out of its trap. The driver jumped out and ran north across the prairie. "At last I got my leg loose and crawled out from under the car. 1 raised my gun and pulled the trigger, but all I got was a click of the hammer. In the excitement I had forgotten that I emptied the gun during dur-ing the chase." As the gun clicked, the second man leaped from the car and started to run. And then Al made the pinch of his life. Helpless and unable to walk, much less run after the fleeing crook, he got up on his feet and threw the empty gun after him. That gun went straight to the mark. It caught the crook on the back of the head and he fell forward on his face out cold. At the same moment Emmett extricated himself from his wrecked car and came running across the street. He grabbed the crook. Emmett took them both to a restaurant a block away and there he called the station-house. They took Al to the People's hospital, and he stayed there for three months, getting over the injury to his leg. The rear tire had ground a ridge right into the flesh as the car dragged him across the prairie. The crook he caught drew a 14-year sentence. The other one was shot down by an Englewood policeman three days later in another stolen car. Copyright. WNU Service. |