Show I II I f AdventurerS AdventurerS' Club za 1 0 Animal ill Man an i 4 1 By y FLOYD GIBBONS r Famous Headline Hunter WELL ELL sir I am aln am pleased to note that Old Lady Adventure is still busy initiating new members in this club of ours The newest is Distinguished Adventurer Edwin da Costa of New Haven Conn And Ed writes U Many times while reading the stories in your column I have wished I might have some weird experience Well Nell by Jove Floyd read this one You see Ed is back from South America with the tale of just the sort of experience hed he'd always wished he could have And now its it's his turn in the tellers story circle and hes he's going to dish it out outto outto outto to us Ed went to South America last November Cold we weather ther doesn't agree with him and hed he'd heard it sometimes got a little warmish down near the Equator He landed in Brazil hung around the coast for a while and then took a week six-week trip up the Amazon with some English explorers Did Ed Edget Edget Edget get into an adventure with those explorers lie He did not Explorers like quiet peaceful lives compared with us folks who live in civilized parts of the world Ed got into that adventure adventure adventure ture AT A HOTEL Hotel Whose Guests Lived in Stucco Huts After he left his explorer friends Ed landed in Pernambuco and put up at the Derby hotel The hotel Ed says was located about five miles outside the city limits in an isolated section Why they ever built it there I dont don't know Like all all all' the other hotel buildings in mountain sections of Brazil this one contained only an office dining room and dance hall The guests lived in individual stucco huts called chalets located away from the main building near the jungles jungle's edge The space between the main building and the chalets was filled with hibiscus shrubs swaying palms and other tropical plants of rare j I beauty but at night one felt very lonely all alone in ones one's stucco hut and I was pleased to make acquaintance of another American who was also stopping at the hotel 1 The other fellow was a n man named Kellmer Kellmer-a Kellmer a South American I representative Seh ii of a Texas oil il- il ileff concern eff He and Ed struck up quite a I friendship i and d together they spent the long evenings strolling through the gardens smoking and talking One evening at dinner Kellmer told Ed about the Becho or or animal man He was a strange creature whom the natives were all talking about about about-a a lone robber who used an animal pelt for a disguise HE DE HID IN DARK PLACES TO POUNCE OUT ON HIS DIS VICTIMS HE CARRIED A BIG REVOLVER AND HE HEV V WASN'T AT ALL SLOW V ABOUT SHOOTING PEOPLE WHO WIIO DIDN'T DO WHAT HE lIE TOLD THEM Decided They'd Better Have Revolvers It all sounded like a natives native's tall story to Ed and Kellmer At first they laughed about it But as the days went by and each one brought a new tale of some atrocity by the Becho they began to toEd toI tofI I I fI fIEd Ed and Kellmer Searched the Hotel Grounds wonder And one day when the rumor was going around that the tha Becho had killed another man Kellmer bought two revolvers and presented one to Ed A few more days rolled by Then one night while Ed was sitting in his chalet he heard a knock on the door heard door heard Kellmer outside calling For Petes Pete's sake Ed le let me in Kellmer stood there clad cladin cladin cladin in a white black-and-white zebra-striped zebra bathrobe his revolver in his hand THE BECHO'S ON THE GROUNDS HE GASPED I HEARD VOICES AND FOOTSTEPS LETS LET'S TRY TO NAB HIM It Looked Like Taps for Kellmer Ed got his own gun lIe He and Kellmer started a search of the hotel grounds Says Ed The palms swished spookily in the breeze The night was pitch dark and before long both of us began bee to shake like hula dancers Presently the sound of hoof- hoof beats ts came to my cars ears Then tHey faded We e secreted ourselves near the great iron gate by the roadside and waited Suddenly a shot rang out shattering the stillness of the night All at once we found that we were in no mood to be shot at by bandits Separating we ran liI like e deer Kellmer for his chalet and I I for Ifor mine S Safe fe inside his hut Ed nervously lit a cigar and awaited devel devel- They weren't long in coming Somewhere outside he heard hearda a loud jabbering in the native Spanish and Portuguese dialect He looked out of the window and saw a crowd of people and half a dozen horsemen of the Guardia Civil grouped around Kellmer's chalet He dashed over to see what was wrong and arrived just in time to see seethe seethe seethe the native policeman dragging Kellmer forcibly from his chalet Kellmer Kellmer Kellmer Kell Kell- mer saw Ed ED HE HOWLED TELL THESE NITWITS WHO I AM Arri THEY WANT TO STRING ME UP Ed accosted the captain of the guard What do you want with this man he asked Senor replied the captain we have caught the Becho Eds Ed's eyes opened wider Why that's not the Becho he protested That man is a guest at the hotel hate Becho in a Black and White Skin the captain shook his head Senor he said the hotel watchman positively saw the Becho at the gate in a black and white skin He fired a shot in the air and the Becho ran into this chalet He is the only man in the place and if he is not the Becho where did the Becho disappear to For a moment Ed was puzzled Then he remembered Kellmer's white black-and-white striped bathrobe and started to laugh ILL SHOW YOU THE ANIMAL SKIN THAT WATCHMAN SAW he told the captain And he went gent in and got the robe Senor Kellmer was with me he explained We were hunting the Becho too when the watchman saw him and took the bathrobe for an animal skin Kellmer was released then and the police rode away with as much pomp and dignity as ns they could muster And the next day says Ed I saw Kellmer coaxing a bonfire near his chalet and asked him what he was doing He said Im burning that bathrobe bathrobe that's that's all Q e Service Ser 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