Show adventurers I 1 CLUB il V 1 death in the dark by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter I 1 KNEW a bird once who had the reputation of being afraid of bothin nothing under the sun it seemed as though when they built that tha bozo they made him with only one nerve and that one cast iron he could crash to the ground in a plane and crawl out of the wreckage laughing 1 could walk through a hail of rifle bullets without even batting an eye they said he be was fear proof but he confessed to me once that one than thing had him seared scared to death 1 I dont want to die in the dark he told me the most moat horrible thing I 1 can think or of and I 1 thought of that lad today when I 1 heard the story of thomas A woodman who in july 1922 stood in a darkened catacomb and faced not one death but thirty this happened to tom when he was living on his dads ranch in young county texas lie ile was working for a man who was making a geological survey surrey of the neighborhood and it was his job to locate Il limestone strata in the ravines and mountain sides bides of the surrounding country looking tor for limestone in an abandoned mine lie IT e would ride or walk through the country all day until he spotted an out cropping streak of the stone anil and then his boss by the aid of instruments Instrument a would follow the course of the stra stratum turn la in an effort to locate probable sites for oil wells it was on one of these walks that tom came upon the entrance to an abandoned mine and it struck him that mine would be ba a fine fina place to look for limestone so he got out his flashlight and started to go in ue lie was just about to enter when he remembered that there had bad bees been rumors of wildcats in that part of the country and he paused long enough to take a last look at his colt 44 then he barged on oa into the mine tom decides to take no chances with wildcats there seem to be any wildcats in the mine though with hla his flashlight tom examined every nook and corner of the old illg diggings ings but he ON rhe cozens af P N and arid any limestone either cither ue lie had bad reached the back of the lie mine and started to dig out a specimen ot of the rock that composed its roar rear wall when suddenly lie he heard a soft slithering noise behind him tom pulled out his gun and froze in his tracks listening for a repetition of the sound from down somewhere toward the entrance he could hear something a queer shuffling sound as if some animal were sneaking up on him in the dark the funny thing about that sound though was that it seemed to come from several places at once toms thumb pulled back the hammer of his revolver he fumbled for his flashlight and got it out started flashing it about in search of a wildcat its roiling beam disclosed not a cat but something infinitely more horrible on the floor in front of him and almost at ills his feet were rattlesnakes dozens of them writhing and squirming across the entire length of the passage they were all over the floor and still coming pouring out from behind the timber that supported the roof of the mine the sight first sickened tom and then horrified him 1 I 1 felt he says like praying to god to take away those reptiles and send me a couple dozen wildcats instead lie he backed ns as far as lie he could into the rear of the old mine and his racing mind began to grope for some way out of his unwholesome predicament toms hosts were unwilling that he depart the snakes were between tom and the mine entrance and that made it bad they were hissing and spitting at tom plainly resenting his intrusion and that made it worse in another minute they would be moving up on him striking at hun him tom knew he had to do something before that came to pass i he flashed his light over the floor again in another swift inspection the snakes covered the whole floor of the mine but there was one spot a strip three or four feet wide where they were few and far between tom took off his straw lint hat rolled it up in his bandanna and set fire to it then their I 1 waving this improvised torch throwing whig coal chunks and shooting his revolver lie he began an intensive campaign to drive all the reptiles off that narrow sparsely guarded strip he decides to try the death strewn path the snakes paused and struck at the coal chunks he tossed but they squirmed away at the approach of the torch those that move for the torch toni tom blew apart with his colt all the time lie he had been edging his bis way down that cleur clear strip until at last he was safely past them the improvised torch burned down to his fingers and he threw it away then he turned and made a wild dash for the entrance lie he came out of the ground with such a rush that his horse tethered to a tree limb outside became frightened and tried to break away ile he caught him though and climbed on his back then he rode back tow cowher liere e his boss was waiting to tell him what he thought of the geology business and especially the things you run into while youre working at it Q W 1111 |