Show adventurers ip club tide of death by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline be hunter banter WHEN hubert C fuller of brooklyn was eighteen his dad moved from missouri to a spot in oklahoma on the banks of the canadian river the nearest town was konawa conawa but t in the section the fullers moved to they and the R F D postmaster were the only settlers within a radius of about fifteen miles the fullers farm was on one side of the river and the postmasters was on the other hube says the river bed was three quarters of a mile wide but in the summer of 1913 when they moved there hot weather and a drouth had just about dried the river up there was nothing but a little stream ot of water about six feet wide and three feet deep running zigzag zig zag from one bank to the other there was treachery in that sluggish river too its headwaters were up in the colorado mountains and sometimes water from melting snow would sweep down the dry river bed in a torrential avalanche taking everything before it and filling the river bed from bank to bank the natives says babe call these frequent occurrences head rises understand his alarm and though hube knows all about those head rises now he know a thing about them at the time this story opens bubles dad had gone across the river a few days before to help the postmaster cut some wood on his farm and he had asked hube to hitch up the team to the wagon and drive over and get a load it was a hot day with thunder clouds up the river to the northwest hube drove the horses sis and ned down into the river bed he forded corded what little water there was in the bottom and then let the horses pick their way while he lay down in the wagon with his hat over his eyes several times he thought he heard strange rumblings gs up river but he paid no attention to them 1 I must have dozed off to sleep he says for the next thing I 1 knew I 1 heard someone shout my name I 1 sat V t ile he caught a branch ot of the old sycamore tree bolt upright on the other side of the river I 1 saw the postmaster and his wife frantically waving to me and shouting g hur aurryl ry V they were shouting at the top of their voices but hube could barely hear them for the booming and rumbling up the river had bad suddenly increased to a roar 1 I was just about in the middle of the river bed he be says going cat a corner downstream to where an old sycamore marked the wagon road I 1 gave the horses the line and they started to trot I 1 was puzzled what was wrong with the postmaster thirty foot wall of water but as hube watched the postmaster he pointed upstream H hube ube looked 1 I could see the bed for about a mile up to where it ma made de a sharp turn he says there was nothing but windswept wind swept sand B but ut as I 1 looked cold terror struck to the marrow of my bones around the bend like ilke a black nightmare whirled a thirty foot wall of water As it turned the bend the sandy banks on either side caved in with a great splash hube was panic stricken he jumped between the horses unhooked the traces and riding ned and leading sis he started to ride for his life sis used to being led by the halter and she held back 1 I hated to do it says huble hube but I 1 let her go the river bank ahead was too steep for the horse I 1 had to run him downstream toward the wagon trail it was a terrible racel race the roar of the water was fairly deafening 1 now bubes horse sensed the danger and ran like mad aube says he dare look back but he could hear that water getting closer and closer as they raced on he was almost to the bank fifteen feet ten en feet away when he felt spray on his cheek and then another fear seized him safe in the sycamore tree ned was doing his best he says but after all he was just a big heavy plow horse the path up the bank was steep and he could never make the grade at the speed he was going we were at the foot of the incline when ned hit the rise with his knees stumbled and went down then with a last heroic effort he lurched straight up on his haunches and that lurch saved bubes life As the horse rose in the air hube grabbed wildly for support and as luck would have it he caught a branch of the old sycamore tree hanging over the bank says he 1 I scurried like a possum for the highest branch i just in the nick of time the avalanche was on us old ned bellowed a high shrill scream then he was crushed under the terrific force of the water I 1 never saw him sis or the wagon again the postmaster and his wife had turned their backs on the awful scene when I 1 shouted they stared at me as if they were seeing a ghost the muddy water was churning and boiling about iny my feet the old sycamore tree was all but covered with it the postmaster got a rope and threw it to hube 1 I walked hand over hand up to my waist in ia water he says until I 1 reached solid ground I 1 had no more reached safety than I 1 heard a splash the old sycamore tree had toppled into the muddy water pater hube says that since that day he has lived an uneventful life but man says he im satisfied 1 service |