| Show ventur ers club A N 1 1 1 I 1 1 streak of death 17 by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter y aou OU know boys and girls about half of our battle t I 1 fought against ourselves and other people and the 0 ot is fought against old dame nature for every bill J boj got himself caught in a whirling piece of man made rn mach lac had to fight for his life against some bicio vicio vicious US or crazed f fe e man there is a pete smith who finds himself in ill a larn jam earthquake or a wild animal or some other of mother tools of destruction I 1 I 1 attempt to say which type of adventure is worse a hunch that one is just about as bad as the other but theres about dame natures right hooks to the jaw that that makes th terrifying than the others I 1 guess because we dont ma i nature so well as we understand ourselves and the machines W and heres the story of a bout with nature sent to m mrs john J sproul of keyport N J its one of 0 tho those that might happen to anybody and everybody and when ahel a it t el along it threw the whole sproul family into a sudden r aas 0 panic rt hy adventure came on the sproul family in the dead of the night nia were all sleeping mother and dad and the children the 4 four children then but only three of them were at home theo the boffl away for the night the evening had been cloudy and threat enit sky had been black overhead when they had gone to bi bed zel andorf d denly they were awakened out of a sound sleep by a S serbei ez crashing reports 4 this was no ordinary storm no sir the dm din was so terrific that the jumped out of bed becj a thunderstorm but what a storm the first sweeping pat rain quickly rose to a loud drumming roar the wind howled fl thunder punctuated by bright flashes of lightning sound sounder battery of siege guns being fired right beside the house e few people pay much attention to a night thun derst some folks sleep right through them others getup get up and shut windows to keep the floor from getting rained on but this st was so terrific that the were alarmed every ell end bolt of lightning seemed to be striking right t around the in john sproul was hardly out of bed he was standing in the n die le of the bedroom floor when one ot of the little boys came tm into the room fi 7 john and the boy started for the stairs As he did he shou choute to mrs sproul get the other children he cried and come ami tx she feama her husband lying stiff and still on the floor stairs as quick as you can ill light the lamp in the kitchen so 1 see mrs sproul Is petrified with fear 15 john went down the stairs mrs sproul could hear him in the thil she had started out of the room headed down the hall towa toward tt in which her two other children were when suddenly she heard a ing clap of thunder louder than all the rest 1 I could feel the house shake and vibrate and thought it must have been struck she says there like that of brimstone permeating the whole upper floor I 1 sto S and stood stock still for a moment the children were bed and I 1 had to get them but right then I 1 set seem to t bi 11 1 I dont know how long I 1 stood there but it must have have be ita long time for presently it occurred to me that since that I 1 las I 1 had not heard a sound from either my husband in the kitchen my son who h had ad followed him downstairs A and nd then all of I 1 I 1 heard a voice coming from below 1 fear lurked in the blackness of ni night ht ft 11 mrs sproul says that voice sounded as if it came from the thes was her little son downstairs with his father and he was ca calffe feebly mamma mamma come here papas dead 3 teti ten seconds before she had been stiff with fright and ana a to move a muscle but that sound shocked her into actis ran through the hau hall and began groping her way dowl m stairs the lower floor was in total darkness darkness she began 91 hysterically to her boy asking him where he was at W 1 answered im here he said by the highchair high chair n 1 feeling her she moved W to way through the dark house high chair thunder was still roaring outside outside and an of lightning brightened up the room at last she found her on the floor she picked him up carried him into the dilila asked him it if he knew where his father was hes in the 11 ld the stove the boy said 1 I saw him fall down I 1 guess daddy killed h she groped her way toward the kitchen her bare leet feet lit S thing wet then on shattered bits of broken glass but she 61 feel it in the stress of the moment she know until w later husband had fallen with the lamp in his hand and that 91 glass ana strewn all over the kitchen floor storm provides a weird tattoo she found her lius husband band lying stiff and still on the floor it began screaming hysterically at the top of her voice e BO same time she was t tugging at john still for joriu it toward the dining room in a few minutes neighbors began clamoring at the ae d lyk crowded in and a lamp was lighted john joh n sproul gasn wasn t do a was badly burned by the lightning and his clothes were smoking when they pulled his clothing from his body aney the lightning had played a curious trick photographed on 00 i a silvery spot the exact shape of a tree 1 A doctor came worked over him and brought hirn him j ness he said he understand how he had A the shock and he was fascinated by that tree imprint ted back he said hp hed ld never forget it but what hat mrs cpr ua forget is that terrible night of storm and destruction D service |
