| Show t- t r rv ADVENTURERS' ADVENTURERS CLUB CLUB 1 HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE I Death JF Q U Confused By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter l i HELLO H ELLO EVERYBODY A 1 As a rule it doesn't pay to look too much like else You know how embarrassing it is to have some dizzy dame dama darnel rush up to you gushing Why Tom Waters Vaters where on earth have you been I haven't ha ent seen you for ages hows how's your dear moth moth mother er etc J 1 Your name has always been Henry Jones and you dont don't know the gall ga from Adams Adam's off ox 0 but you stand there like an oaf wondering how you can correct the mistake without hurting her feelings Some have been pointed out as robbers and murderers served term terms In prisons and even paid with their lives for looking like like someone else else It never happens that someone walks up to you and says Well l h it aint old Joe Doakes himself Heres Here's that five hundred hundred bucks you yoU loaned me twelve years ago But luckier very much luckier things than that have come to a very few men because they were thought to be other persons One of ot them is William H. H D. D Bence of Laurelton L. L L I. I who sent me me today's adventure In 1917 Bill was where most Canadians were were were-in in the Canadian army and on December 6 of that year he was at Wellington barracks Hall Hali fax Nova Scotia At 9 o'clock in the morning on that awful day in Hali Hali- Halifax fax lax Bill was standing stan ing inspection in the barracks yard The commanding officer was just in 10 front of Bill looking over his equipment with an eagle eye when hen all at once the air air seemed to quiver there was a dread- dread dreadful dreadful dreadful ful deep sigh followed by a TERRIFIC EXPLOSION The officer was hurled violently against Bill and they both went down together The officer swearing a blue streak got to his feet lect Bill sat up and saw aw that every man In the battalion on parade had been blown flat fiat like a pack of cards instruments of or the band were scat scat- scattered scattered and the bass drum was bowling across the yard like a thing possessed The air became thick and yellow ellow as a 3 London fog and carrying through gh it was the rumble of falling faIling masonry Through the murk the soldiers could see the solidly-built solidly barracks b building melting away as a they settled inwards Panic in the thc Wrecked Barracks With the cry The magazine is going up run up-run run for your lives lives' there was a mad rush for the main gate But above the shouts of the men and the roar of falling masonry came the screams of women and children I trapped in the crumbled married mens men's barracks And at the th i Bills Bill's Legs Were Pinned Between Two Beams gate with outstretched arms and blood dripping from a cut over one eye stood Private McClellan a rather irresponsible soldier who often as not was in the guard house We cant can't run away boys boys' he shouted Theres women and children In there Lets Let's be Scotsmen Plowing through that mass of men he led them back on the double They found that one end of the married quarters had fallen in and rest of it was slowly collapsing Women and children who had escaped were tearing frantically at nt the debris to reach those who had been trapped The soldiers went to work more systematically and soon had a truck filled with children Bill Bence grabbed a baby from under a pile of at rubbish and forced it into the trembling arms of a girl Then he realized d the form was limp and saw the back of the skull was crushed Bill Dill says he must have gone a little off at that discovery disco But he began working his way into the wreckage to reach those whose screams of pain and fear made a nightmare of the morn morn- ing From beneath a heap of bricks he saw a pair of ot mens men's boots and a hand that moved feebly As he stepped into the room the whole world seemed to fall lall on him and everything went black Slate Roof Was Yas Coming Down on Him lIim When he came to Bill was on his back his legs pinned between tw beams on which was waa wa heaped a ton of bricks Struggle how he would Bill Bill could not free his legs Then as he lay IlY and looked up he got the shock I of his life There directly over his head hung half halt the slate roof that was held only by a thin lath that had become wedged at a key point but was SLOW SLOW- SLOWLY SLOWLY LY L Y BUCKLING The mass was already stirring and dust trickled onto his upturned face Bill raised up and began tearing like a n madman at atthe atthe atthe the top beam that held him prisoner shouting himself hoarse for help Soon exhausted the dust-covered dust man lay back waiting for the end Perhaps he fainted Anyway Bill says it was as in a dream he heard a womans woman's voice Praise be to the saints hes he's here See the tha stripes and crown cron on his h s sleeve Here Katie get hold of this beam and pull pull the only thing holding him down A tall strong woman and a husky girl in her teens heaved and pulled until they had that top beam to one side Then their strong fin fin- fingers fingers fingers gers clutched the collar of Bills Bill's coat and pulped him outside And only in the nick of time for with a great roar and a blinding cloud of dust the roof root came down They Thought He Was Their Dinny Bill was unable to stand The two women supported him all three coughing from the choking dust and mother and daughter took turns in kissing him frantically And then heaven preserve us mother and daughter realized the man they had saved from certain death was not their Dinny Who were you looking for lor Bill gasped The woman screamed at the thc sound of his voice the more practical daughter v wiped the thick coating of dust from Irom his face lace Company Ser Ser- Major geant OHara O'Hara she answered He Ile was off ofT duty this morn morn- morning ing wasn't ing-wasn't wasn't he In there Bill only shook his head He did not have the courage to tell them of those two boots and the feebly moving hand For whatever life that was then in the buried Company Sergeant Major OHara O'Hara had been crushed out by the falling faIling roof Bill had been pinned down n in O'Hara's room And the crown and stripes were worn by both a company sergeant- sergeant major OHara O'Hara and a company sergeant quartermaster-sergeant Bill Bill was not long in learning what had knocked over the battalion parade like so many toy soldiers A ship loaded with high explosives had been in a collision in the harbor and had been blown to bits causing a tidal wave and started fires that destroyed third one-third of the city of 80 persons There were 1226 dead and more were missing There Thera were w re of course thousands and thousands injured and Bill was imme imme- immediately immediately assigned assigned to Dartmouth hospital for lor duty Things he saw there are better left untold o C a s Service |
