Show T ADVENTURERS' ADVENTURERS CLUB HEADLINES H E A D L I N E S FROM FRO M THE LIVES L IV E S OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF Ghost G at the Door TT HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY AA You know boys and girls Old Lady Adventure is the most democratic female in the world She doesn't confine her attentions attentions to any particular class of people but visits her favors on all alike ahke Why kings and queens have had adventures and so have doctors lawyers cab drivers and preachers Today Ive I've got a yarn from a dentist dentist Dr Robert Lentz of Danville Ill This adventure happened to Doc along about the summer of 1912 and nd in those days he was living in Williamson county near n ar Wolf Creek Ill That's down near the Ozark ridges and in 1912 there was some pretty lonely country in that neighborhood Doc knew because he used to ride through some of it pretty regularly He was courting a girl who lived about five miles from his home and he used to ride out put there on horseback along a winding road that was almost impassable in places because of the thick growth on either side That road led down into a place known as Big Grassy Creek bottom and that bottom was midway between his home and his girls girl's house There was a ford across the creek and near the ford an old tumble tumble- tumbledown down church that hadn't been used u ed for upwards of 50 years Woman Burned to Death in Bygone Days Near the church was an old chimney chimney all all that was left of a house that people told strange stories about According to one tale a woman had been burned to io death when that house took fire There was something ng eerie about the old church and the old chimney Doc used to feel shivery sh very when he passed them riding home at two o'clock in the morning But one night he made the mistake stake of going into that church and then- then It was one dark night when Doc was coming back from a date It had started to rain just after he left left athin a thin drizzle at first But as he rode along he heard the rumble of thunder and the rain began coming down harder He had reached the bottom then and the then n jet R I I I p 1 L y I IG G It was wu a human form of some sort standing there with arms outstretched church would afford shelter oo of at a sort Doc tied his horse to a sap sapling sapling sapling ling and plunged through the underbrush to the door The church was all but fallen down It leaned over crazily to om one side as if it had been pushed over by some giant hand into a great paral The windows were out and the floor was partly gone bul but guided by intermittent flashes of lightning Doc worked his way forward to a point near the rostrum where the roof was good and the rain ram didn't come through The rain didn't show any signs of letting up sc 51 Doc lay down on a front bench to go to sleep Hunch lakes Makes Him Stay Awake I lay there about 15 minutes he said when something caused me to open my eyes and look at the doorway at the other end of the church Lightning flashed just then then then- then flashed flashed just enough to enable me to see dimly through the door Something told me to stay awake and with sleepy eyes I gazed at that door inspecting it each time the lightning would permit me meI meI meI I heard a twig break outside and could tell that my horse was uneasy I felt the hair rise on the back of my neck and my heart began to beat faster It seemed that it would be hours before the lightning flashed again to tell me what might be bethere bethere bethere there and in hi the meantime I straightened up just as quietly as asI asI asI I could And along about then there entered Docs Doc's mind the thought that this old church might be haunted There was that old chimney chimney charred charred remnant of f the house in which a woman had burned to death And as asif asif asif if that wasn't enough Doc began thinking of the countless people who must have been buried from that old church whose church whose bodies must have lain in their pine coffins before that same rostrum near which he was lying now Those thoughts were running through Docs Doc's mind then suddenly lightning flashed Bashed again And this time Doc saw something in the doorway It was a human form of some sort standing there with arms outstretched touching both sides of the door Now says Doc I wanted to make my exit I began to get ready to do so but how was I going to go about it The only door was blocked and the windows were too high up 1 I waited anxiously for the next flash of lightning It came and my ghostly visitor was disclosed standing in inthe inthe Inthe the doorway looking at me It was plainly silhouetted and it seemed to be an old woman with matted twisted hair hang hang- hanging hanging hanging ing down to her shoulders no hat no shoes and wearing some sort of a sack apron Lightning Reveals the Thing Coming at Him She moved with as little noise as the spirit itself its ell Could it possibly be a spirit I couldn't move How was I going to get out Was the Thing coming closer To my disordered imagination it seemed as if it was What would it do when it discovered me Would it block my block my my entrance Would it take out after me All those things I anticipated before the next flash of lightning When it came the Thing was about two feet closer coming onward with outstretched arms Still there was no sound The apparition had advanced noiselessly In the darkness d before the next flash Doc could imagine cold clammy fingers on his face I decided it time to I Now he says was move slipped sUpped up slowly hoping hopin to get past the Thing before the next light light- lightning lightning ning disclosed me I reached the position that I thought was wasby wasby wasby by her side and then came another flash I jumped and yelled out ont loud She followed suit with a yell equally as intense and made a grab at me But Out too late Just one jump and I was outside the door running to my horse and off like a streak I believe if Tom Mix could have seen me ride hed he'd have envied me And what was the Thing that Doc saw in the doorway Well the next day Doc heard a report that an aged insane woman had escaped from tram the Anna asylum not far tar away And that was Docs Doc's ghost Released by Western Newspaper Union |