Show 1 A d ven turere k I 1 club 0 the tree that came alive by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter phil 1111 REILLY of new york city has hd had a rock flock of tures since that day forty odd years ago when he left home a boy of fifteen to make his way in the world he was in east st louis on the day in 1888 when the cyclone struck the town he wasa wasa passenger on a train out west that was held up by bandits bandit in good old western style he was chased through a patch ot of woods by a hungry wildcat and hes been to in several explosions storms at sea and the likes ekes once he lived through a south american revolution and he saw plenty of adventuring there but the biggest adventure he ever had in his me life was the day in january 1903 when he climbed a tree men blen have climbed trees from time immemorial without thinking anything of it but when an old time adventurer like phil reilly keilly climbs a tree well its adventure with a capital A this Is what you yon call a LITTLE adventure phil writes its IL a little experience with little things but boy oh boy what ft a BIG difference those little things made to phil it was on old providence island phils yarn deals with old providence island down in the caribbean sea phil says its about two hundred and fifty miles north northwest ot of colon in the canal zone and a hundred and twenty miles off the east cast coast of nicaragua it belongs to the republic of colombia and was once the headquarters of pirates and buccaneers bucca under the leadership of henry morgan many people believe says phil that there is a private treasure still hidden bidden on that island but I 1 lived there over a year and never discovered any gold or jewels but it was while phil lived there that he discovered the tree that came alive on old providence island is a mountain called bowden peak that few of the inhabitants have ever climbed people said ald the top was almost inaccessible because of the thick brush and tropical vegetation that grew on its slopes at least what they told phil and telling an irishman he cant do something is one sure way to get him to try it phils answer was the H ye say and then he was telling the world he was going to climb that mountain hard climb up the mountain on top of the mountain stood the tree an old dead one visible all over the landscape phil said when he got up dp there hev hed ue tie a signal flag to that tree just to show he got up there he started early one morning accompanied by two native boys all of them carried machetes to cut the brush and phil had bad a threefoot three foot toot swarms of ants attacked phil square canvas for a flag they cut through a swamp and then started up the mountainside about six hundred feet up the brush was so thick that they had to crawl on their hands and knees and the farther they went the thicker the brush became it was late in the afternoon when they reached the summit their clothes torn and their bodies scratched by thorns and brambles then phil started to climb that tree on the way up phil noticed that the tree was hollow honeycombed with small holes he realize then that they were the holes ot of red ants tropical red ants the little stinging biting devils of a variety unknown to us up here in the north phil notice them on the way up he got to the top and tied his flag to the upper branches of the tree but on the way down that was a different story attacked by a myriad of ants says phil 1 I must have disturbed those ants in the middle of their siesta they came swarming out of their nests by the thousand I 1 wore only a pair of torn cotton trousers a shirt and a pair of shoes they got into my shoes first then up op the legs of ray my trousers and inside my shirt 1 I made the mistake of stopping now and then to brush them OIL off I 1 should have climbed down out of that tree while I 1 still had the chance they began crawling up through my collar in a minute my face hands and neck were covered with the stinging biting creatures they got into my nostrils they got into my eyes ana oh how they could bite I 1 had to shut my eyes tightly to keep them from stinging my eyeballs and there phil was in the worst p medicament edi cament of all his life ive heard of armies of ants that have eaten up african water buffaloe inside of a few hours and phil was being eaten in the same way and what could he do about it he was high up in a tree his eyes tight shut he get down blind and if he opened his eyes hed b be blinded and no mistake by those stinging ants he had to make a long drop says phil 1 I stuck flock it out until it was impossible hn to stand the torture any longer I 1 wis still twenty feet up in that tree but I 1 knew I 1 stay there id have to lo make the drop long one though it was I 1 called awu down to the native boys told them to try and catch me as I 1 fell then I 1 let go down phil went the native boys tried to catch him but they very successful all ali three of them landed together in a heap in a bunch of rocks at the bottom of the tree phil got up bruised and shaken both his ankles were sprained and on top of that it took him half an hour to rid his body and clothing of the ants anti ferocious little demons that were still biting and kept right on biting to the last it was dusk when they started down the mountain moun iain again darkness fell while they were still fighting their way back through the tangled brush halfway down they were met by a number of natives who had come out to search tor for them when they return by the time they all got home it was nearly midnight 11 1 was laid up for a few days after I 1 got back phil says but my signal flat flag was aas waving in the breeze on top of that old dead tree and with those ants up there on guard phil ill bet it still is service |