Show T aoud ad w aimes y adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 1 assassins of the nile by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter you OU know boys and girls I 1 have often said that find i adventure venture close to home a darned sight easier than you will roaming the world one who goes traveling in search of thrills usually find any until he gets back into his own bailiwick again but there are exceptions to every rule and heres one of them george C dorste of bardonia baldonia Bar donia rockland county N Y met his biggest thrill when he was thousands of miles away from home and in a strange exotic country the country was egypt and george landed there in the course ot of his travels as a fireman on a tramp steamer the steamer was carrying scrap iron unloading it in consignments consign ments of various sizes at ports along the nile river and its many branches the year was 1912 and the ship had traveled part way up the nile and was anchored in the river just south of the town of melinet el the ship was anchored not far from a pier the weather is pretty hot in egypt in the afternoon particularly the sun beats down with such intensity that it is next to impossible for anybody but a native to do any work it was at the height of the hot season and the crew of the steamer dripping sweat from every pore of their bodies were just about all in along in the afternoon the skipper gave orders for all hands to knock off work for the rest of the day the men argue about that most of them just walked to the shadiest spot they could find on that hot ship flopped on the deck and rested but there were a half dozen young fellows george among thern them who had a better idea they stripped off their clothes and dived over the side into the water A dandy day for lazy sport the water was cool and refreshing those lads were in it off and on for the better part of the afternoon they came out now and then for a breathing spell on the ships deck but the sun beating down on the iron hull of the vessel made it so hot that they were glad to get back in the water again the afternoon wore on and the sun began sinking toward the horizon As its scorching rays withdrew little by little the day became cooler one by one the swimmers climbed back aboard the steamer and stayed there finally all of them were out of the water except one and that on man was george dorste george loved the water and he hated to leave it he was swimming some distance away from the ships side and about halfway half way between it and the pier As he splashed about in the river he heard a voice calling on shore and looking up saw a native standing on the pier if george had only been a linguist the native was shouting to george but in a language he understand then suddenly he began to point toward the ship george ar MV 7 E the great reptile was between him and the ship could figure out only one reason for that pointing he immediately jumped to the conclusion that someone aboard had dropped something over the side and wanted him to retrieve it he turned and swam slowly toward the ship the native on the pier kept right on yelling but george paid no attention and then suddenly he saw it a thing that looked like a log floating in the water but a log that had a rough wrinkled snout and a pair of glassy eyes just showing above the surface A crocodile the great reptile was between him and the ship and not more than twenty feet away from him A shudder went through georges body when he saw it he turned and began swimming toward the pier but the pier was a great distance away or at least so it seemed to george he knew that beast could catch up to him in less time than it takes to tell the story he looked like good meal to crocodile he was swimming as fast as he could exhausting himself in a spurt for the pier and the crocodile was following along behind it seemed to george that the great reptile never approached any closer than that original twenty feet the distance that had separated them when he turned toward the pier was the beast playing with him as a cat would with a mouse or was it waiting until george had exhausted himself in the swim toward shore before those cruel jaws opened and closed over him still swimming frantic frantically aUy he reached the pier and then another terrifying discovery greeted him As he made frenzied efforts to climb up the piles that supported the pier he found that he those piles were covered with a slippery moss he could make no headway up them and all the time now the c crocodile cadile was coming closer swimming slowly toward what it knew must inevitably furnish it its evening meal by now george was mad with terror he was still clawing and scraping frantically at those smooth moss covered piles when the native on the dock came to his rescue suddenly the native picked up a huge piece of scrap iron from a pile on the dock and hurled it at the swimming swim ming crocodile the piece missed the native threw another and that one found its mark it hit the beast on the snout and it dived beneath the surface natives accurate peg saves georges life by that time a boat had been launched from the ship it came tearing across the water as georges shipmates pulled hard on the oars it reached george a few seconds after the crocodile had gone down As they pulled me out of the water george says 1 I lost consciousness for a minute or two but I 1 came back to life before the boat had reached the ship in time to see the steely eyes of the crocodile which had reappeared once more it was following along not more than ten feet behind the boat and george says that if hed had a gun then it would have given him the greatest pleasure to aim it right between those two glassy eyes and pull the trigger 0 service |