Show fa 0 adventurers CLUB I 1 HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF Y 0 U R S E L F I 1 triple thrill 1 by FLOYD FLOTD GIBBONS I 1 famous headline hunter H ELLO EVERYBODY 11 I heres a yarn that packs thrills enough to last through a whole night at least it did for mrs dorothy murphy many years ago dorothy was living on a farm in the chestnut ridge section near the little town of dover plains N Y she set out to drive to the railroad station three miles away and before she got back shed had enough adventures to last a lifetime life time that was in february 1914 dorothy was just eighteen years old and going under her maiden name of dorothy daily her aunt had been spending two weeks with the family and it was she whom dorothy drove to the tram train on that cold february evening automobiles so common then what dorothy drove was a surrey drawn by an ol 01 old d half ibling bund horse named brownie I 1 the train pulled out of dover plains at p m and dorothy turned the horse around and headed tor for home already it was dark a moonless starless night the way back lay along a steep rough unfenced country road that climbed for nearly three miles before it reached chestnut ridge on one side of it lay thick woods covering an upward slope of the ground and on the other was a steep declivity for part of the distance that declivity straightened out into a tall cliff and there was nothing to prevent a carriage from going over it it it approached too close to its edge that was dorothys first thrill the prospect of driving over that road in the dark she thought darkness would fall so soon that night and she was scared stiff of that cliff As she drove along and the darkness deepened she see her hand before her face and she gave brownie a free rein hoping that his instincts would keep him on the road thou thoughts lits while hurtling through space they were going along the top of that cliff and all was going well and then all of a sudden dorothy felt the wheels slipping over the edge poor half blind old brownie had failed her he had gone too close to the edge the surrey gave a sudden lurch and dorothy was thrown out into space says dorothy 1 I clutched at the air as it slid past me like a drowning man clutches at straws my aly hands grabbed some bushes growing out from the side of the cliff and I 1 hung on for all I 1 was worth and there I 1 was between earth and air and with nothing to save me from death on the rocks below but my precarious hold on those shrubs dorothy says that time has no meaning under such circumstances the minutes seemed like years her arms were aching and her head was swimming she could hear brownie and the surrey wandering diw k j ap A N 12 1 I was afraid id grow weak or taint faint off in the darkness evidently the old horse had pulled the surrey back on the road after she had been thrown out for a terrible moment she clung to the bushes and then her fingers encountered a branch of a small tree growing along the side of the cliff she caught it with one hand then the other and drew herself up over the cliff to safety she lay on the ground for a while sick and weak then having recovered a little she got up and stumbled to the road the big thrill was yet to come brownie and the surrey were nowhere in sight dorothy started walking toward home think shed had enough adventuring for one night but the big thrill even started she had only walked a few steps when she heard a sound that froze her blood in her veins the baying and yelping of dogs dogs dont sound so dangerous but dorothy knew better A short time before she had bad seen the body ot of a boy who had been killed and partially eaten by these same dogs they were wild animals descendants of dogs who had bad run away from their masters to live in the woods and had bad reverted to type every once in a while in those days packs of that sort appeared in the woods in various places throughout the country and they still do in wild outlying regions A single dog would run at the sight of a man but in a pack and in the middle of winter when they were half starved they would attack almost anyone dorothy knew all too well what would happen if this pack caught up with her she turned stumbling into the woods and ran until she found a tree it was a tree with a low fork of its branches one she could climb she began pulling herself up into it the yelping of the pack was coming nearer and nearer she a minute too soon she had hardly clambered into the lower branches when they were on the spot yelping and snarling at the bottom of the tree she understand why there was no help and there I 1 was she says perched in the tree while the hungen maddened brutes howled and snarled below I 1 still turn sick and cole all over when I 1 think of that moment the worst part of it was that I 1 was afraid id grow weak or faint or so numb from the cold that it fall all out I 1 knew what would happen then hour after hour dorothy clung to that tree wondering why her folks miss her and come looking for her wondering why they realize something was wrong when ahen the horse and buggy came home without her she know that old brownie turning completely around in Us his struggles to haul the surrey back on the road had wandered back to town and was spending the night in an open horse shed her folks thought dorothy had decided to spend the night with relatives in town as she often did so they worry and all that night she crouched in the tree racked by the cold and harried by terrible fears As the first streaks of gray appeared in the sky the dogs slunk 0 oi through the woods and when she thought it was safe she came dewi and crawled to the road she walk but a farmer driving to the milk depot found her in the road and brought her home dorothy says ashes written this story for us other adventurers to deac read I 1 but she adds usually I 1 dont think of it if I 1 can help it 0 service |