Show fac 0 adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 1 44 who wa io goes there HELLO H ELLO heres EVERYBODY a yarn from hawaii but it any tale of soft moonlight and hula girls dancing on the beach of waikiki you can forget all about the south seas for this is is a gri grim m tale se of soldiering in a tropic land A tale of madness and murder on a dank mosquito infested island under a blazing searing tropic sun and a sullen tropic moon charles suval of brooklyn N Y brings us this tale and it happened back in 1920 when charley was in in the army and attached to the field ArtiR artillery ery stationed at the schofield barracks near honolulu hawaii has a pretty swell reputation here to in the united states its supposed to be the next thing to paradise and I 1 guess it is for the tourists who live in in the hotels and hang around sun bathing on the beaches au all day long but for a soldier charley says its anything BUT a paradise soldiers dont get much chance to loaf around on the beaches in fact lucky if they ever see a beach the schofield barracks are 28 miles from town in 1920 those barracks either modem or comfortable just a bunch of wooden buildings with darned few conveniences the place was hot and it swarmed with mosquitoes it was bad enough for us old timers says charley but for the rookies it was plenty tough most of the old timers like charley had been stationed in the tropics before they were used to it the rookies had to get used to it too and most of them did but a few of them were sent back to the states sta tes with their papers marked undesirable and nine times out of ten that meant that the poor rookie had cracked under the strain of sweltering in the sun au all day and lying in in a hot bed slapping lapping at mosquitoes all night strange moody aboody youngster surprises barrack mates there was a young lad in charley outfit whom everybody spoke of as the kid he was a quiet youngster from the first but the longer he stayed at the schofield barracks the more quiet and more moody he became he kept to himself most of the time and since he seem to want to be bothered with friends the other lads in the barracks left him strictly alone no one thought least of all charley that that kid was close to the breaking point nor did anyone even dream that before long he would be the cause of a grim and heartless tragedy but it so many days after that that the kid was put on guard duty one night and what happened thereafter is what were going to let charley tell us about now says charley we had been having a torrid spell for more than a week and when its hot in honolulu its plenty hot the air was so V q A I 1 I 1 then suddenly the kids gun went up ue ile fired damp and muggy that it seemed to stick to you like glue we tried all sorts of dodges to keep cool but none of them seemed to do any good one night four of us corporal bradley corporal howe a private and myself were trying to get some relief from the heat we drank too m much uch of 0 the native drink called about midnight we started to stroll around a bit all of us feeling pretty good we walked toward the gun park and as we neared it we were challenged by a sentry those four lads recognized the sent rys voice it was the kid usually he was quiet and moody but now his voice sounded sullen and angry what do you mean by making all that racket he growled the kid had a strange look in his eye the kid had his 45 army colt out of its holster As they came nearer charley saw that he had a wild strange look in his eye it might have been a warning to him but it meant nothing to bradley after quite a few drinks of Br bradley affley was in a fine jovial mood grinning from ear to ear he waved a careless hand at the kid one side rookie he said and next time you see the general dont forget to salute then suddenly the kids gun went up he fired bradley says charley died before he hit the ground howe and the private stood looking stunned my own brain was spinning around in circles but instinctively I 1 tackled the kid around the legs bringing him to his knees then howe closed in trying to help while the private ran back toward the barracks for more men charley says that by that time the kid was a raving man maniac ac he fired a shot as charley tackled him and another at howe as he came to charley C h adleys s aid after that he kept right on shooting ng shooting wild shooting at anything in sight the kid gets a fresh clip of cartridges charley had a grip 0 on n his gun hand none of the shots had done any damage but in the heat of the struggle howe gave charley a push charley lost his grip on the kids F id Is arm it was just for a second but it was disastrous the kid had emptied his bis gun and now he used that moment of freedom to take out the empty clip from his automatic and insert a fresh load of cartridges before charley could get gel hold of his arm he had fi ired fired another shot and another the first shot found its mark in howes st stomach the into second 0 bit charleys ys shoulder oder blood began ea to flow w from the wound and the sight li of it made charley madi 1 1 I lost bost an all caution he my ideas about t say says s and all al taking the kid into the bracks barracks unhurt I 1 bokine around for began lookin 1 a I 1 could weapon picked up a heavy stone and threw it as hard as a lining aiming straight for the kids head the stone found its mark the kid went down a log and the and lay y like e tragic battle was over both howe we and bradley dy dead were they were buried when they picked them up uc with full military honors lays ly pital and by the time he got out ys the kid hed charley been went to the hos sent back states to the sr bear the charley kid Ls any ill know what became of him but he feeling after all it his lay y the blame on the le sun and the heat and those doggone fault mosquitoes you c an copyright service |