| Show V adventurers CLUB the turn of a jah eel by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter wit you might say about gambling it takes nerve to do it the best of the professional card sharks are men who can can keep a poker face and never bat an eye when betting their last nickel yes it takes plenty of nerve to gamble with your money but it takes a doggone sight more courage to gamble with your life ive got a yarn here from adventurer william joseph brinkley of brooklyn N Y and unless im no good at all at reading e between the lines of a story bill brinkley Is one of those lads who can keep a cool head and figure out the odds even at moments when his life Is in the greatest of peril it if bill had that faculty he be here collecting his ten and joining the adventurers club today for back in 1915 fate tested out those iron nerves of his and it was one of the most rigorous tests fate ever dished out to a guy at that iron nerve or no iron nerve bill admits he was pretty scared when it happened maebe pretty scared quite the expression tor for it either when it was all 01 er dills bills nerves felt more like putty than iron bill had a prosaic job checking freight cars it was down in the town of atlanta ga where he be was working as an interchange clerk for the central of georgia railroad bill was just a young lad then and his job consisted of checking up on cars that were to be switched from one 11 line ne to another it was during the june peach season and there was a lot of traffic on the line the railroad yard was full of box cars and it kept both bill and his partner willie baker on the jump most of the time the first job in bills routine was to get the seal numbers on the cars as soon as a train entered the yard bill would get them on one side while his partner willie got them on the other they were supposed to wait for those trains at the breakup break up track but sometimes they would walk out to meet them and ride in on the first car what they were doing when old lady adventure swooped down and got bill in her clutches they had walked out to meet the special and the special was late that night so without realizing it they walked a little farther than they had intended they met it quite a ways out of the yard when it was going sit at a pretty fast U U tia W I 1 M 5 A he threw his body over the rail just in time clip willie caught the first car but bill let three or tour four go by before he could make up his bis mind to jump for it ile he caught the fifth car and since he was supposed to check the other side of the train he started to climb over the top but falling under a train so prosaic but old lady adventure ever intend that bill should get to the other side of that train As he reached for the top grab iron with his right hand the one he was holding with his left broke away from the side of the car ills his body swung out from the side of the car and started to fall As bill fell he clutched at the top grab iron he caught it but his weight broke the hold his body twisted swung around between the cars then as he dropped his left leg hit the draw head he swung head downward and fell under the train 1 I lay flat on my back says bill and watched the bottoms of the cars whiz by only a few inches from my face the wheels ground past only a few inches from my body on either side I 1 lay for a moment utterly unable to move then my mind began to race hopper bottom cars meant certain death in a flash I 1 had bad figured everything out I 1 had been lucky enough to land between the tracks not on them As long as I 1 did not move I 1 was perfectly safe cafe unless and there was the horrible possibility unless there was a hopper hoppe bottomed coal car in that train the hoppers of those cars are only a few inches from the ties it one of them hit me I 1 would be mangled mashed to a pulp spread along a half mile of track and there was a darned good possibility that not one but several of these hopper bottomed cars were in the train in long trains like the one bill was under it was the custom to put short empty coal cars between the refrigerator cars to cut down the side sway bill knew that HI his s mind was clicking on all four in his moment of peril taking in every every consideration there was just one way out a perilous way but something told bill it was a better risk than walling waiting for one of those murderous hopper bottoms he began watching the wheels as they clicked by gauging their speed and their distance courage plus quick thinking saved bills life where two cars were coupled together the wheels were only about four feet apart but between two wheels on the same car there was a space of forty feet it if he could throw his body over the rail as the front wheel heel N passed and get across before the rear wheel hit him hed be safe there was no time to lose but bill gauged those moving wheels carefully he nerved himself ard and tensed every muscle then as a front wheel flashed by he started to roll he hit the rail and started to go over would he get across in time bill know because his eyes were shut ile he dare look at the thing he be was doing then all at once he felt himself go over the top of the rail he opened his eyes and saw clear sky overhead ile he had made itt then says bill came the reaction I 1 I 1 began trembling all over and got sick as a dog and to this day the mere sight of a hopper bot torn tom coal car can give we me a bad case of chills V service |
