Show FLOYD GIBBONS adventurers club Y 41 I 1 it a s Alani maniac ac with knife by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter til T FIND pauline getty says that adventure necessarily have to begin at sea or with the martin johnsons it can at home in our everyday lives if well only stop to think ot of it pauline was employed as a nurse in a jamestown R I 1 sanitarium it was a place that took tooh care of people who had nervous disorders and those who were mildly insane pauline hesitated a long time before she accepted the position posit lon like the idea of working around among insane people but the superintendent assured her that there were no dangerous dan gerou lunatics in the place so in the end pauline took the job never figuring that that doggone superintendent might not know what he was wa talking about they gave pauline a flock of keys and showed her about the place told her the most important symptoms of each patient in her charge and what 8 sort ort of actions to expect from them then they left her alone to do her w work 0 rk it was night duty she was doing and everything was quiet about the sanitarium pauline was beginning to think her first fears had been unfounded an inexplicable uncomfortable feeling things went smoothly until a in that fateful zero hour of the night when patients vitality Is at its lowest ebb and night nurses are tired and off guard pauline was sitting at her desk writing up her charts when the she became aware of an uneasy feeling the feeling that she was being watched I 1 dont know how to explain that feeling ive had it myself a couple of times though and I 1 know how pauline must have felts felt sitting there alone in that silent hospital she got up and made the rounds of all her patients but they were all in their beds and sleeping peacefully then she went back to her desk and sat down again thinking it was just a silly fear that the stillness and the night shadows had brought on her she picked up her pen pan again but something made her put it down then she heard a sound behind her and leaped to her feet to face a gigantic colored man holding a long sharp bladed bread knife pointed straight at her throat I 1 to Paull paulines nes fear stricken eyes he looked like the largest man she had bad ever seen ile he was well over six feet tall broad of 0 f shoulder with muscles that stood out like cords this was no nightmare this was real I 1 ills eyes were large and bulging his mouth set in a humorless grin that displayed a double row of shining white teeth but it was the knife that caught paulines gaze and held her transfixed while her heart palpitated in her bosom that knife sharp and jagged of edge pointed straight at her throat was moving toward her slowly an inch at a time she wanted to move but fear rooted her to the spot ible my throat she says seemed frozen I 1 cry out any more than I 1 could move I 1 could only think think the terrible thoughts of a woman she heard a soft sound behind her about to be murdered by an insane fiend I 1 stood there for what seemed to be at least three months and actually it was almost two minutes feeling that I 1 was about to be stabbed and hoping hed do it quickly and have it over with two minutest minutes 1 only a tiny fragment of the day but its a long iong long time to be under the sort of strain pauline was facing her knees went limp and her head began to swim she felt as if she was going to faint and fought with all her power against it for she knew that unconscious and helpless she could expect 20 no 1 mercy from the knife wielding maniac suddenly she saw something white flash past her there came a sound of 0 scuttling scuffling feet and out of a daze she watched a pair of arms encircling her would be assailant accident summons aid just in time the knife clattered to the floor and the big negro meek and whimpering in the clutch of a male orderly was led away to his room on tile the floor below when the two had gone Pauline sank into her chair again her body in a virtual state of collapse the timely arrival of the orderly seemed to be nothing short of a miracle for no orderly was supposed to be in that part of the building at that time of the night when he came back she asked him about it and between the two of them they figured out what had happened it seemed that when pauline had jumped up from the desk her foot had touched a bell button on the floor A light had flashed in the or derlys room and he be had bad come on the run just in time to save her from a pretty gruesome bit of carving service |