Show Z A club to be eaten by AntsO ants by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter hunter IP F ANY ANY of you adventurers know dr frederick S macy of new york the chances are you you remember him as a kindly efficient medical man so devoted to his practice that he time for adventure but boys and girls you dont know from euthin doc macy is firstos fir all colonel of the medical corps united states army and has enough adventure tucked away in his doctors bag to last hit him n the yest rest of his successful life I 1 doctor macys epic goes back many years to the philippine insurrection in 1903 and it Is particularly interesting at this time since we have given give n the philippines their independence young doc macy aldey lie he was just twenty then was nn an aminy doctor stationed 01 i the philippine island of leyte lete and attached to a company of volunteers who used the island as their base from that base the boys bos in blue started on mAnyi joany a iti ho 1 artzi easing chase after the wily native leader the gugus gu gus were a tough bunch of bandits black with thirst and niad mad from aiom the tropical heat they marched through the hills of the interior Int eilor after the bandit who was always one step ahead of them avo avoiding liing a pitched battle but sniping at the col column i n with de deadly a d I 1 y effect from the bushes these gugus were a tough bunch of babies they plundered the peaceful natives and actually ate the hearts of their enem lesl the fiendish tortures they applied to prisoners made our apache indians look like sunday school pupils one particular torture was reserved for americans americana it was this any wounded or detached soldier that had the misfortune to fall into theli their hands was buried bulled alive up to his neck in an anth anthill lIll 1 the voracious trop tropical IC al auts took care of the rest and when the troops came on one of their comrades burled buried in this manner only a grinning well picked skull was left to tell the mute story of hours of slow agonizing death tramp steamer brings a strange emissary to camp doc macy being the surgeon of the outfit saw all this and many other unmentionable cruelties cruel ties some of the men who had been captured by the bloodthirsty thirst y bandits lived but not one ever came back sane their suffer sufferings ings had destroyed their minds so naturally against an enemy of this sort the one tear fear of very nl man n in our army was the dread of being captured alive death was preferable to being bellig taken prisoner and suicide in the last extremity was not unusual As asay I 1 say doc knew all this and in the face of this knowledge his subsequent actions take on all the elements of the heroic or of downright recklessness in any case of adventure one day doc sais says there glided into the anchorage a dilapidated lopsided steamer ma manned nned b by natives and flying a white hag flag of truce A small boat A the rebel general was lying in the bamboo shack ame came ashore hearing bearing a lone native waving the white flag we were astounded at this effrontery but even more so when the half naked savage made known the reason for his visit the doctor leaves on his mission of mercy the native e marched with sober dignity straight to where we waited hla his brown face under ills his straw hat wooden and unmovable his bare feet thrust through the tattered remains of a pair of blue and red military trousers well sir that brazen native astonished everybody there by his request general and his army he said lay some sixty miles allea away in a seacoast village the general and the padre who always accompanied him were sick with berl berl and the soldiers wished an american doctor to treat himl the captain in charge of course refused the request but he counted on doc macy doe doc volunteered to go and on his promise to bring back military information the captain reluctantly allowed him to leave doc leaving his big weapons conspicuously behind him took only his doctors bag and climbed into the boat professional zeal laughs at dangers but once on his way without a chance of turning back doc began to realize what he had let himself into suppose it was all a ruse and they wanted him as a hostage dot doc knew what that would mean it would mean that his bis ears would bt bb sent back one by one or perhaps an eye now and then to convince the stubborn americans not a word was spoken on the trip they arrived at a village crowded with soldados sol dados thousands packed the narrow streets and glared at the hated americano Amerl cano as he was led under guard to toa a bamboo shack I 1 in the shack lay the rebel leader and his beloved padre both doc saw at a glance were very low suppose they died before he got away doc shuddered at the jhb thought ot of what would happen to him but when he started to work he be forgot everything in his professional zeal he did all he could all any doctor could bould in those days and after hours of work lay down on the dirt floor and slept till morning back to tha boat instead of the ant hill in the morning he was relieved to see the general still alive now the question was would ti they aey allow him to leave does docs only idea was vas to get away while the going was vas good he administered medicine and leaving some more moie to told id the women who were in attendance how to give the patients the rest when then doc with his heart in his mouth but his face betraying no sig sign a of fear ordered d the native guard to take him back A breathless moment me ment a moment in which doc seemed to feel ants crossing ills his unprotected eyes and then au an unintelligible order was growled by the sick geli general eral doc was led out ot between four murderous looking inspru inscrutable table natives lie he wondered whether he was going to the a ant n t hill or the boat I 1 well of course it was the boat or else those ants would have been telling our story today doc wai was brought back to io the base and welcomed by the palest faces he had ever seen in a sick ward his comrades had given him up for lost I 1 would you do it again I 1 asked doc well maybe he said maybe IF I 1 WERE TWENTY service |