| Show FAMOUS r HEARLINE HUNTE hackman turns detective by FLOYD bibbons GIBBONS THE HE other night boys and girls agot I 1 got myself into a fine argument with a bird who said there any adventure any more or to be e m more or e accurate bout about it ii this fellow said there any more adventure in peace time he said that civilization had so caught up lip with the world that the modem exploring trip was nothing but a cut and dried business of hiring a bunch of natives 0 to o carry your baggage and then going for a walk valk in the woods he said that big game hunting had degenerated into a sort of gime game of hide and seek with a tame elephant on a practically fenced in hi ri reservation he seemed to think I 1 had a monopoly on all the adventures beca because iise I 1 was a war correspondent and got around to the spots where fighting was going on well sir ive been to a couple 1 of wars where I 1 biant diant have anything moia more exciting happen to me than having a family of cloties cooties move into the vacant flat on my top floor and on tile the other hand I 1 had ona one of ithe to toughest ugliest times in my life in peacetime peace time taking a trip across the sahara desert taxi drivers lifes life Is an adventurous one that trip was just like the exploring jaunts aunts that bird was talking about A camel carried my baggage bagga c A camel carried me too whenever I 1 too doggone weak from heat and thirst 0 to o stay on the doggone brute id rather go through six wars than take that trip across the sahara again but all that is beside the point what I 1 want to talk about is exploring and big game hunting and taxi driving you know when that bird was through with his spiel spiels I 1 said to him who cares about the explorers and the big game hunters not such big potatoes in the adventuring business why a now new york taxi driver runs into more adventure in the course of a year than an explorer does in ten and maybe its incidence coincidence co and maybe its fate but two days later I 1 reach into intha a pile of your letters on my desk and out comes this yarn yam from taxi driver andy of brooklyn N Y suspicious looking fare hires andy for jaunt andy tells us about an adventure that happened to him at four in the morning on march 26 1934 andy hid had his cab parked in front of madison square garden when a young fellow hailed him come on the fellow said hand over your dough and told him to drive h him I 1 m to an address in thirtieth street between betwee ll ninth and tenth avenues andy had had a good day that day one odthe ot the best in weeks he had nineteen dollars and sixty five cents on the clock and enough tips to make it all come to about twenty two bucks having that much money in his bis pocket at four a m made him sort of careful and besides he like the looks of this new job he was being handed in the first place he lik like e the fellows appearance and in the second place he knew that thirtieth between ninth and tenth was no residential neighborhood but a cab driver cant turn down everybody who looks suspicious he could lose half his fares that way so andy took a chance passenger turns out to be a stick up guy sure enough as the cab neared its destination andy felt a gun thrust against the back of his neck A gruff voice ordered him to stop and get out of the cab As andy stepped to the sidewalk the gun was thrust into his stomach come on the fellow said hand over your dough go ahead and take it said andy he figured if the fellow went through his bis pockets he might leave an opening and give him a chance to swing a haymaker but the fellow was too smart for that do I 1 look like a sap he said hand it over overt reluctantly andy passed over the twenty two dollars the bandit bandit shoved him into a hallway and ordered him not to come out for ten minutes through the crack like opening out the door andy saw him go get in the cab and drive away then he came out ran back to eighth avenue and called the police sleuthing cabbie gets his man I 1 the bandit had made a clean getaway the police find him andy went back to the office and told his story the company charge him for the lost money but still he satisfied that same night he told his wife he was going to get the bird who robbed him it if it took him all the rest of Us his life the next day was a monday andy was back at his bis stand with another cab but he was paying less attention to back driving than helas he was to the faces of the people who passed by all day monday and all day tuesday he watched without success he did the same thing most of wednesday night with no luck either but along about three in the morning he got a sort of feeling that he was going to see his man sure enough while he was cruising on an eighth avenue near fifty first street he spotted him crossing the street it was raining hard but t that thai stop andy he cruised along after the man till he saw a pol policeman leemah andy told his story to the cop and the pair of them went after the I 1 bandit they grabbed him at forty ninth street took him to the s tation station house and after a ten minute grilling he admitted the holdup hold up he proved to be an ex six years probation says andy 1 I felt pretty good about catching him I 1 guess it just goes to show that there such a lot of difference between a detective and a hackman O service |
