Show J t hydron abben ADVENTURERS 1 CLUB HEADLINES NE S FROM THE LIVES OF 01 PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 1 the bomb in the boxcar HELLO H ELLO EVERYBODY y you know sometimes theres a lot of difference between what people may think of a man and what he thinks of himself in the case of john feen of miami okla for instance there are people who think he is a hero during the war his officers were all alldor for recommending john for decoration because they thought a certain brave brae act of johns deserved a medal if any act of heroism ever did but what the other folks think of it just between us yohn share their views at all in johns own estimation hes just a doggone careless sap and whatever happened was his own fault in the first place and he deserved to be shota heck of a lot more than he deserved a medal what john jhn thinks about it he swears that what he did heroism at all well you can decide that for yourself but theres one thing im certain of it may or it may not have been heroism but it sure was advent adventure urel now lets take this yarn to siberia and tag along with that little bunch of american soldiers who stayed over there alter after the war to clean up uli some of the tag ends of the big unpleasantness two bat stallions tall tal lons lions ot of the twenty seventh infantry were quartered at Bero trying to keep a bit of order to in a land where both law and order had broken down the bandit leader with a large band of cossacks was plundering and looting and murdering in the region using en an armored railroad train as abase a base of operations and on january 6 5 1920 word cime came that he was headed toward Bero As he leaned forward there was a sharp ominous click both battalions were ordered to the field and john feen was in that gang carrying a rifle and a knapsack full of hand grenades id like to tell tel lyou you more about that scrap with Semi nofre cossacks but an adventure story all in itself all I 1 can tell you her here e is that the yanks waited for Semi armored a train blew up the track in front of it itt and bombed and fought their way into the cars on the last charge john took what few grenades he had left out of his knapsack nr he leaped forward and dropped on the poe pile of coats and stuffed them in his pockets then the fighting was over and the americans were climbing into the tiny box cars of a troop train that had come out from Bero to get thern them in tho be car john was in the he boys boy built a fire are in the tin in stove peeled off their sheepskin costs coats and threw them in a pile on the floor then they flopped on the floor and tried to get a little sleep the fire blazed up and the little car became unbearably hot the coats coati were close to the stove and john was afraid be scorched bed he got up to move them As he leaned over and upped his arm under the pile there was a sharp ominous crack and instantly every one of those tired men leaped to his feet they knew au all too well what that sound was a grenade setting getting ready to explode someone had bad left felt that grenade in his coat pocket and john in picking up those coats had bad accidentally dislodged the pint faces says john became wax like as men asked themselves whose who e coat it was and how far down in the pile the bombe bomb lay we were all praying it was on the bottom where the whole pile of coats would cover it then maybe some of us might have a chance if it if it blew up high wide and handsome in the crowded quarters of that little carthe slaughter would be appalling the swaying boxcar seemed to creak the fatal words ten seconds to live ten seconds to live ten seconds wore more i then ubie then eight the deep rumble of the wheels oli on the tracks tra ks below sounded like muffled drums and the winit wind outside bowled bow a mournful litany of the dead chetiny Th the etiny tiny candle that lit the he car flickered dickered spasmodically cally for or a moment and died the gloom closed inand still we waited halted 11 up to that time everyone had been too stunned to move A crowd of tight upped lipped doughboys dough boys stood m motionless oti onless wa waiting biting for death john feen was the first one to recover his senses he screamed to that bunch of men to lie Ile down and that broke the spell A dozen heavy bodies thudded to the floor one man swore aloud another sobbed and nd a third muttered a womans comans name but john was still on his feet he was standing right over over that bomb and for a brief second his lips moved he was praying johns ns body protects others from grenade blast but it was only tor for a mo moment there was hardly any time tor for prayer three or four seconds more and that bomb would be going off and hi he had a job to do before that happened the prayer had hardly left his bis lips when he leaped forward dropped on that pile of coats his arms hugging them to him like a hen mothering her brood that deadly engine of destruction burled buried somewhere in that pile of coats b might blow him to bits but the other fellows in the car would have a chance one second two seconds and then thea there was a roar that sounded 1 ie to john as a if it had bad come from the bowels of hell bell itself right bright scarlet alas flashes bes streaked the interior of the cir car he felt the pile of coats heave beneath dimand then thea john just remember any more the first thing he remembers after that was that someone was lilting lifting him he heard beard someone else talking and the words sounded faint tali it and tar far away and hollow as it if the man who was speaking them was talking into into a barrel slowly consciousness cal came back to him hi he opened his eyes he remembered abw now thit that bombl bomb anxiously he be counted the whiteface white faces a that were bent over him they were au all there those buddies 0 of his he sighed in relief relie fand and fainted john woke up to in the he hospital at bit surprised id to find that he be was still alive he be probably have been alive live it if that bomb been down at the bottom of the pile coats that stopped the flying bits of steel of coats thick sheepskin was shattered and full of bits of corrugated As it was his bis arm me it would have to come off oct A few days later while he was recuperating from the amputation to his bedside and told him he was going officer came of that arm an tor for decoration but john told that officer to liy lay off to be recommended 0 all he he want any medals meda Is he think he deserved any darned well it was his duty to do what he knew had done w was as that held that glenadel gre nadel coat pocket you see he says it was my service |