Show d adventurers CLUB DEADLINES FROM THE ake LIV LIVES ES OF lg LE LIKE YOURSELF 1 siberian Siberia it melodrama H HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY her heres s ayari a yarn that sounds as if it might have happened out in the old wild west when two gun hombres combres fought fough tit it out in the streets and booted bodied and spurred cow punchers clea cleaned ned out dance halls with well directed volleys from their six guns I 1 dont know whether those things ever happened out in th the west eWest all I 1 knowis know is what I 1 see in the movies this incident im going to tell you about sounds like the west but it happened wak wa over in the eastern part of siberia and it happened ao to samuel C taylor of new york city you know we had troops in siberia for a couple of years after the world war sam taylor was one of them he was with a platoon of 60 men from company D thirty first united states infantry stationed station edat at the little siberian town of the town itself was nothing but a railroad station and a few houses the soldiers were living in half a dozen box cars that had been taken off their wheels and set on the ground beside the track but though the town was small etwas it was affording plenty of excitement it was about the middle of january and for far days the americans had been watching an army ga go through the town it a hostile army but at the same time it a friendly ome me either it wasl was a bolshevik army moving to attack vladivostok not far away away as distances go in siberia sam says there here were thousands of them well equipped with machine guns sma and lugging enough field pieces esto to blow those 60 americans and their box cars to halifax but they 4 be b bothered with the americans taking vladivostok was more important por tant sam acted as provost guard at the station on the aftem afternoon oon of ja january nuary 18 sam w was as acting provost guard at the railroad station it was a bitter cold day A cutting wind was swe sweeping past the station and private pat strong on sentry go was stamping u up p and down the platform two bolshevik troop trains had Z j he whipped the automatic up and let go just pulled in on a siding and bolshevik soldiers had crowded into the station where they could buy hot tea and vodka and as pat strong paced up and down the platform a big russian said something to him in russian pat understand him he came to port arms while the russian st stormed 0 i amed and gesticulated and finally gra grabbed blied pats gun pat tried to p pull ua 1 the gun away buethe but the russian was a powerful brute he spun pat around and threw him in a snow bank A couple more americans came running up he threw them into the snow bank too and made a mad dash for the station where sam came into the picture As provost guard he rated a sentry box down at the end cud of the platform he saw the fight just as the russian broke loose and started into the station and he came out on the run with the other three americans at his back he be started alter after him says he 1 I went bursting into the station as it if the whole U S army was stepping on my heels that station was full of Bol shies singing talking and yelling lots of them had rifles some som e of them had hand grenades tied to their bilts belts but I 1 have time to look over the grenade situation just then that big russian had found himself a rifle I 1 was five feet inside the door when I 1 spotted him but he must have seen mi me first because he was raising his bis gun it was a question who would shoot first v sa sam in had a 45 automatic and it was a question of whether be or the russian could shoot first without even taking time out to think he whipped that automatic up and let go the big russi russian an dropped foran instant there was a dead silence in the s tation station those rus huskies ides were surprised says sam and so was wasa I 1 for a second well wella I 1 almost opened fire on the whole bunch of them but I 1 caught myself just in time it was a tough spot and sam knew it here wis was a whole roomful of wild russians and he be had bad just shot one of their pals if oe be started out the door some of them would be sure to begin shooting if that happened be general disorder with 60 americans fighting a whole troop train full of bolsheviks and what was mori more to the point it would be curtains tor for sam 1 I had bad to use my head he says and I 1 decided id bluff them I 1 stood inthe in the middle of the floor waved my pistol over ever their heads beads and pointed to the door and then happened the thing that probably s saved aved my life in swinging my arm I 1 tightened my grip on an the pistol to keep from dropping it and to in doing that I 1 squeezed the trigger too hard BANGI BANG off she went again that bullet bialler struck somewhere behind the bar and down came alot a lot of glassware sam says the falling glass created a terrible racket the russians must have thought a shell had burst in there they turned fumed and stampeded tor for the door and sam says they went through it like a kansas tornado in ten teh seconds there a bolshevik in the place and where weri were the other three fellows says sam they were nut outside side turned into a bear rear guard when they heard those shots inside and saw all those huskies piling out they ran for camp to tell the others the russians had eaten me alive and were coming to eat them too sam says bays he certainly did NOT feel like a hero when he went into that station he lust just ha have v a time to think about it it wa was s only after 1 I 1 got inside he saya says that I 1 realized I 1 was in a swell pickle ive often thought afterwards suppose I 1 hit one of the grenades those russians had tied to their belts boy that WOULD have been an adventure copyright service serice |