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Show DVENTURERS' CLUB ADllNES from the lives y , ftQPlE LIKE YOURSELF1 N "Hospital Horror" : i ly M.OYl) O.IUUONS lamotis llctullliio Hunter - .vil.OKVKUVrODY: You know, lots of advonturos have happened because no divi the wrons thin;: somewhere alonjj the line, V" !'lr,'s one that resulted from saying the wrong thing. '.the stow of George T. Parker of Brooklyn, N. Y., and 1 -j,' a, example of a horrible experience as I've come .' -,1s in tunny n day. '. t Out Gooi iie tdlkod out of turn, or trlod to start an nriunnont. . Uf.'s notliuijl like that In tills yarn. What UtUo Georna did sny, ' '! MvH the K'st and most poacoful iit(-ittons In Uie world. As a j (u't. George was Just out of the operating room and lying on ' "tld bed'htni he said it. Turds in that tlx don't go around looking f.K.! anJ vou and I know it . p'u, just the same. George sure talked himself Into a slable lr0UM,-. Trouhte that probably eaused one death and came ilhtv near causing George's. .' "v,; A,,rii 1917. The United States had just entered the World , dnia be you remember how we used to guard our bridges nnd - '' viris in those days. Well, tluit's what George was doing. He f ' irivj:e i Ue Seventy-flrst regiment, nnd his company was sent i- sU' X- Y- tJ Uiird l)rUIe over the Rondout creek. They had ' .,f frei-'M cars on a siding und built bunks In them to houso ara it is i" cne of those freight cars that George's story starts. l"wss twelve midnight, and George was jvist leaving to take his turn Mr,i"'v when he began to feel terrific pains. The doctor said It . .po-aicitis. and he flagged a train, loaded George on the baggage ' ! ana tivl him into the Kingston city hospital. Boarded Old Man in Next Bed. --"v he'd him in a ward for a day for observation. There were some : -t o'her patients in the room, and one of them was a bed-ridden fel- ., ci-ed Tony. He had been there fifteen years, poor devil, with a : ten "spine. But helpless as he was. Tony is the hero of Uiis yarn. he who saved George's life. While George was still under observation they brought In an-: an-: cj,-r patient a bearded old man w ith a case of blood poisoning in his left arm. They put him in a bed right In front of George's and well somehow or other that old fellow gave George the cretps every time he looked at him. - In the mcniir.g they took George out to the operating room and the "-rV-es took out his appendix. They brought him back and put him "Where Is That Fifteen Cents?" De Hissed. - tte same bed he had had before right next to the old fellow with the '- ard who gave him the willies. For two days after his operation, George was a pretty sick man, at with the ether he had swallowed and the shock of being cut up by - ; surgeon. On the second day, the old fellow with the beard became "-lirious and started to rave, and that didn't help George's frame of id ar.y. George Pretended to Be "Lenny." "He was talking about some one named Lenny," George says, "and .1 kept it up until everyone started to complain. I thought it would be :.l right to try and pacify him, so when he called for Lenny again I ' swered him." Tae trick seemed to work. The old fellow actually thought he was -.: Ikmg to Lenny. '"What did you do with that junk in the attic?" he ked. And George answered. "I sold it." "How much did you get : " r it?" the old fellow wanted to know. And George told him, "Fif- En cents." After that the old fellow was quiet. At ten o'clock the " Jk's were cut out and George dozed off. And then, suddenly, George woke np at the sound of a foot-step foot-step beside his bed. ."I looked up," he says, "and there, staring ' down at me, was the old fellow. His eyes seemed to be popping out of his head and his good hand was reaching down for my throat. And in a low voice he hissed, 'Where is the fifteen cents'." ; ' It might have been funny that situation if it hadn't been so pathetic, o. But to George there was neither humor nor pathos in it nor any--:ir.g else but just plain terror. There he lay helpless, two days out of e operating room, and hardly able to lift a finger in his own defense, ;r-id over him stood a man out of his mind and plainly bent on violence. 5 Strangling Him to Death. '"S "I was petrified with fright," says George. "Perspiration began inning off me like water from a faucet. The old man was in a long ;. hits nightgown, with his long hair hanging down over his shoulders and white beard Cowing over his chest. The moonlight was shining full l Mra and the very picture of him was enough to scare a man to death. ;T- "I couldn't find my voice couldn't utter a word. I put up my hand If 1 Protect myself, but it was weak and shaking. The old man grasped "T-by the throat and began to squeeze. His hand was strong, and its , ;-y lor me he didn't have two of them that the ower one wda ..led with blood poisoning or he might have strangled me then and t-i As it was that one hand wasn't any too gentle. George wondered if V..-:ayone in the room was awake. If he could only scream! But with the man's fingers tightening on his throat, it was too late for that now. wondered if he was going to die there, in the apparent safety of a nos-klbed. nos-klbed. And then, suddenly, the lights came on. Nurses and attend-;;::ots attend-;;::ots came running to the rescue. Tony, the poor fellow with the broKen r::ne, had brought help. He had awakened, seen what was happening, 'ti Pushed the buzzer that summoned the nurse. old man was taken away to a padded cell, and on the following 0rmng he was dead. The exertion had been too much for him. lt ; WNU Service. |