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Show V - VENTURERS' CLUB r 1 oi. I Jd L I N E S FROM THE LIVES V ' f EOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! "Down the River Road" "UA EVERYBODY: Here's a yarn that packs thrills enough to last through ''"'le night. At least, it did for Mrs. Dorothy Murphy, fconx, N. Y. Many years ago, Dorothy was living on 1 in the Chestnut Ridge section near the little town er Plains, N. Y. She set out to drive to the railroad three miles away, and before she got back she'd ough adventures to last a lifetime. lt was in February, 1914. Dorothy was just 18 years rt;.er aunt had been spending two weeks with the family bi-Aras she whom Dorothy drove to the train on that cold Jatiry evening. Automobiles weren't so common then. 5s'' )orothy drove was a surrey, drawn by an old, half- orse named Brownie. train pulled out of Dover Plains at 6:45 p. m., and :ty turned the horse around and headed for home. Al-:it;it Al-:it;it was dark a moonless, starless night. The way ii:y along a steep, rough, unfenced country road that for nearly three miles before it reached Chestnut On one side of it lay thick woods covering an up-jlt'rV.ope up-jlt'rV.ope of the ground, and on the other was a steep de- E,:; For part of the distance, that declivity straightened 15S;1 tall cliff. And there was nothing to prevent a carriage from , wL-'r it, if it approached too close to its edge. Jl'e:;was Dorothy's first thrill the prospect of driving over that road on vrk. She hadn't thought darkness would fall so soon that night, useivas scared stiff of that cliff. As she drove along, and the dark-t dark-t vlened, she couldn't see her hand before her face, and she gave ' i free rein, hoping that his instincts would keep him on the road. frothy Felt the Wheels Slipping Over the Edge, jjjjj hey were going along the top of that cliff, and all was going jj.jy, And then, all of a sudden, Dorothy felt the wheels slipping the edge. Poor, half-blind old Brownie had failed her. He were aching and her head was swimming. She heard Brownie wander off. TJane too close to the edge! The surrey gave a sudden lurch 4!Xorolhy was thrown out into space! ys Dorothy: "I clutched at the air as it slid past me, drowning man clutches at straws. My hands grabbed some .n'.ji growing out from the side of the cliff and I hung on. for WT,vas worth. And there I was, between earth and air, and RiiJothing to save me from death on the rocks below but my pre- s hold on those shrubs." jy says that time has no meaning under such circumstances. yd Ikes seemed like years. Her arms were aching and her head ming. She could hear Brownie and the surrey wandering off rLikness. Evidently the old horse had pulled the surrey back on I "''after she had been thrown out. For a terrible moment she ii le bushes, and then her fingers encountered a branch of a small rillling along the side of the cliff. utate cauSht it with one hand then the other and drew her-UylK her-UylK over the cliff to safety. She lay on the ground for a while, shSn wea'f' Then, having recovered a little, she got up and and s led to the road. eMralr'e an ne surrev were nowhere in sight. Dorothy started , vegoward home. You'd think she'd had enough adventuring for """-but the big thrill hadn't even started. She had only walked a ;joy t when she heard a sound that froze her blood in her veins the andi'd yelping of dogs, jany YUiK wild Dog Pack Pursues Terrified Dorothy. 'igs don't sound so dangerous but Dorothy knew better. A )st (('lime before she had seen the body of a boy who had been gtdand partially eaten by these same dogs. They were wild wor;;ls descendants of dogs who had run away from their mas- live in the woods and had reverted to type. Every once bile, in those days, packs of that sort appeared in the woods jrm4lous places throughout the country. And they still do, in , jHiutlying regions. Kile dog would run at the sight of a man, but in a pack, and In of the winter when they were half starved, they would attack Jyone. Dorothy knew all too well what would happen if this s;ht up with her. She turned, stumbling, into the woods and J llfehe found a tree. 4 a tree with a low fork of its branches one she could climb. '-Jr pulling herself up into it. The yelping of the pack was coming Ujiiyd nearer. She wasn't a minute too soon. She had hardly lAn'. into the lower branches when they were on the spot, yelping fl(t'n at the bottom of the tree. gjjjj.nd there I was," she says, "perched in the tree while the mol)Ilf-mad(iened brutes howled and snarled below. I still turn Ua.lrnd cold all over when I think of that moment. The worst it was that I was afraid I'd grow weak or faint, or so numb he cold that I'd fall out. I knew what would happen then." 25Sth the First Streaks of Dawn the Dogs Left. 's Nifter hour Dorothy clung to that tree, wondering why her folks s her and come looking for her. Wondering why they didn't -rnething was wrong when the horse and buggy came home sr. She didn't know that old Brownie, turning completely ) his struggles to haul the surrey back on the road, had wan-k wan-k to town and was spending the night in an open horse shed. C3 thought Dorothy had decided to spend the night with relatives 3 s she often did, so they didn't worry. And all that night, she II n the tree racked by the cold and harried by terrible fears. 1 1 the first streaks of gray appeared in the sky, the dogs 3 1 off through the woods, and when she thought it was safe .me down and crawled to the road. She couldn't walk, but a r, driving to the milk depot, found her in the road and ? t her home. iy says she's written this story for us other adventurers to i,she adds, "Usually, I don't think of it if I can help it." sj (Released by Western Nev.-spaper Union.) |
