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Show -. !;.; A, .u .1' Adventurers' 7 Club "Too Much Courage' Hy I I.OYI) GII5I50NS ruinous Headline Hunter. OOMIiTIMI'.S it's a fine thing, boys and girls, to have one of those cast-iron, copper-plated nervous systems that don't get all in a jitter the minute something happens. Steeplejacks have them and so have structural ironworkers ironwork-ers who spend most of their working day twenty stories ahove the street, balanced on a ten-inch iron beam, playing baseball willi red hot rivets. I'v always sort of envied birds like that for their courage. And again, at times, I've been glad I don't have nerves like theirs. After all, our nerves are about the best warning warn-ing signals we have and you know what usually happens to the uy who doesn't pay any attention to the signs. Take the case of Bill Woods, for instance William II. Woods of Brooklyn, N. Y. Bill isn't an ironworker, but he's got an ironworker's ironwork-er's nerve. Put him in a burning building, and my guess is that he wouldn't begin to get excited about it until the fire actually began be-gan creeping up his coat-tails. I'm judging him now from the way, he acted in that restaurant in Brooklyn on April 30, 1934. This Adventure Starts With a Cup of Coffee. It's quite a story, boys and girls a story that starts out with a walking tour through the streets of Brooklyn. Bill and his friend, Charley Young, had been taking an evening stroll, and eleven o'clock found them at Boro Hall park. Charley suggested that they drop into a cafeteria for a cup of coffee before they Kit the hay. Bill agreed, and they crossed the street. They went into the cafeteria, took their checks from the machine at the door and went over to the long counter. They ordered coffee, and the counterman turned to get it. But no sooner had he turned than he swung back toward the door and said: "What's the matter over there?" That's the first intimation Bill and Charley had that anything was wrong. They looked in the direction in which the counterman was staring. Several men were scuffling over near the door. Then, suddenly from the center of that milling group came the sound of a shot! Bedlam Breaks Loose in Cafeteria Following Shots. "In the moment that immediately followed," says Bill, "no one , stirred. Everyone in the place had stopped eating and all eyes j were turned toward the door. That moment of indecision didn't m i MPs MmmxWMm ted The Man Fell Over Backwards and Was Still. j ; last long, however, for suddenly another shot rang out, loud and ! deafening in that enclosed space. No one knew what had happened, ! but you couldn't mistake that sound." At that second shot, bedlam broke loose in the cafeteria. cafe-teria. Women screamed. Men jumped up from their seats. Tables were overturned. Everyone thought of just one thing, and that was getting under cover. Everyone was running about in frantic haste to get a door between them and that revolver everyone, that is, but Bill Woods. In all the hullabaloo hulla-baloo he alone kept his head. And it nearly cost him his life. Bill looked around for Charley. He was gone evidently into a milling crowd of people who had run toward the back of the cafe- teria and were trying to crowd into the washrooms. Those who weren't there were crawling on their hands and knees, trying to get under a table. Bill noticed that and decided to get under cover j j himself. There was a radiator with a screened grill in front of him i J and he dropped down behind that. There followed a brief silence punctuated only by the sounds of struggling men, then another shot 1 reverberated through the room. That was when Bill's curiosity and his nerve got the better of his common sense. He stood up to take ' a look. I Bill Made a Fine Target for the Man With the Gun. Over by the door, a man, gun in hand, was standing, back up against the cashier's counter, while half a dozen younger men tried ' to wrestle the gun away from him. "One of the younger men," says Bill, "picked up a heavy sugar container and hit the older man over the head. I saw the glass break and the sugar scatter over the floor, but the man with the gun seemed invincible. They couldn't beat him down. They were too many for him in the end, though, and finally he fell behind the cashier's desk. And then, thinking all danger was ' past, I walked over to the counter." Bill walked over until he was within ten feet of the fallen man when, to his amazement, the man started to sit up. The gun, still in his hand, rose until it pointed straight at Bill's midriff. Too late, Bill began to wish he'd been one of those nervous individuals who had taken refuge in the washroom. He stood petrified afraid to move. He drew in a deep breath and waited to feel the bullet bite into his flesh. At that distance, the man on the floor couldn't miss. Timely Arrival of Copper Saves Bill's Life. Then, the only thing that could save Bill's life happened. Through the restaurant door came a police sergeant with a drawn pistol. He got the situation at a glance, took deliberate aim at the man with the gun, and shot him through the stomach. That was the end. The man fell over backwards and was still. A red circle of blood slowly widened beneath him. More policemen came. They began asking questioos. The cashier of the restaurant had been creased over one ear by a bullet, and one young man, shot through the shoulder, was leaning against the counter, trying to staunch the flow of blood. They told the story. The man with the gun, they said, had been drunk. He had walked over to a table and accused another man of, laughing at him. An argument started and the drunk drew a gun. That was when Old Lady Adventure stepped in and started shaking up thrill cocktails one for everybody in the house, and a deadly one for the man with the gun. WNU Service. |