Show ADV adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 11 the bomb in hi the boxcar H HELLO IELLO you EVERYBODY know sometimes theres a lot of difference between what people may think of a man and what he thinks of himself hiess in the case of john feen of miami okla for instance there ther e who think he is is hero a people during the are war his oane officers ers were all for recommending john for decoration because they certain brave act of thought a johns deserved a medal if any act of heroism ever did J but what the other folks think of it just between us john share their views at all in johns own estima tion hes just a doggone careless sap and whatever happe happened ned was his own fault in in the first place and he deserved to be shot a heck of a lot more than he deserved a medal what john 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 adventure now lets take this yarn to siberia and tag along with that little bunch of american soldiers who stayed over there after the war to clean up some of the tag ends of the big unpleasantness two battalions tal lions of the twenty seventh infantry were quartered at Bero trying to keep a bit of order 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 an armored railroad train as a base of operations and on january 5 1920 word 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 you more about that scrap with Semi cossacks but an adventure story au all in itself all I 1 can tell you here is that the yanks waited for Semi armored train blew up the track in front of it 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 he leaped forward and dropped on the 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 them in the ca car rJohn john was in the boys built a fire in the tin stove peeled off their sheepskin coats and threw them in a pile on the floor then they hopped flopped on the floor and tried to get a little sleep the fire blazed up and the little car became unbearably hot the coats were close to the stove and john was afraid be scorched ue he got up to move them As he leaned over and slipped his arm under the pile there was a sharp ominous cracko crack and instantly every one of those tired men leaped to his feet they knew all too well what that sound was a grenade getting ready to explode someone had left that grenade in his coat pocket and john in picking up those coats had accidentally dislodged the pin faces says john became wax like as men asked themselves who whose se coat it was and how far down in the pile the bomb lay we the whole pile of coats would id were all praying it was on the bottom where cover it the swaying boxcar seemed to creak the fatal words ten seconds to live ten seconds to live ten see seconds ands more then nine then eight the deep rumble oi the wheels on the tracks below sounded like muffled drums and the wind outside howled a mournful litany of the dead the tiny candle that lit the car flickered spasmodically for a moment an and d died the me gloom closed in and still we waited f up to that time everyone had been too stunned to move A crowd ot of tight lipped doughboys dough boys stood motionless waiting for screamed death to john that feen was the first one to recover his senses he bunch of men to lie down and that broke the spell A dozen heavy bodies thudded to the floor one man swore aloud another sobbed and but john was still on his teet feet a third muttered a womans comans name lie he was standing right over that bomb and for a brief second his lips moved he was praying johns body protects others from grenade blast but it moment there was hardly any time tor for was only for a be going ng would go bomb and that prayer three or four seconds more hardly had off and he that happened the prayer P had a job to do before of coats 1 his pile 0 that left his hiis lips when he leaped forward dropped on brood that lat h her er arms hugging them to him like a hen mothering coats ol of deadly buried somewhere in in that pile engine of destruction would have might aught blow him to bits but the other fellows in the car a chance that one and then there was a roar second two seconds bell itself of sounded to john as it if it had come from the bowels n lie ile felt ien bright scarlet flashes streaked the interior of the car the pile of coats heave beneath him ono was lifting the first thing he remembers after that was that someone sounded faint and d hina him ile he heard else talking and the words someone them ws was talking tau i king far f away and hollow as if the man who was is speaking he e opened OP back to him h m to a barrel slowly conscious consciousness ne ss came he counted cou the anxiously his s eyes he remembered now that bomb bobbt those bud ino wh white ite were all there they faces that were bent over him nies dies of his he sighed in relief and fainted bit surprised john woke up in the hospital at Bero a have been to find that alive ile he probably he was still bottom of the e pile ave alive it if that bomb been down at the 1 bits of steel ot of coats that stopped the flying thick coats sheepskin corrugated ru gated of bits 0 of f carru As it was his arm was shattered and lull full metal and it would have to come off the amputation of 01 A lw few days later while he was recuperating told fr orn him he was going and that arm of to his bedside a lay off to an officer ricer came told that 0 OI 01 fri c er to be but john all he recommended for decoration I 1 lie deserved any nt want any medals he think he odo do to had ad done was vas what he knew darned well it was 1 his that duty held dt that hat grenad glenadel gre nadel elop you see he says avs it conwright was my coat service pocket |