Show fad adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF I 1 assassin of the nile ELLO EVERYBODY ha H you ou know boys and girls I 1 have often said that find adventure close to home a darned sight easier than you will roaming the world one who goes traveling trave ing in search oi of thrills tarus usually find any until he gets back into his own bailiwick again but there are exceptions to every tule and heres here s one ot of them george C dorste of bardonia baldonia Bar donia rockland county JN Y x met his biggest thrill when he was thousands of miles away from home and in a strange exotic country v the country was egypt and george landed there in the lie fl course of his travels as a fireman on a tramp steamer the steamer was carrying scrap iron unloading it in consignments consign ments of various sizes at ports along the nile river and its many branches the year was 1912 and the ship had traveled part way up the nile and was anchored in the river just south of the town of melinet el the ship was anchored not far from a pier the weather is pretty hot in egypt in the afternoon particularly the sun beats down with such intensity that it is next to impossible for anybody but a native to do any work it was at the height of the hot season and the crew of the steamer dripping sweat from every pore of their bodies were just about all in along in m the afternoon the skipper gave orders for all hands to knock off work for the rest of the day the men argue about that most of them just walked to the shadiest spot they could find on that hot ship flopped on the deck and rested but there were a half dozen young fellows george among them who had a better idea they stripped off their clothes and dived over the side into the water the hot sun beat down on the hull of the vessel the water was cool and refreshing those lads were in it oft off and on for the better part of the afternoon they came out now and then for a breathing spell on the ships deck but the W 71 i ai 4 A great reptile was between him and the ship and not more than 20 feet from him sun beating down on the iron hull of the made it so hot that they were glad to get back in the water again the afternoon wore on and the sun began sinking toward the horizon As its scorching rays withdrew little by little the day became cooler one by one the swimmers climbed back aboard the steamer and stayed there finally all of them were out of the water except one and that one man was george dorste george loved the water and lie he hated to leave it he was swimming some distance away from the ships side and about halfway half way between it and the pier As he splashed about in the river he heard a voice calling on shore and looking up saw a native standing on the pier the native was shouting to george but in a language he understand then suddenly he began to point toward the ship george could figure out reason for that pointing ile he immediately jumped to the conclusion that someone aboard had dropped something over the side and wanted him to retrieve it he turned and swam slowly toward the ship the native on the pi pier er kept right on yelling but george paid no attention and then suddenly he be saw it a thing that looked like a log floating in the water but a log that had a rough wrinkled snout and a pair of glassy eyes just sho showing wing above the surface the pier was a great distance away A crocodile the great reptile was between him and the ship and not more than 20 feet away from him A shudder went through georges body when he saw it he turned and began swimming toward the pier but the pier was a great distance away or at least so it seemed to george he knew that beast could catch up to him in less time than it takes to tell the story he was swimming as fast as he could exhausting himself in a spurt for the pier and the crocodile was following along behind it seemed to george that the great reptile never approached any closer than that original 20 feet the distance that had separated them when he turned toward the pier was the beast playing with him as a cat would with a mouse or was it waiting until george had exhausted himself in his swim toward shore before those cruel jaws opened med and closed over him still swimming frantically he reached the pier and then another terrifying discovery greeted him As he made mad e frenzied efforts to climb up the poles that supported the pier he found that he those polls were covered with a slippery moss he could make no headway up them and all the time now the crocodile was coming closer swimming slowly toward what it knew w must inevitably furnish it its evening meal he scraped and clawed at the moss covered piles by now george was mad with terror he was still clawing and scraping frantically at those smooth moss covered piles when the native on the dock came to his rescue suddenly the native huge piece of scrap iron from a pile on the dock and hurled picked it at up UD the a swimming crocodile the piece missed the native threw another that one found its mark hit and beaTt the beast on the beneath the hf surface ace snout and it u dived by that time a boat had been launched from the ship shin it came tearing across the water as georges shipmates tes pulled hard bard on the oars it reached george a few seconds after the crocodile had gone down As they pulled me out of the water 1 for a minute two george says I 1 lost con c on husne or but I 1 back came to life before the had reached the ship in time to boat boa see the which had reappeared once steely eyes of the ae more it was 10 feet behind the boat following along not more than and george says that if hed had a gun then it would him the ha ve given greatest pleasure to aim it right between and pull the trigger those two gl assy eye Is released by wistern New newspaper simper union |