Show pao fo adventurers CLUB HEADLINES HEADLINE FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 1 accident saves a life by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter H HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY choke down those careening carburetors tors boys and girls one accident is all right in its place but dont tempt fate too often thomas W yates of wallington N J pulled one of those taxi crashes at the right moment but he recommend them as a regular diet boy oh boy how tom wanted that accident and he got it well it just saved his life and according to the facts he wrote down in his report to me on the biggest adventure of his whole taxi driving career tough customer in a bad neighborhood well sir tom was breezing the old bus around the long streets of cleveland ohio just off the public square a man hailed him and climbed into the cab that tough looking customer gave an address in a hard boiled sector and tom stepped him there in record time the address tom had was an unlighted house and then the fare says buddy I 1 forgot to bring my dough along come in and ill get the old bankroll ban kroll tom stumbled into that dark hallway he gone ten feet until he felt a gun jammed against his vest buttons and that passenger was saying gamme that dough tom had just been paid and business had been good and he had about eighty dollars in the old jeans and there was nothing to do but to fork it over then the passenger said now that im heeled well be going places and see that you dont stop and talk to any cops well tom sat there at the wheel with that gun in his back wheeling to the toughest speakeasies speake asies in the city each time they stopped that passenger would herd tom inside at the point of the gun and make him take a drink the fare was getting more and more soused doused at every stop and also more and more reckless with that gat music and another ride the prodded tom into another dive out behind the haymarket tom was leaning over the bar trying to think up some scheme of getting rid of that passenger and reporting him to the police he had just E ae li the taxi turned a complete somersault about given up trying to think when that dingy stuffy barroom roared the Y rg stood there with his gun still smoking lets have some music he yelled and a colored banjo player who had been dozing jumped two feet off his bullet aplin chair and how he did play tom groaned as the gunman ordered him back into the car for another ride to a different section where tom knew the toughest gangsters in cleveland hung out it was a long drive and when tom got behind that old wheel and out into the air his brain began working normally he had an idea yes sir by golly hed do some of the fanciest speeding on record and if a cleveland cop stop him within a block or two well it would be different from his ordinary run of luck but toms luck begun to break for him it was after 2 and all the motorcycle cops had gone home all tom could hope for was that some traffic cop might be left on duty and anxious to make a pinch collision solved his problem well sir tom opened that old bus up wide he cut out the muffler and roared through the deserted streets like a rocket not a cop was in sight he drove on the wrong side of the street he passed traffic lights he did everything that had cost him threats from the law in the past but no bluecoat blue coat lifted a finger and all the time there was that gun wobbling around against the back of his neck and jabbing into him at every bump in the road tom was desperate and just then ahead of him loomed the lights of another car it swung across the roadway in a left turn tom had been wishing for a little accident that would attract the cops but nothing like that he swerved sharply and the front of the cab missed the rear of the other car but something ripped into the center of toms cab that old taxi with tom and the turned a complete somersault well that crash brought out the crowds and plenty of cops they pulled tom out of the wreckage in a daze and carried him into a restaurant tau rant A pitcher of water splashed into toms face and he began to realize what it was all about one of his first thoughts was that at last he was rid of that gunman then he opened his eyes and there was that bird standing right beside him all mussed up but unhurt but there were also cops and tom was just trying to get his voice back when the holdup man leaned over him and handed him a roll of bills the said take this kid and keep your trap shut then he slipped into the washroom and disappeared tom came out of it after a few minutes and explained everything to the police then he counted that roll of bills and he was only 3 short in including c luding a 14 bill on the taxi meter and by golly his commission or on that bill was just three bucks so he was even on that night of wild adventure C copyright service |