| Show adventurers club 0 to be eaten by ants by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter IF r ANY of you adventurers know dr frederick S macy of new york the chances are you remember him as a kindly efficient medical man so devoted to his practice that lie he time for adventure but boys and girls you dont know from euthin doc macy is first of all a retired colonel of the medical corps united states army and a nd has clou enough h adventure tucked away in his doctors bag 6 to last him the rest of of his successful life A doctor macys epic goes back many years to the philippine insurrection in 1903 and it Is particularly interesting at this time since we have given the philippines their independence young doc macy lie he as jut juit twenty then was un an army doctor stationed OL L the philippine island or of leyte and attached to a company of volunteers olun who used the island as their tise babe from that base the boys in blue started on many a heartbreaking chase after the wily natie lender leader Pa chleo the gugu gu gu s were a tough bunch of bandits black with thirst and mad from the tropical heat they marched marche through the lie hills of the Inter interior lor the baldit vilio lif was always one ste step ahead of them avoiding a pit clied battle lint but sni loing at the column with deadly from the bushes these gugus were a tough bunch of babies they plundered the peaceful natives and actually ate the hearts of their enemies the fiendish tortures they applied to prisoners made our apache indians took look like ike sunday school pupils one particular torture was reserved for americans it was this any wounded or detached soldier that had the misfortune to fall into their hands bands was bulled alive up to his neck deck in an anthill 1 the voracious tropical ants tool took care of the rest and when the troops came on one of their comrades buried in this manner only a grinning well picked skull was left to tell the route story of hours of slow agonizing death tramp steamer brings a strange emissary to camp voc doc macy being the surgeon of the outfit saw all this and many other unmentionable cruelties cruel ties sonic some of the men who had been captured by the bloodthirsty bandits blied but not one ever came back sane their sufferings had destroyed their minds so naturally against an enemy of this sort the one tear fear of every man in III our army nas the dread of being captured alive death was preferable to being taken prisoner and suicide in the last extremity was not unusual As I 1 say doc knew all this and in the face of this knowledge his subsequent actions take on all the elements of the heroic or of downright recklessness in any case of adventure one day doc says there glided late into the anchorage a dilapidated lopsided steamer manned by natives and flying a white flag of truce A small boat 00 vy the rebel general was lying in the bamboo shack 0 came ame ashore hearing bearing a lone native waving the white flag we were astounded at this effrontery but even more so when nhen the halt half naked savage made known the reason for his visit the doctor leaves on his mission of mercy the native marched with nith sober dignity straight to where we waited his brown face under his straw hat wooden and unmovable his bare feet thrust through the tattered remains of a pair of blue and red military trousers well sir that brazen native astonished everybody there by his request general and his army he said lay some sixty miles away in a seacoast villa village gei the general and the padre who always accompanied him were sick with beriberi beri berl beri berl and the soldiers wished an american doctor to treat him the captain in charge of course refused the request but he counted on doc DM alacy doc volunteered to go and on his promise to bring back military information the captain reluctantly allowed him to leave doc leaving big weapons conspicuously behind him took only his doctors bag and climbed into the boat professional zeal laughs at dangers cut but once on his way without a chance of turning back doc began to realize what he had let himself into suppose it was all a ruse and they wanted him as a hostage doc knew what that would mean it would mean thethis that his ears W would besent back one by one or perhaps an eye now and then to convince the stubborn americans americana not a word was spoken on the trip they arrived at a village crowded ulab soldados sol dados didos thousands packed the narrow streets and glared at the bated americano Amerl cano as lie he was led under guard to a bamboo shack in the shack lay the rebel leader and his beloved padre both doc saw at a glance were very low suppose they died before he got away doc shuddered at the thought of what would happen to him but when he started to work he forgot everything in his professional zeal lie he did all he could all any doctor could in those days and after bou hours rs of work lay down on the dirt floor and slept till morning back to the boat instead of the ant hill in the morning he was relieved to see the general still alive now the question wa was would they allow him to leave does docs only idea was to get away while the going was good ue he administered medicine and leaving some more told the women who were in attendance how to give the patients the rest then doc with his big heart in his mouth but mai hla face betraying no sign of fear the native guard to take him back A breathless moment a moment in which doc seemed to feel ants crossing his big unprotected eyes and then an unintelligible order was growled by tile the sick general doc was led out between tour four murderous looking inscrutable natives ue lie wondered whether he was going to the ant hill 1111 or the boat well of course it was the boat or else those ants would have been telling our story today doc was brought back to the base and welcomed by the palest faces lie had ever seen in a sick ward ills his comrades had given him up for lost would you do it again I 1 asked doc well maybe he be said maybe IF I 1 WERE TWENTY 0 service |
