Show adventurers CLUB 4 n A Brak emans jump for life lifee by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter hiir around fellow adventurers and meet the new member ber AG gal of the club he is norman E spencer and dont do it bother wheeling out that big comfortable easy chair for norman because lie he ased used to that sort of thing c if you want to makelim make malce him feel right at home just let him hang ban by his knees from the chandelier for norman is a railroad brakeman and from froin the looks of his story story railroad brakemen must spend most of their time lime dangling by one hand or one leg or one eyelash over several assorted kinds of 0 f certain death anyway it Is that sort of experience norman Is going to tell us about today and I 1 would advise you nil all to take a good deep breath before lie starts because youre going to be holding it a ions iong time before lie Is finished norman became a railroad brakeman just about the time the united states entered the world war those were the days when all the able bodied men were running for the recruiting stations and six teen year old kids like norman was then were being dragged out of high school to fill their jobs he worked two or three years on that brakeman job and did it 11 darned well but it ft until february 1918 that he ran into the adventure on which he Is now going to give u us the lowdown it was late at night and the train norman was braking had just started down a nine mile hill at harpers ferry W va norman had just gone hack back over the tap of the train to set up air retainers on the 10 cars nearest the engine and he was on ills his way back when his lantern went out leaving him to travel the tops of the cars in darkness one little slip might cost legs or lite life picking his way bak back carefully over the swaying ear car tops lie he managed to get et back to the first car but when he came to jump from the front car to the he engine tender he be hesitated the gap gal was wider there than llian it was between the 11 T 7 norman took his time about gauging that jump cars and the unsteady light that came from the firebox of the en engine ine cast moving shadows that made it hard to judge the distance norman korman took his time about gauging that last jump but luck that night was running against him for at the same instant that his feet left the end of the car the engineer opened the throttle up wide the train leaped forward ruining normans carefully timed leap and down he went between the engine and the car headed for certain death beneath the wheels he fell feet first like a drowning man he says 1 I was grabbing at anything I 1 could get hold of I 1 guess it my time yet for somehow I 1 managed to get one hand on a small chain that runs don dou n the back of the tank to the coupler and there I 1 hung with my feet and legs dragging on the ties my body sort of stretched out by the speed of the train and the pull of the ties as my legs rubbed against them 1 norman struggles inches from doom lly illy feet were only inches away from froin tile the wheels of the hie front car and I 1 knew that any sudden sui lilen lurch of the train would throw my feet right under them I 1 tried to pull pill myself up on the chain hut but every time I 1 gained a few inches away from the wheels of the front car the friction of the ties would pull me right back again it could have been only a few seconds that norman was struggling with that chain but it seemed like hours to him before it was over time and again he would pull himself up almost to the point where he could get hold of something more solid and rigid than that chain only to become exhausted and fall back again finally he got hold of an iron bar that crossed the back of the engine tender but still his troubles over he had literally to chin himself on this bar and at the same time edge himself over to the right in order to get to a ladder that ran down the back of the tender it was a feat that called for tile the trained muscles of an acrobat but norman had to do it or die and to make matters worse tile the train at that point roared into tile the tunnel just east cast of Ilir harpers pers ferry and he was all but stilled stifled with tile the smoke and beat ant and steam that poured hack back on him from froin the engine ile be had to hang on in that difficult position until at last the train shot out of the tunnel before he be dared try to edge his way any farther along the bar norman climbs his tallest ladder for life once the train was out in the open again he started lits ills slow difficult journey inch by inch he worked his way across the bar while ills muscles ached and threatened to give out on him at length though ile he maile made it got to the ladder on tile side of the tender and began to climb up never before and neier neer since liaa has that ladder seemed so long as it did to normans tired and aching muscles that night when finally he got to tile the top of the tender he be lay jay down flat on his back 1 I just lay jay there he says and looked at the start and I 1 know they were never more lovely when I 1 got back into the cab the engineer remarked that it had taken me a long time and I 1 say a word it until we had got to the yards and the rest of the crew and I 1 cleaned up and were about to have something to eat that the reaction set in I 1 trembled so then that the other fellows thought I 1 had a chill and gave me a big hooker of whisky just for safe safety tys sake cake they said but I 1 thought to myself that I 1 should have had that hooker an hour ago the other side of ol Harpers ferry service lc |