| Show adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES F PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF Fl 1 4 f if downhill toward death by FLOYD gibbons famous headline hunter HELLO H ELLO EVERYBODY heres a yarn varn fell fellow adventurers that socks me right smack in the weakest spot ive got you know I 1 am not afraid of mice and I 1 dont go around nights looking under beds for burglars some day I 1 might even get used to being shot at or torpedoed or chewed up by man eating kangaroos but height altitude elevation anything more than two inches off good flat solid ground just about scares me to death today reading a yarn from adventurer eric K frank of palisades park N J I 1 got a dose of altitude fever I 1 very well avoid it was quite a few miles away from here boys and girls and quite a w years back the episode that is scaring the pants off of me happened ab winsel burg mountain in south germany in the year 1927 then eric frank was one of a party of hardy souls who had gone out with a guide tor for a skiing jaunt on the treacherous slopes of the winsel burg they had been climbing up steep paths edging their precarious way along narrow ice covered ledges skirting treacherous cliffs and dodging dangerous pitfalls finally they came out on a broad slope covered with hard packed january snow whose vast glistening expanse reared itself high up the mountain side and here the leader called a halt one of the party was missing four hours is a long time to be climbing that bunch of ski pushers hunkered right down in the snow for a rest started opening up knapsacks got out their lunches they were all set for a nice quiet little meal in the peace and stillness of the great outdoors but they forgot that old mother nature for all that she is a quiet old dame can be cruel and murderous when she has a mind to the knapsacks were open the lunches out some of the crowd had started eating when the guide remembered a precaution highly necessary in those regions where people get lost from their parties fall down cliffs and get stuck in crevasses cre he started to check over the people in his charge to make sure none of them were weri missing he counted the gang twice frowned counted them again then ha ms face pale and his voice shaky he announced that the party was short one man eric frank had a queer feeling in the pit of his stomach when he heard that announcement 1 I was filled with fear he says and I 1 A eric yelled to him to stop know everyone else was too I 1 pity anyone who gets lost in those mountains either he starves to death freezes to death or ends up at the bottom of a gorge with his bones broken he put away his lunch uneaten strapped on his knapsack and started out with the rest of the party to search for the lost man riding fast to sure death for two hours they hunted doubling back on their own tracks trying to find the place where he had left the party finally they spotted him a rapidly moving speck tar far olt to the left a man on skis hurtling at express train speed down the side of the mountain it was a sight that should have brought joy to that anxious little party of searchers but it only filled them with a new and awful fear unfamiliar with the country the man on skis was riding STRAIGHT TO HIS destruction the slope he be was careening down so merrily ended in a steep towering cliff if he stopped before he got to the bottom he would be dashed to pieces on the ice covered racks below eric thrust his feet into the toe straps of his skis told his comrades he was going to try to head that poor devil off you cant do it his friends told him hes too tar far gone nothing on earth could reach him in time only go over the cliff yourself eric even hear the last of it he was on his way shooting down the mountainside in the direction of the doomed man and the threatening ever nearing cliff the man ahead had almost a two mile lead when eric started hed need all the speed he could muster to close that gap in time to save the poor fellow from the cliff he raced along down the mountain knees bent head and chest thrust forward to lower the wind resistance using every bit of strength and skill that was in him saved by erics desperate measure he was careening along now at forty miles an hour the rush of cold air in his face making his eyes water so that he could hardly see he crouched lower and stepped up his pace now he was making forty five forty eight fifty and slowly gaining on the man ahead about halt half a mile from the cliffs edge he caught up with his man motioned to him to halt then his heart sunk as the fellow waved back at him and kept right on going eric yelled to him to stop the wind ripped the words from his mouth and carried them away up the mountainside he tried making motions again but you cant make many motions balanced on a pair of skis going fifty miles an hour the edge of the cliff was only two hundred yards away now there was one charice chance left and eric took it he whipped up his speed passed his man and flung himself headlong in his path there was no mistaking that gesture the friend braked his skis slowed down fell in a heap over erics bruised and lacerated body when he got up again saw the edge of the cliff only fifty feet away his face turned white as the snow that had nearly carried him to his death and after that boys boy 3 and girls came one of the briefest conversations on record the lad eric had saved stood up looked down at that gaping declivity before him ind and in a weak voice said oil OH eric say anything alter after all what was there to say fr C service |
