Show 00 OW w sd V i adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF tiger bait by PLOYD FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter ELLO EVERYBODY He hedesan heres an adventure from Adventurers ville gaston buyse of new york city has been through three wars he was mixed up in the boer war battled the berbers in in morocco with the french foreign legion and fought through the world war with the belgian army he was wounded by a bayonet in a night attack at Ram in 1914 but all that he remembers only vaguely as well just jus t S tuff stuff that happens every day in the life of a true adventurer The theres rei one night though that gaston will never forget thai was the night he spent on the inzia tributary of the kawelu river in the belgian congo territory in 1993 1903 that year gaston was working in kasal kasai he had just been assigned to a post in the remote town of boanza and he was on his way there to take up his duties A small steamer landed him at the mouth of the inzia and from there he had to travel upriver up river in a balei or steel whale boat propelled by eight native paddlers saddlers padd lers charged by a wounded elephant it was vas wild country just the sort of place where expect to run into an adventure and usually dont but this time the fates were playing tricks iricks there WAS an adventure up that river and gaston was heading straight for it they had traveled perhaps 10 miles when there came a crashing in the underbrush ashore and a huge elephant made his appearance appearance on the river bank bahk that Thit looked like opportunity to gaston he hannever had never shot an elephant in his eife and here he figured was a chance to do it without any danger to himself hims felt he picked aphis up his gun and lethly let fly A loud trumpeting old him he missed but instead of dropping deit deadam das gaston gastol had expected the huge beast leaped into the w water ater and with powerful rushes began charging straight for the boat gaston says his native saddlers p saddlers went overboard like so many frogs gaston sat where he was sent another bullet at the elephants head A s ra v I 1 J the elephant charged oh on the ahe boat and in another moment that big beast was climbing right into the boat after himl him I 1 he dived into a tiger pit gaston dived he know how he managed it but he slid out from under that elephants crushing feet while the elephant floundered around in the water kicking and mauling the boat he swam ashore and started to look around for his native paddlers saddlers padd lers he started off in a direction away from the river shouting as he be went he was alone in the jungle and without any arms now not even a knife he traveled on on but there was no sign of his native boys finally he hit what looked like a trail and followed it thinking he might reach a village but the trail lead to any village suddenly gaston felt the ground falling from under him and he landed in some soft earth 20 feet below he looked up and his heart shot into his mouth he had bad fallen into a pit dug by to catch a lion or tiger it if was impossible to get out of that trap it was deep and the sides sloped backward as they approached the bottom making it useless to try to climb out 1 I started to scrape at the side of the trap with the heel of my shoe he says but I 1 soon found out that that was no use it would have taken me weeks to get out that way chesun the sun beat down ah the small hole in the top of the big pit making it hot and making gaston thirsty he wondered it if hed ever get a drink ot of water again wondered if hed die there before anyone found him then suddenly darkness came and with it came horror and despair just bait for the wild beasts with the darkness the whole jungle came to life lions roared leopards hyenas jackals jackala howled my heart stopped beating gaston says and for the first time in my life I 1 knew what fear really was I 1 had no weapon what could I 1 do if one of those beasts scented me and jumped or fell into the pit more than once gaston heard stealthy footsteps that came within a few yards of the trap A lion roared not 20 feet from where he lay help helpless less all through that terrible night he sat there in the dark pit praying hoping thinking till he could think no more how long would ibbe before some denizen of the jungle had him before he was attacked by some beast and literally eaten alive but one by one the hours rolled on and somehow a kind providence kept him alive eight hours fen twelve and then came daybreak once more gaston was scraping futilely tuti lely with his shoe trying to make his way out 1 I was so thirsty and hungry he says that I 1 lost all control and became little less than insane then after hours of suffering I 1 saw faces in the opening above me when they helped me out I 1 felt like a man being taken from his grave service |