Show tad 0 adventurers CLUB J HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF 1 river of triple doom by FLOYD GIBBONS f famous headline hunter H HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY here comes come a real adventurer boys and girls she is mrs eleanor de villareal of harbor view fort wadsworth S I 1 N Y and she is bringing us a tale of adventure that will blow your hat oil off in a way eleanor is champion among the adventurers who have had their yarns printed in this column because she parlays parleys her thrills has three of em one right on tp top of another its a brand new wa way y of playing the adventure game and boy oh boy what it does to your heart action when eleanor was a little girl her parents built a summer hummer home at pine beach N J and eleanor spent many happy months of her childhood swimming fishing and boating on the toms river the broad tidewater inlet that runs past pine beach on its way to the ocean in the summer of 1915 there had been a shark scare all up and down the jersey coast dozens of sharks had been seen at the beaches along the ocean and there were rumors that some of them had come up into toms river but no one had ever seen them there and to eleanor and theother the other kids in the neighborhood it was just a fanciful tale that none of them took much mu ch stock in good reason for the shark scare but one day eleanor found out that the shark scare so fanciful p tale as she had thought she had gone out crabbing in a rowboat with marguerite hottenstein a little girl younger than herself and marguer 95 79 R two gray fins W were ere cutting the water ites two brothers edward and david they were e fishing for the crabs along the piers of the drawbridge that crosses the river between pine beach and island heights when suddenly the guard on the bridge began yelling at them to get out of the boat and onto the bank at first the kids understand what the yelling was all a bout about then they saw two gray fins were cutting the water in i great loops and circles a round around their boat sharks those deadly tigers of the deep had come into the river after all the kids followed one another in a mad scramble to get out of the boat they made it but not a moment too soon As eleanor and little marguerite climbed up the side of the bank toward the bridge one of those sharks hit the rowboat with a flip of his tail and turned it over in the water the two boys older and braver stayed down at the bottom of the bank trying to get the boat turned right side up in the water again but eleanor and little marguerite had had enough of boats for one day they finished their climb to the railroad bridge and started walking back across the ties to the other side of the river it was hard going for the two kids the ties on which they had to walk valk seemed awfully few and far between and through the gaps they cd could uld see the river running tar far below even so it was better they thought than risking the river in a flimsy boat with sharks swimming an all around them next a train came at them but was it better they had scarcely gone a hundred feet before they found out that it from behind them they heard a sudden shrill blast of a whistle and turned to see a freight train rounding founding a curve and starting across the trestle A few feet ahead of them was a sand barrel set on a platform beside the track it was a haven of safety but there was only room for one eleanor grabbed little marguerite by the arm hustled her to the platform and helped her climb into the barrel then with the train almost on her she turned and started to run tor for the other side of the bridge but running so easy on the gaping floor of widely spaced ties and the train was moving faster much faster than she could in her haste she missed her tooting footing stumbled and fell she scrambled to her feet again and with the train rumbling behind her continued her hopeless race tor for the other end of the bridge the engine was so close now that she could hear the steam hissing from the exhaust valves her knees were shaking her whole body weak with terror again she stumbled and fell this time over the side of the trestle into the shark ridden water below eleanors desperate swim for life she landed with an impact that almost knocked the breath out of her but the cool water quickly brought her to her senses again and to a sudden realization of her new danger somewhere nearby two sharks were swimming and she was in the water now without even a flimsy boat between her and those angry monsters jaws she be began bean c an swimming frantically for the shore it was two hundred feet away and it seemed at least that many miles in eleanors mind was a picture of those two gray flashing bashing fins that must surely be following her cold terror gripped her heart she redoubled her efforts and swam faster A hundred feet and still no sign of the sharks eleanor began to wonder if after all she was to get to the other side alive she swam the other hundred and climbed up on the shore exhausted it was several minutes before she could get her breath back and she had gone all the way home before she discovered that she come out unscathed from her experience after all she had ripped her leg open from the knee down in her tall fall from the trestle but in her terror of 0 the sharks she even noticed it copyright service |