Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-09-17
A Case of
Woman Action
Under Difficulty
By EUNIcE BLAKE

ing the seXeST Ihey are not I'd De
compared. The man usually has an
advantage in his field, a woman In
hers. And yet these fields are contin-
ually overlapping, or, rather, there are
many exceptions. For instance, a wo-
man will at times show a mans brav-
cry. The unexpected is more liable to
happen with than man. Usually
a woman is more resourceful than a
man. The following story illustrates
some of the points above noted, the
one most particularly illustrated being
that one can never know what a wo-
nan will do in an emergency:
One afternoon we friends, James
Wakefield and Henry Smythe, while
waiting to take out their best girls in
an automobile, engaged in a dialogue
as to woman's courage. Wakefield was
engaged to Lucy T~rowbridge, while
Smythe's fancee vas Helen Ormsby.
This is what the men said:
Henry-Your girl has one thing about
her that 1 like. She is fearless.
Jim-How do you know that?
Henry-Oh. I've seen her out at sea
in rough weather. She was very plucky.
Jim-You can't tell much about wo-
mems pluck because they're stupid
about approaching real danger. | don't
xpect bravery in a woman, and l
wouldn't value Lucy any higher If l
knew she were capable of standing up
In the face of a volley Of musketry.
Henry-If Helen should show q lack
of nerve l would despise her as much
as l would a cowardly man.
JIM should consider her all the
more womanly and the more to be
loved.
The quartet started on their motor
trip about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Henry had the wheel, and Jim sat be-
side him, the two girls occupying the
rear seat. They lived in a large city
and started out on one of those boule-
Yards only to be found in large places.
Having gone some twenty miles, they
turned, reaching the city limits just
about dusk. Henry stopped the car
and got out to light the lamps.
He was just outside the city limits,
where the police were not plentiful,
and in a lonely place in the road flank
ed by woods ON either hand. He was
lighting the lamps when he heard a
voice shout, Hold up your handsst
and a man from either side advanced.
covering the party with cooked revoly-
ers.
Henry stood with a lighted match In
his hand regarding the robbers with an
expression of antagonism on his face
and did not raise his hands till be had
beer ordered to do SO a second time
and been told that If he didn't obey a
bullet would be put in his brain. Jim's
hands went up on the first order.
Helen was not able to obey, because
she tainted dead away. Lucy was
somewhat tardy in holding a hand
aloft, but did not require a second ON
mand. Henry vas ordered to resume
his seat at the wheel.
All being in position to be plucked,
a third man mounted the footboard
and proceeded to relieve them of their
Yaluables. Henry Smythe, though dis
gusted at being taken at such a disad-
vantage, had the good sense to permit
himself to be robbed rather than risk
being killed. Jim made no pretense
of resisting, or ever desired to, handing
out his watch and chain and $27 in
bills, besides change in his vest pocket,
of his own accord.
When the p%lunderer came to Helen
he seemed to be conscience stricken at
robbing a woman who was lying I'M
conscious. At any rate, he passed her.
Lucy's right hand was still pointing to
the sky. 1t was ungloved, and the rob-
Der, seeing that there were no rings on
it, jumped off the %footboard with two
gold watches and chains and some $50
that he had taken from the men. Then
the robbers all disappeared In the
woods.
Henry turned and saw Helen in a
dead faint. Lucy was sitting up
straight enough, but seemed to have
lost her tongue. She had neither
screamed nor spoken since the episode
commenced. The expression on Henry's
face as he looked from one to the other
was peculiar.
Lucy" he said, what have you
lost?'
Lucy made throat sounds without
opening her mouth and frowned.
Are you struck dumb?' asked Jim.
Lucy, glancing aside to make sure
that the robbers were gone, dropped
from her mouth into her hand three
rings, including a twin diamond valued
at $500.
"Oh, that's the reason you didn't
speak, said Henry. You're good
pluck. Look at Helen"
At this Helen opened her eyes, and,
strange to say, they shone with a dan
gerous light on her fance.
"You should know something about
what you comment on before doing
So" she said to him coldly. ut is all
right for you to admire Lucy's pluck.
hut thoro wnS no rnnl nll1nk shomn hu