Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-10-29
SERVING A
SUMMONS
By JOHN Y. LARNED

Jason Parke as O boy was the dare
devil of the place in which he lived.
He was up to all sorts of pranks, much
to the annoyance Of the older citizens,
but which amused the youngsters. He
was afraid of nothing and had a head
capable of enabling him to look down
from immense heights. Had he been
born In Switzerland he would doubt
less have been a mountain guide. AS
it was, becoming an ironworker, he
was often engaged In Joining together
the steel framework of buildings, and,
some of them being skyscrapers, he
was obliged to work up in the air.
Jason was a favorite among his COM
panions. He was tender hearted, gen.
erous to a fault and suffered. as such
persons generally do. from spendthrift
~proclivities. Instead of laying up
money for a rainy day he ran into debt.
One of his creditors, to whom he owed
several hundred dollars, after vainly
trying to recover, sued him, and I was
directed to serve the summons upon
him. /.
/ was told that he was working IN a
bridge across q river. l went to Arch
vile, where he was engaged, and to
the bridge. 1t was a cantilever struc-
ture across a broad river and had not
yet met in the center.
Parke had got wind of the suit
brought against him, and a lawyer had
advised him to keep out of the way so
long as possible SO that service upon
him could not be secured. This l did
not know; but. of course, | new gave
away for what purpose I wished to see
a person on whom l wished to serve a
summons.
Inquiring of a workman where l
could find Jason Parke. he looked at
me suspiciously and asked what l wish
ed of him. l replied that l had a
matter of business with him. Looking
up at an iron structure extending from
the farther shore nearly to the middle
feet above the surface, he pointed to a
man on the outer extremity, saying that
he was the person l wanted.
l was young, had a good head for
heights and saw an opportunity by
climbing out to where the man was to
corne him and secure service. Hiring
a boat, l pulled myself across the river,
climbed the bank and, walking inland
till / reached what would eventually
be the floor of the bridge. walked to
the first pier, then worked my way to-
ward my quarry.
Not wishing to be seer by him in the
effort I was making, l was glad to
crawl along the unfioored steel string
ers. He did not apparently notice me,
going Oh with his work. which was riv-
citing. l dared not look down for fear
of losing my head and falling into the
water. and / kept my eyes fixed stead
lily on my a | must get near enough
for him to hear my voice while / read
the summons, and since if he suspected
my purpose he could hammer enough
noise out of the steel to drown my voice
1t was necessary for me to get very
close to him.
When l was 100 feet distant he
caught sight of me. He seemed sur
prised to see one not q workman in
such a position, but after a glance went
on with his work, paying no further
attention to me. / was quite assured
by this that he did not suspect my pur-
pose and climbed on, though every mo-
ment l dreaded dizziness. / had reach
ed a point not twenty feet from him
when he stepped off the iron beam on
which he was standing and went down
feet foremost into the water below.
/ had been baked. Quite likely
Parke had received a signal from the
man of whom l had inquired for him
that | was coming and had thus been
enabled to give me the slip. l had had
enough of the job climbing out to such
a place and had no mind for following
him down into the river. The moment
he jumped a boat put out from the
shore. and the moment he rose to the
surface he swan toward it, was taken
aboard and carried to the opposite
shore.
My return to terra firma was ever
more trying than my outward climb,
for ! vas becoming dizzy every mo-
ment. However, / reached the pier
WAIhOdb AuiAiAS, anu aAlCA Lhob LhC
danger was much less.
On going down to the margin of the
river l found that the boat l had come
" In al missing. l did not doubt
that every workman on the bridge
was in league with his fellows to warn
Parke and to render my duty as diff
cult as possible. After much delay I
secured ferriage. AS l approached the
shore I saw my quarry sitting on some
ironwork at the base of the pier on
that side of the river. He had evident
ly got on some dry clothing or dried in
the sun what he had worn and was
looking at me with apparently no on
Germ whatever. l wa then a feet u
ner, and as soon as my boats nos
touched the shore I sprang out and a
for him. Before l could get within
hearing distance he had sprung into
the ODen irOnwOrk of the Dier and was