Alabaster Alp

Elbridge Rand Herron of New York loved mountain climbing as Ellsworth Vines Jr. loves tennis and Bobby Jones loves golf. At 33 he had hoisted his leather breeches to the tops of more unsealed Alps than any other U. S. citizen. Five months ago Alpinist Herron went to India with Miss Elizabeth Knowlton of Boston, only two U. S. members of a German expedition to climb Nanga Parbat, one of the highest peaks in the Himalayas (26,629 ft.). In August he was nearly crushed to death by an avalanche but reached an altitude of 23,000 ft. before bad weather beat the expedition back.

Last week Elbridge Rand Herron reached Alexandria on his way home. Egypt has no mountain peaks, but there remain the pyramids. Herron motored out to Gizeh and scrambled up the huge blocks of the Great Pyramid with no trouble at all. Then he tried the smaller (477 1/2 ft.) Second Pyramid whose apex still retains much of its original smooth alabaster sheathing. Hoisting himself confidently from one 4-ft. block to the next Alpinist Herron reached the top, stood up and waved to his friends. Then, somehow, he slipped. A sprawling black spider to the horrified eyes below, his body slithered off the alabaster cap, bounced down the huge jagged granite steps to land crushed and dead at the base.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.