The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-11-18
SingleHair
By CLARA L. EVANS
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation, 1911.

| GhLud tllut LVi AhV AObn ihtSAA hltp-
ped TO the door TO call him. l looked
both ways without seeing MIN. Fright
ened, ran out and up and down the
street lookinE for him. My worst
fears We're realized when some chill
dren told me that man had taken
the boy with him TO buy him some
candy.
At the time was too wild with ter
ror to get any description of the man;
but. having waited several hours with.
out my boys returning, | made up
my mind thftt he had been kidnapped
and, finding the children who had seen
him, learned from them that the msn
was short and thick set with light
hair. called st the police office to
notify them "a. the abduction and in
tended to give the sergeant what in
formation | had acquired. But | was
so discouraged at the way the police
talked about the matter-they didn't
seem to know where to begin--that
concluded to handle the case myself.
consulted with my husband. who.
though in the same trouble as myself.
showed admirable self control, and he
agreed that we would wait for de-
mand for ransom without taking any
action.
The demand came through the post
Office written on a scrap or letter paper
and inclosed in an envelope. Who
ever wrote il was not so illiterate as
kidnapers usually are. The handwrit-
ing was that Of naan. and the spell
ing Indicated foreigner. My hus-
band took 1t TO professor Of Ian
guages In the university, who, judging
from a single word spelled 6z the send
err would pronounce It, concluded that
he was a Swede. Bis light hair tai
lied with this, since Swedes nearly all
are fair.
We wrote n renly stating that we
would willingly pay the ransom. that
we would have nothing to do with the
police and that all we asked was the
return Of our boy.
A reply came in due time, and I
looked the envelope over carefully be-
fore opening II. saw protruding
from under the flap Of the envelope
the end of hair Moreover, noticed
that II was almost white. ] opened
the envelope very carefully, steaming
the gum so that should not tear the
paper A surprise awaited me. On
exposing the whole hair--it was about
an inch long-I found that. though the
part which had protrrided was light,
the rest OF 1t was black. 1t occurred
to me that the man In order to escape
Identification had dyed it. Evidently
the hair in my possession had grown
since its -dyeings about o week. the
time that had elapsed since the kid
mapping.
The letter directed us to go to
certain suburb on a certain night and
on the northwest corner Of two inter
secting roads we would find a hollow
log. We were to put the money In
this log. 1t would be useless. the let
ter said. for any to follow us. for the
space for some distance surrounding
the log would be picketed.
Having now q clew, we called In the
aid Of a professional detective. He
said at once that, while our informa-
ton would be very valuable in Identify
ing the kidnaper, there was but one
way Of finding him. and that was to
track from the postoffice whoever
called for the mail. This he under
took to do. But to facilitate his work
he suggested that we send an indeh.
nate reply to the letter So we asked
for time to raise the ransom and how
long he would give US.
A young man about eighteen years
old called for this letter. and as the
clerk handed 1t to him he signaled
our detective. who was on the watch. |
The young man lodged about for an
hour, making some very quick turns
in order to lose any one who mipht be
following. But our detective was
used to that and refused to be lost. |
He tracked the man to vacant build !
ing that had been occupied for a
blacksmith shop. 1t was only a place
of rendezvous, and after the delivery
of the letter the young man departed, /
to be followed about ten minutes later
by another man. This one the detec-
tive followed to Ave story tenement
building.
The next day our man kept watch |
on those entering and leaving the /
building and spotted man whose APP
pearance tailed with the description
we had of the ki6naper He was
short and thick set. His hair and
beard We're a blue black, but his shad-
over succeeded In getting near enough
to him to notice few days growth 4
of light hair under the black
We were not willing to take any
risk of our boy being killed, so we
decided to pay the ransom and make
the arrest Immediately afterward--
that is. If the kidnaper returned to his
quarters. So we left the money in the
log and the next morning heard our
boy crying outside the door. The re-
lief we experienced is inexpressible.
Our detective, who was on the
watch. soon after midnight saw the
man he had spotted enter the building
he was watching. He dared not make
I'm arrest until we should telephone
him that the boy had been returned.
but placed Gordon of police about
his habitation and a few hours later
him.