The Press., 1912-09-18
KIDNAPPED
 d9 One Story Leads to Another
  By SILAS ARMSTRONG

"Mark," said MT. Chandler, there's 1 cent; go get me paper" - It was 6 o'clock in the evening, ant
 day and night were mingling. A boy who was ten years old, started for th' | paper. The walk before him there ant back would require about ten minutes | Twenty minutes passed and he had no
 returned. His mother began to grow anxious. Her husband laughed at her Dinner was announced, and still nc word from Mark. Mrs. Chandler ill
 sisted that the father should go to the newsstand and make inquiries. He consented and learned that the boy ha6 been there, bought a paper and gone away with 1t in the direction of his home. . ..s ..-. .tE.
 This is what happened to Mark While walking home a carriage drove
 up to the sidewalk beside him, two men alighted, seized the boy, put him Into the carriage, got in with him, shut
 the door and were driven away. There
 was not a person near to see what had
 been done.
 Mark Chandler was a very bright
 boy. He was a boys boy, not girls
 boy by any means. He had no use for
 indoor playthings, except that in the
 garret of his home he had a workshop
 and various electrical contrivanceS. He
 knew nothing of electric theories, but
 had played with batteries to turn min-
 Iature mills, ring bells and make tiny
 lights so often that he had become
 quite conversant with the adjustment
 of wires. His other amusements were
 baseball, football and in winter skat-
 ing. Altogether Mark was as well cal
 culated as any boy of his age to take
 care of himself.
 He knew he was being kidnapped,
 and from the lingo in which his cap
 tors conversed he judged they were
 Italians. Of course he was terribly
 frightened, but it didn't take him very
 long to recover his equanimity sutti-
 ciently to notice the direction in which
 he was being taken. He had been
 about the city more or less and knew
 some locations. But he was not driven
 In q straight course and soon lost his
 bearings. It was in the spring of the year, the length of the twilight had considerably heightened, and the boy could see landmarks if he only recog- nized them. Presently he passed rink where he had skated. After this the carriage turned down broad avenue, which he distinctly remembered, but did not know its name. The lamps were lighted, and he saw the names of the streets crossed. Bogart street was one of them, and into this the carriage turned. Not far from the corner of the street and the avenue the carriage stopped at a large house. It stood alone and had the appearance of being unoccupied. Mark was taken into it by a back door, but there were no lights, and after passing through a basement hall and up short stairway he found himself in a handsomely fur nished room in which a gas jet was burning. Besides the two men was a woman, a veritable bag, and, though he understood not a word of their talk, he knew that the men were turning him over to her as his jailer. After brief consultation the two men went out of the room, followed by the wO- man, who locked the door after her.
 Mark threw himself on a lounge and cried till she came back with some bread and a little butter and sugar on 1t. She told him in Italian English not to cry, giving him to understand that he would be we'll treated. This helped him to recover his equanimity, and he ate the supper she had provided for him. Then she took him upstairs to large bedroom, in which the gas jet was turned low, and told him to go to bed.
 The kidnapers were evidently either caretakerS of the house or, knowing that 1t was vacant, had forced an en- trance and appropriated it to their use Mark didn't consider this. He was too young. But he did consider means of escape. His father had once locked him fin a room for disObedience and shortly after found him playing base ball with his boy companions. Mark had slid down a drain pipe. As soon as the woman left him he began to make investigations. He raised a win dow so stealthily as not to make a sound that could be heard and looked out. He was on the third story in the rear of the house and nothing near by which he might get down. He noticed a telephone wire leading into a room below and wished he might get near it long enough to send a message. But it was not likely that his captors would permit him to do so.
 He longed also for the battery he had at home and wires to connect it with l the telephone wires, thinking he might | send message. But he was perfectly | safe where he was, and at last, giving | up trying to devise means of escape. | he threw himself on the bed. There | he fell to thinking how anxious his fa- | ther and mother would be about him and cried himself to sleep.
 Early in the morning the woman | awakened him and took him out of the ! room he occupied. She had no idea of letting him stay in the daytime where | be might attract the attention of those l outside and communicate with them. She took him downstairs to the kitchen. where she gave him something to- eat. After that she compelled him to fe- main there with her while she did cer- ain chores.
 The door of the Kitchen closet stood 'pen, and Mark could see that on it's Ihelves were certain remnants of Dtores that were not likely to have ,een bought by his captors. They had been left there by those who lad occupied the premises before 1t lad been closed. One thing Mark saw put an idea into his head. It was a emon. His grandfather, who had ,een a soldier in the civil war, had ,een captured and imprisoned. He lad communicated with friends with