The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-14
SYNOPSIS

1 ce1VeS note rom Ch1eI or Police Al | len, informing him of the release Of ] Circle" Jim Borden, a notorious 1 criminal, and asking him to keep ] lookout for the man and his future ! activities. The name Circle" comes 1 from the hereditary Red Circle" which appears on the right hand of one in 1 each generation of the Bordens. June Travis and her mother interested ! in the reform of ex-convicts, are awaiting 1 Borden's release. Borden refuses their aid and is about to strike the persistent June, when Lamar comes up and deters 1 him. | (Borden's son. Ted, good for-nothing. 1 loses his position, and, desperate for want 1 of money, is about to steal a mans watch l when his father comes upon him and pulls | him away; the man raising a cry of 1 thief.
 Out crept Ted's hand, nearer and nearer l to the coveted watch. Now his fingertips had closed lovingly on the foh Then, at | the same time, two things happened.
 The watch's owner felt the touch of the clumsy fingers, glanced downward; made grap at the nicotine stained digits and shouted "Thef!' On the same instant 1 Circle Jim Borden (who had caught l sight of his son as he passed the crowd 8 l outskirts and who had come up behind
 
 seized Ted by the nape of the neck and 1 forcibly hauled him away.
 The watch's owner bawled Stop Thief" | and gave chase The cry was taken up, as others in the crowd saw Circle Jim dart nimbly into a by-street, still propell- ing the half-stupefed youth ahead of him.
 1 As father and son rounded the corner | Max Lamar was crossing the lower end of the square. He heard the cries; saw the chase begin. and had fieeting glimpse | of Borden just before he and Ted dis appeared.
 The man for whom Max had vainly l been searching all afternoon! Lamar 1 whipped out a police whistle, blew a l shril blast, then ran at full speed down l the street around whose corner Borden | and Ted had vanished.
 | With Lamar a brace of policemen and a score of volunteer man-hunters in hot pursuit, Borden continued his flight. Ted | was already winded But his father gave 1 him no chance to slacken speed. | The master crook was not running aim | lessly His flight had as definite an ob- l jective as ever had a hunted fox's. l Down one street. across another he | raoed the pursuit ever within sound, and 1 once or twice within sight Into the mouth of alleyway he plunged and on till he reached a spot where a poster decked fence adjoined the corner of a l l building. 1 There was a foot so of space be- | tween building and fence. Looking back l over his shoulder to make certain the | chase was momentarily out of view Bor- | den ripped one of the fences end boards loose, thus widening the narrow aper | ture.
 He showed the panting Ted through this opening; followed; pushed the loosened l board back in place and stood an in- stant to get his breath,
 He and his son were in a disused lum- Der yard fenced-in space whose ground
 was still ankle deep in shingles, bits of scantling and broken boards. His nasty
 glance met no human being. But that was | because his glance was so extremely nasty and because his priSon-weak akened eyes were no longer so keen as of yore For he and Ted were not the yards only human occupants. The Pirate King | shared their hiding place.
 The Pirate King, in private 1ifeS was Ignatius Aloysius McQuaid; intima tely T known as "Spudsy." He was four feet eight inches tall, and he was the only son and heir of the garbage collector who lived two doors down the alley. Spudsy had long ago discovered the unused old lumber yard, and had con- verted it into pirate ship; with a pile of corner boards as quarter deck.
 This afternoon, as he paced his quar- ter deck and growing merciless orders
  suddely aware of two men who burst into the yard. He was aghast at this invasion of his ship. Perhaps these two disheveled and panting grown-ups
 were the owners of the place. Perhaps they would put him in Jail for tres passing there. Spudsy shrank back into an angle of his quarter dack, and tried
 to look as invisible as possible. He saw the elder of the two men-a igray-haired, ghastly-faced old fellow
 release the younger man whom he had
 been grasping by the collar. He saw
 the old fellow drop on his knees and
 dig in the timber debris like a dog
 that is digging for woodchucks. He saw him push his hand downward into the mass of shavings and shingles and
 grope for something. Then he saw him
 lift trapdoor, to whose top a coating
 of chips and scantling ends still ad-
 hered.
 The man lifted the trapdoor part way, showed the younger man in , through the opening; crawled through ; it after him, and lowered the trapdoor i above them so carefully that the scraps
 of wood were not disturbed. To all in-
 tents and purposes the woodward was as it had always been. No sign of the trap , door was visible from overhead. Spudsy stared gogle-eyed. Here was the most delightful mystery of the cen
 turies The woodward was not only d l Pii etto oiilp. It was d treasure cave as we'll Cautiously he climbed down from , the quarter deck and made for the spot
 where the trapdoor had been raised and lowered. He bent over the trap, brushing away the concealing wood. Then he saw
 shadow fall across the debris and he looked up. Over him stood a man-tall we'll dressed; his firm mouth just now
 smiling friendly down upon the cring. ing child.
 l Digging for gold. Johnny" he asked pleasantly; and at sound of the kind
 voice Spudsy's fright vanished.
 NO, sir, answered the boy. "I'm just lookin' fer the place where them = two guys ran into the ground Into the-what?" demanded Lamar, Q in quick interest.
 Into the ground,' responded Spudsy. "They beat it into here through that place in the fence an = one of 'em-an old geezer with gray hair~-he digs here minute an then q he ups with a trapdoor an down they scoots."
 Max Lamar was on his knees, fran
 tically pushing the chips and shingles
 to left and right.
 He boosts up the trap with his = right hand, continued Spudsy, de-
 lighted with the interest his words , evoked. "An on the back of his hand :. they was a big red ring like it was painted there."
 The Red Circle!' muttered Lamar; l and just then he found the ring of r the trapdoor.