The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-15
SYNOPSIS

ceives a note from Chief of Police AL
 lon, informing him of the release of Circle" Jim Borden, d notorious crim- inal and asking him to keep a look out for the man and his future ac- tivites The name Circle" comes from 1 the hereditary "Red Circle" which ap pears on the right hand of one in each generation of the Bordens.
 ] June Travis and her mother, inter- ested in the reform of ex-conyicts, are 1 awaiting Borden's release. Borden re- fuses their aid and is about to strike the persistent June, when Lamar comes up and deters hinf.
 (Borden's son, Ted, a good -for-noth-
 ing, loses his position, and, desperate for want of money, is about to steal a mans watch when his father comes upon him and pulls him away; the man raising a cry of thief).
 1 Pursued by a large crowd, Lamar amongst them Borden and his son reach a secret passageway to his rooms. La mar learns from a boy playing nearby it's exact location and sending the lad | for aid, starts through the subterranean | way.
 l Along that same passa geway, not /, five minutes earlier, "Circle" Jim Bor-
 den had propelled his drunken son. | Through what seemed to Ted a mile ! of underground wanderings, they sped. | At last, Jim had pushed upward. An
 other trapdoor had yielded to the push. l At last, Jim had pushed upward. An
 other trapdoor had yielded to the push, and the father and son had crawled out of the passage into poorly fur
 nished and ill-lghted room. | A bedroom adjoined this first dusty apartment. These rooms had for years been Jim Borden's unsuspected hiding place.
 Ted took scant note of his surround ings. The excitement, the forced run,
 the fatigue-all had combined to send l the whiskyfumes eddying to his brain.
 He was dead drunk; scarce able to see or hear; anxious only to lie down 1 omewhere-anywher sleep. | Jim partly led, partly carried him
 into the adjoining bedroom and threw him heavily upon the cot, which, with
 one chair, formed the rooms sole fur nishing.
 Jim, spent with his run, collapsed upon the ricl<ety chair beside the cot | and looked down in gloomy disgust
 upon his snoring son.
 l "She asked-she asked me-" he mur-
 mured half aloud, "she asked me if l had a son to live honestly for. A boy
 
 Worthless drunkard pickpocket is the boy I've got. He and 1 are the only Bor- dens left. And-and he's curl" His gaze fell broodingly to the Red Circle
 on the back of his inert hand. i Long he sat, motionless; his wretched l eyes on the Imply sprawled figure be - | fore him. From time to time, the mans l harsh lips parted in some involun- l tary word or fragment of sentence.
 The last of the Bordens' he unused, 'We two. My son and I. I hoped--I
 was fool enough to hope-back there in that hell of living tomb-that Ted
 might redeem us. That he might prove to be the salvation of our name. And
 now-a thief. The cheapest, meanest, ,| lowest type of thief! There's no hope. I The sooner the Bordens go, the sooner a menace to society will be done away
 with. We must go; he and L.
 The deadening eyes took on an al
 most fanatic glow Leaning forward he
 whispered to the Senseless youth: Tt is the only way out, son. We are curse to the world, you and I. There is no hope. Nothing for either of us eXcept-to go!'
 His pallid face ghastly with the force of the emotion that possessed him, Borden rose to his feet He eX- amined the one window of the bed room. It was tight shut. No air came
 through. With fingers that did not
 tremble, he turned on the solitary gas
 jet: then with one last look at the
 sleeping boy, he left the room, closing
 the door behind him.
 "He will never know!' muttered } Borden, as he came out into the other room. "He will die in his sleep. Gas
 is mercifully painless. And now it's
 my own turn. My own-turn A quick CT death and less easy to bear than ,l He checked himself; the big shoul-
 ders tensing; head thrust forward eyes alight. For, almost under his
 feet he heard a untitled sound of some
 one stumbling in the dark.
 l Borden understood. His secret hid
 ing place had been discovered. An enemy, even now, was crawling : through the passageway beneath him His thoughts of self-murder vanished
 swept away by the wild beast instinct to protect his lair.
 Noiselessly, he slipped to the trar door, and stood crouching and alert :. just behind it's hinge. A second later :. the trap began to rise Inch by inch it was lifted from below. .. pistol muzzle protruded from the narrow opening; then hand, an arm and a human head.
 One lightning look revealed to the crouching Borden the face of Max La mar In the same instant, "Circle' Jim launched himself upon his foe He caught ln botn Slant nanuS the I'm |. gers that held the revolver, and bent back Lamars wrist with swift and powerful wrench that threatened to snap it's whole network of bones.
 As he seized MaX's wrist, Borden dropped heavily upon both knees. or the ton of the trapdOor. Down crashed the heavy trap, re-enforced by Jim's solid weight The door edges bit deer and agonizingly into the flesh of La mars forearm.
 Under this dual assault the revol-
 yer fell from MaX's helpless fingers Borden pocketed it; rose from the door; again seized Max by the wrist 1 and, with one mighty tug, dragged him up into the room, slamming the trap shut behind him.
 Lamar. recovering his balance
 found himself facing leveled revol- 1er-his own-and behind it the writh :. ing face of "Circle" Jim Borden.
 "FIands upw snarled Borden. up
 Up.--So"
 He stood for a moment glaring ir
 cold triumph at his helpless enemy. Then he spoke; slowly hungrily from between hard -clenched teeth. "Sit down!" he said.
 Lamar, in no way cowed, but see
 ing the suicidal folly of resisting obeyed. Borden seated himself at the
 far side of deal table, facing his guest; pistol still leveled
 Max Lamar" he said in the same slow
 deep voice that robbed his words of any
 melodrama taint, You've sent me tt
 nrson three times Now, I've got you"
 Lamar merely smiled, shrugging hls l