The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-12

invaluable. Almost within a few sec onds he succeeded in alarming the household and extracting such few facts as were available. Unfortunate l ly they were altogether negative. 2
 May Manning had requested the but | Ter to bring some iced lemonade, and the man was actually on his way to the lawn when the car dashed in. The police had heard nothing whatsoever The locality was quiet as a grave at that hour, and it was literally impossi- ble for any one to pass along any road in the neighborhood without being sub jected to close, if unobtrusive, surveil- 1 lance.
 But the girls were gone! They had been spirited away by Ali Singh, and the man himself had not scrupled to in dicate their fate in the grim words of the note.
 l There could be no doubting what he meant by such phrase as ''the woman you love" Manning was his enemy. Manning was the man he wanted to crush, and what better means might be devised than the Kidnapping of Mar garet Bronson? On this occasion, how ever, he had not been content with one hostage. Poor May had been taken. and Willard Bronson realized only too well that she would not be spared a second time.
 As usual, Ali Singh had so contrived matters that inquiries by the police were thwarted during many valuable hours. It was night, and the mystery of darkness enhanced their difficulties Yet, in the most favorable conditions 1t is hard to see how they could be ex- pected to find out that deep tunnel had been driven from the cellar of a neighboring house, stretching to coal chute in Mannings dwelling under hundreds of feet of gardens and road way. There was not the slightest sur face indication of any such molelike borrowings. Indeed, the existence of this treacherous sap was only made known some days later, when an as- founded house agent visited the premi- ses which had been unaccountably ya- cated by the latest tenant and came on tons of earth heaped high in every room.
 Twehty-four hours of frenzied but useless search followed. Manning, physically incapable of further effort. was seated on the lawn with his equal ly disconsolate friend when Kemp and a detective joined them. The police captain indicated by hopeless gesture that there was no news. No one spoke. In that bitter moment words were hol- low and meaningless.
 Nevertheless their bitter reverie was distracted by a very unusual sound unusual, that is, in a suburban resi- dential quarter of the city. It was a bright moonlight night, and they heard distinctly the steady engine beat of an aeroplane in rapid flight.
 The noise came nearer and nearer until graceful monoplane literally swooped down on them from the sky and neared the lawn at such a pace | that the four men ran to the shelter of the veranda to escape from being crushed to death by the falling ma chine. True, the engine was still throb- ping rhythmically, and it did not ap- | II. But in any event it was a most un- nerving incident, and they looked ct each other in a stupor of amazement when the plane, having almost brush ] ed the tops of the trees near the house, swept up again and vanished as quick ly as it had come.
 | They saw, too, that the{ Iaring bird man had dropped something into the garden. Manning, recovering his self 1 control by a marvellous effort of will, was the first to reach and pick up the mysterious package. It was an arrow shaped shaft of wood heavily weight ed, and a letter in linen envelope was tied around it. Then they knew without being told who had dispatched that aerial messenger Once more they bored over Ali Singh's i'll omened scrawl. The higher one was quite ex- plicit. He wrote:
 Torture and death await your sister and Margaret Bronson unless you surrender yourself to me by o'clock tomorrow l evening. A trustworthy guide will meet you at 24Sd street and Broadway at 7:30 p. m. Of course you will come alone. Any effort on your part to make an ar- rest or be followed by your own agents | will simply hasten the fate of the two women.
 Bronson and the police captain were literally stunned by this extraordinary experience. But Manning remained strangely calm. He folded the Hateful missive with fingers which did not tremble in the least and placed 1t un- der paper weight protecting little pile of official documents from any stray gust of wind which might blus- ter through the house.
 He was so unnaturally quiet, his air so studiously businesslike, that Kemp eyed him narrowly and drew a pace nearer as though ready to prevent some untowardNact.
 But Bronson, almost on the verge of hysteria, could not restrain himself.
 Don't look like that, Errol" he yelled. And say something, manl If you don't think shall go madv'
 Manning stretched out hand and caught his friend by the shoulder. e"Its all right, Willard" he said very quietly. "Of course, I'll save the girls"
 Save them! Good God, how can you or any of us be sure of doing that?'
 Quite easfly." said Manning aim