The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-06-18
tCopyright, 1915, by Arthur Stringent
 FIFTH EPISODE. The Intervention of Tito.

AVID MANLEY was not all
 MI together proud of his day. s
 X work. AS he sat tied and N bound on the rough brick
 floor beneath the Owls Nest that once f1ippant-minded young man even acknowledged that things looked rather bad for him. He had been made a prisoner. The iron claw of Legar had reached suddenly out and closed about him. The tentacles of that master criminals machinations, reptillous in their secrecy, had once more suddenly enmeshed him. And there he lay, as helpless as a blue bottle fly bound in the web of war rior spider, wondering what the out come of it all would be.
 The thought of Margory directed Manley's mind back to the earlier events of that strange day. He re- called his long talk with that quiet eyed girl in the quiet-toned shadows of the Golden library. It had been the first talk between them into which the personal note had entered. He had enjoyed that talk, for he had felt, as 1t progressed, that the girl had begun to realize he was her friend, that he wanted to be her friend. She had explained why her father had been called away from the city. She had even confessed that she felt more secure knowing Manley himself was within reach. And as he said good-by to her he felt sure the old barricaded look was no longer in her eyes. He had even gone on his way elated with the secret thought that a warmer smile had played about her softly curved lips as she had said good night to him.
 But that sense of elation had in deed been short-lived, just as the quietness of the Golden home had proved to be nothing more than the lull which precedes the sudden storm. For, i've minutes after he had left the smiling girl, the Golden butler, with terror in his eyes, had come running to him saying there was a stranger in the house, stranger who had been seen lurking about the halls and had promptly disappeared at the sight of one of the servants. So Manley, for getting everything else, had promptly joined in the search for that myste- rious intruder. And his first thought, after doing so, had been for Margo-y Golden.
 Hurrying to the library to make sure of her safety, he had found her seated at her fathers desk, quietly talking over the telephone. And there had been little in that scene not suggestive of tranquility. For blink Ing placidly down from its perch be- side her had stood Tito, Margory Golden's newly acquired parrot, for which Manley himself had small love. This feeling was based not so much on the malevolent air of wisdom sur- rounding that green bodied t1lcher of human phrases, as on the somewhat disturbing trick, taught it by some earlier master. of seeking out gas jets and turning them on the moment it was freed from it's chain.
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 Yet as 1t had stood close beside the e1rl so puSlly talking over the tele- phone it had seemed as companion ably innocent as a canary. And 1t had turned to blink sagely at Manley as the girl, apparently unconscious of his presence, had crossed to the ma- hogany- faced vault set in the library wall and proceeded to open it's pom derous door. This had startled Man. Icy not little, for the combination of that vault was secret jealously guarded by Golden, a secret unknown to Manley himself. It was not until she stood with the massive door swung open that Manley had con- fronted her. But she showed no em- barrassment at his sudden interrup- ton.
 My father has just phoned from Philadelphia" she explained. There are certain papers he must have for