The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-06-07
Daily Tribune Reporter Visits Kidnapped
Baby's Mother at Agonized Home While
Baby Lloyd Lies in Mountain Cave
Hidden Caverns of Harold Bell
Wright's Romances Searched
for Trace of Little Lloyd Keet,
Missouri Bankers Son.

Springfield, Mo-, June I'm the
palatial home of Banker J. H. Keet
set amidst a bower Of trees, with
greensward f1anking away to swaying
ridges Of green shrubbery, in the
citys newest and most fashionable
residence section, the telephone sud
denly sends it's summons echOing
through the house.
In the downstairs bedroom, just
across the hall from where her baby
was stolen last week, Mrs Keet, the
28-year-old mother, arOuses from her
stupor of hopeless grief.
She sits erect on her bed, her body
tense, an eager CLINT playing lam
bently across her great, sorroW-rim-
med eyes.
Impulsively her hand flutters out,
reaching with quick, impetuous yearn-
ing to where the telephone tinkles on
the wall Her young husband, who
has been sitting silently at her bed
side, his head bowed In his hands,
straightens In his chair
He turns his head toward the little
instrument OH THE wa1l,s while his
hands grasp the chair arms, and lifts
his body with stiff readiness. He
seems to fear the message that tele-
phone bell portends. He seems to
fear that perhaps 1t is delusion, that
commanding tinkle, and that he is
hearing only an echo of other ring
ings that invoked hope only to cruelty
dispel it. "l' ",' :
The bell rings again. This time
Central herself Is impatient. She has
forgotten the grief III the bankers
ciOusly. Vt " = ''''''''' 90 '''o 81
Quick, father, quick! They've
found him!" the mother cries, and she
tries to escape the restraining hands
of her nurse, who knows she should
not be allowed to leave the bed.
The father clutches the telephone
receiver nervously, trembling. He
does not say, Hello" nor does he say
This is Mr.. Keet."' He almost sobs
into the telephone:
Have you found him."
The mother listens and Watches
watches the lines in her husbands
face. He has hardly heard the first
word that comes to the receiver when
the mother sinks back on her pillow
with moan.
The telltale lines have told her all
she wants to know.
Out in the Ozark hills, those famous
low-spreading ranges so often told of
in backWOOds romance, little Lloyd
Keet is crying for. his mother. There
is no Shepherd of the Hills, such as
Harold Bell Wright found hereabout,
to protect him. They are sure, now,
that he is hidden away in cave.
There are hundreds of them-these
caves; some Of them were just discov-
cred today by friends OF the banker
who are searching for his baby.
There are little isolated riffs under
ground, their entrances hidden in foil
age or brush, right back into the
hills, no one knows how far. Around
the entrances to these caves the fam
GUS razorback hogs of the Qzarks
are feeding, mildly curious at the sud
where they have been bothered be-
fore by none but those ragged, odd
visaged denizens of the countryside,
the hill billies."
Each night the vigilantes keep an
all night watch in the Landers build.
Ing, where they opened headquarters,
that they might sit hidden berind
shades and watch the public square
below.
No one doubts the widespread story
that there is half.inch hemp rope
in the tonneau Of one of their cars
and that the slipknot is already tied.
Another member of Banker Keet's
family, Of whom little has been said,
is Ida May McCammon, pretty 2O.year.
old nurse girl, who was little Lloyd's
special caretaker. Ida's kiss sent the
little fellow to 'trustful sunderland
the night the kidnapers stole him.
She is fresh from the hills, knows al
most every trail in the range, and
has guided the search into some Of
the almost inaccessible regions. Her
lS brothers and sisters have gathered
from the far corners Of the ranges
to help shorten their sisters grief.
These hill brothers think the loss
is their own. They think perhaps
someone viii p0lht the finger of sus.
picion to Ida May. They will kill the
first one who does-that is what they
are there for. They say so, and this
is how George, the eldest of the
brothers, puts 1t, in soft, inimitable
drawl:
Better no folks say, stranger, that
Ida May was careless like while them
tellers took that air kid. Better no.
body say that, stranger-I'm telling
ye. Cause II anybody does, then
there's somebody going quick to king
dom come, where they don't stand fer
no sech talk as that"
j. Holland Keet has received a sec.
ond letter from the abductors of
Lloyd, his 14-months-old baby. Ran.
som Of $4,000 is now demanded,
Threats to mutilate the baby and fin
ally kill it were contained in the com.
munication.
your baby is safe so far" the note
stated.
News of the second threat came
after Criminal Judge Arch A. Johnson
took matters in hand today. Various
rumors, principal of which was that
Lloyd had been recovered and that
the restoration was being kept secret,
had been heard by the judge He de-
cided that officers had been held off
the case long enough, that the abduc-