Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-03-24

Of the route no had taken and had 60
the whole with the hope of picking up clew
to our hiding place
had just returned from town to the Crenshaw
sion when OF the had posted upon the roof
keep watch the surrounding country down into
the house to that crowd of about twenty
riding horseback from the direction Of the city d.
rectfy toward the mansion. Aferward learned they had
compared the routes had picked for Keet to follow
his night trips into the hills and had discovered
that each eventually brought him along the that
passed within hundred yards Of the Crenshaw mansion
This the first made of the old secret pas
sage ways and the secret staircase
The staircase reached by hole through the ATTIC
wall which was covered with panel that looked if it
just part of the decorations of the room. This
panel came free when 1t was lifted certain way
The baby awake at the time and whimpering
softly Carter told the girl to give dose of audanum
quick which she did had just fed little from the
bottle and fought against having anything put
its mouth Finally we had to hold s little jaws apart
and its head still while the girl dropped the audanum on
Its tongue.
Then hustled IL into the secret passageway all Of
crowdng in behind The girl swung the baby back and
forth in her and this motion, together with the
darkness of the passage seemed to speed the action Of
the drug. In few minutes it was sound asleep.
We had learned by that time that when the baby
put to sleep with laudanum slept soundy for several
hours at stretch and not easily awakened While
Carter or Riley or one of the men was lingering about
the stairway which spiral and dropped straight into
the hidden cellar his hands touched sprng5oard in
boxke structure that seemed to be nothing else but
framework for the stairway to wind around The board
released catch and caused secret door to open,
vcaing a hollow interior
We reached into the opening and discovered shelf
several below opening realized at once that
here secret hiding place big enough for
into and useful either to conceal human being
bundle of papers other valuabes.
When the approach of the horsemen from the city
reported they still were several miles away At Carers
suggestion dropped the baby into the newly discovered
hiding place and shut the secret door. We were not
afraid of its smotherng the shaft led up through the
ceiling and opened under the the roof, thus
allowing plenty of air to enter, although light pcnc
trated the shaft
With the baby thus completely hidden hastily gath
cred whatever papers we had dropped onto the floor in
the attic and hurried downstairs out Of the
house.
The horsemen, among whom were the prominent
into the front and rear door They struggled out Of the
house after an hour and rode away.
The next day the newspapers told how the searching
party had found signs Of the baby having been in the
mansion The posse had decided, however, that hal
flown time before
little face and hands covered with dirt Riley's
girl would not make even an attempt to wash it. She
at me when asked her to at least battle its face
Every time she would act this Riley would beat her.
but that made difference in her treatment of the baby
unless it made her more careless.
The baby awoke several times during that afternoon
and each time it cried refusing to be comforted except
when Taylor Adams would sneak up to its crib and
play with his whskers
At night we all gathered at the mansion. During the
evening Of the third day realized that the baby was
beginning to wear out. 1t no longer cried When it
awake the tears merely gathered in it's little eyes and
dropped slowly onto its cheeks and trcked down through
the dirt which Rieys girl had allowed to accumulate.
1t this third night signalled by the look.
outs at midnight that crowd of approaching
the house We hastily cleared the floor and put the baby
into the secret shaft before. This time did not
have time to leave the house. down the
way into the hidden cellar We would have been caught
like rats atrap if the had discovered the stair
wa G have had he bah
|L Wshsard the men prowng around upstairs afraid