The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-24

street light while the soldiers would hide themselves in a doorway near by. If the murderers held me up. l was to pretend to be intoxicated and $ they robbed me the five sol diers were to shoot. If possible, they were only to criple the criminals; but If the case was desperate enough, they were to shoot and shoot to kill, while l must manage to get out of the line of fire.
 Everything in readiness, the sol diers crept into the doorway while 1, the live bait. sat down on the curb under the light. For three nights we patiently waited from four to six hours each night, but each night passed with no nibble at the bait. The fourth nights vigil was drawing to a close and I was about to give up in disgust when out from the darkness from omewhere-none knew where two Algerian soldiers suddenly ap- peared.
 The command, Hands up!" in French at once convinced me that at last I was face to face With the crim- inals who had created such terror in the city. With my hands reaching toward the sky these two Algerians started In to search me. The bait had finally brought the quarry to the trap-but why didn't those five sol diers close it before the bait was fin ished? Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I saw that l was not in the line of fire, so why, why didn't they shoot?
 Those two thugs went about their work In business-like manner. Quickly they searched me. They took all my valuables and also the fake passport, which they seized with guttural sounds of satisfaction. Then ito add tG my humiliation they stripped mo and I had to submit In wardly raging, but still stimulating drunkenness, I slowly undressed. In order to remove my boots I seated myself on the curb. Now, I thought, my soldiers will surely shoot, for l am away out of the line of fire. Every minute I expected tt hear the rifles crack and see the robbers fall. But no such luck. As slowly as l was silent In the doorway where the soldiers were hiding.
 Nude And Empty-Handed.
 How thankful I was that 1t was near midnight. for I was stripped down to-no. 1 don't believe I will tell precisely how far I was denuded! I did not appear any more dignified in that I was still stimulating an ad- vanced stage Of drunkenness. The Algerians believed that l was so drunk I was harmless. so. dispensing with the customary blow over the head. they slipped away in the dark ness as quietly as they came, and, before I realized it, I was alone.
 Mad clear through. so mad that l did not stop to consider the ludicrous appearance I must have presented, I strode across the street, not even noticing that the cGbblestones were cutting my feet. Throwing open the door, the sight that met my gaze only added fuel to the flames. Every last blessed one of those soldiers was sound asleep. Curled up on the floor they were utterly oblivious that a war was on, to say nothing of the fact that they were supposed to be there for my protection! As soon as my rage cooled so l could talk I de manded to know what they meant by sleeping on post.
 The only excuse that they could offer was that for the past three nights they had remained awake, but on this night as II o'clock came and no one showed up they thought that they might as well get a little sleep. Leaving one of the men on guard the others had curled up for a snooze. The guard had soon joined his com panions in slumber and no one of them was aware that anything out of the ordinary had happened until strode into their midst. Not even considering that I might still need them. I sent them all to the guard house and started out on my way to my hotel, again out of luck, as the men were so small l couldn't use any of their uniforms.
 Plugging the walls, dCdging through the back alleys, afraid of being arrested by some wandering gendarme' who would consider me crazy and so lock me up, l finally reached taxi stand. Surely I had suffered enough for one night! But no. before I could induce that taxi driver to move an inch I had to go all through that miserable affair again and explain how l came to be ir such a predicamcnt, Finally con- vincing this man that I was neither drunk nor crazy, he agreed to take me to my hotel. When arrived at the hotel 1 called the night porter and had him bring my uniform. The taxi al 1 o'clock in the morning made a safe and fairly comfortable dress ing room for me. When l had fin lshed dressing | ordered him to drive me to my office.
 There 1 summoned all my men and we started on thorough search for the two who had stripped me. If it was- humanly possible I intended, be- fore the morning sun came up, to wipe out the indignities those two Algerians had heaped upon me. Only too well. l realized that, while 1 was blameless in this affair, nevertheless unless I succeeded in capturing these two crooks before morning I would never hear the last of it from my friends at base headquarters. Circu lating around the vicinity where my hold-up took place, we finally en- countered gendarme, who told us of chasing an Algerian into the wine market. Here was the only promis- ing clue. We hurried to that spot.
 Half of the big park In Bordeaux was given over to the wine mer chants for storage and market place for their goods. Three city blocks square it was and contained thousands of casks of wine. At night 1t was habitually frequented by the criminals and unfortunates of the city. Here they could, with the assistance of a straw, continue drinking wine until they fell over on the ground in drunken stupor and lie there until they slept 1t off It was a dark and dangerous place, for some of the men who frequented this plSce were not ordinary tramps, but vicious criminals; we did not blame the gendarme when he told us he had refused to chase the Alegerion be- yond the entrance.
 O O O
 The Capture Of The Murdcrcrs.
 However, our patrol was strong enough to prevent an attack, so we did not hesitate to enter the market and begin our search. Many poor devil, awakened out of drunken sleep at our flash thrown on his face.