The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-02-25

loW Hlulu VeuoiHouSiy as ue EecdHeu the housekeeper's testimony concerning Ne rssa's supposed clandestine relations with some man whose identity was as yet mys- tery to those investigating the case.
 Who could this unknown be? Could he have been Dr. Selden's murderer? Nothing tangible supported such hypothesis. The man seen with the woman at Laurens June tion doubtless was the one who had decoyed her into the hands of the band in whose clutches Bristow now belieed her to be. Her words, q will go with him if I choose,'' did not seem to indicate definitely that the man was lover. Doubtless the girl could explain all. He must find her. But where? How? The questions found no logical answers in his mind.
 Beyond determination to find Nerissa Selden and the man in gray, and force the latter to divulge what he might know of the murder of Dr. Selden and the disappearance of the physicians daughter, Bristow had no clearly defined objectives. Just in what way his mission was to be brought to success ful head he had not even the suggestion of an idea.
 The more he pondered the matter the more firmly he became imbued with the be- lief that his impulsive step would bear the fruit of important results. He had wild hope that somewhere or somehow he would find Nerissa Selden. Just how this was to be accomplished, however, he could not foretell.
 But the lawyer did not blind himself to the troublesome side issues or personal perils into which his original proposition to find the man in gray might resolve.
 While logical plans to this end were for mulating in Bristow's mind, the train pulled into Grand Central Sation, and, in another moment, he was being swept by a throng of disembarked passengers through the train shed and up on to the street.
 It was nearly o'clock. Gray dusk was already creeping over the city. The air was full of chill damp that foretold the com ing of a storm.
 Bristow, hands deep-thrust in the pockets of his overcoat and the collar of that gar ment turned up about his ears to ward off the sting of the north wind, fought his way up Central avenue, his, objective being po- lice headquarters.
 Naturally enough the crowded experiences of the day had so absorbed the lawyer that the fact of his having eaten nothing since breakfast had escaped his memory. Now, however, his fast was called to mind by di- vers savory odors emanating from rather inviting looking chop house. Inexpressibly hungry he entered and seated himself at table near the door.
 An obsequious waiter, with single eye to iuo opfc hronoHf him paper. Blazoned under particularly start ling lines of type were the details of the Selden murder, embellished by pictures Of the scene of the crime, Dr. Selden, his daughter, Miss Wrightson, Dr. Craig, and, much to his annoyance, Bristow himself. The account of the mysterious affair was written in an ultra-sensational style. But, after careful perusal of the statements made, Bristow could not but concede their fairness, supeyinduced, he concluded, by certain libel laws on the statute books of Ohio. One paragraph in particular inter- ested him. It read:
 It is a fact well known to the police
 that there is in Cincinnati band of the
 dread Black Hand-men who live by
 murder, abduction, blackmail and rob
 bery. The peculiar circumstances sur
 rounding the death of Dr. Selden
 would lead to the belief, according to
 several witnesses who testified at the
 inquest, that the physician perished at
 the hands of member of such an or
 ganization. It also is probable, it is
 thought, that his daughter had fallen
 into the clutches of the constituencies
 nrOanizat;on and has either heen rnur.