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Show WHEN BALDY FADDEN DISAPPEARED -x-- By CLARENCE L. HAY (Ccj ty Slirt .Story 1'ub Cu.) t j M 1 10 most Import ant person on Jle.ster street was "Biddy Kud- J den," hut "Biildy" was not aware of the high esteem in which he was held. His lilahility to estimate his own importance resulted from u hick or years. He was hut four, and at that Interesting period of life one Is not ahle to recognize his Hiatus in the community. It was on one day In early spring that "I'.aldy Kadden" surprised Hester Klreet, and made its mixed population use up all the expressions of astonishment astonish-ment they knew. "Baldy" disappeared! disap-peared! It was not a common disappearance disap-pearance resorted to by the ordinary child who wishes to' make Its parents familiar with the agony produced hy a 9 temporary parting; It was a startling, mysterious disappearance, that stirred the 1'iast side from the "Panhandle" to "Hell's Kitchen." The Caparollls occupied a front apartment on the fourth lloor of a tenement ten-ement house and on the morning of the mysterious disappearance Mrs. Ca-parelll Ca-parelll placed her son on the little iron lire halcony overhanging the street. Tho ialcony was but four feet long and two wide, wllh a railing that was twice the height of Caparelli, junior, and it had neither trap nor ladder. Tho first and only thought which leaped with stunning force Into the mind of the woman compelled her to spring to the railing and stare with wild eyes into the street beneath. But there was no commotion such as her Imagination had pictured. Everything was peaceful. Half a dozen loafers ultiod ' around unconcernedly in front of Mulligan's saloon; Pietro and I'.ap-tlsto, I'.ap-tlsto, the fruiterers .next door, were standing chatting on the sidewalk, while the vendor of popcorn, standing nearly underneath the Caparelli apartment, apart-ment, yawned lazily as he stared at the passers-by. Furthermore, there was no trace of "Baldy Fadden," alive or dead, on tho street or sidewalk. The woman, frantic with apprehension, apprehen-sion, screamed out a torrent of questions ques-tions to the men on the street, hut they signified In a dozen different ways that they were ignorant of the whereabouts of her son. The frightened fright-ened mother gazed hopelessly up and around, and then, recognizing how utterly impossible it would he for "Baldy" to leave the -balcony in any other way, she shrieked again and again, and Hester street arose to wrestle with the mystery. Unless "Baldy" had suddenly grown wings and flown into space, there were but four ways to account for his disappearance: dis-appearance: The first and, of course, phe most probable, was the theory that he had fallen Into the street, but the evidence of twenty-live people, who were in different positions in front of the apartment house, swept the surmise sur-mise to the scrap heap. of knocked-out suppositions. The peanut vendor offered of-fered to stake his immortal soul against ten cents' worth of nuts to prove that nothing had fallen from the Caparelli apartment, and the huge volume vol-ume of supporting evidence, added to the fact that there were no parts of "Baldy" visible, or no signs to prove that he had struck the street In a forcible for-cible manner, proved that the peanut vendor was not reckless in wagering his soul against a quart ot nuts. The suggestion that someone, standing stand-ing at a near-by window, might have hooked "Baldy" by means of a long pole was also scouted, when the residents resi-dents of the flats to the left and right had been examined. A cousin of the Cnparellis who, while admitting that she had seen "Baldy" on the halcony, was above suspicion, lived to the right, and a brother workman of "Baldy's" father resided on the left. His reputation repu-tation was unimpeachable. The roof was now the only place to look for traces of kidnaping, but the roof offered of-fered no solution to the growing mystery. mys-tery. The janitor had not unlocked Ihe trap door up to the time that "Baldy" had disappeared, and, on either side, the roof of the house was Inaccessible except by means of ladders lad-ders and ropes, and regarding these there was not the slightest trace to prove that they had been used. The mystery was stupendous. At ten o'clock five detectives of the Kalian squad, who thought they detected de-tected the work of the "Black Hand," v. ere busy on the spot. Eleven police-u.cn police-u.cn wrestled with the crowd nnd clews In turn, and Mrs. Caparelli, in between numerous hysterical tits, gave interviews to thirteen different newspaper news-paper men, who photographed the uonderful balcony and then rushed away with the news. For the unex-plainable unex-plainable and unaccountable is always news. If "Baldy" had been smashed up on the street like hundreds of other East-side children, the incident would have been of only paragraph vnlue, hut the fact that he had left the balcony by ways and means that suggested sug-gested t lie supernatural made the disappearance dis-appearance of great news value in a dull season. "Baldy Fadden" appeared ap-peared in letters five inches long, and a special spook writer, who had just contributed a series of articles to a leading magazine, was employed by one siieet to investigate and to searchlight search-light the mystery. Two hours after the disappearance Hester street was blocked to traffic. Ten thousand theories had been advanced ad-vanced up to that time. It was suggested sug-gested that "Baldy" had been hooked by the trailing anchor of an airship, that he had been grabbed by an eagle, or had been consumed by spontaneous combustion. Suppositions didn't end there. A man suggi-sted that "Baldy" had suddenly developed the alleged gift of the wise men of the Vaquis and walked away on the atuuwphere. Others hinted darkly at the mysterious mysteri-ous powers possessed by a withered lady from Lombardy who resided across the street, while many more muttered prayers and called upon patron pa-tron saints to protect them from the devil, whose finger, they clearly perceived, per-ceived, was In the pie. The thing was incomprehensible. From a small halcony, 4o feet above the ground, In one of the most thickly populated districts In the world, a child hail been spirited away right from under his mother's eyes, and five detectives, eleven policemen, three spook authorities and three thousand people were unable to tell how the thing had been done. The disappearance disappear-ance of "Baldy Fadden" threatened to I. ecome one of the mysteries of the century, and In the cars it took precedence prece-dence of politics and stock jobbing, while the doings of the "Giants" and the "Sox" were forgotten In the babble of conjecture. As it often happens in cases of the kind, Caparelli, senior, was saved much of the anguish that the disappearance disap-pearance of the boy brought to his wife. A. messenger had been dispatched dis-patched to acquaint the father, after Investigation had proved that "Baldy" was not on or around the home reservation, reser-vation, but It happened to be one of those days when fool things happen one after the olhe. Caparelli, senior, had been transferred from his regular gang that morning, and had been sent out to the Bronx to assist on a dump. The messenger was an Italian new to the city, and not having any money In his possession at the moment he ran to acquaint his countryman of the misfortune, nnd, furlhermore, laboring under the idea that the Bronx was but a few hundred yards away, he started to walk. While he was plugging gallantly gal-lantly northward the mystery in Hester Hes-ter street was deepening, and Caparelli, Capa-relli, senior, was busily engaged shoveling shov-eling refuse of various kinds that was being dumped into the pit. At five o'clock in the evening Hester street was a seething mass of eager-eyed, eager-eyed, excited people waiting in an atmosphere at-mosphere charged with mystery. The day, that had opened brightly, had turned dull and heavy, and on the minds of people born In southern Europe Eu-rope the unaccountable disappearance of "Baldy Fadden" worked like mental yeast in raising all the terrors of the past from the dark corners of their brains. It was half-past five when the first illuminating ray pierced the gloom surrounding the happening. Baptisto, who owned the fruit shop to the right of the Caparelli apartment house, dashed through the crowd that struggled strug-gled on the stairway, and shouted a message over the heads of the women sympathizing with the mother of the lost hoy. "Caparelli!" he screamed. "Caparelli! "Capa-relli! Ah, Mother of God! Caparelli has the child! He has him! Ah, it Is good, good! Caparelli just telephoned that he had 'Baldy'! Ah, it is good! He has him at de dump away out out, ah, yes out at de Bronx!" After screaming out the message' he fainted in the hallway, but upon being brought round, he repeated the astonishing aston-ishing information. Caparelli, senior, had spoken to him over the 'phone from a rubbish pit far out in the Bronx, and asked him to Inform Mrs. Caparelli that the child was safe, and that he, Caparelli, was then on his way home with the lost one. Hester street gasped. The mystery was not yet explained it had deepened. deep-ened. What devilish agency had spirited spir-ited the child away from his mother to the place his father was working? Pious. Italians muttered their prayers as they waited for the explanation that would be forthcoming. Caparelli's arrival was something that will be long remembered on the East side. With "Baldy Fadden" on his shoulders he walked through a crowd of cheering, shouting people till he placed the boy In his mother's arms. Hester street wept. Excited women waved tablecloths from the windows, and men howled with joy. Then curiosity grasped the crowd with a clutch of iron. The mob swept around Caparelli, shrieking for explanations. expla-nations. They screamed their questions ques-tions in a score of tongues, and pushed madly behind the laborer in their wild j pursuit of knowledge. .Caparelli turned and put up his hand. "Dere is leetle to tell," he said quietly. qui-etly. "I see it all an' I tank de good Lord. 'Baldy' has told me dnt he was on de balcony, yes, eet Is se. 'Baldy' was dere, an' underneat', ah, I tank de good God, was de truck loading up de rotten bananas dat Biptisto sends to de dump. Ah, you see it now ! 'Baldy' fell into de rotten bananas an' sink down in dem. Vou understan'? No one see him. an' when he fall de driver whip up his horse an' not seein' 'Baldy,' drive my boy all de way out to de dump where I was work. Ah, ', when I see my hoy tipped out at my j feet I tink him dead! I cry an' I cry j again, but lie was only stunned i an' " j Hester street drowned his gobs with j a cheer that went rushing away up ! toward Chinatown. When it had died away, a shrill voice broke the silence ! with a yell of: "Churnal ! Churnal ! ;-Orl ;-Orl about the findin' of 'Baldy Fad- den.' " But the article by the spook author- ity that had appeared in the earlier j .edition had been cut out. The banana j truck had ousted the spooka in the last round. |