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Show WHEN 1 BALDY FADDEN DISAPPEARED By CLARENCE L. HAY ( kr Short Storr Fun. Co.) THE most important person on Hester street was "I!uldy Fad-den," Fad-den," but "Baldy" wua not aware of the high esteem in which he was held. Ills Inability to estimate his own importance resulted from a luck of years. He wus but four, and at that Interesting period of life one Is not able to recognize his atatus In the community. It was on one day in early spring that "lialdy Faddeu" surprised Hester street, and made Its mixed population use up all the expressions of astonishment astonish-ment they knew. "Buldy" 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 by a temporary parting; it wus a startling, mysterious disappearance, that stirred the Rust side from the "Panhandle" to "Hell's Kitchen." The Cuparellls occupied a front apartment on the fourth floor 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 Are balcony overhanging the street. The taleony was but four feet long and two wide, with a railing that was twice the height of CapHrelll, Junior, and It had neither trap nor ladder. The 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, ltut there waa no commotion aucb as her Imagination had pictured. Everything waa peaceful. Half a dozen loafers stood around unconcernedly In front of Mulltgun's saloon; Pletro and Baptist, Bap-tist, the fruiterers next door, were atandlng chatting on the aldewalk, while the vendor of popcorn, standing nearly underneath the Caparelll apartment, apart-ment, yawned lazily as he stared at the paseers-by. Furthermore, there waa do trace of "Baldy Fadden," nlive or dead, on the street or sidewalk. The woman, frantic with apprehen-alon, apprehen-alon, acreamed out a torrent of questions ques-tions to the men on the street, but 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 be for "Baldy" to leave the balcony In any other way, she shrieked again and gain, and llenter street arose to 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 suggested that "Baldy" had suddenly developed the alleged gift of the wise men of the Yaquls and walked away on the atmosphere. 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. Frotn a small balcony, 45 feet above the ground, In one of the most thickly populated districts In the world, a child had 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 bad been done. The disappearance disappear-ance of "Baldy Fadden" threatened to tecome 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 "Gian's" and the "Sox" were forgotten In the babble of conjecture. As It often happens In cases of the kind, Caparelll, senior, was saved much of the anguish that the disappearance disap-pearance of the boy brought to his wife. A messenger had hftrn 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 other. Caparelll, 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, and, furthermore, 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 Caparelll, Capa-relll, senior, waa 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 unaeeountatle 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 Ave when the first Illuminating ray pierced the gloom surrounding the happening. Bnptlsto, who owned the fruit shop to the right of the Caparelll 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 boy. "Caparelll !" he screamed. "Caparelll! "Capa-relll! Ah. Mother of God! Capurelli has the child ! lie has him 1 Ah. It Is good, good I Caparelll Just telephoned that he had 'Baldy' 1 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. Caparelll, senior, had spoken to him over the 'phone from a rubbish pit far out In the Bronx, and asked him to Inform Mrs. Caparelll that the child was safe, and that he, Caparelll, 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. wrestle with the mystery. Unless "Baldy" had suddenly grown wings and flown into spat e, there were hut four ways to account for his Disappearance: Dis-appearance: The first and. of course, the most probable, was the theory thut be had fallen Into the street, but the evidence of twenty-five 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 falleu from the Caparelll 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 of nuta. The suggestion that someone, standing stand-ing at a near-by window, might hnve hooked "Baldy" by meana 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 Caparellls who, while admitting that she had seen "Baldy" on the balcony, 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 the 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 Italian squad, who thought they detected de-tected the work of the "Black Hand," were busy on the spot. Eleven policemen police-men wrestled with the crowd nnd clews In turn, and Mrs. Caparelll, In between numerous hysterical tits, gave Interviews to thirteen different tws-paper tws-paper men, who photographed the wonderful balcony and then rushed away with the news. For the unex-plulnable unex-plulnable 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 value, but the fact that he had left the balcony by ways and means thut suggested sug-gested the 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 contrih"ted a series of articles to a leading magazine, was employed by one sheet to Investigate and to searchlight search-light the mystery. Two hours after the disappearance Hester street was blocked to traffic. Ten thousand theories had teen ad- vanced up to that time. It was sug gested that "Baldy" had been hooked Caparelll'a arrival was something that will be long remembered on the j East side. With "Baldy Fadden" on I 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 tublecloths from the windows, and men howled with Joy. Then curiosity grasped the crowd with a clutch of Iron. The mob swept around Caparelll, 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 pursuit of knowledge. Caparelll turned and put up his hand. "Dere is leetle to tell," he said quietly. qui-etly. "I see It all on' I tank de good Lord. 'Baldy' has told me dat he was on de balcony, yes, eet Is oe. 'Baldy' was dere. un' underneat", ah, I tank de good God, was de truck loading up de rotten bananas dat Blptlsto sends to de dump. Ah, you see It now! 'Baldy' fell Into de rotten bananas an" sink down In dem. Ton understand No one see him, an' when he full de driver whip up his horse ait not seein' 'Baldy,' drive my boy all de way out to de dump where I was work. Ah, when I see my boy tipped out at my feet 1 tlnk him dead I I cry an' I cry again, but be was only stunned an'" Hester street drowned hia aohs with a cheer that went rushing away up toward Chlnntown. When It had died away, a shrill voice broke the silence with a yell of: "Cburnal! Churnal! Orl about the findin' of 'Baldy Fadden.' Fad-den.' " But the article by the spook authority author-ity that had appeared In the earlier edition had been cut out The banana truck had ousted the spooks in thf last round. |