HELD TO RANSOM.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 362, 20 May 1911, Page 7

HELD TO RANSOM.

By the Author of " The Castle Mystery,'' etc., str

Being a Strange Chronicle frone the Wote-boek of John Lyon, Eiucidator, Known as the Lion of the Law." j

PART 3. A sudden light of triumph flashed into the drawn face of the threatened man. Lyon perceived it instantlj, and spun on his heel, but too late. Three men were stealing upon him from the opposite direction and even as he turned they pounced tiger-like sending his pistol whirling through the air. Down he went, one man at his throat the others twining about his arms and legs. Within the space of a heart-beat he had been made prisoner with his own handcuffs, and stretched helplessly under the weight of his three assailants. " This ir, bad worki," one snarled. "For all ws know there may be an army of cops outside. Which way did he come in, Nicholson ?" Nicholson was the man who lind worn the veil. He shook his head with, a quick nervous motion in answer to the question, adding a foreign shrug of the shoulders to the gesture. "I know not. I heard the closing of the trap, and Dolores sent me on the run to see who entered. 1 ran full into the cursed spy, and he held me with his revolver. It's the Lion of the Law." The Lion of the Law ! The three echoed the nickname with an accent of terror that was not without superstition. " Then we are at the end of our tether," one said, desperately. "This fellow is the very devil, and I hear he comes from the police." " There cannot have been anybody else with him, or our spies would have given warning," Nicholson broke in eagerly. " In another two days our job will be finished. Let's put him out of the wa\, and trust to luck for the rest." Leaving the elucidator's prostrate form, they drew apart, whispering. The result of the conclave soon became apparent. Suddenly stepping to Lyon's side the man named Nicholson lifted his foot., and with a couple of merciless kicks battered the detective into insensibility. CHAPTER V. " Great Caesar ! Can I be invading the infernal regions in a private car of Pluto's own design ? If so I can congratulate his Satanic Majesty on the complete success of his invention." John Lyon had awakened to find himself in total darkness, and so cramped that every limb and nerve appeared to be the scat of a separate and agonising pain. A constant buzzing sounded in his ears, varied occasionally by a noise which might well have been the death-grunt of a tortured animal—at least, so it seemed to his bewildered perceptions. As time passed, however, the mad throbbing of his brain slackened and he found himself able to think with more coherency. It did not take him long to piece together the clues supplied by the various noises that reached his ears. " I am incarcerated in a box," he muttered. " I am being carried, at a goodish speed, on a motor-car. Probably I am bound for the yacht with which Mr. Nicholson threatened me before. It strikes me most forcibly that my name is Mud, as the Yankee slang-slinger would put it. I wonder if I can do anything in the way of forcing the lid." Following the trend of his thoughts, he endeavoured to move his hands, and iound them securely strapped to his sides. An eilort to part his feet brought a similar unpleasant discovery. Houdini himself would have been puzzled to escape from such a bondage. There was nothing for it but resignation, and he lay stoically enduring the intense pain involved by his cramped limbs. Hours seemed to pass whilst the motor whirled on its way ; twice a sudden cessation of the vibration marked a halt, and both times the detective cried out with all the strength of his lungs. His shouts were hindered, however, by the fact that a broad piece of linen had been tightly bound around his jaws, and he was not surprised that his yells brought no response. Probably they were not audible a foot away from the box. To his fevered imagination it appeared a:; though days had elapsed before the automobile finally halted. At length, when he was beginning to fee! that lie would suffocate if not speedily released from his prison, the cum of the engines ceased, and for some moments he was undisturbed. Then the box rose with an abrupt jerk which threatened to breaVi every hone in his body, and was borne joltingly along for some considerable distance, lie strove to cry out atrain, but his tongue had become as dry as tanned leather, and the resultant. sound was no louder than a mouse's squeal:. He relinquished the effort in despair and contented himself with straining his ears to ascertain where he was being carried. Without doubt lie was being taken on board the yacht mentioned by Nicholson. Two or three jarring bumps were followed by the faint muffled noise of oars in the rowlocks, and his woodni prison rose and fell in a sickening manner. Later came the process of hoisting, followed by a thud as he was lowered to the deck. His unpleasant journey appeared to be at an end. "And I shall be at an end pretty quick," he thought feebly. " By Caesar ! the lid is moving." Crunch ! the nails which secured the lid of his prison ground from

the noles wnicn nctd them, ana. c. rain of light fell upon his face. 11 was typical of the man that he instantly f'hammon unconsciousness, hi; mind already fixed on the possibility of making an opportunity to escape. The deception was a simple one ; sickly white and hloou-matted as his face was, he looked more like a deac than a living man. "Perdition !" he heard a euttcral voice exclaim, " 1 don't believe thf holes in that box were large enough, Pierre. The man s ucsd !" A warm hand rested upon the fluttering of Lyon's pulse, and a vigorous negative answered the words. " Not he. I don't believe anything earthly would kill him, as a matter of fact. The Lion of the Law has something superhuman in his makeup. What did the Lady Dolores say —he is to be imprisoned in the red cabin ?" " Yes. And if a hair of his head is injured our lives will answer for it."

" Peste ! I believe she is in love with the spy. Trust your Spanish beauties to let passion rule their senses and everything else. Shall we remove the bracelets ?" " Yes, and leave him upon the bed. It will take a better roan than even John Lyon to find a way out of the red cabin." " Seeing that it Cost two hundred pounds in the making, and is built of steel, I believe you." The detective, lying still as death itself, heard a key grate into the handcuffs which shackled his wrists. A moment later the cords securing his ankles and arms were also severed, and the bandage rudely ripped away from his head. He almost cried out in the agony of restored circulation, but the pain had the counter effect, of sharpening his bravn and dispelling the last atom of faintness from his perceptions. He allowed himself to be lifted, a iimp and nerveless figure, and borne down the companionway by the two men who were in charge of the box. In the darkness of the cabin below he ventured to open his eyes a trifle and saw with satisfaction that no other men were present. Evidently his captors were those who had driven the motor ; botn were in dustcoats, and leather caps, and oue even wore goggles. The surprise of their lives awaited them at the entrance to the cabin, which was to be Lyon's prison. They lowered his inert body to the floor and the foremost man was just inserting a key into the door when the detective decided to get into action. Rising suddenly he felled one of his guardians before the astonished fellow could move hand or foot. The blow was a powerful one and released much of the venom that was boiling in Lyon's heart at his merciless treatment. It sounded like a butcher's cleaver striking the block, and his victim buckled up as if he had been struck by lightning. Swinging round, the elucidator turned upon the other villain whose face showed almost comical in its utter amazement. He had enough sense left, however, to ward oil Lyon's blow and clinched desperately as the elucidator over-balaneed and fell upon him. Bang! They struck the floor with a thud which shook the vessel from stem to stern. Over and over, straining and tearing in a mad effort to grip one another's throats, they wrestled and rolled from corner to corner of the cabin. Lyon was not in good condition for a fight, but he showed himself to be the superior in cunning if his adversary were more strenuous. By a series of adroit movements he managed to apply a jiu-jitsu grip in such a manner that | the man was helpless ; one move and j his arm would have snapped like a! carrot. j

He cried out. savagely at the horrible pain, but the detective was adamant. It was no time for the niceties of combat.. He increased the pressure until his assailant was near to fainting, and then suddenly dashed the fellow's head against the steel door of the inner cabin. He dropped without a groan, and lay limply on the top of his companion. The Lion of the Law gained his feet swiftly, but not an instant too soon. As he turned, three swarthy sailors pattered down the companionwav, swearing ferociously as they rubbed the sleep from their bewildered eyes. The elucidator stooped and snatched a revolver from the jacket of one of his victims, and faced the newcomers determinedly. " Backi you go, by ('aesar !" he thundered. " I am in no mood for playing. Move up those stairs faster than you came down, or I'll make two holes in every man of you." The sailors read truth in his tone, and obeyed with rometliing resembling eagerness. One after the other, pushing and snarling, they staggered up the steps and 011 to the deck, John Lyon at their heels. Once on dec!, he wasted no time in quitting the vessel. A boat was trailing at the side, and he descended the accommodation ladder with the utmost coolness, well aware that none of the foreign sailors would dare to assault him ill full view of the scores of ships which were visible. "You'd better set sail as quickly as you know how," he shouted, as he dipped the oars. " Otherwise you will be cooling your feet in a cell before night." A curse was the answer. He waved his hand, and with long, powerful strokes rowed away in the direction of what he rightly took to be a Mersey dock. CHAPTER VI. PASSION : A DAGGER AND A PISTOL. The chief of the Birmingham police Was walking from side to side of his office with long angry strides, when John Lyon was announced. He greet ed the detective with a, sternness

vrnicu morfci! to .Horror as ne. step*, pcd into the light. And the elncidator was certainlj neither a prepossessing nor a pleas ing sight. His lean face was pallid, mapped with haggard lines and grey with a. thick coating of dirt. On< i r.ide of bis head ws,b purple and con- ! tused, and blotched in places with I congealed blood, which had matted his hair together and pasted it ii | bict.s upon his forehead. " Great heavens, man !" the chie! exclaimed. " What in thunder hav» you been doing ?" " I have been down in Glasgow foi the benefit of my health," was the flippant reply. "As I was afraid 1 might be, missing some sport down here, I hired a motor to come back on, and I am afraid I over-drove a little." " But, your head —" " Bother my head ! It's my business to be in the wars, captain. Is anything doing in the Birmingham bandit case ?" " Doing ?" The chief uttered the words with a groan. " They've fired their bomb-shell and fired it with devilish cunning, too," he said, gloomily. "By the look of you I should say that you had been up against the whole gang, and -come off fourth beat." " Never mind me. Tell me about this bomb-shell." " I mean that they have started • raking in the ransomS. Read this." He took a note from a pigeon-hole of his desk), and laid it before the slucidator who perceived that it was in paper and print precisely like the previous message sent by the bandits. The epistle was to the point, unmarred by auv necessary verbiage. " We are now in a position to demand payment of the two thousand pounds due from you," he read. " The money must be in gold coin, or in diamonds of an approximate value, and sealed in canvas or leathern bags of a size convenient for transport. It must be placed in the middle of the lawn of Carisbrook House, Sutton Coldfield, nt midnight, on the 6th. If all is satisfactory your daughter will be set free in the park before dawn. Be careful to attach your signature to the ransom, and take note that any attempt to communicate with the police will bring almost instant death to your daughter, —The Bandits of Birmingham." (To be Continued.)