Chapter I: The Abduction

Robert Ellsmore Grandon stifled a yawn with difficulty, as the curtain went down on the first act of "La Tosca." Opera bored him utterly. He silently wished that his well-meaning aunt would not drag him with such clocklike regularity to these monotonous matinées. She had taken a box in the Chicago Auditorium for the season, and so far he had not escaped a single performance.

Not that there was anything wrong with the opera. The trouble was with Grandon himself. He was tired of the indolent, luxurious life he led with his doting aunt, tired of endless matinées, dinners, receptions and halls, tired of the pretentious mansion on Sheridan Road, the numerous servants it housed, and the dawdling idle rich who frequented its spacious halls and gardens. He longed for action, adventure, romance--for the opportunity to think and act for himself, for a chance to accomplish something worth while.

Between the acts, he leisurely made his way to the smoking room. He was a handsome, well-built youth, just turned twenty-two, and not a few pairs of admiring feminine eyes were covertly turned to glance at his broad shoulders and curly black hair as he passed through the lobby. Nor was he regarded solely by feminine eyes, for a man who had apparently been awaiting his coming, stepped across the lobby as he appeared, and entered the smoking room immediately behind him.

Grandon was reaching for his cigarette case, when a pleasant voice at his right, said: "Try one of mine, won't you?"

He turned and looked into the smiling eyes of a man of about his own age. Evidently the young man wanted some one to talk to.

Grandon accepted with thanks.

"Excellent show, don't you think?" volunteered the smiling one, lighting a cigarette which he had, unnoticed by Grandon, taken from the side of the case opposite the one which he had extended a moment before.

"I suppose so--ah--why, yes, of course--"

Grandon was beginning to feel unaccountably drowsy.

Suddenly he slumped forward, and would have fallen on his face, but for the quick assistance of the friendly young man. A moment later he lost consciousness.

An attendant came running up, and a small knot of men gathered about.

"What's the matter with your friend?" asked the attendant.

"Fainted dead away," replied the young man. "It's his heart. Has spells like this quite often lately. Help me get him outdoors."

The two of them carried Grandon outside, followed by the more curious of the bystanders. When he reached the sidewalk, the young man signaled the driver of a powerful limousine which was parked on the other side of the street. It immediately swung across and drew up to the curb.

"Let's put him in the car," said the young man. "I'll take him for a little spin on Michigan Boulevard. The fresh air will revive him."

They lifted him into the tonneau, the young man handed a crisp bill to the attendant, and the limousine disappeared around the corner.