Larry Dexter and the Stolen Boy; or, A Young Reporter on the Lakes

by Howard Roger Garis

“But I can’t understand,” spoke the young reporter. “I’ve been expecting to run up against Parloti, or his two tools, all the while, and I haven’t seen them at all. Did they take you, Lorenzo?”

“No, not Parloti at all. I know him. Mother warned me against him, but he did not take me.”

“Then who was it?” asked Larry. He learned the whole story a little later.

It seems that Parloti, in spite of his denials, did plan to kidnap Lorenzo. The deed was to take place the same night the boy was really stolen, but some one got ahead of the big Italian. He had his two tools in the audience, and gave them the signal for ten o’clock, as Larry had seen.

But, in the meanwhile, a half brother of Parloti, by the name of Baston, who would have shared in the singer’s property had Parloti been able to get possession of it, grew impatient. Baston had several times urged his kinsman to act, and kidnap Lorenzo, but the latter had always some excuse.

Then Baston acted for himself. He managed to make a hiding place in the basement, under the stage, and took the boy there through a trap-door. He gained admission to the stage in the same way, unobserved. Then when the chance came, he fled with the boy and a companion—the same companion whom Larry captured in the hotel. It was Baston who escaped, but was arrested later. The reason he and his confederate did not demand a ransom was because they could not agree on a division.

Parloti was as much surprised as any one at the kidnapping of Lorenzo, and for a time could not understand it. No wonder he was annoyed at the attention Larry gave him.

Then Parloti got a letter. It was from his tool Ferrot, and read:

“The stolen boy will never be recovered. You had better come with us and take your chances. I have a new plan for getting possession of the property.”

It was the fragments of this letter which Larry and the detective found, and which caused them to think that Parloti was the guilty man. But he was not, though he would have been if he had had the chance. He fled to join Ferrot, whose plan, however, did not work. Nor could Parloti, with all his skill, get a trace of Lorenzo. It remained for Larry Dexter to find him. The threatening letter Larry received was from Parloti, who hoped to bluff the young reporter off the search.