Charlie Ross and his brother Walter were playing in front of their home in Germantown, Pa., when two men drove by in a buggy. The men promised the boys a ride if they would walk up to the top of the hill on which the house stood.
The boys ran gladly up the hill, and then, when they were safely out of sight of the house, the two men took them up and drove off with them.
They gave them candy, and kept the boys happy and amused until they reached the town. Here they gave the older boy, Walter, a quarter to go and buy some more candy, and while he was in the store drove off with Charlie.
All this happened twenty-three years ago, but from that day to this Charlie Ross has never been found.
His father was frantic with grief, and a careful search was made for the child, but no traces of him could be found.
Some days after Charlie had been stolen, a letter was brought to his father, saying that the boy was being held for ransom, and would be returned to his father on the payment of twenty thousand dollars.
This money was raised, and would have been paid to the brigands, but that the police stepped in and insisted upon their right to manage the case.
Mr. Ross had been warned against allowing the police to interfere. The thieves had written to him that if he did so they would kill the boy.
The Mayor of Philadelphia offered the enormous reward of twenty thousand dollars for the recovery of the boy and the arrest of the persons who had stolen him. Notices of this were printed in every language, and sent all over the world; but though numbers of people were working to gain the great reward, Charlie Ross has never been found.