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.