Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1914-07-30

tive.
At the end of his first year Of i'm
prisonment the first ray of hope broke
in upon his soul. In the penitentiary
he recognized a new face-that Of
man named Ricardo, an American Of
Italian parentage, the blackguard with
whom he had fought the mock duel
that morning when he stole away from
his wife and daughter to avenge the
insult which had been offered to the
former. Ricardo was serving a five
years. sentence for burglary, which
would be reduced, in practice, to about
four. He made himself known to him.
At first Ricardo, smarting under the
failure of his confederates to save him,
was inclined to listen to propositions
for alliance; but when he discovered
the indomintable honesty of the Eng.
lishman his mood changed. He heaped
curses upon him whenever they passed
and devoted his life to making the 9th.
er's unbearable.
In particular he delighted in tortur.
ing Haynes about the fate of his fam
lily. That Ricardo knew where they
were was clear to Haynes from certain
statements which the Italian had let
fall at the beginning of their associa
ton in the prison. In some way, then,
Haynes must force Ricardo to tell the
truth to him before he could begin to
work out his revenge.
This was the man concerning whose
exploits all America was now agape.
At first the idea of revenge had
centered itself almost exclusively up
on Ricardo. To Haynes this man en-
bodied all the wrongs that he had en-.
dured. With that apparently unending
fourteen years Of Imprisonment, always
before him, he resolved to kill Ricar.
do; and because he could not match
the strength of his crippled body
against the Italians, he devoted his
long hours of solitary Imprisonment to
developing the muscles Of his right
arm. Some day, he knew, he would
come by stealth upon his adversary,
grasp him by the throat and crush the
life out of his body. Within a year
he had acquired the arm and fingers
of Hercules.
But within that year new hopes had
come to him. He realized, when the
first fit of brooding had passed, that in
Ricardo alone lay the hopes Of discov.
ering where his wife and daughter
were. He must save him, not kill him;
but he must place him at his mercy,
so that he could wiring the truth from
the Italians lying lips.
One day John Haynes came upon an
article in an old magazine which gave
him his first coherent plan OF escape.
1t contained a description of a new
scientific toy, known as a gyroscope, to-
gether with diagram for its con.
struction. Within a few days, under
the plea of wishing to learn trade,
he had been transferred to the ma
chine shop.
In the machine shop. as soon as he
had familiarized himself with his sur
roundings and had become a part OF
the force, Haynes worked feverishly
on his machine. He had torn out and
secreted the pages of the magazine de-
scribng it, had pored over them at
night in his cell, straining his eyes un-
der the light Of the electric globe over
the entrance until he knew each word
and every line Of the diagram by
heart. In the machine shop no very
close watch was kept upon his move.
ments. 1t was comparatively simple to
secrete a bolt here and a nut there
and to collect them later into a re-
mote corner Of the big building. AS
the men were searched only when they
went out, and not during the day,
nothing hindered him from carrying
out his plans. He forged the iron In
the intervals of hammering out bolts;
he threaded the screws among hun
dred others; and at last the day ar
rived when he had his machine all but
completed and hidden in heap OF
waste.
On the next day the waste was sold.
Haynes found the shop empty, with
nothing to show for his labors. He
was forced to start over again. BY the
time his machine was again nearing
completion the third year of his i'm
prisonment was ended.
Then he was taken out Of the ma
chine shop and set to cobbling shoes.
Again his hopes were dashed to the
ground. In this manner the fourth
year passed The fifth was half COM
pleted when a change of management
in the penitentiary enabled him to re-
turn to the machine shop. Doggedly
he began his labors once more. This
time he must succeed, for Ricardo
would be set free in six months time
Ricardo, whose venom against him
had but increased during the years OF
his Imprisonment, who never passed
him but with jeers and curses.
When but two months longer of the
Italians time remained to be served
the gyroscope was again completed
and hidden away in the new pile OF
waste which had accumulated. Now
there remained the more difficult part,
the making Of the gas engine and the
application of the one to the other so
that the motive power could be- turned
on or shut off at will. The gas engine
in itself was a comparatively simple
affair-in fact, at the last Haynes sim
ply appropriated one from among the
constituent parts of a powerful auto
mobile which was being manufactured
for an exhibition of convict labor. The
attachment device racked Haynes
brains for several days. When but a
month remained, more by accident
than by design he hit on the solution.
And then remained the task of max
ing an experimental test of the mech
anism. This Haynes achieved by
managing to secrete himself after the