Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1914-07-17
HE STRUGGLED TO FREE HIMSELF LOST HIS FOOTING AND FEEL
BACKWARD INTO THE FELLOWS ARMS.

Governor Harding was within few
months of the expiration of his term of
office, and within as many days OF
learning whether he would be renomi-
mated to succeed himself or no. And
Fortune, who had smiled unexpected
ly on him before, now seemed cold and
reluctant.
Five years before Governor Harding,
then an unknown lawyer, had allied
himself with and placed his services
at the disposal of the Nokomis Land
company, a confederacy of mastery
thieves who had pounced upon the
rich territory to which certain John
Haynes, an Englishman, had fallen
heir When Haynes arrived in the
western state in which his property
was situated, he found the gang in con-
troll of It. He refused an offer of
million dollars for what was worth
nearly twelve times that, and. torn
from his wife and daughter, he was
sent to the penitentiary for fourteen
years upon trumped-up charge. The
gang, loyal to one another, gave Hard
Ing a hundred shares and secured for
him the gubernatorial nomination.
With Haynes under duress, there
seemed no obstacle to the conspirators'
enjoyment of the plundered property.
They controlled the state absolutely
and Harding, forced into power by
them. became notorious for the corrup-
ton and ineficiency of his administra-
tien. But. five years after the enter
prise of these men had been crowned
with success, alarming news came out
of the Nokomis Falls penitentiary
Haynes. in the prison workshop, had
invented diabolical machine gyro-
scope, which, when attached to any We
hicle, would drive 1t upon a single
wheel at any rate of speed up to two
hundred miles an hour. 1t could be at
tached to the feet, to rolling chairs, BIZ
cycles, automobiles, aeroplanes even
BY means of this mechanism, journey
ing about the country at an incredible
rate Of speed, Haynes dealt out retri
button upon the conspirators. His
blows fell with lightning-like rapidity
--now here. now there; and, one by
one, the members of the Nokomis Land
company disappeared forever from the
sight of their fellows. Their fate, IN
known TO the survivors, became the
more terrible In their eyes. They fled
TO other cities, to Europe, even-and
even there Haynes found them.
Harding he had left to the last,
knowing that the man dared not seek
safety in flight. He was fastened both
by ambition and by greed to the ex-
ecutive desk In Chesnesboro, the state
capital During his Investigations
Haynes had discovered his daughter
and sent her to Chicago, to await his
call; his wife was still lost to him, but
he had reason to believe that Harding
knew where she was to be fourd, and
he had resolved that. after he had com.
pleted his vengeance upon the rest, he
would seek out and wrest the truth
from him.
The flight of the conspirators proved
q serious blow to Harding's ambitions
When they disappeared they were
forced. necessarily, to re1inquish their
grip upon the state. The opposition
against him, hitherto sporadic. now be
came unified and strengthened. The
newspapers attacked him bitterly for
the corruption of his regime. They
pointed to the magnificent new state
capitol. still uncompleted after five
years had been spent in its construc-
ton, though many times the original
estimate Df expenditure had been SUM-
in It. From It's sliding foundations TO
che tall dome that reared itself aloft
aver It. crowned with a figure of Jus.