Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1915-01-28

lying in the woods, with a bullet from
an automatic pistol in the brain, is
unfortunately not an event SO strange
as to call for nationwide publication.
When Grand Valley, N. Y, learned
of the discovery, under those condi-
tions, of what had been one of her cit
liens, the story was featured proml'
nently in all the local papers, for Jack
Poole had been tinancier and mag
nate in that remote northern town.
But only here and there, scattered
throughout the length and breadth or
the land, were men who understood
the awful portent Of this occurrence.
None but they connected 1t with
the appearance Of the man in the
devil.chair vehicle with gyroscope
attachment, running at prodigious
speed, by means of which he had af-
fected startling robbery in Brook
lyn and a still more astonishing es-
cape. The hue and cry for him had
now died down. A tickle public had
turned to new interests. But these
men knew-for Jack Poole had been
one of the group whom John Haynes
had marked out for vengeance.
Five years before he had been rob-
bed of vast landed interests in west
ern state by confederacy Of unscru'
pulous men, aided by a corrupt judge
and a bribed lawyer. He had been
treacherously wounded, paralyzed,
railroaded under an assumed name to
the penitentiary at Nokomis Falls.
John Haynes had been separated
from his wife and daughter. The girl
he had found, living upon the bounty
of the man Poole, in the belief that
both her parents were dead. Haynes
rescued her and sent her to Chicago,
to await the time when he should
summon her to his side. He learned
that his wife's whereabouts was known
to another of the gang-Chauncey E.
Robertson of Benderville, mushroom
township near Nokomis and built on
his own lands In the midst of will
derness of prairie and jumble or
barren hills. After Poole had come
to his end through new attempt at
treachery, Haynes resolved to seek
out Robertson, discover where his
wife was to be found, and execute JUS
tice upon him.
1t was a feature Of the plans which
Haynes had formed during the period
of his Imprisonment that each of his
enemies should meet with fate ap-
proximating, as nearly as possible
that which he had meted out to him.
He had no further confidence in the
law: ANONYMOUSLY he would work, Sc
cretly he would devise: and his blow
should fall like a lightning bolt out
Of a blue sky.
But before melting out justice to
Robertson, he resolved to consult
physician in order to discover wheth-
er or not the crippling paralysis,
which rendered his lower limbs use
less and was the result of bullet
in the spine, could not be cured.
The instinct Of poetic justice in
duced him to seek out DR.. Adolphus
Theobald, formerly of the Nokomis
hospital, the man who had tended
him when he lay there, awaiting his
trial and sentence under the pseu-
donym Pete Timmons. gang leader
Of the town. Haynes had suspected
that his wound could have been cured
and, that, in fact, Theobald had been
inveigled into the conspiracy Of the
land gang Theobald was now in pri'
vate practice in the city of Nokomls.
He did not recognize In the we'll
dressed spruce, middleaged English
man who hobbled into his consulting
room, the wounded man whom he had
treated at the hospital five years be-
fore. Haynes had rented furnished
cottage on the outskirts, with pri-
vate garage in which he stored a rent
ed automobile. Beneath this he had
attached the gyroscope, fitting it to a
larger wheel The four wheels of the
machine were dummies-for show,
but not for use. Upon it's single
wheel the little machine would run at
a hundred and fifty miles, firm as a
rock-or as an operating table.
Cure you?" said Theobald, after he
had examined and X-rayed his patient
"Of course l can. 1t requires only
a very trifling operation. You see,
Mr.-er-Thompson- and a vague
memory stirred dimly among the for
gotten reaches Of his brain, did not
rise to the level Of consciousness: he
only experienced a sense of momen-
tary disquietude-"you see, Mr..
Thompson, this bullet which you say
the crazed workman fired at you two
years ago reached the spine but did
not penetrate 1t. 1t Is, at present,
pressing upon an important nerve
center which controls the movements
of the lower limbs. To remove 1t by
a simple incision will be no danger at
ALL"
John Haynes was sure then that
Theobald had been brbed by the con-
federates; that he had left the bullet
in the wound purposely, to cripple
him.
II cannot understand why the ply
sician who attended you did not re-
move that bullet" Theobald added
with a puzzled face. "In Mexico, you
say? That must account for 1t. In
our country no doctor would hesitate
to operate for moment"
"I1l think the matter over said
Haynes, in order to arouse Theobald's
expectations of fat fee, and he went
to the nearest telegraph office. From
thare he sent a message to his daugh-