“A good smash on the jaw would do more good,” suggested the kind-hearted official.

“Well, we got that one pretty slick and now there are two more we have to get,” stated W.R.  Patton, a short time afterwards.

Blind Tom was dropped helpless in a ditch just over the county line.  He was picked up by a passing car and eventually made his way to Olympia, capital of the state.  In about a week he was back in Centralia.  But before he could again resume his paper selling he was arrested on a charge of “criminal syndicalism.”  He is now awaiting conviction at Chehalis.

Before his arrest, however, Lassiter engaged Elmer Smith as his attorney.  Smith appealed to County Attorney Herman Allen for protection for his client.  After a half-hearted effort to locate the kidnappers—­who were known to everybody—­this official gave up the task saying he was “Too busy to bother with the affair, and, besides, the offense was only ’third degree assault’ which is punishable with a fine of but one dollar and costs.”  The young lawyer did not waste any more time with the County authorities.  Instead he secured sworn statements of the facts in the case and submitted them to the Governor.  These were duly acknowledged and placed on file in Olympia.  But up to date no action has been taken by the executive to prosecute the criminals who committed the crime.

“Handle these I.W.W. cases if you want to,” said a local attorney to Elmer Smith, counsel for one of the banks, “but sooner or later they’re all going to be hanged or deported anyway.”

[Illustration:  Where Barnett’s Rifle Was Supposed to Have Been Found

Eugene Barnett was said to have left his rifle under this sign-board as he fled from the scene of the shooting.  It would have been much easier to hide a gun in the tall brush in the foreground.  In reality Barnett did not have a rifle on November 11th and was never within a mile of this place.  Prosecutor Cunningham said he had “been looking all over for that rifle” when it was turned over to him by a stool pigeon.  Strangely enough Cunningham knew the number of the gun before he placed hands on it.]

Smith was feathering a nest for himself—­feathering it with steel and stone and a possible coil of hempen rope.  The shadow of the prison bars was falling blacker on his red head with every passing moment.  His fearless championing of the cause of the “under dog” had won him the implacable hatred of his own class.  To them his acts of kindness and humanity were nothing less than treason.  Smith had been ungrateful to the clique that had offered him every inducement to “come in with us”.  A lawyer with a heart is as dangerous as a working man with his brains.  Elmer Smith would be punished all right; it would just be a matter of time.

The indifference of the County and State authorities regarding the kidnapping of blind Tom gave the terrorists renewed confidence in the efficacy and “legality” of their methods.  Also it gave them a hint as to the form their future depredations were to take.  And so, with the implied approval of everyone worth considering, they went about their plotting with still greater determination and a soothing sense of security.