e to the State-house to urge that Harley's candidate be
defeated for the senatorship.

Like wild-fire this hint spread. Here was something tangible they could
do that was still within the law. Harley had set his mind on electing
Warner. They would go up there in a body and defeat his plans. Marshals
and leaders of companies were appointed. They fell into ranks by fours,
nearly ten thousand of them all told. The big clock in the court-house
was striking twelve when they began their march to the Statehouse.

CHAPTER 17. THE ELECTION

At the very moment that the tramp of twenty thousand feet turned toward
the State-house, the report of the bribery investigating committee was
being read to the legislature met in joint session. The committee
reported that it had examined seven witnesses, Yesler, Roper, Landor,
James, Reedy, Kellor, and Ward, and that each of then had testified
that former Congressman Pelton or others had approached him on behalf
of Warner; that an agreement had been made by which the eight votes
being cast for Bascom would be give to Warner in consideration of
$300,000 in cash, to be held in escrow by Yesler, and that the
committee now had the said package, supposed to contain the bills for
that amount, in its possession, and was prepared to turn it over to the
legislature for examination.

Except for the clerk's voice, as he read the report, a dead silence lay
tensely over the crowded hall. Men dared not look at their neighbors,
scarce dared breathe, for the terror that hung heavy on their hearts.
Scores were there who expected their guilt to be blazoned forth for all
the world to read. They waited whitely as the monotonous voice of the
clerk went from paragraph to paragraph, and when at last he sat down,
having named only the bribers and not the receivers of bribes, a long
deep sigh of relief swept the house. Fear still racked them, but for
the moment they were safe. Furtively their glances began to go from one
to another of their neighbors and ask for how long safety would endure.

One could have heard the rustle of a leaf as the chairman of the
committee stepped forward and laid on the desk of the presiding officer
the incriminating parcel. It seemed an age while the chief clerk opened
it, counted the bills, and announced that one hundred thousand dollars
was the sum contained within.

Stephen Eaton then rose in his seat and presented quietly his
resolution, that since the evidence submitted wa