Summary
The sprockets unspool a prairie tempest in which gridiron demigod John Harkless, trading shoulder pads for ink-stained cuffs, purchases the wheezing Plattville Herald and turns its pages into a battering ram against graft; a peripatetic circus rolls in like a gilt mirage, its midway booths teeming with stacked roulette wheels and rigged poker crates, their lacquered smiles camouflaging a hydra-headed racket that bleeds dry the hayseed wallets of Shelby County. Harkless, nostrils flared with moral chlorine, torches the operation in print, only to be waylaid beneath a blood-red moon by White-Cap bravos who fracture his ribs with axe handles and leave his crumpled silhouette for the buzzards. Rumor of his death ricochets, summoning a pitchforked citizenry whose grief ferments into lynch-lust; yet the editor, half-maimed but unbeaten, stirs alive on a surgeon’s cot while Helen Sherwood—his inamorata equal parts Gibson-girl grace and Boadicean mettle—commandeers the pressroom, typesetting a coup that catapults her convalescing lover toward a congressional seat.
Synopsis
After a spectacular college football career, John Harkless leaves the university to pursue a place in Indiana politics. He buys the failing Plattville Herald and, using the newspaper to expose various illegal activities, sets out to rid the county of all mobsters and corrupt officials. When a traveling circus comes to town, he uncovers a crooked gambling ring and drives away the fleecers. That night, returning from his sweetheart's house, he is badly beaten and left for dead by a gang of men. Believing that John has been murdered, vigilantes gather to avenge his death, but the identity of the perpetrators is in question. The evidence finally points to the White Caps, a band of thugs allied with Rodney McCune, a notorious local politician opposing John in an upcoming Congressional race. Before the angry mob clashes with the White Caps, John is located in a hospital emergency room. While he recovers, his girlfriend, Helen Sherwood, takes over the newspaper and cleverly concocts a way for John to win the election.
