the mineral lands, I mention two thousand acres of
coal. I might have told another story of fifty thousand acres, or yet
another of three hundred thousand acres of gold and silver lands. When
I narrate the shooting of a man at the head of a coal shaft, the
stealing of Government timber by the half million dollars a year
through "the hatchet" trick, or the theft of two thousand acres by
"dummies," I am stating facts known to every Westerner out on the spot.

In which States have these episodes occurred? Take an imaginary point
anywhere in Central Utah. Describe a circle round that point to
include the timber and grazing sections of all the Rocky Mountain
States from Northern Arizona to Montana and Washington. The episodes
related here could be true of any State inside that circle except (in
part) one. Such forces are at work in all the Mountain States except
(in part) one. That one exception is Utah. Utah has had and is having
tribulations of her own in the working out of self-government; but, for
reasons that need not be given here, she has kept comparatively free of
recent range wars and timber steals.

This story was suggested to me by a Land Office man--one of the men on
the firing line--who has stood the brunt of the fight against the
freebooters for twenty years and wrested many a victory. I may state
that he is _still_ in the Service and will, I hope, remain in it for
many a year; but these episodes are hinged round the Ranger, rather
than the Land Office or Reclamation men, because, though the latter are
fighting the same splendid fight, their work is of its very nature
transitory--dealing with the beginning of things; while the Ranger is
the man out on the job who remains on the firing line; unless--as my
Land Office friend suggested--unless "he gets fired." As to the
hardships suffered by the fighters, to quote one of them, "You bet:
only more so."

Just as this volume goes to press, comes word of fires in Washington,
Oregon, Idaho and Montana, destroying dozens of villages, hundreds of
lives and millions of dollars worth of property in the National
Forests; and it is added--"the fires are incendiary." Why this
incendiarism? The story narrated here endeavors to answer that
question.

The international incidents thinly disguised are equally founded on
fact and will be recognized by the dear but fast dwindling fraternity
of good old-timers. The mother of the boy still lives her steadfast
beauti