penalty! If a horse thief knows
that there's merely a chance the community will get mad enough to hang
him, he'll take that chance in hopes this may not be the time. If, on
the other hand, he knows that _every time_ he steals a horse he's
going to be caught and fined even, he thinks a long time before he
steals it."

"All that's true, Doctor," said Danny, "as theory; but now I'm coming to
bat with a little practice. Here's the camp of Italian Bar in the year
1849. What would you do?"

"Elect the proper officers and enforce the law," answered the doctor
promptly.

"Who would you elect?"

"There are plenty of good men here."

"Name me any one who would take the job. The good men are all washing
gold; and they're in a hurry to finish before the rains. I don't care
who you're about to name--if anybody; this is about what he'd say: 'I
can't afford to leave my claim; I didn't come out here to risk my life
in that sort of a row; I am leaving for the city when the rains begin,
and I don't know that I'll come back to Italian Bar next season!'"

"Make it worth their while. Pay them," insisted the doctor stoutly.

"And how's the money to pay them to be collected? You'd have to create
the officers of a government--and pay _them_."

"Well, why not?"

"At the election, who would take interest to elect a decent man, even if
you could get hold of one? Not the other decent men. They're too busy,
and too little interested. But the desperadoes and hard characters would
be very much interested in getting some of their own stripe in office.
The chances are they would be coming back to Italian Bar next season,
especially if they had the legal machinery for keeping themselves out of
trouble. You'd simply put yourself in their power."

Dr. Rankin shook his head.

"Just the same, you'll see that I am right," he prophesied. "This
illusion of freedom to the social obligation is only an illusion. It
will have to be paid for with added violence and turmoil."

"Why, I believe you're right as to that, Doctor," agreed Danny, "but
I've discovered that often in this world a man has to pay a high price
for what he gets. In fact, sometimes it's very expedient to pay a high
price."

"I can foresee a lot of violence before the thing is worked out."

At this point the doctor, to his manifest disgust, was summoned to
attend to some patient.

"That all sounds interesting," said I to Danny Randall once we were
alone, "but I don't exactly fi