do somethin'
about allowin' the scum of this country to get hold of guns and
ca'tridges wholesale, they's goin' to be a whole lot of extra
book-keepin' for the recordin' angel. I tell you what, son, allowin'
that I seen enough killin' in my time so as just seein' it don't set too
hard on my chest, that mess down to Sterling made me plumb sick to my
stummick. I'm wonderin' what would 'a' happened if Sterling hadn't made
that fight and the I.W.W. had run loose. It ain't what we did. That had
to be did. But it's the idee that decent folks, livin' under the
American flag, has got to shoot their way back to the law, like we
done."

"Mebby the law ain't right," suggested Lorry.

"Don't you get that idee, son. The law is all right. Mebby it ain't
handled right sometimes."

"But what can anybody do about it?"

"Trouble is that folks who want to do the right thing ain't always got
the say. Or mebby if they have got the say they leave it to the other
fella.

"What did the folks in Arizona do long back in eighty, when the sheep
disease got bad. First off they doctored up the sick sheep, tryin' to
save 'em. That didn't work, so they took to killin' 'em to save the good
sheep. But the disease had got into the blood of some of the good sheep.
Then some of the big sheepmen got busy. Arizona made a law that no stock
was to be shipped into any of her territory without bein' inspected.
That helped some. But inspectors is human, and some sick sheep got by.

"Then one day a fella that had some brains got up in the State House and
spoke for the shuttin' out of all stock until the disease was stomped
out. You see, that disease didn't start in this here country. But who
downed that fella? Why, the sheepmen themselves. It would hurt their
business. And the funny part of it is them sheepmen was willin' enough
to ship sick sheep anywhere they could sell 'em. But some States was
wise. California, she put a inspection tax of twenty-five dollars on
every carload of stock enterin' her State--or on one animal; didn't make
no difference. That inspection tax had to be paid by the shipper of the
stock, as I said, whether he shipped one head or a hundred. And the
stock had to be inspected before loadin'."

"You mean immigrants?" queried Lorry.

"The same. The gate is open too wide. If I had the handlin' of them
gates I would shut 'em for ten years and kind of let what we got settle
down and get acquainted. But the man hirin' cheap labor wouldn'