he scarcely knew.
It had certainly been without his intention.

Bob, however, had no desire that the old man should again take his stand
behind the impenetrable screen of threat and bluster from which he had
been decoyed.

"We've all got to get together, as citizens, to put a stop to this sort
of thing," he shifted his grounds. "I believe the time is at hand when
graft and grab by the rich and powerful will have to go. It will go only
when we take hold together. Look at San Francisco--" With great skill
he drew the old man into a discussion of the graft cases in that city.

"Graft," he concluded, "is just the price the people are willing to pay
to get their politics done for them while they attend to the pressing
business of development and building. They haven't time nor energy to do
everything, so they're willing to pay to have some things taken off
their hands. The price is graft. When the people have more time, when
the other things are done, then the price will be too high. They'll
decide to attend to their own business."

Samuels listened to this closely. "There's a good deal in what you say,"
he agreed. "I know it's that way with us. If I couldn't build a better
road with less money and less men than our Supervisor, Curtis, does, I'd
lie down and roll over. But I ain't got time to be supervisor, even if
anybody had time to elect me. There's a bunch of reformers down our way,
but they don't seem to change Curtis much."

"Reformers are no good unless the rank and file of the people come to
think the way they do," said Bob. "That's why we've got to start by
being good citizens ourselves, no matter what the next man would do."

Samuels peered at him strangely, around the guttering candle. Bob
allowed him no time to express his thought.

"But to get back to your own case," said he. "What gets me is why you
destroy your homestead right for a practical certainty."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Why, I personally think it's a certainty that you will be dispossessed
here. If you wait for the law to put you off, you'll have no right to
take up another homestead--your right will be destroyed."

"What good would a homestead right do me these days?" demanded Samuels.
"There's nothing left."

"New lands are thrown open constantly," said Bob, "and it's better,
other things being equal, to have a right than to want it. On the other
hand, if you voluntarily relinquish this claim, your right to take up
another homeste