have worked
incalculable harm for others and great financial benefit to himself.
That this is not only possible but inevitable is another defect of law
or system. No sane man for one single instant believes that literal
enforcement of every law at all times is either possible or desirable.
No sane man for one single instant believes that the law can be excepted
to or annulled for especial occasions without undermining the public
confidence and public morals. Yet where is the middle ground?

In Bob's capacity as beneficent despot, he ran against many problems
that taxed his powers. It was easy to say that Samuels, having full
intention to get what he very well knew he had no right to have, and for
acquiring which he had no excuse save that others were allowed to do
likewise, should be proceeded against vigorously. It was likewise easy
to determine that Ward, who had lived on his mountain farm, and
cultivated what he could, and had himself made shakes of his timber, but
who had blundered his formal processes, should be given a chance to make
good. But what of the doubtful cases? What of the cases wherein
apparently legality and equity took opposite sides?

Bob had adventures in plenty. For lack of a better system, he started at
the north end and worked steadily south, examining with patience the
pedigree of each and every private holding within the confines of the
National Forests. These were at first small and isolated. Only one large
tract drew his attention, that belonging to old Simeon Wright in the big
meadows under Black Peaks. These meadows, occupying a wide plateau grown
sparsely with lodgepole pine, covered perhaps a thousand acres of good
grazing, and were held legally, but without the shadow of equity, by the
old land pirate who owned so much of California. In going over both the
original records, the newer geological survey maps, and the country
itself, Bob came upon a discrepancy. He asked and obtained leave for a
resurvey. This determined that Wright's early-day surveyor had made a
mistake--no extraordinary matter in a wild country so remote from base
lines. Simeon's holdings were actually just one mile farther north,
which brought them to the top of a bald granite ridge. His title to this
was indubitable; but the broad and valuable meadows belonged still to
the Government. As the case was one of fact merely, Wright had no
opportunity to contest, or to exercise his undoubtedly powerful
influence. The affai