red tape, the trickster gets away with the
goods.

In the next place, your Forest ranger is not clothed with the authority
to back up his fight which the N.W.M.P. man possesses. In theory, your
ranger is a United States marshal, just as your Mounted Policeman is a
constable and justice of the peace; but when it comes to practice, where
the N.W.M.P. has a free hand on the instant, on the spot, to arrest,
try, convict and imprison, the Forest ranger is ham-strung and hampered
by official red tape. For instance, riding out with a ranger one day, we
came on an irate mill man who opened out a fusillade in all the
profanity his tongue could borrow. The ranger turned toward me aghast.

"Don't mind me! Let him swear himself out! I want to see for myself
exactly what you men have to deal with!"

Now, if that mill man had used such language to a Mounted Policeman, he
would have been arrested, sentenced to thirty days and a fine, all
inside of twenty-four hours. What was it all about? An attempt to
bulldoze a young government man into believing that the taking of logs
without payment was permissible.

"What will you do to straighten it all out?" I asked.

"Lay a statement of the facts before the District Supervisor. The
Supervisor will forward all to Denver. Denver will communicate with
Washington. Then, soon as the thing has been investigated, word will
come back from Washington."

Investigated? If you know anything about government investigations, you
will not stop the clock, as Joshua played tricks with the sun dial, to
prevent speed.

"Then, it's a matter of six weeks before you can put decency and respect
for law in that gentleman's heart?" I asked.

"Perhaps longer," said the college man without a suspicion of irony,
"and he has given us trouble this way ever since he has come to the
Forests."

"And will continue to give you trouble till the law gives you a free
hand to put such blackguards to bed till they learn to be good."

"Yes, that's right. This isn't the first time men have tried to get away
with logs that didn't belong to them. Once, when I came back to the
first Forest where I served, there was a whole pile of logs stamped U.
S. that we had never scaled. By the time we could get word back from
Washington, the guilty party had left the State and blame had been
shunted round on a poor half-witted fellow who didn't know what he was
doing; but we forced pay for those logs."

It is a common saying in the No