ounty: also James B. Francis
of Reedsville, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania; to act without bonds,
and also to act without the interference of any court of law or any
Public Administrator whatever; to act at all times and under all
circumstances to the best of their judgment in settling my affairs:
if they have patience they may hear any pleas my relations have to
offer, but I wish them in the end to stand firm and resolute on
their own judgment, and take time to settle the concern whether it
need one year or twenty years.

"And furthermore it is my will that if the above named persons
cannot act conveniently then if two or more act they shall have the
same power as if all acted; but if only two act they shall both
agree on all the matters, but if more act then the majority may
rule.

"Robert Palmer." Oct. 12, 1880.

Only one who knows the spirit of early California can understand this
document. Its beginning is modest: "if there is any property left." What
amount was the old man about to distribute? He was too cautious to
mention it; and when his friend John Hintzen of Forest City, in whose
safe the will was deposited, wrote asking for a list of the property,
the old man parried the question.

Another curious feature of this document is that the old man chose two
executors. He did not care to trust any one friend too far, apparently.

Robert Palmer, Democrat, paid his respects to courts and lawyers. His
executors were "to act without bonds, and also to act without
interference of any court of law or any Public Administrator whatever."
He might better have trusted the courts, as we shall see, for his
friends failed him. After thirty years the executors all died; and to
this day the will of Robert Palmer is an unsolved mystery.

CHAPTER XIII

The End of the Trail

The gold that with the sunlight lies
In bursting heaps at dawn,
The silver spilling from the skies
At night to walk upon,
The diamonds gleaming in the dew
He never saw, he never knew.

He got some gold, dug from the mud,
Some silver, crushed from stones,
The gold was red with dead men's blood,
The silver black with groans;
And when he died he moaned aloud,
"There'll be no pocket in my shroud."

Joaquin Miller.

John Keeler, returned from his travels, became Palmer's trusted
messenger to Hintzen, to whom th