Page:The American Magazine volume LXIV.djvu/609

Rh everything they touched, be spoke the truth. Fenton repeated in a church this defense of the land frauds, and it was, and it is, the common excuse offered by men and women everywhere in Oregon, and, for that matter, in the Northwest, for crime and corruption. They call it the "land conscience," but it is the typical American view of law. The people out there feel about the land laws only as people in other parts of the country feel about liquor laws and public franchises. Since the liquor laws are too strict, they must be broken. Since you can't get a franchise for nothing, without bribing your city officials, bribery is necessary and right. We've all heard this sort of talk, and so Heney heard in Oregon. Since the land laws were drawn to save the public lands for small people who want small holdings, the big monopolists cannot get big holdings without breaking those laws, debasing themselves and corrupting public officials and public opinion; therefore it was, and it is, right to do all these things in Oregon.

When Fenton spoke for Puter at that little dinner in Portland, Heney's suspicion was born, and Burns's imagination mothered it.

"What did I tell you?" said the detective. And they reasoned together. How could such frauds go on without becoming common knowledge? How could they succeed without the connivance of corrupted officials and the support of influential leaders of a corrupted public opinion? Everybody must know about the land frauds. The investigators needed to know what everybody knew. They must begin their work by getting the gossip of the town. The gossips tell the truth; their gossip is not always accurate, but it is the truth.

Wherefore Heney went forth into the upper, Burns into the underworld, seeking to learn what all men knew. Both hemispheres were against their purposes, but the line of resistance was not unbroken, Heney was taken into the clubs of Portland and he fell under the tutelage of Charles J. Reed, the wit of the town, who was a fellow-member with Heney of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco. This cynical man of the world helped Heney. He furnished no evidence, of course, but he let Heney hear that gossip which lays bare, as good fiction does, the state of society and the relations of men one to another. Another great help was W. C. Bristol, now the United States District Attorney at Portland. Upright, independent and very dignified, this young man was not popular, and he and Heney did not hit it off personally at first. But Bristol was