"Because they did wrong is no reason you should."
"Who dares say I done wrong?" demanded the mountaineer. "Look here! Why
does the Government pick on me and try to drive me off'n my little place
where I'm living, and leave these other fellows be? What right or
justice is there in that?"
"I don't know the ins and out of it all," Bob reminded him. "As I said
before, I'm no lawyer. But they've at least conformed with the forms of
the law, as far as the Government has any evidence. You have not. I
imagine that's the reason your case has been selected first."
"To hell with a law that drives the poor man off his home and leaves the
rich man on his ill-got spoils!" cried Samuels.
The note in this struck Bob's ear as something alien. "I wonder what
that echoes from!" was his unspoken thought. Aloud he merely remarked:
"But you said yourself you have money and a home in Durham."
"That may be," retorted Samuels, "but ain't I got as much right to the
timber, I who have been in the country since '55, as the next man?"
"Why, of course you have, Mr. Samuels," agreed Bob heartily. "I'm with
you there.
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