as his train did not leave until 9 o'clock that evening, I thought it possible to intercept him before he left Bakersfield for San Francisco. The horse was still hitched to the buggy, and as I got in to drive away, Joe asked me if I intended to return that night. "I shall if I am alive," was my rejoinder.
"Then we had better agree on some countersign," he added, significantly, "as you might get shot if you prowled around here without my knowing who it was."
As he had formerly been a resident of Elmira, we agreed upon that as the password, and under this understanding I drove away. Although there were plenty of firearms in the cabin, I did not deem it expedient to take any kind of weapon with me into Bakersfield. In the first place, I was on a peaceful mission, and have always been opposed to committing any act that might involve the shedding of human blood. Again, even if I felt disposed to resist by armed force the attack of any group of enemies, it would have been folly for me to have done so, as I was greatly outnumbered, and a conflict of the sort could only have resulted disastrously to me in the end, no matter how successful I might have been at the outset.
Upon my arrival in Bakersfield I found Whitaker preparing to take the hotel 'bus for the train. I hurriedly informed him of what had occurred, and he decided at once to defer his trip until morning. We held a conference on the subject, and discussed various features incident to the condition of things. It was finally resolved to lay the matter before Superior Judge J. W. Mahon, and with that object in view we called upon him at his chambers, as per arrangement by telephone.
Judge Mahon stated that he was powerless to prevent them from carrying their threats into execution in the absence of any criminal charge, but advised us to call on Sheriff Henry Borgwardt, Jr. The latter could afford us no relief, either, but volunteered the suggestion that I had a perfect right to defend my property.
"Even to the extent of taking human life?" I inquired.
"Yes," was the answer of Sheriff Borgwardt. "You would be justified in shooting to kill if they undertake to attack you!"
I was mad all the way through by this time, and it had occurred to me that there must be something radically wrong with the eternal fitness of things when the laws could afford a citizen no protection as against the threatened onslaught of an armed mob, and that flimsy legal technicalities might result in the taking of human life.
"Then, if that is all the satisfaction I am able to secure from the lawful authorities of this county," I retorted with considerable spirit, "I want you to distinctly understand, Mr. Sheriff, that I am going back to my cabin tonight, and that whoever comes there upon an errand of violence is going to smell gunpowder."
This had a rather soothing effect upon the Sheriff, and it was evident that he was preparing to sidestep any proposition that involved the chance of trouble. I could see, too, that politics actuated the law officer in his conclusions more than any sense of justice, because the Scrippers were decidedly unpopular in the community, and the voting element was strongly in favor of the alleged "poor man's method" of taking up these oil lands through mineral locations. As a wealthy syndicate afterwards secured control of nearly all the tracts embraced in the placer mining locations, it is obvious that the scheme to arouse public sentiment against the Scrippers was part of a well-laid plot to use the local residents as catspaws.
Sheriff Borgwardt fell back on his only recourse after his attention had been directed to the possibilities of serious trouble; he passed us up to the District Attorney, and this official we found, after considerable search, enjoying a play at Scribner's Opera House. In answer to Whitaker's card requesting an interview on important business, District Attorney J. W. Ahern sent out word that hePage 399
