Heidecke then inquired if I was personally acquainted with Binger Hermann, then Commissioner of the General Land Office.
"I certainly am," I replied.
"Well, do you think you have enough pull with him to secure my appointment as a forest ranger?" Heidecke asked.
I assured him that I had and would see that he was appointed as soon as I returned to Washington, remarking further, that I expected to go there as soon as Loomis had filed his report concerning these lands.
This seemed to please Heidecke immensely, and he kept insisting upon my leaving all the details connected with taking care of Loomis to him, and that my interests would not suffer by the operation. Heidecke then returned to Detroit, to begin preparations for the reception of Special Agent Loomis. Thereupon I wrote the latter informing him of the arrangements I had made for Heidecke to meet him at Detroit, and of all preparations in advance of his coming for the proposed trip.
Some two or three weeks later I met Loomis in Portland, when he informed me of having just returned from his trip to Township "11-7," advising me that he had made a careful examination of the alleged improvements with Heidecke, whom he pronounced very much of a gentleman, rendering him every possible assistance in his work. Dr. Loomis declared that they had found all of the improvements on the twelve claims in question, although some were in a dilapidated condition, on account of the heavy snowfall of the previous winter, but that he had found sufficient evidence of habitation to justify the issuance of patents. He announced himself as satisfied that the homesteaders had acted in good faith, and had complied with the law to the best of their ability, and that he would recommend the entries to patent.
It developed afterwards that Heidecke had merely taken Loomis along some well-defined trails, that led past cabins belonging to other settlers in that part of the country, and had not been on any portion of the suspended claims with him, because it would have been a give away on both sides to have done so, and for the further reason, that they would necessarily have had to possess the agility of a goat to reach any of my claims, as they were practically inaccessible.
In speaking of the incident later to a friend, Heidecke confided that "he fooled the old man in great shape;" that after showing Loomis a certain cabin, belonging to a legitimate settler, in another township, he circled around for about half an hour, bringing up at the same cabin, but viewing it from the rear, instead of the front, as in the first instance, and later in the day, finding that he was running short of cabins, he halted Loomis, for yet a third time, at the same identical cabin, taking the precaution, on this occasion, to view it from the side. Little did Heidecke think, in his anxiety to protect my interests, that his guest on that occasion was only too glad to be fooled.
In speaking of the trip to me, Loomis stated that Heidecke introduced him to a number of residents of Detroit, and that he obtained affidavits from L. Jacobs, the store-keeper, and other citizens of the place, certifying to an acquaintance with all twelve homesteaders, and setting forth, in substance, how they had seen them a number of times during the past eight years, as they went to and fro to their claims, together with other testimony of material value. It has always been a mystery to me how he ever got those people to make such affidavits as that, unless he hypnotized them, as there was not one word of truth in anything they swore to. It is possible that Heidecke might have been smooth enough to make the affiants think they had seen those twelve entrymen up there at various times, but it could only have been accomplished through the inspiration of an optical delusion.
Loomis must have overdone the thing, as it was not a great while after he sent in his report before he called on me at my home in Portland and stated that he had received fresh instructions from the Commissioner of the General
