Finally, public sentiment compels the right kind of law; it is passed.

Then come the obstacles to enforcement.

More years of delay; louder clamor.

A Stillwater is put in charge of the enforcement of the law; a case is made, a trial is had, and the evidence is so incomplete or the people's lawyers so poorly matched against the lawyers of the exploiters that the case fails, and the administration is able to say, "You see, WE'VE done our best, but the rascals have escaped!" The case against certain Western railway thieves had reached the stage at which the only way the exploiters could be protected from justice was by having a mock trial; and Stillwater had put Craig forward as the conductor of this furious sham battle, had armed him with a poor gun, loaded with blanks.

"We'll lose the case," calculated Stillwater; "we'll save our friends, and get rid of Craig, whom everybody will blame--the damned, bumptious, sophomoric blow-hard!" What excuse did Stillwater make to himself for himself in this course of seeming treachery and assassination?
For, being a man of the highest principles, he would not deliberately plan an assassination as an assassination.