"It ain't been supposed that Mr. Ladd was a sittin' up at nights a tryin' to think of ways to help us."
Ladd faced them with courage and an air of apparent candor.
"I've fought you, but fair and in the open, and I'm goin' to fight you for the land that's on the Reservation, but this land, as I understand it, is yours, bought and paid for."
There was a chorus of fierce assent to this.
"You're in for a long and a losing fight against the Government; so if you lose this ranch you lose everything."
There was no approving shout for this, but the force of it was felt by all.
"But this feller here," said the tenacious Humpy, pointing to the prisoner and not to be diverted by the agent; "what about him?"
Ladd looked at the wild animals with their fangs frankly bared and knew that they were easy. Then he played his trump card.
"As for this land-grabber, the best I know of him and the best he can say for himself is that he's a half-breed."
This irrelevant appeal to prejudice was so crude, raw, and unblushing as to be obvious to a child, but its effect was instantaneous. Every vestige of restraint, of irresolution disappeared in the faces of the mob. Human equality! There is no such thing even theoretically. There are differences which separate human beings and will always separate them, but they are moral and intellectual differences. No one admits the principle of human equality, because: