“Exactly. And by that very fact a social obligation 309 comes into existence. Trouble is, every mother’s son tries to escape it in his own case. What is every one’s business is no one’s business. Every fellow thinks he’s got away from being bothered with such things. Sooner or later he’ll find out he hasn’t, and then he’ll have to pay for his vacation.”
“We never stood for much thieving at Hangman’s Gulch,” I interposed.
“What did you do?”
“We whipped and sent them about their business.”
“To some other camp. You merely passed on your responsibility; you didn’t settle it. Your whipping merely meant turning loose a revengeful and desperate man. Your various banishments merely meant your exchanging these fiends with the other camps. It’s like scattering the coyotes that come around your fire.”
“What would you do, Doctor?” asked Randall quietly; “we have no regular law.”
“Why not? Why don’t you adopt a little regular law? You need about three in this camp–against killing, against thievery, and against assault. Only enforce in every instance, as far as possible.”
“You can’t get this crowd to take time investigating the troubles of some man they never heard of.”
“Exactly.”
“And if they get too bad,” said Danny, “we’ll have to get the stranglers busy.”