"Not of putting those people off the island?"
"Sure! That's what I'm here for. I'm state agent on pauper affairs,
acting for the Governor and Council."
"You say the state is back of this?" demanded Mayo, incredulously.
"Certainly! It's a matter that the state was obliged to take up. State
has bought that island from the real heirs, has ordered off those
squatters, and we shall burn down their shacks and clear the land up.
Of course, we allow heads of families some cash for their houses, if
you can call 'em houses. That's under the law regulating squatter
improvements. But improvements is a polite word for the buildings on
that island. It is going to cost us good money to clear up for that New
York party who has made an offer to the state--he's going to use the
island for a summer estate."
He flicked the ashes from his cigar and broke in on Mayo's indignant
retort.
"It had to be done, sir. They have intermarried till a good many of the
children are fools. The men are breaking into summer cottages, after the
owners leave in the fall. They steal everything on the main that isn't
nailed down. They have set false beacons in the winter, and have wrecked
coasters. Every little while some city newspaper has written them up as
wild men, and it has given the state a bad name. We're going to break up
the nest."
"But where will they go?"
"Fools to the state school for the feeble-minded, cripples to the
poorhouse. The able-bodied will have to get out and go to work at
something honest."
"But, look here, my dear sir! Those poor devils are starting out with
too much of a handicap. After three generations on that island they
don't know how to get a living on the main."
"That's their own lookout, not the state's! State doesn't guarantee to
give shiftless folks a living."
"How about using a little common sense in the case of such people?"
"You are not making this affair your business, are you?" asked the
commissioner, with acerbity.
"No."
"Better not; and you'd better not say too much to me!" He rose and
dusted off his trousers. "I have investigated for the Governor and
Council and they are acting on my recommendations. You might just as
well advise nursing and coddling a nest of brown-tail moths--and we are
spending good money to kill off moths. We don't propose to encourage the
breeding of thieves. We are not keeping show places of this sort along
the coast for city folks to talk about and run down the state after they
go back home. It hurts state business!" He marched away.