de north again and be back in his own shack
before dawn. It was rumored, further, that when the thieves had horses
to sell, Maunders had "first pick." His own nephew was said to be a
confederate of Big Jack. One day that spring, the Jacks and Maunders's
nephew, driving a herd of trail-weary horses, stopped for a night at
Lang's Sage Bottom camp. They told Lincoln Lang that they had bought
the horses in Wyoming. Maunders sold the herd himself, and the news
that came from the south that the herd had been stolen made no
perceptible ruffle. The ranchmen had enough difficulty preserving
their own property and were not making any altruistic efforts to
protect the horses of ranchmen two hundred miles away. Maunders
continued to flourish. From Deadwood came rumors that Joe Morrill, the
deputy marshal, was carrying on a business not dissimilar to that
which was making Maunders rich in Medora.

When even the officers of the law were in league with the thieves or
afraid of them, there was little that the individual could do except
pocket his losses with as good grace as possible and keep his mouth
shut. The "system" tolerated no interference with its mechanism.

Fisher, smarting under the theft of six of the "top" horses from the
Marquis de Mores's "outfit" called one of the cowboys one day into his
office. His name was Pierce Bolan, and Fisher knew him to be not only
absolutely trustworthy, but unusually alert.

"You're out on the range all the time," said Fisher. "Can't you give
me a line on the fellows who are getting away with our horses?"

The cowboy hesitated and shook his head. "If I knew," he answered, "I
wouldn't dare tell you. My toes would be turned up the first time I
showed up on the range."

"What in ---- are we going to do?"

"Why, treat the thieves considerate," said Bolan. "Don't get 'em sore
on you. When one of them comes up and wants the loan of a horse, why,
let him have it."

Fisher turned to the foreman of one of the largest "outfits" for
advice and received a similar answer. The reputable stockmen were very
much in the minority, it seemed, and wise men treated the thieves with
"consideration" and called it insurance.

There were ranchmen, however, who were too high-spirited to tolerate
the payment of such tribute in their behalf, and too interested in the
future of the region as a part of the American commonwealth to be
willing to temporize with outlaws. Roosevelt was one of them, in the
valley of