rt-horns of
Eastern origin, less wild than the long-horn Texas steers, but liable,
on new ground, to stray off through some of the innumerable coulees
stretching back from the river, and be lost in the open prairie. The
seafaring man determined, therefore, that they should be
"close-herded" every night and "bedded down" on the level bottom where
the cabin stood which was their temporary ranch-house. So each dusk,
Roosevelt and his men drove the cattle down from the side valleys, and
each night, in two-hour "tricks" all night long, one or the other of
them rode slowly and quietly round and round the herd, heading off all
that tried to stray. This was not altogether a simple business, for
there was danger of stampede in making the slightest unusual noise.
Now and then they would call to the cattle softly as they rode, or
sing to them until the steers had all lain down close together.

[Illustration: Elkhorn Bottom. The ranch-house was at the river's edge
directly in the center of the picture.]

It was while Roosevelt was working at Elkhorn that he received a call
from Howard Eaton, who was his neighbor there as well as at the
Maltese Cross, since his ranch at the mouth of Big Beaver Creek was
only five miles down the Little Missouri from the place where
Roosevelt had "staked his claim." Eaton brought Chris McGee, his
partner, with him. Roosevelt had heard of McGee, not altogether
favorably, for McGee was the Republican "boss" of Pittsburgh in days
when "bosses" were in flower.

"Are you going to stay out here and make ranching a business?" asked
Eaton.

"No," Roosevelt answered. "For the present I am out here because I
cannot get up any enthusiasm for the Republican candidate, and it
seems to me that punching cattle is the best way to avoid
campaigning."

Eaton asked McGee on the way home how Roosevelt stood in the East.
"Roosevelt is a nice fellow," remarked McGee, "but he's a damned fool
in politics."

Roosevelt remained with Robins and the men from Maine for three days,
varying his life in the saddle with a day on foot after grouse when
the larder ran low. It was all joyous sport, which was lifted for a
moment into the plane of adventure by a communication from the Marquis
de Mores.

That gentleman wrote Roosevelt a letter informing him that he himself
claimed the range on which Roosevelt had established himself.

Roosevelt's answer was brief and definite. He had found nothing but
dead sheep on the range, h