thieves was Western Starr.
He turned out to be an old acquaintance of Roosevelt's, a classmate in
the Columbia Law School. The coincidence gave an added flavor to the
proceeding.

In Medora there seemed to be only one opinion concerning Roosevelt's
adventure, though it was variously expressed.

"Roosevelt," said his friend, John Simpson, a Texan, who was owner of
the "Hash-knife" brand and one of the greatest cattlemen in the
region, "no one but you would have followed those men with just a
couple of cow-hands. You are the only real damn fool in the county."

The rest of the population echoed the bewildered query of the teamster
from the Killdeers. "Why didn't you _kill_ them?" every one asked.
"They would have killed you."

"I didn't come out here to kill anybody," Roosevelt answered. "All I
wanted to do was to defend myself and my property. There wasn't any
one around to defend them for me, so I had to do it myself."

And there the matter rested. But the people of Medora began to see a
little more clearly than they had ever seen before the meaning of
government by law.[21]

[Footnote 21: The thieves were tried at Mandan in
August, 1886. The German, known as "Dutch Chris," was
acquitted, but Finnegan, and Bernstead, known as "the
half-breed," were sentenced to twenty-five months in the
Bismarck Penitentiary. Finnegan glared at Roosevelt as
he passed him in the court room. "If I'd had any show at
all," he cried, "you'd have sure had to fight!"

That was no doubt true, but his anger evidently wore off
in the cool of the prison, for a little later he wrote
Roosevelt a long and friendly epistle, which was
intended to explain many things:

In the first place I did not take your boat Mr.
Roosevelt because I wanted to steal something, no
indeed, when I took that vessel I was labouring
under the impression, die dog or eat the
hachette.... When I was a couple of miles above
your ranch the boat I had sprung a leak and I saw I
could not make the Big Missouri in it in the shape
that it was in. I thought of asking assistance of
you, but I supposed you had lost some saddles and
blamed