"I guess," he said, "we'd better look for some place not quite so
convenient for a target."

They adjourned to Fisher's room in Mrs. McGeeney's hotel. After all,
noise was preferable to bullets.

"The boys" were full of apologies the next morning, declaring that
they had not realized that the place was occupied. Packard, it seemed,
had been publishing certain editorials shortly before dealing with the
criminal responsibility of drunkards, and they just thought they would
give the _Cowboy_ a "touching up."

Medora's new regime began with a call which Howard Eaton made upon
Merrifield.

"Now that we're organized, we'll have some fun with Deacon Cummins,"
said Eaton, with a chuckle.

Eaton had apprehensions that the "Deacon" would ask for improvements,
a road to his ranch, for instance, or possibly a bridge or two, so he
suggested to Merrifield that they draw up a statement calculated to
discourage any such aspirations. This was the statement as they
finally submitted it to their fellow citizens:

We the undersigned do hereby solemnly covenant and agree to
hang, burn, or drown any man that will ask for public
improvements made at the expense of the County.

Eaton and Merrifield signed it, together with a dozen others; then
they laid it before Mrs. Cummins's husband for his signature. "The
Deacon" took it with extreme seriousness, and signed his name to it;
and there was no call for improvements from the solemn couple at Tepee
Bottom.

The day after the election, the Little Missouri Stock Association held
its semi-annual meeting. Roosevelt presided, "preserving," as he wrote
to Lodge a day or so later, "the most rigid parliamentary decorum." He
was elected a representative of the Association at the meeting of the
Montana Stock growers' Association in Miles City, to be held a day or
two later, and, after a hurried trip to Elkhorn Ranch with Merrifield,
started west for Miles City, taking Sylvane with him.

Miles City was a feverish little cowtown under ordinary circumstances,
but in April of every year, when the cattlemen of Montana and western
Dakota gathered there for the annual meeting of the Montana
Stockgrowers' Association, it was jubilant and noisy beyond
description. For a week before the convention was called to order,
stockmen from near and far began to arrive, bringing in their train
thirsty and hilarious cowboys who looked upon the occasion mainly as
a golden opportunity for a spree