The attacking party was small and we were fully prepared. When they
discovered this they fired a few shots and galloped away.
The second night was almost a repetition of the first. After another
party had been repulsed, Mrs. Cody asked me if I had brought her and
the baby out on the Plains to be killed.
"This is the kind of a life I lead every day and get fat on it," I
said. But she did not seem to think it especially congenial.
Everybody turned out to greet us when we arrived in Rome. Even the
gambling-hall houses and the dance-halls closed in our honor. The next
day we moved into our little house. That night there was a veritable
fusillade of revolver shots outside the window.
"What is that?" asked Mrs. Cody.
"Just a serenade," I said.
"Are yon firing blank cartridges?"
"No. If it became known that revolvers were loaded with blank
cartridges around here we would soon lose some of our most valued
citizens. Everybody in town, from the police judge to dishwashers,
carries a pistol."
"Why?"
"To keep law and order."
That puzzled my wife. She said that in St. Louis policemen kept law and
order, and wanted to know why we didn't have them to do it out here. I
informed her that a policeman would not last very long in a town like
this, which was perfectly true.
On my return from a hunting trip a few days later I met a man who had
come into town on the stage-coach, and whom Mrs.
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