About the middle of September, the two backwoodsmen moved down to Elkhorn Bottom, leaving Robins in charge of the cattle. Dow went away on a round-up and Sewall undertook to put in livable shape a dugout that stood on the river-bank some thirty or forty yards from the place which Roosevelt had, on a previous visit, selected as the site for the ranch-house which Sewall and Dow were to build. The shack had belonged to a hunter who had left the country, and was not sumptuous in its fittings. [Illustration: Roosevelt's brands. CHIMNEY BUTTE RANCH. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Proprietor. FERRIS & MERRIFIELD, Managers. P. O. address, Little Missouri, D. T. Range, Little Missouri, 8 miles south of railroad. [brand drawing] as in cut on left hip and right side, both or either, and down cut dewlap. Horse brand, [brand drawing] on left hip. ELKHORN RANCH. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Proprietor. SEAWALL & DOW, Managers. P. O. address, Little Missouri, D. T. Range, Little Missouri, twenty-five miles north of railroad. as in cut, [brand drawing] on left side, on right, [brand drawing] or the reverse. Horse brand, [brand drawing] on right or left shoulder.] Dow returned from the round-up with interesting news. The Marquis, it seemed, had by no means resigned his claim to the territory on which Roosevelt had established "squatter's rights." Dow overheard one of the Marquis's men confiding to another that "there'd be some dead men round that Elkhorn shack some day." Sewall received the news with calm satisfaction. "Well," he drawled, "if there's going to be any dead men hereabouts, I cal'late we can fix it so it won't be us." Sewall and Dow began cutting timber for the house in a thick grove of cottonwoods two or three hundred yards from the river, keeping a weather eye open for trouble. A day or two after Dow's return from the round-up, one of the Marquis's men rode up to them where they were working. "There's a vigilance committee around, I hear," he remarked casually. "You haven't seen anything of 'em yet hereabouts, have you? I hear they're considerin' makin' a call on you folks." The men from Maine said to each other that the thing began to look "smoky." They consulted Captain Robins, who agreed that "smoky" was the word, and they carried rifles after that when they went to cut timber.