A respectable record as a lawman

From The Boys of '98 by Dale L. Walker. All sorts of chapters in the story of Roosevelt of which I was unaware.

In this period, while working furiously to make his ranch profitable, he found time to serve a stint as deputy sheriff of Billings County under foul-mouthed "Hell-Roaring" Bill Jones and made a respectable record as a lawman. One of his most talked-about exploits occurred after thieves stole a thirty-dollar boat from his Elkhorn spread, Roosevelt, who carried a copy of Anna Karenina and a collection of Matthew Arnold's works in his saddlebags, riding with a posse, trailed the thieves for several days, captured the three men and delivered them to the sheriff's office in the town of Dickinson.