I just had to mention that room of Matt's that was referenced, but only shown maybe once, and we all know Matt truly believed what Adam Kimbro told him about family and the badge.
Chapter 10 – How a US Marshal Can Be a Deputy City Marshal
During their walk down the boardwalk to the jailhouse Pence and Doc filled Matt in on what they'd told the marshal he was about to meet about him and the job he was about to undertake. In keeping with precedent, that is saving the town money whenever possible, they didn't agree, even though they weren't paying any portion of his salary, to use the town money to pay for his room. However, for what they deemed convenience sake, they'd chosen one at the back of Ma Smalley's boarding house with its own entrance so he could come and go without being seen.
The three men walked through the door into the jailhouse office where Marshal Josh Stryker was seated behind his desk and the sometime jailer Chester Goode was at the stove fetching a cup of coffee for his boss. Once the two townsmen and the young stranger were seated at the table in the middle of the room, Chester offered each of them a cup of the brew. Stryker joined them as soon as Chester brought his chair to the table from behind the desk, indicating that the young man with the gimpy leg should take the remaining seat.
"Doc, Pence so this is the youngster you brought up from Texas to be my deputy. Now that we're getting more drovers from there, he should be of some use in handling them. I'm Marshal Josh Stryker. How much experience have you got as a deputy, ….?"
"Matt Dillon, sir," the tall young man replied, extending his right hand to shake the proffered hand of his supposed new boss. "I got my start as a deputy in Yuma back in '58 and have been working as a lawman in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and even the Dakota Territory ever since except when I was in the army during the war. How can I be of use to you without steppin' on the toes of the deputy you already have even if the town didn't see fit to give him a badge?"
"Sorry, Deputy. I should have introduced you to my part-time jailer, Chester Goode. He can be a real help at times, but he ain't no deputy and I don't pay him as such. In exchange for redin' the place up, feedin' the prisoners and such, I let him sleep on one of the cots over behind you and pay him out of my pocket so he's available to be the jailer or help with the rounds. I'm sure you two young men will soon be friends. Oh, and since you're my deputy and already made one arrest, you can write the report on the stage robbers for Topeka that I would have needed from you anyway."
By the time Doc and Bill Pence had left for the Long Branch and Stryker had explained his deputy duties, it was well into the afternoon. He had to move into his new room and, his grumbling stomach reminded him, catch an early supper before undertaking his first set of rounds for the evening. Then there was Lee. Matt wondered how she'd take to his moving out of the hotel and when he might see her once she returned to Sherlock. He strode back to the Dodge House. The one thing that was settled was getting his first report out. The State Attorney General could send it on to Washington when he received it along with the report for the state.
To his surprise Lee was in the lobby when he entered. She'd just returned from finalizing switching jobs with the current manager of the stage line. His wife had just given birth to their first child and so he welcomed the chance to move out to the Sherlock relay station to help her pa. Unbeknownst to Matt or Mr. Drummond, Lee had begun to negotiate the switch so that she could experience the excitement that was the growing town of Dodge City several month earlier when she'd ordered new clothes from Mr. Jonas' catalogs. She would remain one more night at the hotel, return to Sherlock for a week and, on her return, take over the rooms above the depot from the former depot manager's family.
While Lee was gone Matt's life fell into a routine. He'd rise early, eat breakfast at the boarding house or a café if one were open and complete his morning rounds. He used this time to introduce himself to the businessmen along Front Street and the blocks of the cross streets on either side of the main street that also contained commercial enterprises. Then he'd stop by the office to see if Stryker needed him for anything special and to play checkers with Chester. If Stryker didn't eat dinner at his home, the City Marshal would join the two young men for a meal at Delmonico's. In the afternoon, if Doc wasn't busy, he'd visit with the physician, stop for a drink at the Long Branch before his early evening rounds, and then have supper with Doc and/or Chester. Then he'd visit each of the saloons, gambling dens and brothels as part of his final set of rounds and on to bed in his room. He thought about dallying with one of the saloon gals, but even though they were paid to entertain him, he felt he should be loyal to the girl he was thinking of seriously courting. He owed it to her. She'd given herself to him.
Even after Lee returned, being a US Marshal for Kansas didn't seem as big a deal as he thought after being appointed by the President and taking that daunting oath. There would be no problem keeping up the charade that he was merely a Deputy City Marshal. Still, he couldn't assume the job would continue to be this easy. After all it was the beginning of winter when things were slowest. The transient population was rapidly shrinking down to nothing. Matt felt certain this wouldn't be the case come spring. The one good thing about the quiet months, they did allow him to get to know Lee better.
Matt took to spending very few evenings in the room the town leaders insisted he rent. Within a month of Lee's return he was spending most nights sharing her bed. It was what she indicated she wanted that first day at the Dodge House. It just might be a good idea for him to save as much as he could so he could buy a ranch, stock it and then ask her to marry him. Adam Kimbro had drummed it into him when he first started before the war that being a lawman and raising a family didn't mix. He hated to give up the badge and go back on his oath, but he was still on probation and besides, so far he'd done more as a junior deputy in San Antonio than he was doing in Dodge City as the US Marshal for Kansas.
The late fall and early winter did see him breaking up his share of saloon fights and even arresting the culprit when one of the shopkeepers was the victim of thievery. Then there were the crooked gamblers to run out of town. It seemed Stryker left all the routine, yet physical law enforcement to Matt so he could spend more time with his wife and young daughter and even spend evenings visiting with their closest friends on their nearby ranch. Surrounding Ford County was still sparsely settled enough that those outside the unofficial city limits largely had their own ways to enforce their personal laws. Matt figured if universally applied law were ever to be taken seriously in and around Dodge, he'd have to change that, if he ever got the chance.