That was when Crazy Miller and Kid Taylor got a telegram (or rather, Kid did and Crazy happened to be in the area); it was from Charlie Bassett, calling for them to come to Kansas City as quick as he could, he needed them.
They took the train immediately, such was their sense of loyalty to Dodge's former sheriff. Along the way, as they traveled across the country, they found the train took on two more passengers: Wyatt Earp, and Bat Masterson, who had received the same telegram.
On arriving at Kansas City, they asked around for Bassett, and in response they were told that "the Senator" could be found on a given corner in the downtown area. It turned out that he was known as The Senator because Bassett had used his savings to open an establishment called Senate Saloon.
With Bassett was another Dodge City old-timer, Luke Short. Short had been an acquaintance of the PCs in Dodge, and became a friend in Tombstone when he'd briefly been part-owner of the Oriental Saloon. Then he'd returned to Dodge with Frank Harris and they'd bought the famous Long Branch Saloon.
Things had been going relatively well in Dodge, until the sudden resignation of the town Mayor required a snap election and the corpulent former town marshal Larry Deger presented himself as a candidate. Deger had been one of the group in Dodge City known as the "Better People", who had long campaigned against the the cabal of Saloon Owners and scoundrels known as "the Gang". Now most of the Gang were long gone, and Deger was ready to take power. Frank Harris ran against him, but Deger won by a mere 71 votes.
Deger immediately went for revenge. With his new office and control of city council, he passed ordinances prohibiting gambling and prostitution on Front Street, and sent his new Marshal Bridges to raid the Long Branch, where a brief firefight broke out. Luke Short managed to cause a light graze to one of Bridge's deputies before being convinced to surrender. Harris paid a $2000 bond for Luke, and two days later the Marshal (on Deger's orders) used Deger's new Vagrancy Law to kick Luke out of town. Luke Short went to Kansas City and came to see his old friend (and Deger's old enemy) Charlie Bassett, and Bassett called on the other former famous Lawmen of Dodge City to come to their aid.
The group decided that they would come riding into Dodge as the "Dodge City Peace Commission" and basically throw their weight and fame around to intimidate Deger and his second-rate lawmen into surrendering to their demands: that the recently-passed ordinances be rescinded, that Luke Short be cleared to return to Dodge, and that the Long Branch no longer be targeted by the corrupt town government.
They all set off, except for Kid Taylor and Miss Scarlet, who went all the way to Dodge by train. Miss Scarlet to wait for the others in town, and Kid Taylor to try to talk to his father-in-law, Judge Wright (one of the Better People) to get him to make Deger stand down.
When the duo arrived in town, they went straight to see Other Miller. The Peace Commission figured that Other Miller (along with Frank Harris, and Texas Jack Vermillion who was also in town) would all join their cause. Other Miller had claimed to be retired, but just the other day some young yahoo had come gunning for him, trying to gain his fame by killing one of Wyatt Earp's Immortals. Other Miller shot him through the gun hand like it was nothing.
Now, when Kid & Scarlet came to see Other Miller, he immediately agreed to help the Peace Commission. However, he pointed out that since coming to town he'd been "playing nice" with Deger, and figured he'd probably be able to be more use to the group by giving the impression of being a neutral party. Of course, if things came down to gunplay, they would count on him.
The next day, the Peace Commission rode into town to much fanfare, made some speeches denouncing Deger, and holed up in the Long Branch Saloon. Deger was furious and sent Sheriff Bridges to order all of them to get out of Dodge by sunset. Of course, they completely ignored the command, and laughed at Deger's men, who were too few and too scared to try to enforce it.
Judge Wright, meanwhile, had begun to suspect Kid Taylor's visit wasn't just 'business and family'. He knew Taylor had been in Kansas City, which happened to be where the whole Peace Commission (composed of many of the same men Kid Taylor had rode all through Arizona murdering Cowboys with) came from just a day later. He interrogated Kid, who had not really been prepared with a good cover story. Kid denied any knowledge of the Peace Commission, and ended up claiming he was involved in trying to fund a business deal to bring electric lights (which had just started to come into the market that same year) to Berkeley. Wright asked him who he was trying to get funds from in KC, and a few hours later when he confirmed the name Kid gave him was made up, he confronted Kid all over again. Caught in a spiraling web of his own lies, ended up making up a story about trying to borrow money from Irish mobsters; in the process he gave the impression he was in dire financial straights. He didn't count on Wright deciding he'd call up his contacts in KC to threaten the local Irish mob to "back off Kid Taylor". There would be some very confused Irish Mobsters in Kansas City in the next few days.
As penance, Wright told Kid that he'd join up as one of Deger's deputies and help try to put an end to the Dodge City Peace Commission.
That night Deger, Marshal Bridges, and his deputies (including Kid Taylor) gathered to try to figure out how to stop the Peace Commission. Deger sent Kid Taylor to the Long Branch to issue new demands; Kid just went over there, said hey to everyone, had a drink, and came back explaining that they were refusing to hear any demands. Deger was furious, but then Kid said something that triggered an idea in Deger's head. He ran off to bring together the city council.
Things seemed to be going pretty well for the peace commission, except that night Texas Jack Vermillion got into an argument with a gambler at the Long Branch. He'd accused the gambler of being a cheat, the gambler confronted him, and Texas Jack, ever the hothead, drew quickly and shot the gambler dead, right through the eye. He drunkenly declared that from now on he'd be known as "Shoot Your Eye Out Vermillion".
This was obviously a huge misstep for the Peace Commission. The impression they were just a bunch of violent thugs was going to be hard to lose with them having a shooting right in the Long Branch! Jack would be arrested if he hung around, so the "Peace Commissioners" told him to flee, and he did.
Luckily for the Peace Commission, that night Deger was making a misstep of his own. By next morning, it was revealed that Deger had decided to double down: Dodge was the only town in Kansas that had been ignoring the State Prohibition Law. Now, Deger's council just passed a resolution to enforce that law, and were threatening to shut down all the remaining Saloons in town.
This was quite a problem, and Kid Taylor quickly learned that even the rest of the Better People were not really on board. Making Dodge a Dry Town right on the edge of the Cattle Drive season was going to cost a lot of business. Kid Taylor tried to convince his father-in-law to put pressure on Deger, but Wright made it clear that the rest of the Better People were likely to back his play.
In his role as "neutral observer" Other Miller also tried to convince Deger that his plan was a mistake, pointing out that he might win this "Dodge City War", but he'd lose the larger prize when the townspeople turned on him in the next election. Deger made his position clear: he would back down from enforcing prohibition if the Peace Commission, including Luke Short, left town. He wasn't willing to concede anything else. Meanwhile, he let Other Miller know that he was going to hire a dozen armed men to join the current Dodge lawmen in mowing down everyone in the Long Branch if he had to.
Other Miller reported back to the Long Branch. The Commission was trying to think of a solution that wouldn't involve a shootout that would have them all on the wrong side of the law. They knew they needed someone to pressure the rest of the Better People to turn on Deger, but the state government was bound to take Deger's side, and no other group in or around Dodge seemed powerful enough to exert pressure. That is, until Other Miller mentioned the Santa Fe Railroad. If the cattle barons were unhappy at Dodge going dry, the Railroad would be pliable to moving their staging area for the cattle drive from Dodge to Cimarron. Bat Masterson pointed out that he'd once fought a rail war for the Santa Fe line, and he had a lot of friends there, so he headed out to send some telegrams.
A railroad representative arrived by that afternoon, and Kid Taylor happened on the rail man talking to Deger. When Kid spoke to Deger, Deger tried to claim that nothing of consequence was spoken of, but Kid immediately realized that Deger was lying. He rushed to the rail man and convinced him to talk to Judge Wright, who informed the rest of the better people.
The armed deputies were in front of the Long Branch, waiting (nervously) for the order to move in and try to arrest a half-dozen of the greatest living shootists in the west. Luckily, at that moment Judge Wright arrived and told the men to stand down. They were ready to deal.
In the end, the Better People overruled Deger, and agreed that they'd rescind the enforcement of prohibition and would let the Long Branch operate undisturbed, but would continue to enforce against gambling and prostitution. And Luke Short could stay. Luke was mighty grateful to the Peace Commission, though he admitted that he knew which way the wind was blowing in Dodge. He planned to sell his share of the Long Branch; eventually, he'd move down to Fort Worth Texas, where he'd become owner of the White Elephant Saloon, making him the only man in the West to have had a stake in the three most famous saloons in the history of the Wild West (the Long Branch, the Oriental and the White Elephant).
Before they all went their separate ways, the Dodge City Peace Commission sat for a commemorative photograph, which would become famous in western history:
Crazy Miller also proposed to Miss Scarlet, and his old friend and former preacher Bill Tilghman married them before leaving Dodge. Once again, the PCs went their separate ways.
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