Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-01-15


my horse, / rode dow. the cree as
and over the rough ground and rocks.
The other outlaws i'm the dugout.
having heard the shot which had
| fired, knew there was trouble. aC;l
they all came rushing down the =.
suppose by the time they reached
the man whom 1 had Knocked down
that he had recovered and hurriedly
| told them of what had happened
They did not stay with the man whom
had shot, but came on in hot pursuit
of me. They were not mounted and
| were making better time down the
| rough mountain than l was.
At last they came SO near that saw
that must abandon my horse. ]
jumped to the ground and gave him
hard slap with the butt of one of my
| revolvers, which started him on down
the valley, while ! scrambled up the
mountain side. had not assembled
more than forty feet when l heard my
pursuers coming closer and closer.
quickly hid behind large pine tree.
and in a few moments they all rushed
| by me, being led on by the rafting
| footsteps Of my horse, which they
| heard ahead of them. Soon they be-
gan firing in the direction of the horse.
as they no doubt supposed l was seat
ed on his back. As soon as they had
passed me l climbed farther up the
steep mountain, and, knowing that
| had given them the slip and feeling
certain / could keep out of their way,
at once, struck out for Horseshoe
Station, which was twenty-five miles
distant. 1 had very hard travelling at
| first, but upon reaching lower and bet
| ter ground l made good Roadway.
| walking all night and getting into the
station just before daylight. footsore.
| weary and generally played out.
/ Immediately walked up the men of
the station and told them Of my al
| venture. Slade himself happened to
1 be there, and he at once organized a
| party to go out in pursuit of the horse
| thieves.
We had a brisk ride and arrived In
the immediate vicinity of the thieves
| rendezvous at about 10 o'clock In the
| morning. We approached the dugout
| cautiously. but upon getting in close
proximity to 1t we could discover no
| horses in sight. No one was inside
| and the general appearance of every
thing indicated that the place had
been deserted; that the birds had flown.
Such indeed proved to be the case.
Among one of my earliest acQuaint-
ances was a young man, older than
| myself, who was destined to become
! famed in frontier history. while at the
| same time legendary gossip has caused
| his career to be somewhat misunder-
stood owing to its varied character.
| This was James B. Hickok. who, al
| though his name was James, will live
| in song and story as wild Bill"
| While probably no man in western
| history had so many notches on his
gun, 1t may be said that no man re-
corded them oftener in defending right.
enforcing law and dealing justice.
In our early youth we We're assoei-
nted in many adventures on the plains
in Indian warfare. wagon trailing,
| hunting and trapping. and we hap
| RcilCu W I've Oli lHS DID luc Slue VI lue
fence when the civil war between the
north and the south left the plains al
| most alone to the red man.
"Wild Bill'' soon became one Of the
most noted men In the confidence of
the Union generals in the extreme
| southwest. He was magnificent
| specimen OF manhood ana one OF
the most deadly shots with rifle OF
| pistol that ever lived. In his en-
|, thusiasm as Union spy he made q
detour around, down into Texas and
back to southwest Missouri and Joined
| the Texans under an assumed name
and accepted service as Confederate
spy, consequently giving himself the
double danger of a spy's fate. There
fore by. this means he became of i'm
mense service to the Union forces.
For many months he was confiden
tial secret service agent for the Con
federate forces under General Price In
an invasion of Kansas, and in one bat
tie while among their advance guard
he saw maneuver of which he
thought the Union general should be
Informed. He therefore made a dash
from the rebel to the opposing lines
His action was so sudden that the
southerners thought his horse had be