Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-11-05
Of this, so he unfastened the steel cuffs

or this, SO he unfaStened the steel GUNS
from his own wrist and linked those oi
Black Bart together. Several times the
prisoner stepped to the tank for g
drink Of water and once asked the
sheriff If he would have some.
The sheriff nodded assent. Black
Bart drew a tin cupful and handed II
to his guard, who drank it down.
The bandit took his seat and began 6
conversation about the future Of grape
cultivation in the state. Suddenly the
| sheriff grew i'll. He locked his prison.
er to the iron of the seat before retir.
ing, to which Black Bart made no OBJ.
J lection.
Although his right hand was chained
] to the car seat, his left hand was busy
picking the lock Of the handcuff with 6
bit Of watch spring barely an inch long
The prisoner had been repeatedly
searched, but he had kept this little
piece of spring steel, hardly bigger thar
pin, concealed by showing it under
the skin of his forearm, where the lone
hair practically hid the half-healed
wound in the skin. Black Bart had put
croton oil in the cup Of water before he
handed it to the sheriff. Where he OBJ
tanned the poison is not known.
The car was quiet; the passengers
had grown tired of gaping at the back
of the famous hold-up; some were hall
asleep: the sheriff was looking out
the window at the sage brush rushing
past, when Black Bart suddenly swung
the free end Of the handcuff into the
air with vicious curve and crashed II
down on the sherif's head. Instantly
he grabbed for the officers revolver
and whipped it from its holster.
Half stunned as he was, the sheriff
had sense enough left to grasp for his
gun. The two hands met in death
grip, but the officer had hold Of the
handle and his finger reached the trig-
ger. He jerked the trigger, thinking to
shoot his suddenly desperate prisoner
through the heart, but Black Bart's
forefinger snapped down between the
hammer and the cartridge, and the
hammer fell on the finger.
The gun was a double action (com-
monty called "self-cocker') and the
sheriff kept the hammer of the heavy
revolver eating into Back Bart's fin
ger as he yelled for help.
The passengers had no desire to take
part in death fight with Black Bart.
Although some of them were brave
men and armed, they stampeded for
the door at the other end of the car.
Black Bart understood the panic -caus-
ing power of a surprise and had acted
accordingly. He had used it for years
in his stage business, and it stood him
we'll in hand now, fighting for his liber-
ty.
At any instant Black Bart might be
free from the dazed sheriff, and with a
revolver in his hand. The passengers
had positive business at the other end
of the train.
A woman was seated right behind
the prisoner, and after a moments rig
i'd surprise she stood up, calmly threw
her light travelling shawl over Black
Bart's head from behind, covering his
face, and jerked back with all her
weight. This brought the prisoner,
blinded, back over the back of the seat,
and released the sheriff's gun. Instant
ly the sheriff plunged his weapon
against the pit Of Black Bart's stom-
ach, and ordered the brave little wo-
man not to release her hold on the
shawl.
Black Bart, except as he twisted his
head to one side to get air, lay passive
as the sheriff chained both hands to-
gether. Then the shawl was with
drawn, the passengers came hesitat-
ingly back to their seats, some rather
shamefacedly, and things settled down
as they were.
Black Bart made no comment, nor
any further resistance. The sheriff
and the whole state of California
breathed easier as the heavy doors of
the penitentiary closed on this remark
able criminal.
He made a model prisoner, and was
released some years later, and came to
Denver. Several attempts were made
in Denver to connect him with some
desperate crime or other, when the po-
lice could not locate the real criminals,
but apparently Black Bart was cured.
He disappeared quietly from Denver,
and though nothing authentic is known
of his end, it is believed that he went
to the east and died there, a reformed
man. Today one Of the most valuable
relics and mementoes of his remark
able career is his little sixteen-bore,
muzzle- loading, double barreled shot
gun, now in the possession Of the Wells
Fargo express.-Railroad Mans Mag
azine.