Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1916-03-10

ercising 1t.
Arkansaw Bin ut once proceeded to
make nuisance of himself, He In.
sisted on being admitted to games Of
chance, cheated and when taken to
task instead of shooting his accuser In
vited him to put hole In him. Bill
was doubtless ready to defend himself,
What he wanted was to take advan-
tage of his enemy's indlspositlon to
pay $1,000 for shooting him to put the
orphan asylum edict into disrepute.
He insulted the women, choosing those
who had no men whose duty It was
to protect them,
1t Is very hard to make law that
will not on occasion work disadvan-
tageously. Any man attempting to
put Arkansaw Bill out of the way
must pay $1,000 for the privilege, and
for every additional hole that was nee
essary to do the job he must pay an
additional thousand And this was not
the worst Of 1t. Arkansaw Bill was
known to be marvelously quick shot,
and any man tackling him was likely
to get holed instead of holing him.
A meeting Of the committee was
called to decide upon some way of get
ting rid of Arkansaw Bill II was
moved that In case any one put hole
In him the fine should be RENTED.
The motion was carried, but since any
one bent on putting hole In the des-
perado was liable to get hole In him
self the remission of the fine did not
especially improve matters. No one
seemed inclined to tackle him. An
drew Hunker proposed a simultaneous
attack upon the enemy, agreeing TO
fire the first shot But his proposition
did not meet with favor; one or more
lives Of good citizens were liable to be
paid for that of a villain, It was CON
sidered advisable that some atratagem
should be devised by which he could
be eliminated without fine.
In the first place no one was sufil.
GENTLY inventive to produce such
strntagem, and In the second the con.
sensus Of opinion was In favor Of
fair fight even II 1t was desirable to
eliminate one Of the combatnnts. II
was finally proposed by Mr.. Hunker
that each man tackle Arkansaw Bill
until some one Of them downed him
This proposition meeting with favor
Mr.. bunker offered himself AZ the first
victim. II Is to the credit OF the 9th
ers that they declined to accept his
offer, averring that lots should be
drawn to determine who should be
first, second, third, and 30 on till the
six members Of the committee each
had place In the proceedings.
Six numbers were written on az
many bits of paper, from one to six In
elusive, and placed I'm hat. Then the
men successfully put a hand In the
hat and drew number. He who
drew No. was Abe Billings, man
with Il wife and four children. Hun
ker begged to be permitted to change
numbers with him, but Billings would
not consent, and the meeting, each
man having promised secrecy, broke
up. Billings was to choose his own
time for doing the job and was not re-
quired to give any notice to any one
In case he was killed In the attempt
he was to make, the man who had
drawn No. 2 was to make another, and
so on TIL Arkansaw BIZ or the six men
should be eliminated.
Twenty four hours passed, and both
Abe and Bill still lived During the
second night after the lots had been
drawn several shots In quick success
sion were heard coming from the d.
rection OF the quarters occupied by
the desperate Every man OF the com
mittee believed that Bill or Abe-per
haps bOth-had bitten the dust. Every
one OF them got out Of bed and hurried
to the scene Of the fray. Abe's cabin
was lighted. His children were run.
ming about In their nlghtgowns, but
neither their father nor mother was
visible.
One by one the committee ms II
passed Abe's quarters asked the chill
dren what had happened, but getting
no coherent response hurried on toward
Arkansaw Bills cabin. They met Mrs.
Billings coming away. Asked what
had occasloned the firing, for reply she
turned and led them to Blll's house
There in the doorway lay body. Some
one struck Il match, held 1t TO the dead
mans face and lighted mp Bllps ashen
features.
who did III" asked Hunken.
II did IT," replied Mrs Billings calm
ly IL called him to the door and shot
him"
where's AbeT
Again for reply she turned and lei
them this time to her own home. Go.
Ing to n door that opened to the cellar
she unlocked 1t and Abe came forth M
much wonder stricken az the others.
What have you been up tor he
asked his wife nngrlly.
i've saved you from being muir.
dered"
Then ali saw that she had rid the
place OF Its incubus without danger 10
herself or any one else. Each and
every man grasped her hand and exon.
Grated her from blame.
The orphan asylum WINS never built,
for 1t was not needed. The lot and the
material that had been purchased were
used for church, which helped amaz.
ingly IN the civilization Of the town.
Deadshot has long since become one Of
the most thriving and cultured cities In
the west. II Is no longer called Dead
shot. The name has been changed In