The Boy Who Became Buffalo Bill: Growing Up Billy Cody in Bleeding Kansas by Warren Andrea

Author:Warren, Andrea [Warren, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Two Lions
Published: 2015-11-03T08:00:00+00:00

Horses were essential for transportation, and Billy knew that horse stealing was big business.

Escape was foremost in Billy’s mind. “I was . . . certain that I had uncovered the hiding place of a gang of horse thieves who could have no possible reason to feel anything but hostility toward an honest man.”

The men surrounded him. Why was he there? Who else was with him? Billy could see that they were surprised that he was so young. He tried to stay calm and friendly, hoping they would consider him harmless. His biggest worry was that they would take his revolver from him. He told them that he was by himself, camped nearby, and had heard their horses. The leader demanded to know where Billy’s horse was. Billy told him it was down the creek. The men wanted to see it—no doubt to steal it before killing him, Billy supposed—and two of the men took him outside. His chance of escape was now or never. When the men started to lead his horse away, Billy made his move. He pulled out his gun and knocked one man unconscious.

“Wheeling about, I saw that the other man, hearing the fall, had turned, his hand upon his revolver. It was no time for argument. I fired and killed him. Then leaping on my horse, I dug the spurs into his sides, and back down the trail we went, over the rocks and rough ground toward safety.”

But Billy was not out of danger. The men in the cabin heard the shot and pursued him on foot, “knowing that they could make better time over the rocky country than I could on horseback.” As the men gained on him, Billy decided he would have to abandon his horse. “Jumping off, I gave him a smart slap with the butt of my revolver, which sent him down the valley. I turned and began to scramble up the mountainside.” He’d climbed about forty feet and was hiding behind a tree when the men passed him, following the sound of his retreating horse.

Billy was safe, but was sorry to have lost his horse. He hurried on foot for several miles to the next Pony Express station. He reported what had happened and was soon part of a posse of twenty men headed to the thieves’ dugout. It was empty. “We found a newly made grave where they had buried the man I had to kill, and a trail leading southwest toward Denver. That was all. But my adventure at least resulted in clearing the country of horse thieves.”

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