Originally published in the July 1901 issue of “Everybody’s Magazine,” this Kindle edition, equivalent in length to a physical book of approximately 20 pages, tells the story of Western outlaw Billy the Kid.
Sample passage:
In connection with his captivity there is chronicled one of the most cold-blooded and brutal acts of which he was ever guilty. He was taken to Lincoln, the county seat of Lincoln County, a little straggling hamlet situated on the Bonito River, not far below the old military post of Fort Stanton, which was erected to guard the Reservation of the Mescelero Apaches. In charge of the little wild beast were two worthy deputy sheriffs, known as Orrendorf and Bell, and with the generosity of big-natured men, they treated their prisoner kindly and with a certain good-fellowship. They kept him under guard in a room above the courtroom, which was located in the largest building of the place, fronting upon the single street, and serving alike as jail, courthouse, post-office, and grocery store, besides furnishing a few rude offices for the County officials. One day, about noon, Orrendorf stepped across the street to the local eating-house to get his lunch, Bell being left to guard the prisoner. As Billy had promised to behave himself and had thus far given no trouble, Bell treated him with a certain amount of confidence. Billy made some pretext which induced Bell to release the shackles upon one of his hands. Billy had not yet been shackled again at the time when Bell, turning around carelessly, leaned out of the open window. Like a cat Billy crept up behind him, and doubling his hands together, swung down the iron manacles with all his might, striking Bell on the back of the head. Stunned, he fell half forward upon the windowsill, and upon the instant Billy snatched Bell’s revolver from the holster and shot him with his own weapon. The report of the shot was heard across the street, and Orrendorf came hurrying to see what was going on. Like a flash Billy had sprung into the next room and caught up a double-barreled shotgun, which was lying among others on the table, part of the machinery of the law at that day and place. As Orrendorf opened the little gate at the corner of the courthouse in his haste to find out what was going on, Billy ran to the window and shot him dead with the shotgun. He was now master of the courthouse and of the town of Lincoln, and, indeed, once more of Lincoln County. He went out to the front of the building, and sat calmly down on the edge of the porch, and for some time worked with a file, until at length he had cut away the manacles from his hands. He had plenty of firearms now, and be sure he kept them close at hand while he was laboring. All this time there was a man in the eating-house across the street with a loaded Winchester rifle, and two or three times this man raised the gun and took a bead on Billy through the window. He had not the nerve to shoot. He knew that if he missed Billy, his life would be forfeited, either then or at some future day. No one could tell in those communities who was, or who was not, a friend of Billy the Kid.
About the author:
Emerson Hough (1857-1923) was an American author known for his Western stories and historical novels. Other works include “The Story of the Cowboy,” “The Story of the Outlaw,” and “Builders of the Nation: The Cowboy.”
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