The Story of the Outlaw by Emerson Hough (read aloud .txt) π
The bad man of genuine sort rarely looked the part assigned to him in the popular imagination. The long-haired blusterer, adorned with a dialect that never was spoken, serves very well in fiction about the West, but that is not the real thing. The most dangerous man was apt to be quiet and smooth-spoken. When an antagonist blustered and threatened, the most dangerous man only felt rising in his own soul, keen and stern, that strange exultation which often comes with combat for the man naturally brave. A Western officer of established reputation once said to me, while speaking of a recent personal difficulty into which he had been forced: "I hadn't been in anyth
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"Robinson, who had made his escape to a cow camp and thence to Hugoton upon a fresh horse, now met and led down into the Strip one of the first Hugoton 'posses.' Among them were Orrin Cook, Charles Cook, J. W. Calvert, J. B. Chamberlain, John Jackson, John A. Rutter, Fred Brewer, William Clark, and a few others. Robinson was, of course, the leader of this band.
"After Sheriff Cross asked me to go down with him to see what had become of Ed Short, I went over and got Wilcox and we rode down to the settlement of Voorhees. Thence we rode to Goff creek, and all reached Reed's camp about seven or eight o'clock on Wednesday morning, July 25, 1888. Here we remained until about five o'clock of that afternoon, when we started for home. Our horses gave out, and we got off and led them until well on into the night.
"At about moonrise, we came to a place in the Neutral Strip known as the 'Hay Meadows,' where there was a sort of pool of standing water, at which settlers cut a kind of coarse hay. There was in camp there, making hay, an old man by the name of A. B. Haas, of Voorhees, and with him were his sons, C. and Keen Haas, as well as Dave Scott, a Hugoton partisan. When we met these people here, we concluded to stop for a while. Eaton and Wilcox got into the wagon-box and lay down. My horse got loose and I was a few minutes in repicketing him. I had not been lying down more than twenty minutes, when we were surprised by the Hugoton 'posse' under Robinson. The latter had left the trail, which came down from the northeast, and were close upon us. They had evidently been watching us during the evening with field-glasses, as they seemed to know where we had stopped, and had completely surrounded us before we knew of their being near us.
"The first I heard was Cross exclaiming, 'They have got us!' At that time there was shooting, and Robinson called out, 'Boys, close in!' He called out to Cross, 'Surrender, and hold up your hands!' Our arms were mostly against the haystacks. Not one of us fired a shot, or could have done so at that moment.
"Sheriff Cross, Hubbard, and myself got up and stood together. We held up our hands. They did not seem to notice Wilcox and Eaton, who were lying in the wagon. Robinson called out to Cross, 'Give up your arms!'
"'I have no arms,' replied Cross. He explained that his Winchester was on his saddle and that he had no revolver.
"'I know better than that,' said Robinson. 'Search him!' Some one of the Hugoton party then went over Cross after weapons, and told Robinson that he had no arms.
"'I know better,' reiterated Robinson. The others stood free at that moment, and Robinson exclaimed, 'Sheriff Cross, you are my first man.' He raised his Winchester and fired at Cross, a distance of a few feet, and I saw Cross fall dead at my side. It was all a sort of trance or dream to me. I did not seem to realize what was going on, but knew that I could make no resistance. My gun was not within reach. I knew that I, too, would be shot down.
"Hubbard had now been disarmed, if indeed he had on any weapon. Robinson remarked to him, 'I want you, too!' and as he spoke he raised his Winchester and shot him dead, Hubbard also falling close to where I stood, his murderer being but a few feet from him.
"I knew that my turn must come pretty soon. It was Chamberlain who was to be my executioner, J. B. Chamberlain, chairman of the board of county commissioners of Stevens county, and always prominent in Hugoton matters. Chamberlain was about eight feet from me, or perhaps less, when he raised his rifle deliberately to kill me. There were powder burns on my neck and face from the shot, as the woman who cared for me on the following day testified in court.
"I saw the rifle leveled, and realized that I was going to be killed. Instinctively, I flinched to one side of the line of the rifle. That saved my life. The ball entered the left side of my neck, about three-quarters of an inch from the carotid artery and about half an inch above the left clavicle, coming out through the left shoulder. I felt no pain at the time, and, indeed, did not feel pain until the next day. The shock of the shot knocked me down and numbed me, and I suppose I lay a minute or two before I recovered sensation or knew anything about my condition. It was supposed by all that I was killed, and, in a vague way, I agreed that I must be killed; that my spirit was simply present listening and seeing.
"Eaton had now got out of the wagon, and he started to run towards the horses. Robinson and one or two others now turned and pursued him, and I heard a shot or so. Robinson came back and I heard him say, 'I have shot the ββ ββ ββ who drew a gun on me!'
"Then I heard the Hugoton men talking and declaring that they must have the fifth man of our party, whom they had not yet found. At this time, old man Haas and his sons came and stood near where I was and saw me looking up. The former, seeing that I was not dead, asked me where I had been shot. 'They have shot my arm off,' I answered him. At this moment I heard the Hugoton men starting toward me, and I dropped back and feigned death. Haas did not betray me. The Hugoton men now lit matches and peered into the faces of their victims to see if they were dead. I kept my eyes shut when the matches were held to my face, and held my breath.
"They finally found Wilcox, I do not know just where, but they stood him up within fifteen feet of where I was lying feigning death. They asked Wilcox what he had been doing there, and he replied that he had just been down on the Strip looking around.
"'That's a damned lie!' replied Robinson, the head executioner. As he spoke, he raised his Winchester and fired. Wilcox fell, and as he lay he moaned a little bit, as I heard:
"'Put the fellow out of his misery,' remarked Robinson, carelessly. Some one then apparently fired a revolver shot and Wilcox became silent.
"Some one came to me, took hold of my foot, and began to pull me around to see whether I was dead. Robinson wanted it made sure. Chamberlain, my executioner, said, 'He's dead; I gave him a center shot. I don't need shoot a man twice at that distance.' Either Chamberlain or some one else took me by the legs, dragged me about, and kicked me in the side, leaving bruises which were visible for many days afterwards. I feigned death so well that they did not shoot me again. They did shoot a second time each of the others who lay near me. We found seven cartridges on the ground near where the killing was done. Eaton was shot at a little distance from us, and I do not know whether he was shot more than once or not.
"The haymakers were now in trouble, and said that they could not go on putting up their hay with the corpses lying around. Robinson told them to hitch up and follow the Hugoton party away. They did this, and after a while I was left lying there in the half-moonlight, with the dead bodies of my friends for company.
"After the party had been gone about twenty minutes, I found I could get on my feet, although I was very weak. At first, I went and examined Wilcox, Cross, and Hubbard, and found they were quite dead. Their belts and guns were gone. Then I went to get my horse. It was hard for me to get into the saddle, and it has always seemed to me providential that I could do so at all. My horse was very wild and difficult to mount under ordinary circumstances. Now, it seemed to me that he knew my plight. It is certain that at that time and afterwards he was perfectly quiet and gentle, even when I laboriously tried to get into the saddle.
"At a little distance, there was a buffalo wallow, with some filthy water in it. I led my horse here, lay down in the water, and drank a little of it. After that I rode about fifteen or sixteen miles along a trail, not fully knowing where I was going. In the morning, I met constable Herman Cann, of Voorhees, who had been told by the Haas party of the foregoing facts. Of course, we might expect a Hugoton 'posse' at any time. As a matter of fact, the same crowd who did the killing (fifteen of them, as I afterwards learned), after taking the haymakers back toward the State of Kansas, returned on their hunt for one of Short's men, who they supposed was still in that locality. It was probably not later than one or two o'clock in the morning when they found me gone.
"Our butchers now again sat down on the ground near the bodies of their victims, and they seem to have enjoyed themselves. There was talk that some beer bottles were emptied and left near the heads of their victims as markers, but whether this was deliberately done I cannot say.
"Constable Cann later hid me in the middle of a cornfield. This, no doubt, saved my life, for the Hugoton scouts were soon down there the next morning, having discovered that one of the victims had come to life. Woodsdale had sent out two wagons with ice to bring in the bodies of the dead men, but these Hugoton scouts met them and made them ride through Hugoton, so that the assembled citizens of that town might see the corpses. The county attorney, William O'Connor, made a speech, demanding that Hugoton march on Woodsdale and kill Wood and Ed Short.
"By this time, of course, all Woodsdale was also under arms. My friends gathered from all over the countryside, a large body of them, heavily armed. Mr. Cann, the constable, had tried to take me to Liberal, but I could not stand the ride. I was then taken to the house of a doctor in the settlement at LaFayette. On the second night after the massacre I was taken to Woodsdale by about twenty of the Woodsdale boys, who came after me. We arrived at Woodsdale about daybreak next morning. In our night trip we could see the skyrocket signals used by the Robinson-Cook gang.
"After my arrival at Woodsdale, it might have been supposed that
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